M2e Kaeris

[bertmac]

Kaeris arcane reservoir purifying fire. 5cache [4]

 

 

Eternal flame.[2]

 

Joss (bodyguard)[10]

 

Gunsmith x2 [14]

 

Fire Garmin x2 [8]

 

Rail golem. Imbued energies. [12]

 

Bodyguard on joss with eternal flame and kaeris able to heal he'll be fairly tough to get rid of. Vendetta with a gunsmith their ability to ignore armour htk htw or soulstones makes them good for finishing off opponents tougher guys.

The rail golem is a big target for the opponent kaeris can hide it for the first turn or two with pyre markers gamins run interference and hopefully set fire to some opponents in the process. 

[kross1]

I would probably go:

Kaeris 6 ss

-arcane resivoir

-blinding flame (for positioning enemy models)

-purifying flame (for keeping my crew and bodyguard target alive and the wall)

Eternal Flame (to help keep Kaeris and Howard alive)

Howard Langston -imbued energies (bodyguard target and backfield deterrent for stake a claim)

The Firestarter (my go to for stake a claim w/3 ap due to reckless. Also a potential bodyguard target,if I want to play keep away. Plus she/he is great support personnel for Kaeris and gunsmiths, good w/Vendetta as well)

2x Gunsmiths ( great for vendetta as mentioned, but good w/stake a claim due to easy fast defensive trigger.

2x Fire Gamin (good with Distract & your more common burning Shenanigans)

Altis should be no problem if you go Grab & Drop instead.

Good topic!

[Sholto]

That's less than half a list. What's the rest?

 

<John Wayne drawl> That's all I'd need </>

[mythicFOX]

Some great comments and ideas there. When I played the game I ran the following;

Kaeris -- 6 Pool

+Arcane Reservoir [2]

+Blinding Flame [1]

+Grab and Drop [1]

Malifaux Child [3]

Cassandra [8] (bodyguard)

Mechanical Rider [12]

Metal Gamin [4]

Rail Golem [11]

Soulstone Miner [6]

Here's my thinking.

Given this scheme pool it's fairly safe to assume we'll both be scoring 6VP for schemes. It's tough to stop Cursed Object or Distract in a game where you're going to want to put models in your opponents half, bodyguard is also tough to stop if your opponent plays for it. I try and avoid Vendetta outside turf war as it can be hard to line models up if you deploy first.

With this in mind and as only one of you can score Stake a Claim each turn the games primary battle will be over the strategy VPs. So I needed a crew that was good at (2) interacting over the line.

This list gave me four models which could walk and (2) interact in a turn and a Soulstone Miner, which makes Stake a Claim very possible. It also gave me three viable bodyguards (Mech, Golem and Cassandra) to keep my opponent guessing. I was also planning to take Cursed Object as my second scheme as it should be possible.

Grab & Drop also gives me the ability to move enemy back across the centre line, which is useful. With hindsight I think Blinding Flame may have been a mistake, perhaps it should have been Imbued Energies.

The obvious vulnerability in my list is the Golem as a Vendetta target, if it's to get any value it has to go into the action and a concerted attack by an opponent can fell it.

[Ishikar]

Arcanists Crew - 50 - Scrap

Kaeris -- 7 Pool
 +Arcane Reservoir [2]
 +Born of Fire [2]
 +Purifying Flame [1]

Eternal Flame [2]
Gunsmith [7]
Mechanical Rider [12] (bodyguard)
 +Imbued Energies [1]
Union Miner [5]

Union Miner [5]
The Firestarter [7]
 +Powered by Flame [2]
 +Warding Runes [1]
 

(ALITS)

 

I really like the heal on Kaeris because it's a solid way to keep a crew up and fighing and plays in with the summons from the rider to keep the minion swarm alive.

 

I'd move the crew up and really focus on the midfield using the Union Miners to place markers and as a pretty hefty deterrent with the multiple M&SU models to give them a   on damage flips.  False claim is one of my favorite ways to drop scheme markers with the advent of the wave 2 models and improvised weapons means that if he takes misaki he can't just shunt attacks to your own models or if Levi took the horsemen they shine because their damage gets through un-reduced.

 

Kaeris + Firestarter + Totem is a solid way to pass out burning/damage and even 1 burning token makes immolate that much more dangerous for your opponent since it can throw out pretty consistent damage.  Twirl the Gas Can makes for a good way to make enfulf that much more useful since you can effectively hit your opponent for a solid 3 damage with every AP ignoring df comparison and hard/impossible to wound.

