Learning to use Reva

[grandpapanurgl]

Taking Reva to a tourney this weekend, wondering what if any interesting idea people have had about her with models etc. I know its early lol. but i have only a few days to wrap my head around it, kind of disappointed that there was not carrion Emissary upgrade for her.

[D_acolyte]

2 minutes ago, grandpapanurgl said:

Taking Reva to a tourney this weekend, wondering what if any interesting idea people have had about her with models etc. I know its early lol. but i have only a few days to wrap my head around it, kind of disappointed that there was not carrion Emissary upgrade for her.

The emissary upgrades are linked to the meta around the masters themselves, often focusing on a way to play them so it only logical that there is not one because there is no meta to base it on.

Also take Philip.

[Fetid Strumpet]

Won't be a conflux for her for awhile, if ever, though I would expect it to happen. Probably 12 to 18+ months from now.

Carrion Emissary with Carrion Conflux seems like a good choice. Not sure if Mwahahaha is good or not. I think it depends on how close your going to be to the corpse markers you want to animate. I think Decaying Aura or her reduction trigger one might be an idea, though I'm not certain. Archie might be good if you are allowed to proxy. Philip and the nanny might be an idea with his new upgrade, and a good model to consider for scheme control. Not sure if you want her personal henchman. Bete and Killjoy are also somewhat interesting options, especially with the upgrade that lets her put a corpse candle on the enemy side of the board. Kill it and get Bete or Killjoy to the face. Don't kill it and let Reva have a walking arc node for her attacks.

If you are bringing the carrion conflux high value minions might be appropriate. I'm not sure if Shield bearers are worth anything, I suspect not, but with the Carrion Emissary along they might be decent. Doxy's might be an idea because the ability to send models closer to your corpses or zombies might be a good idea, and again can combo well with the carrion conflux.

I think if you do bring enforcers or henchmen you are going to want the new general resser upgrade as many times as you can take it. Gives mindless zombies when the model is killed in addition to a corpse, so I hear, and that sounds very good. Anna or Heyridden might be good options as well. Anna to help prevent enemies from getting to Reva, or getting away from corpes along vectors they actually want to use. Heyreddin because he can operate alone, and still potentially let reva get strikes with positive flips against models that get to close to him and a corpse marker.

These are just random thoughts and not co-herent at the moment. I think the only certain combo at the moment is bringing the emissary.

[huntroll]

Drowned (maybe with Jaakuna) could be good with her, especially against melee-heavy factions (Ressers, Arcanists, Neverborn), if you don't have anything to attack on turn 1 she can speed them up (Wk 4 is their biggest drawback for me) if you take the Blood Mark upgrade.

Same about Yin, she can push her towards the board in the early game, and her Wp debuffs can make it easier for Reva to hit stuff. 

Seconding Dead Doxies.

I'm not entirely certain how much extra corpse marker generation she needs, Carrion Emissary, Corpse Candles and the remains of dead enemies could be enough. Philip might be a decent choice though, also extra cards never hurt.

The Shieldbearers doesn't seem that bad to me, especially if you take two (maybe three?) of them, Vigor can be quite good and they are basically Df 6 Wp 6 models with 8+ wounds and Armor who can easily gain Fast every turn. 

 

[Ogre_man]

Take Kirai along, she would LOVE the shieldbearers. If your enemy hits them, he gets Ikiryo'ed. If they hit enemy, OK. If they die, they live again, shiny and chrome (and looking for an Adversary).

[TheJoyInGaming]

I'm feeling apprehensive regarding Mwahahaha and its usefulness with Reva. Reva has alot of wounds but no defense tricks so to get the maximum effect you would need to be closer to combat then she would like. To mitigate this drawback perhaps using Beyond Death in conjunction with Mwahahaha would be the best answer so you can artillery bomb and charge around on a spectral horse? 

I prefer her with Guises of Death so far though so i can begin with a Candle and can ignore models trying to tie her up. Could Guild Autopsies be used to gain some mindless zombies and help Reva gain some more board and activation control?

