Ice Dancers

[Searos]

What is the general opinion on ice dancers? I'm new and I picked up a box of them yesterday. Since I'm new I don't know much about strategy so I was wondering if there's anyone who has pointers.

[iamfanboy]

Scheme runners sans peur et sans reproche.

With high speed, a (0) that drops a Scheme Marker regardless of Engagement or other factors (and only costs 3Tomes), and great evasion against ranged attacks, it's equal to any number of Crooligans or Silurids.

It's also no slouch in melee, either, with the ability to hit and run that can only be envied by a lot of other models - hit twice, cheat or flip a Mask for the second one, and push 6" away after combat!

You also might check the pullmyfinger wiki for more info. Generally speaking, it's a good model.

[retnab]

Expensive-ish scheme runners, but so worth it.  Able to put out 2 Scheme Markers a turn means they can do Claim Jump on their own if an enemy doesn't bother them, and their Butterfly Jump, access to end of activation pushes, and Ice Paths are great too.

[Bengt]

 

11 hours ago, iamfanboy said:

it's equal to any number of Crooligans or Silurids.

Scheme/Strategy wise I think a Silurid is vastly superior to an Ice Dancer. It doesn't need a suit for its special thing and it can Stake a Claim every turn, something the Ice Dancer isn't much better at than your random 4 pointer. Ice Dancer has some other qualities if you like generalists instead of specialists (though except for Marcus you wont be choosing between the two anyway ).

[spooky_squirrel]

Where I get a lot of use out of Ice Dancers is when I use them in conjunction with things that have a force multiplier effect. In a Colette crew with an Ice Gamin and Luther (Blessed) bearing the Sub Zero upgrade, for instance.

It gives me the ability to scheme as a (0) when near Colette, and with their move-push ability they can disengage readily at the end of their activation, and with the Gamin's Bite of Winter upping their damage output they can punch a little higher out of their weight class. The defense trigger on Sub Zero is interesting, but not baked in. It can influence my opponent's decisions, heavily. With GG2017 schemes, I've enjoyed some interesting results in this way.

Outside of that, it has a lot of utility, but it's not as reliable early in a turn as a Silurid. Later in the turn, after the control hand has been trimmed, the Ice Dancer has greater mobility. This can be very useful for hunting down things like Terror Tots and Silurids, keeping them engaged and forcing your opponent to activate them earlier in the following turn to avoid getting sliced apart. Alternatively, if the strat/scheme pool calls for positioning, you can get halfway up the table in a single activation, without the need to flip if you're not engaged.

Then there's the whole Frozen Heart advantage. In my local meta, the more competitive players don't bother with paralyze/horror-focused crews because the risk of having the core mechanic just not work at all. Some of the local players will risk giving up full points on FFM just to kill Ice Dancers out of spite.

[Peppi]

16 hours ago, retnab said:

Expensive-ish scheme runners, but so worth it.  Able to put out 2 Scheme Markers a turn means they can do Claim Jump on their own if an enemy doesn't bother them, and their Butterfly Jump, access to end of activation pushes, and Ice Paths are great too.

Expensive yes but in a Rasputina crew I don't see nothing better than 1 Ice Dancer. I think that Rasputina had a lot from Ice Dancers!

Some of my opponents try to kill it immediately (not easy indeed) other now simply ignore it (and for me Claim Jump is automatic and easy 3 points)

[dancater]

An excellent mid-range model which fills a vital game need effectively.  Well worth the investment.

For Raspy they bring critical speed and scheme running.  For most other Arcanists they represent a first class flank scheme runner.  These ladies are what you want for the scheme which need, well schemes.  As stated nearly any Arcanist can use them well, however it is worth noting that in Ramos/Mei crews then spiders are popular as constructs, they are not as good as Dancers and for Marcus the beast plethora allows several great inclusions which can match them and bring Marcus crew synergy, notably Silurids. 

In Raspy they are near an auto-include for me, at least one to cover scheme and to a degree anti-scheme.  I like them in Colette and they also have Showgirl synergy.  For the other crews they are generally more niche includes except really Marcus where I stay Beast theme.