Rasputina; strategies and schemes

[HadjiMurat]

Hi! Long time lurker here, although I have been registered since the wyrd forum was mainly a painters sites.

My question is; I got Marcus, Ramos and Rasputina as my arcanists masters. Which ( if any) strategies and schemes (gaining grounds) would you choose Rasputina over Marcus or Ramos? 

Thx in advance.

[Rogue1]

Personally I would consider Rasputina in most strat/scheme pools but that is a personal bias.  Where she does really well though is in pools that have a decent amount of kill based schemes combined with a strategy that forces models to concentrate such as Extraction, Turf War, and Guard the Stash.

The one thing I would add is that Rasputina is fairly dependant on having more than just her base box.  Snowstorm solves many of the mobility issues with the crew, silent ones provide healing as well as good secondary damage dealers, ice dancers are very very good scheme runners, and December Acolytes provide forward deployment as well as some control elements.

[Sordid Strumpet]

19 minutes ago, Rogue1 said:

Personally I would consider Rasputina in most strat/scheme pools but that is a personal bias.  Where she does really well though is in pools that have a decent amount of kill based schemes combined with a strategy that forces models to concentrate such as Extraction, Turf War, and Guard the Stash.

The one thing I would add is that Rasputina is fairly dependant on having more than just her base box.  Snowstorm solves many of the mobility issues with the crew, silent ones provide healing as well as good secondary damage dealers, ice dancers are very very good scheme runners, and December Acolytes provide forward deployment as well as some control elements.

Pretty much this.

I would add that even scheme-heavy pools can be done with Rasputina. Firstly, when you're killing the enemy crew to death left right and center, your own scheme runners are much safer. Secondly, and particularly since the indtroduction of ice dancers, ice mirror lets you use Rasputina to hunt enemy scheme runners through her own scheme runners. On top of that, ice dancers are also entirely capable of doing quite a bit of damage of their own all the while being absurdly fast.

[Nutella]

Rasputina is pretty decent at most of the strategies this year. For me, Ramos would almost always be an auto take in interference, headhunter and sometimes guard the stash, but depending on the table and opposing faction, Rasputina can accomplish these reliably as well.

For schemes, you have to watch out for Framed for Murder, especially now that it’s suited. If you wish to play her with this scheme in the pool, i’d focus on using her ice pillars and Freeze, and letting some of her very good minions do the murdering when necessary. Also important to remember Hunting Party is scored by henchmen and enforcers, so her kills won’t score that.

Other than that, i’d say to make sure to not put all your eggs in the murder basket and take a well rounded crew choice incase you find yourself in a bad master matchup.

[HadjiMurat]

Good and clear answers! I have only played Rasputina in the old edition, so this is very helpful! 

[Mxbedlam]

To be honest I tend to pick Raspy when the terrain works to my advantage.  Having key spots where I can provide choke areas with Ice Pillars really turns a Raspy team on. If I can keep my opponent off the strategy for 2-3 turns Raspy makes me happy. 

[spooky_squirrel]

On 1/17/2017 at 9:35 AM, Mrbedlam said:

To be honest I tend to pick Raspy when the terrain works to my advantage.  Having key spots where I can provide choke areas with Ice Pillars really turns a Raspy team on. If I can keep my opponent off the strategy for 2-3 turns Raspy makes me happy. 

Exactly this. Raspy can do amazing control with her Ice Pillars, and you can up the ante with Ice Dancers dropping Ice Paths. December Acolytes handing out Slow and Silent Ones having their own Ice Pillars (on ) can really dial up the control play.

Yeah, Raspy can blast things off the table, and with a Silent One or two the blasting potential goes up. Toss in an Ice Gamin or two and the damage really adds up... but if you can block and push models away from the objective(s) without killing them, you avoid FFM traps and you never have to worry about what playing Raspy into an experienced player using someone like Mei will do to you--you're already practicing using something other than direct casting damage. It also helps you work Hunting Party better.. isolate a minion for Luther/Blessed of December to leap into and eat (or charge and leap away from). I would also be tempted to bring Cassandra to understudy the Silent One's Freeze

[Sybarite]

Hunting party? Dont know if it's worth giving advice on that one anymore. It's a thing of the past isnt it?

