Rogue1

,,So I was rereading some things in Ripples of Fate and came across a question due to the wording of the Stick Up action on Parker's upgrade of the same name. The upgrade states: "Target enemy Enforcer, Henchman, or Master may choose to suffer 4 damage; if it does not, it must discard 1 Soulstones if able and this Crew may add 1 Soulstones to its pool." My question is due the use of the term "if able". By my reading that would mean that if my opponent no longer has any Soulstones they can freely choose not to suffer the damage provided that they are alright with giving me a Soulstone. I am not suggesting that is the intent but the wording seems to support it. Has there been any clarification on this?

Having recently played against her in a tournament I brought the arcane Emmisary (not so much as a counter pick as just a good pick in its own right). His ability to clear all of the corpse markers within 3 after a charge really made my opponent frustrated with me removing Reva's attack vectors.

If we think we can take her a regenerating frozen heart model sounds great. My only concern would be letting someone else get their hands on frozen heart if we can't hold on to her (or decide not to).

I have had some success hiring Oxfordian mages, usually 2 (blood/doom) of them, with Mei Feng as well. They can hand out burning to support Mei's attack run and she can prevent them from being picked off too easily using vent steam and destroying the runners that try and tie up the mages.

Our local group is starting a modified Shifting Loyalties for Divergent Paths and I am having a hard time with deciding what to start with. For this league we all get to start with 1 master (for free) and essentially 30 scrip to build an arsenal (upgrades costing 2x SS cost but can take as many as you want to pay for). I have access to almost all of book 3 and before (no wind gamin or Scorpius yet but I will when LGS gets them in). What do you all think would be a good start?

For me the best protection for the Wendego is the Cold Nights upgrade. He can cast it himself on a not unreasonable card and the pillars last until his next activation so if they are well placed he is almost untouchable (though in doing so you make him useless as a mirror). If you really want to try Child of December I would personally drop Arcane Reservoir. I have had a great deal of success with a list that looks like the following: Rasputina (Cold Nights, Shattered Heart, Child of December, cache 3) Wendego Snowstorm (Armor of December) Arcane Emmisary (Elemental Conflux) Silent One Silent One Arcane Effigy Ice Gamin Snowstorm and the Emmisary go forward to provide the mirror points while the Wendego runs a flank or comes in as a second wave. The ice gamin goes early each turn for bite of winter. Rasputina and the Silent Ones do the heavy lifting either through mirrors or once the enemy gets closer attacking directly. If you prefer you can drop Armor of December off Snowstorm to change a Silent One to a December Acolyte. If you are facing a scheme marker heavy scheme set drop a Silent One for an Ice Dancer. If you want a more mobile hitter/mirror the Emmisary can be traded out for the Blessed of December.

I have had success running him with Raspy and Colette. The Raspy synergy is fairly obvious as mirror and control piece. With Colette his 0 action teleport can be good to pull him out of combat and allow him to charge back in. Also if the Emmisary is stuck in with multiple enemies a performer can use it as a scheme marker in a bid to put the seduced condition on multiple models. This usually ends up being a big card sink or with a dead enemy model. If you do it before the Emmisary activates it can almost always heal up the 2 damage with either destined or the earthen shield trigger. Regarding of Flesh and Metal I do not have my book in front of me but I thought the action occurred at the end of the emissary's activation would prevent the Captain/Angelica slingshot. If I am wrong then that may have to be a trick to keep in the back pocket for later.

I am very glad to hear that you got most of it back, good luck on the repair work.

If I understand the rules correctly your opponent declares their model's intent to disengage. At that point you can make disengaging strike(s) with any attacks that are in range. In the case of the ice golem if their model started within 1" and declares that they are walking away Smash would be legal. However, if they are over 1" but under 2" then the ice golem can still make a disengaging strike but it's only option is the Icy Talons.

