New player looking for Rasp Advice

[NeverEnding]

Hey everyone I am just a click away from ordering my first Malifaux schtuff. Ive been wanting to play as Rasp for a while and at first the stuff I was seeing was discouraging. At first it seemed like she just couldn't win. But it seems like the general consensus is the same as it had been for other games, just keep playing till you get it. Raspy seems pretty pro and I love her stuff. Ive been creepin' on the threads for a while looking for what I should buy and heres what I've ordered.

1 Cult of December box set

1 Essence of Power

1 Silent One

1 Cerberus

I have nooo idea what I'm doing, I don't even have the book yet (ordering that too). Anything I do wrong? My girlfriend and some other friends are joining in and they are buying the Lilith, Viks, and Kirai boxes.

I was going to try to throw in fast stuff but I decided I wanted to play a more magical sniper list. The Cerberus in my plan was to be used to either control the table (kind of herding the weaker enemies together). Grab an objective, or pick off enemies that manage to survive the Kamehameha's from Rasp.

Any tips?

[Wodschow]

Well seeing the selection of models you made for your initial purchase my guess is that you've already read quite a few pieces of advice on this forum - so not really sure what you're asking.

It's a solid list for starting out and I think getting familiar with it before adding too much other fancy stuff would be a good idea.

Edit:

If you're looking for something specific though, just ask xD

[NeverEnding]

Well I have read a lot over the past few days. I just don't know anything specific, I know if Tina wants to blast something she will, If cerb needs to move fast, he will. But I don't really know how to play with them. I just wanted to see if there is some fatal flaw really :/

[Wodschow]

She's awfully slow and one of the squishier masters.. Those are horrible 'flaws'. Get used to her though and you should be able to largely overcome those (well you're sort of stuck with the speed, but you do have the longest range of blastiness of any crew, so don't worry too much).

(Edit: Well the yet to be released :snowstorm can potentially add some speed to the crew, but since it costs so much it will not be your average crew anymore anyway)

Still not entirely sure what you're actually after here..

Edited January 18, 2011 by Wodschow

[NeverEnding]

Should I use Wendigo or Essence? I like the idea of another source of spells and the model looks nice, but Essence is a constant power up. Which would work better in a sniping list.

[Cats Laughing]

Essence is supposed to be better, as it augments her spell slinging better (with the plus flips), whereas the Wendigo is just another ice mirror target and Ht1 devourer.

FWIW, in my limited experience you should consider your scheme selection (and the flipped strategy) as part of your list building since strategies are flipped before choosing your crew and schemes can be chosen to compliment your crew's strengths.

For instance, you probably don't want to pick a scheme requiring you to get into your opponent's deployment zone if all you take are golems, silent ones and Raspy (all plodding along at 3" a walk action). Raspy also doesn't excel at melee, so any scheme requiring a melee attack by Raspy is probably not a good choice.

On the other hand Raspy and Silent Ones do like killing stuff through ice mirrors, so taking Raspy's Ice Mirror kills scheme and multiple Silent Ones can make for fairly easy VP.

Just some thoughts.

[NeverEnding]

I understood the general theme there. Ive looked at the PDF for Arcanist stats but I didn't see the Silent Ones stuff. Do they make the ice mirror ability a -2 CA instead of -3? Honestly I just ordered it because the model is beautiful XD

How about painting...I have Games Workshop paints and Washes, is that acceptable?

Oh also does the model come with the card if you order it?

Edited January 19, 2011 by NeverEnding
moreee questions popped into mah head

[Cats Laughing]

I understood the general theme there. Ive looked at the PDF for Arcanist stats but I didn't see the Silent Ones stuff. Do they make the ice mirror ability a -2 CA instead of -3? Honestly I just ordered it because the model is beautiful XD

Book 2 models are not in the PDF as that only contains changes to the first book's models.

How about painting...I have Games Workshop paints and Washes, is that acceptable?

Yes. It's unlikely that anyone would even be able to tell which company's paints you used.

Oh also does the model come with the card if you order it?

Yes. Though older models may come with the version 1 cards, which are being replaced with the pdf (version 2 cards). You can exchange those cards via the card exchange program (search forum for the thread)

[Devon_v]

Not to mention Wyrd doesn't make paint that I'm aware of.

I favor GW's base colors (foundations and Chaos Black) and metallics, and P3's color+highlight setup, then you finish with GW's washes, particularly Gryphon Sepia, Badab Black, and Devlan Mud, aka the Cheat Code/Easy Button/Fairy Dust. But then, I hate mixing paint.

