M2e Colette

[Boomstick]

Myranda with Imbued Energies so she can scoot up, shift into a beatstick beast, and you get 4 cards. With Colette especially,  she can prompt Myranda with the reactivate trigger, second activation she shifts before she dies, the beast doesn't die, and gets to activate itself. I haven't done it myself yet, but it seems nasty.

[Sybarite]

Yeah Myranda is the be(a)st

 

[adrianao]

Do oxfordian mages offer something to Colette? Maybe some runes for Cassandra? What about the Captain? He gives even more mobility to the crew and also has a good punch. Trying to decide where to go after the crew box and the other showgirls, trying to keep the style (or something related), so acolytes can be good for knife shows

[spooky_squirrel]

On 10/14/2016 at 1:25 AM, Mrbedlam said:

Pretty much this. Colette needs to pack more punch usually.  Generally Envy is a top go to for me now and of course if you like her, Mech Rider does work too. Myranda is where its really at though

Along these lines, I just recently picked up The Tortoise and The Hare, which provides a mobile beater that thematically fits right in with a spooky sideshow in the form of Luther the Pascha Hare (counts as Blessed of December, comes with own top hat). It kind of inspires me to model a minion construct (Metal Gamin?) that looks like a large top hat to use the RoF beast/construct upgrade (Blade and Claw) to pull a rabbit out of a hat, or a hat out of a rabbit.

Living up to my handle aside, another interesting beater to drop into Colette's crew is the Emissary. Especially with its in-built ability to enable another model to take a (1) action at the end of its activation (Prompt? Understudy? Seduction? Oiran Lure?) and minor teleport to set up a charge. With the various pushes and control aspects of Showgirls, you can easily make up for its low Wk and get it somewhere where its 17" non-linear charge threat will have the desired impact (5" place, 10" Cg, 2).

[iamfanboy]

So I bought a Union Miners box, then found a Gunsmith and Sue lurking in my Deadlands minis and I was wondering about adding them to Colette's Crew - only problem is that I'm pretty short of 30mm bases.

How many Miners actually help Colette? Could I just add one and base the Gunsmith and Sue, or would two be a better number - and if I did so, which one would be the better add, Sue or the Gunsmith? Can Cassandra steal Sue's Ring of Fire action - the pullmyfinger wiki doesn't say how much it costs, and I'm not sure I want to buy the new card without knowing if I'll USE the mini for Malifaux at all.

[retnab]

I've never brought more than one Union Miner, they're durable enough for a 5 pt model and I find two to be a bit redundant.

[Flint]

It looks like RoF masters and crews are heavily anti-scheme markers/anti-Colette. Anyone has any experiences playng against them? 

[Sordid Strumpet]

5 hours ago, Flint said:

It looks like RoF masters and crews are heavily anti-scheme markers/anti-Colette. Anyone has any experiences playng against them? 

A little bit. Thankfully Colette can also use a few things that aren't scheme markers as scheme markers. Specifically the Arcane Emissary, Doves and Mannequins. She does become a whole lot trickier to play though, but I think part of that might be because it's almost muscle memory to cover the board in scheme markers with free interact actions when playing her. She is arguably much safer when using a nearby Arcane Emissary as a scheme marker to prevent damage.

[spooky_squirrel]

Colette also can play an Elite control game where she ramps up the effectiveness of supporting* models and doesn't worry about scheme markers outside of doing exactly what is needed to score a scheme.

*note: not supporting as in "healer", "condition remover", "flip enhancer"; supporting as in "will score on these schemes"

[Sordid Strumpet]

52 minutes ago, spooky_squirrel said:

Colette also can play an Elite control game where she ramps up the effectiveness of supporting* models and doesn't worry about scheme markers outside of doing exactly what is needed to score a scheme.

