Tipps for playing Snow Storm

[surly]

Since the new awesome model has been released recently I'm considering finally getting myself this formerly super-rare miniature.

While the miniature is great I'm not sure I like it rules wise. A while ago I proxied him up and tried him in my Raspy crew, where he was ok, but nothing too special actually.

Maybe I simply should have given him a few more chances, but my memory of him is that I felt he was a bit underwhelming.

While his defense is great against Sh attacks, he seems to be a bit lacking against Mi and Ca attacks. Also, comparing him to other 10+ SS models like Howard, he felt a bit on the weaker side (to be fair, compared with Howard most models do).

 

Having said that, I really think it's a beautiful miniature that I'd like to play more often. Could you may give me some reason to play him over, say, Howard?

Does Snow Storm have uses outside of Raspy?

 

Thanks a lot, cheers

[Strype McClaine]

Truthfully, I'm only REALLY familiar with ol' Howard on the table, here's the few thoughts.

Howard is...
Costs 13 With imbued energies (because when do you not) and has only one upgrade slot.
Is Fast as lightning getting up the board w/ nimble.
terrifying, so he Eats the occasional card from the opponent.
Hits harder (And most often, a low card to either flurry or cheat the decapitation)
Would like your  for decapitate.
Has Steamcloud for protection against shooting crews.
To synergize with Rasputinia, requires her to use AP to make him frozen heart, so often, unwanted

Snowstorm is...
Costs 11 with two open upgrade slots.
Built in Frozen Heart for Rasputinia Synergy.
Can use soulstones as a henchman for his suits & Protection
Stronger vs shooting crews, for both himself and his team. (Meta dependent)
Does less damage, but has some nice triggers to heal/bonus damage (/dependent).
packed with Explosive demise 4, this is pro and con a bit. But at best, you use it to dive bomb when he's a bit on the damaged low side to suicide bomb in. 
Actually has a cast action, so has SOME range and can use his cast to target friendly models and burst onto them while dealing no damage, and has GREAT triggers on this cast (Potentially casting up-to 4 casts per turn w/ burst.
Has a KILLER zero action to keep mobility up and positioning on the board.

So after looking at the models, they server two distinct jobs. Howard is a giant scalpel who runs up and chops out some poor fool in half. He is fast, has some protection vs shooting.

Snowstorm is a heavy hitter, but has a lot of movement and positioning shenanigans built into his card. The ability to target his own models with a blast that does nothing to them, then push models away for free. He wants a few masks, which raspy also wants, to get some great triggers off. Snowstorm is like blast caster number 2, that is a terror in melle if he gets into melle.

Its more that they do two different tasks, Howard dashes in to kill. Snowstorm casts on his team to blast and push, then dashes in to finish them off. Think more like a skirmishy model like Bert Jebson. His gun is good, but his knife is better. Don't let your self get blinded by the  on his claws.

[OldMetalShip]

Outside of Raspy, I don't think Snow Storm is all that great for Arcanists. He can't do as much damage as Howard. He can't out-activate better than Mechanical Rider. He can't offer as much mobility to his crew as Angelica or Cassandra.

But in Raspy, he's amazing. He has frozen heart. He can be a mirror for Raspy or her Silent Ones. His walk is high and he can place his friends next to him; an invaluable tool in the glacially-slow Raspy crew. And, if your opponent tries to beat you at your own shoot-out, he protects you. With his healthy number of wounds(and your silent ones to heal him, should he need it), he can be the vanguard of your slow, but incredibly deadly, advance to push your opponent off the board.

[osoi]

Outside of Raspy I could only see Snowstorm being used possibly with Marcus and only then if you are bringing Silent Ones. With Raspy however he almost always gets brought by me.

 

Middle of the Storm helps cover for some beast squishiness and he is more survivable than a lot of typical Marcus hires

[decker_cky]

Snowstorm is a model you want in crews with lots of frozen heart models. Lots of masters could do that, but it's a pretty specialized crew.

[Sybarite]

I faced a pretty cool crew with Marcus, Snow Storm (they, not a he, btw) and Ice Golem, for a hard hitting duo, with snow storm dragging ice golem into base contact to then burn fast and smash and stuff. It was a bit gimmicky and perhaps not super good, but could be shocking in some situaton.

Snow Storm are a very specialised hench, as people have said. They could make a nasty Howard Langston missile in a Raspy crew. Wonder why people don't do that ^^ Or maybe they do.

[angyi]

On 2016. 06. 18. at 2:03 PM, Sybarite said:

Snow Storm are a very specialised hench, as people have said. They could make a nasty Howard Langston missile in a Raspy crew. Wonder why people don't do that ^^ Or maybe they do.

Many people can't think out of the so-called fluff, the more obvious it is the more they are stuck in. And the frozen heart thing is pretty obvious, albeit Malifaux fluff and story line doesn't work like that. The last event my opponent called it bonkers that I fielded a Sabertooth with Kaeris, because "it's a model of Marcus".

[-Loki-]

6 hours ago, angyi said:

Many people can't think out of the so-called fluff, the more obvious it is the more they are stuck in. And the frozen heart thing is pretty obvious, albeit Malifaux fluff and story line doesn't work like that. The last event my opponent called it bonkers that I fielded a Sabertooth with Kaeris, because "it's a model of Marcus".

That's not being unable to think outside the fluff, it's people enjoying the fluff. Personally I run Nephilim with Lilith but a lot of people at she's better without them at all.

Id never call someone out for 'breaking' with the fluff if they want to hire outside of theme - after all the fluff for the game is hiring crews, a master won't always run with their thematic crew. But I also appreciate not having disparaging remarks directed the other way either. We all play the game for different reasons, and the community is better without that sort of divide.

[angyi]

@Loki: don't get me wrong, it's all good to play with thematic crews. Not only along the all beast - all nephilim - etc. lines, but I don't know, having a crew with cowboy hats. That's fine. I just mentioned that some combinations are rare mostly because many players don't even consider a choice, albeit they probably would try it if the choice would come to their mind. In my example, the sabertooth is definitely NOT a model of Marcus. It fits well in a thematic beast crew, but there is no such thing as "Marcus' model".