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Dress Rehearsal - A Colette Guide for Stage Management


Boomstick

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Mannequins have the crazy powerful ability to let nearby friendlies throw Scheme Markers around within 6", IMO that's the one reason you would hire them.  It's just the question of whether that's worth 4ss to you, and unless you're bringing more Performers their slow speed is probably going to make that a big nope unless the pool is REALLY scheme marker heavy.

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1 hour ago, Thottbot said:

what are peoples opinion on mannequins and performers? i find performers somewhat situational and mannequins are just .... i dont see worth to even hire them.

Don't mind me can be huge, so that is what I want from the performer. Or some poison tricks, although the paralysis trigger can win you games. Mannequin are more niche, so I only hire if I'm planning on wanting to throw scheme marker. 

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I often take one of each, as a performer tossing scheme markers out at 6" and popping enemy markers with seduction is amazing in scheme-y pools, the mannequin auto slows anything it hits, and most of the Performer's Can actions are pretty great for Cassandra to understudy.

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I usually take a single performer to help push Colette around. Manipulative can be a card sink for your opponent. They can really benefit from Colette's upgrade to hand out free focus, as their Hairpin attack has a nice severe damage. 

Mannequins are a bit more niche. If your opponent has a hard time dealing with armor, they can be a real nightmare. Their ability to throw scheme markers was much better in GG 17 when you could throw a scheme marker right into the middle of an enemy crew for Detonate the Charges. 

Oiran are very expensive and very difficult to use. It can be fun to get unbeknownst off and make it so a single model can't attack anyone in your crew 🤣

Ice Dancers, funny enough, I tend to avoid in Colette crews. I feel as if it's pretty easy to deal out scheme marker's with Colette and I don't need a dedicated scheme runner. She also tends to be too fast for an otherwise pretty static crew. 

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I Always bring 1 Performer in my Arcanist crew's.  The Lure isn't even the reason, it's the fact that you can discard scheme markers at range and the enemy models near it NEED to ensure they pass the duel or they'll most likely be wiped off the board because of those double negatives.  Then even if they do close into Melee range with the Performer, you have a Ml 6 attack that gives out lots of poison.  Oh, and if the Performer dies, a minion or showgirl within 2" gets reactivate.  Hell yea I'm bringing all of that for 5 stones.  

If you're playing Colette and she has to use her Death Defying trigger, sacrifice the Performer to give Colette reactivate. 😁

Mannequins in the other hand are worthless.  If you want to put out markers at range, use Practiced Production or a Union Miner. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I want to give a try this master. But I have issues with working lists. Mostly I get something like 6 or 7 models in total.

My aim is to have 2 heavy hitters, some cheap activation and something in the middle.
First idea is to have Carlos / Howard / Mobiletoolkit as prompt targets, second is Carlos / Myranda with IE.

Can you share your lists, and describe how it should be used? Thanks in advance for help

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@Jafar Colette can sometimes be tricky to get above seven models in her crew because she likes having quality models and her cache is so low. This is one reason summoning the mechanical doves is so key; not only do they give you activation cntrol, but also the positive flips they give to friendlies by sacrificing can work wonders.

Personally, I find myself running Howard less and less these days unless I have a specific reason for him. If it's just killing, he's too expensive for my taste, and spending 12ss on one model will make it doubly hard to get more than 7 activations.

Here's my take on your second idea:

Declared Faction: Arcanists
Leader: Colette Du Bois - Cache:(5)
   Arcane Reservoir 2ss 
   Cabaret Choreography 2ss 
   Shell Game 1ss 
Mechanical Dove 2ss 
Carlos Vasquez 9ss 
   Stunt Double 1ss 
   Practiced Production 1ss 
Myranda 8ss 
   Imbued Energies 1ss 
Ferdinand Vogel 8ss 
Union Miner 5ss 
Hoarcat Pride 4ss 
Hoarcat Pride 4ss 
 

I find Ferdinand to be a great addition to a Colette crew: in human form he easily gets you an extra card per turn by removing a scheme marker after a walk, and Censure is a wonderful bit of annoyance/denial for your opponent. In Beast form, he's another solid beater. Both halves benefit from being prompted. 

The Hoarcats make wonderful prompt targets as well, plus they're decently hard to take down, are cheap, and hit at min damage 3 so long as they're above half wounds. Keep Myranda nearby until she's ready to turn into a Cerberus or Blessed and they get even better.

The Union Minor I like generally because they can drop so many scheme markers, but with this crew he can also supercharge Carlos to offload a second fired-up (prompted) punch per turn.

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I'm relatively new to Colette, but I've been having a bit of fun Killjoying bombing people with her. Her Doves with a 10" move ( so 13" more if they are prompted) and a (1) to self detonate (for more potential damage no less) seems to make a good delivery engine. Probably not the best list, but I've been enjoying it.

