Returning Tome: aRamos 2012

[mythicFOX]

So like a number of players at the UK masters this year I agreed to step away from the filth for the 2012 tournament season. As a result I'm coming home to the Arcanists.

What I thought I'd do is get a thread going in here to talk about my games with the Arcanists and what I'm learning as I go along. While I will be using other Arcanists during the year aRamos will be my primary focus.

On Sunday I played my first tournament with the old man (30ss Scraps) so this seems like a good time to start sharing my games and thoughts. I'll keep updating the thread as I play more games and have more thoughts.

---------- Post added at 02:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:17 PM ----------

Round 1 - A Line in the Sand vs Lilith

I was defending aLitS, which is bad for Ramos, vs Lilith it's really bad. My list was;

Arcanists Crew - 30 - Scrap

Ramos -- 4 Pool
+ Ramos, Avatar of Invention [2ss]
Mobile Toolkit [3ss]

• Large Steampunk Arachnid [5ss]
• Steampunk Arachnid [3ss]
• Steampunk Arachnid [3ss]
• Steampunk Arachnid [3ss]
• Steampunk Arachnid [3ss]
• Steampunk Arachnid [3ss]
• Steampunk Arachnid [3ss]

Against;

Neverborn Crew - 30 - Scrap

Lilith, Mother of Monsters -- 8 Pool
Primordial Magic [2ss]

• Terror Tot Nephilim [3ss]
• Lelu [7ss]
• Lelu [7ss]
• Lilitu [7ss]

I took Hold Out (mistake 1) and Ramos' own scheme, my opponent Stake a Claim and Hold Out.

My plan (mistake 2) was to use the mass of spiders in to contest the five Dynamite markers while aRamos manifested and brought backup. This worked to a point, however I ran out of models to defend with as I was spread too thinly.

In the final turn it was looking like a 2-4 loss, with aRamos sat in Lilith’s DZ and a Tot taking SaC in my DZ and denying me Hold Out. Unfortunately Lilith went into Ramos who BJ'd his Df flip. Lilith cheated in the RJ and that as they say is history. 2-6 Loss for me. aRamos has now been Red Jokered for damage in three of the six games I've played with him.

Had I taken a better first scheme and played to defend three of the markers with bigger hitters I could have held this to a draw, or even a win. Still plenty learned.

I'll post my next game in round two later.

[Calmdown]

Returning Tome, I like it :P

[Koali]

looking forward to more reports...

Hopefullywith mor details... :D

[Ebonstar]

Having a blast with Ramos and aRamos myself. The spiders would give you activation control it seems but like you said, you lack the up-front presence needed to defend the strategy. Easy strat for Lillith, tough strat for Ramos. Sounds like a challenge!

[Calmdown]

The massive disparity in attacking and defending in Line in the Sand (2ap vs 1ap for disarming vs arming) makes it hard for pretty much anyone playing defender, before you even get to comparing list effectiveness and number of units available etc. It's a terrible strategy!

[mythicFOX]

Thanks for the warm words guys.

Round 2 - Escape and Survive vs The Viks

I'm not going to do much of a rundown on this one as my opponent was very new, as in the first draft of his Vicks Crew was; Vicks, Taelor, Johan, Convict Gunslinger and Teddy. He was a nice guy but the game wasn't a major tactical battle and I spent a bit of time helping him out with his models abilities etc.

I'm on record many times as having said I don't like Escape and Survive. Partly because it's a low conflict strategy, and partly because no one understands how it works. If you think you understand how Shared Escape and Survive works, you don't know how Shared Escape and Survive works.

As it stands there are several outstanding questions around it's rules. This prompted me and Ian (CalmDown) to spend five minutes with the TO trying to work out how the strategy actually plays.

The only real remark from the game was how enjoyable it was to be playing 'proper' Malifaux again, positioning models to block enemy charges and using terrain for more than just blocking LOS etc.

In the end I won 7-6, had I really gone for the throat I could probably have done more.

Round 3 - Shared Contain Power vs Lady J

Contain Power at this stage was never going to produce a real result here. You shouldn’t normally lose your master unless you’ve made a mistake. As my opponent and I had both saved Bodyguard for this round we were looking at a standoff.

