Hollow Waif Anchors

[spect_spidey]

So what are the most cost efficient options for anchors? Are there any solid options for anchors within Outcasts? Do you normally find yourself going outside of Outcasts for anchors? If so, is the selection of undead or constructs better? I just picked up Leveticus and have not played with him yet. I am trying to figure out what models might be good options to use. Any responses will be greatly appreciated.

[DXXXVIII]

Trappers can be nice. Lazarus and alyce as well.

 

[Hateful Darkblack]

It's been a while since I've played Levy, but here's my usual thoughts on Anchors:

You want three Anchors, every time. You can add more, but I usually assume that my Levy Crew will be split in three.

One should be a sniper who hangs out toward the back and is really stable so you never run out of Anchors. I often use Lazarus or Ryle for this one. For this you want durability and a ranged attack.

One should be fast and durable, able to get up and hold territory. I generally rely on Ashes and Dust here. But I generally rely on Ashes and Dust a lot when I'm playing Leveticus. Sometimes I'll use Valedictorian instead.

The last doesn't have to be as durable or powerful, but should be fast and good at board control. Sometimes I'll use a Dead Doxy for this (and pair her with a Rotten Belle to zip Leveticus up the board fast turn one.) Sometimes I'll use a Soulstone Miner so it can just appear where I need it upfield. Sometimes I'll go nuts and make it Bete Noire or a Hodgepodge Emissary or Mechanical Rider. Something manueverable that can pack a punch and do some useful board tricks.

That's about what I do! Hope this is helpful!

[Count Zero]

I usually use Johan, Flesh Construct and A&D (this last one depends on where levy summoned her, A&D usually are at the center and the other 2 at flanks). Johan is durable and Flesh Construct is durable and cheap.

I hope this help you

[katadder]

I tend to have 4 anchors - alyce and johan make every list, then A&D or bishop/taelor/lazarus and finally vanessa/sue/hans

but then I have never gone outside outcasts for my levi crew, got so many options as is that I dont feel the need to go further afield

[Adran]

Some of what you want in Anchors depends on how you want to play Levi.

If you want to be in your face with him, then you'll need Tough anchors, because they will probably be weathering quite a battering. If you use Levi more to snipe around the edges, you'll want models that can contribute to the game from those sort of positions. Likewise if you go for a safe anchor.

When I face Levi, I normally go for waifs as my target priority, if I can kill one or two of them on the first turn it can really scare the Levi player and force them to not play the game they want. So think about places you want your waifs for safety, and think about what models would want to be involved in those places. This might mean you want something fast to be able to act as an anchor where you need it. 

most of the time I find that I would build a similar crew if I wasn't looking at Anchor costs. I'd have 3 or 4 models of a suitable price range anyway. But that might just be the way I build my crews. 

 

[spect_spidey]

Interesting replies. I must admit that I am surprised to see so many high cost models used as anchors. It would seem that having such high cost models used as anchors would hamper the rest of the crew. I had been contemplating models such as Dead Outlaws, Johan, and such. You know 6 to 8 point models to maximize my activations and Waif placement by having all my crew be options for anchors. But Ashes & Dust, Lazarus, Bishop, etc. are some pretty point intensive choices. Again I am new so I do not have a handle on the game let alone Leveticus, but I would think that 20 or less SS to build the rest of your crew and upgrades would hamper your abilities to run schemes that did not involve killing. Is this not correct?

[Adran]

One important thing that is easy to forget is that levi gets 2 to 3 free activations in the form of Hollow waifs, so you can often afford to hire a slightly more elite crew and not suffer the out activation issues that it would normally cause. For example if you spend 35 stones on 3 powerful models and upgrades, you are already at 6 activations. Reaching the normal 8 activations you still have 15 ss to spend on 2 models, so you could afford a 4th high cost and something cheap if you wanted. 

Both Bishop and Ashes and Dust can be great scheme runners if you want them to be. They come with 3 ap letting them do things like score Claim jump on their own each turn. 

Sure, you could do it with cheaper models but what you want to focus on is winning, and if that means you've spent 10 ss to score you 3 points, thats not too bad a ratio if you look at it with the views that there is 20 points to focus on (Scoring your 10 and denying the opponents 10) and you have a master and 50 stones to spend doing that. Its a lot harder to stop Bishop droping those markers than it would be to stop a wind gamin doing it. 

[Pyrflamme]

I actually just played Levi on Wednesday because I recently finished my Rougarou and wanted to try it out, but had been playing Titania and Zoraida recently enough that I didn't feel playing it in NB (...although it occurs to me I haven't played Neverborn Lynch at all yet...)

