2015 My Year with Arcanists (and beyond)

[osoi]

As a little biit of a local challenge there are several of us that are switching up what factions we are playing next year (others that are doing this are Kadeton, Rathnard and brotherpalus on the forums) We decided to branch out a little into factions we havent played much (if at all before) to expose us all to more masters and style sof play and also expaninding our own horizons.

 

I have been a big fan of the Arcanists for a while but as I was previously heavily invested in Ressers, Guild along with some Outcasts and 10T I thought going to a brand new faction was a little much ... how wrong I was . I think the Arcanists have come out brilliantly with the release of M2E and offer a lot of good choices. I also love the new Arcanist plastic sets pretty well universally so my choice was easy. I have been playing a fair bit of Mei Feng as an Arcanist of late along with Joss in Henchmen led games and felt like I was at home.

 

I am currently assembling a whole heap of Marcus' beasts and have just picked up the Raspy crew box (the one crew I have struggled to pick up as she has the least appeal to me of all the crews available but I am going in whoel hog) so now I have Mei Feng, Ramos, Marcus and Rasputina all lined up for games.

 

I am going to try and minimise the proxies I use in games and really want my Arcanists to be my 'only plastics' faction so I will be waiting to run a few crews and combos until some furether releases come out. The one crew that I am hoping to be able to put together a good group of proxies is for Toni using TTB sprues.

 

Thsi thread is going to catalogue pretty well everything I have to say about Arcanists as I play games, theory things out and I havent decided to have a seperate painting blog (more than likely) as I progress through this project. There will be rambling I'm sure but hopefully it will help others as I share my experiences along with getting advice from some of those a little more experienced with certain masters as I start out with them. It should be a fun year + ahead and I hope to be updating regularly.

[EntrepeNinja]

I just switched back full bore into arcanists as well. Played them in 1.5 (Raspy+Kaeris, Colette, Colette+Kaeris, Mei Feng). Spent the last couple years (since 2.0 really), branching out into guild, ressurs, and Neverborn (Whole host of masters, but mostly Collodi, Hoffman, G. McMourning, and Kirai), but now I'm coming back, rolling deep arcanists again. Though, I'm focusing more on Kaeris, Colette, and Ironsides. M&SU Elites always made me happy. And it was an easy transition over from Hoffman's Arcanists assets anyways.

 

ENinja

[mythicFOX]

Welcome back to the fold.  Can't wait to see how you get on!

[osoi]

Okay as I am currently putting together a couple of crews I am thinking of how to approach them.

 

Marcus, I'm just plain excited about, I know there will be a bit of a learning curve but I think there is going to be a real sense of longevity to him.

 

Rasputina is the master I am really looking at more at the moment, as I said it is primarily because she hasnt excited me previously when I have looked at her. Looking more closely I can see some interesting options and think I can get some fun play out of her and that there is a bit more depth than just blasting people with spells. Does anyone who regularly use her run with more than 1 Ice Golem or 3 Ice Gamin? Typically I dont tend to find greater effiency in running more than 2 of the same minion in most of my crews.

[EntrepeNinja]

I love silent ones, and a Mechanical rider. Being able to push around with a mobile mirror summoning node is a blessing. And the silent ones can drop heals. Gotaa make sure you have enough people who can run your schemes. Acolytes are also great for the same reasons. 

 

She's one of the few that benefits so much from bringing her thematic (read "ice mirror"), and the frozen heart models are so varied and interesting by themselves that you can make a wide variety of crews out of just them. 

 

Very seriously, though. Silent Ones. Dayum.

[AnythingBut]

I will sometimes run all three of my gamin from the start of a game. In all strats except reccon I consider it an extremely sound investment for 12 ss, especially if you plan on using the golem to fling them around into the perfect ice mirror position.

I don't usually run many other models in more than two at a time with the odd exception here and there. One I can think of off hand was to take three Hoarcat prides against an Ophelia crew. They're great against shooting in general with both manipulative and small target, with the added bonus of being able to devour Ht1 models which are obviously plentiful in gremlin crews!

Acolytes in twos are amazing. In a slow moving crew by nature their from the shadows can be used to get a jump on dropping scheme markers in the right position, it's not always about putting them in an aggressive shooting/ice mirror position.