 

Mech rider is useful for summons, more schemes, card draw, and is a good bodyguard target with ll the healing available while the Gunsmith is just an all around handy model to have his triggers and (0)s make fishing out specific effects or reliable hits pretty simple.

[mythicFOX]

Would you really take ALITS over Cursed Object / Distract? Surely those are easier than ALITS even with the scheme manipulation you have.

[EnternalVoid]

I take Line in the Sand all the time over Cursed Object or Distract, in fact I take most schemes over those two.  Both of them rely on me getting close to my opponent's models, having AP to interact, and then letting them live so I can score.  There biggest oppeal really is they are not the easiest things to remove but it also runs into the problem of only being able to score once a turn after turn 2.  Thus if you can be denied for even one turn after the second turn you are in a time crunch and have to score the other 3 for full points.  So if you don't score turn 2 because your opponent was being very cautious, you have to make sure you score the other 3.  With line in the Sand, any marker trick makes it easier and safer.  It only becomes an issue when your opponent has Scheme marker disposal abilities like the Peacekeeper, Cojo, and the Spider Swarm.

[bertmac]

Yeah im finding schemes where my opponent has to cooperate tough. id much rather rely on achieving them myself. not a fan of alits but if you can wipe out your opponents crew on one half of the table by turn 3 its simple enough

[Ishikar]

I tend to play a little more aggressively which is why I favor Kaeris/Raspy as my main arcanists masters (I started with Marcus and he's fun but sometimes a little vulnerable like when half my crew was stuck at -2 wp TN 12 horror duels to activate vs. avatar pandora on turn 3, yeah that game turned out GREAT )

 

Typically I'll run with area denial which gives space to protect ALITS and in stake a claim I'll be in that area of the board for claim markers anyways.  If I make my opponent fight me or split his crew to go to the far markers it makes my job easier.

[mythicFOX]

I finally got round to painting my Rail Golem to add to my Kaeris Crew. 

 

So now I could use some tips for getting the most out of him in the Kaeris crew. How're people using him to good effect?  Any tips or tricks people care to share?

[bertmac]

To be honest it doesn't need a lot flare and cheat a low ram turn one gives it 3 burning to hand out a whooping any time from then on.

[brdparker]

Played my first game with the burning beauty today against Nicodem and absolutely loved it.

 

Strat: Reckoning

Schemes: LiS, Assassinate, Breakthrough, Outflank, Power Ritual

 

Opponent is a newer player who's done Nico against several different crews of mine in the past month or so, so he's still learning the strategies (though he's picking it up well).

 

I took Kaeris (Imbued Protection, Purifying Fire, Blinding Flame), Eternal Flame, Firestarter (Powered by Flame), x3 Metal Gamin, Langston (Bleeding Tech Edge), Johan. Rather than go through the game, I figured I'd focus on how individual models did.

 

Kaeris tanked against Nico and the hordes of mindless zombies (getting free kills for Reckoning along the way). Imbued Protection came in handy several times, and Blinding Flame helped only when I actually read it fully. Last turn of the game, she pushed all MZ's back, allowing her to place a breakthrough marker at the end. Wonderful.

 

Eternal Flame healed, as it does, but I also used it to maneuver two metal gamin into breakthrough-placing position late-game. A noble sacrifice.

 

Firestatrter was excellent. The upgrade didn't do much, but "I Did It!" got me many Reckoning kills, especially combined with covering people in gas.

 

Langston got blasted by an early-game Hanged Glimse the Inevitable (-50% remaining Wd's and can't be healed). Johan removed the healing block, but the flesh construct downed him a couple of turns later. He got some kills though, so I think he was worth the take. It was my first time fielding the guy, so I have a better idea of how to use him next time.

 

Metal Gamin destroyed the Flesh Constructs with Metal Attraction and extra burning from protecting things. It was fun.

 

Ended up with 4 reckoning points, 3 breakthrough points, and 2 power ritual points. He got a 3 Outflank points and 2 power ritual points for 9-5 in my favor. All-in-all, a very fun game. I think he learned some things about Nico's power, and I had probably the most fun playing with a fresh crew to date in my malifaux tenure. I'm on a Kaeris kick now.

[Archmage]

Post-Adepticon I actually considered working on a full Kaeris tactica of sorts--I don't think I'm the world's best Malifaux player by any stretch of the imagination, but I've played quite a few games with her and feel pretty comfortable analyzing her options. In the style of the Pull My Finger wiki...

 

Overview:

 

Kaeris is a mobile, ranged combat-oriented master, but her defenses are actually good enough that she can survive in melee, and enemies who surround her without finishing her off are in for a nasty surprise--she's quite capable of dishing out a pile of damage to the entire group and then escaping, especially if she can fly away somewhere difficult to reach.

