I will love it and i will pet it

[Dimitri]

Hi guys again. I am thinking all the time this afternoon about "alternative" models for my crews. I ve used Lenny a couple of times when i started playing gremlins but never in a competitive environment. At this ss cost i use Gracie (and i also think about fingers lately). So i would like to listen to your opinion about Lenny. His "immune to conditions" seems situationally great but the real beauty is the toss i suppose. Toss trixie and then she lures him and Burt Russell turn 1. After that trixie's ml7 with lenny means that lenny gets to attack with ml7 and min dam3. He has a heal (who cares) and he also reduces the damage taken by 1 but 3" aura is really small IMO. He also has a limited upgrade that seems nice to use it early/mid game on your models and summon some annoying piglets. If you summon 1-2 you take the 1ss back for sure, plus piglets are nice minions. His wp1 and df4 are superbad tho. Do you use him? Any luck? Any ideas? I don't really havr time for casual games because of my job so i mostly play in tournaments and i am also concerned about his place in the competitive game. I am a little bit disappointed from my Gracie lately as she seems to attract so much hate and focus that she doesn't really do much. 

[Math Mathonwy]

Zoraida with Lenny and Gracie is pretty nice. A Nurse can full-heal Lenny without adverse effects and Lenny riding on Gracie's saddle gives Gracie extra protection and Rams. Zoraida Obeying Gracie to Walk allows the use of the Saddle (unlike Pushes and Lures) and Obeying her to hit something with Lenny's Rams is pretty golden.

Lenny and Trixie pair with Mah is pretty fun. There are the obvious Ml bonuses but Mah can also Push Lenny when the enemy moves him out of position (due to his awful Wp). Too bad about the loss of Rams for Mah but the protection Aura is still nice and it also means that you are less prone to bundle them up when it isn't actually needed.

[Getyerbro]

He is very situtational.  Most all of his abilities are amazing, truly, but in the end he is just wp 1 and isn't all that hard to kill if you opponent has their mind set on it.  

In the end the only times I use him are when I can keep him back safe and use him as a rams battery, or when I want to toss someone like Francois as an alpha strike.  He also makes for a pretty devastating trio with Burt and Trixi, although it is an exceedingly expensive collection of models to keep grouped up.

In the end, he can be very effective, but you must be very choosy on when to use him.  He can be very vulnerable.

I think cuddleing him was completey unnecessary, so he will probably see even less play unfortumately. As if wp 1 wasn't enough.

[codingCaptor]

Lenny is an amazing support unit.   Giving everything in 3" armor 1 is crazy good.   Giving everything in 3" free rams on their duels is crazy good.  He enables any number of other models to be consistently better.    Bayou Gremlins near him can drunk and reckless and only take 1 damage.   Anything with dumb luck (Bayou gremlins, Young Lacroix) will take 1 less damage from that too, which is doubly good since Lenny ensures they can get dumb luck off.   

And if that was all Lenny did, he'd still be a good model (just overpriced)   Instead, he's also a Melee 6 beater for 3/4/5 damage.   10 wounds, hard to wound makes him moderately tanky, although at 4 defense he's not going to be avoiding any attacks.  Instead,  he relies on hard to wound to ensure he won't take moderate+ damage.   This means that anything with min damage 3 or above will be able to finish him in 4 or less hits, vs. 5 or more.    Healing works well on him, but he needs a 9 to get his own heal off, which is rough.   As always, Slop Haulers are recommended.

On top of THAT, he can also summon piglets with his upgrade.   On a minus flip, you have a 60% chance of getting weak damage, so it's possible you may accidentally hit for 2 or more damage and fail to summon.   But the extra minions are nice, especially in certain strategies (I really like it in Interference)  

The thing about Lenny, is that if you build a crew to take advantage of his many support gifts, then your opponent is just going to focus fire him.  Defense 4 means that he WILL die if focused, unless you devote more resources to healing him than is probably wise.  However, if you instead try to use him solely as a melee beater or summoner... well... there are cheaper options inside gremlins for similar firepower.

Generally people solve this dilemma by taking him to support one or two models who get a lot of benefit out of having him along.   Gracie loves the added damage reduction (Which will keep her alive even if your opponent has attacks that ignore armor) and the extra ram allows her to use her +2 damage trigger making her 4/6/8.   Burt goes to 4/5/6 damage while near him, and 5/6/7 if you get a ram on the flip.  Sticking the 3 of them together and letting them deal with the killing while the rest of your crew gets scheming done is a viable strategy.

However, that doesn't mean you can't go all in and play him as a support piece (I like old cranky with him in this case.)  Then it all comes down to knowing how to play him.   He only gets 2 AP, and is walk 4, so knowing when to walk, when to try and summon a pig, and when to charge in and start murdering things is key.   Keeping him away from enemy lures and obeys is difficult, but you have the advantage of knowing what they're going to do.  Just sticking 2 units in base contact with him can keep him in place, and anything that targets willpower for damage is now priority target number 1 for killing.   If you're playing support Lenny, you have the damage to murder a unit dead.   Do so wisely.

Also don't be afraid to lose him.   He's a good frame for murder target, as even when playing defensively with him there's a good chance the opponent is going to try and take him out.   And if your options are "let him stand there eating a bunch of friendly actions trying to heal him, and still have him die next turn" or "Charge in and kill something and then die next turn" well...  the later is usually the better option.    He's really hard to use if you don't know exactly what the opponents crew is capable of.   You'll make the wrong choices, he'll fall over dead, and that'll be 9-10 stones wasted.

But there is no better feeling than playing a game where Lenny just stands there, all game, summoning piglets, hitting people who get to close, and enabling the rest of your crew to be absolute monsters.   He's one of my favorite gremlins models (mechanically.)   I bring him in more games than I should, but I really want to master using him effectively.