Finally played Ophelia, what to do with Rami?

[the tick]

TLDR: Where does Rami fit in the current game and the game that GG18 MIGHT be?

Yesterday I played my first game with Ophelia....and actually won!? That's significant because I've only won 2 games in the year I've been playing....probably because my meta is full of intellectual freaks who are just way too darn good at Malifaux and also because I'm terrible. My main question revolves around Rami and his role.

My opponent and I played a GG2018 game with an interesting mix of schemes. I used Ophelia with "Useless Junk" and "Jug Rocket". I gotta say....Useless Junk is such an amazingly fun upgrade. After an initial bout of analysis paralysis deciding where the trash marker needed to go, it became much easier to figure out which kin model needed the push or the heal to set themselves up to accomplish something.

Star of the show was Raphael, trash marker heals make him even more survivable than he already was. HOWEVER, the....err....NOT star of the show was Rami. Having a 36" range is pretty nice right? But he averaged 2-3 points of damage per turn when he was actually able to hit his target. I suppose the self heal makes it easier to reckless, focus, shoot without worrying too much. Other forum posts describe him as the faction's "sniper". But my initial impression is that he's just not that intimidating, and even if he's got great fields of fire he doesn't provide much of a deterrence. His ability to ignore Ht 1 folks didn't even come up in this particular game. So for 7 SS I think I'd rather have something else? Admittedly this is my first game with the crew and I might be way off base. Plus the model was a pain to put together so I kind of wanted to like him.

So the questions/discussion points: Is Rami's raison d'être to plink small amounts of damage from a long range? Am I undervaluing this ability?

[Eorek]

He is a sniper who can double focus around stuff like hard cover, or double -flips on attacks(midnight stalker...jack daw...yin etc). 
Have a high ram/stand close to lenny/have somer teeth give him a ram with do it like dis and watch him put the pain on stuff on the other side of the board. 
He is also quite self sustained with his heal, so you can keep him alive through multiple dumb luck shots if you play your cards right. 

I've used him a few times when a quick murder is in the pool on a open board or when you need a model to stay behind and hold a quarter of the board you deployed in. 

You need to find a target who has lower DF than his shoot though if you wanna use his shot early in the round, or drain your opponents hand while keeping whatever card you intend to use for rami... he's done wonders for me in some games, in others he's just missed everything. 
He always makes it into my "bring to tournaments"- box. 
 

[wizuriel]

Generally with Rami you use him to trade a model with your opponent.

Reckless > double focus and make sure to have a ram in for dumb luck, then cheat in severe damage.

[Ikiwith]

1 hour ago, wizuriel said:

Generally with Rami you use him to trade a model with your opponent.

Reckless > double focus and make sure to have a ram in for dumb luck, then cheat in severe damage.

Welcome vendetta again in 2018 :-)

[Dogmantra]

1 hour ago, Ikiwith said:

Welcome vendetta again in 2018 :-)

Was just about to comment, I basically take Rami for Vendetta. If you can deploy second, it's pretty much a guaranteed 1vp without the option to then have your opponent stay out of range (because everyone is in range... line of sight not so much), and if you bring Lenny or get lucky enough to draw a high ram into your hand you can take out a decent number of targets in one hit.

Without Rams, for a sniper his damage track is pretty garbage. But if you can dedicate the resources to keeping him hitting Dumb Lucks and staying healed up, he can be a pretty strong area denial character.

[the tick]

So I suppose Rami is just a little more niche in his application. Looking back at Vendetta I can see how he'd be a good pick for that one. Didn't consider double focusing as a possibility either, that makes sense. So basically, to maximize his use you really gotta be willing to nearly kill him with dumb luck? I suppose if it'll net you some good points with Vendetta (or whatever) its worth the stones. If you can position Ophelia correctly, you could use the trash marker pushes to quickly get a new line of fire too. I'll keep him in the lineup. Thanks guys.

This goes back to something that was said in another topic....I really wish there were some Kin Minions: Lacroix Delinquents ("grown up" Young Lacroix), Lacroix Tinkerer, Lacroix Bandits, SOMETHING!

[wizuriel]

LaCroix human hunters.

Roster riders I feel would be good kin models

[Dominion]

i played him a couple of time with a Skeeter carrying him aorund, it was quite effective.

you get a 12" reposition, so LOs is no problem and is a good escape if engaged.

 

and with FAST you can either triple focus (so you have a guaranteed straight flip on DF5 in cover) or focus + shot 2 times

 

you are using 14 SS (a dirty cheater in Rami is good) but you can always put down some schemes with the skeeter while moving Rami "only" 6"

 

[lame0]

Rami is......not great lol. Take McTavish as a real sniper  since he ignores cover and doesn't randomize into cc and has a nice 14 inch range.

If you need super long range(>14) take a trapper over rami since its more consistent and doesn't require you to eat up valuable resources (rams). You can still use a ram for extra damage but its not all or nothing like rami. (2/3/5 with crit strike and a built in positive to attack + focus is pretty good and doesn't require nearly as many resources to keep it going turn after turn). 

I think rami would be much more playable if they gave him one of the four following: 

1) a built in  to the attack flip

2) a built in   to the damage flip

3) change his damage track from 1/3/4 to 2/3/4

4) when this action benefits from the focused condition, add a  to the duel total.

They are all good ways of helping him out. I also think his heal should be a (0) with a TN: 11 to help him be a bit more standalone 

[Bazlord_Prime]

TL; DR - Rami's just a bit of fun, but can be ludicrous "high-risk, moderate-reward", if you feel so inclined as to base a build around him.

While I agree with all the above (ie, if you want a stand-alone sniper, go for Hans, McTavish or a Freikorps Trapper), I have a soft-spot for Rami as the Glowy target in a just-for-fun Wong build:

Wong

- Ooo, Glowy

Rami

 - Dirty Cheater

Lenny

Old Cranky

Slop Hauler/Lightning Bug

There goes 27 stones, and it's horribly inefficient - all those models just hanging around for Rami's benefit - but you're guarantying a 36" focused shot every turn, delivering a 3/7/9 spread ignoring Armor, HtK & Incorporeal. It means that Rami is taking 4 damage himself if he hits severe, but even on moderate he's doing enough there to take out many middle-cost models in one shot. And he's got his heal, the Slop Hauler, Dirty Cheater and Regeneration to help with that.

I've only used it on one occasion, so I really can't recommend it as such, but it was a fun experience. To just head-shot a 6-8ss model from across the table, first activation - hilarious. And a little shocking to your opponent, I must say. Unless they deploy fully out of LoS, of course, but there's usually something that gets deployed out in the open . Reduce their activations by 1, straight off!

And once their Ml threats reach you, Lenny & the Slop Hauler ain't too bad together, and Cranky gives out  to Df. In that game, I had Lilith charge Rami (he lived), but then she got her face smashed by the Slop Hauler reducing her Df to 4, and Lenny just hitting her over a couple of turns.

Lenny can also chuck all the Ht1 models to reposition them. Can make for an interesting experience for your opponent 

So yeah - I think Rami is a corner-case pick (I wouldn't have had anything to do with him first turn if the board hadn't had gaping big lines of fire through it, for instance).

I think he could be improved by adding a (0) upgrade that adds a couple of triggers to his shot. Something like:

 "Got ALL them Kneecaps", to cause Slow

"What a Kick", to knock the target back a 3" push after damaging.

 "I'm Jammed!', to end his Activation immediately.