GenCon games

[Fog]

Second place at GenCon Avatar. Played Sandeep two out of three. He's legit. 

[ttsgosadow]

Anywhere we can find the results? Really curious what faction won, which where played, etc.

[retnab]

Awesome, what did you think of his playstyle vs the other new masters? Also, what do the new Gamin and Kudra do?

[Fog]

Lost in the finals to a very well played Kirai. On my last activation I had the choice for guaranteeing a tie or going for a risky win but it didn't pay off.

 

Sandeep is a very deep toolbox with solid combat capability. He offers good mobility tricks, interact and pushes, and either scheme superiority or fantastic combat support. Banasuva is solid beats, possibly the deadliest summon in the game. 

[briaros6]

So Banasuva has to be summoned in, how long did it take to get him into play???

[Fog]

I had him turn 1 both games.  Sandeep isn't particularly hungry for stones outside of his summoning so I always had enough to spare.  First game, having positive flips generated by command in air really let me hold enough cards to put them where they mattered.  That game Blue was killed once and resummoned the same turn.

In game two he was less of a beater and more of a road block.  He died twice, and I mostly used him to lock models in combat, keep enemies from scheming and just eat up AP by being in the way. With armor 2 he is amazing at living way longer than a 12M deserves to.

[retnab]

What upgrades did you take on Sandeep? Were any new models more / less valuable than you originally expected?

[Fog]

I took a different limited each game, arcane reservoir and the one that gives out incorporeal (which I never got around to using, mostly as I would forget it was there)

I was pleasantly surprised with how much Sandeep gets done on his own. I expected to spend most of his time mucking about but there was many times he just leaped into the middle of things and rocked the casbah himself. He's got a solid melee, solid non ranged attack, and so many utility actions I was never at a loss for things to do with him. He impacted the game in a significant way every turn

[briaros6]

After playing him would you say there are stronger enforcers/minions/peons that would synergize better with Sandeep and which ones? To me it's looking like Oxfords would almost be an auto-include...

[BFOmega]

17 minutes ago, briaros6 said:

After playing him would you say there are stronger enforcers/minions/peons that would synergize better with Sandeep and which ones? To me it's looking like Oxfords would almost be an auto-include...

With the new upgrade for them, I could definitely see them being pretty common in his crews. Adding a strong beater henchman in (say, Valedictorian?) with Warding Runes gives you a pretty strong core of 4 models (5 with Sandeep) for only 26SS (need the take any Academic upgrade). Fill out after that based on what you need. Even if you want to bring Howard after than, you be at 38, 39 with IE. One of Sandeep's summoning upgrades brings us to 40, and maybe Firestarter with IE for scheming gives us 48. 2SS to play with upgrades or extra pool, and 7 models isn't terrible to start with for a summoner.

Don't know if that would be good, but would probably be fun.

[decker_cky]

Yeah, 3 oxfordian mages for 15 ss supporting a pair of the strong henchmen (cassandra? joss? captain?) seems like a great buy for a number of crews.

[Fog]

I think focusing too heavily on academia is a trap.  I do like Valedictorian with him a lot but it costs an upgrade slot to bring her so I'm torn on the decision.  That said, give her imbued protection and energies and laugh forever.  

I do like five stone extra mitigation Oxford wizards but that's a good chunk of the list that chokes in melee. I was thinking of using summoned gamin to screen but it's going to take some testing to see how that goes.  Even without random targeting they may be too much of a liability. Once we get the new academic guards maybe it'll be time to revisit.  Use them to lock up, blast away, have Sandeep scheme.  

I'm very excited to test him further. He's brilliantly deep with so many answers. I think he's going to be one of our top casters, with Ramos and Colette.  He's an all star, possibly the best of the new masters, and one of the most fun (Parker Barrows looks like he'll have a lower cap but will be the definition of FUN).

[Jordon]

I sort of feel like some of the liabilities of the mages are going to be mitigated greatly with Sandeep, especially with their melee problem. I'm still not sure you'll always want to run 3 of them, but I also don't think it would necessarily be a bad option in certain situations. 

