Leviticus Crew in 2E

[madd0ct0r]

Hi all,

 

I'm looking to put together a Leveticus Crew.

 

The idea is to smash face, summon steampunk abominations, create desolation engine, resume smashing face. It's a complex strategy

 

That said, I'm confused as to what models are allowed in 2E.

 

The official website crew creator doesn't allow a Levi crew to purchase steampunk arachnids, or even necropunks.

The older one at: http://malifaux.nezumi.me.uk/Crew.php does, but seems to predate models like Dust and Ashes.

 

Is it just the crew creator limiting choice to outcasts, or has the hiring pool really been shrunk that much?

 

Cheers! 

[Icemyn]

Here are the Wave 2 cards including Leveticus.
http://wyrd-games.net/community/files/file/53-malifaux-wave-2-cards-low-rez/

 

Levi has to take an upgrade to hire constructs or undead out of faction. Pariah of Iron and Bone respectively. 
If you take the Pariah of Iron upgrade you should be able to purchase the steampunk arachnids and necropunks. 

Welcome to the Forums!

[Hateful Darkblack]

Sounds like a fun strategy!

With the Abominations, keep in mind that they're incredible debuffers. On their own turn, they usually just want to get within 2" of an enemy, then hurt each other to draw cards.

Most of Leveticus's Abomination-summoning comes from Upgrades. Give Leveticus Desolate Soul and/or From Ashes. Take Rusty Alyce and give her From the Aether and possibly even Desolate Soul too. Max out on Soulstones so you can get the crows and tomes you need for summoning.

Rusty Alyce also makes a great anchor for your Hollow Waifs so that you can reincarnate Leveticus. Other favorites are Lazarus, and A&D (Ashes and Dust.)

If you want to get a Desolation Engine, you may want to hire a few Abominations at the beginning as well.

Pariah of Iron is the upgrade that lets you hire Steam Arachnids. They're good models! But please be aware: you don't need Pariah of Iron to rock Leveticus. His core crew of Outcasts is really solid and flexible. Let me ask this, though: You say you want to stomp enemies and make Desolate Engines. This is a noble endeavor and I support it fully. How do Steam Arachnids help with that?

Good luck! Leveticus is a whole lot of fun to play, with a lot of great surprises and a brilliant playstyle.

[madd0ct0r]

Ah Thanks Icemyn

 

 

Hateful Darkblack

um, bearing in mind I'm very very new to this (evangelical friend told me it was this or magic).

 

the idea behind the steampunk arachnids is

1) they drop salvage tokens that Levi needs, so I'm not reliant on what other's bring. 

2) the crew shifts from a horde of small fast things to a few hammers. Without trying it, I dunno whether this is a way for me to  frustrate the opponent's schemes or just die horribly, but it also benefits of matching the models I like

[Ausplosions]

Abominations will drop the same markers.

[madd0ct0r]

ok. I think I'm getting my head around this now.

 

On one summoning side, you can put soulstones into desolate warping for levvy (and alyce). This lets you turn models into abominations (if you kill them).

As a fillip, you can take Pariah of Bone, take some canine remains and cheat to convert them. (also a good source of hollow waifs)

this route suggests beat face spells like 'To the Earth Return' to get the damage in as quickly as possible, and would probably work well with lazarus since his grenade launcher will splash a lot of damage around.

 

On the 2nd summoning side, you can put soulstones into transfigure for levvy and aetheric creation (for alyce). This lets you turn scrap markers into abominations.

As a further fillip, you can take Pariah of iron and use necropunks or steampunk arachnids as scrap marker generators.

 

 

 

The first route is initlally cheaper. You don't need the pariah of bone, and the main resources you need the opponent is kindly paying for. You do need that killing power from the start to be able to start your snowballl process, and since the steampunk abominations themselves aren't very dangerous (but good debuffers) you'll need to protect your starting hammers. 

 

The second route means you don't have to worry what army you'd be facing, you've got all the pieces of your engine already. The arachnids are good at debuffing df, letting Leveticus get his damage in. BUT the intial cost is a bit more, meaning you've got ess space for other goodies you might need. 

I'm looking mostly at small games as a starter newbie, so it feels like I should focus on building a crew that does one thing really well. 

