Euryale

While I agree that Silent Ones trump other options in terms of healing in many crews, I'd hate to see them get an all-round nerf and prefer to see them become more December specific. In fact, I believe their lore says something like "they can use healing ice magic, but there's said to be unknown consequences for those not in the cult". Even something as simple as "if the target is not a December model, it gains Injured +1". It wouldn't stop them being heal bots, and it doesn't just nerf December (who really don't need a nerf), but it would make someone think twice about taking them outside of the keyword (but it's not straight up making them useless OoK either). If they do nerf them, I really hope it doesn't nerf their use in December. It would be a shame for one of the weakest keywords to have their best minions nerfed because stronger crews were using it. I'd rather it was just more keyword specific.

Okay, I think is a pretty silly interaction and I can't see much of a practical use for it, but: - Ice Dancers have Freeze the Corpse, which allows you to target a Corpse Marker and turn it into an Ice Pillar Marker as a quick - Kaltgeist has Icy Form, which allow other friendly models to treat this model as an Ice Pillar Marker. If it would be removed this way, it instead suffers 2 irreducable damage - Abominable Rasputina has Cryosleep, which allows friendly December models to treat Corpse Markers as Ice Pillar Makers (and vice versa) Okay, so does this mean: As the Ice Dancer treats the Kaltgeist as an Ice Pillar Marker, and Cryosleep allows them to treat Ice Pillar Markers as Corpse Markers, the Ice Dancer can use Freeze the Corpse on the Kaltgeist as a quick no cost action for it to suffer 2 irriducable damage and generate and Ice Pillar Marker in base contact. Is there any reason this wouldn't work? In addition, more importantly, is there much of a use for this? I can imagine using Ice Skating through the Kaltgeist to move it, Freeze the Corpse for an Ice Mirror point (so you have more reach), and then move the Kaltgeist again with an Ice Pillar left behind. Not sure how useful that is unless the Kaltgiest really needs to be somewhere, but it's something. It does at least allow for quick and very low cost ice pillar generation, especially if you just want to use one for the Silent One to heal twice through or something, or a pillar near the back for a Silent One to be summoned from.

I've played quite a few games with her now and she feels so much better, whether you're winning or losing. It can be quite difficult to describe in text, but Raspy 1 felt so dry to use - like her activation was about as impactful (sometimes less) than two silent ones, like her abilities were very passive and costly to get off. Raspy 2 has helped a lot in this regard, being that she has a lot of options with her push alone. The biggest improvements personally are: Easy pushes from around the board, allowing models to get in range of schemes or strategies they otherwise couldn't reach. Easy access to shielded on multiple models without a flip even needing to be made. More reason to take December models - beforehand there was close to no synergy in the crew so versatiles felt pretty much just as good, but now she can allow for healing set up with ice pillars (counting as corpse markers), pushing with northern wind, soft Laugh It Off with a trigger, extra armour with shielded, a good toolbox with rarely used models that can come in handy (e.g. Acolyte summon isn't a bad idea against a Corophy Duet if you have a way to put high damage into it that turn) Related to the above, but it's helped some of her crew like Snow Storm make more use of their shockwave to push and December's Command on summons, or having a way the Golem becomes much harder to move (Northern Winds tome trigger). It's not perfect (I still think the crew could use a look over), but it's helped. Finally, a really nice useful quick action is just good to have. Being able to drop a pillar as a quick and charge with 3 okay attacks is pretty nice in my opinion, but it opens up a lot of other options such as Ice Pillar > Charge > attack > summon, or ice pillar > push > push > push for examples. I think she's still got a pretty high skill cap positioning-wise, and I don't think we'll be seeing some sort of game breaking combo out of her, but she's so much more versatile with offence, defence, and support. I still think some of her crew could use some help (mostly the Acolytes and a small touch on Snow Storm and a couple of the others, as well as larger changes on Raspy 1), but she's in a much better place.

