AnythingBut

Had a great time at elementary, count me in too!

As has already been said I think the great thing about Marcus is the fact that his pool selection is so large that's it's hard to say for certain he has a core crew.

Although I would add from personal experience I don't think I would play a game without two Silurids, they're just that damn good! Seriously for 6ss it's kinda ridiculous. A leap with the built in suit meaning it goes off on any card higher than a 4 makes them too good to turn away for any strategy or scheme that involves interacting at all.

Then it's about collecting as many options as your wallet allows and have some amazing fun finding the countless synergies a Marcus crew can contain.

Also a mention of myranda. One if my favourite henchmen in the game. Her 3" bubble to give positive flips on Df and the ability to heal mean she can sit behind your front line beast (Waldgeists, cojo, slate ridge even Marcus) and make an immovable force in turf war and squatters rights. Then to add to it, this amazing 8ss henchman who has been buffing you all game, sacrifices herself in the later turns and becomes a 9ss killing machine Cerberus or blessed of December halfway across the board. It's almost not fair, almost

I use the golem a lot as I don't have a snow storm model and like him a lot. I don't leave home without imbued protection on him which bumps him up to a hefty 12ss but Df4, armour 2(plus more when raspy casts armour of December on him), ten wounds and the ability to discard the upgrade to prevent damage means it takes some concentrated effort to take him down.

But his ability to throw gamin into ice mirror position, or throw enemy Ht1 models away/into each other can be invaluable. The. There's the huge threat he poses, especially in turf war. Your opponent has to get some models up into the centre of the table so being slow isn't an issue. And with the ice gamins (0) he does weak damage of 10!! With any model in range or he has the option to hand out slow with his (1) attack which he can do three times.

When played properly and not just thrown into combat looking at his damage track on smash he's capable of being a dominating force in most stratergies. Take the 12ss hit with the upgrade and thank me later

So played the game on Sunday at the tournament and in the end went with raspy instead of Marcus. Mainly due to the fact plant explosives was in the scheme pool meaning I wanted to use the mech rider and don't like to stray too far from beasts when using Marcus.

In the end I don't think raspy is too bad at the strat. It helps when you have a soulstone miner and a couple of acolytes starting in the opponents half of the board but it still wasn't enough to deal with a summing dreamer crew with two Silurids! His crew was amazingly good at the strat especially when the player your against happens to be the third ranked player in the country and top ranked neverborn who happens to play dreamer as his main master!

I found raspys crew able to place a few claim markers to begin but as it lacked the pushes (I don't have a snowstorm or captain model) or (0) movement it was then very time consuming to have to use a whole extra turn to move into a position to be able to drop another marker.

I think I'm set on using Marcus for stake a claim in future (Silurids are just amazing at it) but the experience taught me raspy is at least capable of doing a decent job at it, just not quite up to par with the elite masters on that particular strat (which I class both dreamer and Marcus as)

Thanks for all your advice guys, to say I learnt a lot about stake a claim over the weekend would be an understatement. It was a tough lesson but a lesson non the less!

Given that it only comes up on the flip of a Joker I had never played stake a claim until last night. As its in the Tournament rules pack for an event this weekend I decided I had to give it a go at least once before hand!

 

I mainly play Raspy but also have a bit of experience with Marcus and given the two model pools I figured Marcus would do the job better than raspys slow moving crew.

 

I took Two Silurids, the blessed of December for leapy goodness and a soulstone miner to pop up and drop some claim markers. It worked well and I managed the win. I just wondered if anyone else had some tips for the Strategy to the Arcanist faction in general.

 

Im guessing im looking at marcus and his leapy beasts or raspy relying on acolytes to deploy in the opponents half to begin?

 

Soulstone miner probably a given in either crew with Stake a claim?

 

Any other handy hints and tips?

 

Cheers

Id have to ask the guys at my club for interest in this. (North West Warriors) We're quite large and have been going for years (mainly in Warhammer fantasy) but a few of us have got pretty seriously into Malifaux. 

 

Presumably the minimum team size would be 4 looking at the game schedule?

