Nicodem, Avatar of Decay, Questions about Pull my finger

[Q'iq'el]

The problem with Rafkin is that you need to keep him alive. Mortimer at least is a tough model to kill with relatively low punch - his utility is convenient for Nicodem (esp. Corpse counter generation), but unless he gets in the way, he is low priority for the opponent.

With Rafkin you build up his Corpse Counter stack and the more he gets, the more of a juicy target he becomes.

Now between Molly, Mortimer and Rafkin, and some other CC users perhaps, there's a chance to build some redundancy into aNicodem list, but at what game size do we get enough SS for that. :D

[Mach_5]

I've played avatar of decay a few times now and in practice his (0) to summon random numbers of mindless zombies is not that great. If anything less than three get summoned it's a wasted action. Nicodem needs a pile of zombies nearby and it's not cost effective to kill your own models to get them. So really I think Rafkin is a necessity with avatar Nicodem.

Rafkin kills 3+ dogs with poison, while taking two poison counters for himself and healing the point of damage;
Nicodem casts arise, completing one manifest requirement and giving Rafkin 3+ body parts;
Nicodem casts reanimator multiple times or summons a big beastie (ie Rogue Necromancy) regaining valuable minions and giving more body parts to Rafkin.
I don't see Nicodem as being in a hurry to manifest, so turn two could see more casting from Nicodem and potentially more body parts to Rafkin. On the turn he manifests, Rafkin summons a zombie horde and then Nicodem manifests and brings in the first two punk zombies.

[Q'iq'el]

You realize Mortimer&Molly are just as capable of producing 3~5 Body Counters within first 2 turns of the game? The SS investment is much bigger, of course, but on the other hand you don't need to take cheap models to kill, so you can spend remaining SS on Dead Rider, Night Terrors and other low/no-CC options.

Once Nicodem manifests, the real question is - would you rather summon more Mindless Zombies for Punk Zombie factory (Rafkin) or would you prefer to retain an ability to bring some 4SS utility models with either Molly or Mortimer? The former burns Corpse Counters, but can do it reliably, the later has to spend all actions and needs high to summon, but if you bring them both, you are more likely to have one left on the table by turn 3 or 4, while Rafkin is going to be a priority target.


And I'm by no means dissing Rafkin. I think he's an excellent model and you don't need to take Dogs at all to get his full potential (depending on the opponent of course). It's just that Rafkin list, from practical point of view, needs to be able to defend Rafkin... and Rafkin's ability to bring Autopsies and Mindless Zombies may be somewhat limited in utility, once aNicodem manifests, unless you plan to use him to provide more Mindless Zombies quickly, to spam Punk Zombies (but that is precisely what makes him high-value target, and he'll run out of Counters sooner or later*).

Mortimer and Molly retain their full summoning ability and Mortimer can still dig for Corpse Counters if he likes (and Molly can still copy that ability).



* Rafkin generates Body Parts when Nicodem Reanimates or Arises, but he doesn't get any when aNicodem uses Mass Grave or Enhance the Dead, as those abilities do not sacrifice or discard Corpse Counters (Mindless Zombies are no longer Corpse Counters)... so at that stage Rafkin has to rely on his pre-manifestation stack of Body Parts to execute his summoning and once he runs out, there may be no more to get (well, he can pick up these left by dead Mindless Zombies, but that requires walking around).

[Gruesome]

IMO, I will have an effigy, so corpses laying around are a heal for Rafkin if he wants.
He will also have hard to kill from the effigy.
He will also have poison tokens from the dogs he killed or mindless zombies he is poisoning.
He can also heal himself.

Conversely, if I *AM* running Molly, I am not sure about Rafkin. No effigy with Molly. :(

I do not think that Rafkin moving once a turn is a problem because I think there will be an extra body part to be had for fast... But, I dunno, still not gotten to try anything out yet. I just find the possibilities to be exciting at the moment. Like waiting for Christmas morning...

[Q'iq'el]

You will then spend many activations and counters on keeping Rafkin alive and even that only if the opponent doesn't simply alpha-strike him.

The problem I see with the plan is that Rafkin is great for an aux providing small extra bonus. He isn't very good central piece of the plan though.

If he is the axis of your plan, he will be under attack before Nicodem manifests. If you sac the dogs to get him body parts, will you have enough models to protect him? If not, how many action points and body parts/corpse counters will you spend just to keep him alive?! And will you have enough left to help aNicodem once he is in?

I think Rafkin will be more useful on the sidelines, boosting MZ count, but not stockpiling too high. Haven't decided yet if I prefer him with avatar no-avatar lists.

[Mach_5]

I think he's pretty safe for turns 1-2 in most cases, to collect body parts as much as possible and then summon the zombie horde. After he drops the initial batch he becomes less of a target. Like you said, he can no longer gain free body parts from Nicodem after he manifests, so more than likely he'll scoop up the odd corpse counter he is able, use fast where possible, put up his Hard to Kill bubble, etc. Will he get picked on? Yeah. But if he can put 5+ mindless zombies on the table the turn Nicodem manifests (ie in addition to having the same ss size force you started with or more likley even higher) then he's paid for himself.

I'm not seeing how Mortimer and Molly can reliably put out 3-5 corpse counters? Mortimer casting Exhume is dodgy at best, and may require a 7+ from your hand (not always plentiful) and quite possibly a crow to boot (also quite likely a limited resource). Expecting to get it to go off 5 times between the two of them and her totem is asking a lot. Or am I totally missing something they can do? Entirely possible.... ;)

[Q'iq'el]

Three is realistic, from my experience. Five is upper limit, if they get really lucky. The thing is, however, that you don't pay SS for these counters. Mortimer and Molly have other uses too and remaining SS, and more importantly Nicodem's early actions, are spent on gaining upper hand in the encounter.

