Facing more Ressers lately, pointers?

[Boomstick]

So one of my usual opponents has recently finished painting a massive amount of Resser models he tripped over on eBay, and as such I've been seeing them much more often. While I've been doing fairly well at focusing on my strats and schemes over worrying about killing things, I'm having issues dealing with the faction as a whole. Summoning and activation control are, of course, very strong, and HtW requires a bit of forethought to get around, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something obvious that will help level the playing field.

I'm not looking for how to fix a particular list (though for any who are wondering, thus far I've suffered various levels of defeat with Kaeris, Mei Feng, and Colette against McMorning, Seamus, and Yan Lo, respectively. The last game was more an issue with scheme choices, target priority, and an uncooperative deck than anything), but rather I'm curious about what you hire into your Arcanist crews when facing Ressers, and how you make use of them that's different from when facing other factions.

[Armored]

Well Joss is always a boon when it comes to facing anything that is *tough* his axe alone can deal with most big things from Ressers. Also HtW only matters if you weak damage is low so The Captain, Johan and Howard are all great models as well for dealing with HtW as well. Also i must ask are there specific problems models? 

[Griffin839]

I don't know about how everyone else approaches the match-up, but to me the Arcanist vs Ressurectionist matchup is like playing solitaire across the table from someone else also playing solitaire and then seeing who can knock each others stacks off the table right before someone wins. I find if you try to fight them, interact with them, disrupt them, you will lose as they bog you down with models and out ap you. So you ignore them. Accomplish your schemes as best you can and then right before the game is deny them those crucial points at the end and win 10-7 or 8-6 depending on if its GG15 or GG16(finding it much harder to get 10 now).

To that ultimate end I like taking Marcus and Rasputina depending on which play-style the scheme pool fits better. With Marcus I am going for speed and maneuverability with lots of leap and unimpeded shenanigans to run around the board accomplishing schemes, while avoiding their slower less maneuverable minions. Pretty much running and jumping all over the board so they can't kill anything while I drop markers and kill scheme runners on the fringes. Denying vp while keeping corpse markers away from their master so they cannot use those markers to summon. Ill typically take Sabertooth Cerberus, Blessed of December, some number Silurids, Razerspine Rattlers and Myranda. If I have to hold a point like in Turf War I'll bring some Waldgeists and maybe a Slate Ridge Mauler to hold the fort while my nimble beasts scheme run.

With Rasputina I am going for a crew that denies what the Ressers typically want to do without having to waste time to do it. By that I mean a crew full of frozen heart to deny horror duels and give immunity to paralysis. Plenty of ice constructs to deny corpses. Lots of models that shatter so that their summons are dying as they kill my stuff forcing them to waste resources to rebuild as I continue to use mine to gain VP. These things that really make Ressers unhappy and I dont have to contribute any ap to do them, allowing me to focus on my schemes while simultaneously slowing theirs down a bit.

The final Master I will sometimes take is Ramos, and he is the one exception to how I feel about the matchup. When I take Ramos Im not going for the solitaire approach, I am going for the "anything you can do I can do better approach". I bring a full summoning package. Ramos with the electrical creation upgrade, full cache(which Im almost always burning 1 a turn for cards), arcane reservoir, 3-4 steam arachnids, brass arachnid and the mech rider. Then I put mech rider in one corner with the brass arachnid for reactivate shenanigans. and Ramos in the other and get to work summoning constructs that I just throw into their zombies. Steam Arachnids work really well at bogging down zombies and often the resser player cant afford to cheat flips on them as they need all their high cards to summon. Keep feeding them a constant stream of 5-6 constructs a turn (1 electrical creation, 2 spiders(more reliable but if you can do 3 go for it) and 2 from mech rider after reactivate) while any spiders/gamin not needed to tie up the enemy run around and complete objectives. I really love this style if the interact schemes are in the pool. 

[Boomstick]

31 minutes ago, Armored said:

Well Joss is always a boon when it comes to facing anything that is *tough* his axe alone can deal with most big things from Ressers. Also HtW only matters if you weak damage is low so The Captain, Johan and Howard are all great models as well for dealing with HtW as well. Also i must ask are there specific problems models? 

Not taking Joss was keenly felt especially in the last game, it's true.

Across all the games against Ressers I've had there haven't been any models in every one. Against McMorning I had issues with Doug the doctor himself and his summoning more flesh constructs as I got rid of them. Seamus and Yan Lo both had belle(s), which I was watching out for, and really only caused me problems with Seamus and the full belle bomb. Yan Lo himself caused me the least trouble, mostly just trying to lighting jump Colette out of position (first time I've had to use her built in Df trigger), but Toshio and Datsue Ba caused me no end of headaches due to my less than ideal number of offensive Ca and ranged attacks. Ultimately, I think I need to make a study of the Ressers.

