Rail Golem uses?

[Gladrocks]

Hi there. Coming back after a long hiatus due to lack of local players. I'm a very rusty Ramos player looking to expand my Arcanists. I like the look of Ironsides, mostly for her background. But none of that is important now, I'm here to talk about something else.

 

I love the rail golem. I love the model. I love the thematic way it's rules work. I love the idea of saying "choo choo!" like a child every time I activate it. Now I know it's a little too tome hungry to work well with Ramos, so I was looking for something else. But after looking through the forum I'm not really seeing anyone recommending him for use.

Is there a master that works well with the golem? Like maybe Kaeris without the "remove burning, gain flight" upgrade? Or is there a master that at least lets the rail golem work fairly autonomously as a beater and isn't affected by it guzzling tomes, like maybe Ironsides? Or is it just not worth using? Is it too unpredictable, is it flat out not as good as the mech rider or Howard "oh God kill him now!" Langston? Or is it just not talked about because it's widely accepted as a good choice?

Are there any tips you guys would have? I have made the model, I am (badly) painting it. I'd like to be able to use it competitively without hamstringing my effectiveness. I love the model so much I am willing to let it dictate who my next master is for the Arcanists. Heck, I don't want to but I'd go out of faction if I have to and try Levi or Hoffman (can Hoffman still take M&SU constructs like 1st ed? Am I wrong in thinking he could in first ed? I forget).

Help me Wyrdos. You're my only hope.

[Adran]

My personal opinion on the rail golem is that it varies in effectiveness between about a 8ss model and a 16 ss model. When it works well it is one of the best beaters in the game, with potentially a large amount of mobility as well. 

When it doesn't work, its a little lack luster  on effect. 

The only master I wouldn't play it with is Marcus, because they both want the low tomes. I would play it with Ramos, because he wants 1 high tome, and unless its a really high tome, you're often prepared to use a high card and a stone. (Unless you have ramos with electrical summoning who will wan 2 tomes, but even then they are rarely both going to want to use the same card on the same turn)

 

Hoffman can hire it, and it is quite popular with him, as he can increase its Ml to 7, which means its going to hit even more. 

 

When I use it, I am normally setting up for a good locomotion turn 2, so it is on at least 2 burning, and will be on 1 burning as it hits. I am happy to re-activate it with Ramos' Brass Arachnid (which is one reason why I'm happy to play it with Ramos). I generally don't find the need to spend any of my own resources in giving it burning. I buy Arcane resevoir and I will hold onto Locomotive cards from turn to turn. 

It warps the way I play the game sometimes, to make sure I can get the most out of it, which is probably why it not the most popular arcanist beater. But if you are happy to dedicate the cards in hand and so forth to supporting it, it can be used really well with almost everyone. 

[mythicFOX]

27 minutes ago, Adran said:

My personal opinion on the rail golem is that it varies in effectiveness between about a 8ss model and a 16 ss model.

Very well put.  He's very fun, and terrifying for an opponent for this reason, every now and again he'll eat the entire enemy crew; Choooo Choooo melon farmers!

I've used him a fair bit in Kaeris and he's quite fun in there as a thematic beat stick. 

From a purely competitive standpoint you're better hiring either the Cerberus or Howard and getting a more predictable level of power for your Soul Stones. Occasionally though it's fun to run the freight train over your opponents dreams. 

[Gladrocks]

OK, thank you for your input. Making me very happy here. I'm happy to use it competitively if it gives me a slight disadvantage. I just didn't particularly want to hamstring myself.

Are there any specific upgrades you will take with the golem? Do you just include it in the imbued energies spam, or is this an area where imbued protection can shine?

[retnab]

The Rail Golem was the first non-crewbox purchase I made for Malifaux so I may have some rose coloured glasses on for it, but I love the Rail Golem.  The biggest problem it has, IMO, is the difficulty in getting the tome trigger to keep the Locomotion pain train rolling.  Ml5 is both occasionally weaker and stronger than just Ml6 (vs Yin, for example, the 5 is much preferred), and being able to hit at min 5 damage is great!  I have very little trouble keeping its Burning in a good place even outside Kaeris, since as long as you're taking a Union Miner you can use the Welder on it once for Burning +2 and that's probably enough to at least get the little train that could going.  Under Kaeris it can be handy as well, since its 0 lets you spread out a bunch of Burning on friendly models (though others like Carlos can do that as well now).

[bertmac]

I like imbued energies for the extra walk before a charge. Have had lots of success with the rail golem but you have to pick you battles more than with howard due to the ml5.

Hoffman can get around that giving it ml7 and ca8 so it locomotions on any card.

[SurreyLee]

I've used him with good effect in a Ramos Crew. With the Brass Arachnid giving reactivate, you can easily get Burning 2 on the first turn. Yes, tomes are an issue but I'd plan on spending a couple from hand if possible as the damage track on the Locomotion attack is dirty. 

Okay, ML5 (albeit with a +flip) is okay, if you pick your target you'll take it out. Make sure you do damage, that's all, to keep the burning going. 

