Starting Kaeris

[ashstpier]

Hi everyone.

I'm taking my first leap into Malifaux and was looking at getting the Kaeris crew box for myself and the Misaki box for my partner. It seems that the Misaki box is perfect for a 35ss game, but the Kaeris box is a little bit short of that total. So my question is, what would be a good model/models to add to the Kaeris box to get it to 35ss. I would be looking for something to make the crew as well rounded as possible for most schemes.

So far I'm considering the Mechanical Rider as it is just the right amount of ss and would give me some extra scheme running options. Also Joss would be a perfect fit to give me some extra tankiness, but then I would have to buy the whole Ramos box which is quite expensive to start with...

I would really appreciate any opinions!

[bertmac]

If you buy mech rider you will also need a box of 4ss minions to get the most out of it. The Ramos box gives you Joss + Howard plus a bunch of 4ss minions for when you do eventually pick up the mech rider. Joss and Howard add the killing power that the kaeris box is slightly lacking too. Otherwise the mei feng box gives rail workers who are a bit slow but can soak some damage and hand it out whilst being quite cheap to hire.

As a single model the rail golem hits hard and costs enough to get you to 35ss.

[Adran]

I wouldn't recommend the Mech rider as a first purchase, because it summons, and you will want to have things to summon.

Looking at the Kaeris box, I would say what it is lacking the most is damage output. In arcanist, that normally would suggest Joss, Howard, Rail golem or Sabertooth cerberus, of which only the rail golem isn't from a starter box. 

Another possible route is to buy the decembers acolyte box. They are a solid choic of minion for any arcanist crew, able to disrup[t the enemy frm the first turn,and the ability to deploy from the shadows is helpful for some schemes.

 

 

 

 

[ashstpier]

Thanks, yeah the Ramos box is definitely looking like the best option. I know I'll get good use out of all of those models at some point anyway. Possibly might go Ramos box, Mech Rider, Metal Gamin in that order. I've seen mixed thoughts on the Rail Golem. Is it generally considered worse than Howard or the others or does it work really well with Kaeris' burning?

I was thinking about getting some Acolytes maybe a bit later when moving to a 50ss crew.

[bertmac]

Most prefer Howard Langston to the rail golem as he can force through attacks as long as you have the cards even against high df models. The rail golem has to pick it's targets as it has ml5 but can put out an incredible amount of damage due to locomotion. Rail golem probably takes more preparation with keeping mid tomes to trigger additional attacks and needing to pick it's targets but can also do more damage when everything works.

Edited October 23, 2015 by bertmac

[FertileSpade]

Another good model to add soon is Johan for condition removal. It will be critical in some matchups that you have it. I've played Rail Golem in the one game I have with Kaeris so far. Very easy to stack burning conditions on it for locomotion but to get use out of it requires very good application. Put Imbued Protection on it if you do run it.

[cryion]

You gotta be kind of careful. I started out with Misaki. On paper, she seems straight-forward, but in actuality she is really hard to play.

If you pick another model up, like Howard or December Acolytes, then there is a good chance u ll take all the fun away from your partner.

Id start of a bit slower and a little bit less intimidating. In regard to which model... I have no idea. lol

Johan is certainly a good suggestion!

Not the biggest fan of the Rail Golem, not even in a Kaeris crew. He is super sweet in Hoffmans crew because there you can get around its biggest weakness:

Melee 5 - that just doesnt cut it for that amount of points this guy costs.

[ashstpier]

Johan definitely does look pretty awesome. That's a good point about not being too overpowered with Howard or similar, my partner hasn't played many miniature games before so I definitely would want to start quite easy for her. Maybe just grabbing Johan to begin with would be the right call and then I can move onto Ramos whenever my partner wants to grab another master, to give us both some more options. Is Kaeris considered a good overall master or is she very weak in some aspects (like killing perhaps)?

There are just so many interesting models I want to paint up I think I'm getting overwhelmed by the choice! That's what I'm loving about the game so far though.

[bertmac]

Kaeris is a jack of all trades. She can hand out a bit of damage certainly to burning enemies but its not what she is best at. She has great mobility, can soak up a bit of damage and depending on which limited upgrade you take can heal or help with dropping scheme markers all over the place.

