Zipp - rather good fun

[Four_N_Six]

Okay, so I'm sold on the Burt/Sparks/Earl combo to get even more critical strike going.  With skeeters to move him around.

[Joel]

7 hours ago, generalbear said:

Mainly:

zipp

Earl
first mate ( usually with hovering airship )
1 or 2 iron skeeters,

burt

sparks

Mech chop
stuffed piggies to fill

Just got the taxidermists to try, find that mech chop just dies never really had it do much at all,

 

What do you find yourself doing with the skeeters?

in a list like that, I'd make a team of one of them with spotlight and sparks, the second with phe upgrade teams with Burt, earl stays with zipp and the first mate roams freely. Mech pig stays near Zipp too.

sparks/skeeter make each other fast and are used in things like interference and scheme running where speed is needed.  They are fragile, so need to be expendable.  Use smoke and moving sparks to cause problems - good for accusation and similar. 

Burt/skeeter is an aggression pairing - moving burt 12" and making him fast do he can go reckless is hard hitting. Good for frame for murder too as burt can slippery attacks onto the skeeter who is the target of the scheme.

zipp/Earl/mechpig is different.  I'd only put the pig in for thinks like guard the stash.  It can charge forward to hit, then get pulled back by earls (0) and then thumped by him to heal him up. 

Zipp either softens up the target before and moves the mech pig into position with his (0).  If he activates after he can go after other targets or reposition the now-healed pig. 

[Je ne c'est LaCroix]

Robot dreams: Night 4

Rami + DC

Deploy Zipp Earl Porkchop Sparks somewhere snipery. Deploy Rami Iron Skeeter somewhere else.

Skeeter repositions Rami to the snipery bit and Fasts

Porkchop Scraps

Sparks Robotizes Rami

Earl Rams Rami

Rami Reckless gets 2x Focused shots with Dumb Luck, the plan being to hit 2xModerate for 2x6 dmg. Need to Dirty Cheat both of them if you're keen on Rami seeing Turn 2.

Needs a Ram, a 6+Tomes and a 5+Tomes (for ) and maybe 2 high-moderate cards, probably needs a stone for cards and maybe a Do Over. And 31pts of models. For 2x long range sweet T1 kills.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

'If dreams were cheap, they would not be dreams'

-Greenfucius

 

 

[maca1066]

10 hours ago, Je ne c'est LaCroix said:

Robot dreams: Night 4

Rami + DC

Deploy Zipp Earl Porkchop Sparks somewhere snipery. Deploy Rami Iron Skeeter somewhere else.

Skeeter repositions Rami to the snipery bit and Fasts

Porkchop Scraps

Sparks Robotizes Rami

Earl Rams Rami

Rami Reckless gets 2x Focused shots with Dumb Luck, the plan being to hit 2xModerate for 2x6 dmg. Need to Dirty Cheat both of them if you're keen on Rami seeing Turn 2.

Needs a Ram, a 6+Tomes and a 5+Tomes (for ) and maybe 2 high-moderate cards, probably needs a stone for cards and maybe a Do Over. And 31pts of models. For 2x long range sweet T1 kills.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

'If dreams were cheap, they would not be dreams'

-Greenfucius

 

 

cool idea but I am not sold, what 6 wound models are you killing to make back that 31 point investment? I'm generally not sold on Rami. if it works in practice let me know.

[Joel]

Why not just deploy rami in the bubble?

[Je ne c'est LaCroix]

1 hour ago, maca1066 said:

cool idea but I am not sold, what 6 wound models are you killing to make back that 31 point investment? I'm generally not sold on Rami. if it works in practice let me know.

Ah well they're 31 points-worth that can hopefully go on to do bigger and better things..

Taking out 2x scheme runners or 1x large enforcer or horseman gotta be a good start for the greens

Then perhaps Rami becomes a schemer or gets another shot or two in, roll up Pork and Sparks for turn 2&3 Robot Frank and Trixie/Robot Frank and Burt, Earl hangs around to give suits and yoyo the Porkchop. That crew should hold a Stash or Extraction strat and the opponents scheme runners are no longer running schemes..

15 minutes ago, Joel said:

Why not just deploy rami in the bubble?