I've actually used him recently with Marcus as a surprise for the oppo and to get use of Blade and Claw. As that can't be used until turn 2 anyway, he'll have the burning and switching it at a point on the table really threw my oppo.....but...

Agree with the points above. When it works it's ace (recently killed Nicodem by top decking 6 out of 7 locomotion attacks turn 2) but otherwise it's simply okay. 

Upgrade wise, i did take imbued protection but i'm not convinced it's worth it as a determined oppo will hit you at DF4 or DF5. Imbued energies seems a bit of a waste too as he can effectively get fast with locomotion. 

Try him. Try Langston. Try both at the same time. Then you'll see what you like best.

[SurreyLee]

2 minutes ago, bertmac said:

I like imbued energies for the extra walk before a charge. Have had lots of success with the rail golem but you have to pick you battles more than with howard due to the ml5.

Hoffman can get around that giving it ml7 and ca8 so it locomotions on any card.

@Strangely Brown are you reading this Hoffman filth?

[Squirrelich]

I only play it in Kaeris. The reason this happens has nothing to do with her burning abilities, but rather Kaeris is the only master that I play that can produce more tomes than consume. I'm not a fan of her non limited upgrades, which means I have room for arcane reservoir for another card. She can remove burning on models to draw cards with one of her 0s. And I often don't find myself cheating with her so she isn't eating any of those cards she has been hoarding. My hope is usually that with all that draw (usually turn 1) I get enough tomes to make good use of its locomotion (usually on turn 2 after I make sure it has 3-4 burning). Oh, and I stone for cards both turns too.

Upon further thought I guess I do use it for a little burning. Its vent boiler can light your crew on fire for either her grab and drop upgrade or so she can use her 0 to remove it to get those cards.

But even after saying all that, I still only take it when I'm tired of Howard because of over use.

[Gladrocks]

35 minutes ago, SurreyLee said:

Try him. Try Langston. Try both at the same time. Then you'll see what you like best.

Oh I already know I like Langston. Or at least, I like the effort my opponents put into killing him, as they often leave themselves over extended so I can smash with Joss and Johan (or Joss and large arachnids, whatever list I am in the mood for). One day I will get to see him go off on a proper reactivated murder spree on an opponent. I just love the theme and model for the rail golem more.

I know I'd spend a lot of games swapping between them depending on what I need. But I just wanted some reassurance that the rail golem is good. Since I found myself a group of experience players in my new town, I am expecting to get smashed a fair bit while I chip my rust off. I'd rather be told that a model is  good despite my losses so I stick with it than end up thinking something is bad because my inexperienced self can't get much use out of it right now. When I get better I can (probably) think for myself.

 

So it works well for most masters. Which is great news for me, as I can play it right now with Ramos and buy Ironsides like I wanted. But it looks like Kaeris is especially worth a try with it, so I'll probably get her 3rd when I feel I am  used to the game again and start with my traditional "must own whole faction I like"

May get Hoffman for special occasions...

Thanks for all your input!

[Blackraw]

I have tried it with Kaeris only and you should not be afraid of "loose burning, get flight" upgrade, since it is easy to keep him out of her aura.

Normally I flame him up with Malifaux Child. If I happen to have 1-3 tombs (which I do not need for Loco) or to flip one with Child's  I will either put 3 burning on him or burn some gunsmith to get flight and fast if I also have low ram. (apart from RG, Child still does his job well since he allows to give out flight, without activating Kaeris first (if you activate her, give flare for flight, you still has to remain with her aura to make flight work which hinders her actions on the table).

You need to understand that for locomotion you need the following number of burning:

1 shall be left after loco consumption so that you get +2 damage, 1 is spent for locomotion, X is needed to compensate for attacks which does not connect or where you prefer the Masks knock-back trigger. The connected attack will compensate you the burning back on built-in rams.

So I find that 1 initial burning and 2-3 from Malifaux child is more then enough to get him working. The problem arises if you spent loco for walk (where you consume burning) but I would rather use AP for walk safe for situation where your only sure way to engage opponent is loco Wk - loco Wk - Charge.

As for Upgrades, there aren't many models who won't like having IE. But IP is not bad either. With armor +2 - 2Wd would mean two extra attacks sustension in most of the times. 1def is not huge, but 5 is not that ugly as 4. Though mostly I ran it without upgrades since it is already costy and sometimes I used SS for cards draw to get more nasty tomes to let him rock.

The truth is as it is said above, with 5 min damage,  and potential of delivering 5+ attacks in a turn he may win you a game with one activation. Otherwise he is still good, since even without tombs he can do two 3+ dmg attacks and one 5+ damage attack, but not 11SS good. 

I still like him for the feeling it gives when you manage to gather hand full of tombs by 2nd turn

Also note, he is good FFM target. Opponent has to kill him in most of the cases. He is immune to burning, which could cheat through FFM.

P.S. I would say he 100% worth owning, but he 100% does not worth auto-including, especially in local competitive meta, given that it will be easy countered by armor mitigation.

[uraj]

I like to run him with Mei Feng, especially into ressers (which is my most common match up). Mei can take Sparks which can give the golem fast on a 6 pretty much every turn and I normally run imbued energies since you are already throwing him down your opponent's throat you may as well get some cards out of it. Kang also does him wonders against undead and constructs with the + to attack and damage.

