I love Asura, I hate Asura
Asura Roten is a bit of a problem.
Asura Roten might be my favourite model in Malifaux 4th Edition.
Ok, let me back up a bit. As I mentioned in my previous blog post about the Ancestor Keyword, I decided to start playing Resurrectionists in 4th Edition after trying and failing to find anything in my beloved Outcasts that I still really clicked with in the new edition. Masters like Tara and especially Hamelin losing much of the complexity and depth that made them engaging for me to experiment with and learn meant that, even though I liked a lot of Outcast crews in the edition, there were none that I truly loved. I chose Resurrectionists to switch to in part because I already owned a bunch of models, many because they were usable in some capacity in my Outcast crews in 3rd Edition. Asura Roten and the Mindless Zombies was one such box, so I was running her almost from the jump in my Resurrectionist games.
My dilemma here is that Asura brings exactly the kind of gameplay I was looking for. She reminds me a lot of 3rd Edition Hamelin in ways that 4th Edition Hamelin has utterly failed to live up to, and any time I add her to a crew I find myself with a variety of options and fun combinations that feel like what I was missing in Outcasts.
But she's a Cost 8 model adding what feels like a Master's level of depth and shenanigans to the game. It's a bit much, and I'm starting to avoid putting her on the table outside of tournament games. Depriving myself of the gameplay I enjoy because it frankly feels like a bit too much.
Let's talk about what we're getting from this Cost 8 Versatile that is causing me so much internal conflict.
Other than that, we have Hard to Kill and Siphon Power. Hard to Kill is ok, but certainly doesn't make Asura a "tough" model with her Df 5 and 10 hit points. She's on the squishier side for her cost. And Siphon Power means that she can guarantee any trigger on her card by damaging a friendly model, which is pretty neat when there are all these disposable zombies around that even generate additional value when they die. But we'll get to that.
But we're not done. Return of the Living Dead has triggers. Graveyard Smash is the first, and it is Once Per Turn and costs a Soulstone to use. It lets Asura place in base contact with a Mindless Zombie she just summoned and draw a card. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is probably the most egregious thing on Asura's card. She's already doing a ton of work for your crew in terms of attrition, but now she's also got a better Leap with a ridiculously tiny TN and it also randomly draws you a card? The ability of Asura to switch gears from a fairly static backline damage dealer and summoner into scoring you points is a degree of utility usually reserved for far more expensive models.
The other trigger is Dust to Dust. It requires a Ram, but we have Siphon Power so you'll get this every single time you want it. And you always want it. You kill one of the models you just summoned and enemy models within 2" of that model take a Damage and gain an Injured token. This immediately puts me in mind of Hamelin's ability in 3rd Edition to kill Rats in order to pulse out unresisted damage. Unresisted damage is always a very useful tool. Unresisted Injured is a big swing too. Asura could theoretically do this three times in a turn, tagging multiple models and killing anything on 3 health or less without ever needing to make an opposed duel. Or she does it once, and sets up for her next action.
That next action is Graveyard Dust, a Range 8, Skl 6 magic attack that targets Df and deals 2 damage. But she can also kill a Mindless Zombie within 2" of the target in order to deal +2 damage. This action also has triggers, one to give the target Injured in case they didn't have it already (they should pretty much always have it already though from Dust to Dust), and one to pulse out a bit of healing to undead near the target.
This means that if you get or a cheat a 9+ for Asura's Return of the Living Dead, you can summon three zombies next to a model within 8". You use Siphon Power to guarantee Dust to Dust. The target takes a damage, gains Injured, Asura can then blast them twice with Graveyard Dust. By the end of her activation she's dealt 9 damage to the target (plus possibly a point of damage and Injured to anything in the same area as the target from Dust to Dust), which is pretty dang good for a model this cheap. That TN drops from a 9+ to 3+ if you have zombies in the area from previous turns.
We're not even done yet. Just to wrap things up, you also have Macabre Infusion. This action has no flip at all required, and it kills a Mindless Zombie within 8" to make a scheme marker. Great, no notes. Converting a resource-like model like the Zombies into a scheming option is exactly the sort of gameplay I found to be missing from 4th Edition Hamelin, and I think this is a bit more reasonable than Graveyard Smash. Scheme Markers aren't as generically useful for scoring as movement is, and it requires at least another action to make zombies at some point in the game before it becomes an option instead of just letting her score points without any setup.
That was a big wall of text, but what about these zombies that she's making?
Mindless Zombies are everything I wished Rats could be, and more. Their Demise (Walking Dead) means that when they die (and as we have mentioned, Asura has many, many ways to kill these) they continue to be useful by generating a resource in the form of Remains markers. We're playing Resurrectionists here, most of the Keywords have something to gain from Remains markers and a huge chunk of the Resurrectionist Versatiles use them as a resource as well. A big part of what I loved about 3rd Edition Hamelin was the fact that many of his models had a Demise effect that gave you something back when they inevitably died, and being able to set up cool combinations with the other necromancers in the faction is a big part of why I am drawn to Asura more broadly. This is the sort of gameplay loop that I live for, getting incremental value from multiple different components all interlocking in a very satisfying way.
