M2E Ramos - Impressions

[AndyP.]

I just tried 2 game with him in the new format and with new rules.

In my opinion he doesn't need too much arachnid and I'm quite disappointed thinking to the cost od the single arachnid.

4 ss for him i think are too much.

I start to love Joss that will be unarrestable with the upkeeps

I'd like to try the ex steamborg executioner with him to see what they can do together.

I noticed that Brass Arachnid is a must. Reactivate on Joss is too much to avoid take it.

I loved to play with them and i?m hoping the same for Colette and Yan Lo.

I found very interesting upkeep system and i'd like to test it more to have some better impressions.

What are your toughs about him?

[mythicFOX]

I don't think he needs to hire as many Steam Arachnids as he did, he tends to summon them in now. I've found the Arachnids to be very good at 4ss, keep in mind everything's cost went up in M2e so 4ss is the new 3ss.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'upkeep system'?

The steamborg is great with Ramos now

[Dracomax]

1SS for the Arachnid is pretty awesome.It's tough(Df6, +armor make it hard to injure, and even when you do, it doesn't take full damage.) decently fast, has unimpeded and is significant now. add in that you can summon them, that B.E.T works to regenerate them, and they are gravy.

---------- Post added at 07:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:32 AM ----------

and don't forget defensive screen upgrade, which is borderline OP, and makes the little spiders all but unhitable..

[Adran]

As said the increase of 1 ss to gain signifigance is worth it on its own, let alone the fact that every thing costs more now.

RAmos has some interestign upgrades, and plays quite differently depending on which ones you select.

I like the Brass arachnid, and re-activate is very powerful on any of the big constructs. Well its pretty powrful on any of the constructs, but the bigger the better.

Joss, Howard and the Rail Golem are all good big threats able to either support Ramos or go off on their own and achieve objectives. The Ice Golem is also a consideration, especially if you are using the Brass arachnid for re-activate, using one of his extra AP to get the Arachnid in place again for the next turn.

You can also go the other way and focus on lots of cheap constructs. Spiders, Ice and Metal Gamin all have their own jobs for 4 ss, and whilst he can only summon the spiders, there is nothign to stop him startign with the rest for the full construct swarm feel.

I can certainly see me playing games where I don't start with any spiders. Not sure I'll see any when I don't summon any though, so its certainly worth owning some.

[Dracomax]

Honestly, recently I've been starting with the electric construct, and killing it with magnetism to get a free move and scrap, then making 2 spiders something like 10 " into the field. Other than that, I may bring 1 spider, but I fill the rest with big constructs and upgrades. with summoning, I don't suffer too much for AP, and the big critters can actually hurt the other side's beefy critters.

[mythicFOX]

This is more or less what I do. I don't tend to hire any spiders these days. I'll summon all the spiders I need

[TroyPerez]

Does anyone know if it was a typo in the last cards or does Ramos really have a charge of 1? Not that I will ever really charge with him. I'm just think its funny that he can't charge models with 2 inch reach as once he is within range of them he is engaged and thus can't declare a charge. I'd almost rather have charge - like raspy has the 1 inch charge just feels insulting, lol.

[Justin]

Does anyone know if it was a typo in the last cards or does Ramos really have a charge of 1? Not that I will ever really charge with him. I'm just think its funny that he can't charge models with 2 inch reach as once he is within range of them he is engaged and thus can't declare a charge. I'd almost rather have charge - like raspy has the 1 inch charge just feels insulting, lol.

It was a typo in the beta. Fixed in the final run.

[Baffo]

I guess my approach to Ramos is a bit different.

Admittedly I am a 'Min-maxer kind of player' and I focused on Ramos summoning to try and see how far you can get it:

I tend to take the Malifaux child over the Brass arachnid as Totem, mainly for the extra Spider summoning at Ca 4. To make that work I usually hide most of my crew on turn 1, using Joss with recharge soulstones to kill a friendly Rail worker (4SS same as Electric creation, but living, so I get 1 SS back and 2 Scrap counters if I kill it with Joss) to summon 4-5 Steam arachnids. To max out the utility of these summoned models I generally take Johan with the Bleeding edge tech, to hopefully heal all summoned spiders to full health by turn 2.

In this set up I've managed to summon 12+ spiders per game, starting with 1-2 sacrificial Rail workers, which generally gets me a high points draw or minor victories (6/7-7 draws or 8-7 wins), since I generally spend the first 2 turn of every game summoning and hiding from ranged attrition, while overrunning the opposition in turn 3/4 with a swarm of Df lowering spiders...

I never hire spiders from the start of the game; I generally focus on an elite line up of Henchmen/enforcers, counting on the summoning to get me the activation advantage later on.

[AndyP.]

I guess my approach to Ramos is a bit different.

Admittedly I am a 'Min-maxer kind of player' and I focused on Ramos summoning to try and see how far you can get it:

I tend to take the Malifaux child over the Brass arachnid as Totem, mainly for the extra Spider summoning at Ca 4. To make that work I usually hide most of my crew on turn 1, using Joss with recharge soulstones to kill a friendly Rail worker (4SS same as Electric creation, but living, so I get 1 SS back and 2 Scrap counters if I kill it with Joss) to summon 4-5 Steam arachnids. To max out the utility of these summoned models I generally take Johan with the Bleeding edge tech, to hopefully heal all summoned spiders to full health by turn 2.

