M2E+Snowstorm


 * Snowstorm, Arcanist Henchman**

=__Overview__=

Snowstorm, or from a fluff perspective, the Icewitch Snow and her pet Yeti Storm, were who December were trying to make into his vessel, before Rasputina came along and mucked up the works. Raspy took Snow and Storm in as friends, however, and so December lost what should have been his perfect reincarnation to a stubborn obstinate ex-slave. Snowstorm is Raspy's henchman (Henchmen? Henchpeople?), and are used to give them a both a front line monster as well as some additional positioning through it's tactical action. Much like all of the other Raspy Centric models, Snowstorm will explode when it dies, indiscriminately doing damage in a pulse. She's a spirit, though not incorporeal, so she gets around things that specify living, undead, or construct, and in a perfect world, she would be able to join Kirai. But Malifaux is flawed, and I leave you with that image of perfection lingering just out of reach. toc

=__Mobility__= With a walk of 6 and a charge of 7, this will be one of the most mobile models in the rasputina crew (save for the Blessed of December). But this model isn't going to fix Raspy's slow crew just by being fast itself! It brings something to the table to help with EVERYONES mobility!

Target other friendly model with Frozen Heart within 8" is placed into base contact with this model. Oh look, Raspy's in danger. Come gimme a bear hug. And it's a 0! So, Boom, snatch you, put you behind me, and then charge the offending model. The classic switcheroo. She's also got an amazing "attack" that can be used as a tactical action- Ice Tornado. I'll get into the attack more in a minute, but the wording on the attack that helps with movement is "Models with Frozen Heart which would suffer any damage from this action reduce the damagte to 0 and are pushed up to 3" in any direction". 3 inches is the near the typical move for a raspy crew, so if you cluster a little, and cheat to place blasts, you can give a lot of models an extra move by hitting them with a tornado.
 * (0) December's Command**

=__Offense__=

Snowstorm is good from both melee and ranged, which makes her the perfect midfield enforcer. Chucking spells and providing buffs and escape routes to priority targets... And when something gets close, something gets eaten. Literally.

Less accurate than the blessed, but more damage and a longer range. On a 50mm base and with a 3" melee range, the engagement zone is near 8". This means she can easily block two Squatters Rights markers by herself. It also has two triggers, both equally nasty, and neither baked in.
 * (1) Icy Talon** //(Ml6, Rst df, Rg3)// dmg 3/4/6
 * ((Book) Ram) Grip of Winter** Sort of like a giant monster version of **Crushing Blow**, Grip of Winter gives your damage flip a double positive. Got the red joker? And a High ram? Go //crazy//.
 * ((Book) Crow) Gorge** This is the trigger that will be talked about more in resiliance, because all of Snow's attacks give you multiple levels of functionalility, but if you kill a model, it heals you 5 wounds, which is 50% of snows health.

This is the one that has the frozen heart models suffer no damage and push. This is great if you're using it to shoot into melee- say you randomize in and target a ice gamin? Rasputina would just nuke the lil guy and try and go for blasts. Snowstorm does this too, but instead of killing the gamin, he politely gusts him out of the way, and still places the templates. Then nukes the now-unengaged target a second time. It's got two triggers on it:
 * (1) Icy Tornado** //(ca 5, tn 12, rst df, rg 8") dmg 2/3(double blase)/3(triple blast)//
 * ((Book)Mask) Overpower** Overpower, just like any overpower, lets you cast again against the same target. It's a closed loop, so you can't declare triggers, not even foul weather which is baked in.
 * ((Book)) Foul Weather** Lets you push all models within 2" of the target 2" directly away from the target. Good at pushing melee threats away from ranged assets, like the silent one or raspy.

=__Resilience__= Df 6, WP 5, hard to hit with melee, and of average willpower- and with 10 wounds it'll take a little bit to bring snowstorm down. She has a few thing that should keep her, and things directly around her, up a little longer.


 * (Bullet Proof 3)** The idea is she's covered in ice. Or surrounded by weather... or something.... Regardless, if you try and shoot her, she reduces the damage of the SH attack by three to a minimum of one. Take that Perdita!


 * Middle of the Storm-** Lets //other// models near Snowstorm have Bullet Proof 1. Snowstorm... how nice of her to share.


 * Gorge** I mentioned it earlier, but it's important to note down here, if Snowstorm can kill a model with a melee attack, and get the trigger, by flip, cheat, or stone, it can heal 5 wounds back. That's a lot of wounds.... It's not eat your fill, but it also doesn't prematurely end your turn! You could eat a dude, then blast his friend with an Ice Tornado.

