The Rail Golem and You – Thoughts and Opinions?

[Zwergenkrieger]

Hi all,

I totally dig that Rail Golem model! And now I like to read about all your opinions, experience and thoughts concerning that fantastic looking model.

Mei Feng can use it wether she´s running as 10T or arcanists. But which other masters like to field a Rail Golem?

Which minions offer good synergy with the Rail Golem?

Thanks in avance!

[Ryu]

Viktorias + Vanessa like Rail Golem; that was certainly an interesting match for me to play against!

Mei Feng, as you mentioned, loves Rail Golem (I mean it is her metallic child after-all).

Minions that offer synergy: Rail Workers, obviously because they can give it burning counters. Metal gamin are awesome with a Rail Golem if you just need to hunker down somewhere and shout, "You shall not pass!"

[Clevelander]

The RG is an all star player no matter which crew it joins. It a nice beat stick that can take quite a bit of punishment before exploding. It is particularly good with Kaeris because its death is a reliable source of burning counters.

My favorite crews at the moment start with Marcus, Kaeris, and the RG. The RG makes a nice mobile anchor and provides great board presence while Marcus is off running errands for Kaeris. On occasion, Marcus will turn the RG into a beast and then heal it, but usually his speed is best used elsewhere.

As for minion synergy, Ryu's comments are spot on.

[Joel]

Kaeris loves him

[Arkion]

Leveticus can hire him. I don't think he's a particularly strong hire without support elements like Metal Gamin and Rail Workers, but not having actually fielded him with Levi, it's a pure theoretical.

I'm interested in hearing more about your Marcus / Kaeris / Rail Golem list, Clevelander.

I'm also interested in hearing about Rail Golem support elements. He's terribly slow without Mei Feng pushing him up the field, and I can't imagine he's a better beatstick than a Steamborg Executioner without Rail Workers and Metal Gamin helping him out.

[Sarsnick]

Leveticus can hire him. I don't think he's a particularly strong hire without support elements like Metal Gamin and Rail Workers, but not having actually fielded him with Levi, it's a pure theoretical.

I'm interested in hearing more about your Marcus / Kaeris / Rail Golem list, Clevelander.

I'm also interested in hearing about Rail Golem support elements. He's terribly slow without Mei Feng pushing him up the field, and I can't imagine he's a better beatstick than a Steamborg Executioner without Rail Workers and Metal Gamin helping him out.

I find the opposite. I think he is self-sufficient enough. Use a burning counter here and there to bump your attack/dmg instead of reactivating every turn.

[PokiePrawn]

The RG is a beast. I have only ever played against him, but he has dominated any game he was in. I tried to take him out in the first game, threw everything I had at hime and couldn't do much. The next game I did the opposite, and tried to ignore him and go about getting the job done - that also didn't work.

[Adran]

I find the rail golem is self sufficent enough to allow it to be fielded with any of the allowed masters.

If you have no bonus ways of getting burning counters then it is a lot slower, but still pretty fast. It can naturally move 10" and get a melee attack every turn if you want. With out rail workers I would spend the first couple of turns hording the burning counters and then havign a couple of good turns. Once it becomes engaged it can steadily gain counters from being hit. You might not get enough to get pain train on it, but using 1 BC to charge for 1 AP, and then 1BC to get an extra attack is pretty doable for at least 4 turns of the game if you want. And 4 turns of getting 2 attacks on a model 12" away, or 3 attacks on a model 8" away are 4 good turns.

I think he can also scare opponents, thte armour 2 and every hit giving him counters makes you worry about low damage attacks. He is one of the few models that you don't want to pick away at, as you'll probably give him a reactivate well before he is dead.

It benifits from Rail workers giving it a burning counter. Some form of healing would be nice, but not essential. Mei and potentially Kaeris and the fire gamin/iggy can get a lot of burning counters out there which it can hover up if you really want.

Its death adds burning counters which is nice for Kaeris and Mei.

I've happily used it with no models to support him, and think it is worth his points in terms of mobility, durability and damage output on his own. That there are models that synergise with him just makes him even better

[geistwald]

I'd even consider using the golem with Colette, probably in place of Cassandra, when I need an effective speed bump/bullet magnet that eases the pressure on the rest of the crew, one that's also able to deal out enough damage to make up for its 9SS cost.

[CrouchingMoose]

Rail Golem has always been a superstar when I've taken him, as he should. Every single time my opponent's have been scared enough by him to focus on him and get distracted, or they don't kill him and he wrecks face. I've also just discovered the join of taking him with a Metal Gamin, who as a 1 action (no flips invovled, no resist allowed) can take burning counters off of Rail golem as needed and turn them into damage at the enemy.

[Zwergenkrieger]

Some pretty good answers here! Thanks folks!

I've also just discovered the join of taking him with a Metal Gamin, who as a 1 action (no flips invovled, no resist allowed) can take burning counters off of Rail golem as needed and turn them into damage at the enemy.

I have to reread the card of those Metal Gamins. Totally overlooked any synergies with a Rail Golem.

@What to get to start?

Do you think this might be a good start for some Rail Golem fun?

Mei Feng Box

Rail Golem

Kaeris Box

@Rail Golem and Masters

Do you see any benefit / advantage in fielding the Rail Golem with Ramos? I like the background of Ramos and the look of most of his minions.