[Boomstick]

19 minutes ago, Griffin839 said:

I don't know about how everyone else approaches the match-up, but to me the Arcanist vs Ressurectionist matchup is like playing solitaire across the table from someone else also playing solitaire and then seeing who can knock each others stacks off the table right before someone wins. I find if you try to fight them, interact with them, disrupt them, you will lose as they bog you down with models and out ap you. So you ignore them. Accomplish your schemes as best you can and then right before the game is deny them those crucial points at the end and win 10-7 or 8-6 depending on if its GG15 or GG16(finding it much harder to get 10 now).

This is the best way I can think of to describe how I've felt in each game. Spot on.

Unfortunately Marcus and Raspy aren't on my Arcanist bench at the moment, but your tactics sound, well, sound. And I can adapt other crews to similar ideas.

19 minutes ago, Griffin839 said:

When I take Ramos Im not going for the solitaire approach, I am going for the "anything you can do I can do better approach".

This (with Ramos being my one Arcanist master I haven't gone zombie hunting with yet) is my next approach. Good thought with the electrical creation upgrade, I'd honestly looked at it and forgotten it in favor of other ones. I get the feeling I'll be going back over a lot of unused tricks as I study this new foe. Thanks!

[Mxbedlam]

Reactivated Joss can destroy lots of summoned models each turn. Large arachnids eat corpse and scheme markers as I think does the Arcane Emissary. Deny them resources and they falter quickly.

[Freman]

How many electrical creation models would you typically take? I'm assuming hire one for Joss kill summoning scrap, and then summon one a turn? Since they have a life of only three turns you'd get a maximum of three on the table at any one time.

[Jordon]

I almost always drop Mei Feng when facing ressers and it usually works out in my favour for two main reasons.

1) Kang - This guy alone has a decent sized army wide buff that gives everyone focused attacks. Now pair this with the next ability....

2) Hard Worker - This gives a (0) to ignore a vast majority of resser defences and works great on Mei, who gains a (0) where she had none before.

It's not very common to be able to gain positive flips against ressers, but between kang, hard worker, and implacable assault, you can get it reliably and tear through models.

[bertmac]

Rail golem murders high wound low defence opponents. Ive taken down seamus hat included in 1 activation with it!

Kill mcmourning he gets stuck in does lots of damage and ignores armour but is fairly squishy himself.

And as said kang is great especially with ranged troops as he helps them basically ignore cover with the +flips he grants.

[jonahmaul]

A word of caution - McMourning isn't that squishy unless you time your attacks correctly.  Although he's only Df/Wp 5 he has 14 wounds and can heal 5 of those back a turn with Ml attacks.  If there's a Nurse floating around then he can be Paralysed and Full Healed too (sure it means he potentially wastes an activation but if he's alive it's worth it).  McMourning will absolutely butcher a Rail Golem too because it's low Defence, he ignores it's armour and poison also ignores armour.  Nurses can also shut down Rail Golem's pretty effectively too.  Having said this if you get the Golem or Howard into McMourning after he's activated (so he can't heal) then you will give him a whopping.  If you want to target Resser Masters in particular then Seize the Day is useful so you can attack them late turn then try to win initiative and attack them again at the beginning of the next turn to limit their ability to either get away from trouble or heal.

 

Other general hints are if you're struggling with summoning then put pressure on their hands by targeting key models early so that the high cards needed for summoning are used for Defence instead.  Anything with in-built (+) to damage or with high low damage will help negate HtW.  Similarly anything that Blasts will also get around HtW.

[mythicFOX]

One quick thing I'd add is I always consider is Warding Runes. Making henchmen immune to Lure can be huge.  That alone won me a tournament game at the weekend and it's highly useful to shut down some of the Ressers more common strategies.

[Boomstick]

48 minutes ago, mythicFOX said:

One quick thing I'd add is I always consider is Warding Runes.

Like I said, revisiting old tricks. Haven't used them since I tried out a full triforce of Oxfordians, and facepalmed hard when I read this. It's so obvious.

[Douglas Scoundrels]

My go-to masters for Ressers are Mei Feng and Ironsides. Mei Feng gives you Kang (as mentioned prior) an immunity to slow and paralyze, and a way to clear corpse tokens with her Thunderous Smash. Toni gets her Warding Runes and the Blood Ward, negating a lot of Resser cast and condition shenanigans. Slap it on Joss and go to town with HPM.