*note: not supporting as in "healer", "condition remover", "flip enhancer"; supporting as in "will score on these schemes"

 

The biggest danger with Colette is that if there are no scheme markers (of any kind) around, she's ridiculously easy to kill. But she can run killing schemes as well as anyone, as she makes any killer that much more efficient. It's just that you have to make sure to keep doves, mannequins or in a pinch a performer around to make sure she survives. Because seeing no scheme markers around Colette is about the biggest invitation you can make to have someone throw their biggest beater at them

I really enjoy the Arcane Emissary hanging around her (replacing Joss, for example) because it just does so much damage if you need it to, while also being a scheme marker, making Seduction easier to pull off in a meaningful location for example. I just always make sure I have a healer around (silent one mostly) just because my strategy involves putting a bucketload of damage on the Emissary, and he doesn't like that very much until you've scored the strat a couple of times. 

[spooky_squirrel]

32 minutes ago, Sordid Strumpet said:

The biggest danger with Colette is that if there are no scheme markers (of any kind) around, she's ridiculously easy to kill. But she can run killing schemes as well as anyone, as she makes any killer that much more efficient. It's just that you have to make sure to keep doves, mannequins or in a pinch a performer around to make sure she survives. Because seeing no scheme markers around Colette is about the biggest invitation you can make to have someone throw their biggest beater at them

I helped an opposing Colette player see this in action by having a Coryphee duet cut down an isolated Colette. Even if I'm not playing marker schemes I'll try to keep one or two nearby, but there's something to be said for not counting on it: if your opponent wants her dead, she's going to die. There are models that disable triggers when attacking, and if you're in a mirror match, when that Arcane Emissary charges in, not only do nearby scheme markers get discarded, Colette can be pushed away from her Death Defying targets of choice. It may seem like a massive sink of AP, but if it's getting Neutralize the Leader and/or 4 points towards Collect the Bounty, removing her force multiplication is just icing on the cake.
This is where the spare Dove or Mannequin, or nearby Emissary can be useful, as they can be scheme markers for the purpose of friendly model abilities--but now your opponent has to rely on knocking you away from them or disabling your triggers (Joss, Valedictorian) or neutering your ability to place/push (Anna).

Outside of scenarios where there is an incentive to kill Colette, 1-2 markers near her will keep canny players focused on killing the models that are doing the real work (Doves/Raptors being Planned Production Leave Your Mark nodes, Hank being a nimble killer, Coryphee getting their thousand cuts in just before dancing as one, Performer/Mannequin pairs doing Detonate the Charges/Set Up). If your roster is deep enough on the workers needed, this won't slow down your ability to score.

[Mxbedlam]

I've played vs Zipp now a couple times and he's a giant pain in the butt. Asami isn't so bad for messing with the marker game but Nellie, yeah she's probably Colette's biggest competition in the scheme game. I'm not really sure yet how to face her as she throws a wrench in the normal "Bring Mei Feng" attitude for Arcanists vs Guild. 

[Ampers&nd]

played Reva at the weekend and was surprised how good she is against Colette, with the upgrade that stops damage being reduced and the second stopping prevention, Reva's huge attack range pretty much guarantees Colette is either dead by turn 2 or hiding away at the back. 

[daniello_s]

Colette can be deadly to Reva as between her Prompt and push from Angelica she can deliver Howard bomb (with Imbued Energies) straight into Reva's face. Plus if you have Seize a Day upgrade you have good chance to win initiative next turn and follow up with more beating (just in case if Reva survived first part)

[Mxbedlam]

I say vs Reva you just can't play scared. Almost have to bring full on aggro Colette orrrr just bring Marcus and eat Reva's face on turn 1

 

[Jordon]

I've heard a few people say that Colette's day in the sun is over now that wave 4 is out but I just don't see it. Yes it's true most factions got some scheme marker tech with the new masters but the pendulum swings both ways and we still have the best anti-scheme runners with the performers IMO. In fact I think performers got even scarier in wave 4 due to all the ways the new masters use scheme markers.

With all the ways Colette has of generating scheme markers, most crews won't have enough AP to even deal with all of them. If your afraid of Colette becoming vulnerable then remember she has doves, mannequins and now the emissary who count as scheme markers, which are immune to all of those anti scheme marker abilities. 

I still think after seeing all of the wave 4 stuff that the new masters should still be afraid of Colette and not the other way around (no more than usual anyway). Other factions are just late to the game as we were fortunate to get our "wave 4" master at wave 2.