 

Mobility:

 

Above-average walk plus Flight means Kaeris can generally get where she wants to go. She even has an additional movement trick with Grab-and-Drop, but it does require that there be an enemy nearby to take advantage of it. So Grab-and-Drop won't let you close faster, but it will let you disengage like a pro; even if you deal no damage, Kaeris can be up to 7" away from her previous position without having to risk losing AP.

 

Offense:

 

Flaming Halo is Kaeris's "setup" spell. If no one is on fire, Flaming Halo will fix that; cover doesn't help, and it's very likely to hit. If you spend a stone to guarantee the suit or happen to flip one, you can stretch your AP that much farther with Turn it Up and get a second attack to crank up a single target's burning or set more targets alight; otherwise, you probably want to use Stoke the Flames to grant Burning +2. If for some reason the target already has a huge Burning condition, you can rip it all off and deal the damage immediately with Engulf. The Blinding Flame upgrade grants this attack two more triggers (for a total of five); I've yet to see Flee from the Light be useful, but on paper it might help you disengage from a crowd if you didn't take the upgrade for Grab-and-Drop. The Blinding Flame trigger itself, however, shoves an assailant away and prevents it from charging. Flaming Halo's long range makes this excellent action denial.

 

Immolate is Kaeris's "kill" spell. She doesn't have the blasts of Sonnia or Raspy, and the damage is honestly low-ish, but the positive twist to attack and damage against burning targets is excellent. Since Flaming Halo ignores cover, Kaeris can spend her first AP on Immolate, set a target in cover ablaze, and then enjoy the positive twist on future Immolate attempts (cancelling out the benefits of cover). It also has the quirk of targeting Wp instead of Df, which gets around a few triggers and allows Kaeris to target whichever defense is weaker. Born of Fire gives you a suit-based trigger to summon a fire gamin or create a 50mm hazardous terrain marker, but you have to kill your target to activate either; I personally think this is a weak upgrade for its cost, but YMMV.

 

Accelerant can dish out a lot of damage, but it's spread out over multiple targets. Great for softening up an enemy group.

 

Flare is one of the reasons I feel like it's not a terrible mistake to hurl Kaeris into a crowd, especially if it's a crowd with few wounds like Ramos's spiders. The Df duel is hard to pass for most models and it sets you up perfectly for an Accelerant.

 

Defense:

 

She has plenty of wounds, a bit of armor, good Df and Wp, and honestly isn't that suit-dependent, so with a few stones she can honestly last a really long time in melee and her fighting capabilities aren't in any way hampered by it. Even lacking kooky survivability tricks her base numbers are solid enough that she's going to take some effort to kill. If you want to use her as a frontliner Imbued Protection is an excellent upgrade; Df 7 puts you on par with basically every heavy hitter in the game.

 

Upgrades:

 

You have two limited upgrades to choose from--Grab and Drop and Purifying Fire. Of the two, I think G&D wins out in terms of usefulness. The main reason I say this is because Wings of Fire essentially gives you mostly-free scheme markers. Bring a model that can set your allies on fire without inflicting damage (a Union Miner or The Firestarter are both good choices) and you can have a flying Howard Langston that drops a scheme marker for free at the end of his activation. The Rail Golem doesn't even need setup from another model to fly, but you'll need to "use it or lose it" when it comes to its burning condition since it'll go to zero after activating. 

 

Someone who's used Purifying Fire more ought to weigh in on it, but I think it's at its best when you have a strat like Turf War or Squatter's Rights that is going to encourage you to crowd models around one area of the table. It's the frontliner Kaeris option; you want her within 6" of your models that are actively engaged in combat and taking damage, or it's wasted. You also have to get burning on those models somehow, preferably without damaging them. Flare works, but only out to 3"; I think blowing Kaeris's AP on heals that won't trigger until the end phase is a dubious decision in most scenarios. If you're going to use Purifying Fire, I think you want to bring The Firestarter along to spread burning. I also don't think that the 0 action granted by Purifying Fire is very good; Kaeris has multiple excellent 0 actions already, but table terrain might increase its value if you can place the pillars to block shooting/charging lanes effectively.

 

Arcane Reservoir is good on any Arcanist master who can spare the upgrade slot. Same goes for Imbued Energies. Imbued Protection pushes Kaeris's Df up to "extremely good."

 

(Work in progress, to be continued. Looking for feedback!)

