Some limited experience: Ben's views on Victor Ramos

So I thought I would finally get around to writing up a proper first post on here.

This post is inspired by a few people, as with the entire blog Joel Henry (@joel__henry), but more specifically James Doxey's (@mythicFOX83) brilliant blog post over at http://blog.mythicfox.com/ and also Conrad Gonsalves (@nepalese_ninja).

If you want to hear a much more intelligent and experienced view on Ramos, go see James' blog.

That piece of inspiration is that simple.

Conrad's inspiration, came to me a while ago when the epic clash of #allbranjam happened.

Previously I had played a few games of Ramos, could see the power he now had versus his 1.5 days but had mostly kept to (and I still am) playing Mei Feng.

Conrad was taking on Jan (@clankers86) in the Vassal leagues, Jan wanted some practice, so I obliged.

Knowing that Conrad was playing Ramos I decided that Jan should get some experience playing against him.

Now I will not go on about the game, if you'd like to hear a report that's on Malibros episode 11.

Suffice to say *spoilers* I beat Jan, but it was an eye opener and a good chance for me to test out things that on paper, I knew would work.

Jan went on to successfully defeat Conrad in the league (that's in episode 11.5) but I had the pleasure of watching the entire game (it was very long).

Conrad seemed to play Ramos quite differently to me, I will elaborate on that further on, but he also got me thinking.

Conrad and I had a few exchanges over twitter about the game, it was awesome to see him so pumped about it and I was very happy to see him feel so inspired and excited about the Arcanists.

My Typical 50ss Ramos List

Now while reading this, there is all the crazy wave 2 stuff to look forward to, this will change the landscape of the game and probably change the core of most lists.

For this part, let's ignore wave 2, I can get to chatting about that later.

Ramos

Upgrades:

Electric Summoning - 1ss

Electric Summoning is an upgrade I always like to take, for the most part I can't give up on that 1.5 feeling but the simple fact is that a 1ss upgrade that can summon a 4ss model every turn is pretty good value.

Now there are a couple of drawbacks, first of all, needing that extra Tome of 7 or higher to cast can prove to be difficult, having a 7 or 8 of Tomes in your hand may seem perfect, but the 8 is fighting for position with making 2 Steam Arachnids.

Using a stone to get the Tome is viable, but for me, these are a valuable resource for the way I play Ramos.

The second drawback is that it's a (0) action, luckily Ramos doesn't have a plethora of these, but Ramos (sexual) Magnetism is quite powerful.

Arcane Reservoir - 2ss

Now I could write (and may do) an entire blogpost about how much I love Arcane Reservoir.

Cards in hand are very powerful in Malifaux, especially in M2E, with Ramos wanting specific suits, loving having those high cards, every extra one you can have is a whole new possibility.

These cards can help Victor himself with summoning, there are also other members of his crew who appreciate it.

Quite simply, I rarely leave this upgrade at home.

Combat Mechanic - 2ss

As I type this up, I realise that Combat Mechanic is the one I'm not so sure about, I feel in certain match ups you are better taking other upgrades such as Field Generator vs shooty crews (Guild, Gremlins) or even Under Pressure in killy schemes.

Combat Mechanic though, is a nice catch all.

The spell itself, Combat Mechanic, is quite resource intensive, needing the Ram is part of that, but luckily as low as 3 can do, the slightly more difficult resource comes in the form of a scrap counter.

Now, my Ramos Crew is always built with intention of getting a load of these lying about, so hopefully it is not a problem.

Also the decision to heal a higher cost model like Big H Langston or Joss, or make more Arachnids isn't an obvious one at all times, but usually in game you can figure out what is best.

The fact that in M2E healing flips can be cheated makes the 1/3/4 huge!

Lastly, Accomplice. This gives the obvious set up of, heal and guy then let him go, also, activation manipulation is a powerful thing. I have had winning initiative and using Accomplice or Companion turn around so many games for me.

Electric Creation - 4ss

So it's a model, it does a lot of things, the simple fact it helps with activation control, can cause a fair bit of damage in the right position and now (something it didn't do in 1.5) makes that all important scrap.

That last bit is the sole reason I hire one, as with James Doxey's blog, the classic trick is to deploy the creation right near Ramos, move twice and then let Ramos use Magnetism killing the Creation.

From the ashes of the Electric Creation, 2 4ss cost miniatures appear, further up the table than a single move could take them and they are also 2 new activations. 

Joss - 10ss

Imbued Energies - 1ss

Now I've only included Imbued Energies here, for the most part it's because however good Open Current looks, giving Joss a (0) and all that, I haven't used it much and the point of this blog is my personal experiences.

Also, if Bodyguard is in the scheme pool, then Imbued Protection may be something to take on Joss.

He's defence 5 basic (so 6 if you like) with Armour +2, Hard to Kill and a decent amount of wounds at 9.

He's a fairly hard nut to crack. If you want to keep him alive, we've already spoke about Combat Mechanic and the possibility of Field Generator, making Joss almost an immovable object if wanted.

However I'm not putting Joss in my crew just to stand around.

He has a disgusting Melee weapon form of his Arc Axe, I love this weapon as it's "no nonsense", ignoring most protection an opposing model can have, while also having a nice sleek 3/4/4 damage track.

