Som'er the Bayou Boss

[TeddyBear]

Hi all, 

some of you think that it is n.1 of gremlins master, others thinks differently.. in my opinion it could be the most fun master of the game.. i am evaluating if i add it to my "malifaux pieces pool"

I have already asked to someone, but how would you play it in tournament? 

How pieces he need surely?

I like pigapult very much.. it is a really strong piece.. it would be possible to use it in all schemes and strategies in tournament (gg2017)? 

sorry for my language mistakes

Thank you so much!

 

 

[codingCaptor]

Somer's main tournament competitive list, I think, is based around giving out Rams to his crew (and himself)  enabling you to deal massive amounts of damage to the opponent quickly.   In scheme-marker heavy strats, Bayou gremlins (with the potential assistance of his summoning upgrade)   Can be used for additional activation control and scheme running.   This leaves the rest of your list free to focus on preventing your opponent from scoring points, primarily through murder.   I'll step through Somer, as well as a few other models, talking about how I envision them to be used in a tournament setting.   I'm going to be talking mostly "By the book" type stuff, the kind of thing you'll see most players doing.   There are always weird things that can work (sometimes better than the mainstream builds)  But this isn't the topic for that.

Somer

Somer has 3 main jobs in most competative lists, listed by their usual priority.  The first, is to give out a suite to himself and allies in 8'.   This is going to be either Masks for defense/summoning, or Rams for murdering your opponent.    The second, is to murder your opponent.  If he has a ram (or you spend a stone on a ram) he can hit for 4/4/8 damage, with blasts on moderate+.   This is an insane damage track for any other faction, and the one damage he suffers in return is inconsequential.   In larger engagements, having him focus so that you can cheat in the blast is important.   Usually it's hitting 1 opponent with 1 AP, so focusing such that you can hit 2 or even 3 or 4 opponents for just 2AP is worth the trade every time.     His 3rd main job is to Summon Scheme runners.   You usually only do this on turn 1, as it's not resource efficient to spend his AP summoning when you could instead be killing the opposition.  His summoning upgrade costs 2SS, and with a low mask in hand on turn 1 you can guarantee the suite via his "do it like dis" action.   This will allow you to summon an additional 6SS worth of bayou gremlins on turn one, which is excellent for controlling both activations and scoring your schemes.   I wouldn't take more than 2 Bayou Gremlin, or summon more than 2 additional Gremlins in a single match.

You can also summon piglets if something with very low health ends up engaged with him by killing them with his melee action (SS or cheat for the crow)   Or you can force your opponent to discard their hand.    Both are situational.  Especially the discard.  In general, I'd only focus heavily on getting that off if playing against an enemy summoner, or maybe Lynch.   Basically, only against masters that rely heavily on cards in hand.   It's knowing when to use his other tools in his kit that seperates good players from bad.

Encouragement is also a good upgrade, as it allows you to skip focusing when targeting enemies that have soft cover.   Note that pigs cannot benefit, so it's a little more situational.    Do over is probably the best candidate for his 3rd upgrade, since most of the other good gremlins models like to get up close and personal.   Dirty cheater is always a good choice on every model, but I personally prefer to put it on models with Hard to Kill as it makes them significantly harder to.. well, kill.

Gracie

Gracie's our tank.   She's a good tank, with armor 2 and hard to kill.   She can also heal to full with eat your fill, which is nice.   With a ram, she also hits like a goddamned truck.   ML 6 4/6/8 damage track is obscene.   Walk 5 unlike most pigs walk 4 means she can get places.   Saddle is also a great upgrade on her, as it turns 1 of her walk AP into free AP for another gremlin.   In non-somer lists, that's usually lenny as he gives out the rams she needs for damage.   With Somer taking up that slack, however, she's free to bring along either a slop hauler for extra healing, or one of your other heavy hitters for murder purposes.   Just be careful with her reactivate skill... that 2 Damage hurts on a model with only 8 wounds.

Burt Jebsen

Speaking of other heavy hitters that murder people, Burt is obscene with somer.   He has built in crit strikes, meaning that with an extra ram from somer his damage track is now 4/5/6.   What's more, anything that fails to hit Burt will, if he has a Ram (Somer) Take a 2/3/4 damage flip in return.     I have had enemy models flurry burt and kill themselves instead.   He has some other movement tricks (If he needs to get Gracie back into position)   And crackerjack timing can bunch enemy models together allowing Somer to murder the fuck out of them with a well timed blast.   But mostly you'll use him in melee to stab things to death.

