Necromorph

So...I'm definitely going to pick up Collodi when he releases (and he'll be my first non-Outcast crew..eek!) but I figured this thread would be as good as any for some questions.

So, there seems to be some varying opinion on him as a master (and I realize not all of the Henchmen are going to be the best masters). What is your opinion, as members of the Neverborn community, on running him as a master? As I've seen and read, he doesn't have much to his force atm (stitched, wicked and mari's mostly), but can he be viable at say, 35ss, which is the standard size game we play at the LGC? I've seen some wicked 25ss lists proposed here, but I'm just looking for feedback.

If he's not really that viable yet, I can always just run him with Levi and make some people cry, haha.

Hmm, yeah, forgot about that too. Idk, I mean you probably won't find anything with Ryle's ranged power, but there are plenty of things you could take. In terms of single models:

Hooded Rider

Teddy

Jack Daw

Bete Noir

Steamborg

etc, etc, but those would be good things to take. Problem is, like I said, you'd pretty much have to take a melee monster...not many 8-10 point shooters out there who can be hired by Levi.

Yeah I'm looking forward to Collodi a lot, and just stumbled upon the fact that I can use him with my Levi crew. I'm excited to see how they work together, and your list looks pretty solid.

You could also drop Ryle for Jack Daw...now that wouldn't be the hardest hitting list out there...but it would cause some people some headaches, lol. Though I do love Ryle...just waiting for my LGS to stock him :banghead:.

@ above,

Yeah when I use the Libby, I just keep her right by Von, so she benefits from his aura's. Actually...I usually keep all of my 'korps pretty close together, I mean, then are immune to blasts and pulses, lol. The Libby's offensive casting is a bit inconsistant, so I just use her as a heal/buff bot, only casting for damage when something gets low and NEEDS to die.

I would recomend either taking Taelor or the Viks. I just beat a Vic's crew (first Malefaux victory ever....out of the 5 total games I've played, haha) with,

Von

Librarian

Trapper

Specialist

1x Friek

Convict GS

Taelor

The only advice I can give is that you need to be careful of getting overagressive with any 1 model. Make sure you have support for whatever model you're going to throw into the fray, particualarly the Freiks themselves. If your opponent cheats to a negative or double negative flip, you're looking at 1 damage done, that is the drawback of the Freiks is their low end damage. Also if your opponent can isolate an unsupported model that 1 armor is only going to do so much and the majority of the Freiks are fragile.

Having said that, Von Schill and the Librarian are almost unkillable if you keep them close to one another. So long as you can keep a ram in your hand to add to the Libby's casting when she activates, she pretty much can't die (slow to die, easy cast heal every time). In her activation, she can spam heal (furious cast) on Von Schill and/or other close Freiks (or even Taelor or a Vik if you have to). The turning point where things looked bad for me in the 2 games I've played with them were turns where I drew no rams in my starting hand. Ugh, I feel like once per game is a little bit much for that to happen, but the second game didn't matter (fortunately I still had all of Von's stones for healing flips).

Firstly Jack Daw is 9ss, so that doesn't leave you with any spare stones.

Also, I am no Levi expert, but it does seem a little light on bodies for my liking. I would consider dropping either Bete or Teddy (probably Teddy as Bete has some nice combos with Levi) and replacing them with three Necropunks. They benefit from Blessings of Desolation, are great for grabbing objectives and leave corpse counters for additional Waifs.

Derp, yeah he is 9ss, but yeah I was considering either punk zombies or necropunks, I'll prolly have to get a pack of each and try them both out.

And it helps him die faster!

Exactly, you kind of want Levi to die, and this helps keeps him mobile while helping him die so he can come back haha.

So I'm trying to make a more straightforward Levi list rather than using abominations so I can get used to the rules and mechanics of the game with Levi (who is a tough master to learn) without having to worry about the tactics involved with the one-trick-pony SPA's and the Desi.

I was thinking of a smaller model count list to minimize the confustion, and while I want to run a construct list, thus increasing the chance I might still be able to get a Desi mid game, I'm waiting for Ryle to do that list, but here is what I was going to use in the meantime.

