Sell me Leveticus (vs. Von Schtook)

[Mithrandir]

Hello! I'll ask a mirror question to one I put on the Ressers forum: could you say me why do you enjoy Leveticus? I find him interesting, with the irreducible damage, the "you can't kill me, I'll teleport to that girl", and the awesomeness of A&Dust. Why do you enjoy him? What are his crew's strengths & weaknesses? Does he need a lot of versatile support?

 

I'm interested in him and also in Von Schtook. Are they similar? If any of you Outcast members have opinions on the crazy professor (playing with or against) they will be welcome too!

[LexLock]

Leveticus and Von Schtook are both top tier masters so it should come down to playstyle, how much you're willing to spend, and any other parts of the faction that you might want to expand into later.

Leveticus himself is pretty much entirely focused around doing damage in his activation and maybe incidentally summoning something or moving some wounds around with essence transfer whereas Von Schtook is more of a support master/summoner who can speed up his crew with Fast and hand out Focus.

Their crews are both good at outlasting their enemies with the Transmortis having more defensive abilities than pretty much any other crew (seriously, armour +1, HtW and 1 more wound than their cost on nearly every model) and Amalgam taking a more offensive approach with Entropy and the Unmade trigger chipping away at their opponents defenses.

I don't think either crew particularly needs to take any versatile models, they both have good in keyword beaters and both of them have Necropunks which are the best schemers in the game relative to SS cost.

I'd probably make my choice based on whether I want to play a summoner (Von Schtook) or a more proactive beater like Leveticus. Do you want to kill something dead every turn? Then choose Leveticus.

[Thatguy]

32 minutes ago, LexLock said:

both of them have Necropunks which are the best schemers in the game relative to SS cost.

Those little guys are insane. Definitely recommend.

[RisingPhoenix]

Both are top-tier masters, no question.  I think VS is slightly stronger right now, but that's subjective, and he might get hit.  I'd pick based on faction. 

Right now, Leveticus plays like a ranged cannon.  He's based around Rusty Alyce, who fires out ridiculous damage at range, and he does respectable damage himself.  Typically they like to play close together, with Levi almost being Alyce's bodyguard.  A&D is even more disposable now, and is usually running around on one flank or another.  His crew still brings a disgusting number of hitpoints, a disgusting number of shots, and a lot of raw damage.  Usually you'll have that center of power, and good flanking.  It's very hard to trade blows with a Levi crew, they're very good at running their enemies out of HP, and all sorts of defensive tech just fails against them.  

VS is a melee beatstick.  All of his models are tough, nigh-unkillable monstrosities armed with can openers.  Worse, he's a snowball crew - the more he kills, the more models he gets, the more models he gets the more killing power he has.  Generally he wants to jump on something around 7-8 stones and murder it instantly, at which point a student will pop out and the pain will begin.  If he gets that initial snowball going, he's going to win.  On the other hand... eh, there's not much else.  Your opponent has to stop you or dodge you, and you're quite fast.  Because he has no core crew he can bring in any annoying models he wants - Lantern of Souls, etc.  Easy tech master.  Want scheme runners?  Necropunks.  Want Lantern?  Manos.  Want Ruthless?  Dead rider and some upgrades.  As such I think he's truly one of the most versatile masters in the game right now (versatile isn't strong - but he can do nearly anything, and do it well).  

[Jkkb]

2 hours ago, RisingPhoenix said:

Right now, Leveticus plays like a ranged cannon

I wouldn't underestimate Leveticus melee capabilities. I most often find myself charging a high value target with him and relying on his min 4 irreducible to take them out in 2 or 3 attacks. You of course have to pick your target or timing since he only got stat 5.

[RisingPhoenix]

The problem with that is that you can't treat him like a melee beater like Lady Justice or Ironsides and just go in with him.  He's not built for it, and his crew doesn't have any melee pieces to support that.  You can use him as a melee counterattacker, but there isn't the model support to build a Leveticus melee crew.  

Use him as a melee counterattacker when people try to get on Alyce, which is a good role, but if you just run him in there, he's going down.  Or worse, the opponent will get some conditions on him, tarpit him, take out any waifs that are in good position, then kill him.   You really don't want Levi running all over the board as a melee piece.  You want them to come to you.  Your crew is strongest with the center of power as Alyce/Levi, and melee as a backup plan (albeit a very, very good one).  

Similarly A&D, especially post nerf, is tangling with no one in the 9 stone range.  He's still hyper efficient, but he works very well as either a damaging tarpit or a scheme runner that can annihilate lesser scheme runners.

And I really don't recommend running deso engines to prop up the "Levi as a melee piece" dream.  Just looking at VS/Anna/Valedictorian vs Levi and 2 deso engines in a melee should reveal the problem (or if it doesn't, play it on the table).