Arcadies

No it doesn't. Its a 'replace' and not a 'summon'. You place the swarm in base contact with any of the three spiders its replacing and it gets the highest general AP remaining amongst the three spiders its replacing. Then it completes the activation using that general AP. So if one of the spiders had not activated before swarm together was used, you now have a spider swarm with 2 general APs that completes the activation immediately.

Ok, I would like to apologize beforehand if I'm stating something thats already been said in the thread. I looked over it but I didn't see where anyone had actually checked what the rules said. There is no question about it and I think this is another case of where people are imagining rules that aren't there. I really don't see why people are getting confused about this. First off, when you hire a crew, you have to pick a faction first. In a brawl, you can hire a master from the faction you selected or a master with the MERCENARY characteristic. If you pick Outcasts you can hire Viktoria, Som'er, and Levi in scraps. In brawls, you can ONLY hire Viktoria and Som'er. On top of that, it would also reduce your soulstones by 5. Viktoria's "For Money" does not state anywhere that you can hire masters from any faction. It states that she may join a crew with any other master in a brawl. Please note that Levi is the ONLY master with the Mercenary characteristic. Viktoria does not have it. If she did, you could do crazy stuff like declare a faction other than Outcasts as your faction in a brawl, take Viktoria as your only master, add 10 soulstones and hire models from that faction. Levi has that ability... but he also is limited to only taking Constructs, Undead, and Soulless; and may do so from any faction so it really doesn't matter. Leveticus can only work with Ramos in a Brawl, and it has to be the Arcanists faction as Ramos does not have Mercenary as a characteristic. Again, not that it matters because of Levi's abilities. These are more rules, like Henchman and Avatar, that are included with future releases in mind. EDIT: The REAL ruling question is if you can hire duplicate masters in a Brawl. Masters don't have Unique as a characteristic. EDIT2: My mistake, they have it listed on their stat cards next to their cache.

Here are my thoughts. Guild is designed to be well rounded with few gimmicks. Each of the three masters has additional powers to counter an enemy faction. Perdita is better against Neverborn. Lady Justice is better against Resurrectionists. Sonnia is better against Arcanists. Again, Guild tends to be more straightforward to play. Arcanists, on the other hand, are more gimmicky and require a great understanding of the rules and each models abilities. Marcus is pushing the spot for best master in the game. But thats only if you play him at peak strategy. If you're under playing him or if you've gotten thrown off by something, you're going to get wrecked. Ramos is very very weak on his own, but his crews have almost game breaking gimmicks associated with ability combinations. His key is to gear your crew for exactly what strategy, enemy, and terrain you're going to be fighting in. Of the Arcanists, Rasputina is probably the most easy to play. She nukes, nukes, and nukes some more. If there is nothing to nuke she can buff. On top of all that, she can lay down walls just for fun. To sum up, Guild is the most well rounded and most straightforward to play. Arcanists are individually weak but have many many gimmicks that can potentially place them above other crews if they are used right. As far as game setting is concerned, there are no 'good guys' in Malifaux... only less bad ones. Lady Justice of the Guild is the least 'bad guy' master there is. She and the other Death Marshals are well liked by the populace. Second up has to be The Ortegas. Led by Perdita, they are Guild sanctioned demon hunters. Though the Ortegas are roughnecks, they keep demons from running rampant and killing civvies. The Arcanists are far from being the good guys. They are more of a loose-knit crime syndicate. Rasputina in specific is definitely one of the bad guys.

Help me understand Joss better. I know about the charge for 2 power counters bit. What other power counter management tricks are there? Also, I feel like I'm just plain using him wrong. He seems rather lackluster for the point cost and I would much rather take a convict gunslinger.

How easy is it to get another Gamin within 6 inches thats already activated Bite of Winter so that you can get off the 6 non-resistable damage? I suppose in one turn you could move two Gamin within 2" of the enemy master, then moving a third Gamin within 6" of the first two and activating Bite of Winter. Then activating Ramos and double Controlled Bursting for 12 damage. Hmm.... I may have to pick up some Gamin.

I don't disagree that Latch On is a great ability, but in the context of what the other gentleman was suggesting, Latch On vanishes after the swarm appears. Unless the spiders start out in base contact with the target, stacking doesn't help much at all as only one attack gets a stacked modifier. And if we're looking at it from the perspective of starting out in perfect base contact, then its just stupid. Three Necropunks would then start out in perfect position to pin a target in one spot to where it can't move at all. Then they just flurry away and there is nothing the target can do. Kill one spider and the trick ends. Move away from one spider and the trick ends. Lets not look at this from such a narrow scope. When we do, it just makes my argument more convincing than it should be.