Best of all, I've yet to come across a problem in this game that 3 prompts cannot fix  

[Sordid Strumpet]

I would say Colette just got more interesting because the way she could dump scheme markers everywhere and be safe doesn't work as well any more, we have to reinvent her play style a bit. Keeps things from getting boring.

1 hour ago, Jordon said:

Best of all, I've yet to come across a problem in this game that 3 prompts cannot fix  

You lack ambition. 3 prompts? why not 7?

I once had a game where my opponent made the mistake of killing a performer near Colette, reactivating her. And then put Joss on hard to kill. Joss got 11 AP that one turn. Everything else got dead that turn. Then I healed Joss.

[Mxbedlam]

I will say that I'd probably not drop Colette into a game where I thought Titania was going to be coming out. Having all of those scheme markers suddenly becomes balanced against you. Colette is strong enough though, I think the other masters have basically just allowed the other factions to attempt to catch up with her. 

[ZeeDeveel]

Any love here for Killjoy? That enormous bastard rampaging around, attacking 5 times a turn and healing himself everytime he kills something and with his 0 action sounds pretty obscene?

[Sordid Strumpet]

1 hour ago, ZeeDeveel said:

Any love here for Killjoy? That enormous bastard rampaging around, attacking 5 times a turn and healing himself everytime he kills something and with his 0 action sounds pretty obscene?

The question is why, though - Arcanists have no shortage of scary killers (Emissary, Joss, Howard), and you'd need to go get something killed to get Killjoy out. I don't like Killjoy much at the best of times (he just falls over when focused on), and Arcanists have tougher beaters available to them as well.

I've never seen or heard of anyone using Killjoy with Colette because Killjoy is so fragile, he doesn't really want to be on the board while your opponent still has activations left (hence his being so popular with Rezers and Hamelin for example). I'm sure if you design a crew around him he'll work just fine. You'll probably need to use a few Malifaux Raptors and Mechanical Doves to maintain activation control to some degree, though. And as beaters go, I prefer to run with someone like Joss purely because he has such high damage potential and ignores defensive triggers and armour.

[spooky_squirrel]

With Killjoy you have to be awfully close to it to prompt it, and when it activates, if it's not engaged it's going to charge at something (including your own models). If Colette's close enough to prompt several times it before it activates, she's in its threat range, and a smart opponent can set you up for failure. If you're hoping for a late turn series of prompts, you'll have to make sure that Killjoy starts engaged or doesn't charge too far away to be influenced (which will affect how many AP you have available for prompting and killing).

At 13 stones, it's competing with an Imbued Energies carrying Howard Langston, who is quick, brutal, and isn't likely to charge at Colette. His damage spread is comparable to Killjoy's (card based), with a Decapitation trigger on top of Nimble and Flurry. Hank starts on the table and does indeed die when focused on, but that's because people who've seen what he does make a point of ensuring he doesn't get to do it.

21 minutes ago, Sordid Strumpet said:

The question is why, though - Arcanists have no shortage of scary killers (Emissary, Joss, Howard), and you'd need to go get something killed to get Killjoy out. I don't like Killjoy much at the best of times (he just falls over when focused on), and Arcanists have tougher beaters available to them as well.

I want to draw attention to @Sordid Strumpet's comment, especially what I put in bold: when I run Colette, she's got an elite crew around her, with a handful of Practiced Production nodes who will be going for/bluffing schemes like Leave Your Mark. Things like Raptors and Doves don't present enough threat to guarantee that your opponent will kill them and get you an early Killjoy; if your opponent knows you have Killjoy (because you both announce your crews before choosing schemes) they're going to ignore no- and low-threat models and try to make sure that the first model that dies is somewhere near your important stuff. Hank, Joss, Coryphee, Emissary are all killy models that can either punch well out of their stone-cost class or take an extraordinary amount of attention and effort to deal with. Of those, only the Coryphee runs more expensive, because you hire two 7 stone models to later merge into a swift enforcer, and they get to benefit from all of the Showgirl-specific things that Colette's crew can do.

