Raphael is pretty boss

[Math Mathonwy]

I think that Raphael is one of our more underrated models.

He is often compared to Burt ("why not just take Burt?") but despite their surface similarity (both are Reckless Enforcers costing 7SS and sporting tremendous damage potential) I think that their roles are quite different.

First of all, Burt kills stuff in melee. I mean, he has a nice gun but his melee tends to be where he dominates. Second, Burt likes crowds. Third, Burt has a lot better stats.

I would actually rather compare Raphael to Merris. He is a lone wolf flanker. If you don't need Flight or the extra Scheme Markers and if you're expecting resistance or see nice firing lanes horizontally across the battlefield, consider Raphael. And this is something that is worth paying attention to. Sometimes battlefields work very well in one direction but are really weird in the other affording very nice firing lines. Also, it's difficult to get cover from the front and from the side if cover is mostly rectangular buildings.

Also, if you don't have many models who love Rams, consider taking Raphael. As he makes very good use of them. Very good.

He can survive almost anything for a round thanks to his Armor and HtK and a good number of Wounds. And he can get the hell out of dodge no matter what comes after him, basically. So he is a very good Schemer. In fact, he is amazing in Schemes where he needs to get near to the opposing deployment zone to do some Scheming there at the end of the game. As he can shoot his gun along the way.

And even if he doesn't shoot his gun, his mere presence is something that the opponent has to take into account. Watch them squirm when trying to get cover from all sorts of angles.

He is really fast and even faster with an Iron Skeeter taxi. Maybe even Fast fast! And the taxi isn't in danger as Raphael has a nice long range so the taxi can hang back a bit.

But really, once Raphael is half dead - that's when the magic starts to happen. A positive twist to damage with his damage track is pretty damn bonkers. And sure, he only has Sh 5. That's all right because his damage is potential is so crazy. The opponent has to save something really special to counter him.

Now, things aren't all roses and daffodils. Raphael has some weaknesses as well. Chief among them Df 4 and Wp 4. Beware of Obey-style stuff!

But really - give him a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised. Especially if you do so outside of an Ophelia crew (as she loves Rams).

[PolishSausage]

point at Nekima,

Focus,

Focus,

SHOOT! bam, take 10 (or 14 with RJ)

 

Or if you deliver him with iron skeeter and a tome its.... Focusx3 + shoot

[Bazlord_Prime]

I've got the Ophelia crew coming in the mail, and I'm most looking forward to getting some use out of the "other" kin: Raphael, Rami and Pere. (Sorry, Francois,...) 

[PositronMike]

@Math Mathonwy I am in complete agreement with you on Raph. He is probably my favorite kin model and one of the models that I use in most crews (Ulix doesn't tend to have space for him). He is a brilliant scheme runner and he can hunt enemy scheme runners just as effectively. Unlike most of the 7SS models in Gremlins he is not about damage but about VP. Usually when I take Raph he will score me 3VP or more. Yes he can shoot very nicely however for me the key is Reckless and Fueled by Panic, these two abilities means he will always have 3 AP a turn unless the opponent kills him. This can actually take some doing which means most people won't bother as they will be more concerned about other things in the crew.

[Math Mathonwy]

2 minutes ago, Bazlord_Prime said:

I've got the Ophelia crew coming in the mail, and I'm most looking forward to getting some use out of the "other" kin: Raphael, Rami and Pere. (Sorry, Francois,...) 

I could most certainly do a "Pere is pretty boss" thread - he is amazing. Downright nasty with Iron Skeeter and Explosives.

1 minute ago, PositronMike said:

Unlike most of the 7SS models in Gremlins he is not about damage but about VP. Usually when I take Raph he will score me 3VP or more. Yes he can shoot very nicely however for me the key is Reckless and Fueled by Panic, these two abilities means he will always have 3 AP a turn unless the opponent kills him. This can actually take some doing which means most people won't bother as they will be more concerned about other things in the crew.

Very well put! And fully agreed! Merris is amazing but very squishy.

[cfrag]

I usually take merris when it comes to scheme running, but I must try raph more often. Sure, merris is squisht, but flight is great to keep her hidden while she darts behind enemy lines. It usually backfires when the opponent dedicates someone to chase her though

[Dogmantra]

I was thinking about this recently after playing a Henchman Hardcore where I brought him + Iron skeeter. I think Raphael really shines in smaller games. He's amazing in Henchman Hardcore and Enforcer Brawl and the like because he takes so much AP to kill, and it's comparatively a higher proportion of your opponent's AP in smaller games, with the added bonus that if they don't kill him completely they just gave him free Reckless and a to damage. You've also got fewer models yourself so you can dump more cards into Raph than otherwise, which he likes, and his gun makes for really big swings which are again a bigger proportion of your enemy's crew in a small game.

Some of that doesn't transfer to a 50 stone game, but if you position him well you can still be in the position where they don't have enough in range to kill him, which is always fun.

Inherent Armour and free Reckless with Dumb Luck makes for a really nice combination. 3 AP for free, then 1 damage taken to deal 4 to opponent? That's the same damage output on min damage as Som'er's gun with the same drawback at the same Sh value. Of course he needs to get the ram from somewhere while Som'er can do The Usual Shenanigans.