Crews were;

Arcanists Crew - 30 - Scrap

Ramos -- 6 Pool
+ Ramos, Avatar of Invention [2ss]
Mobile Toolkit [3ss]

• Desperate Mercenary [2ss]
• Desperate Mercenary [2ss]
• Large Steampunk Arachnid [5ss]
• Steampunk Arachnid [3ss]
• Soulstone Miner [6ss]
• Steampunk Arachnid [3ss]

Guild Crew - 30 - Scrap

Lady Justice -- 5 Pool

• Death Marshal [4ss]
• Exorcist [6ss]
• Sue [8ss]
• Death Marshal [4ss]
• Nino Ortega [7ss]

Given neither of us were going to play aggressive we both kept our second scheme secret as this scheme was more then likley going to decide the game. I chose Grudge one of his Death Marshalls.

The board consisted of six or so Ht6 buildings forming two sides of a street along the middle of the board, with some low walls and fences scattered around. Unsurprisingly Nino took a sniping position on one of the buildings and I deployed in cover. The rest of the Guild crew formed a block to the left of my opponents DZ.

The first three turns were sedate, Ramos manifested and kicked out some spiders. Lady J and the crew advanced into the middle of the street. My Mercs took out the Exorcist and put the hurt on Sue.

Turn four saw my SS miner surface next to the Grudged DM. My opponent took initiative and Lady J dispatched the Miner in a single blow. I sent a swarm and a LSPA into the DM to claim my Grudge. At this point I needed to figure out what my opponent's other scheme was and I was struggling.

Next turn came around and my LSPA and Swarm were exposed to Nino. I needed initiative, and failed to get it. Nino opened up on the Swarm and following three trigger-happy triggers the swarm was scrapped. The LSPA got into melee but made little impact.

Turn five was another stall so I walked a new LSPA into Lady J to put some pressure on and moved aRamos over the street to drop into his DZ in case he had Holdout.

In the final turn Lady J took the initiative, one hit the LSPA and double walked into my DZ. So it’s not hold Out it’s Breakthrough, Ramos is not the wrong side of the road. A leap and an Arachnid later he crossed back and dropped another LPA into walking distance of my DZ. Phew.

As things stood, I was winning 3-2 with Grudge and us both holding Bodyguard. My opponents final chance was to jump Nino off the side of the Ht6 building he was sniping from to give him a shot at Ramos.

Nino leapt heroically into the air, and landed spectacularly on his neck, dead from the falling damage.

Game over and a cagy 3-2 to aRamos.

This game gave me an appreciation of the speed the old man is now capable of. As someone else put it, he now moves at book 2 speeds. It alwso showed me that DM's are still worth their stones in Ramos. With the event over and me 8th of 18 I was fairly happy with the day. I knew going in the strategies weren’t ideal for Ramos and I felt the cards ran slightly against me. I know I’m doing ok when I can do alright against worse than average cards.

That’s all for now folks.

[ukrocky]

The viks can take teddy? o.O

---------- Post added at 07:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:01 PM ----------

Oh and well done mate :P

[sharpobjects]

Gratz on your 2W-1L tourney. You can build on that fine showing for future tourney's. I too am deploying The Year of the Ramos for 2012. I have been working in the Mech Rider and Johan and have seen some positive results.

Surprisingly you didnt run into any stitched during your tourney. The immune to influence from both the Rider and ARamos really helps. The stitched have a way of turning our spiders into scrap faster than we can

[mythicFOX]

On Johan.

I've played a few games with him now and I'm not finding him all that useful. I think the issue is he's fairly poor unless he's within 3" of Ramos, which is only any good until turn 3 when he's gone as fast as his spider legs can carry him.

Has anyone had any luck with him and how are you using him?

[Ebonstar]

Honestly, not much with Ramos.

The best use I've had for Johan has been with Collette. He's cheaper and Collette can tote him around and drop him into things to chew on. Without mobility and with Ramos he's just a 6 stone early game bodyguard that if you're lucky may soak up a few hits and maybe get 1 swing in.