I will sometimes run all three of my gamin from the start of a game. In all strats except reccon I consider it an extremely sound investment for 12 ss, especially if you plan on using the golem to fling them around into the perfect ice mirror position.

I don't usually run many other models in more than two at a time with the odd exception here and there. One I can think of off hand was to take three Hoarcat prides against an Ophelia crew. They're great against shooting in general with both manipulative and small target, with the added bonus of being able to devour Ht1 models which are obviously plentiful in gremlin crews!

Acolytes in twos are amazing. In a slow moving crew by nature their from the shadows can be used to get a jump on dropping scheme markers in the right position, it's not always about putting them in an aggressive shooting/ice mirror position.

Silent ones in one or two are great as has been mentioned already. Mini Rasputinas with the ability to act as an ice mirror, to use other mirror to cast blasty goodness through, who can heal (with a trigger to effect all your other models within 2inches) and a BUILT IN def trigger that makes her difficult to kill off in a single activation. All for 6ss?! Go on then, you twisted my arm

I guess it doesn't make sense narratively. Why am I running to my opponents side of the table to protect my territory? I guess I'm the only one that thinks this feels wrong though... Oh well.

First time I read the scheme I also thought it the same way as you. But don't think of your deployment zone as your territory, instead think of the scheme marker as your territory which you claim and then need to be near by to protect.

Also rules wise protect territory would be a gimme scheme in 90% of all games if you could just sit one model within 12" of your board edge between two scheme markers.

Just the attack flip, not the damage one. But it's any attack with the gun action which for certain models is both their ranged and melee attack. But it's mainly protection from ranged threats.

They're good with both raspy and Marcus against anything particularly shooty or anything with lots of Ht1. So the perfect selection if you face Ophelia who ticks both of these boxes!

They have both manipulative AND small target. Meaning shooting models who target them before they activate must pass a Wp12 duel or their action fails and then if they pass this duel shooting attacks then suffer a negative flip due to small target.

Their melee attack is also rather more punishing than most people would expect with a 3/4/5 track as long as the pride has more than three wounds plus a double positive damage flip if you get a ram trigger which both Rasputina and Marcus don't have many uses for anyway.

I also find the wendigo and Hoarcats devour under rated against living crews. People are always expect Raspy to blast blast and blast some more but people often forget how potent her paralyse spell coupled with a charging wendigo or Hoarcat can be to effecting one shot an over confident tanky model.

Isn't a golem armour +2?

Yes you are right. Ive been play testing Snowstorm recently and was actually thinking of her bullet proof when I posted +3 instead if the golems armour which is +2.

Sound a great and the raspy box set plus a couple of December acolytes sounds perfectly solid list in most cases. Maybe a few too many low cost, easy to kill models for reckoning in my personal opinion but when first starting out with a limited model pool I'm willing to bet most raspy players played with a similar list (I know I did)

I had already mentioned earlier in the thread the merits that the wendigo and acolytes deployed from the shadows are a frozen heart crews main scheme runners so happy to see that paid off for you.

Agree that the golem is a slow cumbersome model, especially when tossing your Ht1 models around for an AP first, I usually take him as a given in turf war with the imbued protection upgrade as he doesn't need to go too far to claim the turf marker and with armour 3 and the ability to discard the upgrade for damage prevention he can be a real tough model to remove and an obvious threat to any other model looking to get within 6" of the centre line. In most of strats though I would say play snow storm and see how you like he feel of him and his ridiculous movement shinanigans!

I'm glad you took the wendigo to see it in action, I dare say after seeing his utility and speed you'll miss him greatly if you do try the essence of power for a game or two. One other thing you didn't mention but hope you took advantage off is his ability to use his magical extension to copy the ice pillars spell or raspy. You can copy any spell she has including those from upgrades and having 4 pillars in the board at once can push even the best laid opponents plans to their limits!

Keep us up to date with your progress and myself and many of the other guys who post on the forums will be glad to help where we can.

I'll try my best to be fully painted. Have my raspy crew almost done just got to worry about the rest now

I know it's two months away but will there eventually be a rule pack up that includes the strats and deployments or will it all be randomly flipped on the day?