Silent ones in one or two are great as has been mentioned already. Mini Rasputinas with the ability to act as an ice mirror, to use other mirror to cast blasty goodness through, who can heal (with a trigger to effect all your other models within 2inches) and a BUILT IN def trigger that makes her difficult to kill off in a single activation. All for 6ss?! Go on then, you twisted my arm

[EntrepeNinja]

Not to mention the crow trigger on freeze will add longevity to anyone with frozen heart that are engaged with the target (oh ya, they can shoot into engagement. No gun. ) And Filling the Cracks creates the pulse heal. 

 

ENinja

[osoi]

Yeah I was looking that 1-2 Acolytes and perhaps 1-2 Silent Ones were good go to models for Rasy with a couple of Gamin and the Wendigo, taking Ice pillars limited upgrade as a genral core to build from. I am honestly looking at how to work the strongarm and/or Hannah into a lot of my crews lately (becasue I love the models) and actually see both of them offering some nice stuff to Rasy and Ramos. The strongarm can be a great reactive tank for Raspy and Hannah beats face nicely adding more magic an extra card draw and is a good anchor herself too. A metal gamin is almost a must for me with Raspy as they are absolute rockstars in every game that I play (and generally end up being kadeton's nemesis model), having one in the backfield with protection on Raspy seems like a nice cheap investment.

[Kadeton]

A metal gamin is almost a must for me with Raspy as they are absolute rockstars in every game that I play (and generally end up being kadeton's nemesis model), having one in the backfield with protection on Raspy seems like a nice cheap investment.

This is so goddamn true it hurts. I hate those things.

[BrotherPaulos]

Looking forward to trying out against your Arcanists mate.

I'm branching into guild presently with the last couple of months being about McCabe and now its on to Sonia, the Ortegas and then probably Lucius unless Hoffman is released by then. Trying to avoid McMorning so I don't fall back into my Resser habits. I also plan to try some ten thunders in the coming year, starting with Misaki.

[osoi]

Okay had my first game with Raspy last night at 42ss

 

Strat and schemes were Recon, bodyguard, deliver a message, breakthrough, a line in the sand and I cant remember the other one becaus eneither of us took it.

 

I decided to give Raspy a go as I had a couple of ideas while my opponent declared ressers and took Tara. (Raspy in general I think is a great matchup against any resser crew)

 

Scheme wise I chose bodyguard (on Snowstorm) and breakthrough (declared). my crew was

Raspy with Cold nights, seize the day, and armour of december

Snowstorm with imbued protection

2 Ice Gamin

1 Moleman

1 Metal gamin

Wendigo

Acolyte

 

The idea was to castle initially with a gamin and moleman on one flank to go for breakthrough while the other flank was being denied via ice pillars and the acolyte

 

I was thinking Snowstrom was going to be a big support piece and give Raspy herself some mobilty while creating  a good bodyguard for her too (plus it was a way for me to manipulate memebers of my crew into the quarters I needed them in if it came to that)

 

In the end I ended up with a 10-4 victory and see potential in Raspy as more than just a shooty spellslinger, choking the board and handing out paralysed. Pairing a gamin with a moleman worked really well and I actually used dug in a bit halting how the belles could manipulate me.

 

If anyone has any queries about the game I will elaborate

[HiveCommander]

Not so much about the game, but I'm still trying to figure out where on the blue scale I should start when painting the Ice Golem and Gamin. Any ideas?

[sssk]

What's that? A vague mention of Marcus? Well maybe you'd like to read some http://playitlikebeatdown.wordpress.com/

 

There's a bunch of posts on there about various Marcussy type things.

 

Enjoy

 

Dave/sssk

[Rathnard]

What's that? A vague mention of Marcus? 

 

Do you just run a regular forum search to see whether anyone's discussing Marcus?

 

Not so much about the game, but I'm still trying to figure out where on the blue scale I should start when painting the Ice Golem and Gamin. Any ideas?

 

At a guess, I'd start with deep blue, highlight and then drybrush white for a frost effect. 

 

That's not to say I've done that myself - my Rasputina was the transparent blue kit so I only painted the bases.

[HiveCommander]

 

At a guess, I'd start with deep blue, highlight and then drybrush white for a frost effect. 

 

That's not to say I've done that myself - my Rasputina was the transparent blue kit so I only painted the bases.

I saw that, Google image searching 'Children of December Rasputina' actually brings up the photos you have of it on your blog

I wanted to go for a more light blue, I figure Drakenhoff Nightshade is far too dark a wash for ice.

[osoi]

I will be starting to paint my models next week if everything goes to plan. I havent decided yet how to do them but I will post up a step by step.

 

... and yes sssk there will be more than just a vague refernce to Marcus in this thread, I am still putting together a bunch of beasts and the December stuff is going together quicker at the moment.

