quotemyname

I like this mindset. I think we should install a program that automatically moves all such posts to an external website with a flashing black, yellow, and green background that looks like it was the designed by a High School student doing his final project in 1998. Game mechanics wise, all of the above is correct. Pandora is a little tough to wrap your head around the first time. I myself couldn't run her effectively until I saw it done. Good luck in your translation quest!

I believe Hoffman counts as a construct. The Dreamer is a Spirit, and Lord Chompy Bits is a Nightmare. Kirai can change into a spirit. The rest of the RP masters, are living, unless I misremember. I'm not sure about Hamelin.

You have my express permission to use that simile whenever possible It comes from an inside joke with my friends. Whenever someone is late to a party or hangout session the conversation usually proceeds thus: "Where's Joe?" "I have no clue. I hope he's not trapped under something heavy." "Like a burning couch?" "Yea, that would really suck." The idea is that you're trapped under something too heavy to crawl out from under. Thus you are helpless. Also, that couch is on fire. So, goodie gumdrops. You get to watch yourself slowly burn to death while not being able to do anything about it! And yea, that's Pandora. It's gotten to the point that I almost refuse to play her in friendly games. Though her learning curve is high, once you get her down, there is little an opponent can do to beat her, besides maybe avoiding direct engagement as much as possible. I wouldn't subject my friends to that as I know how much I hate it. Tournament play, however, is a different story

I really would not recommend that. I've tried it. It did not end well at all. Modesty be damned, I consider myself good at this game. I took on two very inexperienced players, AND I was running Pandora. They destroyed me. Quickly. The problem arises when you consider that the other side has (potentially) twice the soul stones, and twice the control hand that you do. There really is no way (by the game's default rules) to increase/account for that. You could draw twice the cards, and start with twice the stones, but honestly that screws with the probability so bad it probably still doesn't work. The only other way to do a 2v1 brawl would be to give the solo player two decks, and at that point, what's the point? EDIT: I agree with the above statement. Do what Ratty says. It's simple and easy and there's enough room for players to seriously screw each other over There are plenty of strategies that involve eliminating your opponent's models especially in the expanded strategies. I really am going to have to try this.

My top three pics of crews that I like playing: The Dreamer (Good mix of power, mobility, and fluff) Nicodem (The slow and steady Wall O' Undead tactic appeals to me) Collette (Amazing Mobility, Amazing fluff, and a fun challenge to actually run properly) My favorite crews to play against: Seamus (Because he always produces a fun, unpredictable match) Perdita (Being able to survive that hail of gunfire is always epic) My least favorite crews to play against: Pandora (Win or lose, playing against her always feels like being trapped under a burning couch) Sonia Criid (One lucky damage flip, and half you're crew is roasted. Not fun) Viktorias (They've never posed enough of a challenge to be much fun)

Yes. However, you should remember that your zombies will gain better benefit from you paralyzing nearby enemy models with Nic than they will from you simply popping a heal on them. After all, they can only heal 2wd per Decay. 9/10 times most models have a weak damage stat of 2. So you're really only protecting your minions from one attack. However, if you Paralyze an adjacent enemy model, you're really protecting them from two! At least! If not worse! I'll say it as many times as necessary. When running Nic, if you want offense, use Rigor Mortis. If you want Defense/Support use Decay.

The better question would be, "Why are you running Big Z and NOT connecting the Voodoo doll?"

I would submit that grids and fixed boards really are not a concern in the first place in terms of measuring distances. Any player that is thoughtful enough to start thinking about things like, "That doorway is exactly 10 inches from here," is probably already good enough that he doesn't need the measuring help.

I am cautiously anticipating these two. Idea: Great Potential: High Probability of Tanking-as-Hard-as-Superman-Returns: High But if they pull it off... Man!

It isn't. It also isn't a gamble. When I trigger All Done, I'm planning on doing regardless of whether or not the defending model is killed. This is because if I'm considering pulling the trigger off at all it's because it is the last possible way I can get him off the field and replace him with an untargetable dreamer. But that's off topic. I think the question here has been answered. The damage still happens.

That's what I thought. It seemed like I was over thinking it. I just wanted to make sure.

Every time I use the All Done trigger that Chompy Bits has, I see him whipping out a toothpick, picking his teeth, patting his stomach, and exploding in a cloud of smoke, leaving The Dreamer behind. Okay, enough silliness. My question: The trigger states that you must bury chompy and replace him with The Dreamer. Triggers activate after totals are determined and before the damage flip. If the attack misses, the trigger still goes off (it just requires a suit, not hitting and not damage). No problems there. If the attack hits, however, Chompy bits technically gets burried before the damage flip. Since the model that did the hitting and caused the damage flip to happen is no longer in play does the damage still happen? The trigger says nothing about nullifying the attack, etc. Thoughts?

