5 Models Every Arcanist Should Have

[monkeyking68]

1. Killjoy

2. Hans

3. Johan

4. Sue

5. Performer

[Grez90]

1. Acolyte (Great damage spread, auto slow on everything, and FTS...needs no further explanantion)

2. Myranda (Don't care if people say Cerberus/Blessed of December, why not get them at a stone cheaper and halfway up the board, or same price with 4 more cards)

3. Joss (Best Tank in the game)

4. Mech rider (ability to summon, ability to card cycle, ability to drop multiple scheme markers from a single shot, can basically get 3 points from most schemes on his own)

5. Cassandra (8SS hechman with basically minimum 3 AP standard, plus opportunities to push/understudy. Rock solid to kill once activated with an attack equal to an illuminated, and don't even get me started on the upgrades she has).

[paradoxstorm]

I clearly need to spend more time in the strategy threads to understand some of these explanations, but thanks for adding them--gives newbs like myself some direction. Keep it up!

[Math Mathonwy]

Large Steam Arachnid

That's a bit of a surprise - is it really that good?

 

The Captain

The Captain

This seems like an unsual nomination - is he really that good? Just by looking at him he seems really expensive, but I have zero experience playing with him or against him.

I'd consider playing Cassandra with any of the arcanist masters. She's just really good for her cost. I have had some great games with her and Marcus. I know people take her with Ramos and Kaeris too. There's no reason to just play her with Colette. She's not very dependent on showgirls, although she certainly doesn't mind if a performer tags along.

She can also take a Mannequin to tag along providing a nice Railwalking point for Mei Feng. Furthermore, her doing the Metal Gamin protection as an Understudy on a Metal Gamin on the first turn leaves the Metal Gamin to actually protect something else for the game.

[MasterDisaster]

Again in no particular order

 

- Joss (Dude's scary! Nuff said?)

- Metal Gamin (Tough as nails and great speed bumps)

- Johan (Works well with any crew thanks to condition removal but additional benefits with M&SU)

- Mechanical Rider (Not used him myself but seems ridiculously useful!)

- The Captain (Any excuse for a Relic Hammer! Also great support and damage output)

[mythicFOX]

@ Math Mathonwy - 

 

The Large Steam Arachnid is more like the Metal Gamin on the list. It's not that what it does is blow your socks off amazing its more that it's incredibly solid. Hard to take down with a scheme marker / nasty attack combo in a relatively cheap package.

 

I tend to play mine in reserve so it can either hustle to cover a weak point or move to snipe critical scheme markers later in the game.

[decker_cky]

Large steam arachnids are a pretty solid overall package, and I think do pretty well in terms working well with masters.

 

-4" anti scheme marker tech on an (0)

-Similar damage output to rail workers (with a better boosting ability IMO)

-Bonus scrap for Ramos and Mei

-Extra large base size for Mei as a railwalking point

-Burning trigger for synergy with Kaeris and Mei

-Armour +1, Grinding Halt and 7 Wd for 6 SS making them surprisingly tanky (compared to Rail workers, no hard to kill but +3 wounds for +1 soulstone)

-Unimpeded to get around, allow them to generally be protected by cover

-Solid dangerous minion for Colette

 

I don't think there's particularly much synergy with Marcus, Rasputina or Colette, but it's still a solid minion with anti-scheme tech for those masters.

 

They're not in my top 5, but I definitely see them as a very good and flexible model.

[sssk]

In the interest of playing devil's advocate...

 

It's interesting that Joss crops up in virtually all the lists. Admittedly I'd be tempted to put him in my list, but I'm increasingly finding he's a bit mediocre. Sure he can tank damage, but he's not awfully fast, and not massively killy. Also stuff which ignores armour just annihilates him (and/or your soulstone pile).

 

His ignoring armour, all the "hard"s, and defensive triggers is nice... if he can catch up with stuff which has them. His ML isn't blinding, and with no in built positive flips etc, I find I either need to use a lot of cards to get him killing stuff, or he needs to be going against stuff with awful defence in order to hurt anything. His damage also isn't ground breaking for a "beatstick". 

 

Personally I'm finding I'm much more drawn to switch him out for a cerberus in many/most situations.

 

Might just be personal experience though (and possibly the proliferation of Viks around me)

[mythicFOX]

The amount of 'ignores armor' in your meta is going to be a big factor in how much mileage you get from Joss.  I go through patches with him.

 

IMO he's very much the anvil rather than the hammer.  My aim is usually to get him tied up with my opponents primary offence, and make them spend some serious time chewing through each other. This lets my master and the rest of my crew run around much more freely.

[MasterDisaster]

In the interest of playing devil's advocate...

 

It's interesting that Joss crops up in virtually all the lists. Admittedly I'd be tempted to put him in my list, but I'm increasingly finding he's a bit mediocre. Sure he can tank damage, but he's not awfully fast, and not massively killy. Also stuff which ignores armour just annihilates him (and/or your soulstone pile).

 

His ignoring armour, all the "hard"s, and defensive triggers is nice... if he can catch up with stuff which has them. His ML isn't blinding, and with no in built positive flips etc, I find I either need to use a lot of cards to get him killing stuff, or he needs to be going against stuff with awful defence in order to hurt anything. His damage also isn't ground breaking for a "beatstick". 

 

Personally I'm finding I'm much more drawn to switch him out for a cerberus in many/most situations.

 

Might just be personal experience though (and possibly the proliferation of Viks around me)

 

Wow... I've had nothing but good things from my Joss. In fact he usually replaces my Ryle in most of my Hoffman lists he's that good! I agree he is slow as hell but you need to prioritize his targets and the role he needs to fulfill. I often have him stick near objectives to guard them and sure as hell don't send him after fast moving things like objective runners. His damage is pretty good, he's tough as hell, he can re-activate and he can create scrap for people like Mei, Ramos and Hoff who tend to like a lot of that stuff around. Overall I think he's golden. 