To Fast him, plus the element of repositioning sniper surprise if I'm deploying first. Otherwise can bubble deploy and Fast from Sparks, Skeeter uses his AP elsewhere (perhaps even to redeploy Rami end of Turn 1 to pick up a new sniper lane)

[Joel]

The redeploy after seems the better trick to me - will shut down scheme runners very effectively 

[EpicWaffle]

Got a 50ss gg2017 tournament tomorrow, if I'm able to write down some stuff between games I'll write a report, since I plan to go 100% Pirate-style!  

[Joel]

Good luck!

[EpicWaffle]

Just got back from the tournament and I arrived First out of 17, playing exclusevly Zipp  so, as I said, here's a breakthrough of the 3 rounds:

Round 1:

Strat and Schemes: Head Hunter (close deployment) with Claim jump, Dig their graves, Hunting Party, Leave your mark, Recover Evidence. 

My crew was: Zipp (H.A., Rambling, Gift of Gab) (7ss), Earl, Fingers, First mate (poorly.. , Where the captain.. ), Burt (D.c), Taxidermist (D.c.), 2 Stuffed Piglets.

My opponent played Titania (against which I have plenty of expirience luckly), taking Dig their graves and Recover Evidence, while i took Recover evidence and Leave your mark; the game ended 6\1 on turn 3 for me(he was kinda new to the master so we took it easy and had some good time), with no particulary interesting plays (F.m. ensured 2 point of leave, Fingers 2 of Recover and the rest took the heads). I made  really good use of Do over and Rambling and obtained some quite nice hands along the turns.

Round 2

 Strat and Schemes: Stake a Claim (standard) with Claim jump, Frame for murder, Leave your mark, Search the ruins, Inspection

My crew: Zipp (same as first round) (7ss), Earl, Fingers , First Mate (as before, even tho by mistake cause i wanted treasure map ), Burt (D.c.), Francois (D.c., do over, which worked out really well, so thanks @Joel for the idea!) 2 Stuffed Piglets.

My opponet played Leveticus (took search the ruins and Frame for murder on his Dead outlaw) and i picked Frame on Earl and Leave your mark. This match was quite interesting, especially since my opponent is quite strong (also a friend of mine) and I always have some trouble against Levi, mainly because of my lack of expirience against him, but i managed to win 6\4, at the beginning of turn 5 (we had 2 hour total with deploying, crew-crafting etc. every round, so that's why was hard to end the whole game). Main factors were Fingers perfectly using my opponet focus on the center to simply run down the map and deal with Strat and leve your mark, and me displaying my best poker face to confuse my opponent on who was my Frame for murder target (playing both Francois and First mate really aggressivly, and achived 3 points on turn three thanks to some startegic cheats on earl and a final slippery from Burt). Over all a close game and I'm happy of the result, since it was a quite close game, determined by startegy rather than luck.

Round 3

Strat and Schemes: Squatters Rights (corner) with Claim Jump, Eliminate the leadership, Accusation!, Cover Breakthrough, Last Stand.

My crew: Zipp (Rambling, Dirty cheater, Gift of Gab) (6ss), Earl, Fingers, First mate (poorly.. + Where the captain etc.), Burt (d.c.), 2x Lighting Bugs (bad pick in the end, i underestimated how open was the map and I had few places to hid them), 2 Stuffed. 

This match was quite something, since I was against probably the best player in my region, so I'll set up things differently:

He played his fixed Levi crew (Levi, Rusty, A.and D., 2x Trappers, Hodgepoge effigy, 2 Waifs), and picked Cover breakthrough + Claim Jump.

I went for Eliminate the leadership (2 points with Zipp) and Breakthrough (1 point with Fingers).

Game was really hard, since his crew is so efficient at dealing massive damages, which my crew coudn't hold off. Earl, a lighitng bug and a stuffed left me turn 2, and while I managed to kill an abomination, Levi (tho came back the turn afteri killed him) a waif and a trapper, he left me turn 4 with 3 pieces  As Joel stated, Zipp crew ain't great at taking a punch, so with that in mind i planned to focus on denying and rushing points as fast as i could. First mate and Fingers were huge in denying for 2 turns his Claim Markers, while Zipp And Burt kept A@D and Levi busy. This allowed me to score 1 point of strategy while he lost one, and delayed his cover breakthrough setting, but it was damn hard and way too close. Indeed he's an awesome player, and I sure respect his talent and ability, but a full game of crappy hands against such an aggressive crew didn't helped and was so frustrating, really putting me in a corner (also loosing Earl so early make Zipp feel like he's ''missing an Ap''). Luckly i had some good prevention flips in the end.

