Starting with Nicodem

[Peytro]

So I'm looking to pick up Nico as my first crew box, and am planning on pretty much just playing out of the box with 35 ss with another new player until we get the rules down.  However, are there other models I should pick up for summoning?  What's a good approach to take with summoning on small scale games?

 

[Nukemouse]

I'm pretty new to the game myself so maybe my advice isn't the best, but i believe Nicodem can summon a lot of mindless zombies.

[Clement]

You've picked quite the black hole to jump into, since to achieve "Full Nicodem optimization" you're going to want to buy most of the faction

 

Having said that, there are some short term purchases that will give you a quality Nico Death Ball *without* buying 40 odd models.

 

First thing I'd actually suggest would be take a good hard look at the Seamus and McMourning Boxes.  You aren't necessarily buying them to field them as whole crews, you want them for parts.  Belles are great for dragging wary enemies into the loving arms of Nico's punk zombies; and Sybelle can benefit from most of Nico's tricks.  For McMourning, the canine remains and Flesh construct are obviously good pieces for Nico (they are undead after all), while the Nurses are a very solid buff/debuff piece.

 

If crew boxes aren't your thing, mindless zombies work well with Nico as does the University of Transmortis box.  It will get you a toolkit of specialized beatsticks that can solve a lot of problems.  The valedictorian is another great undead beatstick who can benefit from Nico's auras.

[Paradigm]

I'd say using only Nicodems crew box will work just fine in the beginning, especially if you're playing somebody else who's also new. Nicodem can buff quite well with his auras and ability to throw out fast. You'll want to focus on this until you get more models to summon. Once you feel ready to buy more models, I'd double Clements advice above. Some other suggestions would be Shikome if you need mobile models that can chase down and kill enemy scheme runners, Crooligans if you want scheme runners of your own, and maybe Ashigaru to protect you if your enemy is using models that will try to take Nicodem down (e.g. Misaki).

 

If you want to make Nicodem a ridiculously powerful summoner I would recommend getting two support models to assist him: First get a Nurse. She has a trigger that let's you fully heal a model, while giving it paralyze as a nasty side effect. To counteract this, get Chiaki from Yan Los box (or a proxy). She has a ranged ability that removes conditions. To top this of, get Corpse Bloat on Nicodem. With this setup, Nicodem can use his activation to create a corpse marker, burn a soulstone and cheat an appropriate card to summon whichever model you might need and finish by putting fast on said model. After that, activate the Nurse to fully heal your freshly summoned model and give it paralyse. Lastly, use Chiaki to remove paralyze. Rince and repeat every turn to churn out fully buffed models at a pace that is very difficult to handle for just about any opponent.

[zFiend]

A really solid core for Nicodem is Mortimer, Izamu, Graveyard Spirit and a Nurse. From there on you can build your crew by summoning or by what models are required by the schemes. 

[jonahmaul]

The only thing that others haven't mentioned is the University of Transmortis box.  The Valedicatorian is a solid Hench(wo)man to have and the other Iron Zombies are great summons, allowing you to summon in whatever is most appropriate based on what you are facing.

 

One thing to note is that summoners are pretty unbalanced at 35SS so is not the best to play against a new player.  I'd also advise learning a summoning Master to start and learn the basic game first so you know a bit more about resource management and how important that becomes for summoners.  Not really helpful if you want to play Nico I admit!

[Clement]

Honestly you can do great things with the basic nico box alone. Nico himself gives out fast/slow, heals/damage, and replaces punk zombies when/if they fall. Mortimer can fresh meat to urge the pack forward (so they can flurry), and any corpses you get can be funnelled into boosting Nicos cast so decay gets meaner. Objectively, what Nicos box is bad at is scheme running. Get yourself some crooligans or necropunks who can go *win you the game* while the Nicodem death ball ties up the other crew.

If/when your ready to jump into the fun though, start the buying as suggested above. One of my favorie things about Nico is that there really isn't a model in the faction he can't use well.

[Durza]

Killjoy is also fantastic for Nico, being undead, but then again killjoy is fantastic for everyone.

[crimzzen]

Good info here! I made a similar post awhile back about Molly and Nico.  See here:

http://wyrd-games.net/community/topic/107904-ressers-in-m2e/

[Peytro]

The nurses would have to be hired and can't be summoned, right?  So would it be worth hiring them and summoning the punk zombies (to maintain the small SS limit)?  Or for smaller games would it be better to just hire the punks and summon mindless zombies, iron zombies, or some other approach?

[Clement]

It would be the first, but you're going going to find that Nico (and summoners in general) is an absolute back breaker at small point games, especially once you have a large pool of models to summon with. It would be kinder to your opponant while games are small to use Nico's summons to replace stuff as it falls.

[Gremlin guy]

I just noticed Nicodem lost Embrace Death. This makes me sad :-(

[Eldritch Enforcer]

Do not despair, Nicodem is still awesome!

[Eldritch Enforcer]

also punk zombies are a good combatant, and mindless zombies make for good flesh shields.

[zFiend]

The nurses would have to be hired and can't be summoned, right? So would it be worth hiring them and summoning the punk zombies (to maintain the small SS limit)? Or for smaller games would it be better to just hire the punks and summon mindless zombies, iron zombies, or some other approach?

It would be a lot better to hire the Nurses and summon the punks as the punks are a bit costly hires, a bit too costly but amazing summons. But in small games. Summoners tend to go off the charts.

[jonahmaul]

As above regarding hiring Nurses.  If you're both learning/new to the game then I would suggest that you don't summon with Nico to start, or impose some sort of artificial limit.  Summoners are unbalanced at 35SS when you less resources to manage and Nico is probably the best summoner in the game.  Your opponent is certainly going to get a bad impression playing against that!