In this set up I've managed to summon 12+ spiders per game, starting with 1-2 sacrificial Rail workers, which generally gets me a high points draw or minor victories (6/7-7 draws or 8-7 wins), since I generally spend the first 2 turn of every game summoning and hiding from ranged attrition, while overrunning the opposition in turn 3/4 with a swarm of Df lowering spiders...

I never hire spiders from the start of the game; I generally focus on an elite line up of Henchmen/enforcers, counting on the summoning to get me the activation advantage later on.

I like very much this approach.

Would like to try hire rail worker as sacrifical models and see what is possible to do.

How can you summon 4 to 5 spiders in 1 activation with the Malifaux Child?

I don't have his rules right now to check how is possible.

In these days I also start to use a quite nice mix of hard hitter and spyders to have supremacy on the field but sometimes is completely useless against crew like Pandora and Zoraida.

[Adran]

The Child can cast summon the swarm, so if you have a 11:Tome in hand,. the child can get 2 spiders. and for the soulstone gained from the death of the rail worker, Ramos can get 2 spiders with any 8. So 4 spiders on the first turn for the cost of 1 model, and in 3 activations (although they can have walked so be nearer the middle of the table, which will help get them to where they need to be)

[Sybarite]

Aren't rail workers 5ss?

[mythicFOX]

I guess my approach to Ramos is a bit different.

Admittedly I am a 'Min-maxer kind of player' and I focused on Ramos summoning to try and see how far you can get it:

I tend to take the Malifaux child over the Brass arachnid as Totem, mainly for the extra Spider summoning at Ca 4. To make that work I usually hide most of my crew on turn 1, using Joss with recharge soulstones to kill a friendly Rail worker (4SS same as Electric creation, but living, so I get 1 SS back and 2 Scrap counters if I kill it with Joss) to summon 4-5 Steam arachnids. To max out the utility of these summoned models I generally take Johan with the Bleeding edge tech, to hopefully heal all summoned spiders to full health by turn 2.

In this set up I've managed to summon 12+ spiders per game, starting with 1-2 sacrificial Rail workers, which generally gets me a high points draw or minor victories (6/7-7 draws or 8-7 wins), since I generally spend the first 2 turn of every game summoning and hiding from ranged attrition, while overrunning the opposition in turn 3/4 with a swarm of Df lowering spiders...

I never hire spiders from the start of the game; I generally focus on an elite line up of Henchmen/enforcers, counting on the summoning to get me the activation advantage later on.

Emphasis mine.

I think as a 'how far can I push this' exercise this is good. I worry about the practical applications. The loss of tempo spending a couple of turns just summoning would imply seems to me to be a big risk, what's your opponent doing while you're making these spiders?

I suspect what you'll gain in spiders you'll lose in momentum. There's also a point where more spiders doesn’t equal more win.

All IMO.

---------- Post added at 11:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:26 AM ----------

Aren't rail workers 5ss?

Yes they are.

[SoulG]

I think he counted the -1 SS return? I think there is a strong argument for Child over Brass Arachnid, however. But then, the players around here use the Brass Arachnid rather... poorly.

That said, I don't see any reason you actually need to hide. Nothing stops you from moving forward while doing that same exact thing. The only model to lose momentum, really, should be Joss.

[Dracomax]

Honestly, I rarely use totems at all. I could see Child, because of healing, mostly, but the ability to use a (1) spell from Ramos is a nice bonus. but usually, I'd prefer more upgrades and more significant models with Ramos, because his low cost models are all good, and his upgrades are all good. I just usually don't have enough room for a totem, given how limited they are--they do really neat things, but seem to be fairly slow or fragile, which doesn't really fit my playstyle. One of these days, I'll give the Brass arachnid another try, but...

[Buddhanutz]

What does everyone think of Ramos's electrical fire spell? Every time I play him I feel that it should have been range 12. I always have extra AP at the end of his activation and it would be nice if I could shoot someone from time to time.

Overall, I find his summoning great but his overall play style feels a bit boring. A better range on electrical fire, or another utility 1 action would have rounded him out a bit. In my opinion, of course.

[Fenton Crack]

I think maybe they kept the range short as an "offset" of sorts because the Electrical Fire both ignores Armor and doesn't randomize target. It would maybe be "to good" at 12".

[Dracomax]

Honestly, I think it (electrical fire)works. If you aren't taking Defensive field and using the arcing screen every round, in my opinion, you are playing Ramos wrong. With that in mind, he wants to stay within 6" of the bulk of his forces.

Given that he is affected by arcing screen as well, using the spiders to latch on and then moving up with magnetism and firing off an electrical fire or 2 is going to hurt. it isn't an every turn strategy, or even an every game strategy, but it is a valid strategy that is going to catch veteran M1E players by complete surprise--Ramos, moving into the fray?! WTH!! and it's going to mean that against most models, if you need them dead, you can do it without risking a larger model.

Giving Electrical Fire more range would make it overpowered, in my opinion.

[mythicFOX]

As Dracomax has said Ramos works well on the edge of the fight buffing his own minions. The range on this attack reflects part of this support, I see Electrical Fire as almost an extended melee attack for Ramos.

[EntrepeNinja]

I never thought of using Joss to net an extra scrap! That being said, using it on the railworker seems silly- as it has hard to kill so it will take two actions to drop him. (Sure charge, whatever). My method had been to bring a electrical creation, activate once and walk (taking a damage), use ramos to magnetism up to him to kill him, then summon the swarm. Joss could walk and slice if you were going for the malifaux child trick, that a'int half bad.

ENinja