Gaston

There had been a bit of interest in Euripides and the Savage keyword here as of late, so we decided to do a deep dive into how to play them.

The Podcast:

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-nx933-105855d

For those who are more readers than listeners, I've included my show notes below as well. Note: They are a bit raw, formatting wise, they were written as speaking topics more than an actual guide.

These are just my opinions from playing Savage a lot, if something works better for you, than do it and share it!!!

---------------------

Euripides

• He is a dark horse
• This means that he is harder to play than other crews
• This DOES NOT mean that he is “bad”
• Not recommended to start the game with, better as a “second” crew purchase (unless you like the models!)
• Purchase essentials: Core Box, The Damned, Geryon
• Newer crew/keyword to the game (introduced in 3rd) so has one of the smallest keyword selections; this should improve with time with new releases like The Damned

Misconceptions

• Just because they are giants does not make them tougher than anything else
• Using Old Ways on every flip - don’t help your opponent kill you

Challenges

• Movement, movement, movement
  • You are slow
  • You suffer terrain (yes there is a SINGLE model that can get Incorporeal)
  • You are fat
• Lack of defensive tech and good stats
• Doesn’t really “challenge” your opponent
• Not “action efficient”
  • Example: Geryon is a beater, but only 1 swing per ap, no “free swings” 
  • Example: Gigant is Rng 8 but gun auto pushes models away, tricky for second shot
• A lot of things can mess up Old Ways timing to maximize your discard
  • Terrifying
  • Flexible Morality
  • Boring Conversation
  • You can also cheat high and reuse versus a lot of these things too!
• Shuffle your deck extra - high cards group together

Basic Advice

• Ice Pillar Placement
  • Always place greater than 1” away from opposing models
  • No downsides to you, most of your pulses (Euripides) are 2”
  • But “Remove Destructible Terrain” general action is 1”, so now they have to walk and spend an AP, rather than just 1 AP
• Expect your opponent to bring things that remove the pillars
  • Neutralize them or stay ahead
• Entomb in Ice STOPS MARKER DROPS
  • Amazing into certain crews, also screws up certain schemes that rely on markers (Death Beds)
  • Opponent can always just count pick ice pillars as their Death Beds marker.
• The Old Ways
  • Think of it as 1 free offensive use a turn with Frozen Vigor
  • Do NOT use it defensively
    • Why? Bc you are pinging yourself for your opponent
    • You have low stats, they can force the hit through and you have just made them +1 damage
    • If you have shielded for the “free” use Defensively, it can also be Shielded on their damage flip too
  • Reconsider only if they have low/no cards, you have a face card in discard, or it is a super relevant attack to dodge
  • Do not use Old Ways when on 2 health, you are hard to kill
• There may be some models your crew is ill-equipped to kill
  • Hard to Wound, Armor is rough
  • Instead focus on tarpit and control, i.e. Geryon with Extended Reach, 2” melee, Slow trigger, Heave
• Interestingly the crew has a fair amount of ping damage (esp with Damned) so Hard to Kill isn’t so hard to kill
• Sit at a table at home and practice turn 1
  • Where do models go
  • What order do they activate in
  • How do you plan to move them
  • Who teleports? Who puts down the ice pillars for that teleport?

Upgrades

• Inhuman Reflexes - Good upgrade, but not fantastic on Savage (Scamper on Geryon with 2” melee and Extended Reach is a nice, not need to have)
• Ancient Pact - TAKE 2!!! 
  • Savage is minion heavy, you get all 3 abilities
  • You NEED card draw, will talk about hand management
  • +2 Initiative is solid defensively with Cave Drawings
• Eldritch Magic - Super niche, especially because you want Ancient Pact so bad and stones are a resource
  • Have taken vs Brewmaster for Dispel Magic on the Primordial Magic
  • Possibly more important that Distraction is a thing?