It's also not really a point in his favour, more a point in my good luck, but Raphael seems to magnetically attract the Red Joker for damage flips, which is always nice.

I've never really tried him as a dedicated scheme runner though, I must try that. A LYM runner with the ability to turn around and blast any counterplay off the board with a 10 damage dumb luck severe would make a really nice difference from the usual Merris and First Mate.

[Finalscene]

I actually like him over merris about 75% of the time. Whenever I take merris, I tend to have bad luck and she gets sniped by a focused trapper. Even when I try to keep her in cover they tend to get her in turn 2. One time she actually threw burning on half my crew, due to bad positioning (seemed good at the time) and a badly-timed red joker. She's only worth it if she actually does her job. 

[Sergrum]

Merris is an interesting model in that i've been leaving her out of many of my crews. Her gun is OK, and and as a scheme runner she only has her 0/flight over most 7ss models. Things like raph/taxi/burt can all fight off their opponents and scheme almost as well. For solo claim jump any reckless will do, and besides 15" drop a marker for leave there isnt THAT much we need her 0 for vs a another stronger enforcer.

 

[cfrag]

Well, I've yet to play malifaux in a competitive event, but I try to avoid running claim jump as it is so... boring? unimaginative? But I still like going scheme marker schemes. Merris can drop 2 markers very close to one another, and she can still drop 2 markers and cover a lot of ground ignoring terrain.  I particularly like her with ulix since it makes summoning a warpig a lot easier (2 close markers and card cycling if your hand is that crappy) plus she brings some blast immunity to the table. However, I never use her offensively. It is never worth it.

 

Sorry @Math Mathonwy, I believe we are derailing the thread to the wrong lacroix 

[PositronMike]

10 hours ago, Dogmantra said:

I've never really tried him as a dedicated scheme runner though, I must try that. A LYM runner with the ability to turn around and blast any counterplay off the board with a 10 damage dumb luck severe would make a really nice difference from the usual Merris and First Mate.

He is really good in this role especially if there is hunting party in the pool. Most people will use a scheme runner to try and deny LYM or claim jump if you are doing them on the edges of the board. Most scheme runners tend to be minions which Raph can put down reasonably easily especially if you have a high in hand. This can cause some serious problems for your opponent after Raph has killed the first model to stop him doing the marker based scheme. Do they send more minions to Raph for him to kill for hunting party, do they send an enforcer, henchman or master after him which they probably wanted to do something else with or do the let you score 3 from the marker based scheme.

Merris is very good but most of the time I prefer to use Raph just because most of the time we define terrain in such a way to stop flying, incorporeal or from the shadows models being able to be put somewhere they can score VP with out anything your opponent can do about it unless they have a flying or incorporeal model.

[daniello_s]

Fully agreed with Math. Raph is very underestimated model which actually can do amazing things if used correctly. I like to take him with Merris/Burt as my opponents tend to focus on them rather than on Raph which allows me to achieve my goals more easier

Raph is very good scheme runner which can additionally dish out crazy amount of damage as well so he is natural-born flanker. Really like this guy.

[EpicWaffle]

Gonna try him when I get back home in September for sure. I always loved the model, and got really good results in my earlie games, but than left him behind when I took new stuff like Burt etc. With a skeeter helping for rams, he sur looks devastating ( @Math Mathonwy do you use d.c on him? It seems to have really good value on him, but we all know how contented is among the faction).

I really wanna see what I can get out of models like him, pere and other that don't see too much competitive-love. Might be me, but in Italy the community is still on its "earlie stages" and I'm winning most tournaments (form 12 to 25 people) since I narrowed down my pool of models and took time to  properly learn my masters, and I'm really craving that feeling of discovery when trying something new, and figuring out how to make it work, that I no longer get from my go-to models. 

I love gremlins, they're the best crew I've ever used and the most enjoyable, and it hurts me to see that I don't use so many models (and masters!) because I want at the same time to win tournaments (which leads to leaning how to use the most efficient models over th rest).

 

 

[Math Mathonwy]

Oh aye, I always take Dirty Cheater on him. I think that he and Burt get the best value from it in the entire faction so it's not a difficult contest in that sense.

[PositronMike]

The other upgrade I really like on Raph is Hide in the Mud. Being in cover all the time does help his survivability. 

[daniello_s]

3 hours ago, PositronMike said:

The other upgrade I really like on Raph is Hide in the Mud. Being in cover all the time does help his survivability. 

Nah. Bring this upgrade with McTavish. Then it is fun

[Dogmantra]

It's a little bit redundant since McTavish can just make his own soft cover with a (0)

[daniello_s]

Just now, Dogmantra said:

It's a little bit redundant since McTavish can just make his own soft cover with a (0)

Not quite because you really, really want to use Gator Snack all the time with McTavish instead of other (0)AP action.

[PositronMike]

18 hours ago, daniello_s said:

Nah. Bring this upgrade with McTavish. Then it is fun

I agree it is really good on McTavish however Raphael still gets good use out of it if he is acting as a flanker.