I find 'Tina pretty simple. Take her, add two Silent Ones, and then sprinkle in Ice Gamin, Freikorps Trappers, Gunsmiths, Sabretooth Cerberi, Hoarcats, and Von Shill/Kaeris depending on scheme/opponent. Take the Essence of Power. I don't see any point in the Wendigo as it doesn't help you ubernuke things.

Then it's usually just a matter of Silent One #1 moving 6-9" from Rasputina, within 13" of unlucky schmo, having Silent One #2 close to 'Tina with her range enhancing aura up, and then 'Tina throws a December's Curse 9" to SO#1, who reflects it 13" to schmo, who is facing it at Ca6 due to Perfect Mirror, with a from the Essence, ideally with a High Mask cheated from your hand, and then another card Soulstoned on top of it for good measure. Get the resist up to 20-30 and most models will just eat a neutral flip at worst so you can cheat in severe damage and chain blasts all over. Then you probably get to do it again for free, and still have two more Cast actions to go. The Silent Ones have Casting Expert as well, so you can move them twice for almost respectable speed and still put up the aura or use Turn to Ice. With +3" on Ice Mirror and +3" on December's Curse, you get some nice extra reach to offset your speed issues somewhat, and Perfect Mirror makes it a little easier to hit models with Use Soulstone.

Kirai crews will hate you. You will hate Sonnia crews.

It's also worth noting that the Silent Ones can heal themselves, Rasputina, and potentially your entire crew all at once. This can make those pot shots sting a bit less, and help you keep your Soulstones for nuking.

The reason I like Freikorps Trappers is that they have Frozen Heart within 'Tina's aura, which makes them eligible for the Silent One's aura, which means they have 19" Clockwork Rifles + Hunter. They aren't the most accurate things in the world, but a Focused Strike should allow you to land neutral damage and cheat or flip something better than their craptastic weak damage and chase models out of cover, something 'Tina otherwise has trouble with. You can then move them with their auto-trigger, so they aren't static guns. They can also grant and possess Scout, so you don't have to worry about severe terrain making your speed any more of an issue.

Von Shill is insanely expensive, but I find that he's the easiest answer to the Undead. Hard to Wound is a colossal pain when you are trying to generate blasts, and you are going to confront a Flesh Construct sooner or later. You need to beat its resist by 11 or more just to be allowed to cheat damage with 'Tina+Essence, while Von Shill can hang back a ways and just plug the thing straight up with his ranged-enhanced pistol, and can use a Soulstone on his own if he needs to.

Personally, I find Rasputina to be half of all I need to play the game. Colette is the other half. If I need speed, Showgirls, if I need things to die, Raspy. Both have borderline broken schemes available (Power Ritual and the Ice Mirror kills). They combo well in a Brawl, as Colette can just sit back and make 'Tina an almost endless supply of Soulstones for December's Curse, and you could bring four Silent Ones and keep using Turn to Ice to make them immobile (no Lure/Obey for you!), hard to damage, self-healing gun turrets, who have their own mini-nuke in addition to channeling 'Tina's blasts.

[NeverEnding]

Haha that kind of makes me feel bad, my girlfriend is buying the kirai box! Yeah I have a few more models to buy now. Thanks for the painting advice, I've got a silent one, Cerberus, and essence on the way and want to get them table ready asap.

[Cats Laughing]

Haha that kind of makes me feel bad, my girlfriend is buying the kirai box!

Don't worry too much. If you use enough terrain pieces, Kirai's spirits can use that terrain to help mitigate your spell blasting, and iirc, her models ignore your model's armor.

I demolished the last Kirai player I played, but only because we were playing spells wrong and allowed my ranged spells (december's curse) to ignore cover... If we had played it right, I probably would have lost, especially if we had been playing a strategy other than shared slaughter.

[Devon_v]

It's still basically an entire crew built around spell damage which makes the low wounds on spirits a liability. You can shoot Ice Gamin in the back and kill some of the spirits outright with blast damage, and anything caught out in the open is probably dead, as are any friendlies within 4".

