New Levi player - many questions

[Sniddy]

Lurker tunred poster - Hi - OK I’ve just run my first Levi game

Still building up my models collection – have a reasonable Marcus selection but very limited Levi.

Took

Rusty Alice

Canine Remains

3x Steampunk

1 x Crooked Man

1 x Soulstone Miner

6 Cach

Faced

Lilith

Nekimia

2 x Tots

2 x Young

(I think)

I was doing fairly well – Ok I got a Desolation Engine out, and Lilith and Nekima mauled it to death – brood mothering thoese 2 as a 1-2 punch is nasty. Should say doing well until turn 5 where I left Levi and the 2 waifs too close and the insane threat range on the above 1-2 took it all apart.

Few questions

1) Levis V1 card vs the current V3 write up. What do I need to know so I can stop referring back and forth from the 2 until I get a proper card?

2) I’m assuming the first 3 items make a fairly solid backbone? I probably wouldn’t leave home without at least 2 steampunks and alice and I can see no reason not to make a 2nd waif ASAP

3) Is the guardian a sound investment to keep a waif alive and/or act as a2nd wave

4) Soul stones, 4 – 6 seems ideal – not so much for keeping him alive, lol but offensively (which makes a great difference from Marcus desperate spend to survive strategy) I don’t feel that’s gimping my army a lot….and being able to cheat in nice 10+ and soulstone in another flip especially if you know whats comeing via deaths lessons

5) Killing him relaiably – I’m assuming I could just headshot him as a final resort if I can find/cheat a ram. I managed it twice planned – figure 4 out of 6 shouldn’t be a stretch…worst turn was doing deaths lessons, getting 3 aces…no wounds being taken there.

6) Crooked man – seems good even if this game he was kinda meh and for 4 points with Levis trigger it seems silly not to take him, and the miner had no real targets so judgment reserved.

Planning to up my steam punks to at least 6 – then open season on mods – have well alice, 2 punks 2 waifs, desolation (and a steamborg executioner) so pretty much open season on picks

[Necromorph]

Seems like you're off to a good start.

As far as the list goes, yeah youll want about 6 steampunk aboms. A guardian is a very solid asset to keep your 2nd waif alive but it will not always be necessary. Only against very fast crews and guild....austringers will ruin your life with levi unless you have a guardian. Soul stone miners are nice too. Other models I would suggest are:

Jack daw

Lazarus

Ashes and dust

Steampunk arachnid swarm

Watcher

Any of the 4 riders are also nice.

As for crooked men, I don't think there bad necessarily, but they will be situational. Belles are decent with him as well to lure enemies into levi and alyces range.

2-5ss is about what I run, so you're good there.

To be honest, its been ap long since I've looked at the v1 levi card that I can't remember what they changed, haha. If you need a reference, you can print out a paper copy of the v3 card until you get one.

[Stonedog-7]

Hey man, had a feeling a thread like this was going to spring up best thing to do really

And the Lilith list was pretty much bang on, 3 tots not 2

1) Maybe get the V3 printed out on cardstock & laminated, but definitely should ditch the V1 card

2-4) pass, as you know i haven't got the experience for Levi

5) Might be worth looking clsoely for which abilities Levi can use to lose wounds to actually cause his own death, i know some can be used to kill himself and others can't... double check the pullmyfinger article too

6) It is a shame the speed of the Lilith crew largely kept your crooked man & soulstone miner out of play for alot of it, but from my own game on the weekend i'd say keep an eye on times to use Cave In rather than Shafted, it's a nice surprise set of blasts if you get Moderate/Severe, particularly if using Levi's abilities to stack the deck or if you can spare a couple of high cards... that said i think despite being able to give the crooked the crow for paralyze it might be worth getting a belle in the list first

Edited October 18, 2011 by Stonedog-7
spelling

[karn987]

Welcome to Leveticus! I'll just jump in for 2 of the questions:

1) Tear up your V1 card and print out the V3 card from the web. Don't even bother trying ot figure out what changed, just go straight to the V3 card printed from the web, it is word for word what you will get when your V3 card arrives (if you ordered one). Just simply, V3 replaces V1 completely and utterly.

2) Yes the first 3 items give you a very solid backbone to run a Vanilla Leveticus list (ie using his thematic models). I personally never run a Canine remain since I rarely have an issue getting my 2nd Waif up... but that's just me. I do admit to doing it vs certain Masters/opponents because high speed crews can just to easily kill 1. So yup, your on the right track with them!