[Fetid Strumpet]

I wonder if Bete might not be good with her, especially if you are taking guises of death. 

[TheJoyInGaming]

I think it would be a very interesting delivery system as on the surface it makes the opponent choose between a walking corpse for Reva to shoot from or Bete plus a static corpse to shoot from. Bete actually appears to be more and more appealing for Reva the longer i think about it... She provides more corpses for Reva to shoot from by killing things and Reva provides more targets for her to unbury or gain fast by way of a corpse candle. Assuming you wanted to provide more death in a concentrated burst you could activate Reva, summon a candle, attack whatever, use last AP with the Blood Mark upgrade to move candle and take a 0, sac candle to cycle a card, drop a new corpse marker, and chain activate a fast Bete. 

Whoops i missed a word in Bete's Scent of Blood ability. The above combination will NOT give her fast, though the rest of the combo should still work.

Edited August 21, 2016 by TheJoyInGaming
Rules Error

[Omenbringer]

3 hours ago, TheJoyInGaming said:

I'm feeling apprehensive regarding Mwahahaha and its usefulness with Reva. Reva has alot of wounds but no defense tricks so to get the maximum effect you would need to be closer to combat then she would like. To mitigate this drawback perhaps using Beyond Death in conjunction with Mwahahaha would be the best answer so you can artillery bomb and charge around on a spectral horse? 

I prefer her with Guises of Death so far though so i can begin with a Candle and can ignore models trying to tie her up. Could Guild Autopsies be used to gain some mindless zombies and help Reva gain some more board and activation control?

Maniacal laugh does some very important things for Reva, it keeps an opponent from being able to stand on the corpse markers to deny her LOS, it adds activations, and it makes the Corpse Markers mobile. All of these are good things for her.

As far as her lack of Defensive tech, well I have to disagree, she has good stats, high wounds, can easily gain Regenerate (she can also heal a wound from killing some non-peon within 8"), and lets not forget that she can also arc her attacks from 18" away as long as she can see a Corpse marker (and with Ht 3 she doesn't usually struggle to see them). Sure some of the "Sniper" models may be able to draw a bead on her from that distance but Vincent is good at countering those or you could always just have the Carrion Emissary throw up some Shards to block LOS and provide a Mindless Zombie as well. And failing that she also has a fairly high Cache to draw upon to assist with things.

She really doesn't need to be close to the action to make her presence felt.

Guild Autopsies could be worthwhile since they are cheap, but I would look at the Forgotten Marshal first. It adds to the tarpit that are the Shield Bearers. Paired with Bette Noir and a Corpse Candle placed up field via her upgrade, he could make for a really nasty deep strike.

[TheJoyInGaming]

I forgot about being able to stand atop corpse to deny LOS to them... That is a very good point. I think that alone may warrant my reconsideration of Maniacal Laugh. You've also addressed another problem i was trying to figure out: the Forgotten Marshall. I've been wanting to use him but couldn't think of a good delivery system to take advantage of his absurd mobility. With Maniacal Laugh it would add that many more targets to deploy him. Thanks for that!

You are also right in that i unfairly discounted or forgot that though she has no defensive "tricks", she does have copious amounts of healing via triggers on attacks and regeneration on her upgrade. 

It appears i'll have to reconsider how i've been using Reva so far. I think i can get MUCH more out of her... though now i need to buy a box or two of Mindless Zombies...

[Bengt]

Since Reva is Ht 3 she ignores Ht 1 and 2 models when drawing LoS, so relatively few models can block LoS by standing on corpse markers.

[TheJoyInGaming]

Hmmm... Would taking Vincent with Corpse Bloat be a stupid idea? Deploy him upfield and start dropping corpses early to give Reva even more nodes to attack from early game...

[Fetid Strumpet]

Seems to be a bad investment to me. That's 11 stones to more easily kill him. I'm wondering with beté noir if Vincent with deal with death and my little helper, a carrion emissary with my little helper, and a bunch of Crooligans with reva using guises of Death might not be an effective way to put the opponent on defense in their own board half from turn 1.