I would LOVE to use the models of Sorrows for my Ice Gamin, just as the Model of the Poltergeist for Snowstorm. I love the idea of Frost Ghosts. Do you think it is okay or would most people refuse to play against it because its not "wysiwyg"?

In general the idea of proxies in malifaux is common place as plenty if the wave 2 stuff doesn't have an official wyrd model or if they do it's generally the old metal ones.

I will point out though that using a model which is already designed to be malifaux model as something different is generally not allowed in TOURNAMENT format. As you can imadgine with so many crews and models out there it can be confusing enough for new and experienced players alike to get to know all the factions and crews so using them as an entirely different model can be confusing.

Personally in my gaming group I would be fine with this particular idea and I'm sure painted up blue and icy they'd fit nicely but then again I know the raspy crew very well already so it would be easy for me to substitute the models in my head.

So to summarise I don't see a reason why a friendly game at a LGS would have a problem with it but if you're thinking of attending tournaments eventually you might want to to with the intended models.

Really enjoyed it, well written and entertaining. If you guys do more be sure to post them up to these forums too!

A general question: Is one hard hitter like Ice Golem or Snowstorm enough for the most scenarios? I'm a litle afraid to put to much SS in those more elitist units but on the other hand lack on minions :'D

It's totally strat and scheme dependent. Generally if you play reckoning you'll take as many big heavy hitters as you can who won't die cheaply and give you opponent easy strat points. Turf war also works well with a couple of big tanky hitters who can park themselves in the centre of the board and hold it. Whereas in a strat like squatters rights or reconnoiter you'll want more cheap activations.

I would warn that snow storm isn't a melee monster like the ice golem is and I play them completely differently. The ice golem with armour3 can take a bit or two whereas snow storms main defensive ability is just bulletproof giving him the protection from shooting only and it's main attacks is a spell with tactical pushes thrown in for your crew. If you want big melee bullies take the ice golem, blessed of december (with imbued energies for extra fun) or choices from outside the frozen heart models such as Joss and Howard.

Obviously you have an idea on how you would like to play and what looks cool and I'm sure you'd have a blast trying it but as has been pointed out I wouldn't say it's an optimal raspy crew.

Firstly that's a huge upgrade spend on Raspy herself. I always run cold nights I think it's an auto include for 1ss. The other two upgrades are both great but I wouldn't include both it's just too much of a resourse drain on one character.

I find raspy plenty Killy with the range and positional advantage her ice mirrors give and if you also put shattered heart on her you become in danger of trying to tunnel into the one style of play which most of the times won't actually give you VPs unless you luck into a very kill heavy scheme pool.

I personally would run her with cold nights and the armour of December as the push combined with her defensive trigger will often save her life from fast melee models who engage her as she has a hard time disengaging with Df4. That's only 2ss in total and sets her up tactically for any matchup.

There is a thread just below this one about the essence of power where I give my opinion about it and the wendigo. Safe to say with wk6 and the ability to copy the ice pillars spell he makes an ideal scheme runner in an otherwise very slow crew.

Another great model for schemes and general shooty awesomeness is the Acolyte of December. With a decent damage track and a built in slow to damaged targets it's. A threat that need takin out. And even though it's only Wk4 the ability to deploy from the shadows makes her great at getting into a position to scheme run from the start.

The ice gamin are obviously great in any raspy crew and snow storm is a fantastic model. There's nothing quite like funnelling an opposing crew into a tight space with pillars from both raspy and the wendigo and then unleashing cold, blasty death with both Rasputina and Snow storm. Gremlins and other crews who take lots of cheap activations will take a severe beating from all those blast markers!

Anyway have fun playing Rasputina and her crew. I fell for it as my first crew thematically for similar reasons as you, just remember if you have friends who are also new to the game, play with plenty of scenery for them to hide behind (as the game should be anyway) or Raspys magic can quickly get out of hand and be a real downer for a new opposing player.

The "Crazy Cat Lady" list was always fun to run and provides a fairly different play style for her. Augment with a Saber Tooth Cerberus and a few Silent Ones and you have some interesting options.

I bet it would scare the shit out if a shooty gremlin crew. Manipulative and small targets who can devour the while opposing crew I'd also take a BoD instead of a Cerberus just for the extra mirror and healing target for the silent one.