If you're up for Pariah of Bone/Neverborn stuff, I'd advocate for Titania's Knights. They want to play upfield but can stay back a bit at the same time owing to their pushes, and they have a nice sack of wounds plus Armor+1 and H2W. Generally two will serve your purpose for any game, but all three can be attractive hiring options. The Rougarou also worked out pretty nicely, even though the board didn't permit me to do huge drag-ins for my dudes to pounce on (too many scattered trees) - H2K, a heal on activating and discarding a scheme marker, and its trigger for to damage on a is far more feasible with Levi's card advantage engine, letting you get in 4-6 damage shots with regularity.

I also earnestly advocate for Ashes and Dust, yes, it is expensive. But it's a superb killer, very hard to kill itself (permanently, though its wound count, 6/6 Df/Wp, can't be charged, and condition immunity goes a long way in general), and as others have mentioned, having two zero-cost totems mitigates some of the activation issues. Additionally, you will likely be summoning at least a few Abominations during the course of the game, especially if you take the trigger upgrade for ranged attacks on Levi, and if you have a turn where you don't need to sacrifice and repop Levi with Sanguine Evocations, you can Rebirth Ashes and Dust if it's within 10" of a board edge to draw 2 cards and gain 2 extra activations for that turn.

I haven't done Pariah of Iron much yet, but Joss and Howard, on the face of it, seem like durable and killy anchors. Just recently finished up Peacekeeper, so I imagine that might be nice too with its H2W and Armor+2, plus that harpoon.

[WWHSD]

14 hours ago, Pyrflamme said:

I haven't done Pariah of Iron much yet, but Joss and Howard, on the face of it, seem like durable and killy anchors.

I haven't played (or played against) Levi but it doesn't seem like Howard would be a very good anchor. He can do a ton of damage and draws a lot of aggro but is usually a high priority target and will fold under any sort of concentrated fire. He usually dies in the first couple of rounds.

[Ray]

My two favorite are Alyce and Johan. Quite recently I've also begun using Ashes and Dust to act as a flanker and another option for Levi to pop out from. While I'm no expert Levi player, your choice of anchor depends heavily on your play style. Other options include the Librarian and the friekorps sniper. Just try them out and see which work best for you! 

[spect_spidey]

I am not sure about the trapper. He seems to be target number one when I  play with him. Of course, this is using a Von Schill crew since he is the only master that I have ready. I hope to have Leveticus finished by the end of the weekend.

I am wondering if Dead Outlaw might be a good choice for an anchor. They are 6 SS and seem like they might be able to hang around for awhile with their heal and Hard to Wound.

I had also considered Ronin. While they can't be charged, they seem like they would die faster than a Dead Outlaw.

Thoughts?

[Nikodemus]

In my experience Disguised + Hard to Kill is a lot better than Hard to Wound + Selfheal if you strictly want a model to stick around. Depends a lot on what they're facing. One way to look at it is that Dead Outlaws are available separately whereas with Ronin you might want to consider the Viktorias box. You could try proxying both and see which you prefer.

 

[catbat07]

I think the thing to remember with Levi is that with just him, two waifs and Ashes and Dust, you're already at six activations. You probably don't need any help with schemes because Ashes can easily do them itself/split. As well, I'm any given games you only need one to two models form CJ or LyM. With void wretches/winged plague/crooligans or a necropunk, you can easily get these schemes while still conserving points for anchors. Also, which Pariah do you plan to play? 

[spect_spidey]

2 hours ago, catbat07 said:

I think the thing to remember with Levi is that with just him, two waifs and Ashes and Dust, you're already at six activations. You probably don't need any help with schemes because Ashes can easily do them itself/split. As well, I'm any given games you only need one to two models form CJ or LyM. With void wretches/winged plague/crooligans or a necropunk, you can easily get these schemes while still conserving points for anchors. Also, which Pariah do you plan to play? 

I apologize, but I am not familiar with what CJ or LyM stand for. I am not sure which Pariah to play. I am not sure which is better or which has the advantage. For models outside of the faction I was trying to locate models that were both undead and construct. But there seems to only be 7 that aren't Outcasts. The Flesh Construct is the only one with my inexperience that seems like it would be worth taking. But again I am still very new and my only experience with masters is a few games with Mei Feng and about maybe 10 with Von Schill. I do have a decent amount of models though. Here is what I currently own for Outcasts excluding masters.

