Excited for the Demo-man

[Halflingspy]

So, with the brand new previews that are going up, the arcanists get a very explosive surprise in Willy the demolitionist. His little fluff story is great, and his moves are so fantastically bizarre and left field that he's perfect for the arcanists. He's Papa Loco, but nowhere near a clone of the guild explosives expert (or the gremlin counterpart).

Lets look at the positives -

+He is an MSU member, meaning that there are a lot of options opened. Kaeris can hire him while leading a crew. Union Miners and Johan get benefit with him on the board. Colette can take a break from Showgirls to get a little destructive boom at a cheap price.

+Directable death. Something that stood out to me is how much control arcanists have over Willy's blasts. His two blast dropping abilities are something that allows him to choose where blast damage goes, rather than just throwing out pulse damage in all directions. "Wheelbarrow of Doom" gives a hilarious image of a very bizarre driveby, and it allows Willy to move 10 inches and still threaten with two 50mm blast markers. Because the damage is preventable with a 12 def check, I see this as having the best effect against bigger or slower low def models, or waiting until the end of a round to capitalize on a small hand size by the opponent. Meanwhile, "Dropped Load" has the capability of letting you lay out a stream of 3,4,5 blast markers in a line to reach people still far away... or even more if you are lucky. No resist on this swan song of Willy's!

+Consistant Boom. Willy doesn't have to hurt himself at all to be effective. With a combat of 6, he can very well used his ranged attack to lay down possible blast markers. What makes the damage spread more amazing is that it ignores Armor AND Object, meaning the legendary Freikorp armor has met a match. It doesn't just stop there, the weapon gets a +4 to take out breakable objects, and he can attack without LOS with a penalty to his combat. The final deal sealer is that with tomes he can lay out burning tokens for Kaeris, and his action 'short fuse' lets him throw explosives into melee while simultaneously helping remove himself and others from combat.

The one deficiency, especially when comparing to the other 'boom' models is that his damage is a bit lower in profile. However, this sort of should have been expected, as Guild prizes itself as the king of Rae damage output. An odd note is that he is a 50 mm. base, meaning 3 corpse counters when he bites the dust... As he surely will be a priority target.

In the end, a more Consistant explosives model with some really fun tricks up his sleeve, and not too pricy to include into any crew. I am excited.

[Bruglyother]

What makes the damage spread more amazing is that it ignores Armor AND Object, meaning the legendary Freikorp armor has met a match.

Friekorp will still ignore the blasts. Willie ignores the Armor ability, not all armor types. So they would not reduce damage if he hit them directly, but they would still ignore any blasts he generated.

[Mekboy]

I'm loving the look of him. A few more blasts for Raspy.

Plus with the silent one, he can get a bit of a range boost with those demo charges.

Overall, he's a pretty cool model.

[011121]

He really puts Pere and Loco to shame.

[fritz the cat]

I really like the look of the model, and the cost is consistant with his peers (pere and papa) however... to get an idea of his value, I look at his peers and like them, his value seems situational. Aswell it seems arcanists have no lack of blasts to begin with (depending on crew) so his value in that regard is perhaps a bit diminished.

Definately still interesting though

[dunce002917]

I'm beginning to think Willie is the REAL reason Papa Loco is... well, LOCO.

[El Indio]

I just love seeing another decent, mid-cost M&SU member. I'm already getting an evil grin at the thought rolling Willie around with his Wheelbarrow of Doom, then having a bunch of angry Miners pop up next to him to "persuade" any angry opponents to mind their own business. It doesn't hurt that Willie is absolutely jam-packed with tricks. I think he'll be very valuable as a second-wave model -- he is a tad squishy, and his rampant blasting can punish reeling models. I think he has the possibility to swing games. He's on my short list for Gencon, along with the Rail Crew and the Ten Thunders box.

Forgot to add: I think he will be interesting with Rasputina. She doesn't take damage from blasts, so his collateral damage won't affect her, he is another source of blasts for her crew, and the ticking time-bombs he lays out offer another way to protect Rasputina from melee threats. Who knows? I might actually get use out of Ice Queen with Willie around.

Edited August 13, 2012 by El Indio