So, Rafkin

[SoulG]

I just got Rafkin today! Largely, I got him in preparation for going broke next month but I'd like to get my money's worth. What are people's opinions on Rafkin--worth the 7 points? Has anyone used him successfully and, if so, how? Is he useful outside of a "Spam 50 mindless zombies" build?

Edited March 14, 2012 by SoulG

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Yes spam 25 guild autopsies.

[Calmdown]

Actually it doesnt work, due to the way Chihuahua is written (you can only Fetch effectively once since Chihuahua turns CCs into BPs when it fetches and BPs dont trigger Rafkin). So he's back to being a support model rather than a 'bomb'; my average use for him is to drop 6 Mindless Zombies on turn 2 for Nico. But, two turns of sitting still and only having Wk 4 means he's pretty much relegated to defensive duties at that point so you're paying 7 points for 6 MZs and maybe a deployment zone/objective guarding model. Which is worth it in the right circumstances, but by no means an auto include with Nico as a lot of people are saying.

With any other master, there are much better choices.

[Headcase2]

How do you manage to gather 12 BP counters (= 6 MZs) by turn 2?

[Fetid Strumpet]

I think it is this set up,

8 dogs get killed, 9th dog picks up the counters and gives to Nicodem (8 BP), Nicodem summons a rogue necromancy (4 BP).

[CrouchingMoose]

Its 6 dogs die...7th either picka up and gives to nico or nico arises +6.

Then nico summons rogue necro +4

Then nico summons flesh construct +2

[Clement]

Possibly crazy plan.

Rafkin gains counters every time a corpse counter is sacrificed.

Nicodem can sacrifice all corpse counters in 10 inches to create mindless zombies.

Mindless zombies count as corpse counters.

Thus Arise would let nicodem turn his mindless zombies into...mindless zombies. And Rafkin gets more tokens!

So then nicodem can spend arise to refresh all his mindless zombies, feeding Rafkin yet more tokens, who can then churn out more zombies, about 50% more then were there the turn before. Then roll out avatar nicodem and bury your opponent in a pile of zombie activations.

The big bottleneck to the combo is Rafkin needs an (all) and a (1) action per cycle of this... Nicodem + Rafkin + Doppleganger?

[Fetid Strumpet]

The issue with that is that you are giving up Nicodem's best ability, Bolster Undead to give Rafkin extra BP.

[Clement]

True. And we either want to bolster the herd when it hits critical mass, or else get aNicodem into play. Leaving them all activating at normal mindless zombie speed is going to leave you badly out-activated, so Mark of Decay will get the MZs into normal turn order. Besides Heed My Wishes seems like it would do more for Mindless Zombies then Bolster anyway.

I also see that Rafkin would be rooted in place churning out Zombies every turn... So unless we're just camping out in the deployment zone for the game, we need a Belle or something to Lure Rafkin around so he can keep up with Nicodem and the herd.

So we're up to 20 stone worth of "setup" for this trick now. It's not going to win any games i think, but think of the horde.

[SoulG]

Rafkin can do his "Get BP" aura and walk up to 8". The biggest issue I see with him is that he's living and he's completely average in everything. His advantages are: BP hoarding, a gun with poison 2 and up to 2 Blasts, healing, a knife with a good damage line (with trigger), -maybe- Hard to Kill. I think timing the Hard to Kill spell will be too difficult, personally, but we'll see.

[Jewomie]

It's not going to win any games i think, but think of the horde.

Well, i do agree that this tactic alone isn't going to be winning games for us, but wouldn't this greatly improve his avatar form? if you had him in the back summoning Zombies, i think he could do alright... maybe a belle to lure him out if for no other reason than so the mindless could catuch up with Nicodem.

Just a thought, i haven't had any experience with either Rafkin or aNicodem.

[Thatguy]

What about Rafkin's other abilities? Is handing out Hard to Kill worth it?

I've been thinking about grabbing him with Nico and a bunch of dogs. With Bolster and Hard to Kill, plus Nico's Decay, the 2ss dogs should be able to preform well. And if they don't, there's always corpse counters.

[Jewomie]

I think i'm going to pick up Rafkin once i get the rest of my Ressers painted up... you all got me thinking, and now i really want to try some things with the dude

[Ausplosions]

Take 4 dogs.

Rafkin flasks the dogs, catching himself.( free poison tokens for heals later.)

Dogs activate and die.

Nico raises a RN.

Rafkin gets 4 Bp.

Edited March 15, 2012 by Ausplosions

[SoulG]

Naw, you take 5 dogs. Have the extra dog pick up the counters and give them to Nicodem who uses them to make a RN. Then you get 8 counters.

[Fetid Strumpet]

Or, 4 dogs, kill them all, Nicodem arises, then summons a Rogue Necro, 8bp

[Thatguy]

So i tried out Rafkin in a brawl, using him as a body part generator.

I took a list that comprized of Nico, Dr. Mc, Rafkin and over a dozen dog againts a pretty standard Colette Ramos crew. Turn one i used Rafkin and some dogs to kill a total of 11 danine remains. I didn't have any crows, but Nico arised for 11 body parts. Turn 2, still no crows but Nico arised giving Rafkin 22 bp. At this piont I was starting to worry, if Rafkin went down, i'd be screwed. So when I summoned the mindless zombies, I made sure to suround Rafkin so that nobody could get line of sight.