[binkys]

 

Flaming Halo is Kaeris's "setup" spell. If no one is on fire, Flaming Halo will fix that; cover doesn't help, and it's very likely to hit. If you spend a stone to guarantee the suit or happen to flip one, you can stretch your AP that much farther with Turn it Up and get a second attack to crank up a single target's burning or set more targets alight; otherwise, you probably want to use Stoke the Flames to grant Burning +2. If for some reason the target already has a huge Burning condition, you can rip it all off and deal the damage immediately with Engulf. 

 

Something I would want to emphasize is to not discount the Engulf trigger.  It is quite feasible to take a model who thought they were relatively safe due to cover or nearby condition removal and put some serious hurt on them with a couple casts of Flaming Halo using the Stoke the Flames trigger, then a cast using the Engulf trigger.  With no flipping for damage, if doesn't matter how much you win the duel by.  This also is a way to get credit for reckoning or make them suffer as the model counts as being killed by Kaeris(The damage is done by her trigger, then the condition is removed.  As opposed to being resolved as if it were the end of the turn).  This is a nice way to get around Hard to Wound as well.

[Kadeton]

Can you talk a bit more about why you'd say G&D lets you move even if you miss?

 

During the beta, I suggested that particular wording for it (my proudest moment, creating the only Rst: Ht attack in the game), but my intention was that the ability wouldn't do anything if the attack missed - you only resolve the effects of an attack if it succeeds, right?

[Archmage]

Odds are that I'm just wrong, actually. I'll re-read the ability when I'm not at work, but thinking about it I suspect that G&D may well be contingent on hitting (but damage dealt doesn't matter).

[mythicFOX]

Yeah G&D only works on a hit. Still a great upgrade though, and I find it her default choice.

 

Oh and thanks for the write up Archmage, made a great read.

[Lewkas]

Hey guys I'm trying to put a 40SS fixed list together for a tournament I'm going to in a few weeks.  I have a few ideas for the crew and I thought I would run them past you all.  Strategies are Reconoiter, Stake a Claim and Reckoning.  Schemes will be randomly generated during the event.  The base for the crew will be the following models - 

 

Kaeris - Grab and Drop, Born of Fire 

The Firestarter

Mech Rider

 

I have been trying to think of ways to make use of the Wings of Fire ability and I came up with the following -

Firestarter or Kaeris does Ignition/Flaming Halo on a Gun Smith who drops a Ram to get fast.

The same thing then happens to the Eternal Flame.  Both of these models will start within 6 of Kaeris and can now fly and drop a scheme marker at the end of the activation.  Move both models onto the centre line to drop 2 markers for LitS.  This will depend on cover available etc.  I could use this to get a jump on LitS or setup to fake out the opponent.  I could then move Kaeris up so she is within 6 and repeat the process on turn 2 to get the models out of harms way.  This is obviously very situational but given the fixed list restriction I figure anyway to get extra scheme markers is a good thing.  I have also considered taking Willie and that way I can explode the scheme markers to do damage.  

 

The Mech Rider is basically going to sit back for 3 turns summoning reinforcements before getting into the action or being used for Bodyguard.

 

Having the Firestarter's reckless ability is awesome given that he has flight as well.  One question I do have is can a model still be affected by Wings of Fire if they already have flight ie. Malifaux Raptor?  I understand they can't get flight twice but if they start with burning can they still remove it at the end of the activation and drop a scheme marker?  My understanding is also that despite being Insignificant the Wings of Fire ability still allows them to drop scheme markers?

 

The other questions I have are -

 

1. Grab and Drop.  Rulebook states that you don't take falling damage unless it is over 2" (from memory).  Does that mean that if I exceed my opponent's total by 3 they only take 1 wound or would they take 3?  If I only win by 1 or 2 do they not take damage at all and the reposition still occurs?  This is the way I have been playing it but wanted to make sure.  

 

2. Stoke the Flames Trigger.  With the built-in Tome does this give a minimum of 2 burning and up to 4 if I flip or cheat in a Tome and use a soulstone?  This is how it reads to me but again just want to be sure.

 

Anyway I have 3 lists below so let me know what you think.  Sorry to hijack your thread MythicFox but figured you would welcome the extra discussion

 

Arcanists Crew - 40 - Dustup List 1

 

Kaeris -- 7 Pool

 +Born of Fire [2]

 +Grab and Drop [1]

 

Eternal Flame [2]

Gunsmith [7]

Mechanical Rider [12]

The Firestarter [7]

Willie [6]

 

Arcanists Crew - 40 - Dustup List 2

 

Kaeris -- 7 Pool

 +Born of Fire [2]

 +Grab and Drop [1]

 

Mechanical Rider [12]

Rail Worker [5]

Steam Arachnid [4]

The Firestarter [7]

Willie [6]

 

Arcanists Crew - 40 - Dustup List 3

 

Kaeris -- 6 Pool

 +Arcane Reservoir [2]

 +Born of Fire [2]

 +Grab and Drop [1]

 

December Acolyte [7]

Gunsmith [7]

Mechanical Rider [12]

The Firestarter [7]

 

[Archmage]

Insignificant models can still drop markers with Wings of Flame. No interact action is involved. Part of why it's so good!

