Somers many styles?

[Anung Un Rama]

What styles of crew can Somer play and what do these crews comprise of? I know he can play summon and gun line but what else?

[Sordid Strumpet]

He can play elite lists very well as Gremlins tend to like their triggers and he has a way of handing out suits, basically turning every thrteen you flip into a ram etc. 

He himself is also a huge damage dealer. If you have a severe or two in hand, you can focus and then take a gurateed 8 wounds off something plus two blasts to knock little things. 

He can build up a very nice hand also through survivak of the fittest, and use his skeeters or his own 0 to shut down anything that relies on nasty triggers.

Lastly, encouragement is great for elite shooters also (trigger happy burt via do it like dis), especially when they have dirty cheater. Works for Remi as well.

[thecapopriest]

I really like a control list I have ran twice. The main component is 3 Lightning Bugs and Trixiebelle, Somer hands out crows with Do it Like Dis' and the Lightning Bugs and Trixiebelle now all get to hand out slow to everything they hit. Whenever I get the First Mate I will throw him in for another push effect, but he will not be able to get the crow trigger from Do it Like Dis' unfortunately. 

[szendroib]

Ah this somer slow list sounds really awesome, have to try it :). Also about triggers: ram usually makes your figures hit harder and mask makes them activate their def triggers :).

[HellecticMojo]

He can also choose to play a decent pig list. Do it like this means that you can get any trigger you want and positioning isn't so bad since he can bunch pigs toward the enemy instead of yourself.

Sure Ulix is better at it, but there's merit of dropping fat bombs that you can't cheat against because Somer drained your hand.

[Dogmantra]

Som'er can do literally anything imo.

One of the styles I find myself playing somewhat often that's not been listed here is a selfish elite Som'er. Attack him with Skeeters or Bayou Gremlins to push him up earlier in the first turn then try to get off a focused shot for severe damage. Aim to keep shooting, but mix it up in melee if there's a need to engage opponents (2" melee range is pretty sweet), or an opportunity for a kill (particularly if you have a high crow/spare soulstone and can get a piglet out of it). One thing you can do to help this out is bring Sammy LaCroix and put Encouragement on her, then whenever Som'er takes an action he can take a wound for a to all resulting duels which imo is more useful than Encouragement on Som'er, since most gremlins can't afford to constantly take the wounds, but Som'er has plenty to spare (just make sure to give him Dirty Cheater if you do this). If you really want to sink lots of stones into it you can also bring the emissary with Som'er's upgrade and have him getting s when he bayou two cards as well but that's a bit much in my experience.

When you play like this he tends to drain a fair number of cards, so you'll want some less card-reliant models to back it up.

[Sordid Strumpet]

My favourite playstyle by far is a mixture - summon early, then shift to damage dealing. Once you don't need slop haulers to heal the summoned gremlins any more, they're actually a reasonably good set up for him with their slop bucket, making stuff Df4 before Som'er blasts them with his boomer.

The great thing about summoning is that you can keep making gremlins and piglets that just get everywhere and are a rather annoying AP sink to deal with. It means you can buy plenty of time for your elite hitters to take out one or two key targets while hopefully your opponents Howard Langston (or whatever) is busy chopping the heads off Bayu Gremlins giving you cards in the process and achieveing absolutely nothing.

Gremlins, piglets and stuffed piglets enable a playstyle that's kind of like tying the opposing team's shoe laces together while you go off and punch their best striker in the face. By the time they've untangled themselves from the mess, you've thoroughly outmaneuvered them and scored most of your strats while they're still stuck where they started.

[Dimitri]

"Do it like dis" can affect stuffed piglet's explosion results?

[Obeisance]

What goes into this Somer Gunline I've heard so much about?

[Beardminis]

2 hours ago, Dimitri said:

"Do it like dis" can affect stuffed piglet's explosion results?

It can't no I'm afraid. Do it like dis is "add the suit of the discarded card to all duel totals", bacon bomb is not a duel.  