I had a game vs Tara on the weekend using Raspy 2. It was 35 soulstones and the strategy was Turf War. The schemes were Claim Jump, Assassinate, Outflank, Death Beds, and Spread Them Out. The deployment was standard. My crew was: - Abominable Rasputina - Wendigo - Ice Golem - The Blessed of December - Soulstone Cache - Silent One - Magical Training 7 SS left The Tara crew was: - Tara - Karina - The Nothing Beast - Talos - Aionus - Void Wretch 4 SS left --- I chose Assassinate and Claim Jump (Ice Golem). They chose Outflank and Spread Them Out. --- Initially, my hand was very poor and their's seemed very good (I think they had three 13s in their hand), but I wasn't planning to do much first turn so I didn't mind too much. I turned both of my markers and they turned theirs. Talos came on the right flank and Aionus on the left. I summoned a silent one and put an ice pillar in the way of Talos's path between two buildings. They summoned two Void Wreches and popped one of them up next to Aionus, which moved to make the summoned Silent One fast. The Nothing Beast appeared next to her and did 6 damage, leaving her one one health thanks to armour. I sent the Blessed and Golem into the beast, but they did all of 2 damage between them! The blessed pushed onwards, in the line of Tara. --- The second turn started a lot better and I went first. The Golem got a ram on his fist, doing severe damage on the Nothing Beast and killing it outright. It then started to make its way back to the centre. Talos started to make his way down, impeded by the ice pillar. The wendigo put another ice pillar in the way and moved off. Raspy summoned a Hoarcat and pushed the golem into the centre, and then summoned another ice pillar to give the Silent Ones better LoS on the Blessed. At this point, the Tara player messed up. They gave the Blessed fast without a way to stop it activating, so it focused, leapt onto Tara, spent a soulstone for masks (Leaping Pounce), did a small amount of damage, lept onto Karina with the trigger and killed the totem, before charging back into Tara with the focus and using a mask of onslaught. Overall, Tara took 10 damage and her tomen was dead. I claimed Assassinate and Claim jump. They worked towards Outflank, but I don't think they had a model in range. Due to all the death, he only had one strategy marker claimed as his (the rest were either neutral or mine). The Blessed pushed to threaten both Aionus and Tara. --- On turn 3, he moved Tara away but the Blessed caught up and killed her, flipping the final strategy marker from his to neutral. The Golem went for Aionus but fluffed pretty much everything, but didn't take much in return either. --- At this point, the Tara player didn't see much of a way out and had very little left (and no master), so they conceded. --- Overall, I really like using Raspy 2 compared to Raspy 1 - she feels like even just by the push alone (especially with Creeping Ice to stop burying) she had loads more utility. In addition, creating an Ice Pillar as a quick is fantastic.

Thanks for pointing out, I totally overlooked her (for some reason I thought she was Neverborn so I just didn't even look at her). She definitely brings more utility to the crew, especially with her ability to turn into a Blessed or Cerberus at will, and then move Hoarcats the Blessed about. I shall definitely look into her! I would debate her vs the Blessed, but I think I'd rather take both, and then have her turn into the Blessed if things go south. I really like the speed of the Blessed, so it would be good to have the options for her to either stay and support, and then transform later when the Blessed is already away.

Thanks for the response I did actually do a bit of testing with the Cerberus. Unfortunately it was against Collodi and we only had time for two rounds; it was probably Collodi's game, partially because he's not exactly well balanced, but mostly because I cocked up quite badly (got greedy with the Blessed - it killed three little models in one activation, but did not realise how quickly the Coryphee Duet can move with Collodi (or know about his free focus for all) and I just forgot about its soulstone cache for defence. I also mind blanked and thought I started with 2 silent ones as that's what I normally do, forgetting that my initial plan was to summon one turn 1. If I'd have remembered these two things, my Blessed wouldn't be minced meat turn 1 and that may have changed the game). However, I did test out two Cerberi and can say this: + I really liked how fast they were; it's my favourite thing about the Blessed, and I like it here + Terrifying seems good when hunting small, low WP models + Min three damage is really nice + Rams being an easy heal is nice + Easy + flips with soulstone cache is great (though I did black joker mine...) - If the opponent gets passed their terrifying (likely), they lack shielding, high defence, and hard to wound; I thought terrifying would make up for this, but unfortunately not. The blessed was clearly ahead defence-wise simply for the fact it was easier to draw or beat high power attacks - Their leap needing a 7 vs the Blessed 6 came up quite a bit in all honesty; partially luck, but still significant - Their damage capping at 5 means they can struggle to one shot when needed - the blessed can get 7 relatively easily should it need it - It's not really a negative for the cerberus, but I do like the Blessed getting Pouncing Strike. I understand the cerberus not getting it, but I think it leaves its attack as slightly worse Overall I did like them, but their biggest weakness without a shadow of a doubt was their defence. I don't think I'd take two again, but I would be tempted to take one and an ice golem. The cerberus can flank on the weaker side while the blessed clears the stronger and the golem surges down the middle (with a Creeping Ice Ice Pillar down so no one can bury or place them away). It's very scheme dependant, but I think December's 'scheme runner' the Ice Dancer just doesn't have the offensive or movement capabilities to safely send them to scheme on their own. The Blessed and the Cerberi on the other hand can move very quickly out of combat (leap away so no need to disengage) and can't really be stopped by anything not substantial. Yes you're paying a lot of extra stones, but I'd rather pay the extra and have something that will immediately disrupt and take stones away from the opponent, than have two things that don't really threaten (scheme wise or offensively) and can be easily killed. I'll hopefully test again soon against a non-dead man's hand master and see how it goes.

