List Advice: Tara Bomb

[Hamstah_Fwend]

I've been going over the Pull My Finger pages and I'm really interested in trying out the "Beastie Bomb" list described in the Tactics section. Just looking for some suggestions on specifically which models to get to it, a.k.a. what the full list's gonna look like.

So far I've got just a rough idea on how this is gonna go down. Help?

[godswearhats]

Seems like you will get out activated by almost any crew, especially if anything starts buried. What's the aim of the crew?

[Hamstah_Fwend]

1 minute ago, godswearhats said:

Seems like you will get out activated by almost any crew, especially if anything starts buried. What's the aim of the crew?

Get Tara in their face ASAP and wreck things by unburying huge threats. Probably a more efficient (or logical) way to play this kinda list though.

[Kadeton]

Killjoy, Bete Noire and the Nothing Beast seems like too many big guys to me. I don't personally rate Bete Noire in this kind of list, simply because her impact is so limited against non-Living targets.

This approach basically pins all your hopes on Killjoy taking out the opponent's most important models - their Master and key Henchmen, preferably. (This is the main advantage of Resser Tara - the ability to take Decaying Aura on your big hitter so that it can kill Soulstone users.) Your secondary hitter(s) are basically there for insurance and mopping-up. When it goes right, delivering Killjoy can all but end the game by the top of the second turn. Unfortunately, there are many, many ways it can go wrong. If your beaters land without sufficient impact, you can find yourself in an unwinnable position after the enemy crew retaliates.

All you really need for the basic version of this is Tara with Knowledge of Eternity and Obliteration Symbiote and Killjoy with Decaying Aura. Tara activates at the top of Turn 1 and uses Pull the Void to give Killjoy Fast and trigger Glimpse the Void (cheat to fail if necessary so that Killjoy is Buried). She then walks twice to somewhere hopefully safe, and uses Eternal Moment to give herself Reactivate. At the end of Turn 1, she moves into a position where Killjoy will be able to charge his intended target and unburies him with Faces in the Void. He chain-activates and charges for (1) AP. This should let him make at least four attacks (more if he can trigger Onslaught). Then, at the start of the next turn (after you've hopefully won Initiative due to Knowledge of Eternity) Tara can give him a fresh dose of Fast while Burying and unburying him as necessary to be in position to do the same thing again.

That's basically the whole strategy: hit the enemy crew's scariest models so hard that they can't hit back. It's very similar to the Viktorias' game plan, though (in my experience) not quite as effective. Killjoy can be stymied by high Armor, high Df, Incorporeal, Terrifying, Manipulative, Disguised or other less-common defensive tech like Mass of Viscera or Proper Manners. He struggles with defensive triggers like Squeel, Where You Call and Sub Zero. On top of that, there are the card requirements to guarantee it goes off: a 7+ for Pull the Void, a 7 or less to ensure Killjoy fails the Glimpse duel, the 7+ (either a Crow or also using a stone) to use Faces in the Void. You also need to make sure you've got enough high cards left that Killjoy is actually going to hit, and preferably some of them will also be Masks.

For Resser Tara, I'd suggest a focus on board control while still smashing things up. Take Belles, two or three of them, combined with Sybelle and her upgrade Not Too Banged Up to enhance those Lures. You can still do the same trick with Killjoy, but now you're doing it on your own terms, at a place of your choosing, and the enemy's ability to retaliate is severely reduced. You can even set up a Temporal Shift to give yourself a huge AP bonus. Once you've lured out and smashed up any enemy models that are worrying you, fling Killjoy at whatever's left and transition your crew into running Schemes (Sybelle and Belles are surprisingly good at this).

[Hamstah_Fwend]

Interesting. So this leaves Killjoy as the sole bomb for Tara to fling at high-value targets while the rest of her crew runs around and mops up objectives?

[Kadeton]

You can still afford to include another heavy hitter if you'd like (and it's certainly not a bad idea). I'd probably pick one of the in-Faction 10ss beaters - Izamu, Rogue Necromancy, Valedictorian. It really depends on what's required for the scenario. I'd suggest focusing on movement and marker-based schemes simply because that's what Tara is best at compared to the other Ressers - if you just want to kill things, I think there are much better choices.

Have you checked out the Schemes & Stones podcast? They did an in-depth look at Tara that's well worth listening to, and might give you some more ideas.

[Hamstah_Fwend]

Alright, playing around with this some more...

1. Killjoy as the lone bomb with the Madame and some objective-grabbing Belles + Crooligans (or dogs?).
2. Taking advantage of Dead of Winter to field a buncha dudes...though at this point why not just field her as Outcast?
3. Wacky version: Both Killjoy and Nothing Beast, with Unnverving Aura to take advantage of that Melee Range 3.

Yeah I think I should listen to that podcast. 

[Terwox]

You can relent to automatically fail the Glimpse the Void WP duel, you don't need to flip for it.

This is wrong.

[Slapdrone]

You can only relent on opposed duels.  If you want to fail a TN duel you'll have to cheat down if you top deck and pass it.

[Averlorn]

Wanted to start with Tara, I came along with a similar list. However less beaters. Rogue Necromancy instead of Killjoy, 2 Wretches, 1 Belle, Death Marshall, Anna Lovelace, Karina and of course Tara. 

The idea was, depending on the scenario and opponent, rush Tara (rogue was buried by the marshall), and make the rogue necro fast, as well as giving my opponent -2wp, which would be quite handy for terror tests (and eventually resulting attacks) from the RN.