I’d won my first 4e game with Rasputina (Abominable), AKA Raspy2. Was it a fluke? Could I win against someone who had played in the last six months? Those were questions I had.
So, quick recap: Rasputina was once a thrall of the spirit of winter, named December, but has since become the master with all the powers of cold and ice at her command. She and her crew create ice pillars, through which they can cast spells that can affect enemies anywhere on the battlefield, as long as they are within 2" of an ice pillar.
Since the last time I played, the cold water alligator Bashe’s rules were released, and he became even more awesome, with decent defenses added to the mix. My Ice Golem was returned to the box. Bashe is like Batman. You should always be yourself, unless you can be Batman. Then be Batman. And if you have the chance, run Bashe.
I’d been hearing good things about the Watchman keyword versatile, Harris J-5, a clockwork that… wields a huge watch on a chain. I didn’t really have a place for it on my team without giving up something I’d miss. But we’re still early in the fourth edition, it’s time to stretch a little. I had J-5 replace the Blessed of December – both hard hitting, mobile models. One hiccup: J-5 doesn’t have the December keyword, and so could not be considered an ally of Rasputina, merely a friendly unit. J-5 could not use Ice Mirror and could not cast the biting winds that can move the enemy. But, it could absorb some damage for nearby units, and it hit really hard.
Perdita Ortega is the leader of the Hermanos de Armas – Brothers in Arms – gang, a crew of rough-and-tumble old West types who would shoot ya as soon as look at ya. Perdita’s crew gives each other Family tokens, which can be spent to add temporary upgrades to power up their cards. When the Family gets together, they can be a force to be reckoned with, but even alone, they are formidable. Two in particular – Francisco and Santiago – made spoiling my plans a particular pastime of theirs.
We flipped, and I was attacker. The two masks meant that we’d be rerunning my previous game setup, so we decided to use the Flank deployment and the Informants strategy.
Informants scores when you have control of the same number or more of the five control points. Scoring on the fourth turn counts double. The person who doesn’t score a point for this strategy on a turn has the option of moving one of the captured points a short distance, but we forgot to do this during the game. More significantly, unlike similar strategies in the third edition, you can control and get a point for keeping the point in your deployment zone. My opponent claimed the entire game that if he’d known that, he’d have won the game, and he might be right. I guess that spoils who did win.
Turn 1: I chose “Reshape the Land” as my first scheme. This is scored by having four of a specified marker entirely on the enemy half of the table. I chose “Ice Pillar” as my marker, and I made four on the enemy side pretty easily. I set up December Acolyte to guard a strategy point, left behind a Silent One to claim the point in my deployment zone. My opponent pressured the left point; I had Mara and J-5 up there, hoping to use an ice pillar deployment to whip J-5 up into the enemy table half, which I did. I held Bashe back as long as possible to get an idea from where the enemy would come. My opponent had the Ley Lines scheme and got the extra point; I scored the strat and my scheme and we tied at 2-2 after the first turn.
Turn 2: I chose “Search the Area” as my second scheme. This involves surrounding a piece of terrain with three scheme markers. Bashe, Rasputina and the Acolyte handled that. Bashe was on his way to the right column, where Perdita was hiding to stop her advance there. Silent One was still pinned down guarding her point in our deployment zone. Ceddra went up the left to support Mara and J-5, while Snow Storm went up the middle to take the center point. Raspy summoned another Silent One to help guard the lower right point, although as a summoned model, she couldn’t contest it. Mara and J-5 were sorely tested. J-5 either died this turn or early in the next – this turn, I think, giving my opponent the Assassinate point. I got my scheme and I think we tied up on strategy points? I don’t remember.
Turn 3: Oh yeah, J-5 died this time. I had initially taken Frame Job as my third scheme, but I’d thought J-5 was on the enemy table half. It was not. He allowed me to take “Harness the Leylines” instead – put two or three scheme markers (for 1-2 points) on the centerline, with those markers being at least 2" from an enemy marker. Raspy and Acolyte dropped scheme markers. Mara, having escaped Santiago and Francisco somehow still living, dropped one nearby, but too many enemies meant no extra point. The Pale Rider contested the Silent One’s marker, and then Francisco came to help, so Silent One abandoned the point and moved to support the center. Maybe this was where we tied strats. I should have taken notes.
