Aionus with Tara

[MinionJack]

It has been a few months since Aionus was released.  What are people's thoughts or experiences with Aionus, in particular with Tara's crew?

 

 I am specifically concerned with his high SS cost compared to his output. 

[Armond]

I am also interested seeing as I have both of them as well.  That hefty SS fee to bring Aionus is a scary investment.  How do you offset that with a crew capable of committing to schemes while still playing to Tara's play style? 

[osoi]

Aionus has been a really solid addition to me for Tara. He helps so much with scheme manipulation. You will want someone else though with Tara as your heavy hitter, he just enables a lot of your crew and makes them perform more

[apes-ma]

It depends on how you have built your crew, but he can be really nice with an aggressive bury type of list with some death marhashals and perhaps hannah (although that's getting pricy!). With his ability to attack buried model and manipulate schemes he can stay toward the back and still get some good damage onto enemy models whilst scoring points. He's pricy though so... I don't know enough about the game t know if he is competitive! But he sure is fun.

[Blacks85]

I've tried him once, and it was literally a useless piece :-) For the huge price, of course.

I will definitively try it again but:

• No range attack
• Weak DMG track for 12 SS
• No defensive ability...reducing CA is too situational, most of the times dmg are SH or MI
• The bury effect is unreliable...severe dmg is hard to hit
• The "Discard to fast"...seems good but didn't pay out in game

[daniello_s]

Tried him few times. Sadly said I'm not impressed for a 12SS model. Perhaps I haven't learnt yet how to use him properly.

[MR TORGUE]

Played him in an aggressive Tara bury crew that included a death marshal and the nothing beast; I found he was more helpful because of how mobile he is - managed to move, focus and bury something every turn; stoning for suits when needed - its affectively a paralyse with bonus' for a Tara crew. 

By mid game i had tara bury a slow model and then, with the bonus damage and 3 ca available - Father time just beat them to death.

The fast for card discard didn't come up much - but i don't see it as a 'must' every turn. It allowed a void wretch to run down the table and score out some schemes but in a tara crews theres a lot of fast being passed around already. 

I like him; He's a hard henchman to get your head round but I reckon he has a place in any crew. - that slow pulse attack is mental btw... 

[Mikey_C]

I love Aionus with Tara. 

If Tara has Knowledge of Eternity (I always take this) she can ping out some individual fast or slows which will up Aoinus' damage to min 3.

His ability to give out fast also allows you to control your hand size in core crew style games.

Also he can attack buried things, Karina can make buried enemies fast or slow and Aoinus then hits for min 3. 

His attack can bury something for the turn on a severe, this is excellent for certain schemes. For example say a framed for murder Howard is thrown in your face. 

It's the old "deal with langston or he'll kill your crew". Nope. I'll just bury him each turn, ad void wretch him back to health. He's out of the game and not scoring your opponent points.

His ranged slow bomb is great, his (0) actions are amazing. 

I don't think he brings much to the Tara delivery system style of play, but he amazing in aggressive bury style.

[Germania]

I've used him with Tara only a few times. When he did eventually shine was through his scheme manipulation and support my scheme runners.

In my experience on the flank with the cheaper runners is where the discard fast comes into play as the cards I was chucking were low.  He can then tie up their scheme runners or anything they send to get yours.

The biggest thing was flipping those schemes. That pulse is amazing in schemes like convict labor where you can effectively remove several AP worth of work for your opponent with a single AP (that you can stone in as required). What I really want to try now is in a pool that has detonate the charges and pulse their scheme markers over and detonate them (but that might be living the dream, but a guy can hope).

He hasn't really done too much damage persay I used him more for his other abilities.

[nunorod]

So, resurrecting this topic.

I have tried him like this:

Tara (obl symbiote+dead of winter)

Aionus

Hannah (I pay better+Void record)

johan

Death marshal

2x void wretch

 

In hindsight it was a poorly chosen crew for the strat and schemes. It was Turf War, and I was stupid enough to choose Murder protegê and anounce it... I think the other wa breaktrhoug ( on a corner deploy...). Well stupid me. And it was against Gremlins...

 

He brought Ulix so it was a bad matchup also. Buuuuuut! I did learn some things from it.

 

Aionus was really nice to make all 6< minions fast first turn so they positioned quite well at the first round. Hannah's bury is great because it is a 8" bury so Aionus actually has a great ranged attack, the enemy model just needs to be buried. I one "shot" a warpig ( the big one with a gremlin rider). And could do more of that if it wasn't for the really melee oriented pigs ( 1ap 8" charge range) all those activations summons and in your face pigs were just too much. But the bury shenannigans with hannah, death marshal and Tara (melee) were great.

I am also enjoying the -2wp aura.

 

Aionus is probably great in a flank with 2 minion runners or something of the kind (wretch), giving them cheap fast, protecting them and attacking buried shit.

 

what did i miss? Karina giving buried enemies fast or slow and knowledge of eternity. the + flip to initiative is important to this list.

 

so how can i work this list ( its pricey and few activations now that i cant use rats)? In what strat and schemes can you see it shine and what alternatives to it could i try?

 

Cheers

[Jordon]

I feel like the problem with him is how much competition he has with Tara. Without even seeing the rest of wave 4, she already has an abundance of high cost models that she "wants" to hire.

Hannah, Scion, Bishop, NB, Killjoy, Hodgepodge Emissary, and of course Aionus. Fortunately what this does allow is more focus on whatever style of play you want. In a beast bomb focused list perhaps you wouldn't want Aionus. However with the proper schemes, I think Aionus would make a fantastic choice. I do think he's the type of model that you'd probably want to build your entire list around.

[Sianour]

Well, anyone tried since the review of Tara? Do you think Aionus+Hodgepodge is too expensive for a scheme game?

[Seadhna]

I am regularly running Aionus + hodgepodge regardless of master selection.

 

He does so much disruption and forces your opponent to spread out or face those mass-slow duels. I tend to give him one of the trinkets depending on the situation (mostly Memento for Companion).

He will wreck some face. Sure, he's no Nekima, but he can reliably do Focus>Walk>Bony Fingers to bury a key model or just hand out slow and charge for min 3 damage ignoring armor. 

The scheme marker tricks are also very good. I've played several matches where I give out 2 trinkets with hodgepodge, then push and place a marker; later in the match Aionus moves that marker 6" for schemes purposes (good ones are obviously claim jump, setup and hidden trap).

Never been a useless model for me.

[apes-ma]

1 hour ago, Seadhna said:

I am regularly running Aionus + hodgepodge regardless of master selection.

 

I love this pair of models together - they are so disruptive as a team, they both eat cards or give slow, and then Aionus becomes quite scary with the +1 damage. Then on top of that they can get so much done with schemes. One thing I really like is finding a safe spot for Emissary to scoot around dropping markers and making the odd shot/handing out the odd trinket, and then have Aionus elsewhere on the board slowing people down or poking them with his bony fingers and feeding 2 at a time into the Claim Jump zone using Midnight. Bonus points if you get the trigger and Parker gets a marker to eat up!