Just don't get into the mentality that you always must take Alyce. She gives you a lot but you can get as much from a bunch of other models like Ryle and Lazarus or the Riders. So don't be afraid to look beyond her once yo uget yourself settled into him.

3) I don't like the Gaurdian with Leveticus, especially not for covering a Waif. While it would make it tougher... it's a lot of ss just to protect it and your better of keeping it save via careful positioning. If a Waif dies, who cares. As long as you don't die the same turn both your Waifs are down your fine! I've willfully baited with Waifs and just kept levy from dieing for a turn.

Take a look at the Tactica Wiki article for him, there is a good section about keeping your waifs alive and what not.

4) My rule with Leveticus is 3ss min and no more then 5ss. My reasoning for this is I rarely ever need more then 3ss to win a game with him. I burn the SS mainly for attacking my opponent's master or in the rare case, an execeptionally resistant minion. 5ss is a better option because it gives you a bit more to play with... but remember... Leveticus can kill nearly any model in the game with 3 spells hands down. There are only a few ways to survive it to, but all Masters share one of them... use SS.

So its up to you. I generally finish my opponent off over the course of two turns. The first turn I lay into them with Levy but really no SS if I can help it. Get my totals up really high and try to force the mto burn a SS if I can (works great if your Ca is higher then their resisting stat which it is most of the time). Then the next turn I use the SS after they've already started depleteing theirs. By then you should have the rest of your crew pressing down on them and even if they manage to resist all of Levy's spells... they are probably out of SS and down on cards and then Alyce could walk up and just Headshot them.

Though some people swear up and down to useing 8ss with him... I think it really is a waste. In all the time I've played him, I've very very rarely ever needed 8ss and I'd rather have a cannine remain for my second Waif or another SPA instead of 3 of those ss.

But feel it out for youself! Start with about 5ss and work from there and see how YOUR style fits him.

5) Yup Stonedog has it right, look at the wiki. I wrote up an entire section on killing him. It should give you all you need. But in short.... if it comes down to it, yes Alyce can shoot him in the head to finish him off But he already is rather good at killing himself.

6)Crooked Men will do you well but you have a ton of options! Basically keep trying them till you decide if you like them or not and if they fit YOUR levy stile. His minion choices are so varied that you really can build a huge variety of lists and have a bunch of Levy Players all with vastly different play styles wit hhim.

As for the Miner... it is really dangerous but you've gotta be willing to risk it. Get your Melee Master up and they just keep burying every turn to keep it around. Lobostele has done up some really nice works about the Miner and how to use him, try contacting him or checking out the Miners article on the Wiki and see what you can glean!

So I lied, I answered all 6 >.> but keep asking quesitons if you ahve them!

[Korrova]

In our local area we play 40ss games, and I've had great success with:

Leveticus

Rusty Alyce

Canine Remains

Steampunk Abominations x4

Ashes & Dust

5ss cache

Ashes and Dust is amazing, and if need be has a (0) action to sacrifice a friendly model. It's a great safety net when something goes wrong and you can't quite get Levi to die.

[LoboStele]

As for the Miner... it is really dangerous but you've gotta be willing to risk it. Get your Melee Master up and they just keep burying every turn to keep it around. Lobostele has done up some really nice works about the Miner and how to use him, try contacting him or checking out the Miners article on the Wiki and see what you can glean!

FWIW, I didn't write up the SS Miner article on the Wiki, but I probably mentioned it in other places. It definitely needs some touch-ups, and with tricks like Lazarus' Assimilate now, there's some new things to write up on it.

It's certainly a good minion for Leveticus though, IMO. Levi can use Blessings of Desolation to give the Miner the extra :crows to its Cb, which then allows it to automatically get its one Trigger that gives you a Soulstone whenever the SS Miner kills stuff. Can actually use the trick on turn 1 to kill your Canine Remains for the extra Waif if you wanna. Then you only 'spent' 1 SS on the Canine Remains, effectively. Kind of a cool trick.

There's lots more to the Miner as well, but just the trick to Burrow and hang onto (+2) Melee Master is well worth playing it, IMO.

[Bigmike]

I usually play a pretty elite Levi list, Rusty,Ryle,ect. things that are good at dropping dmg by themselves so levi can pop around and finish everything off, or drop what they didn't. As for protecting waifs. other than the few things listed you shouldn't run into much trouble keeping at least one of them alive as long as you place them in strategic locations. With the lists of his I like to run you never out activate anyone, but you drop things with frightening speed.