That high end isn't particularly huge, but like I say it's "no nonsense" and very efficient with 3 as a minimum.

Still, anyone reading this who's played Ramos knows that I'm skipping around the major reason I hire Joss: Creative Salvage.

Creative Salvage means that if Joss kills a model, they'll drop scrap, great, Ramos is pleased.

This combines perfectly with...

Steam Arachnid - 4ss

Now much like the poor creation, this little fellow is hired to die, all for the greater good.

Usually the set up is for Joss to charge the poor little bugger, giving Joss some movement and with the Arc Axe ignoring armour and doing a minimum of 6 damage between 2 hits killing the Arachnid to make 2 scrap, which Ramos can potentially make into 6 Arachnids, but usually around 4.

Now I have played games where I hire more, but if we look back, I'm getting 6 of these guys on the table for a little play around and 8ss of hiring.

I find the original Soulstones for hiring are best spent elsewhere.

Brass Arachnid - 4ss

Now I didn't forget Ramos totem, but the earlier mentions are all about how I really get the bulk of my models out.

The Brass Arachnid, well he's all about what Conrad would call the "wind up and go" power he uses.

Stoke is a great ability, Ramos has 3 huge Construct friends this can work wonders with, Joss, Big H and the Rail Golem.

The fact Rewire also can mean that all you are really desperately looking for is a 10 of any suit, means that also, these Reactivate tricks are actually pretty reliable.

Also as "gravy" he has companion and that is nice.

Big H Langston - 12ss

Imbued Energies - 1ss

Recently on Twitter I spoke about how I take Joss and Langston.

With upgrades this combination can equate to half of my original soulstones.

However I feel that because you are getting so much "chaff" for "free" I can afford to hire a crew of only 7 models to start with.

Langston ends up being the guy I choose over the Rail Golem a lot of the time, for the most part this is because I like my Locomotion with the Golem but requiring Tomes means he is fighting over cards with Ramos too much.

Arguably, Langston is also just better, Ml 7 is fantastic, this combined with either some Nimble and Flurry tricks or some Rams for that Decapitate trigger means he will cause quite a dent in any crew.

4 minimum on a Ml7 is also no joke, even with your back against the wall, no where to go and no cards to waste, he has a great chance of fighting out of it.

Big H's Steam Cloud is fantastic in the early game, giving the crew a nice bit of protection at range while all these early summoning shenanigans are going down.

Lastly, he is my favourite thing to "wind up and go", he can end up flinging himself right across the board.

Activating with Nimble he can get up to 15" of movement and then, having gaining Fast with from his upgrade during his Reactivation, he can move another 10" then flurry or just throw out a lot of attacks.

Metal Gamin - 4ss

My last minion tends to be the metal gamin, I've also played with Molemen too.
This slot is usually scheme counter based. Your ton of Arachnids can do this too, but the metal gamin is a cheap resilient little miniature that can gain some extra movement when needed and is around from the get go.
I've taken them over Molemen in the past with the thinking that, they can do the Magnetism trick and let Ramos summon a new Electric Creation, they're constructs and also, I love the miniatures.

Full Cache.

This last bit is important to how I play.
This leads into where I will finish this post off.

Brief Conclusion/ How I play

First of "How I Play" is Badly, now that is out of the way, let's hear how I do it.

Starting where I just left off, the cache.

To go all the way back to the beginning of I mentioned Conrad and how he played.

The thing I noticed, at least with his game compared to mine against Jan was how Soulstones were used.

There is one word I would use to describe my use of Soulstones with Ramos, and it's "Aggressive".

Usually I like to have a large cache, use a few for cards, keep some for prevention later etc.

With Ramos, I want cards, I need Tomes!

Almost without even checking I will use a stone to draw 2 discard 2, I also will be using stones for suits too.

I want to make those Steam Arachnids, really badly.

To me, it's worth it, even if I go "extreme" and use 3-4 soulstones in the first few turns, it means I've made 7-9 Steam Arachnids. That's 28 stones of extra miniatures, 20 after we consider I lost a Steam Arachnid and Electric Creation.

This sets the tone for the entire game, I've always looked at this as "old school Resser tech" and it almost works as well as that did.

My favourite part is it's not as "mastubatory" as it first seems.

Both Joss and Ramos have moved up the table while doing this, the summoned Arachnids are also far up too.

Turn 2 I can rinse and repeat if needed, but there is so much scrap that it is not usually necessary.

Now even writing this, I realise that Bleeding Edge Tech may be something that's a must.

Making up for the fact that Arachnids will be summoned a little battered.

In conclusion, Ramos is a powerful summoner, he has the tools to get a lot of miniatures for little effort and he has great things in his crew to back him up.

Now the list I've given here isn't the only list, but one I have played with a few times.

Wave 2 opens up some nice options, my favourite which ties in with this blog post is the Large Arachnid.

It basically is a 6ss Joss when it comes to "preparation" meaning you have stones to get that extra moleman, metal gamin or my favourite Rail Worker.

Now this blog post has gone on far enough, is probably trash and includes too many thoughts for my liking.

Hopefully you enjoy, as now I've already got a fair few ideas for other posts.

Thanks - Ben (@psientologist)