Stake a Claim

[AnythingBut]

Given that it only comes up on the flip of a Joker I had never played stake a claim until last night. As its in the Tournament rules pack for an event this weekend I decided I had to give it a go at least once before hand!

 

I mainly play Raspy but also have a bit of experience with Marcus and given the two model pools I figured Marcus would do the job better than raspys slow moving crew.

 

I took Two Silurids, the blessed of December for leapy goodness and a soulstone miner to pop up and drop some claim markers. It worked well and I managed the win. I just wondered if anyone else had some tips for the Strategy to the Arcanist faction in general.

 

Im guessing im looking at marcus and his leapy beasts or raspy relying on acolytes to deploy in the opponents half to begin?

 

Soulstone miner probably a given in either crew with Stake a claim?

 

Any other handy hints and tips?

 

Cheers

[mythicFOX]

You've got the basics.  Cassandra's good for this strategy. 

 

Remember that if your opponent puts two of their markers too close together you can interact within 6" of both to reduce the total number they have by one.

[Barnaberible]

Things that hand out slow are useful as its a 2 action to place a claim marker

[ierthling]

I've had good success with Raspy - deploy an acolyte or two, chuck a couple of ice gamin with the ice golem, and run the wendigo up turn one, and you're well positioned to start claiming on turn two and own the board turn three, with good ice mirror placement as well. But for me, Ramos or Kaeris is the way to go here. If you get the Ramos spider factory going, especially if you're summoning upfield a little ways, the spiders can completely dominate the claim-staking in the later turns, with Hank in the backfield to murder anything that tries to claim on your side.

 

Another approach is Kaeris with Wings of Fire, Firestarter, a couple of Gunsmiths, and a Union Miner. If you've got low rams, you can use the Miner to shoot burning at the Gunsmiths, who use the rams on df to get Fast, and then even if you don't get around to giving the Firestarter burning, between the fast Gunsmiths and a reckless Firestarter you've got three models who can fly *way* upfield on Turn One, at least two of which also drop scheme markers when they land, and then you're owning the claim-staking top of turn two.

 

But I'll admit that's just theoryfaux - Stake a Claim comes up so rarely I haven't gotten to do it with Kaeris yet.

[Kadeton]

Anything with 3AP, Nimble, or the support to move as a (0) or outside of its activation is great for Stake a Claim.

[AnythingBut]

So played the game on Sunday at the tournament and in the end went with raspy instead of Marcus. Mainly due to the fact plant explosives was in the scheme pool meaning I wanted to use the mech rider and don't like to stray too far from beasts when using Marcus.

In the end I don't think raspy is too bad at the strat. It helps when you have a soulstone miner and a couple of acolytes starting in the opponents half of the board but it still wasn't enough to deal with a summing dreamer crew with two Silurids! His crew was amazingly good at the strat especially when the player your against happens to be the third ranked player in the country and top ranked neverborn who happens to play dreamer as his main master!

I found raspys crew able to place a few claim markers to begin but as it lacked the pushes (I don't have a snowstorm or captain model) or (0) movement it was then very time consuming to have to use a whole extra turn to move into a position to be able to drop another marker.

I think I'm set on using Marcus for stake a claim in future (Silurids are just amazing at it) but the experience taught me raspy is at least capable of doing a decent job at it, just not quite up to par with the elite masters on that particular strat (which I class both dreamer and Marcus as)

Thanks for all your advice guys, to say I learnt a lot about stake a claim over the weekend would be an understatement. It was a tough lesson but a lesson non the less!

[Adran]

Molemen teamed up with Mech Rider (or any model that drops scheme markers well) is also a good call for Staking claim. ( Its really part of Kadetons advice, but they have the rare capability to move more than 6" and still have 2 AP.)

 

You probably need 3 molemen to get at least 1 claim marker a turn.

[11th Thunder]

What do people think of Colette for Stake a Claim. She has a lot of pushes on a generally quick crew, as well as performers being able to interact whilst engaged - Do people rate her?

[Gorbad]

Colette is very, very good at Stake a Claim. As long as you bring the crew for it. But she can fairly easily get to place markers in turn 1 and with a little luck you can keep your opponent reacting to you, rather than being able to place the markers where he wants them to. Anything that gives you extra movement is good for this, and Colette bring that in spades. Howard is also a very good companion for her for this as he have Nimble meaning you can push or Prompt him up the table a bit, he can nimble and still interact. If you bring doves you can also teleport up.

 

Just remember that she doesn't let anyone do it as a (0) as that only apply to (1) interact actions.

[Sybarite]

Using a 12ss model for claim markers doesnt seem too cost effective though

[mythicFOX]

I'd agree with that.  You're generally in a fight with your opponent to get the most 'claimers' in your crew.

[11th Thunder]

I was thinking Cassie and some nice quick Performers backed up with Angela and her pushing skills.

[Solicitor 6]

A couple of months ago, I ran Colette in Stake a Claim with Cassandra, Angelica, the Duet, a dove, and the Sabertooth Cerebus.  The Cerebus also has leap which is really nice for getting the distance between markers.  Although the Cerebus mostly ended up staying back leaping at my opponents punk zombies and keeping them tied up and looking over the shoulder.

 

Using Prompt on Angelica is great as you keep prompting her with "Give Them An Encore" to push others into position to drop markers.  Colette would alternate making Doves and disapearing across the table to get into position for Entourage. 

 

The Duet ended up serving primarily as the beatstick allowing the others to drop markers while tying up and eliminting a Flesh Construct and Nicodem.

 

Overall, I found this a very effective crew for this strategy and will probably be running it this weekend for a tournament where this is the Round 1 strategy.

[Sybarite]

Hmm why prompt Angelica to push people when you can prompt the ones you want to move in the first place for a push and 1 action that can be a walk. Am i missing something?

[11th Thunder]

3" Push for Angelica each time - 6" movement rather than walk movement for the model Angelica moves.

 

Both of those are possible reasons, not that I always would depending on what I wanted from the movement at hand.

[Hateful Darkblack]

Every faction seems to have models that are good for Stake a Claim, but you kinda have to hire the right Crew to do it well.

 

Guild: C Hoffman with mechanical upgrades is amazing here, more so with Watchers. Perdita helps with Obeying models into position. 

 

Resurrectionists: The Necropunks are very good for this. Dead Doxy helps move models into position.

 

Arcanists: Soulstone Miners can pop up all over the enemy's half. Performers can Interact while Engaged, and can move friendly models off turn to set up the 2 AP action.

 

Neverborn: Silurid are perfect for this. Lilith can put models into position, and Cupid makes that (2) Action a much more attainable (1) Action.

 

Outcast: Tara is great at this with her 6 AP a Turn. Ashes and Dust is fast enough to do this, and can split up to get even more of these out (but can't Interact the turn it Splits, of course).

 

Gremlins: Rooster Riders breeze through this! Fingers blocks opponent actions and can act while engaged, which helps a lot.

 

Ten Thunders: McCabe (by which I mostly mean Luna) can do this with Badge of Speed Nimble on Hounds. Sensei Yu and Mr. Graves both move friendly models into position well.

[Gorbad]

Using a 12ss model for claim markers doesnt seem too cost effective though

 

If you are doing it turn 1 it can work out just fine. For later turns I'd have him do other stuff, but being able to put down a marker and sit in a very threatening position is pretty good for a turn one. Of course, if your opponent advance something important into range you can also just move him up and flurry them to death turn 1.