Som'er in GG18

[Rosskov]

So what are your thoughts on STG in the current gaining grounds? What strats and schemes suit him, what crews do you tend to take and how are you playing him? 

 

He used to be my go to for interference but I just realised that I've not used him this year so thought I'd sound out some inspiration. 

[PolishSausage]

Mosquito + stuffed pig farm and flooding opponent with insignificant models it the to-go list for me for Somer in GG2018.

[Thesmallesthat]

I think he's still really good. I recently played him three times in a row at a 14 player one day event and pulled off the win with him. Activation control is still powerful turn 1 and the biggest hat was huge against a couple of my opponents playing summoners.

The faction and somer as a result have definitely suffered from gg18 and the nerfs but playing him still felt great. 

[Bazlord_Prime]

Does anybody take the Emissary with him? It seems like on Bayou Two Card could be great. But the positioning is probably difficult. Gun lines aren't all they're cracked up to be, and there's not a hugely flexible array of models that have BTC. Pretty damned good for Somer himself, but perhaps not at 10ss...

[Thesmallesthat]

40 minutes ago, Bazlord_Prime said:

Does anybody take the Emissary with him? It seems like on Bayou Two Card could be great. But the positioning is probably difficult. Gun lines aren't all they're cracked up to be, and there's not a hugely flexible array of models that have BTC. Pretty damned good for Somer himself, but perhaps not at 10ss...

I personally pretend like the emissary doesn't exist. I'v never ever gotten it to work well for the ten stones. I hope someone can prove that wrong though!

[Bazlord_Prime]

2 hours ago, Thesmallesthat said:

I personally pretend like the emissary doesn't exist. I'v never ever gotten it to work well for the ten stones. I hope someone can prove that wrong though!

10 stones is a chunk. I've had limited happiness taking it with Zoraida, for that card manipulation. But, it tends to get focused down fairly quickly. I'll keep trying, also to leverage the Slow/Paralysed thing (oh yeah - that also works quite well with the Doll), and try to protect it better.

Haven't been tempted to use it with anyone else, though (apart from Somer).

[PolishSausage]

mmm, maybe taking more durable/abusive bayou 2 models?

more elite list with emmissary/ sparks/ sammy/ and mech porkchops (plural)

[daniello_s]

I don't see Emissary anywhere apart Zoraida and Mah.

I played Somer few times in GG18 and although he is not that good as he used to be, he is still very very good master.

[Rosskov]

7 hours ago, Thesmallesthat said:

I think he's still really good. I recently played him three times in a row at a 14 player one day event and pulled off the win with him. Activation control is still powerful turn 1 and the biggest hat was huge against a couple of my opponents playing summoners.

The faction and somer as a result have definitely suffered from gg18 and the nerfs but playing him still felt great. 

Congrats on the win. What was your core crew?  Did you take the typical summoning engine and/ or find yourself summoning less over all?

[daniello_s]

My typical crew looks like this:

Somer - DC, Family Tree (4 pool)

Skeeter

Burt - DC

Iron Skeeter

2x Bayou Gremlin

Slop hauler

Banjonista

2x Swine Cursed

If i need more SS in pool i swap Banjonista for extra Bayou Gremlin.

T1 I summon two Bayou Gremlins. If I want to cycle cards i summon 3 Bayou which gives me 3 cards (2+1 from Banjonista nearby). T2 is more summoning or switch to damage dealing.

[Thesmallesthat]

On 5/18/2018 at 6:10 PM, Rosskov said:

Congrats on the win. What was your core crew?  Did you take the typical summoning engine and/ or find yourself summoning less over all?

Thanks mate! I was really happy with it. I've been playing since 1.5 but took a year and a half break and before this event I decided to play somer ten times in a row just to get back into the swing of things. I played him during wave 1 but changed to neverborn and hadn't played him again until now, so quite some time had passed. 