Hand Management

• All podcasts talk about hand management in general, we’re going to actually TALK about it
• Arcane Reservoir, very important
  • Primordial Magic is SOFT AS SHIT, HIDING IT FROM RANDOM ASS HANDGUNS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN INCORPOREAL
  • Form Given Winter is 6”, walk, bonus, walk back to safety
• You need to sort out on Turn 1 (based on sitting at home and practicing unpacking!!!):
  • 6+ Tomes (Cyclops)
  • 5+ Tomes (Geryon - Shoulder Rush/Focused Attention)
  • 5 or 7 Rams (Gigant/Euripides - Shattering Surprise)
  • Any low Tome (Gigant, Shattering Shove)
  • Any low Ram (Geryon - Heave on friendly)
  • Any low Mask (BBS)
  • Important point is Cyclops, Euripides, and Geryon are all competing for Tomes in the same range, this is known as BAD SYNERGY MINIMIZE THIS
• After Turn 1 hand management gets simpler
  • 6+ Tomes for Cyclops
  • High Ram on Geryon
  • Tomes for Euripides
• Euripides can stone for Tomes, so keep the suited cards for Geryon and Cyclops primarily
• TONS of suit requirements - This is why 2 Ancient Pacts
• Will change based on your list and plan of how to unpack (i.e. Gigant gunline vs Geryon Brick)

List Building

• 3 Different “Styles”
• Geryon Brick
  • Core resides on 2 Geryons
  • Can bring in 1 Gigant
  • Most common
  • Turf War, Leyline; reasonable into Break the Line and Symbols
• Gigant “Gunline”
  • Core resides on 2-3 Gigants
  • Teleporting, Shooting, Blast, Scheme Denial
  • Break the Line
  • Way more niche than the Geryon brick, shooting is just so low range, bad staying power with 6 Wd models
• Frigid Friends
  • Euripides has no “Savage” dependencies
  • Take anything you want
  • Least common, other masters do it better anyway
  • Best for if you have dedicated a tournament to Euripides and need a lot of counter picks for a bad match up
• Difference between Gigant Gunline and Geryon Brick is pretty “fluid”
• But seriously….80% Geryon Brick

Models in Crew

• Gigant
  • Excellent shooter, shit ass range
  • Really shines for Cave Drawings locking down Strategy points -- THIS IS THE REAL REASON TO HIRE THEM
• Geryon
  • Vanilla wafer beater
  • Heave and Chill are dope - remember we are wasting opponent’s AP
  • Heave - AMAZING TRIGGER - put a 1” reach model greater than 1” away OR a 2” reach model greater than 2” away and use Extended Reach to stop the Charge
  • Shoulder Rush is both faster than walking and gives you a focus
  • Reform from Ice plus Chronicle (Betrayal) = Kills hard to kill
• Cyclops
  • Change of heart; I used to say take 1, mandatory
  • In GG2...I don’t think they are necessary
  • Def 4 sucks, fishing for tomes sucks, and all the action is at the centerline, so staging teleporting is mediocre now
  • I started leaving them out of the list and haven’t had regrets (yet)
• Serena Bowman
  • Don’t kid yourself, the in keyword healing just keeps up with The Old Ways
  • You need healing - Mostly for Euripides?!?!? 
  • She’s also STILL STUPID GOOD
• The Damned
  • This model is CRITICAL for Savage
  • Super mobile, stretches the field (so many OOK models were hired to cover this weakness, like Tuco or Grootslang, this model is sooooo much better)
  • Amazing damage track with Crit Strike
  • AP Efficiency with Pouncing Strike
  • Built in Ice Pillar generation (does not trigger on friendlies, needs to be an enemy for blasts, common rules mistake)
  • Chronicle is also good for brick lists, every Frozen Vigor is ping damage
• Thoon
  • Oddly controversial
  • He is “good” not “amazing”, but can PISS OFF YOUR OPPONENT, which is good
  • Flanker, NOT a beater, do NOT send him into opponent’s blob
  • For Frozen Trophy to be effective, a model must be ISOLATED
  • Fastest other than Damned
  • Take him for pools requiring opponent to spread out and have him work the edges for Frozen Trophy
  • But also remember to just put Focus on the guy and use Intuition for 2/4/6 damage
  • Just don’t forget, he’s not a beater, he’s a flanker and counter schemer
  • I like him into Dreamer/English Ivan
  • The summon models into your crew, isolated already from their own crew, 1 AP pillar them, they are gone, you are unjammed
  • Quite good into Elite Alpha strikes like Nekima, x2 Mature Nephilim (low model count, they come to you), Lynch if the player decides to teleport Huggy into the middle of your crew
  • Low model count, easily isolated
  • Cannot cheat melee, so use Intuition to set yourself up to hit instead
• Black Blood Shaman
  • Use a low mask, pulse out Focus on whole crew
  • Turn 2, same
  • Turn 3 - Mobile Schemer/Beatstick
• Hinamatsu
  • Everything Savage is lacking
  • Armor
  • Distracted
  • Fast
  • AP Efficient