Look, realistically, Snowstorm is one of the few models you want to be in melee. She's good at it, can take it, can heal from it... If a Silent One or Rasputina get into melee, they're going to fold like a paper towel. Decembers command isn't a Snowstorm Resilience move, it's a Snowstorms CREW resilience move. I can snap you up, pull you back, and charge to go for a kill. Or if it's the last thing I do in a turn, I can at least pull someone behind my 50mm, hgt 3 base and block LOS for a turn.
 * (0) Decembers Command**

=__Upgrades__= I was a little surprised there isn't a Snowstorm Specific Upgrade, but after reviewing the frozen heart upgrades, there are some solid choices- they probably didn't want to dilute the waters.

In a full blast crew, if you decide to bring Oxford Mages to a Raspy party, giving Snowstorm Regen, or immunity to pulses, or a plusflip to defense against a master could be pretty nice.
 * Warding Runes**

For all the reasons you'd usually take imbued energies. Have a turn where you need to kill something with a melee to get the health back? Pop imbued and get an extra chance.
 * Imbued Energies**

I mean... DF 6 is good and all... but if you know you're going to be going toe to toe with Lady J or McMourning? Being tied, or at an advantage could be very nice. Plus it gives you a free 2damage prevention if it'll mean your life (and possibly the life of many other models...)
 * Imbued Protection**

As the midfield henchman, Snowstorm has a much higher chance of giving this aura out to the people who will be using it, like the gamin and the silent one. If only She could have it herself.
 * Sub Zero**

More Meant for Ice Golem who's got a low move anyways, having a 1ap to give yourself armor is nothing to sneeze at.
 * Armor of December**

The range on recharge soulstone is 3". The range on Snowstorm's Melee attack is three inches... Coincidence? Probably... fortuitous? Definately.
 * Recharge Soulstone**

(This one was modded by a member of the community... toooo cool not to show, but it's not standard)

=__Tactics and Tips__= These two go way back. You can use your 0 action to move an ice golem up to 6 extra inches per turn. You can use your attack to move whole units of troops up 3" at a time. You can save people who don't want to be in melee. You can shoot into melee. You can perform well in melee, shoring up your masters only deficiency. You can heal yourself. You can be healed by Silent Ones. I'd want her to be able to summon an ice gamin, but it would //actually be too much.// Which is why they didn't allow that. Filth.
 * Rasputina**

These two together is a silly combo. If Raspy takes the time to give the Rider Frozen Heart, then Snowstorm can give her a 10" place (8+ the size of S.S's base). And she can toddle off to the other side of the board. The rider can also summon Ice Gamin into the field, letting Silent Ones heal them, and then Snow can blast them into position.
 * The Mechanical Rider**

Any time there's a powerful (1)ap CA action, Cassandra wants to cast it. The Silent One's spells are already worth a mention, but being able to ice tornado from range and increase the threat range on turn one would be pretty sweet. It may not be enough to drag Snowstorm //into// a Colette crew, though. In fact, Cassandra could cast this //ON// Snowstorm to give her a 3" push. In cast she needs just a little extra push.
 * Cassandra**

=__Leading a Crew__= Think of Snowstorm as a more burly, less magically potent, Rasputina. She's got better move, defense and melee, but can't cast through models. Silent ones can cast with the bounce, but can't take shattered mirror, which disallows the use of triggers in general. But, for instance, in a hardcore format, you could take a silent one or two, and pick up a gamin, a golem or an Acolyte and some upgrades and be totally viable. Survivable, quick, and harder to kill than many.

Strategies and Schemes
She's less of a strong scheme doer, and more of a scheme denyer. She's really good if Murder Protege is on the table, and also in the Turf War strategy (target your own model with Tornado, then push everyone else out), and the Squatters Rights Strategy (Stand in between two squat markers, and so long as you're alive, they're not getting interacted with.

She is also good at helping other schemes get done, for instance Deliver the Message: Moves into range of the enemy master, and 0 actions in another model to take the 2ap interact. Or the strategy Stake a Claim, as she can (0) action move a model up to 6 away from another claim marker, and they can take the 2 interact to add to the pile.

Building a Crew
Anything with frozen heart is good, as a lot of the synergy from her skills, like December's Command and Ice Tornado, are frozen heart exclusive. It's one of the reasons why she doesn't branch out into other crews very well, unless you're bringing friends, at which point you might as well be playing raspy.

=__Playing Against Snowstorm__= Casting Actions are your best friend. A SH action will get reduced by Bullet Proof, A melee will likely get you caught up in the blast, and if not, it will get you caught up in Snow's melee. A cast action will punch through defenses from a safe distance.

The CA on Ice Tornado is only 5, so it's less of a threat than Icy Talon- If you're looking to kill snowstorm, try not to give it anything to eat. A good plan would be nothing with 6 or less wounds within 10" of it.

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