What to do with Tristan?

this morning i was thinking on this since i got my model from the kickstarter. Tristan Durant has two spells: fortify and immolation. Additionally he has true sight and four focus.

Which warjack makes the cut? At best he could fuel two jacks. There's a possibility of adding a devout or a vigilant to this and use Tristan defensively exclusively.

But the true sight alluded me then. Which is when I thought a single arc node might be good. Guardian would get up to arm 21 with fortify...and so will revenger.

I'm almost convinced to this point that a revenger or blessing of vengeance is the best choice. An armor 21 node with repel and true sight on his immolation. Add a point and you get bushwack and defensive strike with blessing of vengeance.

I'm not sold on the node. Why not a Repenter? Or even a Crusader?

I think his selling point is the extra focus he brings and being able to load up a jack without staining your caster. True Sight is only going to benefit you against a certain subset of models, and only within a 3" window against stealth. And he can only cast once if he upkeeps.

Casting Immolation not going to come up often enough, I think. He HAS to boost to hit since he's effectively RAT 4, so it won't ever be an efficient use of resources. It's nice to have the option, but most of the time, I'm with Chad - the upside is going to be a focus-free heavy, not True Sight.

I like a lot of stuff with him, in theory. My first thought is the Shielded jacks to get up to ARM 23. A Vigilant with Fortify is a cheap rock in a zone. A Templar is a much more dangerous rock - and he's a focus hog, too, so Tristan plays well with your casters here.

Reckoner assaults and Redeemer shots that don't rely on your caster's focus are pretty sweet, too. He seems excellent in your faction.

Good point on the immolation.

I don't know about Repenters. Vigilant is definitely a good choice that I think beats a devout.

Reckoner is a sexy idea: field two Reckoners with one on Tristan gets you more fuel on another caster. Templar is definitely another choice.

It is even possible to field 2 jacks with him. Crusaders, Vigilant, Devouts come to mind on this.

Really, you could put any jack on him and do well.

I thought about the Vigilant, but the problem is his small CTRL range and squishiness, and his general incapability of doing anything offensive.  Sure, you have a cheap light with ARM 23, but he's worthless if his controller dies.  He's only really good at contesting zones.  I'm hesitant to put a 8+ point heavy on him for the same reason.  You can newb-stomp with that all day, but I think a canny opponent is going to gun down Tristan if you make him annoying enough.  So I don't think defense is the best use.

With the Reckoner, I also take issue in the fact that Assault is very risky with such a small CTRL.  And Assault is one of the things that makes the Reckoner so scary.  So either your jack is going to be out of control for the next turn, or your journeyman is possibly overextended and dead.  Also, the Reckoner will generally run on 2 focus or less - he's not a huge focus hog.  Still beneficial though, and would not be a bad choice.

The Repenter is respectable at ARM19.  He's possibly Menoth's best light jack overall.  The Redeemer wins in certain situations, like eFeora bond or pKreoss' feat, but the Repenter is solid with any caster.  He doesn't need a lot of focus, but he definitely benefits from being able to boost those sprays.  He's also super cheap, so not a tremendous point investment which makes him a bit more expendable.

I like the Crusader for the same reason.  ARM21 heavy with 3 free focus per turn for the same cost that most factions pay for less ARM and no free focus.  He's still slow, but that's what Enliven is for.

And to possibly contradict myself, the Templar is always solid.  You'd have to be careful with the beatbacks though.

I'd say it depends on the caster.  In general, I would want the Repenter.  With pKreoss or pSevy, I'd put a Redeemer on him.  I'd probably want a Crusader with Harbinger.  I don't think he belongs with eFeora.

Harbinger is particularly cute since Crusader's Call and Martyrdom are both good for Triston & co.

As far as his small control area goes, I think you're actively planning on charging stuff out of his control area. Load 'em up and send 'em out - this is why I like the ARM 23 guys so much. They might be without focus for a turn, but they're still going to cause a ruckus. No one can afford to just ignore them, because they can keep making attacks even if Triston is 14" away. You're upkeeping Fortify anyway, so removal isn't trivial.

In general, though, I don't think protecting him is going to be super arduous. The choir, for instance, is safe for most of most games, and they have to hang about as close as Tristan does with worse stats.

I think he can do a very good job running pretty much all the standard 8 point heavies in Menoth. The big question I have about Tristan is how safe do you want him to be while running his Jack.

I really see him being with a Redeemer or Reckoner most of the time, I'm even really thinking about putting the Judicator on him. All of these ideas are with Harbinger in mind. He allows her to do what she does best camp focus and he never dies because of martyrdom.

Out side of her maybe Severius 1, Kreoss 1 would be other considerations I would be comfortable with.

Kreoss 3 is an interesting option to because he loves to use all his focus on spells but then the jack doesnt benefit from warparth.

As a whole he is a solid piece and he will change the way some casters play for sure.

I think the Redeemer is going to be his best bet most of the time, almost solely because you can basically keep Tristan in your deployment zone and still have the Redeemer contributing at-range throughout the game.

Running Tristan+Redeemer with Kreoss1 allows him to leverage his Feat without spending all of his focus and with Severius1, the fully fueled Redeemer will be tossing around POW 15 (POW 9 blast) with Choir+Eye, allowing Severius1 to sling spells or fuel other 'jacks.

If you want to run a more melee-focused 'jack (Reckoner/Templar/etc), I think Harbinger will be the best option, as your can Martyr Tristan to keep him alive.

Celebros wrote:I think the Redeemer is going to be his best bet most of the time, almost solely because you can basically keep Tristan in your deployment zone and still have the Redeemer contributing at-range throughout the game.

Running Tristan+Redeemer with Kreoss1 allows him to leverage his Feat without spending all of his focus and with Severius1, the fully fueled Redeemer will be tossing around POW 15 (POW 9 blast) with Choir+Eye, allowing Severius1 to sling spells or fuel other 'jacks.

If you want to run a more melee-focused 'jack (Reckoner/Templar/etc), I think Harbinger will be the best option, as your can Martyr Tristan to keep him alive.

Everything that he just said.

[sarcasm]Yay, more dedicated Menoth guns![/sarcasm]

But seriously, the Redeemer is two turn tables and a microphone. Just like how Aiakos and a Leviathan make a nice package.

Talking about colosals...Tristan and Judicator...

pg.Vorago wrote:Talking about colosals...Tristan and Judicator...

An ARM 21 fully fueled Judicator is definitely solid. I'd probably stick to Harbinger, just to ensure Tristan's survival, but I think it's doable with other 'casters.

I've played 8-9 games with Gastone+Galleon with Kreoss1 and not found it particularly difficult to keep Gastone alive. Obviously things like Satyxis Raiders, MHSF, Backlash, etc can create some very bad match-ups though.