Also, two Trappers can pop most spirits under cover with a pair of severes or a severe and a moderate if they have to Focus. If you have some good non-Masks in hand, you can probably take out a covered spirit with each of them. A lot of those things only have 4Wd. Granted Kirai can make more, but she has to hurt herself to do it, and 'Tina can already two-shot her from as much as 22" away, and her Spirit Walking doesn't help, so you really want to watch positioning. Heck, 'Tina can two shot her with blast damage for an additional 4" which can go around corners and through cover. (Unless I'm forgetting Evasive on her, but I don't think she has it)

I just find that Kirai is on as much thin ice with 'Tina as 'Tina is with Sonnia. Sure, you can win, especially if your strategy doesn't force a lot of combat, but if the strategy isn't about sitting behind cover while 'Tina inches into Channeling range... With a Silent One's assistance, any spirit, cover or not, within 16" of Rasputina at the start of her activation can be severely damage if not outright destroyed. I think only one of them can survive a direct hit from her. The game has a few matchups like that, but you aren't supposed to just run one crew, which is why you get to choose your force after you know what map and strategies you will be playing. I hate McMorning vs. 'Tina for instance because the Flesh Constructs are stupid hard to put down, so that's a good answer for the Resserectionists. Kirai's crew is dominating against low magic crews, and she's great to pull out if you think your opponent is going heavy bruisers.

Also, Cats has a good piece of advice there. Lots of terrain. The game is balanced around it. Some maps specify "open areas", but if they don't explicitly call for it, pile on the terrain. Raspy herself doesn't deal with it too well (though consider her Freeze Over ability), but she's got options in Rising Powers.

The spirits do ignore Armor, but I don't take armored models much with Raspy, and I've given up on trying to get anything constructive out of December's Touch in favor of raw damage. Best defense is a good offense and all. The Mechanical Rider is an interesting choice otherwise, and once it comes out it may well replace the Cerberus as her go-to speed piece.

[NeverEnding]

just throwing this out there because im a super nerd i totally just sent Shawn of Blue Table Painting the link to the site. Yeah I need some terrain, im playing with the idea of ordering it from Custom Kingdoms. I like painting models and making terrain but painting terrain is a stretch on my abilities.

[Wodschow]

I don't think Kirai is a pushover with Rasputina.. Kirai does nasty stuff to people aswell and if there's enough terrain then you'd never get Rasputinas 22" working as anything but a deterrent. Kirai certainly have the movement edge over Rasputina and can use that to great advantage by simply keeping out of sight.

Personally I don't like doubling up on the Silent Ones as they're sort of fragile (and there's only one sculpt..). Am not really a fan of the Trappers outside Von Schill either. But Devon obviously had great success with them, which proves there's many ways to play Rasputina

Just go ahead and get familiar with what she can do with the models that you bought and add some models that you fancy later on and see what works out for you in the end.

[Devon_v]

I don't think Kirai is a pushover with Rasputina.. Kirai does nasty stuff to people aswell and if there's enough terrain then you'd never get Rasputinas 22" working as anything but a deterrent. Kirai certainly have the movement edge over Rasputina and can use that to great advantage by simply keeping out of sight.

Yeah, she absolutely has the movement edge, and maneuverability too since the spirits can pass through solid objects. I also need to keep in mind that some play groups have a lot more terrain than mine, and can actually play indoor maps and really cluttered outdoor stuff. We have tons of cover, but not a lot of outright blocked LOS.

Personally I don't like doubling up on the Silent Ones as they're sort of fragile (and there's only one sculpt..). Am not really a fan of the Trappers outside Von Schill either. But Devon obviously had great success with them, which proves there's many ways to play Rasputina

If you only have one sculpt, you aren't trying hard enough. HORDES Circle Tharn Bloodtrackers are a good base model. There's one that has almost the same hair, and she's wearing leather/raggedy patchwork stuff and has a partial mask on. She's one of the sculpts in the expansion blister, so easy to get. All that extra stuff is separate parts, so you can ditch the shield, spear, etc. Fur cloaks are easy to greenstuff.

Range is my thing. Give me a game with gimped shooting (Warmachine) and I'll still bring all the guns. I just really like the dual options of either super-ranging her spells, or having three major vectors for it. You can cast Turn to Ice on the Silent Ones for the same effect as Statue on the Gamin, but they have other interesting abilities as well. Being able to out-range the Guild with cover-ignoring fire is also kind of fun, but I usually run the Showgirls against them to guard against Sonnia.

[jasonbeauchene]

Might I also suggest, if noone else has, throwing in the Freikorps Librarian? My group uses a lot of terrain, so when playing Raspy, I am always shooting into cover (which would normally be a negative flip)-but low and behold the Librarian has an ability to give Raspy a + casting flip meaning, she is shooting into cover at a straight flip! Attach the essence and you are good to go. However, this strategy does not win friends, nor influence people. As an added bonus of the librarian, you also get an extra card (for a hand of 8 in scraps) and a healer.