[bertmac]

Joss is just awesome against other big beaters. I see izamu has come up in the resser top 5's and joss laughs in his face. Yes he doesnt have high severe damage but then how often does a severe actually get flipped? And ignoring armour makes up for that a lot of the time anyway. Also with imbued energies you can focus and get a cheatable 5/8/10 flip if needed.

[rythos42]

The more I play with the Acolyte, the more I don't like him.

 

Sure, he starts way ahead. But I find that doesn't help me so much early, because I need to hide him to keep him from dying (since he's ahead and exposed). He tends to waste turn 1 "threatening", which I actually think is his biggest draw -- as a threat.

 

Once the game gets going, he's either to slow (Wk 4) to continue to be in my opponents face, or...(and this part is super subjective) he can't shoot because my stuff is in combat with my opponents stuff. 

 

At 7ss, I feel like I would rather have another model that is simpler to use and just walks up. 

 

 

 

Joss+Imbued Energies is absolutely brilliant. Walk 5 and then charge? Yes please.

[sssk]

 

At 7ss, I feel like I would rather have another model that is simpler to use and just walks up. 

 

 

Hmmm, a 7ss model which is simple, statistics rich, and just walks up. I know everyone has the Razorspine at the top of their lists really. It's just so obvious none of you are bothering to include it.... right?..... guys???

 

 

 

Joss+Imbued Energies is absolutely brilliant. Walk 5 and then charge? Yes please.

 

true, but a cerberus gets that for "free" with leap (indeed it's actually significantly better than walk 5), and then hits a lot harder. Just my humble opinion though.

 

I somewhat agree with the acolyte points. It's an extremely good model, but that just means it gets vendetta'd every game when it can, or else it just gets killed very quickly. I find it to be a 7ss distraction most of the time (which can be a game winning distraction... but equally it can be a "swat a fly" type distraction).

[Mentat_Canis]

I will throw my hat in the ring and agree with most.

 

1. Mech Rider( The model is great even after the late cuddles but all the riders are great (Dead is just good) hard to kill late game with a 0 action push and relevant attacks and triggers.)

 

2. Arcane Effigy( Like the Riders if you own a large chunk of the faction you should probably own the Effigy but the Arcane might be the best with Condition removal and a damage increase for the master, there is a reason you can't summon one with the Rider.)

 

3. Decembers Acolyte( In my opinion the best shooting option for the faction and is a good point cost.  From the Shadows can be a trap for some players but I have never deployed one over the center line yes it means turn 1 I might not get a shot but if that is the case it is because it has scared my opponent. Also slow and lose a card would be good enough to shoot without doing damage.)

 

4. Blessed of December/Sabertooth (This one for me comes down to what model or leap you like better, I personally like the Blessed because ML 7 with good triggers and I would rather leap on an 8 instead of a 5mask. but they are quick hard hitting models that can also objective run.)

 

5. Fire Gamin (By far the hardest model to put on this list because the ones above were easy for me to pick but I love these wk 4 df 4 wp 4 guys because they have a Sh5 attack that does good damage and burns and if you have to kill these guys in melee they make you pay for it. and they get objectives done turn 4 and 5 because who wants to shoot at the 2 Gamin when you have Joss running at you.)

[Sybarite]

Arent fire gamin wk5? they do seem quite nice. Should try them out

[Sholto]

1. Soulstone Miner. All but guaranteed VPs from some Schemes, and a brutal backfield disruptor when those Schemes are not in play. I have four of them in my case

 

2. Cassandra. So good at so many things. A real MVP in just about every game.

 

3. Mechanical Rider. For all the reasons everyone else gives.

 

4. Performer. Scheme, scheme-ity, scheme, all game long. Plus board control and debuffing.

 

5. Colette. What? She's an Arcanist! I can pick Colette, it's my list! Pfft!

[Gorbad]

I'd go with

1: December Acolyte (I still want to do the list with 4 of them at some point)

2: Metal Gamins

3: Howard Langston

4: Cassandra

5: Angelica

[Mentat_Canis]

Arent fire gamin wk5? they do seem quite nice. Should try them out

 

Yes they are that was a typo I meant to say 4 Wds.

[Hunt.er]

1. The Captain -  the most versatile Henchman so far. Agile, lot of Df-stuff and pushes everything arround where its needed

2. Performer -  good for schemes like Distract, good against poison loaded enemy units.

3. Mannequin -  scheme marker throwing for nerby units, nice and usefull synergies with the Performer.

4. Arcane Effigy - effies are always good to have and may it only for decend scheme running.

5. Large Arachnid - scrap markers are for Arcanists like air to breath.

[Math Mathonwy]

I did a bit of analysis on these, and the aggregate top five is as follows (the number in brackets is the amount of votes that the model received):

1. Metal Gamin (14)

1. Mechanical Rider (14)

3. Joss (12)

4. Cassandra (9)

4. Howard Langston (9)

4. December Acolyte (9)

In total, 25 people cast their votes for a top five. If someone gave more than one vote for a given model, I discounted the extra votes. I also skipped votes for Mercs or other non-faction minis.

There's some further notes in the Resser thread which should be taken into account (the availability of the models and their roles):

http://wyrd-games.net/community/topic/103295-name-your-five/?p=768658

It's interesting how expensive the most favoured Arcanist models are. There were three models with SS cost in the double digits in the top "five".

Arcanist vote was also extremely divided with only the Ressers being more divided in their votes.

[D_acolyte]

December Acolyte

Gunsmiths

Fire Gamin

Coryphee

Cassandra