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Lucius Firing Line Card Efficiency


Flib Jib

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I was trying to figure out all the math with the Lucius firing line and was wondering how the math broke down and what was the most efficient or best play in this complex combo.  I am only looking at the offensive and how to optimize attacks and am not taking into account the good strategy of leaving focus on a couple Rifleman for there Hold/Stand and Fire ability.

So the three models that have synergies to create the combo are:

 

Quote

Lucius
(1) Issue Command (Ca 7:mask / TN: 14:mask / Rg: 8): Target friendly non-Austringer Minion model which has not been targeted by this Action this Turn may immediately take a (1) Action. If the target is a Guardsman or Mimic, increase this Action's range to 14.

:ram Take Aim!: After succeeding, but before the target takes the (1) Action, the target gains Focused +1 until the end of the Turn.

 

Quote

Guard Rifleman
Firing Line: This model gains +:ram Sh if there are one or more other friendly Guardsman models within :aura4 that have already Activated during this Turn.

(1) Guard Rifle (Sh 6 / Rst: Df / Rg: :ranged14): Target suffers 1/2/4 damage. When this Attack Action gains the benefits of the Focused Condition, it gains :ramR to the final duel total.

:ram Critical Strike: When damaging the target, this Attack deals +1 damage for each :ram in the final duel total.

 

Quote

Captain Dashel
"Ready! Aim!": Other friendly non-Austringer Guardsman models within :aura6 may take the Focus Action as a (0) Action.

"Fire!": Other friendly Guardsman models within :aura6 gain + to the Attack flip of :ranged Attack Actions when they are targeting an enemy model within 12" and LoS of them.

 

If I have three Rifleman in my crew I would get a total of 6 Guard Rifle attacks per their AP and another 3 if Lucius take Issue Command on each of them. a total of 9 attacks, not bad. The trick is how card intensive this is. specifically how many TN and Rams everything needs.

Theoretically every Guard Rifle 'needs' a ram for it's Critical Strike so that's 9 rams. Then if Issue Command gains rams the rifleman gain another focus. this is another three rams, specifically 7:ram or higher. So to live the dream you would need 12 rams and three of them would have to be specifically 7 or higher. Realistically how would the efficiency break down if you don't live the dream? 

 

Rifleman can gain 3 focus if they wish.

  1. From Take Aim (7:ram)
  2.  "Ready! Aim!" (0)
  3. If they take a focus action themselves. (0)

 

So it probably isn't the most effective AP efficiency taking a focus themselves but taking a (0) focus is good.

So they're base stat for Guard Rifle is 1/2/4 damage, if they have focus they gain +:ram for a Critical Strike bumping it to 2/3/5, if another Guardsman has activated, another +:ram for 3/4/6

So if Captain Dashel has activated then Lucius activates and spends a ram to give them focus they would get a 3/4/6, then they could take a (0) to gain focus and another potential 3/4/6, then the last attack would be 2/3/5. All these attacks would potentially bump +1 if they flipped a ram.

Now the question is whether it is more effective giving a Rifleman Critical Strike or Focus with a ram in-hand? 

 

How do you guys break down the efficiency. It becomes a little easier to calculate depending whether you have a swarm of pewny targets or tanky armor/beefy Df triggers. Still, I would love your help and thoughts.

 

 

 

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Luciua has had massiv errata do issue command only takes a 5 of rams I believe. He also only needs to cause 2 points of damage to gain a suit so you should stone for that focus. 

The real problem isn't so much card efficiency as opponents finding a way to engage you with pushes or ignoribg your maasively exprnsve bubble by having terrain between you.

You can also forget about hitting with a 3 of rams, all the rams your riflemen use will likely need to be about 10+ in value so that leaves four cards for your rilemen or high cards for ahots withoutt that extra crit (thr two automatic ones are usually brutal enough though).

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This was the first idea most players of Lucius think off but I think I`d prefer a single Rifleman with the new Lucius. If the enemy kills or engages him you`re not that behind in points and he can still dish out 2 Focused Shots with Lucius for 3/4/6 with potentially 4/5/7 for 5SS. Of course you can pay 7 and get a Trapper ;)

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I bring a single rifleman from time to time, often with a pathfinder. Keep the rifleman safe, just walk up and focus turn 1 and get him into position near the pathfinder for a devastating shot turn 2 (or turn 1 by using Lucius to make him take the shot if the enemy isn't scared of you). You can't be too aggressive with the pathfinders deployment but you usually don't want them too far up anyway. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I usually run a little firebase of riflemen with Dashel in most of my Lucius lists - however, I save myself 5SS and run just two.  That gives me some redundancy if I end up losing one to something else.

For the 19 points that I spend on these three models, it gives me a great little objective holding unit, great for missions where you know where exactly the enemy is going to be (like Guard the Stash or Extraction) or in Interference where you're going to want some models in a table quarter hanging out.

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2 hours ago, 4thstringer said:

So, with lucius getting a push, are riflemen going to see increased value.

The base problems are still that almost no gg-17 pools premiere shooting since you need to be so close for the killy schemes that you'll be engaged really soon. They still die to a single trapper shot and have df 4. Most of the popular choices in tournaments seem to have greater range or ignore engagements.

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1 hour ago, 4thstringer said:

Makes sense.  I guess in a weird way, they have the same problems the rg 14 masters (Sonnia and Dita) have in gg2017.

I don't think it's being ranged so much as needing to randomize. Shooty models who ignore randomization seem to be all the rage, Anna, McTavish and a few others show up a lot.

Dropping markers without interacts is also important, a ranged crew that could drop a marker in base on the first ranged attack and kill with the second would probably do really well. As it stands you still need to get close for the marker which will often mean they engage you right after and kill your marker dropper.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lucius can do this with a trigger on Secret Assets, his 0 action ignore LOS sniper upgrade.  I believe they need to have a nearby scheme marker for you to consume though. I could be mistaken on the latter half. But it's pretty funny for dig their graves. Pop them from safety, drop a scheme at their feet, command your gun line or thrall to finish them off.

 

Also, I've had a lot of luck playing three riflemen. I had all three of my riflemen proc alongside Allison Dade to kill a charging Viktoria of Ash before she got to flip a card.

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He can drop a marker without them having any nearby, it's just that he ignores LoS on the attack if there is a marker nearby. The big thing limiting it is how many soulstones that attack requires. Also you don't just need the soulstone, you also need a 12-13 of the right suit so you will always need to aoulstone and cheat high to get that effect (on top of paying 2ss to have the ability in the first place).

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19 minutes ago, TheSultanOfSalt said:

Lucius can do this with a trigger on Secret Assets, his 0 action ignore LOS sniper upgrade.  I believe they need to have a nearby scheme marker for you to consume though. I could be mistaken on the latter half. But it's pretty funny for dig their graves. Pop them from safety, drop a scheme at their feet, command your gun line or thrall to finish them off.

 

Also, I've had a lot of luck playing three riflemen. I had all three of my riflemen proc alongside Allison Dade to kill a charging Viktoria of Ash before she got to flip a card.

The problem with trying to do your marker dropping with Lucius's markers is not that you have to consume other's markers, but that you have to have two suits to get it.   Not that I haven't spent a stone (with TC support) to do so, but even so I need a high card in either rams or masks to make it work at that point.

 

Did Vik of Ash not stone any of that away?

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