Why is BBS important? And Shoulder/Rush + Focused Attention?

• Focus is KEY to using The Old Ways efficiently
• Only need Focus +1
• Use it on first attack, get to straight flip
• Cheat Severe
• Old Ways in Severe for next attack
• Coupled with Frozen Vigor and Chronicle from Damned, Geryon can do really reliable 10 damage in 1 activation (Focus, Severe, Old Ways, Weak, Reform, Chronicle)

Candy Bomb/Shattering Shove

• What is it?
  • Euripides, Glacial Shove ice pillar into enemy crew (or Rune-Etched Ice, either, just get a pillar in there
  • Make an Ice Pillar within 2” of Candy
  • Gigant, Shattering Shove Candy into back pillar and teleport to front pillar
  • Stunned, Discard, Profit
• This is STUPID and TERRIBLE
  • 2 AP to put down pillars
  • Very telegraphed
  • Plenty of time for opponent to respond
  • 1 AP to hit Candy, some damage
• Candy can Bomb Herself
  • Walk, Walk, Glimpse of Insanity (18” threat before pushes)
• Shattering Shove is USEFUL, but RESOURCE INTENSIVE and SET UP INTENSIVE
  • Use it for schemes and strats
  • To get to areas of the board that are difficult to get to quickly the hard way (walking)
  • Get models in position for alpha striking
• Mysterious Emissary (Rng 8 Shooting)
• Hinamatsu (use a closer, safer pillar, Charge 8” + 1” melee, 6 attacks, Armor +2, Distracted)

Strats

• GG2 is a big buff to Savage
  • You want to play the middle line, ¾ strats play to this strength
• Turf War
  • Super Brick in the middle!!!
  • Sample starting point:
    • Euripides, 7ss
    • Primordial Magic
    • Geryon
    • Ancient Pact
    • Geryon 
    • Ancient Pact
    • Serena Bowman
    • The Damned
  • Tip: Use Primordial to flip your Turf Markers
  • Consider Hinamatsu in lieu of something else
  • Serena helps a ton for staying power
  • Get to opponent’s side of the table ASAP
• Leyline
  • Super Brick in the middle!!!
  • Same as above, really
  • Need a Leyline Runner
  • Meet the Bultungin!!! Mv 6, Deadly Pursuit = 16” 
  • Also consider Lyssa: Bring It on Stat 5 on Opponent’s Leyline Runner 
• Symbols
  • Most people put their Symbols across their deployment zone horizontally
  • Put yours, 2 on each side vertically (Wedge, Standard, Corner)
  • Flank do the normal thing
  • Splits your opponent up, easier for Thoon to isolate a model
  • Damned is your primary Symboler, Euripides is your secondary (reliable teleport)
  • Play that Damned Cagey, keep him alive
  • Other than Thoon and Damned, can take whatever you please really
• Break the Line
  • Gonna be making sacrifices here
  • Decide which two you will brick on 
  • Park Euripides and the Geryon there
  • Thoon goes on a flank for the 3rd one
  • Sacrifice 1 if needed
  • Can go with a Gigant to drop a pillar and Cave Drawings to try to cover all 4