KeaponLaffin

Aah. My bad. that's right. Guardian Protects Hoff Hoff assimilates Protect from Guardian Hoff Protect on mobile toolkit Mobile Toolkit casts Hoff's Protect on Peacekeeper (for instance).. doesn't violate the new rule at all. Sweet.

Eek. No more protect chains then, eh?

Ah. I had been playing with Hoff's maintain machines working on Ryle. I see your point re: him not being considered friendly. Will stop that now I'm definitely convinced. Mechanical attendant time!!

Damn. My bad re: Feedback. DocMoen: That 35 pt list looks nice. I haven't tried the Mechanical Attendant yet. I ought to. Has anyone tried bringing an Arachnid Swarm? I brought Joss in a few games but he was just too brittle. The swarm can heal nicely and is the same cost.

I haven't tried the Wardens out. Will give that a go. Re: Mobile Toolkit easy to wound: Hoffman's maintain machines means you can ignore that I think. Having said that, a PK, Ryle, Guardian and 2xWardens sounds nice (for 35 pts) I think Ryle is worth every penny (or soulstone). You can get 10 shots off in a round with Ryle + Fast Hoff Machine Puppet and Ryle has a good chance of getting extra damage flips. So, Ryle makes it *really* dangerous for your opponent to be within 12".. but if they close to melee range you've got a reactivating, machine puppetted peacekeeper to deal with. Re: the bury trick.. I haven't tried it but it seems like you'd spend the whole game tweaking Hoff and not focused on your strategies. Maybe with the right strategy (against the right opponent). I have the guardian cast protect on hoff round 1, hoff assimilates protect and casts it on the peacekeeper.. so damage on the PK may optionally be funnelled back to either Hoff or Guardian. I kinda alternate between having the guardian soak the damage and hoffman. Then the guardian's self-repair causes hoffman to get a healing flip too. If you have the mobile toolkit, it can do another heal (which would give hoffman yet another healing flip).. so you've got 4 healing flips out of nothing but a 0-action and your totem activation. re: guardian's movement - the PK moves up to 15", hoff hitches a ride and the "handy" mobile toolkit follows so you have a "train" of sorts behind the PK.. and you just need to get the guardian within 6" of the toolkit by the end of the turn (maybe via a recactivate) so it can spring into base to base (preferably at the "far end" of the toolkit into base to base with Hoff as well). Between the protects & heals + shield wall armor, I think the hoff ball is pretty much invulnerable... so I just move it as quick as I can into a good position and start kicking ass. The biggest issue I find is strategies that require lots of models. We usually play 35 points so my style might not work well for less.. but the one time we played 25 pts recently I took the PK & Ryle and 2 watchers (skipped Guardian) and it was fine.. I was just way more vulnerable than I'm used to being.

I'm really happy with: Mobile Toolkit [4ss] Guardian [7ss] Peacekeeper [9ss] Ryle, Guild Pawn [8ss] Watcher [3ss] Watcher [3ss] There's enough units that I'm usually getting the full +5 casting, and the watchers are great at claiming objectives (if not much more than that).

Ya, I've been following that thread closely. To be honest, I think the rules are pretty clearly in favour of allowing Reactivate to be assimilated.. but regardless of the current rules if it's unbalancing then they'll just change the rule The "everything moves as a clump" offsets the power of the reactivate I think. Depending on the strategy, you can more or less lose before the game even starts. And unless you keep everyone clumped together for the boost to spell casting, it can be a bit hard to get the Override Edict off.

Oh wait... not true. I forgot that I lost one due to lack of mobility... board position was such that I could even fight the guy so I resigned. So ya.. that's a problem.

Thanks for clarifying re: protect. I've only played 3 games with Hoff so far, but I've won them all. I didn't know that protect lasted, so I generally relied on Shield Wall. I'd get into place fast, then spend the rest of the game camped out in formation.. Ryle - PK G - H - Watcher MTkit -Watcher So Ryle, PK, Hoff & Mobile Toolkit all get Shield Wall armor, Hoff is base to base with PK, Guardian, Mobile Toolkit & 2 watchers so he's maxing out his damage on Open Circuit (7 damage?) and has crazy high casting from the +5. Peel off the watchers to grab objectives as required (if the bonus damage on open circuit isn't necessary). If you interpret Reactivate as "Assimilatable", you can activate Ryle.. fire x 3. Activate Hoff, Tap power on the mobile toolkit, Over Edit on Ryle, Assimilate Reactivate and then machine puppet Ryle for a shot. Then Ryle shoots x3... then next time around Hoff can machine puppet x 3 (still fast).. so 10 Ryle shots.. and everyone is at +4 armor. I hear tell that the guys I play with are going to start focusing on guys that ignore armor though.. in which case that protect is going to come in real handy

Woah.. from what you guys are saying it sounds like protect lasts throughout the game, not just the round. Is that correct? If so, that changes everything.