Levi

Alyce-8

Jack Daw-8

Teddy-9

Bette Noir-9

The only problem with this is that I would have 34ss and only be able to get about 3ss for Levi if I sacrifice a scheme for 2ss. I was considering dropping bette, but I couldn't think of much else to take except maybe 1 punk zombie, but it just seems to me like they would best be taken in a group of 2-3, but I'm not sure as I've never used them.

I'm new so any c&c would be appreciated.

I personally love the SPA's but I've been having some issues. The Malifaux group I've recently started playing with are, unfortunately, very Win @ All Costs Players. I'm learning a completely new game, a hard master to learn right off the bat, and running SPA's trying to pop them into a Desi at the right time is just another degree of complication when I already have a lot of things going against me.

I'm looking to make a more straightforward, smaller model count list that will alow me to hit hard, keep pressure off Levi and not involve too many complicated strategies so I can focus on Levi himself and what my opponents are doing to try and counter them more easily.

I have Bette, and am considering some power models like Ryle, Jack Daw, and maybe a Teddy (love that freaking model haha). Does anyone have any suggestions on what would be best for what I have in mind?

Oh, crews I will commonly be playing against are the Perdita's, Sona, Pandora, and chompy bits (ugh) if that helps any.

I've also been told by another avid Levi player in my group that Punk Zombies work well with him as an extra. Self Mutilate is nasty, and when they die he can turn them into SPA's if necessary.

EDIT: Don't forget about the Riders (Hooded, Dead and Mechanical ).

Instead of the ????? you could throw in Jack Daw for the same stones (since it isn't going to be out for some time)...just to piss your opponent off, haha.

Thanks for the replies guys (and nice painting, Ratty)...I feel like I'm always drawn toward the hardest crews to play (Levi is tough to get down for a new player, especially coming from 40k and Infinity...totally different mechanics).

I might have to pick up that Freikorps crew I've been oogling over just to get the basics of the game down. They seem fairly straightforward (not "Ortega's" straighforward, but more so than Levi or Kirai) especially if you throw the Victorias in. Then I can go back and mess with the more challenging masters. Then again sticking with it would mean that when I do get the game and the complex masters down I'll be in a better frame of mind about the game but who knows.

I guess I'm gonna :tj: and ask another question about Kirai. I'm new to the game, and I have a Levi crew currently, but something about Kirai's crew appeals to me as well. However, the people that I have been playing with all seem to bad things to say about her, and how her crew is "really underwhelming." I guess from what she comes with right out of the box I can see that, her starting crew from the box is kinda average, and it seems like you'd need some more Senshin and Gaki's to make it work.

My question is, is she really inferior, or just hard to use effectively?

/sigh...I lost my first game to her with Levi as well....but it wasn't my first loss, it was my first full game period. The thing that sucked is that I have no experience, and my opponent is an avid levi player who was rolling pandora for this game.

The main problem was that I'm new to the game, and the system, and Levi is a hard master to..well...master. I kept forgetting to draw cards, kept forgetting to activate my Desolation engine's trigger to heal itself, and all this time my opponent, (who knew I was new to game, and is very good with the master I was using) could have at least helped me out a little bit in remembering, it being my first game and all, lol. That said, by the end of the game I had Jack Daw left on the table vs. Pandora and a stitched together. Bother Levi and his waif got pushed off the table, lol. Kinda sucked but I learned a lot from that game.

A) Remember to draw cards from casts, Levi's deaths, and Alyce.

Remember that the Desolation Engine heals itself.

C) Be more aggressive with Levi...he can nuke the s**t out of things haha.

Thanks for keeping this thread going guys, I'm new to Malifaux, and Levi and his SPA's are one of the more complex boxes to pick up as a beginner, but this thread has let me get the feel for what a need to do, I'll keep checking back for more updates.

I loved the models the moment I saw them, and they seemed pretty balanced ruleswise, considering what comes in the box. However, as someone else said, they might lack a bit of stopping power against construct heavy lists. Might need the Vic's, Taelor, or a couple extra trappers for some heavy hitting.

I'll have to keep my eye on this...I'm new to the game and bought Levi's box set mostly for the Abominations, then the people at my LGC told me how wierd his rules were. I've only played a couple games but the rules seem very...broken.