Unless you overload on Dogs, you are getting out 3 Corpse Counters from Rafkin as well. At least you aren't forced to use Reanimate from the start.

I'm getting Carrion Effigy as well, but I'm not sure if it will be the default addition to my crews. Vultures are still rather good for an early push with Nicodem. as you said, early manifestation is not Nico's thing, and if you manifest late, then a Vulture or two may still do more for the crew (These days I use Vultures for Eyes and Ears, in tandem with Night Terrors, to secure objectives quick, before the rest of the undead can get there).

[Gruesome]

The two things I would say that I am most interested in that differ are:
1. Not only am I not waiting to manifest, but I am considering a nurse to get a turn 2 manifestation without skipping that turns regular activation.
Basically take my first activation of turn two as normal doing rigor mortis or decay or reanimator. Then nurse gives him reactivate. Then he uses second activation to manifest. Now I have a nurse that is able to keep things alive or to create Mindless Zombie "bombs" with that +2wk +4 CB spell she has. She has other utility too that I have not thought through in terms of boosting MZ's and then using something else to sac them before they get end of turn sac'ed. Playing with the boundaries of Nico's 10 inch Aura there is probably a lot of things to be done.

2. People keep mentioning Rafkin's fragility, but to me, he is not that fragile that an opponent can sit there focusing him without paying the price themselves while I drop decays, paralyze and 5 MZ charges on their heads. My thinking on Rafkin is NOT front lines. And if I do figure out a useful crew that includes a nurse, he WILL be in base to base with her for either armor+1 or +2 Df. And with Effigy around, he will be hard to kill. The nurse can heal all wounds with her "(all)" action.

Obviously its all just theorycraft at the moment, so we'll see. My first few 30 stone lists with Rafkin and Nurse feel sort of "light". I get a Rogue Necromancy up turn 1 and Rafkin has 8 body parts and some poison for healing, but if anything happens to the Rogue early, I am pretty open to attack. But the Effigy really helps, I think. I just need to keep corpses on the table and if I am constantly streaming MZ out and they are tarpitting everything, I can't help but think that they are getting killed. If Nico is gonna average 2.5 a turn and Rafkin has the 4 that he can put out from the 8 body part counters he had after turn 1, AND They are hard to kill from effigy, then it seems like you could get a sustainable supply of them.

Conversely, I have almost always run mortimer with Nico and the few times I have not, I always feel like the 1, 2 and 3 in my hand are mocking me for not having taken him.
So, I intend to play around with molly/totem exhuming too...

I can also imagine some fun Team games where I run mort AND rafkin while my Kirai teammate deals with early pressure and I build a 60 soul stone force in our deployment area.

[SoulG]

The questions I have: What role does the Avatar of Decay play in a crew (Objective Completion, Objective Denial, or Board Control?) and what strategies does the Avatar of Decay do well, especially when compared to normal Nicodem and also when compared to other Rezzer Masters?

[Q'iq'el]

The questions I have: What role does the Avatar of Decay play in a crew (Objective Completion, Objective Denial, or Board Control?) and what strategies does the Avatar of Decay do well, especially when compared to normal Nicodem and also when compared to other Rezzer Masters?

First of all, when you compare to normal Nicodem, he gets noticeably better at summoning Mindless Zombies and Punk Zombies. He doesn't have to waste (0) action to get the MZs and he can summon several Punk Zombies at once with Enhance the Dead. Not only is the later easier to cast, but you don't need to spend a high card each time you summon - do it once and place up to 2~3 Punk Zombies for some truly deadly fighting force.

He is sort of able to generate his own Corpse Counters with (0)Mass Grave. Sure, they don't count as true Corpse Counters anymore, but he can use them to summon the Punk Zombies, so for him it is all good.

While Nicodem does lose the ability to summon other types of Undead, it becomes much easier to him to spam Punk Zombies and he becomes somewhat Corpse-Counter intependent.


The avatar is a considerable speed up for him. From Wk of 3 he advances to Wk4+X, where X is the # of MZ in base contact with him. Theoretically he could move 10" a turn or more, though it may be impractical to get too far away from his MZ escort, and difficult to place so many MZs in base contact with him.

He gainst a magic weapon and a decent one at that (Cb4, but paired and the low Cb is something he can make up for with a SS if he wants). While he is still primarily a caster and Decay is a magic attack already, it will help him defend against Spirits better.

His survivability is also somewhat enhanced, mostly thanks to the crowd of MZs which should appear around him, but the Df trigger isn't bad either (not that easy to pull off with Df of 3 though).



Clearly the area where he seems to be better than original Nicodem is late game objective grab and defense. While Nicodem is pretty decent at sitting on objectives and building layers of defenses around him, that doesn't work for every objective-based strategy. Avatar can do the same thing, but also dash to grab something else (if you start with 6MZs in B2B contact you look at 20" 2xWalk range that turn). His minions do not gain much speed though and Punk Zombies aren't known for their speed, so he is limited when it comes to fast offensive. He can do it, but he needs to use Mass Grave to populate the new area with Mindless Zombies and he cannot bring Punk Zombies there immediately in the same turn*.


*Originally I thought Restless Dead turns all Corpse Counters within the range of the effect into MZs, but it works only on the Counters that get placed within the range. Counters already on the table are still useless for Nico.