[Dogmantra]

3 hours ago, Obeisance said:

What goes into this Somer Gunline I've heard so much about?

At its core, it's just Som'er and Gremlin models that can shoot. You use Do It Like Dis to hand out the appropriate suit (usually Rams for Dumb Luck) and then shoot stuff. Bayou Gremlins are a common & useful model to swarm up and shoot with but you can also take more elite shooty models like Rami, Raphael, the Pigapult, Burt*, Francois*, or a mixture. You take extra support based on what you want to do, e.g.:

• Encouragement on Som'er works well, so you can have your hordes shooting at s
• You can combine it with summoning - instead of shooting himself, Som'er will summon more Bayou Gremlins who then start shooting
• Lenny is a great pick, it frees Som'er up to hand out a different suit (works well with summoning since he can give himself a Mask) and reduces damage from Dumb Luck
• The Emissary is expensive but a consideration as it can either give s to minions with the generic conflux, or s to Bayou Two Card cheating with Som'er's one.
• Healing is pretty key, particularly with Encouragement, so you'll want Slop Haulers or Lightning Bugs** to heal up your models.

 

*these guys are usually melee fighters but they can do some pretty nasty shooting, especially with the right suits to hit their "shoot again" triggers

**IMO Lightning Bugs can make better healers than Slop Haulers, particularly when playing Summoning Som'er because they have no limit to the number of models they can heal in one hit. Basically, you attack a high-wound and tall friendly who is close to lots of wounded friendlies, Lenny is perfect, hit with a trigger, and then on damaging, you heal 2 to everyone within 3 of the target. If you've done it right, you already have the mask from Do It Like Dis (this is why it works well with summoning), and you're healing plenty of models with 1AP. It's a little harder to set up and I think Slop Haulers definitely still have their place but it's something to bear in mind

[Omenbringer]

All I will add to the above is that the composition of the Gunline affects how it is really used. A Bayou Gremlin gunline is designed around the "Punches in Bunches" approach instead of the "Knock Out Blows" of a more elite gunline.

The Pigapult is sort of in a class by it self and benefits from a different build as well.

__________________________________________________________________________

Another Som'er build option is a variation on the Summon Factory and is better suited to those high defense or clustering crews. It leverages our summoning and the Show Off Upgrade to create wave upon wave of exploding Gremlins. Stuffed Piglets can augment this as well.

[Dimitri]

I find my self enjoying a somer list with burt/gracie and bayou slop hauler. Trixie and ood ccranky pretty coomon as well. I find it very adaptable and fun.  Gracie has some synergy () but not as much as in other crews but she operates well as solo piece anyway.

[cfrag]

I tend to enjoy running bayou 2card heavy lists with somer, and keep the threat of hand discarding on the enemy leader. It is (maybe unsurprisingly) strong againts crews with lots of actions with relatively high TN's, like lilith for example. Now, getting LoS to the enemy master might need some creativity on your part if they suspect what you're going for

[Dogmantra]

1 hour ago, cfrag said:

Now, getting LoS to the enemy master might need some creativity on your part if they suspect what you're going for

I really like the idea of using Old Major and the Saddle to cart Som'er around - you get two extra walks per turn to try to get into range/LoS for Bigger Hat, and then if you do get it off, Old Major gets reactivate for an extra two walks or more shenanigans.

Of course it locks you into at least a few pigs if you want to make the most of having Old Major, and on top of that you want stuff with Bayou Two Card so it's not the most flexible thing. It's still a fun idea (even if the one time I tried it I didn't manage to Bigger Hat even once)

[Omenbringer]

1 hour ago, Dogmantra said:

I really like the idea of using Old Major and the Saddle to cart Som'er around - you get two extra walks per turn to try to get into range/LoS for Bigger Hat, and then if you do get it off, Old Major gets reactivate for an extra two walks or more shenanigans.

Of course it locks you into at least a few pigs if you want to make the most of having Old Major, and on top of that you want stuff with Bayou Two Card so it's not the most flexible thing. It's still a fun idea (even if the one time I tried it I didn't manage to Bigger Hat even once)

I have thought of running something similar with Lenny and Som'er working the Piglet summons.