Slop Hauler

Slop haulers keep your units alive.  They throw out an average of 8 extra HP per turn.   They're good, they're really good.    They can even hit things to lower enemy defense if there's a particularly defensive model.   They belong in almost every gremlin list, and Somer is no exception.   The only problem is keeping up with the rest of your crew.  You can solve this with Gracie's saddle, or with an Iron skeeter.  Iron skeeters can, as a bonus, give Slop Hauler's fast with a middling tome, alllowing a slop hauler to reckless and throw out 2 heals in a turn.

Bayou Gremlins

Don't leave home without a couple of them.   They're not here for combat, although they can kill something if they have to (They might even survive the experience.  But probably not.)  They're here for interacting with things, and potentially using Drunk and Reckless for an extra AP if they need one to score a point.   Mastering their positioning so they can score points without dying is key.   The removal of HeadHunter from the common scheme-pool in GG2017 means that it's a lot less dangerous to run these than it used to be.

Francois LaCroix

Ophelia's henchman will strap on stilts, go the opposite direction of the rest of your crew, and murder any enemy scheme runners with aplomb.   He will always die, every game, but that's okay.   He has built in dumb luck on his ML6 attack, which means that whomever he gets into melee with is going to die.   Alternatively, you can charge him into the opponent's master.   A lucky red joker will be the end of any opponent, as there isn't much in the game that can survive 14 damage to the face.  (Note that Stilts can be discarded to prevent the dumb luck damage, keeping him alive briefly to kill something else)

Trixibelle

She allows you to cheat initiative.   That makes her worth running.   She also allows you to Push opposing models out of the place where they'd score points for strategies like guard the stash and Extraction, or get them away from your scheme markers for things like Claim Jump or Leave your Mark.   She lets you go first, and denies your opponent points, what's not to love?   

Other potential options that are maybe's but are still good

Merris LaCroix

You'll note that everything except bayou gremlins are in this list to facilitate murdering your opponent off the board.   Merris doesn't go in every list, but she's your go-to when a couple of bayou gremlins just aint gonna cut it.   She's particularly nice for dig their graves, as she can drop scheme markers regardless of engagement.  Be careful though, she's super squishy.    It's worth noting that she can (without reckless) Score Claim Jump on her own  if left unchecked, a threat which may force your opponent to pull some models away from the strategy (wherever that may be happening)  In order to deal with her.  Having a unit that can solo earn you 3 scheme points regardless of the scheme pool is really good.  But as I said, situational.   Also, for the same cost, you could have 2 bayou gremlins score claim jump, and get 2 Activations out of them instead.   

Lenny

Lenny's 2 AP, and ML6 3/4/5 damage track make him weaker than almost every other big beater in gremlins.  Which is hilarious, because that's pretty much the big beater standard for other factions.   That being said, he's mostly a support piece, granting damage reduction in a 3" aura round him.   That's pretty big, and while it won't benefit Gracie, it can really help keep Burt and Franc alive.  It also allows Somer to focus on giving out other suites, since Lenny can give out rams in that same 3" aura.  This can up Somer's surviveability by allowing him to give out Masks for defensive trigger purposes, or Tomes for Iron skeeters fast (and for Lenny to summon piglets off of using his upgrade)

Iron Skeeter

Can move burt, Merris, Slop Haulers, or Bayou gremlins around the board.   They can also take a sky pirate upgrade, giving them some other utility, although generally I find they're best used to Delvier a Fast Burt to the front lines, and then explode into burning (Maybe netting Framed for murder?)   I haven't played much with them, I think they're really strong, but I just don't know yet.

 

The "I don't know" list of stuff I like to bring but probably isn't great

Rami, Raphael, The First Mate, Gremlin Taxidermists, Pigapult+Stuffed Piglets, Lightning Bugs, Lucky Effigy, Mancha Roja.    All of those can have a place in a Somer crew, either providing additional ranged damage options (raph/Rami/Piagapult, Lightning Bugs)   additional movement shenangins (The first mate, Effigy)   Or additional survive-ability (Mancha Roja with his Challenge ability)   Taxidermist also can summon stuffed piglets which is great for activation control among a variety of other tricks.   In addition to murder, which almost all of those units do excellently.

 

 

Basically, the name of the game is "Kill kill kill"   While bayou Gremlins/Merris get the points scored.

[TeddyBear]

Thank you so much codingCaptor! And thanks also for useful explanation of every single pieces that you list up!

Somebody else has had experience with somer in tournament? and in tournament with pigapult?

