New to Ramos

[mythicFOX]

Lot of questions!

What do people us for upgrades with his crew?  - On the man himself I take Arcane Reservoir and Combat Mechanic by default, then adjust to the situation. On the rest of the crew it just tends to be Imbued Energies where needed, again scenario depending.

As anyone tried running Gunsmiths with Ramos? - Yes, they're not worth it. I wrote a blog post about why they're sub standard; here.

How do people feel about mole-men as scheme runners? - Back in wave one they were the go-to scheme runner in Arcanists. Best used in pairs, you get two activations for 8ss, which are hard to pin down or kill.  They're still a solid choice in a field more filled with objective runners; Mechanical Rider, Cassandra, Soulstone Miner, and Raptor combos.

[Fog]

I typically use Under Pressure, Arcing Screen, and Arcane Reservoir. I've never been a fan of combat mechanic. Fox is spot on about gunsmiths-they're for Ironsides, not Ramos.

I typically don't use "scheme runners" with Ramos, per se. I find that by playing aggressively I'll have plenty of spiders available to drop whatever markers I might need. If I do feel like I need a dedicated runner, it'll usually be the mechanical rider.

[Rurouni Benshin]

I played against Mei Saturday at the final table in a tournament. I scored assassinate on turn 2 using Langston with imbued energies and an arachnid. He activated last, used two actions to pull around a building and two more to charge a "completely safe" Mei Feng with +2 armor. She died on the second decapitate. My second activation took Kang to hard to kill.

After that much work, who cares that he gets taken down. Even if he just took out the master, that's worth the points.

Seems to me the person you were playing against either wasn't fully aware of Langston's abilities, or was planning rather poorly on his game play.  Not having 2 soulstones or 2 cards in your hand to prevent Assassination on Turn 2 speaks more about the player than the models doing the work, IMHO.

That said, nothing's impossible in this game.  If you target models with the right attack against the right defense, it will die.  The game favors offensive abilities over defensive inherently, so beatsticks will win in the long haul usually more often than others.

What do people us for upgrades with his crew?

I like Arcane Reservoir and Under Pressure as my two staple upgrades.  I've also used Seize the Day with him before, and it's worked out well with him.  Otherwise, I tend to switch between Imbued Energies every now and again, depending on the strat/scheme pool.

Edited September 17, 2015 by Rurouni Benshin

[Fog]

It was collect the bounty, and he got caught up trying to finish Joss off.  He thought he had rail walked to safety but he had forgotten about imbued energies.

[Rurouni Benshin]

It was collect the bounty, and he got caught up trying to finish Joss off.  He thought he had rail walked to safety but he had forgotten about imbued energies.

Ah, so a tactical error on his part.  I've only used Imbued Energies once or twice for the "Fast" condition, largely because "Frame for Murder" is usually on the table when I decide to play it.  I think I've always benefited more from the card draw now, that I think about it.

[frostwolf428]

With the upgrades I was using under presser last night and it was great, Ive also been using arching screen almost every game cause when do you not want + to defense flips, I also tried out powered by flame and just thought it was a cool way to add +1 damage/ or in the right spot stack burning. I really like Combat mechanic but Ive almost never used it, my models are either too far away, there's no scrap or they just don't need the healing. Ive been trying to cut down on my upgrades so i can get more units, since too often I'm stacking 2-3 upgrades on a unit and then after the match thinking how i did not really use the upgrade and 2 two cost upgrades is 1 steam spider that i could have had and so on...

Arcane Reservoir is nice ...I think I liked it with raspy but Ive not tried it with Ramos

Maybe a noob question but when do you burn a stone to prevent damage? before or after the damage flip? it came up last night and we were unsure.

P.S imbued energies is just great, ice golem killed 3 summoned Resser units in 1 turn

[bertmac]

You can choose to spend stones to prevent damage after the damage flip.

[4554551//]

What do people us for upgrades with his crew? One i was running a lot at first was bleeding edge tech but its says minion constructs get regen...so...only my steam arachnids would get it? I proxy-ed The Captain and he is great to use, his 5 inch push is just SO good. Fun story Howard with imbued energy killed Seamus in one activation and a dead doxy, my opponent forgot he had nimble. As anyone tried running Gunsmiths with Ramos? and how do people feel about mole-men as scheme runners?