[cfrag]

3 hours ago, Dogmantra said:

I really like the idea of using Old Major and the Saddle to cart Som'er around - you get two extra walks per turn to try to get into range/LoS for Bigger Hat, and then if you do get it off, Old Major gets reactivate for an extra two walks or more shenanigans.

Of course it locks you into at least a few pigs if you want to make the most of having Old Major, and on top of that you want stuff with Bayou Two Card so it's not the most flexible thing. It's still a fun idea (even if the one time I tried it I didn't manage to Bigger Hat even once)

However, if you take the Sow, it has positive flips to attack and dmg + the positive flips from charging if Old Major is nearby. That is even better than bayou 2 card

 

edit: even if you fail the bigger hat 3 times because the opponent cheated, its 3 high cards less that he/she has. I find it very useful, especially if your hand is not very good

[Dimitri]

Positive is not necessarily better than bayou 2 cards. Bayou 2 cards makes "free" tge chance of unpredictable survivability or offense in cheap models. Positive on the other hand on a big model with 8wd and 4df (you need to be over 5wd for the extra positive) is a magnet of a heavy hitter. A bayou gremlin is a waste of a heavy hitter.

[Four_N_Six]

9 minutes ago, Dimitri said:

Positive is not necessarily better than bayou 2 cards. Bayou 2 cards makes "free" tge chance of unpredictable survivability or offense in cheap models. Positive on the other hand on a big model with 8wd and 4df (you need to be over 5wd for the extra positive) is a magnet of a heavy hitter. A bayou gremlin is a waste of a heavy hitter.

It depends on the situation.  Bayou 2 Card isn't as good if you're in a situation where you can't cheat fate.  A  is better in that situation.  A  is also better than 2 card, because with Bayou 2 Card, you have to take the new card.  With the  , you can choose which one you'd like (for instances of triggers).

[cfrag]

Although a positive flip is not always better than Bayou 2 Card, I believe is is as strong as Bayou 2 Card when considering models for the "bigger hat than you" type of crew we were talking about. Also, having the sow charge with double positives from the old major is scary, especially if you consider that she has terrifying, which will make you opponent burn his hand (if he/she still has one) trying to hit her

[Dimitri]

I normally use burt and or gracie with somer. So either i prefer bayou2cards for letting my stronger models use my hand or if bigger hat than you comes into play i go first with bayou. 1-2 die and draw a new hand. I don't want to say that  are bad. Gracie and burt play with their strong weak damage on .

[Dimitri]

Hi guys! I am on a hybrid Somer list at the moment. tell me if you spot mistakes or possible improvements

-Somer (family tree)

-Old Cranky

-Trixibelle

-Gracie

-Burt

-1xSlop hauler

-3xBayou gremlin

-1xPiglet

49ss and cashe of 5ss

 

The idea is that Somer provides gremlins for schemes/strat and/or gunline. Gracie and Burt do the fighting with Somer's help because of  or his blasts (Burt can pull weak models for Somer). Trixie is either doing schemes or disabling a model or pulling back Burt. Old cranky can do scheme markers based schmes or shoot but he mainly provides support to gremlins.

note: I tried Gracie with saddle and i ended up overextending her. I also tried Burt with dirty cheater but i find my self with no cards to cheat as i activate him later in the turn. I also tried Trixie with quality mass liquor and i didnt use it all. When i started to summon only turn one 2 bayou gremlins and just summon back casualties IF necessary and use Somer as a blaster vs average or lower df models i saw good results as opposed to summon for 2 or 3 turns and have him out of combat and relying on bayou to do my stuff.

[Frollo the Wordbearer]

I'd use two Skeeters over Old Cranky all days of the week, even more if you want to give suits around.