 

 

[Sergrum]

 

[EpicWaffle]

For my persoanl expirience, i tend to leave the pigapult home quite often. As a core (aside from a slop hauler/ lighting bug and 2 boxes of bayou gremlins), i'd say burt, grracie francois and fingers will fill up any need you have. Thing is, he works well with everything, so you'll need to plan ahed on buying extra stuff like zipp box, mah tucket for trixie, sammy etc.
A good advice would be for you to look up at all gremlins pieces and thinka about which of them seems to suit your play style, forming a small pool of models: from there, play a bunch of games with him (he's quite difficult and require some dedication before getting some serious results) and note for yourself what is your crew lacking! Missing a tank? Gracie, Emissary or even a warpig could do the work; missing some precise damages? Francois, Burt, Mctavish can fill the gap and so on.

I proceded like this and it worked out quite well for me (tho i ended up buying eveything for Gremlins XD )  

Edit:
there's a post called ''Time to chug moonshine and kick pork, and I'm all out of pork'', where I and some other users posted a couple of lists. It's quite recent and you can take some ideas form there  I'm also going to participate in a tournament this Sunday and I'll probably report something there if I'll use Somer

 

[Adran]

You could use the Pigapult for any mission set up, but there are some it does better than others, and it does have some weaknesses (Hans with Scout the field kills it 1st activation about 95% of the time for example). And I know that not everyone takes Hans, but if you build a reputation as always taking the pigapult, you will see Hans against you more and more. 

[EpicWaffle]

52 minutes ago, Adran said:

You could use the Pigapult for any mission set up, but there are some it does better than others, and it does have some weaknesses (Hans with Scout the field kills it 1st activation about 95% of the time for example). And I know that not everyone takes Hans, but if you build a reputation as always taking the pigapult, you will see Hans against you more and more. 

Indeed, and I sure need to get back to use it. I just had plenty of horrible expiriences with it, so I automatically drop it sometimes I'll try it out this evening if I can, in order to see if i works now that I have more expirience with the game.

 

[codingCaptor]

Alright, let's talk about the Piagapult for a second.

 

First, some important rules.   Stuffed Piglets have an ability on their card that, when they are killed or sacrificed, they give all units within 3" a condition.  That condition gives -1 to sh actions, and prevents you from cheating the damage flip.

The pigapult, if it wants to fire stuffed piglets, must sacrifice them 2" away.   So a pigapult shooting stuffed piglets will be at SH 5 instead of SH 6.    It's still SH 5 3/5/7 with a blast.  But you can't cheat the damage flip, so you won't be able to get the 7.   This makes Focusing with the pigapult generally a bad idea.

There is one way to get around this that I know of, and that's by bringing the Scion of the Black Blood, a mercenary available in the Starter Box.   He allows any unit nearby to discard 2 cards in order to remove a condition.   I don't think 8 points (that has to be within 8" of your pigapult)  and 2 cards is worth it.   If anyone has any other methods for allowing the pigapult to remove a condition after the start of its activation but before firing, I'd love to hear about it.

Anywhom, you probably already knew that, but it's one of those important things I have to remind new gremlins players about, as the pigapult itself is already a complicated model as it is.

Also important to note is a recent(ish) errata to how Paralyze works.   The TL;DR is that while paralyzed a unit may not take any action for any reason.  This means that if you throw stuffed piglets up the board (Which paralyzes them) they do not get to explode, as their explosion is an action they get to take when killed.   Now, if you activate them after they are thrown (which will clear paralyze off)  they'll be fine.  But you do have to be careful with that usage of them.

Oh, and it's attack still has a gun on it, so even though it ignores cover and line of sight, you still have to randomize when firing into melee.   Also the pigapult can't be made magical from wong, since it specifies non-peon.

With that out of the way... Their place for ht 1 models is really good, but you have to be careful with it.   You can only really effectively use it if you HEAVILY out-activate your opponent, as you would need pigapult to activate last, throw a model or 3, and then activate those models to cleanse the paralyze and get them ready for next turn.   Otherwise, you risk them flying in there, and then just getting completely eradicated by your opponent.   The main problem is a lack of ht 1 units that you really want/need to throw up the board like that.    Gracie is our only really big tanky unit, and she's ht 2, so there's nothing you can really throw into their crew to stop their advanced cold.  Stuffed piglets will slow them down for a turn or two (and hopefully get in some decent damage at the same time)   But at AV4 your opponent can usually just walk away from them.   Any of our melee units that need to get in close have Reckless or some other movement shenangins, so throwing people like Burt, Franc, or even a taxidermist up the board is generally waste.    Lightning bugs aren't a terrible choice, especially if you can get them onto rooftops or other good sniping vantage points.  Raph or Rami can be good targets... even better in an Ophelia crew because Ophelia can remove paralyze from units.   Pere Ravage is basically just a really expensive stuffed piglet, but if he survives long enough to get into the middle of your opponent he can do DEVISTATING amounts of damage.   You'll only beat someone with that once though, before they smarten up.