 

Couldn't disagree more on imbued protection on the rail golem, it's going to die, accept that! It will take a fair bit of killing and probably kill close to its cost, if anything take imbued energies get it stuck in and make your opponent deal with it, if they can't ignore armour they won't do tons of damage and 2ss for +1df is a poor investment.

 

[ashstpier]

I see a lot of people saying that Grab and Drop is pretty much an auto-include. Would you agree with that? It seems like a great way to get out of sticky situations and let minions drop scheme markers easily.

[bertmac]

I've not used it a lot i've used purifying fire almost exclusively as never got to grips with grab and drop but i like the healing she can throw out and the ability to hide her with pyre markers is strong. Blinding flame is an option to get her out of trouble auto triggering the 3" push. I don't think there are really auto includes for her. I like to go with arcane resevoir, purifying fire then depending on strats and schemes seize the day makes it in a lot, played a 5 game tournament recently where assasinate came up 3 times so went with imbued protection. Df7 kaeris doesn't die and hands out a fair bit of burning just from her df trigger.

I think grab and drop may be more useful in low ss games as purifying fire doesn't heal fire gamin but you can probably afford to leave the limited upgrades at home and use the generic ones. 

[madaxeman]

You will someday need Joss and the Metal Gamin in all Arcanist lists, so start with them. Not too overpowering, but all solid models. 

[FertileSpade]

Kaeris is a jack of all trades. She can hand out a bit of damage certainly to burning enemies but its not what she is best at. She has great mobility, can soak up a bit of damage and depending on which limited upgrade you take can heal or help with dropping scheme markers all over the place.

 

Couldn't disagree more on imbued protection on the rail golem, it's going to die, accept that! It will take a fair bit of killing and probably kill close to its cost, if anything take imbued energies get it stuck in and make your opponent deal with it, if they can't ignore armour they won't do tons of damage and 2ss for +1df is a poor investment.

 

good points on imbued protection. my Rail Golem did die to a convict gunslinger in the game i ran it with Kaeris so i'll give the imbued energies a try at some point. there is the option to discard imbued protection to prevent damage as well as the +1 Df. that in combination with some healing from Kaeris could make it more survivable. my basic reasoning was that the points cost just to run the model bare bones was significant enough to make it worthwhile investing another 2 SS to try and make it more survivable. all in all Rail Golem really is a feast or famine model.

[bertmac]

Kaeris is a jack of all trades. She can hand out a bit of damage certainly to burning enemies but its not what she is best at. She has great mobility, can soak up a bit of damage and depending on which limited upgrade you take can heal or help with dropping scheme markers all over the place.

 

Couldn't disagree more on imbued protection on the rail golem, it's going to die, accept that! It will take a fair bit of killing and probably kill close to its cost, if anything take imbued energies get it stuck in and make your opponent deal with it, if they can't ignore armour they won't do tons of damage and 2ss for +1df is a poor investment.

 

good points on imbued protection. my Rail Golem did die to a convict gunslinger in the game i ran it with Kaeris so i'll give the imbued energies a try at some point. there is the option to discard imbued protection to prevent damage as well as the +1 Df. that in combination with some healing from Kaeris could make it more survivable. my basic reasoning was that the points cost just to run the model bare bones was significant enough to make it worthwhile investing another 2 SS to try and make it more survivable. all in all Rail Golem really is a feast or famine model.

Absoutely. Starting out I really wasnt't sure on the rail golem but having persevered I know i can usually get the points out of it! I've had it murder numerous masters and beatsticks as well as about half an opposing crew in one activation before! It certainly has a place in a kaeris crew. Imbued energies allows a 12" threat range for a charge even using the 3ap to triple walk is worthwhile if you have the tomes to trigger locomotion as those attacks do so much damage!

[Sethis]

I played my third game of Malifaux last night. I started with the Kaeris box and have since bought a Golem, Rail Crew and Smoke and Mirrors.

I ran Kaeris, Cassandra, The Firestarter and a Rail Golem with some fire Gamin and Rail Workers.