What model pool do you have to work with for Rasputina? What you have to work with can greatly change recommendations on tactics vs dreamer. Models that are strong vs Dreamer are silent ones (magic damage with blasts, healing), Snowstorm (mobility, melee threat, mirror point), and December Acolytes (card and AP control, mirror, scheme running). I also recommend running 1 ice gamin for the bite of winter aura. As far as upgrades play whichever limited upgrade you are more comfortable with. I personally prefer Shattered Heart but that is a different debate. The only upgrade that I feel is mandatory is Cold Nights for the ice pillars. They will not stop the large number of incorporeal models from moving but they will block LOS which can be game winning.

While I agree with your assessment for the most part Azrrael something to keep in mind is that any model may discard soulstones to avoid damage from Greed. The same goes for decapitate triggers as well. I still often find it worth while to force that kind of bad choice on my opponent anyway.

Mei Feng can really give Wong problems by venting steam a couple of times. Two vent steams and cover all stacked together can force a on wong's attack.

As a pretty dedicated Raspy player I find that the Acolytes are very good but by no means mandatory. They put out good damage but are often over extended to do so and opponents usually make it a point to remove them. I tend to prefer my forward models (read ice mirrors) to be more resilient. A list I ran at a recent tournament that did this very very well was: Raspy- Shattered Heart, Cold Nights, Child of December, 3SS cache Snowstorm- Warding Runes (normally armor of December but I traded out because I was facing Ressers and did not want a bunch of belles luring Snowstorm) Arcane Emmisary- elemental conflux Ice gamin Ice Dancer Silent One Arcane Effigy Wendego My opponent found it almost impossible to break up my two mirror points due to the resiliance of the emissary and counterspell on Snowstorm. I used Raspy to paralyze and blast the interceptors trying to stop the ice Dancer and she and the Wendego went out on flanks running schemes. I did not find the lack of Acolytes to be an issue due to my ability to project power out from a central position with relative impunity.

Even with counterspell a Marcus player with a couple of high cards and a SS can force the Alpha through. As far as that tournament setup I personally would feel more confident with Colette in those scenarios. However running Ramos would work well with any of those. I like to hire heavy hitters/mech rider and then summon in my smaller constructs. I would also strongly consider bringing Cassandra with practiced productions as that setup alone can make many marker heavy schemes much easier.

Now that is a fun idea I haven't used. I will have to try that next time I play against Kirai with Raspy, especially as I am a die hard Shattered Heart player and I tend to have a cluster around Raspy with a few mirrors forward.

Another option with Raspy vs Kirai is to focus on Raspy's paralyze. It is high cast (7) with a decent TN (15 I think) and does no damage so no Ikiryo. I had a game not too long ago where I paralyzed Molly for 2 or 3 turns and the Valedictorian for another 2 turns. Silent ones are also not as bothered by Ikiryo since their attack has no projectile symbol so if you can bait the summon onto one of them then they can easily keep attacking their intended target or switch targets as needed. If you do have to attack with Raspy herself using focus and going for the blasts is the best answer assuming they will bring in Ikiryo before you get another attack. As a side note the ice pillars are a range of 10" with a cast 7 and TN 10 so relatively easy to get off even for the Wendego.

Has the TO published strategy and scheme pools or do you have to go in blind. As far as Ramos goes it sounds like you have the basic models to go into the game with assuming you have enough spiders to support the summoning. It's hard to give too much more advice without knowing your model pool. As far as speeding up play my best advice would be to make sure you are thinking through your next move while your opponent is taking their turn and have at least one branch plan in case their move makes your original plan no longer a good idea.

I am not sure that the two are really substitutes for each other but I really like the strongarm suit. It fills a different role in my experience but it has been very effective for me. It has died every game I have brought it to but it has yet to fail me in disrupting my opponent's plans and absorbing a large amount of their resources. As far as models that fill the ranged damage dealer role I would say the closest is the convict gunslinger though they are not as durable they can put out a scary amount of damage in the right situation. Another option would be Envy from the Crossroads 7 though you would have to pay the mercenary tax you would not have to buy one of the pariah upgrades.

I am a much bigger fan of Shattered Heart than Armor of December. I have rarely found myself in a position where Snowstorm cannot pull her out our a pair of silent ones cannot blow the target in melee with her away. Shattered heart opens up so many more possibilities for her in my opinion.

Between your on hand and buy list you should have everything you need to run Rasputina competitively.