So, in summary, your throwing people up the board is really limited to 3 effective uses.  Bayou gremlins to score points, Stuffed piglets to delay your opponents advance for a turn, or lightning bugs to get into a good sniping position to rain glowy death upon your opponent.

 

Now, offensively, 3 attacks at sh5 pretty much anywhere on the board.   It's not going to cut it against some models.  Anything that's defense 7 is probably going to shrug your attacks off no problem.   And since you can't cheat damage, hitting a DF 4 unit and hoping for the blast is statistically unlikely.   It's best used to eliminate medium costed models from the board.  Anything DF 5ish is fair game.   Units who are armor 1 are good targets, as 2-4 damage on them will generally be very effective.   You can also try to fish for red jokers on hard to wound models, especially since hard to wound models typically have lower defense, as 10 damage smarts.

It's worth noting that McTavish has only half the range of the pigapult, also ignores cover, doesn't randomize, has +1 AV, and only hits for 1 damage less (a problem which can be fixed via Wong with glowy)  On top of that, McTavish's gun doesn't require 10ss worth of ammunition.

Defensively... well, anything that can ignore armor will kill the pigapult dead.   Perdita, Hans, etc.   Incorporeal models can just walk over to it and lock it down, as can any other model which has good movement.    Malifaux Raptors, or anything else that can unbury anywhere on the board also completely shut the pigapult down, as once it's engaged there's nothing it can really do.  

It is worth mentioning that the pigapult IS A gremlin.   This means that it can be healed by slop haulers, be affected by Somer's buffs (His suites don't matter, but the pigapult can take a damage to get a + Flip via Encouragement)    It can also be lured with Trixibelle, or pulled with Ophelia's "ooh a girl"  Which is one of the most effecient methods of moving it around.    It can also be pulled along via the Saddle upgrade on Gracie, which is another really effective method of getting it where it needs to go.  assuming it needs to go anywhere.

If a quick murder is in the pool, it can be hilarious to take only 7 stone or under models, thus making the pigapult the quick murder target.   It's going to be very difficult for your opponent to kill that before turn 3, thus forcing them into a different scheme pick.   Gremlins is one of the few factions that can get away with tha too.

 

So yea, TL;DR:  I don't think the pigapult is a good model, but if you are going to bring it, bring some stuffed piglets and bayou gremlins.   Use it to get into position for schemes, and then fire away at your opponents weaker models, softening them up for your heavy hitters to go in and get the job done. 

[EpicWaffle]

Just had a go with it yesterday against a Lilith growth list and I demolished nekima turn 1 :| than proceeded to shoot some Bayous on the other side of the map to tie up one of his quarter for Interference.

Sure not the safest and best model to use, but I need to work with it again, cause it has its potentials. Also, @codingCaptor, good overview! I won't bring it so easily against Arcanists now xD 

[TeddyBear]

How do you use generally Som'er in tournament? Any advices are apprecciated!

[EpicWaffle]

12 hours ago, TeddyBear said:

How do you use generally Som'er in tournament? Any advices are apprecciated!

For anything actually if you know how to play out games  Zipp or Wong might do better in certain strategies, but Somer can nonetheless do all of them, schemes too. Being so flexible with the crew you can build around him helps you out on that quite heavily, so if for instance there's Interference as strat, bringing a pigapult will make it easy for you to tie up quadrants, or head hunter, you wait till your enemy kills your bayous and use fingers to pick the ehads ecc.

It just really depends on how you build your crew depending on the enemy and the scenario.

Keep in mind tho, that you can achieve the same thing with a semi-fixed list, to which you make some minor tweaks depending on the objectives pool, which will make it easier for you to play fast (cause if you're around 16 models, it gets hard to be fast and finish games) and to avoid mistakes, since you already are confident with what you're using.

[LennyB]

19 hours ago, TeddyBear said:

How do you use generally Som'er in tournament? Any advices are apprecciated!

See the YouTube channel Sergrum linked above.  Alex is one of the best Gremlins players I know, if not the best.  All of the things he discusses he uses in tournaments.

[TeddyBear]

I have a little problem with english language spoken fast

[Goopy]

I would always take 3 bayou gremlins and try to summon 3 more on turn one. Otherwise I'm on board with what the first poster said. Alex Schimd has good videos on Sommer but he does talk fast so that it hard.  

[Nikodemus]

Youtube lets you watch videos at a faster or slower rate than normal if you click at bottom right icons. Mind you I've only used it to watch some videos sped up a bit at 1,25. No idea if 0,75 or slower setting would be pleasantly watchable or not.