But Mindless Zombies are useful even before they die! They also have Latch On, applying -1 Df to enemies in base contact. This is a bit nuts. Asura already puts out Injured unresisted, now she also applies an additional -1 Df without a flip? Her own attack, Graveyard Dust, targets Df. With Latch On and Injured it's doing so at effectively Skl 8. She can summon a Zombie directly into base contact with a model and do this all inside her own activation, making her attacks virtually unavoidable. That 9 damage I spoke about above? It's almost guaranteed to happen if you get enough Mindless Zombies in place.
And finally, they also have Pulled Down. I love this rule. As Peons, Mindless Zombies are unable to really interfere all that much with opponents. Enemy models can move through them, are never engaged in melee with them, and can generally treat them like a slightly more annoying marker. But Pulled Down means that if you have 3+ Mindless Zombies all within 1" of a single enemy model, that model can't declare General Actions. You might not be engaged, but you still can't Interact. You might be able to move through the Zombies, but you can't Walk or Charge. This is just annoying enough to force opponents to waste their time actually killing Zombies, and costing them that extra action can sometimes be enough to deny them a scheme point or keep them from interfering with the strategy. Plus it's beautifully thematic, encouraging you to run your Mindless Zombies as a shambling horde.
As befits a Peon, the Mindless Zombies aren't doing a particularly large amount of damage. But it is notable that they have an attack at all. I recall during the beta that the justification for Malifaux Rats not having an attack being that it would bog down the game, but Zombies can be fielded in greater numbers than Rats and managed to sneak through with a melee attack. Not that I'm complaining. I often gravitate towards horde armies in the games that I play, and I'm a pretty fast player. I honestly love that I can get seven or eight zombies on the table and speed through their attacks one-by-one to finish off a key enemy model.
Now, Gnaw On Your Ear can be a little bit finicky. If you have a bunch of unactivated models near the target, then you'll only get to make a single attack but it will benefit from being higher Skl. In return though, all those unactivated Mindless Zombies now count as activated. This can occasionally be useful in terms of making a single swing that much more reliable, and sometimes having a whole lot of unactivated models suddenly become activated can catch an opponent out who was being a bit too aggressive about passing and all of a sudden it is you, the horde player, who have activation control for the end of the turn. But in terms of raw damage, you ideally want to be charging your zombies into a target with no unactivated zombies nearby one by one in order to make as many individual swings as possible. The attack might be Skl 3, but with Latch On and Injured that often means you're flipping against an opponent on Df 3, and the Rams trigger of "Braaaaiiins" deals the bonus damage regardless of if the models near the enemy are activated or not (or even if they're Mindless Zombies or not), so half a dozen of those attacks can add up pretty quickly.
And finally, if you need a Remains marker, or if you're nearing your model limit for Mindless Zombies and you want Asura to be able to make some more, then the Return to the Grave signature action just lets you kill yourself off without a flip.
Why is this a problem?
So much of what I have just labouriously written is what I love about Asura. Outside of the Graveyard Smash Soulstone trigger, which feels tacked on and gives Asura an additional role that I frankly feel she has no right in having, I really enjoy every single thing on her card. But it is too much. She's Cost 8. Cost 8 models in Outcasts are usually making two Damage 3 attacks a turn, but she can make two Damage 4 attacks and pulse out damage and Injured to everyone nearby. Or she can do less damage but make more Mindless Zombies, which will deal damage themselves while also debuffing anything nearby. Or she can do some scheming, or focus on generating resources for the crew. She can't always do it all in an activation, but she can probably do it all over the course of a game.
This unfortunately turns her into an auto-include. If you're playing any crew that mainly targets Df, putting in Asura to swing enemy Df down by 2 feels like a no-brainer. I also think that, through no fault of her own, Asura feels necessary because so few models in Resurrectionists reliably make Remains markers. Particularly when you're playing mostly in Keyword, you'll often find random models that utilise Remains but rarely have any consistent method of making them. Asura enables any such model while also doing her own thing, making her the obvious support piece for a broad swathe of the faction.
And then there's the Carrion Emissary. If you aren't familiar, the Carrion Emissary has a melee attack that starts at Damage 2, but does +1 damage for every Remains Marker near the target. For some ridiculous reason, this isn't capped. And with how easy Mindless Zombies are to make, it becomes very easy to start setting up activations where each attack of the Carrion Emissary is dealing 5 or more damage. That attack is also Skl 7 against Df, so Asura can get it to effectively Skl 9 in her normal course of play. The Carrion Emissary is also a measly 8 stones, so now you have 16 stones of models swinging far above their paygrade.
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