Assuming that I managed to make everything happen legally, this is what happened:

Turn 1. The Firestarter activates and casts Ignition on the Rail Golem twice, then repositions with a Reckless AP. Ignition has an inbuilt Tome, which triggers Stoke the Flames, so the Golem gets Burning +4 from two casts.

Next, Cassandra activates, and uses Understudy to cast another Ignition, for a further +2 Burning, Nimbles to follow the Firestarter, and drops a Scheme token to later reposition with Trapdoors.

The Golem activates, and now has Burning +7. I have two Tomes in my starting hand so manage to Locomotion three times and Charge, engaging a Winter Acolyte and two Ice Gamin that Rasputina had got into mid table for Turf War. Cue some very messy squelching sounds...

Did I do that right? Because it seems slightly broken... In any case, a LOT of fun!

My favourite Kaeris move has to be Grab and Drop, with Blinding Flame. If you hug buildings, you can wait for someone to get close, then Grab and Drop them onto the top floor of the building, and reposition yourself next to them on the top floor. They take falling damage, and even though they fall onto the roof/top floor they always take the full amount that you won the flip by (because you place the model before suffering the falling damage?). Then you can Flaming Halo to push them 3"... off the building. Where Cassandra can wait to stab them with her Saber, which can get you another Understudy action, to allow you to Twirl with the Gas Can the model that just fell twice, and is now on fire and has been stabbed...

Needless to say, my opponent is never going near a building with those three anywhere near it, ever again.

Like I say, only three games into this system but loving the tricks you can pull off!

[Bengt]

The Golem activates, and now has Burning +7. I have two Tomes in my starting hand so manage to Locomotion three times and Charge, engaging a Winter Acolyte and two Ice Gamin that Rasputina had got into mid table for Turf War. Cue some very messy squelching sounds...

Did I do that right? Because it seems slightly broken... In any case, a LOT of fun!

 

The limit on Locomotion is pretty much always how many tomes you have, not the burning. So using that many AP to add burning is not very useful unless you can vent boiler on quite a few models, but then you can't use Locomotion at all that turn since it's also a (0). Also, using a beater to kill one much cheaper enemy model on the first turn isn't very broken.

[Sethis]

It's more that he leapt straight from my deployment zone onto the midline and destroyed someone, while being a friendly model I can use to drop scheme markers from with Trapdoors for Line in the Sand - it could easily have been someone more valuable than an Acolyte that got smashed in the face. The fact that he was engaged with three seperate models due to his 50mm base and 2" threat so that they couldn't cast Rasputina's spells was also quite important, although I'm not naive enough to think the Raspy player will let me do that again. If he'd been deployed on the flank he would have been able to do the same thing to Howard Langstrom instead. Even on a straight SS to SS ratio, he's a 13ss model that took out 15ss of stuff while only taking 4 damage from them.

As for the AP investment, I've spent 3 AP in total to give the Golem essentially 6 AP provided I can get the Tomes, doubling my investment, and used models that have 3AP per turn themselves in order to do it, meaning that they didn't spend their entire activation setting this up.

Is it going to work every time? Nope. Is it something my opponent has to be aware of and play around? Yep. Because provided I can keep the Golem within 17-18" of Cassandra and The Firestarter, they can do it whenever they want. I'm sure there are other crews and models that could have shut him down, but in a situation where they can't...

[Bengt]

Yeah Trap Doors is quite good, but it works on anything, most notable the Malifaux Raptor which is super cheap and can teleport anywhere. So this is in no way a feature of the Rail Golem, if anything often you wont be able to use it effectively on a beater since the marker can't be placed within 3" of an enemy model.

There are a lot models that can get to the middle and attack, especially with help from the right models. E.g. the Captain, Angelica, and Performers can push; Colette can prompt; Howard can Nimble; Blessed and Sabretooth can Leap.

Some of those are also more reliable hitters, the RG has potential and will occasionally rock hard, but other games you wont get enough tomes, and his lowly Ml 5 means you'll really struggle against certain enemies. So I think RG is pretty well balanced.

Finally, considering that you can get burning from attacks the golem makes (from the Redline trigger) you don't need to build up that much burning, put some of that burning on the enemy instead! Though if you do give him burning with an attack action, remember that you can cheat in a low ram to get an extra burning from the Df trigger.