**Turn 4: **Last scheme: “Scout the Rooftops”, just put two scheme markers on two terrains height 2 or higher and not within 6" of your own deployment zone. Perdita hatched a plot to knock me off all my strategy points so that they would score the double point, I would not score a strategy point, and I would then lose the game. It was a daring plot, involving Perdita knocking my units away from their strategy points with long distance attacks. Perdita knocked my Acolyte away and that was that for that point. They sent a model up to contest the center point and knocked Bashe away from the point he was guarding in the enemy deployment zone. But, Bashe hadn’t activated, so moved right back and used the common December crew action to blow the pistolero guarding it back to the corner, where they could not move up to threaten the point. My summoned Silent One was able to kill the pistolero threatening the center point. It was entirely luck, but instead of losing the two points, I gained them, and won the game, 7-5.
Okay, that picture above shows that we had 2-1 strategy points – Silent One on the bottom left, Raspy and Acolyte taking control from the model that I’ve forgotten the name of. The second Silent One is summoned, and doesn’t count for the point.
Final Thoughts
Harris J-5 is a very strong unit. Tanky, mobile, does a lot of damage with some excellent triggers. Has a permanent place on the team.
Ceddra: Her two forms, White Stag and Sightless Snow, have different health pools, such that transforming from the stag to human form loses two wounds. This is a bug that will likely be corrected. J-5 and Ceddra kept the opponent from advancing for the first two moves, before both were killed. They killed Ceddra in her human form where she couldn’t immediately spring back to life. Fair play, I should have been more careful. Still, the enemy spent a lot of points taking her and J-5 down and that allowed me to control three points with no resistance for awhile.
Bashe: Was awesome. Perdita erased his defenses sometimes, but he’s tanky enough to work through it. Bashe is such a powerful unit that the temptation to just keep it in the middle is nearly overpowering; when I lost my home strategy point and had to take my opponent’s, he did that job.
Snow Storm: Their ability to get an extra flip on all duels within 2" of an ice pillar was key; even with J-5 and Ceddra down, Snow Storm was able to keep things slowed down until it was necessary to guard center so that Bashe could go for upper right.
Mara: Mara’s main job is deck manipulation, but I only did that a couple of times. I usually had her on ice pillar duties, and she can pack a small punch when needed. She survived the entire game – didn’t expect that. I don’t feel I’ve ever used her as she wants to be used – an extra health pool that can set the deck up for important attacks – because I really want her as a second Silent One (though I can summon more of those).
Silent Ones: Ice pillar duty, guarding an informant point, and blasting things out of ice pillars. The Ice Mirror ability is just devastating to any enemy within 2" of an ice pillar.
December Acolyte: Without the automatic picking up of the top card of the discard deck, I feel it isn’t quite as useful. Being able to place it almost anywhere at the start of turn 1 really helped here, getting me an immediate two points from the start (combined with the Silent One in my deployment zone).
Abilities
Ice Mirror has been discussed. The other crew card ability, “Frigid Gust”, is a signature (bonus) action that can be done by any allied December model. It’s magic, so it can be cast by any December model at any enemy within 2" of an ice pillar. Moves a model – very powerful – and can sometimes give a Staggered token – -2 speed.
Entomb in Ice. This Raspy 2 ability can drop from one to three (with a soul stone) ice pillars around a target, and with the draining of another soul stone, can grant the Hunger and Staggered tokens. This pretty effectively traps an enemy.
Versus Family
Family has powerful ranged options, but so does December, and the abilities Family gained with Family tokens, I feel were more or less matched by inherent December crew abilities and those granted by ice pillar markers. Nonetheless, Family was very tanky, and I spent many action points taking down Francisco and the guy toting the electric chair around. I’ve learned to prioritize scheming and strategizing over killing, so I played a mobility game that, with my big models and ice pillars closing the lanes, my opponent could not match until they broke the line. But I’d already moved on.
They had broken through, though, and I was running out of models to keep the strategy points. It’s not the first time in fourth edition that I’ve thought the game was just on the verge of collapsing when the game ended.
So for fourth edition, I’ve won two (December) and lost one (Foundry). I really wonder if I should give Foundry another try. Maybe for next time.