[Mxbedlam]

It's just not going to come up as often. My opinion is, don't take it. 

[spooky_squirrel]

It's not going to come up nearly as often. Whether or not you take it depends heavily on opposing crew, other schemes, and whether or not you can fit enough killy enforcer/henchman models into your Raspy crew. If you're going pure frozen heart, you probably won't fit enough without reducing your activations severely (don't count on Blessed doing it alone, but adding in Emissary immediately takes you to 19 stones total for one scheme that your opponent might defend against by taking a token minion/peon and camping them--so have other reasons for hiring them).

[Sybarite]

Sorry, I thought it was gone. Oops!

[Mutter]

On 17.1.2017 at 7:46 PM, spooky_squirrel said:

... and Silent Ones having their own Ice Pillars baked in can really dial up the control play.

 

It's not baked in, though, is it? I think it's an extra ...

[spooky_squirrel]

5 hours ago, Mutter said:

It's not baked in, though, is it? I think it's an extra ...

I double-checked, you are correct! I will edit the remark!

[MetaphoricDragn]

I had been thinking of posting a different thread but this is probably close enough.  I'm a bit worried about Rasputina in GG17, so much focus on scheming and she is definitely more murder prone.  With Snow Storm always eating into the points pool I do often feel a bit hard pressed to fit in enough schemeyness too, so I was curious what people were thinking about Tina in GG17

[spooky_squirrel]

The impression my local meta and wider tournament scene seems to have (reinforced by various podcasts from the region) is that these schemes will encourage more imaginative play and will be harder to guarantee full points on. I think it'll be necessary to look at the permutations of schemes you might face and rank masters/crews according to how they would do in that environment. One thing it might do is cause Raspy crews to have some outside influences (instead of running Frozen Heart pure) just to make up for the changes.

At the very least, there's some homework to be done on the suited schemes (watch out for FFM if you're playing Raspy) to see where her weaknesses are in the schemes that are most likely to come up.

That being said, if she manages to wreck enough models in the first turn or two, most of the marker/position schemes will be easier to accomplish.

[Sordid Strumpet]

I'm not worried about Rasputina at all to be honest. Yes, frame for murder is a thing, but she can fairly easily (and arguably more efficiently) just paralyze up to three models per turn. If it's a huge threat, the Wendigo can devour it in turn 4.

Plus, Rasputina can put burning on a model with the arcane effigy's buff, so if you really want to kill something, you've got a good chance to let burning do the trick. Maybe find another source of burning, just in case (i.e. Fire Starter, though that's not very thematic).

Scheme running for Raspy is fairly straight forward (see one of my earlier posts RE Being able to use the ice dancers as scheme runners as well as hunting scheme runners through them with Raspy). What's more, Raspy's killyness is quite good at removing scheme runners, particularly because your opponent is highly unlikely to put FFM on the scheme runner as they won't actively be trying to get them killed - and if you do kill them, well then at least they aren't getting their schemes any more. 

Rasputina is acually quite good at control and buffing. She can feasibly spend all 3 AP making her crew harder to kill by handing out armour 2 (putting Snow Storm at arm 5 against shooting ) , paralyzing your enemy's biggest beater (so long as you have a 13 in hand it's all but guaranteed) and then putting up ice pillars to block your opponent from shooting or charging you. 

December Acolytes are also quite good at the control game with their inbuilt discard and slow (so long as they damage). 

So you've definitely got options to go non-killy with her and still do very well. Particularly if your opponent brings a very elite crew and blasts aren't really going to be helping a whole lot.

[Trixter]

8 hours ago, MetaphoricDragn said:

 I'm a bit worried about Rasputina in GG17, so much focus on scheming and she is definitely more murder prone.