Necropunks have Wd 4, Cb5, Overpower, Slow to Die, Hard to Kill, Flurry, Rot, and are Non-Insignificant. Again, comparing stat for stat with our blinders on is foolish. But if thats what we're doing, Necropunks are clearly better. This is incorrect. Please read the errata regarding these models. Latch on ends when the spiders are no longer in contact. As far as the +fate on Dg for the swarm attacks, Rot will more than likely trigger on a few of the 9 Necropunk attacks. Again, this is ignoring the reality of the spiders needing perfect positioning to pull this off with only 4 inches of movement each. Further, in your scenario, you have three (0) action Latch Ons before swarming. Regarding the rules for Replace, the Swarm would not have a (0) action available to Self-Repair. All it would get is two strike actions from Melee Master. Unless you're considering the spiders to already be in perfect base contact... then this whole scenario gets more ridiculous than it already is. Its clearly stated in the power that Latch On is cumulative. Unless I missed a ruling somewhere, I believe its still the case. Nicodem can heal the Necropunks as well as summon any non-spirit, non-unique undead. Ramos can only summon spiders and the EC. As far as insignificant is concerned. Those Necropunks are 3ss whereas the Swarm is 9ss. Three Necropunks are a great deal less insignificant than one Swarm. Again we're comparing with a narrow scope though... but even in this narrow scope I'm still right. This is more of what I wanted to look at through this post. While it is true that different minions have their ideal masters, the synergy from Necropunks merely being Undead is immense. Can the same be said for the Arachnids and other Arcanists? Spiders have nearly zero synergistic qualities with Marcus or Tina. Only Leveticus has any real use for the spiders as cheap scrap tokens. But this vein of discussion is more of what I'm looking for... larger scope examination. Thats no worse than the perfect positioning required to pull off the spider trick or the fact that if the target moves away from the spiders the trick fails.

You're looking at it from an aspect of only Ramos. There are 4 masters that can hire the Arachnid. On top of that you're being very situational with your assessment of the arachnids abilities. In fact, in your situational statement regarding necropunks, you don't take into account that those three necropunks can all leap 7" into range of that single target and each flurry for a total of 9 Cb5 1/2/3 attacks. Whereas the Spiders would only be able to move 4" and would only get two Cb4 2/2/3 attacks before swarming and getting two Cb5 3/3/5 attacks. Latch On will give one Arachnid attack -2 to target Df and the second attack -4, but does nothing for the swarm attacks. I would say it MAYBE counterbalances the natural 5 Cb of the 9 Necropunk attacks. But again, thats purely from your one dimensional, situational assessment. On top of that, your depiction was a 'perfect storm' situation for the Arachnids regarding placement, distances, and initiative. If the target moved out of the way after the first spider attack, no more swarm up or further attacks. The Necropunks aren't reliant on eachother to get those 9 attacks in. Thus is the problem with only viewing things situationally. Like I said, I made my assessment after reviewing as much of the wider scope of things as possible. You start to add in massive differences like Arachnids being Insignificant when compared to the Punks and you start to see what I mean.

Looking at Ressurectionist Canine Remains and Necropunks, I believe that Steampunk Arachnids are priced improperly. Necropunks have far more function for 3 soulstones than Arachnids do, all things considered. In fact, Steampunk Arachnids are more in line with the cost 2 Canine Remains. I make this evaluation looking beyond individual stats and looking into the whole picture of which masters will be hiring these models, the fact that certain masters can summon these models, and other elements of the game such as other models within the same faction. Am I missing some line of reasoning here?

I've only played Ramos a handful of times but I can point out the following models. Rusty Alyce - 10ss to hire (after the +2 ss from out of faction and her ability) She has abilities that are geared specifically toward Ramos and Leveticus. Namely she must be in a crew with a master that has scavenger, and if she is within 3" of Ramos during the Draw Phase you can draw an additional two cards. To top it off, she can use Ramos's massive casting ability as her own. She is an impressive ranged piece and I strongly recommend her as a replacement for the 10ss Steamborg. She is like having a second master. Johan - 6ss to hire (after +1 from out of faction and -1 from Dues Paid) Not a huge amount of synergy with Johan but he is cheaper for Ramos to hire because he's an M&SU member. On top of that, if Johan is within 3" of an M&SU member (Joss and Ramos), he gets +2 Cb to ranged and melee. That brings his pistol to a 6 and his Relic Hammer to a 7. He makes a great bodyguard for Ramos and adds much needed ranged attacks. Joss - 9ss to hire Joss, Joss, Joss... he's worth every single soulstone spent. He can reactivate himself for 2 wounds. Or he can spike his melee damage to a minimum of 6. Or he can give himself up to Armor 3 that can't be mitigated by anything. All you need is to charge him up. Ramos can heal him too. He's another replacement for the Steamborg. Other things to look at are Ice Golems and Ice Gamin. They don't have much synergy other than being constructs but they're worth a look.