My perspective on Somer is that generally you can build the crew in a LOT of different ways. I'm going to go deep here and explain my thought processes. These aren't hard and fast rules even if I typed them out like they are, this is just how I think when using him. In my opinion the most important thing to do in malifaux when you're choosing a crew is make sure you have justifications for everything. If they don't perform, then adjust. Change it, see if it works in a different context and if something does work ask yourself why. It's easy to fall into the "podcast trap" of taking exactly what a certain podcaster says is good. Not to diminish from them, or online sources of information, they're incredibly useful. Just make sure you're learning why something is worth taking instead of just blindly taking it. Anyway, onto the show:

My core (must take) 

Somer

- Do Over

- Family Tree

1-2x Skeeter (I prefer 2 but will cut it if I have to)

3x Bayou Gremlins

1x Lightning Bug

I always summon. I think turn 1 three bayou gremlins healed to full is great for all the GG18 missions even Ours just because a bayou gremlin can do a tonne of spike damage and they can help you achieve schemes, which often still require a lot of Ap. Also a huge factor is the activation control on turn 1 which I still feel is insanely important in this game. Come up against something you don't know about? Just out activate it, see what it'll do then do your stuff in return. It's a great level of control, especially against someone who wants to be aggressive. 

From here, I will usually then think about a "holy trinity" of models. All I mean is that I usually only have stones for 3 big model purchases. I almost always want 1 to be able to deal substantial melee damage. This is incredible in Somer due to being able to counter attack enemies that engage you. Often opponents are choosing Hold Up Their Forces or try and engage multiple gremlins to reduce shooting in some manner. Having a beater counteracts this. I then want at least 1 very strong support piece. What these are are actually up to you and don't have to follow this formula. experiment with what works for you. I have changed what models I pick based on schemes and strats, how aggressive or defensive I want to be or if something speaks to me for the mission (fingers in ply is a good example). I'll normally take:

Trixibelle 

Burt Jebsen

- Dirty Cheater

Merris

I really like Merris when Set Up is in the pool. Between her, trixie and the summoned bayou gremlins you can really easily get it on any opposing melee targets. It can be relatively easy to triple walk merris scheme marker, triple walk trixie with a marker laid by a bayou gremlin and drunk and reckless a gremlin to set up someone in one turn. It sounds like Magical Christmas Land, but it's good. I'm also terrified of blasts generally speaking and I find being able to dip deeper for a mask for somer turn 1 to be very good. THAT SAID!!! With no claim jump anymore, she has definitely lost stock and I will often replace her straight up with Raphael. Him at six is absolutely bonkers especially with Somer turning on rams. I still rate burt in this list as with the amount of models you have slipperly still does some solid work and getting weak four with a rams aura, crackerjack timing for somers blasts and just generally being a high output beater is all good. I don't like Franc because I want my beater to be resilient. I normally leave him for the more aggro lists like Zipp. 

I have also tried weird stuff like Old Major. I seem to biggest hat more than some people, and saddling somer can be really powerful turn 2 whilst the saddle on rafa with a rams aura to hit something for ten turn 1 can surprise people coming from a summoner. I just generally think that trixie is really good right now due to being able to undo opponents lures, which I think are really good in GG18 (as is activiation control against said lures, God I hate activating early then getting lured to death), and the ability to ditch crows to a skeeters do it like dis and going to town on slows on the opposing crew can be game winning. She isn't the be all and end all but she's a solid model who just does a lot. As I mentioned earlier, Fingers could definitely take her slot in ply and you could try going rafa plus a taxidermist, especially since burts increase in cost. Some people also like gracie too. On heavy terrain boards and with a heavy gunline Sammy with Encouragement can make Somer a monster, being able to effectively ignore the terrain and just shooting three times for weak 4. She's also very good in the scheme pool missions with her stuffed pig shenanigans. I'm not against those options at all, but they're just that. Options. Trixie/burt/merris just play very very safely for me, protecting against blasts, having push back and slow against highly aggressive alphas (and cheating initiative turn 2, huge against an alpha) and a very resilient beater. 

At this stage you have six stones left. I normally will put dirty cheater on Somer if something like udnercover entourage is in the pool because with it on he is very VERY tough to kill when played cagey or I'll put on liquid bravery against ressers/neverborn. That leaves you with 5 stones. Lately I've really liked just taking a second lightning bug. I like this option just because of how good the model is. It's fast and can scheme, if you lose one early to an insane snipe you then have backup for the heal and they can do some serious damage against armoured targets. If I think I'll be against high defense crews or think just consistent healing will be good for the matchup/scheme pool then I'll take a slop hauler, and if I think I'll get a lot of utility out of the extra draw/pushes the I'll take a banjonista. this is a flex slot in the truest sense of the word. Sometimes it doesn't exist if I take a different set of models in the Holy Trinity, or it may just become rafa if I don't put that upgrade on Somer. 