[TheJoyInGaming]

That seems like a much better plan than mine. I'm always changing my mind on whether or not to use canine remains or the crooligans as scheme runners. Crooligans obviously have their merit s with debuffs to WP and starting upfield, but canine remains can potentially create more corpse markers and debuff defense, which can aid shieldbearers among other things. 

[TheJoyInGaming]

So for a sample list we have

Reva- Guises of Death (1)

Vincent (8)- Deal with Death (1), My Little Helper (1?)

Carrion Emissary (10)- My little Helper (1?)

Bete Noire (8)- Decaying Aura (2)

Crooligan (4)

Crooligan (4)

That is 40ss so far. That leaves 7 to spend if you want if you want a full cache and 10 if you don't. Just off of this list we have 7 models after the extra Corpse Candle summon from Guises of Death. 

[Fetid Strumpet]

I have something similar I'm kicking around, but I have litany of the fallen on reva instead of decaying aura on beté and blood mark. I also have a shield bearer. Omenbringer says he's seen them in action and they are decent. I'm having trouble seeing it myself but I feel I should try them for awhile. I think dogs are better in general reva lists because they do basically everything reva needs, but if you get a card to do so you always have the option to dig up a corpse.

[TheJoyInGaming]

2 minutes ago, Fetid Strumpet said:

I have something similar I'm kicking around, but I have litany of the fallen on reva instead of decaying aura on beté and blood mark. I also have a shield bearer. Omenbringer says he's seen them in action and they are decent. I'm having trouble seeing it myself but I feel I should try them for awhile. I think dogs are better in general reva lists because they do basically everything reva needs, but if you get a card to do so you always have the option to dig up a corpse.

I enjoy Blood Mark alot. I don't know if i would ever not take it. As for litany of the fallen i could easily see taking that instead of decaying aura on bete. I enjoy shieldbearers but am unsure on their place in a list. Canine Remains seem to be able to deliver corpses where they need to be better then shieldbearers but shieldbearers may be better in turf war. Ultimately i think it depends on whether or not you can reliably use their soulbound upgrades as that was easily factored into their soulstone cost. If the upgrades never go off, speaking primarily to The Gift of Death and Another Purpose, then i think they are probably over priced. 

[benjoewoo]

You could drop a crooligan, put in Archie, shift one of the my little helpers to Archie, add in unnerving/Archie specific upgrade, and add in Blood Mark. Archie won't get to instinctual during Reva's activation, but he'll count as a Ht 3, 50mm corpse marker for Reva, and he wants to be near the enemy anyway--coincidentally Archie having an 8" threat range for Reva helps with his own Rg 3 melee. The my little helper arguably benefits Archie more since he can 0 to plus an upgrade or use one or both of his specific upgrades, both of which set up reva to attack next turn. Archie's (0)s are his best abilities I think, and giving him instinctual will do a lot more than doing so for Vincent, who must spend an extra SS for non-duplicative (0)s.

Also, since Blood Mark's trigger only goes away when Archie activates next, if Reva activates before him the following turn, she still gets to use 3AP of her attack through Archie the Ht 3 50mm corpse marker. It's a lot safer with Archie given his resilience and desire to be near the enemy anyway, and Archie can always jump away with his own (0) as needed. 

You'll still have 1 crooligan to run around for far away schemes and a pseudo from the shadows corpse marker with Guises of Death for additional range options. Reva herself isn't bad for dropping markers if that's what you need for scheme running--she starts her activation by summoning a corpse candle, dropping a scheme marker, death shroud-ing to the candle, dropping another marker, and then walks, attacks, etc. She can complete most of convict labor in one turn as needed, and she wants to be far from the enemy anyway unless you're using the upgrade that gives her an extra charge.

Reva's needs for suites are fairly low, so I don't think she needs much more than her cache, if any, because you can use the 4 SS cache for cards, initiative, etc.