Lets bring some theory here and assume the following strat-scheme pool:

Guard the Stash (Strategy)
Leave your Mark
Dig their Graves
Search the Ruins
Set Up
Claim Jump

Which schemes you'll choose? Who you bring to your crew?
For example:

Rasputina + 4 SS Pool
- Shattered Heart (3)
- Cold Nights (1)
Wendigo (3)  - Ice Pillars and additional scheming
Snow Storm (11)
- Imbued Protection (2)
Blessed of December (9)  -  anti-schemrunner
Ice Dancer (6)  - extreme scheming
Arcane Effigy (4)  - unexpected durable scheme-runner 
December Acolyte (7)  -  control and shooting
Malifaux Raptor (3)  -  cheap activation and hard distract

You can spend 1ss for upgrades (warding runes on Storm vs NB or IE on Blessed for more killing) or change Acolyte to Angelica / Silent One.

Discuss?

[Sordid Strumpet]

Given that there is no frame for murder, Rasputina can go all out killy.

Depending on the faction I'm playing against I'd either be bringing Snow Storm or the Emissary. I've really been enjoying the Emissary of late, especially as you can give him armour 3 with the Wendigo and heal him with a Silent One as needed. It may even be interesting to go with both, for extra repositioning.

I'd definitely be tempted to take two ice dancers, because their ice path is actually very interesting both for keeping enemies away from Rasputina, and preventing them from going somewhere they really want to go (like near the stash marker for example). Combining two sets of ice pillars with two sets of ice paths really limits your opponents options when there are areas they need to get to or give up points. 

Dig their graves is an interesting option with Rasputina, especially if you take Angelica with practised production to drop scheme markers near the middle where they have to be anyway to guard the stash.

December Acolytes are obviously always nice, especially if you can drag your opponent out of position and you'll probably always want the obligatory ice gamin for bite of winter to make Rasputina even more dangerous.

[spooky_squirrel]

As @Sordid Strumpet mentioned, no Frame For Murder means that you don't need to pull punches with Rasputina. I would aim towards Dig Their Graves and Search the Ruins as my top choices. Both of them work well when stuff is dying. Ice Dancers working the crowd, walking up, dropping the marker, doing whatever they have to to get some markers up the field near opposing models, then acting as relay nodes for the various direct damage spells Rasputina and Silent Ones bring will get you Dig Their Graves, and once the major threats are dead, you can drop the Search markers and wait for the end of the game.

It would also be a good idea to lean towards secondary schemes Set Up and Leave Your Mark, as these schemes require a similar approach to Dig Their Graves (namely foward scheme markers) and Ice Dancers can get into position to drop them. If the terrain and opposing crew are set up in a way that makes it harder to go on the kill, then switch gears to control: Ice Pillars and Ice Paths to block access to the Strategy and funnel things into your Set Up markers.

 

The core of my list would end up being:

Rasputina (Shattered Heart, Cold Nights, December's Pawn) (6/4) -- killing and control
Silent One (6) -- mini-me for Raspy, also brings heals
December Acolyte (7) -- Slow and Card Control, forward deployment allows for early board presence, smell weakness to turn off defensive tech
Ice Gamin (4) -- Force multiplier for killing, additional activation and ice mirror node
Ice Dancer (6) -- Marker placement, ice mirror node, additional control aspect, can run down scheme runners
Ice Dancer (6) -- Marker placement, ice mirror node, additional control aspect, can run down scheme runners

Which leaves us at 35 stones spent (12 remaining for full cache), with control and killing ability built in. I would be inclined to bring in Luther/Blessed or Snowstorm with Sub Zero, in order to help models that will be trying to hold the Strategy objectives in Turn 2 in case Raspy and the Silent One have not been able to kill/control the biggest threats away. I also like the idea of squeezing in the Arcane Effigy for both condition removal and to hand out burning with the battery of attacks that Raspy will have. Essence of Power would also find a home with this set up, since so much of the damage is coming from Ca actions and Raspy will be activating later in the turn that she decides to open fire.

Edited January 22, 2017 by spooky_squirrel
adding in expected role in list