[Sordid Strumpet]

2 hours ago, spooky_squirrel said:

I want to draw attention to @Sordid Strumpet's comment, especially what I put in bold: when I run Colette, she's got an elite crew around her, with a handful of Practiced Production nodes who will be going for/bluffing schemes like Leave Your Mark. Things like Raptors and Doves don't present enough threat to guarantee that your opponent will kill them and get you an early Killjoy; if your opponent knows you have Killjoy (because you both announce your crews before choosing schemes) they're going to ignore no- and low-threat models and try to make sure that the first model that dies is somewhere near your important stuff.

I've just thought of something. Mind you, I'm winging this off Pullmyfinger as I have no book(s) on me. Killjoy comes out when a friendly model is Killed or Sacrificed.

Run the two Coryphee, reactivate one with prompt and then on the second activation of the reactivating one, make a Coryphee Duet. The Coryphee Duet is probably somewhere near your enemy by now. Now that you've sacrificed a friendly model, Killjoy pops out AND you have a Coryphee duet (which is so fast it'll be out of his threat range in no time), all without losing anything important. This strategy would be ideally suited for close deployment of course Having reactivate on the Coryphee plus the Coryphee duet activation should make sure that the last thing that goes is Killjoy, letting you safely ram him straight into the opposing crew without giving them a whole lot of options to deal with him.

As an added safety net, bring an Oiran and hit Killjoy with the Unbeknownst trigger so he's not allowed to hit showgirls any more (it's a bit suit dependent sadly, but with surge on prompt you should have a card with the right suit in hand and then just relent with killjoy - he'll heal that damage up in no time). The Lure (Oiran or Performer) can also help getting an enemy model in range for Killjoy to charge instead, of course. Worst case scenario: summon a dove and put it in the way so Killjoy can't charge anything important. Beware of anyone with obey (Hamelin, Brewie, Huggy, Zoraida and co.).

To make sure Killjoy fits in thematically, green stuff a tutu on him and paint him up like a penguin to make him the most horrifying showgirl in the world.

I hope I'm right about these things - please point out if I'm not. But I'm kind of keen to try this.

 

[spooky_squirrel]

In the Wave 1 book, it says killed or sacrificed, so this could be something. It's 27 stones dedicated to delivering two beaters, however. On the plus side: Coryphee cannot be charged, so it would not put them at risk. It's interesting as it can force your opponent to have to choose between popping Killjoy out or letting the Duet arrive (and seeing Killjoy anyway). Leads to rapid carnage and I can see table setups where it would be viable.

 

Of course, if you're playing against a solid schemer/controller, you won't get 27 stones' worth of work out of them (as more than half the party, it probably should be contributing to more than half the scoring points, directly or indirectly).

[Bengt]

Mechanical Doves (Wk 10) can sacrifice themselves with a (1) action anywhere and with a (0) action within 3" of friendly model, so delivering Killjoy is not going to be the problem for Colette.

I don't think it's very hard to avoid him charging your own models as long as you drop him somewhere with a few enemies around. He can't be Obeyed to Charge as the (1) Charge is only during his own Activation and if someone Obeys him to walk "home" you could always Prompt him to walk up the field again.

The problem IMO is the comparison with Howard, who I think is better in more situations. Ml 7 and more reliable extra attack, sure Killjoy can get more attacks in total but it's luck dependent.

[ZeeDeveel]

Thematically I think he's a better fit than Howard and certainly than a December Acolyte. He's just a big freak. Possibly better with a tutu. As said delivering him with a bird is a possibility and with 5 attacks he's gonna be healing for obscene amounts, if he kills 2 units per turn, he's healing for an average of 9 wounds a turn including his zero action. Plus he's terrifying all which adds to his tankyness and he's got his chain to drag himself around and prompt to push him around to overcome his poor walk distance... In fact presumably after he's done killing stuff, on the 3rd prompt you could try to push him out of range of Colette before he activates. Malifaux Child could be attempted but surely would be too close to the fray and get killed easily... and the birds are useful for activation control + Killjoy bomb delivery. Are two Coryphees worth 14 points? The advantage of just having the Killjoy with all it's healing is it means you only need 1 prompter because he's so tanky. Then you can use your remaining 37pts for board control, mobility... Ice Dancers, Performers etc.. ? I guess the Coryphees are very mobile and can pop down a free marker every turn.