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@7thSquirrel That's fantastic! I still haven't painted my Carver yet, so I haven't considered Killjoy with Colette, but that's a wonderful delivery system! He's expensive like Howard, but if you can get him in the enemy's face list that, I imagine he will do a good deal of work in softening them up/locking them down while the rest of your crew goes about their business.

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Don't forget that Mannequins have a 2" engagement range and built in slow on a Ca vs Wp. Between that and Armor +3 a couple of them can scoot each other around the board and hold up most crews for a couple turns.

Performers also have that lovely reactivate they hand out when killed or sacrificed which is great when you can pass it to Colette/Cassandra/Carlos.

Union Miners spit out schemes like it's going out of style, have impressive damage potential (again, in pairs) and are just an all around bargain for 5ss.

Anything that costs more than 10ss base has to do its job unsupported for me to rate it. Much like with Lucius, my most successful Colette crews are the ones that build in the maximum number of options. Usually like 9 real models and a dove or two to start.

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@Fazza92 that sounds especially rough! I know I've pretty much stopped taking Colette to face Gremlins, since Zipp really likes a lot of the same scheme pools she does, but thankfully I've only seen Bettari a few times around here, and have yet to bring Colette into a Reva match.

One of the things besides GG2018 itself that has hurt her the most are models which do damage that may not be reduced, since that ignores armor, Incorporeal, AND triggers. Personally, I think it's become a little too wide spread to negate three defensive abilities, with triggers being the worst offender. When all but 1 Arcanist master has a Df trigger (and plenty of others do too) it's a no brainer to negate them, which in my opinion takes away a lot of character from those models.

I'm really hoping in future updates that a number of the "can't be reduced" turn into "Ignore armor and Incorporeal". Except maybe Bettari, I can see that being characterful for her, and when it's a rare ability, it can be played around.

For her at least, Colette should be able to play away from her, just be sure to measure and keep out of her threat range. Or teleport on top of something. Reva and Zipp have a little more reach and mobility, so much harder to ignore them, though for Reva, not killing things near Colette should help a little, at least.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I recently had a chance to try out a melee Colette build and it...wasn't horrible, but took a lot of set up to be as good as I wanted it to be.

Declared Faction: Arcanists 
Crew Name: Melee Colette test 1 50ss 
Leader: Colette Du Bois - Cache:(2)
   Cabaret Choreography 2ss 
   The Dancing Blade 1ss 
   A Ladys Secret 2ss 
Mechanical Dove 2ss 
Cassandra 8ss 
   Practiced Production 1ss 
   Imbued Protection 2ss 
Arcane Effigy 4ss 
Ferdinand Vogel 8ss 
Performer 5ss 
December Acolyte 7ss 
Mannequin 4ss 

 

I played this into flank Ply against a pretty killy Lady J list with an Executioner, Franc, Brutal Effigy, Death Marshall Recruiter, Thalarian Queller, and Investigator. Between the Executioner ignoring Df triggers and the Queller handing out "Cannot Be Reduced" damage, this was trial by fire to see if Colette could hang out front a bit more than usual.

I screwed up by about a half inch when moving Colette forward turn one (by having Cassandra attack her as usual), just barely leaving her in the Executioner's range. Using SS for +Df and a - on his damage she was able to weather the storm. When Colette went I had about 4 scheme markers nearby, ended up slowing the Executioner and Franc for next turn with her Saber trick as a (1) and it's trigger to swing again at 8". Did a little more damage actually using it as a (0), then Disappearing Act'd away and summoned a Dove. I should have used my original dove to give her a + to damage, but did it for +Ca instead as my hand wasn't phenomenal after blocking the Executioner, but endedded up not needing it.

Turn 2 Cassandra kills the Executioner after he walks, one threat down. But then the Queller lays down a suppression marker near Colette (really think it's too much they can do that without Loss and that the "aura" from the marker isn't an actual Aura, so doesn't require line of sight. The only counter play to them is kill the Queller or move away) so she has to spend an AP to walk away like a savage.

Long story short, I only used Prompt 3-4 times the entire game, and didn't feel particularly weakened because of it, since most of the time I was slowing one of their models and softening them up for the rest of my crew (Mannequin was doing great helping Slow things as well). Ended up losing because Cassandra was my Take One target and Lady J put her in a box instead of in the ground.

My takeaway was that it's a different playstyle that will take a bit to wrap your head around, but can be fun! That said, still wouldn't recommend taking Colette into Gremlins or Guild if you can help it, because of Zipp and Quellers.

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As a former solo-Colette player, I'm still undecided on how useful Cabaret Choreography is.