Has anyone tried Cerberus in Rasputina (either the alt or the normal)? I've played quite a bit with her, and like a lot of people I think the best thing in December is the Blessed (maybe tied with the Silent Ones). In quite a few games, I've wished I could take more than one Blessed, until I realised that I kind of can. The Cerberus is a very similar model to the Blessed, with the biggest difference being terrifying vs better stats, hard to wound, and slightly better healing and triggers. There are quite a few other differences, but they're relatively minor and leave both models on a relatively equal playing field. With Abominable Rasputina, you do need to consider the fact only the Blessed can eat Ice Pillars and get shielded, but even then, the Blessed usually has pretty much no synergy and survives off great abilities and stats. In addition, when putting a Soulstone Cache on Cerberus it counts as a minion so benefits from the second + ability, unlike the Blessed. You would need to pay the extra Soulstone for a Cerberus, but the amount of times I've thought "if only the Blessed came in multiples", I'm thinking it could be worth it. Of course, if anyone has any contradictory experience, I'd appreciate hearing it.

If anyone has tried them, how are Hoarcats now? Both as a summon and as a tech. They look like they could be quite defensive but they don't seem to "do" anything in particular.

I played a game with Rasputina 2, and while I haven't played in quite some time, she did feel much much better than her first iteration. The movement, healing, and shields she now provides is much more interactive to play than the set-up and hope style she had before. Her turns felt much more impactful than before and I could do much more in the way of sneaky tricks (usually making very long out of combat pushes with her), whereas she felt like a blunt (and usually ineffective) instrument in her normal form. The Kaltgiests were really useful as well - definitely liking them. Overall, one thing I noticed is her defences and healing seem much much better than before. You can also play a lot more reactively if needed, whereas old Rasputina (in my experience) struggled to come back from a bad round. The biggest issue is that only Silent Ones felt 'worth' the summon, out of Ice Dancers, them, and Acolytes. Granted, the Ice Dancer got very unlucky, but the Acolyte was just poor all around. In all honesty, I think using a lower card and going with a hoarcat may be a better option as at least it has a lot of small defences. That said, I will try them out again and see if I change my mind.

Done Yeah, that would make sense. Would definitely like to see the consensus.

Abominable Rasputina has been revealed from the new book, and she certainly looks interesting. Seemingly more of a summoning model with a bit more damage behind her. She's lost: - Ice Shield - Harsh Winter - Frozen Touch - Winter's Strike - Freeze Over - Ice Pillars (the named ability, not the ability to create them in general) - Shatter She gained: - Absolute Zero; tome WP/DF trigger to end an activation - Cryosleep (one of the most interesting changes for December imo) - Ice in the Veins (works well with Kaltgiest and Snowstorm's push, as well as Northern Winds) - Cold Snap (decent damage and doesn't cost a card to trigger from an ice pillar) - Northern Winds (nice push to boost move on your own models, and give shielded sometimes, and always gets a crow) - Fissure of Frost (a useful quick ability - yay! Really like how it sets up an ice pillar as well as dishing out slow and low damage. Nice to have a draw a card effect too - can trade a low-ish tomes out) - Sub-Zero Statues (a good summon that gives armour +1 and demise (frozen heart); not sure the best model to summon here, but gives options) Overall, I really like these changes and they make Rasputina feel like a much more active master - certainly better than setting up a board of ice pillars and hoping. One questions; as you can count an ice pillar as a corpse marker, can you ignore the impassable, size, and cover of an ice pillar (counting it as a corpse marker) when using a December model?