[TheJoyInGaming]

Don't have the newest book but by looking over some of the released information for Archie it looks like he will do very well with Reva. Using Blood Mark on him helps them both and if i understood the 0 correctly from Doc Found a Tentacle then you can also pull an enemy model into melee range and then begin shooting out attacks from Archie. Looks to be a solid addition. Good idea.

[benjoewoo]

Archie fits more in with masters that don't really summon, but rather run elite crews or some big models with support. His major issue is getting into combat on his terms, and Reva mitigates a lot of it with a 5" push. Blood Mark is just a push for Archie and conversion to tower mode--Archie can't use a (0) from it since he's not the thematic keyword or a Spirit. 

Fluff wise Archie fits with Molly, and mechanically he can, but I think Reva will like him more. 

You can always turn the Carrion Emissary or any other model into a corpse turret, but Archie is more resilient and has better escape usually.

[TheJoyInGaming]

Sad about the lack of the keyword but we can't have everything. Has anyone considered the rogue necromancy? It wouldn't mind the push and attacks from Reva could trigger smell fear if you attack willpower.

[TheTrans]

Lets have a look, our Revenant models are:

Reva

Vince (a.k.a. The Beef Cake) (can have a few good (0) actions

Corpse Candles (good (0)...almost like it is designed with Reva in mind)

Shield Bearers (fantastic (0), although, doesn't really work with Reva's (0) unless you need DF6 before they activate... :/ )

Draugr (2 good (0), allows some utilisation of height changing shenanigans (could get 2 height 1 (0) actions, then bounce him up to height 2 turn 2 etc)

Spirits and Zeroes:

Grave Yard SpiritL (decidedly 'eh' (0), espcially costing a masters AP, and stopping you getting access to corpse candles)
Hanged: No (0)...
Datsue Ba: (0)s that allow another spirit to walk, or stop something else doing it...nor worth a master AP
Phil and Nan: Excellent (0) for reva in all honesty!
Seishin: Naathing
Gaki: (0), probably not worth discarding a corpse marker...
Night Terror: el nada
Onryo: Nope
Shikome: A push and kicking out adversary isn't too bad..
Drowned: Same hazardous thing, not great unless working with a
Jaakuna Ubume: Stopping an enemy model walking away isn't great...
Izamu: No (0) sadly...

Goryo: A non-easy adversary...pass
 

Upgrades:
Take back the night: Not bad...very corner case
Spirit Whispers: a (0) Seishin summon isn't horrid
Corpse Bloat: I honestly don't feel the damage is really worth an attack vector you could just as easily pay a card for...

So there isn't a whole lot really available for that is there which is a shame. And alas there is a clause that stops the Dragur 'Spirit-ising' non Revenants, so can't even sneak stuff through there (even though you'd be paying good coin to get it off also)...

Have I missed anyone?

 

[Kogan Style]

2 hours ago, TheTrans said:

Shield Bearers (fantastic (0), although, doesn't really work with Reva's (0) unless you need DF6 before they activate... :/ )

Which of Reva's (0) are you referring to? Reva casting Blood Mark on them after they've activated and gained  to their attacks during the activation will give them Df6 so you'll get the best of both!

[Hargrave]

5 hours ago, TheTrans said:

Shield Bearers (fantastic (0), although, doesn't really work with Reva's (0) unless you need DF6 before they activate... :/ )

 

I think the trick is to activate them first, use the + to flips, then give them a push and switch to 6df.

[Fetid Strumpet]

Don't agree on Archie. I do think he'll be ok for Reva, but I really don't think he'll excel for her. From having used him I think of the Masters Molly does work the best for him. Partly it's because I think the Carrion Emissary, while an excellent option for most masters, is almost auto include for Reva, especially if Sheild bearers are as good as advertised with her. 13(really 14 as I think you'd be silly not to take corpse armor)ss for a model whole only synergy is to put corpse markers down from range is something the carrion Emissay can do while providing a lot more besides. 

I'll admit I don't have as much experience with Reva. I already have a number of games with Archie under my belt, but none, as of yet with Reva, so I could certainly be wrong.