Rusty Alyce

Lazarus

Wokou Raiders

Vanessa

Specialist

Librarian

Trapper

Johan

Freikorps Men

Big Jake

Abominations

Steam Trunk

Malifaux Child

Hollow Waifs

[BaconBytes]

CJ

Claim Jump

LyM

Leave your mark

[catbat07]

You should probably stick with just outcasts for now, but when you eventually do choose a Pariah there's no wrong choice. Iron is better than Bone, (mainly because Terracotta warriors) but It really depends on your play style and the models available to you. Go with Bone if you plan to play/like the look of Resserectionists. Iron has quite a few Arcanists, but varies quite a lot in other factions. 

[spect_spidey]

5 hours ago, catbat07 said:

You should probably stick with just outcasts for now, but when you eventually do choose a Pariah there's no wrong choice. Iron is better than Bone, (mainly because Terracotta warriors) but It really depends on your play style and the models available to you. Go with Bone if you plan to play/like the look of Resserectionists. Iron has quite a few Arcanists, but varies quite a lot in other factions. 

The only other faction that I have is Ten Thunders. I have the Mei Feng box, Misaki box, Obsidian Oni, Ten Thunder Brothers, 1 Samurai, Oiran, and Mr. Graves. My wife plays Neverborn but none of her models are undead or construct except for the Mysterious Effigy. Based upon this, my out of faction choices are kind of wide open since I don't have anything to really start with except for Rail Workers and Mysterious Effigy for Iron.

[Adran]

30 minutes ago, spect_spidey said:

The only other faction that I have is Ten Thunders. I have the Mei Feng box, Misaki box, Obsidian Oni, Ten Thunder Brothers, 1 Samurai, Oiran, and Mr. Graves. My wife plays Neverborn but none of her models are undead or construct except for the Mysterious Effigy. Based upon this, my out of faction choices are kind of wide open since I don't have anything to really start with except for Rail Workers and Mysterious Effigy for Iron.

Nothing says you have to a direction for Levi right away. (or even ever). Play what you have. See where you struggle, look at ways to stop that. If the way to stop that is using construct or undead, then you can go that way. Different games will give you different problems so you might find you like playing Iron into games like extraction and guard the stash, but prefer bone into interference and just outcasts into  head hunter and collect the bounty. 

I personally think necropunks are the most useful undead construct from outside outcasts for Levi, but thats not universal. About the only outcast model you have on your list I would never use for Levi is the Malifaux child (and obviously Vonschill and the Steamtrunk which he can't hire) becasue the free waifs are a lot better (as they are free)

[Davos]

Trappers are super easy and convenient, since they should be far enough back that they can be defended easily.  I really like a librarian, since the heals are nice in general and can hold their own against standard models.  I also really like either A&D or Strongarm Suit, since either one works well forward in an aggressive zone, and you can do all kinds of fun things with A&D+Levi.  Johan is also a decent pick, cause a 6SS hard to kill, relic hammer is crazy efficient  

[MunkyMuddFace]

I prefer to use the Horsemen as my Anchors. I love the Levi Horseman list!

[KrazyIvan]

Running only 3 anchors is risky, and can backfire if you are not careful. I usually start my Levi crews like so...

• Levi
• Waif x2
• 10ss Henchie (Usually Rusty or Hannah w/ I Pay Better)
• Johan (IMO the single most SS efficient model in Outcasts)
• Librarian
• Trapper

This gives you 4 anchors to start, all with solid abilities that are good in a variety of situations...and that have good synergy with I Pay Better. It also covers basic bases like hitters, healing and scheme running. You're left with plenty of points for an expensive model, or a few cheap models and upgrades.

[Richard matthews]

I like to use Johan, Hunter, Rusty Alyce/Sue the latter very much depends on what faction im up against say neverborn have a lot of casts ill chuck sue in their as man in black is priceless in that situation otherwise I use Alyce  will also  chuck in a flesh construct if I feel like its needed

[Seadhna]

Sue and A&D are the most reliable anchors if you don't want to dabble in other factions.

If you're ready to dabble, the sturdiest anchor I've used is a Flesh Construct (that thing takes a ridiculous amount of AP to take down); Mech Rider and Joss are expensive, but decent options; I've also had moderate success with Yin.

If you don't have the points to spare, just pick stuff with HtK (there are surprisingly many Outcast/undead/construct models in the 6-8 SS bracket).

For the ultimate anchor, bring Scion of the Void, she's not dying ever if you play her smart.