[His Fattness]

The rail golem works very well with Ramos. Ramos can heal it with combat mechanic, it drops 3 scrap when it dies. If running brass arachnid you can give it reactivate. If running ARamos it gains +1 walk and charge. And Ramos ignores the 2 model limitation on M&SU.

[Odin1981]

I like him also for using refuel against high def. It allows him to damage normally out of reach def stat lines. I have had that used against me to good effect (main reason perdita bit the dust in one game).

I prefer using him as more of a tank model when I play him. I love the all action heal as a way of keeping him stick models in place while I use manuver elements to get stuff done/ set up mei for a grouped up mask, mask trigger activation as well.

I have tried out him with ramos and Aramos as well and I really like him in a rail golem + mech rider combo. He also fuels up bc's quickly with kaeris (generally always has a turn 2 reactivate at the cost of 2 ap from her gun) also it can free up student for giving fast to whichever master I am using with the kaeris rail golem package.

I really like regular ramos now with rail golem especially with the new gaining ground package. I feel ramos (no avatar) is a very competant master with the new package. Rail golem near him as a deterant plus arcing screen (the aura that gives stuff 2 wds for when enemy hits something) + armor 2 on either him or ramos is very nice and is a great attrition modus operandi (almost a resser like component).

Don't own marcus/raspy so can't really comment on how he works for them. Like how he is durable + 3/4/6 damage range so he can grind out quite a few things (only minion model he can't really grind out is lelu because off poison+flay+3ap swings) over two turns.

[Zwergenkrieger]

Hello,

one more question: I just noticed that there is an other pretty good looking construct out there: Lazarus. And if I´m not mistaken, it is entirely possibly to field both, Lazarus and Rail Golem in the same crew.

So, do you have any experience running the pair of Rail Golem and Lazarus in the same crew?

To me it seems that Lazarus is more of a ranged threat while Rail Golem does his job close and personel, therefore they seem to complement rather nicely.

On the other hand, the both of them come to a total of 18 SS which does not leave a lot of spare points to get some cheaper minions on addition.

[ElementalEther]

I really like the Rail Golem, I have only really run him in conjunction with Kaeris but he has proved very effective. He was great at just beating down small models by himself. When you add in other models to stack up burning counters, for him to steal, he can simply trash heavier models. I downed McMorning in a turn this way.

In relation to running him with Tina I would say that while he would do fine taking a Snowstorm for 2 stones more would be a much better idea. Both the Rail Golem and Snowstorm are hard hitting beat sticks that are hard to kill, but the Rail Golem has negative synergy, while Snowstorm does a huge amount for her crew.

[geistwald]

I think you need extra vectors if you really want to justify 18 stones in 2 slow moving Def4 constructs. (Ways to heal or move or hide them, capitalize on them being Constructs, having the appropriate auxiliaries to make up for their weak spots etc.)

Both the Rail Golem and Snowstorm are hard hitting beat sticks

In my opinion they are not in the same street in this regard... The golem is the archetype of the heavy hitter, while Snowstorm is not much of a hitter at all...

[Adran]

In my opinion they are not in the same street in this regard... The golem is the archetype of the heavy hitter, while Snowstorm is not much of a hitter at all...

Really? Something with nearly as good a damage profile as the golem (3/3/6), a slightly better Cb (although paired is probably better), and the ability to attack 3 times on one model within 4" isn't a heavy Hitter?

Snowstorm typically isn't picked as a hard hitter, but he certainly isn't a slouch. I'd say he was about 7ss worth of Hitter and 6ss worth of movement tricks. The Rail Golem is 9ss worth of hitter

Lazarus and the Rail golem do nothing for each other really. Most of the good things from the Rail Golem that Lazarus would want to assimilate require burning tokens, so they are rarely going to be usable. They are both sound individual models, and if you want to build your crew to be stand alone then it should be fine (such as line in the sand, escape and survive, or possibly slaughter/beatdown). If you have some good construct buffing, then they might be interesting, but there isn't very much of that in the Arcanists. I've never run them together, but might do if I was running a large Ramos crew (40 ss+) possibly with his Avatar.

[decker_cky]

Couldn't lazarus assimilate reactivate on a turn the rail golem gets reactivate?

[Adran]

From the FAQ

I'm confused, what can I Assimilate?

If you can copy a Talent, you may copy any printed Ability, Action, or Trigger the target possesses only. Action Modifiers are not considered Talents for the purposes of Assimilate unless they are printed Talents possessed by the model.

Example: Hoffman can Assimilate (+1) Melee expert from a Large Steampunk Arachnid as it's printed on the card. He can't, however, Assimilate Reactivate from a construct if it has been put on him by Rusty Alyce.

So Lazarus can assimilate Pain train as a spell, but can't assimilate the Reactivate the Rail golem has got from casting it.

[geistwald]

Really

I don't consider something a hitter if it starts its activation 4" away from a witchling, and can't be 80% sure to kill it in case of necessity. What is more important, you'll seldom have the opportunity to launch its full might in melee, because 1. flurry is gravely situational w/o any noteworthy movement tricks 2. you'll have more important things to do if you want to account for its 11SS cost.

I don't call it a slouch by any means, and accept if anyone try to capitalize on its melee abilities. But come on... Snowstorm can't be compared to the golem in this regard, and the 7SS+6SS definition is misleading. Why would it be 7ss worth of hitter in a faction that allows you to hire, say, LSA's for 5SS? On the other hand, Snowstorm still costs 11SS, so the aforementioned basis doesn't apply in a hitting-power-for-points-cost relation.

/me stops derailing thread