A new servant of December

[Seelensupergau]

Hello there, folks!

 

After lookin' around for quite some time for an exciting and stylish skirmisher, I finally decided to start with Malifaux. I really love the style of the world, the unique gameplay and the incredible miniatures.

 

The first master that really got me was Rasputina. Whenever it comes to RPG's, Pen and Papers and so on, I always LOVED everything around storms, snow, ice and severe cold. So, Rasputina was quite a sure shot for me

 

After reading something about tactics and stuff, I would like to buy the models for this first attempt of a December-Crew:

 

Arcanists Crew - 50 - Scrap

Rasputina -- 7 Pool
 +Arcane Reservoir [2]
 +Cold Nights [1]
 +Shattered Heart [3]

Essence of Power [3]
Ice Gamin [4]
Ice Gamin [4]
Ice Gamin [4]
Silent One [6]
Silent One [6]
Snow Storm [11]
 +Imbued Energies [1]
 +Sub Zero [1]

 

Basic Ideas are pretty obvious: The Ice Gamins are walking mirrors for Raspi, the Silent Ones are there to offer some healing. Snow Storm should be my midfield-threat, pushing around Ice Gamin and protect them from being shot.

 

What I do think about this list is that it is a little over the top: Do I really need two Silent Ones? Is Arcane Reservoir really necessary? Should I put in more Ice Gamin? Or even Blessed by December or an Ice Golem for some extra punch?

 

 

Go ahead, folks, this baffled german newbie is longing for your advice!
 

[Myyrä]

This list will be in big trouble if the scenario requires even moderate amount of movement. Everything except Snow Storm is really slow. Blessed, acolytes or Wendigo might help with that.

[admiralvorkraft]

Obligatory caveat; there are no take all comers lists in Malifaux, though I (and many others) have had success building a core crew with a couple swing models based on the available strategy and schemes.

I would second MYYRA on your need for mobility, and the Blessed, Acolytes and Wendigo are all phenomenal models in their own right. The Wendigo particularly opens up a lot of nasty options for you. 

[Seelensupergau]

Yeah, I totally see the points of you both here. So it should be a good idea to build a core, then?

In the end, I wanted to have all the models I need to assure a diversified style to play.

 

I think my first core will be this:

 

Rasputina -- 7 Pool
 +Cold Nights [1]
 +Shattered Heart [3]

Wendigo [3]
December Acolyte [7]
December Acolyte [7]
Ice Gamin [4]
Ice Gamin [4]
 

With this, I have still 21 SS left to put it in whatever is necessary.

 

A general question: Is one hard hitter like Ice Golem or Snowstorm enough for the most scenarios? I'm a litle afraid to put to much SS in those more elitist units but on the other hand lack on minions :'D

 

[admiralvorkraft]

I build around a core because I'm bad at list building and I like knowing that at least something I take is going to work. Other people build whole new lists for every game.

To answer your general question, it depends. In a Scheme heavy pool (breakthrough, plant evidence, plant explosives, etc.) or a strategy like reconnoiter then I usually find that one beat stick is plenty. In a reckoning list the current Meta seems to like a tiny, elite force made up of nothing but tough beaters - which is why my league replaces ALitS with Make Them Suffer on reckoning, but that's another story altogether.

 

EDIT: To clarify, in reckoning you can effectively deny your opponents VP for the strategy simply by not taking enough units for them to viably kill two a turn.

Edited September 22, 2014 by admiralvorkraft

[AnythingBut]

Obviously you have an idea on how you would like to play and what looks cool and I'm sure you'd have a blast trying it but as has been pointed out I wouldn't say it's an optimal raspy crew.

Firstly that's a huge upgrade spend on Raspy herself. I always run cold nights I think it's an auto include for 1ss. The other two upgrades are both great but I wouldn't include both it's just too much of a resourse drain on one character.

I find raspy plenty Killy with the range and positional advantage her ice mirrors give and if you also put shattered heart on her you become in danger of trying to tunnel into the one style of play which most of the times won't actually give you VPs unless you luck into a very kill heavy scheme pool.

I personally would run her with cold nights and the armour of December as the push combined with her defensive trigger will often save her life from fast melee models who engage her as she has a hard time disengaging with Df4. That's only 2ss in total and sets her up tactically for any matchup.

There is a thread just below this one about the essence of power where I give my opinion about it and the wendigo. Safe to say with wk6 and the ability to copy the ice pillars spell he makes an ideal scheme runner in an otherwise very slow crew.

Another great model for schemes and general shooty awesomeness is the Acolyte of December. With a decent damage track and a built in slow to damaged targets it's. A threat that need takin out. And even though it's only Wk4 the ability to deploy from the shadows makes her great at getting into a position to scheme run from the start.

The ice gamin are obviously great in any raspy crew and snow storm is a fantastic model. There's nothing quite like funnelling an opposing crew into a tight space with pillars from both raspy and the wendigo and then unleashing cold, blasty death with both Rasputina and Snow storm. Gremlins and other crews who take lots of cheap activations will take a severe beating from all those blast markers!

