Rasputina vs Sonia Criid

[graeme27uk]

Which would you take and why?

[Shadai]

Gunsmiths....

Lots of gunsmiths

[Mekboy]

Kaeris is pretty useful, due to her immunity to blasts. Silent ones should be pretty nice too, because if I remember correctly they can counterspell.

[Requirement]

I prefer Sonnia as she is a lot less crew dependent and has a little more survivability. She also has one of the easiest avatars to manifest with a lot of magical attacks.

Rasputina is still a cool model with the ability to mirror spells off her models (under the right conditions) with a little less survivability if an opponent gets up in your face.

I think it more depends on if you like fire or ice better. (Or as I always say, "Just buy both.")

[graeme27uk]

I really was after what people thought of the two and how they compared. They are both blaster-style masters but obviously from different factions. So how do they compare in terms of blasteriness and the crew they can take.

Sonia has access to Guild minions which I think are pretty good and has some nasty options.

Rasputina seems more limited if she wants to have a viable crew, though she could take some machine constructs but they don't synergise with her I think...

Raspi seems to have longer and better board control through Ice Pillars....

I guess I could get both, but then that would be expensive to get two factions' models.

[Shadai]

Which would you take and why?

Well your question is which would you take and why, but the title is more like a statement of in this battle which would you take.

You seem to want answers as to what master to take, but you are doing it in the Arcanist forum, we're obviously (mostly) bias.

So I don't know what you are really after.

Each master plays a bit differently, but if you are going as 'tina Vs Sonia theortical matchup, well Sonia is going to win that the majority of the time. The reason being is Sonia (like all guild masters) is specifically designed to counter an entire faction. That's not to say someone from that faction can't win, but it's difficult because they counter your strengths and exploit your weaknesses so well.

For example, Sonia is kinda a 8!^@# because she counters spells stupid easy and most of her minons have an anti-magic aura that gives a fat negative to spell flips. Arcanists cast spells. Negative flip means no cheating. Yeah, if you're playing a spell heavy crew against that kind of power its going to be a long day for you.

That being said, Arcanists do have access to some models that can be used to help avoid Sonia's overbearing spell cancelling aura.... that is, models that don't cast spells. So when you asked what would you take and why, I suggested Gunsmiths. They have range, hard to kill, and do a ton of damage that doesn't rely on spells.

But if you want the pro's and con's of the individual model, I would suggest asking about Sonia in the Guild-specific forum, and Raspy here.

[WindlordRyu]

I would take both, and have already done so. But if I had to pick one of them I would probably take Sonia. It's not very hard to avoid taking lots of damage from Rasputina's blasts by spreading out your models, Sonia on the other hand has explosive burst and an extra blast (but lower damage), making it a lot easier to hit several models. It's also very fun to bounce blasts of your magic resistant Witchlings.

People also underestimate her melee ability and think they're safe once they tie her up, just to receive a sword to the face followed by a Flame Blast on something hoping it's friend would be able to cover it's advance.

Still, few thing can beat the look on your opponents face after one-shotting their master once you draw the red joker with Rasputina, which is something Sonia will have trouble doing.

[Ozz]

For me personally, Sonnia looks to be more fun than Rasputina, for the simple reason of she is less reliant on her crew and just blows stuff up and hurts a lot of stuff, just on occasion she has to pay a lot for it. Raspy needs her crew to take full advantage of her range, and so you need to keep a lot more models protected and i don't like to keep models safe, i like to hit stuff with them

---------- Post added at 04:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:39 PM ----------

So basically, how much crew synergy do you want from your crew? Do you want everything to be able to work independently well or have to function as a whole? Deciding on that as a personal preference for you should make it easier to point you in the right direction

[Dustcrusher]

Sonnia is more versatile, Rasputina has more raw damage potential and can make her own cover.

What Ozz said is right; like Lady Justice and Perdita, Sonnia can work independently of her minions and do well, while Rasputina is the focal point of her crew, with additional models there to extend her capabilities.

[Requirement]

What Ozz said is right; like Lady Justice and Perdita, Sonnia can work independently of her minions and do well, while Rasputina is the focal point of her crew, with additional models there to extend her capabilities.

This is probably the main difference. I am a Guild player (spying on you dirty Arcanists...) and have played Sonnia for some time now. She doesn't need a crew. You can run constructs with her. You can run a Lucius/Guardsman list under her. She doesn't care. She will be fine. She doesn't even have synergy with Samael, her second-in-command. So I guess her crew building versatility is her real strong suit.

Rasputina has a pretty pre-determined list of minions that she works well with (Frozen Heart being the most usable for obvious reasons.) Her crew works really well as a crew, a cohesive unit. She has an amazing board control ability with the ice pillars and bouncing spells off friendlies.

So, the decision is whether you want to buy a bunch of models or a bunch of models. (OR! as I said before, just buy them all. Tell your landlord that you can't make rent this month because Wyrd has all your money. They will totally understand.)

[graeme27uk]

I had a go with Raspi the other day against Lady J. Her spells were quite devastating when they went off. The fact that she can use minions for LoS is useful for keeping her safe, though the poor minions in the open got blasted from the Death Marshalls' guns. Ice Pillars were good for wasting shots as they cleared charge lanes, but they were quite easy to destroy. L.J eventually got into melee with Rasputina and from there on it was over....

It was only a quick demo game so only 20 pts worth. I was given (from what I remember):

Rasputina

2/3 Ice Gamin

1 Silent One

8 SS cache

vs

Lady J

Judge

3 Death Marshalls

and whatever was left

So I figure that seeing as most games will tend to end in melee, and the fact that range attacks don't realistically have that many turns to be effective due to the board size and the fast movement potential of models.

So how do you prevent Rasp getting into melee?

[WindlordRyu]

It can sometimes be quite hard to keep Raspy in a position where she can deal damage and still stay outside your opponents threat range. Usually it comes down to the Silent One, the combination of North Wind and Perfect Mirror lets you stay further away. But doesn't really help much when you have teleporting Lady J's and Shikomes all over the place.

More importantly IMO, is having an ability to get her out of melee. Hopefully your opponent will only be able to get one model to her. Then you can freeze it with a Silent One and walk out of there. Having a few melee capable models like gunsmiths nearby will also help. And I'm pretty sure a Snowstorm has an ability that you can use to push her out of melee.

[rascally]

I went for Raputina for the following reasons.

Snowstorm is my favourite model from wyrd and I wanted an excuse to purchase, build and paint it.

I've always liked the Rasputina model as well and she was going to have been my first master at one point.

Her crew are easy to base, rock and snow, no need for fancy expensive bases.

None of which are sound tactical reasons for backing Raspy, but I like her *happy*