For question 1, yes, damage only happens in excess of the minimum drop height. And for 2, it's per tome in the total, so base +1 and then three tomes is indeed burning +4. Highly situational as to whether that is worth a stone.

I like list 1 the best. In a fixed list tourney the MR basically lets you "cheat" by summoning whatever is best for the round (any versatile summoner enjoys this advantage). There is great scheme marker synergy there, LITS is super easy, and you're well equipped for every other scheme requiring markers. You could swap eternal flame + gunsmith for a metal gamin and a union miner unless you really need the healing, but a fast gunsmith is good and the firepower gives you a killier list. You'll want metal gamin and an arcane effigy for summons, or maybe a steam arachnid--I think fire gamin are meh because, ironically, you can't set them on fire.

[Bengt]

Does that mean that if I exceed my opponent's total by 3 they only take 1 wound or would they take 3?

They would take 3 wounds, see the example on P42.

[mythicFOX]

More than happy to have the discussion, it's what the thread's for.

 

Easiest way I've found to hand out burning inside my own crew is have the Malifaux Child as your totem and get it to cast Kaeris' Flaming Halo and throw a low to take the cast again trigger to hit a second model.

 

Looking at your lists I suppose the biggest concern I have is you've nothing which can take the charge from a combat monster.  You're probably going to have to engage in both Reckoning and Stake a Claim and I'm not sure how you're going to fend off your opponent's threats. 

 

Based on the models you've listed as having I'd be tempted to go;

 

Kaeris -- 5 Pool

+Born of Fire [2]

+Grab and Drop [1]

 

Gunsmith [7]

Mechanical Rider [12]

Rail Worker [5]

Rail Worker [5]

The Firestarter [7]

 

The Rail Workers and Gunsmith can hold you opponent up allowing; Kaeris, the Mech and The Firestarter to fly around grabbing objectives.

 

My personal list for this would look like;

 

Kaeris -- 5 Pool

+Arcane Reservoir [2]

+Grab and Drop [1]

 

Malifaux Child [3]

Mechanical Rider [12]

Metal Gamin [4]

Rail Golem [11]

Soulstone Miner [6]

 

Although this list needs to be careful around on turn two where the Mech Rider and Golem will probably both want one. This would have it's weakest game being recon, but that makes sense as it's the first round.

[Archmage]

Correction to an earlier comment--fire gamin aren't immune to Burning, they just don't take any damage with it. Sadly, this means they cannot be healed with Purifying Flame, though you can still launch them into action with Wings of Fire.

[Lewkas]

Ok so here is the list I think I will run with.  I gave it a test run last night and it seems to work really well.  I have another 2 Metal Gamin and some spiders for summoning along with an Arcane Effigy on the way for condition removal.

 

Arcanists Crew - 40 - Dustup

 

Kaeris -- 4 Pool

 +Arcane Reservoir [2]

 +Grab and Drop [1]

 

Malifaux Child [3]

Mechanical Rider [12]

Metal Gamin [4]

Rail Golem [11]

The Firestarter [7]

 

At the end of turn 1 I had claimed 2 Squatters markers and drop 4 scheme markers.  I think LitS and Protect Territory are basically givens with this crew although it wasn't an entirely accurate test of the crew as I was playing a 3 way game against Hamelin and Mei Feng which ended up being a little one sided.  One question I did have is when the Rail Golem activates and get Wings of Fire.  Does he remove his unused burning at the end of the turn or does the ability on his card still prevent this from happening?  My thoughts would be that his card is the more specific ability and would override the Wings of Fire burning removal.

 

Thoughts?

[mythicFOX]

Wings of Fire removes the burning at the end of a model's activation, so if the Golem is on fire when it activates within 6" of Kaeris then it wont be able to store any burning for next turn.

 

This is important when you're running these two in combination. you'll need to be careful about activation order and positioning depending on what you want the Golem to do.  My tendency is to keep them more than 6" apart and load the Golem up on burning. An alternative being having him activate and (0) to pulse burning to most of your crew, at which point Kaeris can make use of it to draw cards.

[mythicFOX]

On another note the crew looks good.  I'll be interested to see how you get on, post back and let us know!