I don't think there's a strat and scheme pool that would make me chose the Essence over the wendigo.

Far too many reasons to take the wendigo and raspy is plenty Killy enough without the help from the essence totem. A few of my personal reasons listed below.

- Raspy crews (if playing thematically with frozen heart models) is extremely slow and lacks scheme runners. The wendigo and acolytes deploying from the shadows are both great options.

- without a doubt Raspys best (or most versatile) upgrade is Cold nights with the ability to place impassible, blocking, height 5 markers to block charge lanes, LoS or objectives Etc from opponents. The Wendigo's magical extension gives you the ability to place 4 of there markers a turn which will more often than not offer you more opportunities to score VP and deny them from your opponent than an extra Ca and the aura.

- Great synergy for killing models in one shot if comb'd with raspys paralyse (often cast through the wendigo itself) or any Ht 1 model. Looking at you pesky gremlins!

10am sounds reasonable for three 2 hour games.

Payment sent!

I'd be interested in another trip to the north east after this weekend and if I was able to choose it would be a tournament. While there may be more and more in the calendar not all are as easily access able to those in the north or are able to drum up the player pool I'm sure the Worhamma guys can.

See, I was taught that the basic definition of distance includes that if you have two different points, one on one, the other on the second base, the distance is not 0.

 

If the word contact implies otherwise I'm not sure if that's part of the basic understanding of an in part international readership.

 

That's why I would say it should be specified if it's supposed to be different.

 

The online Cambridge Dictionary entry for contact is as follows: "the fact of two people or things touching each other"

 

Its also written in the rule book that if you are 'at' a distance you are also 'within'.

 

I admit that sometimes the rules of malifaux are not quite so clear cut but this one is, and this thread has backed that up numerous times. If you feel the need to try and argue against it then im not here to stop you, just point out that you're wrong to help anyone else reading this thread with a genuine question. 

Just to be clear, I'm not dis agreeing on the definition of within. I'm also aware that 0+3=3, I know as much math as that.

If there was a part of the rules that said "Models in bases to base contact are considered to be at a distance of 0" I'd be the first to agree that a 3" push would mean the model is still within 3".

However I can not find such a statement. At this point I can only pray that I haven't been overlooking it the whole time, that would look really stupid.

I do believe that a distance of more than zero for two models in base to base contact would be technically correct, therefore a 3" push would mean the model is pushed beyond being within 3" (x>0 +3 <=> x>3).

realize however that looking at two models in base to base contact and saying the distance is 0 because I can't see any free space between them is very intuitive and I wouldn't put my money on whether the rules were meant to be understood this way or the other.

Wait what??

Base To base CONTACT. How much more clear in the use of the English language could it possibly be? They're In CONTACT.

Why would it need to specify that the distance is zero? There are probably hundreds of situations in the rulebook when basic understanding of the definition of words is deemed enough and things arnt spelt out multiple times with the same outcome.

I feel you realise that this is the case but are just trying to justify some sort of logic from you're original statement.

It's in the rulebook in black and white and there are rules out there like Mei fengs and rusty Alice's that back this up.

If a bit of common sense can't win in these situations It's a sad state of affairs.

Not sure if this is a good place to post this but im looking for someone from England who is interested in ordering from gen con and splitting shipping costs with me. 

 

Posting it here specifically as Im paid up and attending this tournament and so could use the event to hand over any items purchased to save on even more P&P that shipping again via royal mail would cost. 

 

Also hopefully since my details are held by the runner of the event (presumably Big Ned) when I payed for my ticket and will also be there in person people can safely assume theres nothing dodgy going to happen and me dissapearing with their money!

 

Its probably a long shot and I may have to wait for general release but the shipping costs when taking the heavy rulebooks into account is quite extreme for one person to bear.

 

Cheers

Looking for copies of the Silurid and Waldgeist cards (2-3 of each).

Have to trade:

Rasputinas crew box set

Marcus crew box set

Ramos crew box set

December acolytes (3 cards)

Any Arcanist wave 1 upgrade card

Preferably someone in the UK or Europe as I don't fancy paying huge p and p for stat cards!

Thanks