Upgrades

Ramos-Healing, +def, +ml

Joss-Bruning and regen, That burning stacks up so fast..

That little ven diagram of terror has served me well in almost every single game I've played.

Apart from that imbued, energies on Johan/howard. One for walk+heal, the other for running up and stabbing face.

 

I'm also a little late, but other models-

Essense of power. Changed over from BA as mentioned above and have never looked back

Mechanical rider. A lot of people use him as a staple crutch. And he's fantastic, but I field him in only about 60% of the games. Still, super solid.

Johan, you know why.

For spiders-spider swarms, magnetise them to bases, saves buying a ton of models.

Mobile toolkit. To this day I honestly don't know what it does, but I take it in 100% of games. It walks up to within 8 of joss (charge range), and gets cut in half for 2 scrap. Summon from there.

Metal gamin. Great little guys to hold key locations, magnetise vs enemy constructs and jam big targets. Super good with regeneration. Most common thing to summon with the rider.

Performer. Interacts while engaged, blows up enemy scheme markers at a distance, lures. I've never taken 2, but having 1 in your arsenal for certain scheme pools has been invaluable.

Gun smith and molemen, I'm not fussed on either. Not with ramos, your spiders already have unimpeded and are free, and gunsmith don't synergise. For a heavily synergistic crew like Ramos, something has to be stupid good to be worth bringing if it doesn't add to the core plan. Notably the performers.

Lazarus is also kinda cool. some blasts and good range killing. But as awesome as he is, I wouldn't look at him until after you've had a play with the above.

[frostwolf428]

Thanks Bertmac for the answer to damage flips

"For a heavily synergistic crew like Ramos, something has to be stupid good to be worth bringing if it doesn't add to the core plan. ".-4554551//

     I agree, SO much of his crew synergies so well together I need very few other models. But I love to have options. I want my opponents to have to wonder what I'm going to play next match and how do they counter it. Also since I'm still very new I like shaking things up, thinking outside the box.  For example Wyrd place podcast talked about using the Ice Golem to throw Electrical Creations. Now I don't think this is a great move/strategy but it's a good example of thinking outside the box trying something new.

4554551//-Switched to essence of power, and haven't looked back. All Ramos does is cast, so positive flips and +1CA are a lot more impressive than they seem at first glance.

It sounds good...but my Ramos turns go as follows cast arching Screen summon Spiders maybe move some were in that order most matches I hardly cast anything, yes the spiders and arching are casting but I often filp  well, or have something in hand to cheat so the +1 ca is nice but i don't think needed and empower is cool but I don't spend stones on Ramos's turn maybe I'm just missing something i should/could be doing. I know empower would work for defense too but Ramos is often behind a screen of powerful models and rarely gets attacked. I'll proxy one in this week and give it a try maybe Ill be surprised.

Aside from Johan are there any other mercs worth looking at?

Also I'm a little surprised how quickly the Gunsmiths were voted down as an option I figured people would like to use them to have some range in some matches, but I can see how between Ramos and them you would have a hard time having cards in hand and be able to trigger what you want.

[Freman]

December Acolytes have some ranged ability, are decent scheme runners, and don't compete for cards with the rest of your party. Gunsmiths are really nice models, and have cool rules, but they are resource intensive.

[4554551//]

Have a go with essence of power. The +1 is a lot more useful than you think. Like you said, you typically arching screen and summon spiders. The extra stone is to summon 3 spiders off a 10 of tomes (11 without essence) and 2 without a tomes in hand. Sometimes you get lucky and not have to use the card in hand, but typically it's just for the amplify.

Being a walk 6 incorporeal I have been known to jam with it as well, but that's a fringe thing that shouldn't really be happening.

"but I often filp well"-that's not how probability works lol.

As for mercs, Lazarus is good for extra shooting. And I'm kinda liking the look of the new guy, Big Jim or something. Haven't tested though. Other than that, not really.