[madd0ct0r]

And a few hours of reading the tactica and cross referencing I'm picking up on the idea that Levvy is a fairly self contained leader. He can pick from a huge range of models, and build miniture versions of lots of other crews. One player in the group is big on zombies, and another is big on steampunk arachnids, so let's see if there's a 3rd way:

 

Levvy and the anchored pistols.

 

Outcasts Crew - 35 - Dustup

 

Leveticus -- 6 Pool

+Desolate Soul [2]

+From Ash [2]

+Tally Sheet [1]

 

Hollow Waif X 2 [0]

Abomination [4]

Rusty Alyce [10]

+Desolate Soul [2]

+From the Aether [2]

Sue [8]

 

===============

 

Levvy in the Prison Kitchens

 

Outcasts Crew - 35 - Dustup

 

Leveticus -- 7 Pool

+Desolate Soul [2]

+From Ash [2]

+Tally Sheet [1]

 

Hollow Waif X 2 [0]

Abomination [4]

Abomination [4]

Convict Gunslinger [7]

Convict Gunslinger [7]

 

============

 

Levvy and the wall of flesh

 

Outcasts Crew - 35 - Dustup

 

Leveticus -- 7 Pool

+Desolate Soul [2]

+From Ash [2]

+Scramble [2]

 

Hollow Waif X 2 [0]

Abomination [4]

Abomination [4]

Abomination [4]

Abomination [4]

Abomination [4]

Abomination [4]

 

None of these lists are considering petty issues like objectives and scheme markers though. I really need to play a few games to get a feel for those.

[Ausplosions]

A standard game size is 50ss now. 35 is a tiny game.

[Hateful Darkblack]

Consider adding a Rusty Alyce to the Wall of Flesh. You're going to need Alyce to anchor your Waifs.

 

The Canine Remains to Hollow Waif trick was a 1.5 trick. It doesn't work in 2.0.

 

These days, you get to start with two Hollow Waifs, and can only make a new one with an action that also sacrifices Levy. For Levy to come back, you need to have a Hollow Waif with a friendly model worth 6ss or more within 6". (The friendly 6ss+ model is often called an "anchor" or "babysitter.")

 

Common Outcast anchors for Waifs: Lazarus (who hangs back and is hard to kill), Rusty Alyce (who moves forward and blasts things and makes more Abominations), Ashes and Dust (who zip around and make more Abominations and are kinda the biggest scariest objective-runners you'll ever meet). Convict Gunslingers are great too.

[Hateful Darkblack]

A standard game size is 50ss now. 35 is a tiny game.

 

50ss is a standard game, but for new players 35ss is pretty common - that's usually what you can expect from a starter box, right?

[madd0ct0r]

Ahhh. the penny drops.

 

For some reason, reading the tactica, I'd thought of 'anchor' as basically meaning bodyguard. I knew the waif's had to be resummoned each turn, I just hadn't made the connection. I've also checked with my players group, and yep, the aim is for 50 point games, just the first one will be 35 for learning's sake.

 

ok. So steps to building a Leveticus crew:

 

1) take Leveticus

2) take 2 waifs

3) take 2-3 anchors. 2 if tough and can hang back out of trouble (eg lazarus), 3 if less tough and/or getting into the thick of it (eg convict gunslingers are less tough, A&D likes getting into the thick of it)
4) build rest of list...  

[Hateful Darkblack]

Ahhh. the penny drops.

 

For some reason, reading the tactica, I'd thought of 'anchor' as basically meaning bodyguard. I knew the waif's had to be resummoned each turn, I just hadn't made the connection. I've also checked with my players group, and yep, the aim is for 50 point games, just the first one will be 35 for learning's sake.

 

 

I think you may have been basing some of this on the 1.5 version of Leveticus? In 1.5, the Hollow Waifs get resummoned each turn. In 2.0, they don't. They get summoned once and then you hide them like crazy.

 

The anchor is for when you sacrifice the waif to bring back Leveticus.

[madd0ct0r]

after you sacrifice a waif to get back Leveticus, the waif then pops back up by the anchor?

 

Sorry, I've been binging on blog articles for about a week before coming here, so it looks like I've got newbie AND last edition rules lodged in my head.

[Amdor]

No, Leveticus can only come back from waifs near anchors. This kills the waif and the only way to get more is by sacrificing Leveticus.

