Marcus List and Tactics

[gerzel]

Hey I'm posting to see if anyone has any pointers on playing Marcus.

Currently I'm running with a 25 point crew:

Marcus

Myranda

Sabertooth Cerebus

2x Hoarcat Pride

I have another sabertooth and Hoarcat on order and am thinking about getting a pack or two of molemen for lager battles, though right now 25 points is what is used for most games.

[goblyn13]

I had starting writing this article:

http://cheating-fate.com/arcanists/marcus/

still have to flesh out the tactics and weaknesses section

[Couchmonster]

Perhaps some Waldgeists? They look very cool & aren't too shabby rules-wise either.

[wrabbit37]

Perhaps some Waldgeists? They look very cool & aren't too shabby rules-wise either.

I'll second this. I used a Marcus list with a couple of Waldgeists in it and they were fantastic. Armor 2 made them harder to kill, and as long as there are forests around, they're going to do some nice board control.

[AfroCelt]

waldgeists and silurid....the silurid really reinforce the speed aspect of of a marcus crew. How are the hoarcats? I have 2 on order but haven't tried them yet.

[gerzel]

Unfortunetly I've not been able to try them myself. They defiantly seem like they should be used in numbers and are not terribly speedy.

I have another sabertooth cerebus on order as well. Was thinking about sluurd and molemen.

For speed the rattler isn't bad with its 12" charge.

[Adran]

Marcus lists typically include a lot of speed, but nothing that can take a hit. So make sure when you hit something, hit it hard and make sure it says hit. (although I've yet to play with waldigiests as they haven't arrived in my FLGS yet)

I'm not convinced on myranda yet. Her animal insticts just doesn't seem useful enough for me. I make it resticted to Constict,devour, roar or uproot as spells she can cast with it (well and primal flame but she can do that anyway). Her shape change is handy, but she is rarely as good as just having the actual creature would have been.

Phil

[Tikimonkey]

I would recommend having a moleman in the group. Keeping one teamed up near Marcus makes it a real pain for the other crew to kill him, not to mention molemen can actually hit fairly hard. Just make sure you don't charge Marcus too far ahead so that he is out of range of sluffing off the damage to the moleman.

Hoarcats can be fairly effective with the amount of damage that they can do, not to mention the ability to sacrifice height 2 models when running in packs. Their only real downfall is they are not the fastest of models.

Remember the snakes are incredibly fast, so you can get them across the board very quickly and tie things up. And don't underestimate the power of Terrify. It can mess up some of the most well laid plans.

[Thefrex]

Marcus lists typically include a lot of speed, but nothing that can take a hit. So make sure when you hit something, hit it hard and make sure it says hit. (although I've yet to play with waldigiests as they haven't arrived in my FLGS yet)

I'm not convinced on myranda yet. Her animal insticts just doesn't seem useful enough for me. I make it resticted to Constict,devour, roar or uproot as spells she can cast with it (well and primal flame but she can do that anyway). Her shape change is handy, but she is rarely as good as just having the actual creature would have been.

Phil

I can agree with myranda. I am generally dissapointed with her during most games. For the most part i'd rather fill her slot with a moleman, silurid, december acolyte, or rattler depending on the scenario

[bringer of death]

i have had no luck with myranda so i will try a Waldgeist has any body used these?

or has any body had any luck with myranda

[gerzel]

Myranda does seem to be a tough fig to use. Slightly underpowered IMHO.

She'd be overpowered if she got the spells of the beast she transformed into.

Perhaps a compromise. Give her a (1) spell to let her swap her spells with the spells of the beast form she has taken until the end of her next activation. That would mean she couldn't change back as I think that action is a (0) spell. Would make sense, have her get "Deeper into" the beast she has changed into. Perhaps instead of making it the next activation make her have to go through a will power dual to change back.

[Ropetus]

Myranda is a bit of a disappointment really. I have tried using her a few times but she never seems to accomplish anything. She is problematic as she really needs lots of different Beasts nearby to have any options at all.

On paper she seems like a nice toolbox with lot of options but most of her spells are too difficult to cast reliably and for Shapechange you could just take the Beast you want for about the same points.

Her only selling point is Animal Instincts which allows her to cast Beasts' spells with a better Ca. However, at the moment Roar is about the only worthwhile spell any Beast has for Myranda to cast (and that was cuddled too in the errata, can't really cast it with a high casting value when it affects your own models too). Hoarcats are better at casting Devour and Constrict is not really worth it. If she could copy (0) spells as well she could be worthwhile with Leap and Dug In/Tunnel added to her options. Same if she would gain the spells of her Shapechange form.

Her melee attack is a joke with that Cb value of 4, even with Clawshape.

I think Myranda would be better in a Brawl with some more SS. The bigger Control hand (especially with Rasputina) would spare more cards for her casting and could allow nice combos with Marcus' Feral spell: think about turning Raspy or Ramos to a Beast and having Myranda copy their spell list and double the amount of spells you throw at the opposition.

-Ropetus

[Axhead]

It sucks that Marcus has no spells for her copy either.

The argument about her lack of CA doesn't really factor in as she will be in Beast form whenever she is in melee unless you really drop the ball in that regard.

The ability to heal beasts when shapechanged is almost meaningless because it is unlikely to succeed due to suit requirements in any form except sabertooth or hoarcat, in which case you need a very high ram card to pull it off.

So either you get a magically gimped beast or an extra healer of beasts...

Until I found out that she couldn't change into the shape of Feraled not normally beast models, I thought she was overpowered. Just imagine how awesome an extra Hans or Executioner would be. Now I have to agree that she seems overcosted.

[Mr_Smigs]

has anyone tried using Marcus to turn another friendly into a beast.... say Hamelin,

then using miranda (perhaps after shapeshifting into a waldgeist) to spam spells like Obey or Piper's Lure?

perhaps try something simple.

activation 1: Marcus makes Hamelin a Beast

activation 2: Hamelin spams black death (3 damage to everyone)

activation 3: Miranda spams black death (3 more damage to everyone)

next round

Activation 1: marcus spams healing

Activation 2: Miranda spams healing

now all the 6 wound or less models in the enemy army are dead, and everything else is hurting...

(granted, this requires 6 Castings at target 18....)

thought 3,

bring miasaki (again, Marcus makes her a beast)

then Mrianda in serpent form can mimic her earth spell (1 action) and charge 12 (1 action), then revert and take a free hand strike

thought 4,

convict gunslinger (again, marcus makes him a beast)

mirianda then spams Supressing fire, burining through the oppoent's hand and probably paralyzing a good chunk of their force...

Edited June 22, 2010 by Mr_Smigs

[enderwiggin]

Miranda-slinger sounds like a disgusting build!

All-in-all you'd have nice ranged ability, speed, and passable melee. *Thumbs up for the theoryfaux so far*

[Mr_Smigs]

Miranda-slinger sounds like a disgusting build!

All-in-all you'd have nice ranged ability, speed, and passable melee. *Thumbs up for the theoryfaux so far*

once my boxed set comes in, I'll let you know how it goes...

I'm thinking using both might be the key...

use Hamelin to bunch the enemies together,

then the miranda-slinger to paralyze...

but then... that's 23 points on just 3 models... what else to top it off?

[enderwiggin]

Hmm, I'd go for numbers myself or maybe a speedy approach.

I'm close to that in my planned build (Ramos one) using Alyce, a Gunslinger, and a Swarm and it's already feeling like it's going to leave me very thin on the ground at the 35 SS mark.