katadder Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 hey guys, wondering how you guys play the Desolation Engine with Leveticus? Do you buy him in your starting crew or just a couple of abominations, some canine remains and upgrades for levi/alyce and try summon him? also, anyone got any ideas when Desolation Engine will be out as hes kind of important to the crew? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izikial Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 At low Ss i never by him, at high Ss I either buy him and focus on suporting him by summoning aboms near him and shooting into combats he is in with Levi ( if I hit the deso he gets to attack if I hit the enemy he gets to die) or If I don't by him I don't start with any aboms and judge it from there when and wear people are dieng, some times 3/4 aboms doing schemes and making loads of df tests are better than a single deso 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonahmaul Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 Commenting as I'd like some Desolation Engine advice too. But with regards to when it'll be available probably soon. It was a pre-order for the Black Friday sale so it has a model already and will get a general release (probably sometime in the next few months). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izikial Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 I use it like you use a giant in warhammer, just stick I in the middle and let the enemy wast time taking down the big bad, make I reactivate and go to 1 hp as your last action she he can go straight away and heal, just expect it to die and don't worry about it, you need to make up you points in others places while he stalles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spindle Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 Commenting as I'd like some Desolation Engine advice too. But with regards to when it'll be available probably soon. It was a pre-order for the Black Friday sale so it has a model already and will get a general release (probably sometime in the next few months). Most distributers here in the UK are listing mid Feb as the release date. Barring major catastrophe I'd imagine an early feb US release. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adran Posted December 22, 2014 Report Share Posted December 22, 2014 I have started with one in Jack DAw crews, and been happy with it. I have also not started with one, and just got it summoned in game thanks to Rusty and abominations. Its a big scary beat stick that relies on being in combat for its protetcion (healing from its Ml attacks). If you think you can pull that off, then its a good model. In some games he isn't going to be great. I wouldn't start with him in a Reconnotre for example, as I don't think he would be survivalble enough to earn his points. You can certainly play Leveticus without owning one, as the abominations are solid enough on their own, but I wouldn't focus on Summoning too many more if you don't own the engine. Its not always the best option to sacrifce 4 abominations to get the engine, they sometimes do much better being spread out and causing havok, and if you don't have an engine, you don't have a reason to try and concentrate them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kadeton Posted December 22, 2014 Report Share Posted December 22, 2014 I played about twenty tournament games with Levy on a recent trip, and didn't hire or summon the Desolation Engine once. Personally, I think it's a trap - it removes three extra activations and scoring models from your crew, and gives nothing back except more killing power, which you already have in spades. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hateful Darkblack Posted December 22, 2014 Report Share Posted December 22, 2014 You can play without the Desolation Engine without big penalty. Usually, you don't end up getting four Abominations in the same place at the same time and that's okay. That said, hiring Desolation Engine is rarely a waste when you do take it. It's a self-healing beatstick and often the best way to summon him is to right after he dies and drops two Abominations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengt Posted December 22, 2014 Report Share Posted December 22, 2014 Alpha and then Consume seems hilarious to me. Potentially much higher entertainment value than even Ramos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moxypoo Posted December 23, 2014 Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 Alpha and then Consume seems hilarious to me. Potentially much higher entertainment value than even Ramos. Ugh. That reminds me to never use a Desolation Engine against Marcus... To answer the original question: It really depends. I'll start with the DE if we flip Turf War or there are a lot of schemes that require crews to cluster up. It's not a particularly good scheme runner - you want it in melee. If you can guarantee getting it into melee, it can cause a huge amount of damage and disruption. The DE is the kind of model your opponent can't ignore, but it's not incredibly difficult to kill. If you suspect the DE will tie up or kill a number of enemy models, then it's usually a good hire. However, since it is so expensive, you need to weigh it against having multiple cheaper models (and therefore more activations). In my opinion, it's really scheme/strategy dependent. I wouldn't hire the DE for something like Reconnoiter or Stake a Claim, but would consider hiring it for Turf War and Reckoning. As for summoning the DE - it's pretty rare that an experienced opponent will let 4 Abominations that are close to each other live long enough to summon a DE. As the DE player you really need to decide whether you want greatly enhanced damage output or more activations and card draw. In my experience, this is really dependent on what I need at the time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpectreEliteGaming Posted December 24, 2014 Report Share Posted December 24, 2014 From a strictly competitive perspective - Kadeton and Moxypoo are very accurate. I would almost always prefer 4 aboms to one desolation engine except for in a very specific circumstance. This is one of those "there are just simply better options" situations... for the most part. Reckoning or turf war in Flank or (especially!) in Close Deployment would definently have me giving this hire an extra thought, though. If you want one, hire it - you will almost certainly not be able to summon it unless you spend a lot of effort specifically trying to do so - and if that is the case then you are probably neglecting what you are supposed to be doing - the abom split upon death makes up for the cost. If you are in a position to go ahead and summon one then chances are you are winning anyway. Also, board position (or presence in this case) is big and like I said, extra activations are huge - do you want four models or one? Now - pretend I didn't say any of that shit... if you are playing henchman led crews and you choose Rusty as your leader (as you should) - then a DE should be one of your highest considerations. That shit is amazing When I first started playing this game I came from a Magic background - Levy was my first master and in M2E he is one of my mains. I'm sure its because he exemplifies two of the most important considerations in Magic - controlling tempo and board control. Also, If Levy's crew was a deck - they'd be black and playing suicide... which is baaaaaadaaaaassss. Soon as I realized that, along with that ridiculous hiring pool, I knew this would be my main man (and henchlady, as it turns out). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomjoad Posted January 1, 2015 Report Share Posted January 1, 2015 Oh snap... Sui-Black is sweet, but what crew is The Rock? or some other do-nothing board control deck? This might alter what crew I start next! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpectreEliteGaming Posted January 1, 2015 Report Share Posted January 1, 2015 "Do nothing" sounds a lot like Kirai... if doing book-keeping is your thing The most immovable object in the game is probably a freikorps bubble. As far as passive control, Zoraida is king (queen?). If you love disruption and making your opponents rage/annoyed (think blue-black control) - try Jack Daw. If Jack Daw was a deck he'd be Mono-Black Discard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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