[Hateful Darkblack]

Maddoctor, yeah! I think you're definitely looking at articles from the previous edition.

 

Right now (M2E), there are two ways to get a Hollow Waif:

• By hiring them at the beginning. They're free and you get two.
• Leveticus can summon one as a (0) Action. This also sacrifices Leveticus, so he'll need a Hollow Waif when he comes back.

 

Right now (M2E), here's the overall cycle of Leveticus, Hollow Waifs, and reincarnation:

1. He's killed/sacrificed, either by summoning a Waif or because an enemy killed him (or yourself, but there's no advantage to this).
2. Instead of actually dying, he's healed, de-Conditioned, and buried.
3. At the end of the Turn, you can un-Bury him, but only next to an anchored friendly Hollow Waif. (That is, a Hollow Waif within 6" of a friendly 6+ss model.)
4. If you un-Bury him, sacrifice that Waif.

 

Therefore:

• At game start you're floating between 2<->3 Waifs. (He has two, but can summon a third, but one of them will die when he comes back.)
• If he dies without summoning a waif, or if your opponent kills a waif, that goes down to 1<->2 Waifs.
• If that happens again, it goes down to 0<->1 Waifs.
• If he dies without summoning a Waif one more time, or if that one Waif gets killed, he's really gone for good.

[Hateful Darkblack]

(I updated the Wiki to include this, because the Wiki article didn't explain it clearly enough before now!)

[madd0ct0r]

Ok, so most turns you need to kill him as the final part of his activation by summoning a replacement waif, because otherwise your life bar (measured in waifs) is ticking down.

 

Hmmm. Levvy is a close to combat damage engine*, so to get max utility from his high dm he'd need to be brought back near the front lines. That also means you need to keep the waif alive for a turn near the front lines.

 

So the Anchor/bodyguard would need to be something tough enough to

 

1) reliably survive on the front lines turn after turn (unless you take a few of them). One anchor can be a 'hang back and shoot/support' but not all of them.

2) ideally be big - so the waif can hide behind it

3) for it's cost it also has to do something as well as be an anchor. Preferably shooty (so the waif stays out of combat). Ryle, Lazarus, Sue and Rusty Alice all fit the bill. A&D isn't shooty, but he is fast, and I'd rather rely on it then on necropunks (i think). Bette Noir too fits the theme, but isn't reliably on board enough to be a core anchor.

 

 

*yah, he's also a summoner, but I've only got 4 steampunk abomination class models, so now I know I'm aiming for 50points it seems a bit silly to build a list designed to spam them. Levvy is about the cycle of death, so an attrition list seems like a good fit. 

[Bengt]

Ok, so most turns you need to kill him as the final part of his activation by summoning a replacement waif, because otherwise your life bar (measured in waifs) is ticking down.

 

Your life isn't ticking down by itself, only if your opponent kills Leve or a Waif. Generally a Waif is easier to kill than Leve, so only sacrifice Leve for healing or movement, not just because.

[madd0ct0r]

i thought you had to kill him to draw a new hand, or is this 1.5E again?

[Hateful Darkblack]

That's 1.5 again. Leveticus draws a new hand each turn.

 

The Waifs only die when Leveticus comes back, or when something kills them.

 

I sacrifice kill Leveticus by summoning a Waif, though, because then no one can hurt him during the turn and he comes back with full Wd (for Channel) and where I want him.

 

The Waifs just hide behind terrain generally.

[Ausplosions]

Unless you against Tara.

[Mason]

Unless you against Tara.

 

Well, technically, Void Wretches, as they're the ones that can attack buried models.

 

 

I tend to run Leveticus as a summoner, which might not be the most efficient way of playing him, but it is quite fun.  He, Rusty Alyce, Ashes and Dust, the Desolation Engine, and the Abominations can all turn enemy models into Abominations when they kill them (with a crow for their Desolate Warping trigger), so if you get a fair amount of crows in your hand - and with Abominations able to draw cards, it's not exceptionally difficult - you can really turn the tide against the opponent and sometimes pull very dangerous Desolation Engines out of your otherwise lackluster Abominations. 

[Nazull]

I am thinking of getting a new Crew and this one looks good.

 

dose anyone have any battle report links/YouTube links to game with this crew M2E

 

A&E not out yet in plastic

Trying to get new model of all the models I have