Student of Steel

[Baalbamoth]

Hey, so I run Ramos and am getting Colette, and with either list I'm going to be running almost all constructs. A few games ago I went up against Tara with a Student of Steel. The combo almost wiped out my whole Ramos crew by the second turn. Specifically the student's attack is devastating to a construct. Flurry, ignores armor, and ++ to damage is death to just about any construct hit with it. And the Terror 12 meant I was wasting high cards just to be able to attack it. Hard to wound and hard to kill and armor means it's damn hard to take down.

If every heavy hitter you have is a construct, how do you deal with this?

[TimH]

The same way you kill models like Teddy.

 

Other than terrifying the student has very little going for it defensively and is generally agreed to be a bit overcosted. If the opponent knows you are running almost exclusively constructs (as many arcanists will) he is a good pick but he lacks mobility tricks of his own. Try to predict where he will be going and then drop him once he has activated or try and ignore him as best as you can.

[Dirial]

Who agrees it's overcosted? *puzzled*

[Bengt]

It doesn't have hard to kill. It's twist vs constructs require a suit so that shouldn't happen that often.

 

What are you using? Ramos, Howard, Joss all have Wp 6 so you only need a 6 for the horror, and either ignore armour or have high minimum damage. Also Magnetism ignores both armour and HtW (though Metal Gamin have Wp 4).

[zFiend]

Who agrees it's overcosted? *puzzled*

Well they're not the best hires. I prefer them as summons.

[Dirial]

Well they're not the best hires. I prefer them as summons.

I agree that hiring might be iffy because of their specialization.... but "generally agreed to be overcosted"? That's the Executioner, not the Iron Zombies. Nowhere near fatty, I feel.

[zFiend]

Well yeah no. They aren't nowhere near the same level. It's not a bad hire or too much per say if you know you are getting that trait against you that they are built to counter.

[D_acolyte]

How to deal with a student of steal... hmmm how do you deal with any anti armor model in an armor base crew, you kill it and do so quickly. I always have 1 anti armor model in my list and it amazing how much people forget about it and let if do something like eat Joss or Howard. Ramos or Cassandra can kill the student or charge him with Howard or Joss. The name of the game is the elimination of targets in order to accomplish your goal.

Also for reser anti armor I prefer Datsu Ba

[Math Mathonwy]

If the opponent knows you are running almost exclusively constructs (as many arcanists will) he is a good pick but he lacks mobility tricks of his own. Try to predict where he will be going and then drop him once he has activated or try and ignore him as best as you can.

Tara makes him plenty mobile, though.

[Fog]

I like to use Ramos's arcing shield upgrade to make sure my opponents have to waste cards trying to deal with my models.  A positive flip on your defense with def 5/6 constructs means your opponent will have to throw extra resources into trying to deal with your stuff.  I also suggest keeping your big hitters within easy access of each other.  If she pops out and goes after Hank you wipe it out with Joss and vice versa.  Ramos can also be used to both add on some extra damage that ignores armor (and randomization) and I find him a good model to use to bait out big hitters sometimes.  His defense is low but his trigger is amazing at keeping him from getting killed.  Nothing is better than having someone discard for flurry, make one attack and get pushed back out of melee.

 

Also, never underestimate your summoned spiders.  Effective melee 5 isn't bad at all (especially if you're running Under Pressure) and disengaging strikes become scary if you're able to get two of them in there.