Unfortunately, with some move ment tricks Cassndra moved up, fire breathed all the zombies protecting Rafkin. At which point I was a little

concerned, but Cassandra only had one action and Rafkin was at full health' no worries right? Wrong, one red joker later and good ol Rafkin's a crispy critter.

I was uspset, but i figured that it would be fine, I'll just have McMourning pick up the 22 body parts and drop a few rogue necros. Unfortunately, my opponent got initiative and got off a flurry. After missing once and hitting for weak damage,

McMourning still had 9 wounds more then Johans max damage. No worries, the Good Doctor will activate next and carve up Johan, heal and be on his way to the massive pile of body parts. Unfortunately, Johan ties my total flips at a neagtive three twist and manages to red joker' flipping severe on the second flip

[Fetid Strumpet]

While you had very bad luck for this game the thing I take away from this is just how incredibly suit dependent Ressers are.

[Q'iq'el]

This is pretty much why summoning lists do not work. You need minions that can fight. Summoning is something to give you 2~3 extra minions per combat. More if you get really good cards (meaning both more kills on the opponent, if he drops Body Counters, and more Reanimations).

Now Rafkin is great, because he provides you with Mindless Zombies without the need for Nicodem to cast Arise. It is also a safer source of Body Counters (in form of MZs) than Mortimer, who can fail to cast his Exhume or fail to flip the Crow). On the other hand you lose the ability to speed up your crew, which is one of the main functions for Mortimer.

I think Mortimer may be better when you face a complete denial of Body Counters - in pair with Molly they can generate up to three full counters a turn and that's a lot. Rafkin I see the most powerful when facing these rare crews that have even more models than Ressurectionists. There are many different kind of sacrifices his ability can go off from and when there are many counters dropped, he will be better at generating Mindless Zombies and will be able to free up Nicodem's (0)Arise.

---------- Post added at 11:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 AM ----------

While you had very bad luck for this game the thing I take away from this is just how incredibly suit dependent Ressers are.

Everyone is incredibly suit dependent if you put all your eggs in one basket and make sure the strategy you employ works only off the single most contested suit in your faction.

This is not the case of Rezzers needing Crows and nothing else - you can design a multi-suit crew for Rezzers just as well as for any other faction. This is case of imbalanced crew design - a very good example why min/maxing looks good only on the paper (or should i say the screen).

[Fetid Strumpet]

I disagree, when I play Pandora I don't need suits to do anything. They are nice, they help with neat triggers, but none of the spells or abilities I want to use require me to have any particular suit. My abilities only get better when I get the suit I want, they don't get shut down if I don't get the suit. Ressers have many abilities that just flat out don't work because of suit requirements, and I'm not in anyway only speaking about summoning spells.

[Q'iq'el]

I disagree, when I play Pandora I don't need suits to do anything. They are nice, they help with neat triggers, but none of the spells or abilities I want to use require me to have any particular suit. My abilities only get better when I get the suit I want, they don't get shut down if I don't get the suit. Ressers have many abilities that just flat out don't work because of suit requirements, and I'm not in anyway only speaking about summoning spells.

Yeah, Pandora is sort of an exception and she works differently than most masters. On the top of the that you play a crew designed not to need these suits. You could very easily design a crew which requires Masks for everything and such a crew wouldn't work, even for Pandora.

The author of the Rafkin lists discussed above has designed just such a crew. It doesn't prove or disprove or underline Rezzers dependence on Crows (which may in general by slightly higher than Arcanists dependence on Tomes, guild's on Rams or Neverborn on Masks, but isn't so by much), it underlines the biggest weakness of any summoning list - very high unreliability. Part of this is that you need too many Crows to pull that out.

Sure, you need the Crows for other spells. So do other masters - Colette without Tomes or Lilith without Masks are just as curtailed as Nicodem not being able to cast Rigor Mortis. But once you put summoning on the sidelines of your crew design, you are not much more limited by Crows than these other masters.

I'm also pretty sure it is done on purpose. If summoning was easy and not Crows-dependant, everybody would be spamming undead and overwhelming the opponent. From the early days of Malifaux it is pretty clear the faction isn't supposed to work that way and every mechanic that allowed for that was quickly modified. I'm pretty sure making all the abilities required for summoning tied to one suit is a limiting factor.

And we are here with a perception issue again - because people want to make summoning work, thinking this is the mechanic they should go for, the dependence on Crows becomes really visible. The exact same complaint had Lilith players in book 1, trying to design pre-Nekima growth lists. Dependence on Masks was horrible, for the same reason.

But you don't need to go that way. If you don't, you take minions with abilities that require Rams and Masks and you don't put all your hopes on getting lots of high Crows. The other factions - Pandora you mention - do it, and there's no reason not to do it with Rezzers (other than being fixated on summoning and very narrowly themed crews, perhaps).

Edited March 17, 2012 by Q'iq'el