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Nicodem 2.0 Discussion


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I'm gonna try him out with both Mortimer and Sebastian to see if there's some practical combo potential there. In theory it seems it would be, with things like keeping Mortimer fully healed even though he's chucking out a corpse counter with Corpse Bloat every turn, as well as sacrificing Mindless Zombies for 2 cards and 1 soulstone if need be. I also like the flexibility of Poison in that kind of list, by either healing friendly models for 2 every turn or dealing 3 damage per poison tick instead of the usual 1, for a potential 6 damage in one turn. Hadn't thought about using the Vulture to transport Mindless Zombies around, very cool interaction there!

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Played probably my 5th game with Nicodem today against Ramos at 35 SS. Scenario was Stake Your Claim, I took schemes Breakthrough and Plant Evidence. My crew was Nicodem (corpse bloat, undertaker, shadow embrace), Mortimer (unnerving aura, my favorite shovel), Rotten Belle, Punk Zombie, Grave Spirit, Necropunk.

Nicodem kept summoned 2 punk zombies, whcih the opponent spent all their focus on, allowing the necropunk and belle to run around dropping scheme and claim tokens the whole game. Grave spirit was AMAZING, protecting Nicodem against Langston until the very end of the game. The only upgrade I got a lot of mileage out of was the card draw on undertaker. The others, just never came up that I could use them.

I'm not sold on Mortimer with Nicodem but out of the three wave 1 henchmen I don't see sybelle or sebastian as a fit either.

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I don't have my cards on me and I am having trouble recalling the name of the upgrade, but I really like Mortimer with Ca expert. Being able to walk and drop a corpse counter has been pretty great in my Nico crew. Then, once things get going, start throwing crap witht the shovel and let the movement shenanigans roll.

I think he is a pretty easy to use support piece and don't quite get what else people want him to do...

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I don't have my cards on me and I am having trouble recalling the name of the upgrade, but I really like Mortimer with Ca expert. Being able to walk and drop a corpse counter has been pretty great in my Nico crew. Then, once things get going, start throwing crap witht the shovel and let the movement shenanigans roll.

My favourite showel was the name I believe.

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He's still great, as his own stuff dies he brings it back again. He can have trouble against crews that can remove corpse counters, though it's not a guaranteed loss or anything. Bring methods to generate your own corpses (Mortimer, canines, etc), protect your corpses (Maniacal Laugh), and focus your attention on the enemy models that can use/remove your counters.

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I have found Nicodem a very flexible master. Building a Zombie horde frequently doesn't pan out. It's a liability in Reckoning(which is a great scenario for him), and in squatters rights Nicodem is just not a great choice, since he can trouble getting to a good spot to support his crew, while at the same time being spread out enough to contest opponents markers, and castle on his own. Turf War is a similar thing, though if you can in theory generate guys every turn to score. Nicodem is beastmode in Recon.

I find that he is fine against crews that don't drop tokens, the thing with him is you have to make a choice about what your going to do with him at the very start of the game. If you go the Mortimer/Summoning road, you need to stack stones, and understand your control hand is going to be stretched. This kind of build is potent in Recon, Pretty good in Turf War(Schemes can swing it to strong, to kind of weak depending on what they are), Decent in Squatters rights, presuming they aren't playing Guild, and just terrible in reckoning.(summing a bunch of hurt models for them to kill is a terrible idea most of the time in Reckoning).

You can also do another build, where you don't bring Mortimer at all, and you just focus on supporting your crew. In this case your summoning is largely restricted to recycling your own models, or pressing your advantage by recycling their dead models into more of your own. It's really strong in Reckoning because Nico can heal models out of range of getting two in a round, and depending on your make up, can give you Fast Belles, to triple lure models to death, setting up turns where you can bag two.

Rule of thumb, never play him in a situation where you need alot of movement from your master, move actions on him are largely wasted, so try to avoid them.

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A few things in no particular order.

Seamus box: Belles are tough to NOT take in most resser lists, and are a handy way to drag things into the Nico bubble of doom. Sybille also hits like a truck with Nico leading the crew.

Necropunks: Amazing objective grabbers

Dead Rider: Fresh from the wave 2 beta, he's a great objective runner and beat stick who can drag opposing models around and (you guessed it) into the Nico bubble of doom.

Crooked Men and Drowned: Crooked men defend schemes well, and are resistant to shooting. Drowned resist melee well have more movement tricks. Drowned just got out of the beta.

Really, there are lots of ways to run Nico and get away with it. The question is mostly how you want to run him :)

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I tend to play Nico with a "core list" that looks like

Nico

Mortimer

Vulture

2 Punk Zombies

Rotten Belle.