Game ended 4\3 for me, beginning turn 5, bringing to my 3' and last victory, and ensuring me the First place. With some more time he would had definetly won, but I played a fair match and tryed to make every moove as fast as I could while trying to avoid mistakes or missplacements, so I'm quite proud of the win whatsoever  sure, a full game win woud had been more satisfying, but I'll save the pride for the next time and be happy with the result  

Thanks again to all on this post for helping out to improve my Zipp, and to anyone who reads this   

  

 

[Joel]

Great job! Well done - especially in that tough 3rd game.  Thanks for writing it up and congrats on taking out the event.  I'm still yet to try fingers, think I will next time headhunter comes around ?

[EpicWaffle]

30 minutes ago, Joel said:

Great job! Well done - especially in that tough 3rd game.  Thanks for writing it up and congrats on taking out the event.  I'm still yet to try fingers, think I will next time headhunter comes around ?

Thanks a lot  also, out of curiosity, how would you had played the 3' round scenario crew-wise? The map was composed by a bunch of large ruins ht4 with some openings with a river in the middle (severe) a forest in the centerline, so some good covers but kinda open at the same time, since the constructions were 8/10inches-ish form one another when close to each other.

[NorthernIron]

Has anying else fallen in love with Claim jump while using a Zipp crew?  I've found it to be an almost unstoppable 3 vp if you take Merris and First Mate along with a fairly typical Zipp crew. My go for almost any strategy is:

Zipp + 6 Pool

 - The Gift of Gab (1)

 - Hovering Airship (1)

 - Rambling Diatribe (1)

Earl Burns (3)

The First Mate (9)

 - Where The Captain Can't See (1)

 - Treasure Map (0)

Francois LaCroix (7) or Taxi (7)

 - Dirty Cheater (1)

Burt Jebsen (7)

 - Dirty Cheater (1)

Iron Skeeter (6)

 - Airship Spotlight or Poorly Handled Explosives

Merris LaCroix (6)

Stuffed Piglet (2)

Stuffed Piglet (2)

 

 First Mate and Merris can blast to opposite corners and accomplish Claim Jump solo, while the rest of the crew can reposition at very high speeds and address what they need to or just be an immense distraction.  Toss in Zipp's up we go to throw any enemy away from the markers and it's a cakewalk!  Probably don't even need to take both Merris and First Mate, but I like the redundancy it offers (and the card draw as a juicy bonus). 

 

[EpicWaffle]

14 hours ago, NorthernIron said:

Has anying else fallen in love with Claim jump while using a Zipp crew?  I've found it to be an almost unstoppable 3 vp if you take Merris and First Mate along with a fairly typical Zipp crew. My go for almost any strategy is:

Zipp + 6 Pool

 - The Gift of Gab (1)

 - Hovering Airship (1)

 - Rambling Diatribe (1)

Earl Burns (3)

The First Mate (9)

 - Where The Captain Can't See (1)

 - Treasure Map (0)

Francois LaCroix (7) or Taxi (7)

 - Dirty Cheater (1)

Burt Jebsen (7)

 - Dirty Cheater (1)

Iron Skeeter (6)

 - Airship Spotlight or Poorly Handled Explosives

Merris LaCroix (6)

Stuffed Piglet (2)

Stuffed Piglet (2)

 

 First Mate and Merris can blast to opposite corners and accomplish Claim Jump solo, while the rest of the crew can reposition at very high speeds and address what they need to or just be an immense distraction.  Toss in Zipp's up we go to throw any enemy away from the markers and it's a cakewalk!  Probably don't even need to take both Merris and First Mate, but I like the redundancy it offers (and the card draw as a juicy bonus). 

 

I used an almost identical list in the last round of a tournament and yes it's free points  I don't quite like the idea of claim jump, since I find it really hard in any standard deployment, so I generally prefer other schemes.

[Joel]

I've not actually taken it much, and probably should have more often.  I agree with @EpicWaffle that is shines more in corner/flank deployment than standard or close though.