Anyway have fun playing Rasputina and her crew. I fell for it as my first crew thematically for similar reasons as you, just remember if you have friends who are also new to the game, play with plenty of scenery for them to hide behind (as the game should be anyway) or Raspys magic can quickly get out of hand and be a real downer for a new opposing player.

[AnythingBut]

A general question: Is one hard hitter like Ice Golem or Snowstorm enough for the most scenarios? I'm a litle afraid to put to much SS in those more elitist units but on the other hand lack on minions :'D

It's totally strat and scheme dependent. Generally if you play reckoning you'll take as many big heavy hitters as you can who won't die cheaply and give you opponent easy strat points. Turf war also works well with a couple of big tanky hitters who can park themselves in the centre of the board and hold it. Whereas in a strat like squatters rights or reconnoiter you'll want more cheap activations.

I would warn that snow storm isn't a melee monster like the ice golem is and I play them completely differently. The ice golem with armour3 can take a bit or two whereas snow storms main defensive ability is just bulletproof giving him the protection from shooting only and it's main attacks is a spell with tactical pushes thrown in for your crew. If you want big melee bullies take the ice golem, blessed of december (with imbued energies for extra fun) or choices from outside the frozen heart models such as Joss and Howard.

[Seelensupergau]

Thank you very much, guys!

And thanks to Anythingbut for this detailed explanation

 

I think I will start with the "Children of December" Box and some December Akolytes. From this point on, I will expand my Crew with new models which provide me new tactical options. Just how everyone does I quess xD

 

I would LOVE to use the models of Sorrows for my Ice Gamin, just as the Model of the Poltergeist for Snowstorm. I love the idea of Frost Ghosts. Do you think it is okay or would most people refuse to play against it because its not "wysiwyg"?

[AnythingBut]

I would LOVE to use the models of Sorrows for my Ice Gamin, just as the Model of the Poltergeist for Snowstorm. I love the idea of Frost Ghosts. Do you think it is okay or would most people refuse to play against it because its not "wysiwyg"?

In general the idea of proxies in malifaux is common place as plenty if the wave 2 stuff doesn't have an official wyrd model or if they do it's generally the old metal ones.

I will point out though that using a model which is already designed to be malifaux model as something different is generally not allowed in TOURNAMENT format. As you can imadgine with so many crews and models out there it can be confusing enough for new and experienced players alike to get to know all the factions and crews so using them as an entirely different model can be confusing.

Personally in my gaming group I would be fine with this particular idea and I'm sure painted up blue and icy they'd fit nicely but then again I know the raspy crew very well already so it would be easy for me to substitute the models in my head.

So to summarise I don't see a reason why a friendly game at a LGS would have a problem with it but if you're thinking of attending tournaments eventually you might want to to with the intended models.

[zFiend]

As long as it's made clear before the game what is what I don't mind playing against proxies. Tournaments I have no idea of though, our tournaments are so small we are glad if people even play

[Math Mathonwy]

I think that to answer the question on proxies, you need to consult your local gaming scene.

I think that Poltergeist and Sorrows painted icy are easy to understand and remember and won't cause confusion - especilly if you can resist the temptation to run them as Sorrows and Poltergeist in a Pandora crew occasionally (I, personally, wouldn't mind that, either, but I could see others finding it confusing depending on the local gaming culture).

[Ishikar]

I'm glad to see Malifaux growing as a game, it's a very neat fantasy skirmish game and with the 2E rules got much tighter on what it can do and game balance.

 

As for the question on one or more "heavy hitters" on the board then it falls to the strats/schemes and your meta.  I typically find that one of them is enough and ususally run the Golem for within my meta.  Throwing gamin early pushes them out and it makes a solid forward anchor, add in the acolytes for drawing models into range/out of cover (SOOO useful!) and that usually does enough for killy style games.

 

Snowstorm is an interesting case in that I think he suffers a little for his cost and the split nature of his focus.  He's got a fairly beefy melee but no real AP tricks to back it up (ala howard, Ice or Rail golems) and his large base and melee reach make his ranged casting easy to block if you opponent has tools to do so (i.e. summoner dreamer with alps).  I know that in 1.5E he was a HUGE tool for mobility in the rasputina crew and was perhaps too good but with being as card intensive now to move more than one model at a time (You HAVE to cheat since choosing to fail puts you at :-fate to damage and you need mod/severe to get the blasts to push with) I personally find him to be a rather lackluster additon to the crew.  I do want to see the new plastic though because the arwork just looks cool.

 

I would strongly consider the Blessed and Cassandra for Rasuptina as objective runners (really Cassandra is useful for a ANY arcanist crew) since both are very manueverable and have ways of slipping through engagements to complete objectives.  Blessed also can be an unexpected mirror if you need it but for the most part is a more conservative runner piece.  Cassandra is just an amazing model for pushing past your opponent and every time I have run her I have been amazed at what she adds for sceme/strategy completion.