From there you can add Necropunks or canines for objective running, Killjoy for face smashing, Bete can be fun too if your opponent has several squishy models out, Crooked men and the Hanged can are control oriented models.

I haven't played with any of the wave 2 models yet, but I imagine there are other options that could be just as fun.

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I had a question: Do you feel Nicodem works fine without Maniacal Laugh? I have been playing him without it for the last few games (partly because I keep forgetting to pack my mindless zombies), and haven't entirely missed them. It also has given me more freedom to bring in other upgrades (particularly Shadow Embrace and Necrotic King)

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I'm also from the aggresive Nicodem club, my only go to upgrade is always Love thy master, after that I just rotate and fiddle around. I tend to have a fancy with shadow embrace though necrotic crowning is another one I really like, though I tend to activate Nico late in the turn, so it's hard for me to get good use out of it. Haven't really felt the need for the fog since I find him pretty hardy already.

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I am relatively new to Malifaux, and Nico has been my first crew. I only have a few games under my belt, but I like him. I select models dependent on their capability, theme and look. I prefer to run and paint models I really like. In saying my Nico crew can consist of Mortimer, vulture or grave spirit, punks, belles, flesh construct, bête and summoned mindless zombies,

I have four crew lists dependent upon what I am facing. I have sort of a generic list that hopes to cover more situations adequately and less extremely well. I then have three lists that concentrate on striking, defense and board control. (Rock, paper, scissors)

I have found Mortimer is typically included. (Also had I lot of fun with him in a 25ssgame)

Grave Spirit or Vulture? About half and half. I have been reading about the potential of the vulture and want to try it more)

Bête is always included in a strike crew, potentially in a movement crew too.

Flesh Construct I like for strike and defensive crews, sometimes I like to keep him off the table as he is easier to summon than punks.

Belles, I always have at least one, up to three for board control.

Punks, also at least one...more for striking or defense.

Mindless zombies...saying Mwahahaha during a game never gets old.

Upgrades: always seem to take Manuacal Laughter and My Favourite Shovel. Next would be Love thy Master, necrotic king and Corpse Bloat.

Unfortunately I am not interested in canine remains or necropunks as they would be great additions. As would be crooked men or the hanged.

What do you all think of Crooligans in a Nico crew? I like the models.

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People that are getting buy without Maniacal laugh, dont you find nico's card draw is suffering? With maniacal laugh and undertaker im drawing 4-8 sometimes even 10 cards a turn. Not sure i want to pass that up. Especially as in 2.0 cards are king as soulstones dont increase values any more so a high card will trump it every time.

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The main drawback I see with having both Maniacal Laugh AND Undertaker to get the extra cards is that it is 2 upgrade slots you're using to get them. I often (and this is my bad, not the game's) forget about drawing the cards due to Undertaker, although I recognize that the combo is incredibly useful and one of the main reasons to get Maniacal Laugh. The second being corpse protection which is probably most important when playing against other Rezzers, with activate control a close third. Arguably they add some meat in between Nicodem and his enemies, but I can also summon Flesh Constructs for that and they do that job better.

 

The question to myself is, when I'm playing, do I get the most of the advantages of ML+UT or am I better served with a different pair of upgrades? That's obviously something only I know the answer to, but was curious as to whether other Nico players manage without. For the last few games I've been playing Nico almost as much as a buffer as he is a summoner; sometimes it has worked out, sometimes it hasn't, but in the latter it is usually because of my own poor playing and not what uprades I took.

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I find that the activation control that potentially comes with Undertaker + Maniacal Laugh is usually a moot point as those recently raised zombies very rarely survive the rest of Nicodem's activation... :P  

One thing that is also very useful in taking Maniacal Laugh is the extra basewidth from the initial Corpse Marker you can effectively place your summoned models. That ~1" can often mean the difference between a charging and a (2) flurrying Punk Zombie or a better "plugged hole" in Nico's wall of zombies. It's not always relevant, but when it is, you can do some marvelous things with that extra basewidth. :)

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People that are getting buy without Maniacal laugh, dont you find nico's card draw is suffering? With maniacal laugh and undertaker im drawing 4-8 sometimes even 10 cards a turn. Not sure i want to pass that up. Especially as in 2.0 cards are king as soulstones dont increase values any more so a high card will trump it every time.

I could never get numbers that high from those two cards, possibly because as soon as I lay out those two upgrades my opponent pretty much ignores the mindless zombies. Is there something I'm missing though? That seems like too many cards to me.

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