Going from past record, how likely are Wyrd to update December?

I agree with all of the above. It's a shame, I really like the December aesthetic and the idea behind their playstyle, but the faction as a whole feels like a bit of a mess of ideas. It's like the crew was designed by three or four different people who were all given a general idea but never spoke to one another during development. Snowstorm can command other models with Demise Frozen Heart, which sounds great but only three other models have it and only one of them is really worth the push. Rasputina, the Silent One, Ice Golem, and hoarcats get bonuses for being near ice pillars (including increased range as a bonus), but other models (e.g. December Acolytes, Snowstorm, the Blessed) can only ever be impeded by them, either by being blocked in or them providing cover. Some models get a bonus against slowed models, or can cause slow, such as Rasputina's ice pillars, or triggers from the Ice Golem/Snowstorm/Silent One/Acolyte/Dancer. Ice golem does bonus damage against slowed enemies, and the Ice Gamin's frostbite, or mutilate from Silent Ones or an Acolyte. Other models don't interact with slow at all, such as the Blessed or Hoarcats. Sacrifice to December is on models that rarely trigger it due to cover or not being able to set up an ice pillar themselves. Grim Feast is nice, but it's not a particularly amazing bonus action that adds anything but survivability. In addition, there's no way to generate corpse markers besides dying ourselves so you'll be able to use this ability very sparsely against some crews. Some models push, which is kind of random but it happens from Snowstorm, Rasputina, and the Blessed so maybe there was some sort of idea here? There's no proper unifying rule to the army - a lot of bonuses that work on their own, or are too situational - besides slowing the enemy, and even that's not particularly easy to do with ice pillars given the discard option and out of turn moves. That's not to get into how card and soulstone hungry Rasputina herself is for little benefit. Considering Zoraida can act through her own models from 12" and doesn't need to discard, it's quite sad that Rasputina needs to discard for the privilege of an arguably worse ability. In addition, her triggers are what makes her shooting useful in any way, so needing to discard and cheat/soulstone to get the trigger makes it a hard pill to swallow. Our action economy is poor, with our aforementioned quick action being very situational and our out of turn moves being super limited. Our ice pillars require an action and a flip to set up and are necessary to play. We have limited ways to aid our own crew and few 'tricks' to pull off with combos. I'd like if every model had a way to use ice pillars. While the Ice Golem has issues, I think it's nicely designed in the sense that it has the most interaction between its own rules and the army rules, with ice pillars being used to heal, add rams, slow for extra damage, and create a blizzard. That's not to say it's fantastic now, but rather I like all the interaction it has. If every model had a couple of ways to use ice pillars (not necessarily the same way as the ice golem) I think the army would be in a better place. Also, does anyone find it a bit ironic (and sad) that the best model in December (the Blessed) has the least interaction with the rules in December?

Thanks again - super useful! One last question (I think), how does Wyrd deal with changes to rules - both updates, FAQs, and erratas? I know some companies just wait until the next edition, and some make updates online/in app. How does Wyrd tend to deal with: - a model/rule being too powerful, or not powerful enough - a mistake in the rules, for example misprinted SS cost - a confusing rule that tends to cause arguments in game I'm mostly just curious about this due to the many ways in which games creators deal with these issues, and how they can affect the game (e.g. should I keep my eye open for a yearly FAQ to see if my army's changed)

Thanks all for the answers, they've been really useful I've picked up the Ice Golem and I'll have a look at things like the mechanical rider too! Are there any general strategies to keep in mind while playing? I know a lot of it will be very dependant on schemes, strategies, and the models in use on both sides, but I'm wondering if there's anything I should keep in mind for the majority of games?