 

As for proxies I'd be fine with them personally as long as they were appropriate (i.e. sorrows for ice gamin) but not if you were proxying other models in faction (running metal gamin as ice gamin that were summoned by mech rider) just to avoid confusion.  I've used proxies from other lines in Warhammer Fantasy because buying certain models in that line are stupid expensive so I lose all rights and priveledge to judge others doing it.  I have found that I own a significant portion of the arcanist faction, several beasts from others, and am starting to gather up guild so it makes me a little scared to think of how much I've spent...

[FertileSpade]

I played my first Malifaux game last night with a Rasputina crew against another newbie. It was a blast! It was the most engrossing/satisfying tabletop mini game in terms of tactics I have played in quite some time! My buddy and I played Reckoning and I took Cursed Object and Line in the Sand as my schemes. He was running Perdita. My crew breakdown was essentially the Children of December box Set plus 2 December Acolytes. We're both newbs as I said so I'm sure our crews weren't perfectly optimized but I felt that with just those 2 box sets of minis I had a pretty good crew. The December Acolytes were phenomenal! Their ability to deploy from the shadows gives Raspy a great tool to use in scoring VP's on schemes and they forced my opponent to make some tough choices in the movement phase (i.e. do i send a couple of my models to go deal with the Dec Ac's that are dropping scheme markers for Line in the Sand on the flanks or do i keep the Ortegas together like I want to?). I used Shattered Heart, Cold Nights, & Arcane Reservoir as Raspy's upgrades and was very happy with them. The extra card in my hand every turn can't be overstated in value. There were very few times in the game when I didn't have what I wanted to cheat fate. Cold Nights was a game changer! In one turn the Ice Pillars stopped Santiago and Papa Loco from killing a Dec Acolyte and getting rid of a scheme marker. I was then able to kill both of them and maintain my VP's for Line in the Sand. The Ice Gamin did their thing serving as Raspy's eyes and managed to inflict some damage on their own and place a Cursed Object on Perdita which took away one of her AP's at a critical juncture in the game. That enabled my Ice Golem to survive Perdita's shooting and smash her! Killing her in one blow!! Granted my opponent should never have let the Ice Golem get that close (he didn't know it's ability) and a veteran player would not make that mistake. I used it to throw the Wendigo turn 1 as well but with its low defense and slow movement I could see a skilled player negating it before it could do much of anything in the game. I look forward to replacing it with Snowstorm when I get the model. I could see a lot of potential for the Wendigo. I had an opportunity to paralyze and then devour Nino turn 1 but screwed up my placement. I just ended up using its speed to flank and drop scheme markers for Line in the Sand. I'll probably play around with Essence of Power but I suspect that the Wendigo will be my Totem of choice for Raspy.

[AnythingBut]

Sound a great and the raspy box set plus a couple of December acolytes sounds perfectly solid list in most cases. Maybe a few too many low cost, easy to kill models for reckoning in my personal opinion but when first starting out with a limited model pool I'm willing to bet most raspy players played with a similar list (I know I did)

I had already mentioned earlier in the thread the merits that the wendigo and acolytes deployed from the shadows are a frozen heart crews main scheme runners so happy to see that paid off for you.

Agree that the golem is a slow cumbersome model, especially when tossing your Ht1 models around for an AP first, I usually take him as a given in turf war with the imbued protection upgrade as he doesn't need to go too far to claim the turf marker and with armour 3 and the ability to discard the upgrade for damage prevention he can be a real tough model to remove and an obvious threat to any other model looking to get within 6" of the centre line. In most of strats though I would say play snow storm and see how you like he feel of him and his ridiculous movement shinanigans!

I'm glad you took the wendigo to see it in action, I dare say after seeing his utility and speed you'll miss him greatly if you do try the essence of power for a game or two. One other thing you didn't mention but hope you took advantage off is his ability to use his magical extension to copy the ice pillars spell or raspy. You can copy any spell she has including those from upgrades and having 4 pillars in the board at once can push even the best laid opponents plans to their limits!

Keep us up to date with your progress and myself and many of the other guys who post on the forums will be glad to help where we can.

[Uktena]

I think you mean armor 5! Nothing says turf war like a quick Decembers Touch!

[Wetfishwanted]

Isn't a golem armour +2?

[Sybarite]

Yes but they might be thinking about that armour of december upgrade. (Plus buffs from Rasputina)

[Wetfishwanted]

Agreed, but the golem is only an enforcer so it can not take both December's Armour and the Imbued Protection which is suggested by some of our posters.

[AnythingBut]

Isn't a golem armour +2?

Yes you are right. Ive been play testing Snowstorm recently and was actually thinking of her bullet proof when I posted +3 instead if the golems armour which is +2.

[kaintxu]

What is people's opinion on snowstorm?

[Fenton Crack]

What is people's opinion on snowstorm?

I think he is great for almost any Raspy build. The mobility he gives the crew was really their week link. His Ice Tornados work well, but the fact that his zero action is a "place", is just phenomenal for getting models out of trouble, and either out of LoS or at least I go his bulletproof bubble.