[generalbear]

i will conceed to the FAR superior intellect and tactical genius and general internet stardom of Mr Joel

i finally took ataxidermist with a zipp crew, along with first mate, 1 skeeter , burt and some stuffed pigs  and i finally beat one of my bogey masters in Asami, despit the constant respawning of jorogumu ( by the end of turn 5 i had killed 5 and number 6 was on the table)

cheers to Joel

GB

[Joel]

Lol, spider-stomping ? 

[Von Woozle]

How does merris do claim jump she is move 5.  She is the No1 scheme runner for sure, but I leave her at home for that one.

I used an ironsketter with a bayou in combo with the 1st mate. 

[Eorek]

7 minutes ago, Von Woozle said:

How does merris do claim jump she is move 5.  She is the No1 scheme runner for sure, but I leave her at home for that one.

I used an ironsketter with a bayou in combo with the 1st mate. 

Reckless gives you 3 actions + her (0) I believe it's Discard a card---> place scheme marker in base contact

So she could actually solo it if no other models are close.
(1) place Scheme
Walk 1-2 actions
(0) drop scheme marker, 

It's a good combo pretty much for anything where you need scheme markers. usually how I get my ulix warpig summoning turn 1 going if I have her behind some solid LoS(she will be able to drop atleast 2 markers alone)

Don't have cards at hand so can't really give you exact wording on stuff.

[maca1066]

doesn't even need to go reckless. place on one side of her base, walk 5 in opposite direction, drop marker for 0. 2 markers nearly 7 inches away from one another. 

[Von Woozle]

 

25 minutes ago, Eorek said:

Reckless gives you 3 actions + her (0) I believe it's Discard a card---> place scheme marker in base contact

So she could actually solo it if no other models are close.
(1) place Scheme
Walk 1-2 actions
(0) drop scheme marker, 

It's a good combo pretty much for anything where you need scheme markers. usually how I get my ulix warpig summoning turn 1 going if I have her behind some solid LoS(she will be able to drop atleast 2 markers alone)

Don't have cards at hand so can't really give you exact wording on stuff.

Doh I'm being silly and thinking of stake a claim! 

Need more sleep 

[NorthernIron]

5 hours ago, EpicWaffle said:

I used an almost identical list in the last round of a tournament and yes it's free points  I don't quite like the idea of claim jump, since I find it really hard in any standard deployment, so I generally prefer other schemes.

That's a good point, I've been playing lots of corner and flank deploys since gg17 dropped and haven't really given Claim Jump a go on standard.  I'll have to try it out when I get the chance.  Probably give the skeeter poorly handled explosives for sure, use a stuffed piglet as a backup scheme dropper and have First Mate activating late in the turn to push models away if necessary, though in a perfect world Zipp will have that all taken care of. 

[EpicWaffle]

7 minutes ago, NorthernIron said:

That's a good point, I've been playing lots of corner and flank deploys since gg17 dropped and haven't really given Claim Jump a go on standard.  I'll have to try it out when I get the chance.  Probably give the skeeter poorly handled explosives for sure, use a stuffed piglet as a backup scheme dropper and have First Mate activating late in the turn to push models away if necessary, though in a perfect world Zipp will have that all taken care of. 

All good and solid ideas, but the thing is you're using most of your models for it this way, while you still have a strategy and another scheme to try to accomplice. It's easier for your oppont to deny it than for you to score it, that 's what i don't really like. He just has to move a model in range of one scheme, while you have to push it with a duel (which is still probable to happen but even so it's still a risk). Corner/flank makes it harder because the diagonal that split the filed is almost twice as long, making harder for enemy model to cover it all but again it mean 2 models of ours are gonna stick to both edges while he control the center. It's a matter of perspective of course, but I find it way harder than it looks (might be me thinking that since i know how to deal with it, everyone must know too) unless I'm playing Somer, which gets it easier thanks to the outactivation advantage. Not trying to discourage you on it, you might have easier times than me, but I think in most cases I can find a faster and easier scheme to accomplish. 

[NorthernIron]

Yeah it certainly may be more trouble than it's worth, but l figure to give it a try at some point just for the sake of seeing how it goes.   Your thoughts on it Epic have convinced me to pick it when the scenario seems right though rather than shoehorn it in and go for broke haha. 

[Joel]

I have another event coming up this Sunday - 40 players. I'll probably be using Zipp once more, so if I am, or if I face gremlins, I'll feed back the details