Attention Levi Veterans

[Chev Chelios]

I am working on my first Leveticus build at 25ss. Should I spend the soulstones on 4 SPAs or count on making them during the game.The only points cost I have right now is Alyce.Not taking them right away lets me take a heavy hitter like Killjoy or Bette.Or going with Arachnid swarms.I guess this is the pain or pleasure of Levi.

[Amarel]

Different people will give you different advice, but I like to take Arachnids and build SPA's in-game.

[Chev Chelios]

How many SPAs do you keep around? Meaning,how many do you keep on hand for different circumstances.I'm just trying to plan on how many I will need to paint up.

[Phoenix]

4-6 is a good number to have painted and ready to go. Beyond that you'll probably be merging them into desolation engines.

[tenabrae]

I like to take at least 2 spas and something to drive them around with (necropunk on the cheap).

I would tend to have (once you're loving it) 6 SPAs and at least 2 Waifs sitting about.

By the time you have 4+ you should be thinking Desolation Engine (so you obviously need one of them too)... I call mine Voltron.

[Chev Chelios]

So are you guys paying for the SPAs or making them during the game or a little of both? Because,you could include a lot of stuff if you just make them. Killjoy,Jack Daw or Bette come to mind.

[mylastnerv]

I typically only pay for two SPAs. That gives me a little more room for SSs on other things and allows me to asses the first turn of the game to see if I want to have Alyce and Levi Scavenge for the other Scrap tokens or just see if I can whip them up in combat. You can then easily have Alyce build you up the other two SPAs from the newly found scrap counters turn two and have Levi out doing all sorts of craziness to hopefully kill himself off to draw a new hand.

[karn987]

Personally I like including 4 SPA's right from the start and Rusty Alyce. I chose this because it gives an extremely powerful rush tactic where the SPA's do their thing up the field and then bring in the Desolation Engine. It used to be more effective when the Desolation Engine was summoned to them so it could be placed within 6" of the SPA's final location but oh well.

What I also like to do is use Alyce to give one SPA reactivate and then before I use it up make the Desolation Engine. This lets you keep Alyce in the back and have the Desolation Engine having 2 activations this turn. Yes it will drop to 1 wd at the end of the round but if you can get initiative next round you can get it healed up by eating people. Even if you don't the Desolation Engine can very easily kill half of a crew in that one turn and cause a lot of trouble for the rest. It's aura is an easy duel to beat, but if you have 3 or 4 models having to make that duel you can A. Burn through their cards or B. actually see them fail the duel and take damage.

Basically if you bring SPA's, your best choice from there is to go blitz style. Hit them fast and hard and make sure you back up the Engine with Alyce and Levy. Don't be afraid to risk Levy, just keep the Waif safe.

Otherwise most anything work. Bette is quite good with Levy if a bit expensive. But I prefer my vanilla Levy lists. I love his theme and the models work very well with him. Just remember, even if you lose the desolation Engine, your just 2 SPA's away from another one and it's not that hard to get the SPA's.

[Chev Chelios]

By blitz tactic you mean the SPA train,right?

[karn987]

By blitz tactic you mean the SPA train,right?

Well I mean the cluster SPA tactic, the train is an over-sight in the rules that is going away very soon. I would honestly stop even thinking about it, I have since I learned about it heh.

The real blitz tactic is the 4 man cluster that you revolve each one around.

A

B C

D

They are all in B2B, SPA A moves and does the no target thing puting D upfront. Then D moves and does the no target thing. Both of these take the rest with them because they are all in b2b. Now there is no way to move B and C and take the entire group at once.

So you move B and take A and then you do C and take D and put them all back into b2b and then make the Desolation Engine. That is the old way of doing and the way of doing it without the abuse of the current push description. The current SPA "train" will be going away soon, it will be fixed as its an over-sight from the errata.

But thats the tactic I mean, forget about the train as its not even supposed to be possible.

[tenabrae]

I call it the SPA pinwheel.

I prefer the train though, it's pretty much the same thing with less annoying model moving (does make 4 SPAs in the initial list a lot more worth it though).

[Chev Chelios]

So do they end up in a straight line side by side or does it matter,as long as they are in base to base at the end?

[karn987]

Well for hte Desolation bomb to work, they all need to be in b2b with the last one that moves. But as I said, forget about the train. Its going away and its a break in the rules and should really not be used. It's an unintended abuse.

[Chev Chelios]

Well for hte Desolation bomb to work, they all need to be in b2b with the last one that moves. But as I said, forget about the train. Its going away and its a break in the rules and should really not be used. It's an unintended abuse.

Ok.That train has left the station.

[tenabrae]

But as I said, forget about the train. Its going away and its a break in the rules and should really not be used. It's an unintended abuse.

I know there's been mention of it, but until it happens it hasn't happened... you can't base a strategy around something that mightn't happen ... and if it does get fixed, it might break the pinwheel too.

[karn987]

I know there's been mention of it, but until it happens it hasn't happened... you can't base a strategy around something that mightn't happen ... and if it does get fixed, it might break the pinwheel too.

No its not a might, it will be changing. From what I understand, it wont be breaking the original movement strategy either because thats the intended. Im guessing the fix will simply be to add it what push used to have, a model that is pushed is not considered moving for effects that trigger on movement. Or something along those lines.

But yes, you do make the valid point that it has not happened yet. But there is no sense in trying to help someone by recommending a strategy that isn't supposed to exist, is an abuse of the rules, and is going to be errata'ed away very soon.

[tenabrae]

I just want the errata

[nimtron]

A moves and does the no target thing puting D upfront.

Karn. What exactly do you mean by "no target thing"?

I am just starting to work with Levi and I want to make sure I am performing my blitzes legally.

[Wodschow]

Karn. What exactly do you mean by "no target thing"?

I am just starting to work with Levi and I want to make sure I am performing my blitzes legally.

I'm obviously not karn.. BUT!

He refers to their (1) Anomaly ability.

[karn987]

I'm obviously not karn.. BUT!

He refers to their (1) Anomaly ability.

Yeah that one =D To many ability names, I forget them or mix them up so I go with a descriptive nick name when I dont have the book handy.

[nimtron]

Great. Thanks. I over thought that one. I was thinking you were referring to some movement rule that I was missing. Should have just reread the unit profile.

[deadboy]

So how/when is the SPA train ending? What is changing to make that not work? I just started playing Lev and was shocked at how awesome this is.

[Kunanaki]

I too am curious. I've got the updated cards from the blisters, and all it states is now that SPA's do their little fancy movement only with the SPA's.

Is there something even more changing going to happen? Please clarify.

[Omadon]

Consider - the original wording of Keep Pace was that whenever a construct moved. At some point during that period, pushes got reworded to being movement, indirectly changing how the original workind of Keep Pace actually worked. The direct result of this was (If you look at it from the right angle) One moves, then the other pushes, then the one that pushed has moved, so another pushes, then blahblahblah you get the idea. In it's previous incarnation, it gave them infinite movement for those willing to take the rules utterly literally. I think taking the joined movement away from all constructs and just to SPAs was a bit unnecessary, but with ashes in mind, it probably makes sense.