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How soon should Arachnid Swarms be in my future?


Nexus

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I just got the Ramos box, but I've kinda blown my budget for the month (by a LOT), so won't be able to get the Steam Arachnids box for a few weeks.

With just the Arachnids in the Ramos box, is it better to assemble them as 6 Arachnids, and just play with those for awhile, or should I assemble 3 of them into a swarm?

Which do you think I'll get more use out of?

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The ultimate craft solution is to use magnets or pins on the bases so that you get both six arachnids and two swarms.

How I ended up magnetizing my arachnids was to take each of the models and glue them onto 25mm bases with a magnet embedded in the base, and then I built several 30mm bases with steel washers in them and a few 40mm bases with washers stacked on top.  (Some day I'm going to get some 40mm washers...)  If I had planned it all out in advance (instead of using the supplies I had at hand), I think I would have tried to scrounge up some 20mm bases to mount the arachnids on, and move them between bases as needed.

Depending on what hobby scraps you have at hand, that sort of option lets you avoid having to choose.

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The best way to magnetize them is, IMO, to mount them on something that works on a base like a rock or a heap of scrap or half of a barrel or a street lamp or whatever and then magnetize that. Then just build 30mm bases that fit these and then a 40mm base that fits three of them. Numbering or otherwise marking them might help if you don't make the footprint of each the same.

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Thanks for the replies, but magnetizing isn't an option for me.
I'm going with thin transparent bases.
The transparent bases have already been used on my Outcasts, and I really like how they look on various terrains (they basically disappear on most terrain, with a white outline to mark the edge of the base for measuring.)

I don't mind spending the money to eventually get an Arachnid box (or even 2), but just not for a few weeks.   :)

 

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In the long term, I would say that I am slightly more likely to need 6 spiders than a swarm. 

In the short term, what would probably work is assembling 4 single arachnids and a 40 mm base with 2 on it.  (The really short term and cheapest option to properly make the choice would probably be make the 6 arachnids, and if they swarm together, place one 30mm base on top of a 40 mm base. If you use one of the Black plastic bases, it will standout from the rest of the crew quite well to tell it isn't a single spider)

 

 

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If you've only got 6 spiders and no magnet shenanigans, make them as 6 single spiders. 

Ramos should comfortably conjure up 2 every turn, and finds it tricky to conjure up 3 - so if you have 3 singles and a swarm you are guaranteed to run out of singles in turn 2, which is even before yu have enough on table to make a swarm. 

Not really a good look.

Making a swarm is highly situational, and staying as 3 singles is often better for most schemes and strats.

I'd even be tempted to suggest getting up to 9 singles before you build a swarm. 

 

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32 minutes ago, madaxeman said:

...

I'd even be tempted to suggest getting up to 9 singles before you build a swarm. 

Yeah, I was kinda playing with the idea of only making 1 Swarm out of the 6 box when I eventually get it for an end result of 9 Singles and 1 Swarm.

...or maybe just getting a second box for 12 singles and 2 Swarms, lol.    I'd hate to need the little guys and not have them, but I haven't played with him yet to know if that would ever be a situation that could occur in a real game.

My previous summoning experience is Hamelin, where I find I want a lot of both Rats and Rat Kings.    But with Hamelin, the Kings are definitely more useful than the rats.  With Ramos it seems the opposite except in special cases where a group of Scheme markers must be eaten immediately.

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12 singles is almost certainly probably too many.  

With a 4-5 turn game, you will struggle to ever have more than 9 on table, as you can only summon 2 or 3 per turn, and some of them will inevitably get killed given that being in base contact with enemy beatsticks is where they really want to be... You also actually want some to die to create more scrap to summon more spiders. 

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So you'd suggest 9 little guys and 1 Swarm once I get the Arachnid box?

6 little guys and 2 swarms seems like not enough little guys and one too many swarms, but I'm not sure.

I actually placed in our recent Malifaux League, so I'll have the funding to get a Steam Arachnid box sooner than expected.  :D

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Some fun math.  In the most ideal scenario Ramos can have 35 Spiders on the table at once in a 50ss game.  This is assuming that

1.Ramos summon 3 per turn in a 7 turn game. = 21

2. Ramos always has scrap to summon the spiders.

3. The Mech Rider summons one on turns 2-7 =6

4.  You start the game with the most spiders you can that allows both the Mech Rider and the SS Ramos needs to summon 3 every turn. = 8

This will NEVER happen but i did say the most ideal scenario :P 

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13 hours ago, farabaugh100 said:

Some fun math.  In the most ideal scenario Ramos can have 35 Spiders on the table at once in a 50ss game.  This is assuming that

1.Ramos summon 3 per turn in a 7 turn game. = 21

2. Ramos always has scrap to summon the spiders.

3. The Mech Rider summons one on turns 2-7 =6

4.  You start the game with the most spiders you can that allows both the Mech Rider and the SS Ramos needs to summon 3 every turn. = 8

This will NEVER happen but i did say the most ideal scenario :P 

I can get another 5 into that list. 

Hire the Brass arachnid instead of 1 spider, and re-activate the Mech rider turns 2-7 for 6 more spiders.

I'm confused as to why you pick a 7 turn game though, its more than standard, but not the maximum allowed turns

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