The mages can shoot into an engagement without randomizing and using their wind blast to push the enemy away. Otherwise Sandeep (or someone using beacon) can pull them out of danger using his push action. Or another alternative could be to leap away via beacon if you have the appropriate card. 

I also have no clue how the whole incorporeal power works, but I would imagine stacking it with arcane shield would be a huge boost in survivability if the mages can be legal targets that is.

[decker_cky]

Sandeep actually covers the oxfordian mage melee weakness pretty well, as both of his (0) actions involve a place or push (as your deed, so your destiny is a mask trigger, so mid mask in either case). 

Arcane storm can still be used while engaged too, meaning one mage essentially has two melee attacks (and another has 3 melee attacks due to its ward). It's only if the two non-melee mages are engaged that one of them has issues.

[Fog]

Good points all around.  The mid masks aren't entirely reliable though, but there's a lot of options that I hadn't considered too deeply.

One thing I am excited for is using him for things like Marked for Death and Headhnter, where a free interact on a scary model or a push/don't mind me interact changes everything.

[decker_cky]

Not to mention that if you take Countless Eyes Beholding, you get specialist scheming gamin (moreso than wind gamin already are). 

[LunarSol]

33 minutes ago, Jordon said:

I sort of feel like some of the liabilities of the mages are going to be mitigated greatly with Sandeep, especially with their melee problem. I'm still not sure you'll always want to run 3 of them, but I also don't think it would necessarily be a bad option in certain situations. 

I'd say its basically 1 or 3, rarely 2.  If ever you buy 2, the 3rd is only 3 stones.

[Bengt]

Are there any restrictions on the upgrade that gives a discount on mages?

[Fog]

Rare 3, discard this and a card to reduce damage by two, discount if and only if you buy 3, does not count against upgrades 

[DrEvilmonki]

6 hours ago, Jordon said:

The mages can shoot into an engagement without randomizing and using their wind blast to push the enemy away.

 

No they can't. Their elemental bolt is a action which is randomized. Randomization isn't based on the Sh or Ca characteristic, it's based on the Projectile () characteristic.

 

[Boomstick]

1 hour ago, DrEvilmonki said:

No they can't. Their elemental bolt is a action which is randomized. Randomization isn't based on the Sh or Ca characteristic, it's based on the Projectile () characteristic.

 

I think they're referring to Sandeep's action on one of his upgrades that allows Academics to shoot without randomization.

[Jordon]

1 hour ago, Boomstick24 said:

I think they're referring to Sandeep's action on one of his upgrades that allows Academics to shoot without randomization.

Yep.  Can someone with the book clarify if it allows all Academics to ignore randomization, or if it allows Academics to ignore randomization when shooting into an engagement involving another Academic?

[Dereikt]

How resource intensive did you find Sandeep to be?

Looking at his card, I can't help but notice that nearly all his actions need a 5+, which goes up to a 6+ if anything uses them via beacon, and either also require a specific suit or depend heavily on suited triggers to be effective. Combined with high cost suited summoning and a discard and specific suit to trigger Student of all, and it feels like his abilities will be a big drain on his hand for a master with very limited ability to draw cards. Is he a master at a disadvantage from needing a large Cache dedicated to suits, or would he be able to manage with a smaller Cache used more flexibly?

 

On the subject of the Academic support, they feel somewhat too specific to Oxfordian Mages rather than Academics in general, especially when combined with an unnecessary extra upgrade to the Mages themselves. There's no support for tactical cast actions, and academics with melee attacks or attacks that don't randomize gain little from being able to shoot freely into melee. I also see that one wound per card adding up pretty fast.

[Boomstick]

54 minutes ago, Jordon said:

Yep.  Can someone with the book clarify if it allows all Academics to ignore randomization, or if it allows Academics to ignore randomization when shooting into an engagement involving another Academic?

It's a (1) Tactical action (non-Ca, so no Beacon) that lets other friendly Academics shoot without randomizing until the end of the turn, so long as their target is within aura 6" of Sandeep.

[Fog]

Sandeep, meanwhile, doesn't randomize anyway.