Spells & Their Uses:
Blessing of Desolation – 7 of crow or tome to cast. Gives an automatic trigger of Desolate Warping for Steampunk Abominations (SPA) and Desolation Engine (DE); automatic trigger of paralyze for Arachnid Swarms; and automatic trigger of Rot for many Resurectionist models.
Entropic Transformation – 7 of anything to cast. One of the best spells in the game. No resist and any model with 2 wounds or fewer is sacrificed (no slow to die!) and you get a Waif or SPA depending on model type.
Necromatic Unmaking – 9 of anything to cast. 3 wounds to any model and can target in melee. If the model dies you get a free SPA and it doesn’t generate counters.
Unnatural Wasting – 7 or crow or tome to cast. Only spell of his with a gun symbol (Ranged Attack) but one of his best. Any model hit with 7 or less wounds is in range for Entropic Transformation. 9 or less wounds and Necromantic Unmaking will finish them off. Only spell of his that doesn’t harm him.
Generally I use Necromantic Sacrifice to get Levi in line for a shot with his spells and then throw three at whatever model I want dead that turn.
(0) Actions and Their Uses.
Desolation – Generally a good option if you’re surrounded or in the middle of their army. I would tend to throw out three spells and then do that as a finishing move to kill him off for the turn or to finish off any low wound models his spells damaged.
Deaths Lessons – This is the one I prefer to use regularly. It’s a great way to check and make sure you’re going to have the right suits coming up for spells.
Army Composition:
Rusty Alyce – 8 stones for a major utility piece. She allows you to draw two additional cards each turn even though Levi’s rule is draw 0. She can also create additional SPAs for your army. I generally use her Bag of Tricks to cast Booby Traps turn 1 in order to kill Levi off for a new hand. (2 traps, 2 necromatic sacrifice, 3 deaths lessons, 1 closing phase)
Jack Daw – My new favorite model. The bonus to hand size means you will almost always have the right suit in your hand. He is almost indestructible as long as you have cards in hand. I tend to send him flying forward to cast his (0) aura Severed Ties. This prevents any model within 6” from cheating fate or using soulstones to add to duel totals. This fact plus Levi’s cast of 7 makes it very easy to get his spells where they can’t be resisted easily if at all.
Necro Punks – Leap and quick movement. These models I tend to bring along for claiming objective scenarios such as destroy the evidence. Rusty can also cast burn out on them so they gain reactivate as well.
Kill Joy – Since Levi and his Hollow Waifs come back any time they are sacrificed or killed they make excellent models to sacrifice to bring him into play. Since he is placed now he isn’t slow and should be able to wreck some havoc.
Steampunk Abomination – if you start the game with 4 you can start them in a diamond shape and just keep them advancing up the board using Keep Pace. You push the three Keep Pace into the front of the model that advanced and then advance the next and so on. Be sure to place one that has yet to go this turn in the center front basing the other 3 or you risk leaving one behind. Generally I use the 3rd models 2nd action to combine them into the Desolation Engine (DE). This is so that the DE gets a full activation as it replaces the models and gains the high number of AP on any of the models. Something should be in melee range at this point to attack 3 times.
Desolation Engine – Takes a wound every time it activates (important to remember) but it has a built in trigger to heal however much damage it does so pretty easy to keep alive. Great damage potential, high Cb (paired). It’s a solid model for Levi to use. If it creates an extra 2 SPA when it dies the two it creates will let you form a new one right away.
Ashes and Dust – After I’ve played him a bit I’ll have some ideas. Want to see how things work in actual game play not just theory.
Hollow Waif – Always companion with Levi or at least make it go first. I tend to keep mine back where it’s hidden from ranged or magic attacks. Remember the only way to remove Levi is to have him and all Waifs on the board dead on the same turn. Try to get a second Waif out as soon as possible.
Set-up and Activation Order:
Set up is highly dependent upon what your strategy and schemes are. Generally though Levi is across the table from something big he wants dead and Alyce is within 2" to get the bonus to hand size.
Activation order turn 1 is pretty much everything goes and then Levi goes. The reason for this is so that if they moved something up pretty far he can potentially take a model out turn 1.
On further turns order depends on what is being presented. If there is a solid target Levi can go after early on I tend to take it as long as the Waif is out of harms way. If there is a chance the Waif can die I try to have Levi go later in the turn to be sure atleast one of them is on the board during the closing phase.
I hope this helps you Levi players who are trying to figure out what to do with him. It seems that activation order is extremely important to this list. From what I've seen Rob able to do with him, the errata (or nerfing as some people whine) hasn't had a major affect on the viability of the list.
This special guest tactics article was written by our local Leveticus player, Rob [Phoenix on the Wyrd Boards]. I've been thinking about painting up a Levi list to make use of all my Res models and asked him to provide some tactics.