It sounds like you didn't use it a great deal in that match, @Boomstick.

Perhaps I've still been playing her too much pre-nerf-style, and should be flinging Dove buffs at my key models more, but the Doves feel resource-expensive and I don't usually have a high cache. Needing the suited 8 means you're either likely spending her free stone, losing it for Surge purposes, and it's usually a card in that number range where I'm holding it because there are so many TNs to hit.

I haven't given The Dancing Blade a try yet, but I'm hesitant to put her in harm's way with (standard complaint incoming) so much unavoidable damage in the game now.

I have had some good games with Audience Participation though - the un-resistable (0) did some great things for me once the girls couldn't stay clear of the brawl turns four and five. It's a pity it's a condition, but such is life. Free Focus with Performer Siren Calls made them a lot more useful not only at succeeding, but at clearing cards out of my opponent's hand.

I'd be interested to see how different she feels with Audience Participation + The Dancing Blade + Sieze The Day, leaning into the lady brawler build, but I hate dropping so many stones on upgrades.

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@DuBlanck I definitely want to hear more about your experiences with Audience Participation!

As for my Melee build, Cabaret Choreography was pretty intrinsic, though I realize now I didn't mention it enough. Either to have a dove nearby to act as a defensive scheme marker or to as a teleport destination, with a few buffs here and there, I think it's necessary. Again, I didn't play with her Surge upgrade (and hadn't thought to use the free stone for that, brilliant!) because I was fully melee focused, so it wasn't something I was worried about.

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@Boomstick - nothing revolutionary, just simple things like walking beaters 0.1" out of engagement ranges, or shooters behind trees. It's probably great for breaking up bubble crews, but that wasn't relevant in either of the games I played it in. Ninja Edit: No doubt there are some killer apps abusing models with good (1)s, but usually at the point it was happening there was a clear fire that needed fighting that made the decision for me.

The fact that it is so easy to set up (especially given Mannequins and Doves count), you can free-stone the suit, and it is un-resistable, makes it dead easy to shut down some very high-value models for a single mid-value card.

As I said above, it's hard to tell whether I got more value from spoiling a couple of activations per turn with Volunteer or from the hand pressure the Focused Performers applied. I'll have to try it with Ice Dancers and Oiran soon.

Edited by DuBlanck
Missed notes.
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How do you guys use Cass? I just played my third game and for the second time she died/became unusable turn 2. I feel like I may have misinterpreted her role. The first game I played with her, she did well, stayed back and moved in to deal with Amina and a miner which helped, that game was a tie. The second game ended 2-7, I met my best friends Tara crew and I walked up with Cass early to threaten (and I think I had vendetta with her as a scheme) and she got a nothingbeast dropped on her t2, after he cheated initiative. The third game I met a Levi crew and went forward with both Langston and Cass lookin for minion kills for "Punish the weak", which both got gutted by Levi and the dust storm thingy. The one highlight was my Ice dancer who scored me 4 points. 

Tl:dr I think that I see her as a beatstick and that makes me play her wrongly (this was also my first time (proxied) with Langston which I forgot that he is a glass cannon) and I'd like to know how you people use her (in a Colette crew).

PS, this is a very helpful thread for a frustrated beginner, thank you all. 

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Personally, @valkirsWrath I have dealt with games like you're describing. As more widespread min 3 damage has grown as m2e has gone on, Cass has become more a scalpel for me than a beater. Bring a Silent One and when you have the card for it, use the Understudy trigger on Cass's sword to Freeze, potentially twice, then sword again. Also, remember you can sacrifice a dove to Cass to give her plus flips to damage for the turn.

Defensively, I've started taking Imbued Protection as her 2nd upgrade. Df7 and an extra two wounds when the upgrade is discarded help a lot! And of course, Southern Hospitality. She'll have to go early to activate it, but not many models enjoy swinging in with a negative flip on a Df7 target. To offset the card she uses every turn you can of course bring Arcane Reservoir, but I've found I like Ferdinand Vogel more, as he can eat a scheme marker for a card after walking, and can become a beater on demand in his beast form.

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I tend to use her as a sturdy scheme runner, though I'm pretty old-fashioned in my model selection. When I started playing, Southern Hospitality was enough to keep her alive as a finesse frontline piece, but these days she's starting to show her age - Cassie's no brawler no more.

Hold her back and give her a Dove turns 1 and 2 to get good use out of Understudy and Breath of Fire, then start sprinting for the end zone.

I'm a big fan of Imbued Protection too, occasionally coupled with Smoke & Mirrors on the rare occasions I'm not too pressed for stones. With the pair of them and Southern Charm up, once she starts heading to score Entourage/Breakthrough there's not much that will stop her.

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