One of my favorite activations out of the golem was beating 5 stones out of Nekima before leaving her crippled, couldn't finish her off but my opponent lost nearly all his stones keeping her alive. Though it has been said already you will have games where you just don't get your returns, I had the golem flail about trying to hit a corphyee duet and only connect a single hit, so do be careful about sending it against evasive targets. The  Something else that comes to mind against gremlins it is important to note that defense triggers happen first so if a gremlin squeals away if you take the knock aside trigger you can bring it back into beating range. 

[dancater]

So....

The Rail Golem is not that different from Howard in some senses.  A big, Armored, hard hitting, construct worth a fair chunk of points but can chop an opponents crew to pieces.  In many ways he benefits from the same upgrades, notably Imbued Energies, in the same way you'd expect for any Arcanist beater.  As a construct he also has some similar synergies as Howard with Mei Feng and Ramos most notably but also some M&SU with Ironsides and he's as valid a Colette prompt as any other high SS beat stick.

Now the differences.  He benefits more from Burning synergy so certain masters (Kaeris) and other models (Firestarter, Rail Workers, Union Miners) are useful with him.  He is more card reliant, to really get the momentum you need to have tomes and this makes him card and suit hungry, and in the same suit as most Arcanist masters and other models generally need, so with the Rail Golem card drop and hand management is more important than for many other options.  He relies heavily on Armor to provide durability, if opponents ignore or by pass (for example by micro cutting it) Armor he will be derailed quickly.  Both condition removal and some other special rules (Sonnia and burning sight) also can hurt his effectiveness.  He's Melee 5 which is a problem against really high Df models and means likely more pressure to cheat in the high cards needed.

Basically, he is much more swingy in play as already mentioned, some games he'll soak a little hate and drop in a round being very disappointing, in others he'll build up a head of steam and the cards will drop right and frankly you'll feel kinda dirty as you crush your opponents crew.  Most players, as mentioned here, generally go the more predictable Howard, Cerberus and so forth.  The Rail Golem's biggest single weakness is that he is heavily card reliant, he has a lower Melee and needs Tomes to chain his attacks so you need solid flips or a great control hand to have your big turn.

If you like the model and are prepared to take the good with the bad he is 100% viable and works in most Arcanist crews (notably Ramos, Mei Feng, Kaeris, Ironsides have some synergy of some sort; for Colette and Sandeep is fine, generally they have no specific synergy with the Arcanist heavy beaters; Rasputina and Marcus have much better synergy with other beaters in his SS range and obviously for these masters he's sub-optimal [as is Howard]).

[Strangely Brown]

17 hours ago, SurreyLee said:

@Strangely Brown are you reading this Hoffman filth?

I am, and it is glorious!

[Solidhavok]

For extra hilarity, run in a Mei Fang crew with Mechanical Porkchop.  If RG starts near MP, walking rage machine can give you an additional + to attacks for the duration of your locomotion activation...

[retnab]

Maximum hilarity is that plus a Mobile Toolkit for Ml 5.  Confuse the heck out of your opponent with that one!  

[Odd]

Also, if you play mei feng as a 10T, you can put recall training on it.  I have never tried it, but always thought it could be very brutal.

[dannydb]

is the Rail golem better than Carlos Vasques in the Kaeris flaming beefcake role? at the moment struggling to pick over either 

[Bengt]

I don't think the Rail Golem fills the same roll as Carlos, it's a beater so competes with Joss and Howard for a spot IMO. Carlos doesn't hit that hard in comparison, so it depends on what else you have in the crew I guess.

[mythicFOX]

16 hours ago, dannydb said:

is the Rail golem better than Carlos Vasques in the Kaeris flaming beefcake role? at the moment struggling to pick over either 

What @Bengt said above.  With the slight variation that IMO Joss is a tank, and so has the same roll as Carlos.  

So if you're looking for a high cost damage dealer for Kaeris then you're choosing between Howard and the Rail Golem. At which point the Howard is a very consistent and stable choice, the Golem is more of a gamble, it'll either perform better or worse than Howard, which is up to fate.

If you're looking to tank damage then I think Carlos should do you a better job than Joss. With the caveat that I think Carlos requires a slightly higher level of finesse than Joss to make sing.

One thing I will say is that the ability to caddie Practised Production around does automatically bump the power level of Carlos in a lot of situations. 

[dannydb]

hang on have I been misunderstanding this then? can you take practiced production in non Colette lists? i've been assuming (newbie error) your can only take the upgrades under gang master names in gangs lead by that master

[retnab]

12 minutes ago, dannydb said:

hang on have I been misunderstanding this then? can you take practiced production in non Colette lists? i've been assuming (newbie error) your can only take the upgrades under gang master names in gangs lead by that master

Nooo that's definitely not correct!  The only restriction is that the model has the thing that's mentioned (so Practiced Productions can be on Colette, Cassandra, Carlos, and Angelica since they're all Showgirls), not the Master that's leading your crew.

[dannydb]

wow well right then better go review my lists!