Powering up Hoffman's Rail Golem

[The Zinc Lich]

So, thanks to my lovely partner's Rail Crew, I have seen the destruction that a Rail Golem can wreak upon an unprepared crew. Naturally, being a good Guild supporter, I began formulating how I would subdue it and use its huge AP output for the forces of good (ish). Hoffman can bring it in with Arcanist Ties, and he can give it +2 Df, +1 Wp, +2 Mi, +1 armor, and, perhaps most powerfully, Ca 8 with the addition of a Metal Gamin and a Guardian. Locomotion on 2+ is pretty good.

 

Now, the question is, how to get its burning levels up to "Super Saiyan" levels. The Guild lacks burning-only attacks, unfortunately (I was really excited about Samuel, but his Witch Hunt ability specifies Enemy Models. So sad). So far, the best that I've managed to come up with is the Witchling Stalker's burning aura. A Witchling's attacks add burning +2 under the aura, allowing a possible 2 AP to the golem for each AP you spend on it. Even better, you can bring along an Oiran (which I have access to due to my aforementioned partner being lovely). Under the Handler's aura, Flutter becomes +1 burning for each wound you are willing to take (cards willing), which isn't a terrible deal.

 

Does anyone else have any good ideas?

[Bengt]

The limit to locomotion is the   for Momentum not his Ca, so you are never going to get that many extra AP out of him each turn. Further Redline is a great source of burning so I think increasing his Ml is way more useful than his Ca. As long as you use most of his AP to hit stuff/charge and get burning from Redline I think you will be golden. The "stunt" that requires lots of burning is really to run him across the board away from support, and again you can only do that if your hand is full of tomes.

[Myyrä]

I have played Rail Golem with Hoffman several times. I have never used other models to boost the burning levels and never have I ran out of burning.

[Adran]

Yes,the real cost is Tomes. I guess if you were to use his locomotion for movement, then you might run out, but I generally would rather spend his normal AP on movement as the bonus damage from attacking during locomotion is good!, and his trigger will renew burning on his attacks.

[Sholto]

Agree with all of the above. Having used the RG with Hoffman the limit on his Locomotion is Tomes in hand, not Ca. Card draw is probably better, so Sue or the Pathfinder could be useful there. Neither has any real synergy with the Hoff but both are still very useful in their own right.

 

Worth noting that if you really want to Rambo him, Ryle can give him Reactivate as early as Turn 3. In practice this is not so good, as it takes a 1 SS Upgrade, it takes up a Ryle (0) Action every Turn and he has two excellent (0) Actions already, and it takes up 3 scrap counters which Hoffman probably wants to use for something else.