I'd remove the piglet from the crew and give Gracie her Saddle, Burt Dirty Cheater and Somer Dirty Cheater and Can o' Beans (so you'll have 4 0 actions to use throught the skeeters). Alternatively you can think of giving Trixie her big good gun (with rams given out by skeeters she can do a lot of hurt).

Saddle for Gracie is a Must for me. It gives Somer or Burt mobility and make them not use AP for walking. Better use it for Burt, as Somer can be pushed by gremlins with Loudest Squeel.

[Dogmantra]

While I'm not as 100% about skeeters over Old Cranky, if you're going to summon I think at least one Skeeter is a must, because it lets you play a little bit looser and riskier and ditch the black joker if you draw it. The reason being if Som'er is summoning, you're going to be using Do It Like Dis for the mask because nearly all the time stoning for a Bayou Gremlin is a bit of a waste. If you Black Joker his Do It Like Dis cast, then you're screwed out of a turn of summoning, whereas if you delegate to a Skeeter beforehand, you're guaranteed to have a go where you won't BJ it. It's a slightly lower Ca on the Skeeter but it's worth it. I have been burnt in tournament games before because I black jokered my Do It Like Dis and couldn't summon. It is a sad day.

Also, starting at least one Skeeter in range to melee Som'er is a great idea if you've got a mask aura up because you basically don't even care if the skeeter hits, their weak damage of 0 means that it's very likely nothing bad will happen at all.

23 minutes ago, Frollo the Wordbearer said:

I'd use two Skeeters over Old Cranky all days of the week, even more if you want to give suits around.

Note that you can't hire more than two skeeters, although it's possible to get more on the board. I managed it once and it was glorious!

Also imo unless the strategy is Interference, I think if you bring two Skeeters you should probably also bring Can O' Beans so they have something to do while engaging upfield. Otherwise they just sort of flail ineffectively because their damage track is pants.

 

FWIW I wouldn't even consider taking Gracie with the Saddle, except in the case of running Wong and Lenny so I can have a glowy Gracie carting Lenny around to get for +3 damage on all her attacks and regen. Once she's in range I find she rarely walks, she just charges in and gives it her all, meaning that whoever she's been dragging with her is then stranded and Saddle ends up kinda doing nothing the rest of the game. Also I think Dirty Cheater should probably just be stapled to her card. She's probably going to be cheating in at least one 7 a turn to get reactivate, and then on her reactivation if you have a low card in hand you can use her (0) even though it won't do anything and just cheat it to heal a wound. Cheating twice a turn with her cancels out the damage she takes to reactivate, and she has quite a low wound pool for such a costly model but armour and hard to kill makes each wound worth so much that imo it's super worth it. Dirty Cheater all the way. Don't worry about Som'er's mobility, you can have a couple of Bayou Gremlins shoot him for basically the same effect.

 

Summoning as you mentioned where you only really spend the first turn or maybe two summoning and then fighting with Som'er works great. One thing you can do to low wound Bayou Gremlins that have already activated is to summon off them to kill them and draw two cards, plus replace them with an unactivated model (although the new one will be slow).

 

Personally without knowing the schemes and going for fairly light summoning I'd bring one Skeeter instead of Old Cranky, probably drop the Piglet and switch Trixie for a cheaper scheme runner like Merris if you feel you still need one, then use the extra stones to buy a Banjonista (turning the two card draw on killing Bayous to three cards, plus a little bit of extra mobility), and pop Dirty Cheater on Gracie and Burt again. I'd also potentially swap the Sloppy for a Lightning Bug because I prefer Lightning Bug healing while summoning (you attack a model within 3 of all your new summons, get the Mask trigger automatically because of Do It Like Dis and bam, you just traded 1AP and 2 wounds on a model that can hopefully spare them [this is where dirty cheaters & lenny make good targets because they have self heals] to heal all 6 of your Bayous, rather than 2AP on a Slop Hauler to maybe heal all the wounds on four of your six wounded gremlins.)

[Dimitri]

Dogmantra can you please give me a couple of tips how to use dirty cheater on gracie and burt? I like the idea of them having it but i never managed to use it properly xD