Rob is a very skilled player and has won several large events in both Malifaux and Warmachine, including several of the Gencon Events.
Spells & Their Uses:
Blessing of Desolation – 7 of crow or tome to cast. Gives an automatic trigger of Desolate Warping for Steampunk Abominations (SPA) and Desolation Engine (DE); automatic trigger of paralyze for Arachnid Swarms; and automatic trigger of Rot for many Resurectionist models.
Entropic Transformation – 7 of anything to cast. One of the best spells in the game. No resist and any model with 2 wounds or fewer is sacrificed (no slow to die!) and you get a Waif or SPA depending on model type.
Necromatic Unmaking – 9 of anything to cast. 3 wounds to any model and can target in melee. If the model dies you get a free SPA and it doesn’t generate counters.
Unnatural Wasting – 7 or crow or tome to cast. Only spell of his with a gun symbol (Ranged Attack) but one of his best. Any model hit with 7 or less wounds is in range for Entropic Transformation. 9 or less wounds and Necromantic Unmaking will finish them off. Only spell of his that doesn’t harm him.
Generally I use Necromantic Sacrifice to get Levi in line for a shot with his spells and then throw three at whatever model I want dead that turn.
(0) Actions and Their Uses.
Desolation – Generally a good option if you’re surrounded or in the middle of their army. I would tend to throw out three spells and then do that as a finishing move to kill him off for the turn or to finish off any low wound models his spells damaged.
Deaths Lessons – This is the one I prefer to use regularly. It’s a great way to check and make sure you’re going to have the right suits coming up for spells.
Army Composition:
Rusty Alyce – 8 stones for a major utility piece. She allows you to draw two additional cards each turn even though Levi’s rule is draw 0. She can also create additional SPAs for your army. I generally use her Bag of Tricks to cast Booby Traps turn 1 in order to kill Levi off for a new hand. (2 traps, 2 necromatic sacrifice, 3 deaths lessons, 1 closing phase)
Jack Daw – My new favorite model. The bonus to hand size means you will almost always have the right suit in your hand. He is almost indestructible as long as you have cards in hand. I tend to send him flying forward to cast his (0) aura Severed Ties. This prevents any model within 6” from cheating fate or using soulstones to add to duel totals. This fact plus Levi’s cast of 7 makes it very easy to get his spells where they can’t be resisted easily if at all.
Necro Punks – Leap and quick movement. These models I tend to bring along for claiming objective scenarios such as destroy the evidence. Rusty can also cast burn out on them so they gain reactivate as well.
Kill Joy – Since Levi and his Hollow Waifs come back any time they are sacrificed or killed they make excellent models to sacrifice to bring him into play. Since he is placed now he isn’t slow and should be able to wreck some havoc.
Steampunk Abomination – if you start the game with 4 you can start them in a diamond shape and just keep them advancing up the board using Keep Pace. You push the three Keep Pace into the front of the model that advanced and then advance the next and so on. Be sure to place one that has yet to go this turn in the center front basing the other 3 or you risk leaving one behind. Generally I use the 3rd models 2nd action to combine them into the Desolation Engine (DE). This is so that the DE gets a full activation as it replaces the models and gains the high number of AP on any of the models. Something should be in melee range at this point to attack 3 times.
Desolation Engine – Takes a wound every time it activates (important to remember) but it has a built in trigger to heal however much damage it does so pretty easy to keep alive. Great damage potential, high Cb (paired). It’s a solid model for Levi to use. If it creates an extra 2 SPA when it dies the two it creates will let you form a new one right away.
Ashes and Dust – After I’ve played him a bit I’ll have some ideas. Want to see how things work in actual game play not just theory.
Hollow Waif – Always companion with Levi or at least make it go first. I tend to keep mine back where it’s hidden from ranged or magic attacks. Remember the only way to remove Levi is to have him and all Waifs on the board dead on the same turn. Try to get a second Waif out as soon as possible.
Set-up and Activation Order:
Set up is highly dependent upon what your strategy and schemes are. Generally though Levi is across the table from something big he wants dead and Alyce is within 2" to get the bonus to hand size.
Activation order turn 1 is pretty much everything goes and then Levi goes. The reason for this is so that if they moved something up pretty far he can potentially take a model out turn 1.
On further turns order depends on what is being presented. If there is a solid target Levi can go after early on I tend to take it as long as the Waif is out of harms way. If there is a chance the Waif can die I try to have Levi go later in the turn to be sure atleast one of them is on the board during the closing phase.
I hope this helps you Levi players who are trying to figure out what to do with him. It seems that activation order is extremely important to this list. From what I've seen Rob able to do with him, the errata (or nerfing as some people whine) hasn't had a major affect on the viability of the list.