[Tograth]

im not too sure about that jason - the librarians ability to give an extra card, is it called "arcane reservoir"?

if yes, then it wont stack with raspy already has, so only a 7 card hand im afraid

the healer bit is nice - does it only work on living models, or can you also use it on constructs?

[NeverEnding]

oh yeah that sounds interesting, I was actually considering buying the von schill box so thats pretty cool. I got my first rasp stuff today, Cerb, Silent One and Essence. It only took 2 days to get here, I feel like its my birthday.

[Ratty]

I do think it depends on the Kirai player. With her speed and manoeuvrability I think it might be quite hard for the Tina player to avoid Kirai dumping a couple of Shikome or Ikiryo right on Tina's head. Df 3 and 10 Wds is not hard to kill if you can get into combat with it.

I think it could so easily go either way.

[Devon_v]

im not too sure about that jason - the librarians ability to give an extra card, is it called "arcane reservoir"?

if yes, then it wont stack with raspy already has, so only a 7 card hand im afraid

the healer bit is nice - does it only work on living models, or can you also use it on constructs?

It is Arcane Reservoir, so it won't stack. They can heal anything friendly. My problem with them is the Elite Mercenary rule. They cost Rasputina 9 SS. That's rough in a small game. The positive casting twist definitely makes her more dangerous though.

[NeverEnding]

I do think it depends on the Kirai player. With her speed and manoeuvrability I think it might be quite hard for the Tina player to avoid Kirai dumping a couple of Shikome or Ikiryo right on Tina's head. Df 3 and 10 Wds is not hard to kill if you can get into combat with it.

I think it could so easily go either way.

That is honestly what I've been excited to see happen. Its kind of awkward for me to be the slow one, I've played warhammer for a long time and I could never stomach an army that moved slow, it seemed to be too much of a disadvantage in WH. I'm hoping that in this game its not a TOTAL game breaker and I want to see how slow and strong stacks up against quick and precise. Minus the Ortega's, I don't want to see them, ever.

[LoboStele]

Wow, interesting about the Librarian. I hadn't caught the fact that she could offer up a on casting flips. May have to take a closer look at her. Would be good to have in situational instances if the terrain has a ton of cover on it.

And even though Arcane Reservoir wouldn't stack, the option for another healer on the table wouldn't be too bad.

[Devon_v]

The value of speed really depends on what your Strategy is. If you need to keep your opponent out of your deployment zone, speed isn't so important. If you need to get to your opponent's deployment zone, or reach a point or object before they do, it becomes very important. This is why the Cerberus was/is considered a crucial piece of equipment for Rasputina. It's something in-faction that can get somewhere and back fast. For a few more points though, Von Shill is interesting as well. He can shoot, use Soulstones (including the Slow to Die/Healing Flip immortality trick), can fly (Hulk style I guess), and has Nimble. It terms of Treasure Hunt, it's interesting to note that while he cannot use Flight from Augmented Jump while carrying the marker, it still allows him to ignore disengaging strikes and hoof it 12" back towards your lines.

The ultimate speed in the Arcanist arsenal however is the hideously expensive and frighteningly frail Coryphée Duet. These things can cover almost the length of the table in a single turn if they have a reasonably safe route. They are a very poor choice for treasure hunt, but if victory depends on Interacting with something, they'll get there first. Just don't expect them to hold ground.

[magicpockets]

Two things -

Take molemen and bury them near your opponent or where your opponent is likely to go. Then target them with ice blast (I think that's the name, the blast templat one), cheat it to a neutral flip (usually by cheating the moles card down), cheat in a severe for damage, and bounce the two blast templates over enemy models (ESP masters). Moles only take 1wd and the damage to enemies can't be resisted (ex armor etc - but there's no "flip"). This can be brutal.

Other advice, never take an Ice Golem against Zoriada

[Devon_v]

I haven't explored the Mole Men yet, but Armor +5 is a nice ability. With the Essence, you just need to beat the Mole by 1, so it's pretty trivial to get this off. Even assuming a normal Ice Mirror cast, you only need 'Tina's card to be 2 higher. If you Perfect Mirror or cast directly, you can actually get it off with an equal or lower card than the Mole flips.

I've lost interest in the Ice Golem in general, as it's just a great big target for the most part, and too easily bogged down.