[osoi]

Well had a couple of league games last night with Raspy at 30ss and I feel very dirty ... I felt terrible for my oppenent as I went 10-2 in game 1 and followed that up with 6-1 in game 2. Both games were against the Viks

 

Game 1 was Squatters Rights and I took protect territory and stake a claim. My crew was Raspy, 2 acolytes, 2 ice gamin and the wendigo. I deployed the acolytes on a flank each in contatc with a squat marker and in range to take a shot his Ronin. 1 acolyte almost killed one of the ronin (who then sacced itself) and then the other manged to slow the other one and give me some time. The Viks were deployed centrally and Taelor on the other flank. The wendigo put some pillars in fornt of the viks which hemmed them in and kept them from getting close to me. The game deterioted to me blocking areas of the board off whiel slowing my opponents crew and blasting the models that provided a threat while I kept my other crew members just earning my VP. It was very methodical and I spent stones every turn to mill my deck so Raspy always got off the spells she needed (even if sometimes it was a negative on the damage flips).

 

The second game Was reckoning where I also took power ritual and breakthrough. I chose the crew pretty well thinking that I wasnt getting any points from reckoning but going for the scheme VP (in hindsight I should have known better Raspy is great for reckoning as she can obliterate models) I took a largely unchanged crew but swapped out one of the acolytes with a metal gamin and moleman. My opponent also didnt vary things much but ran 2 void wretches to also grab VP. After seeing what a pair of acolytes did to him in the previous game and with my deploying aggresively with good LoS most of my opponents crew depolye dhidden from sight, I was fine with that as the acolyte had a commanding position and somone would have to break cover to claim objectives. Once again I followed the same principle of blocking off areas of approach to make the enemy crew come to me in manageable chunks. I earned 2 VP from killing enemy models for reckoning without thinking about it and am starting to appreciated the raw power Raspy can bring to the table.

 

Things to note, I didnt find these games as enjoyable as the week previous mainly due to the static nature of Raspy. Having Snowstorm around changed things up and gave me so many more vectors to explore and exploit. I am thinking some movement manipulation is a must with her to get the most from what she can do. To me that means the inclusion of the Captain or Snowstorm in my Raspy lists as they provid ethe utility she needs. There is no reason in my mind to take her 'other' (non Armor of December) limited upgrade, not triggering on mirroring spells isnt a bad thing and all it helps you do is 'win more' ie put you in an even better position when you are already in front. You want upgrades that give her more options, thats why I love cold nights and the wendigo, you can shape the board a fair bit with a potential of 4 ice pillars on the board. Looking outside them for crew hires I am drawn to Hannah and the Strongarm and think they have a bit to offer, being able to tank nicely and varyin threat vectors.

 

Im looking forward to next week when we step our games up to 40ss (conveniently a good sized step to fot either Snowstorm or Captain in)

[dgraz]

Well had a couple of league games last night with Raspy at 30ss and I feel very dirty ... I felt terrible for my oppenent as I went 10-2 in game 1 and followed that up with 6-1 in game 2. Both games were against the Viks

 

 

Yeah, that's why I'm not a fan of small games. At that level there just aren't enough threats to worry a Raspy player (or Sonnia, or 'Dita, or several others)....they can focus on the one or two threats and everything is cake after that. At higher levels it becomes much more challenging.

 

When you switch from destructo Raspy to support Raspy it's pretty fun too.....stacking up Armor on your friends and handing out Paralyze like candy can actually be more powerful than blasting everything off of the table.

[osoi]

Support Raspy to me is infinitely more interesting than tactical nuke Raspy and that is how I am looking at playing her. I am looking forward to the larger games for that very reason at 30ss it really was choose and play with a strong but narrow focus.

[Rathnard]

I've played two games with Raspy this year. The first was her more or less blasting (or threatening to blast) models off the table against the Viks, while the latter had her more in support mode. In that second game she still flung around Decembers Curse, but the nature of the game meant she was also having to support her crew with the Sub Zero Aura and December's Touch. 

 

Either way, I'll take Armour of December over Shattered Heart every time. The latter improves her nuking capacity but it's like putting a massive "Engage Me!" target over her head. The Armour & Push makes her much tougher to counter IMO. 

[Tinweasel]

What's that? A vague mention of Ice Golem painting?

 

 

Just browsing through looking for suggestions on how to play a Raspy crew, as I'm currently fixing one up...

[Sybarite]

There are other ways of getting Raspy out of combat though.