Also, and just as a note, I rarely summon T2. At that stage I'm biggest hatting, focus blasting, shooting my own bayous to blast the opponent and try cards then do overing to shoot the target and all of that really really fun stuff that I truly play somer for. 

SO to actually answer your question my "standard" list (which basically changes in some way every single game but is a solid base) is:

Somer

- Family Tree

-Dirty Cheater

- Do Over

Skeeter

Skeeter

Trixibelle

Burt Jebsen

- Dirty Cheater

Merris Lacroix

Bayou Gremlin

Bayou Gremlin

Bayou Gremlin

Lightning Bug

Lightning Bug

 

I hope this helped. I am far from the best player but I think seeing someones proper thought process can really help your own. Sorry for the wall of text!!

 

[Rosskov]

Thanks that's really helpful and exactly the type of conversation I was trying to start.

 

In the past my list always included :

50 SS Gremlins Crew
Somer Teeth Jones + 7 Pool
 - Family Tree (2)
Skeeter (2) 
Skeeter (2) - very occasionally dropped
Merris LaCroix (6)
Lightning Bug (5)
Slop Hauler (5)
Bayou Gremlin (3)
Bayou Gremlin (3)
Bayou Gremlin (3)

 I would also generally have has lenny or the pigapault to throw some gremlins to where they needed to be. Do Over was also pretty much guaranteed. This left 8-9 stones to tailor the crew to what was needed. This normally went on burt.

I found this type of list really competitive for Reconnoiter and interference (I think I only drew one game and won all the others- though they tended to be narrow wins) but didn't use it in other strategies. Which is why I think I haven't dusted STG off since GG18 arrived- particularly as ours doesn't count summoned models and bayou gremlins are squishy) . 

 

With the benefit of hindsight I think I was inefficient in my use of somer's AP.  I generally summoned to at least turn 3 and occasionally in turn 4. I wouldn't normally summon in turn 5 as one of his Ap is worth more than a slow Bg for a turn . I didn't use his squeal and friendly attacks to move him for free and I often found myself doing little to nothing with 3 bayou gremlins while I was summoning (if I was using lenny I'd normally throw the non summoned ones forward,  if it was the pigapault slow ones were its payload). Looking back I can see why my wins were narrow.

So going forward, where do you think Somer shines?  Presumably ply and symbols? 

[Thesmallesthat]

You're basically there with that core right, looks very similar to mine. I used to play lenny in wave 1 and 2 but after the nerfs to rams to masters (and even before that happened to be honest) he started to lose his luster. Add on the fact that he was the easiest nine stones to kill and I felt like I was lugging around a big waste of space. WP1 when you face against collodi for example is an absolute joke, and DF4 aint exactly good either. He just drops hard and fast. 

A big deal for me was focussing on The Biggest Hat and The Boomstick. I did what you did in the first few games of him all those years ago and I'll never forget the first time Turn 2 I just activated him first, turned on rams focus shot and one shot something with 8 damage and spread 4 damage to two models behind it, then made the opponent ditch their hand with biggest hat. That power play is just very very strong especially with a gunline of gremlins now being able to easily focus shoot and do 2/4/6 with cheating from the top. 

 I think he is definitely well suited for symbols, and can be very good in ply as well. Ours can still be won as with his activation control you can often see exactly where the opponent is then move your models into the right corners for it. Just make sure to use the summons as the sacrificial gremmies. His masks moving after his own acti can also be good in this, plus the crew in general is long ranged which is good for Ours as I often find that range is king in it. Public Execution is probably his worst mission however the crew can still do it, you'd probably just be better off with Zipp or Wong. But that can also depend on how good you are with those masters. As an aside on that, plenty of players like more elite somer crews which may be good for it. There is also an aggressive alpha striking warpig list going around that abuses somer drawing nine cards and giving masks out for the hog whisperer.