Except that that would not work. The only way the daydream can actually bury nightmares (with the exception of chompy) IIRC is if it uses magical extension. And it cannot, since the dreamer is not in play. I'm telling you. It's just way too hard to actually reliably get anything good out of this. The only way I would be tempted to use Abduction is offensively. Possibly on a totem or something. And only if I had the high :crows to cheat. Gamble Your Life is so much better in terms of possible actions for the stitched. And it's not like you lose any maneuverability when not using Abduction... because it doesn't get you any!

Yea, but not really a good one. I can't see myself using this ever. Unless, I have no more daydreams to activate, Dreamer is in a heap of trouble, and is for some reason not within 3" of a Nightmare AND I have failed to get off a chompy bits activation this turn. With any reasonable amount of effort on the part of a Dreamer crew, I can't see that situation ever coming about.

:golfclap:

Yea, that's also a good point. They can't magical extension if Dreamer isn't in play. That's messed me up a few times.

So general consensus? There's some merit to this. But I can't see it being a worthwhile strategy in 9/10 games.

I think you're missing an important item. Abduction (as it's written on my cards) returns the model to play during the start activation phase. Which would be the next turn entirely, not when the Stitched next activates (presumably after Does Not Die goes off). The alternative is when the Stitched is removed from play (which can happen via burying it). While the effect would be relatively the same, it's still worth noting the difference. To be sure, it would give you a free 'unburying' that you don't have to waste further action points on, and if the Stitched is doing nothing else with it's turn... This strategy, while possible, seems to have little merit to it because it is so loopy. One reason that I can think of using this for which could be useful as there's no other way to do it...removing The Dreamer from play in this way gets BOTH Dreamer and Chompy off the table until he is unburied (why you would need that, I can only imagine, but I'm sure there has to be SOME situation). One last note: Abduction Is a hard spell to cast. Stitched have relatively low casting. Worse still, it's unsuited. You need :crows to make this spell go off.

Cassandra and Criid both have good Wp and spells. They are high on my list of models to watch. If they're on the field, I'm iffy about running alps in the first place. If you don't know you're going to go up against them, however, you can still make this work: It becomes imperitive that you drop the ring on THAT model. Not near them. ON THEM. The outside of the ring (and preferably the Alps they would try to nuke) should be within an inch of any model with :blasts. The hope is, since most of those spells have the symbol, they'll be dead before they've reloaded, to paraphrase V for Vendetta. Criid or Cassandra would activate, take some damage from Alps, (because I doubt even masters can resist Wp > 12 with :-fate:-fate), and IF they are still kicking, they can't cast until they've gotten out of Melee range. For a model that's Slow, prospects are dim. Granted, Criid has (+1) Casting Expert, and Cassandra has (+1) Nimble, so for both it IS possible. (As an aside, you could always leave chompy unburried and use his 3:melee wicked paired 10 inch claws as an additional deterrent to models that attempt to disengage). I would expect that they would have blown significant rescources trying to keep them alive already this turn that you can count on their ability to cheat/soulstone enough to kill the entire ring to be quite limited. In summary, you raise good counter points, and things to watch out for. Yes, Nightmares are squishy, but no force clumped together is going to stand up long to concentrated attacks and :blasts. The Alps don't need to survive, though it would be nice if they got an activation in before they do die. And the Stitched won't go down in one turn. My point is, that even if you lose some of your models doing this, your opponent is going to have suffered more because this placement is such that all of your models are at a prime location for all of their effects to activate. The idea is to cripple your opponent so they can't mount an effective counter. Alps are weak, and :Blasts kill weak models. However, I wouldn't call Cassandra nuking my Alp squad an effective counter attack, if she just lost most of her wounds, and maybe a showgirl or two in the process. The damage has been done. The bottom line is Dreamer spends as many points on a whole Alp Squad as Colette does on only Cassandra. If one or two die, I'm not that upset. If Colette loses Cassandra, however, she's in for a world of hurt.

Stumbled upon an interesting strategy during a game the other day when I was playing the Dreamer. Since it's very clear that positioning is KEY for Dreamer, I just thought I would share one effective positioning strategy I've come across: The strategy is named in the thread title. Here is the short version of how it came about: - Most of dreamer's crew has been burried. Dreamer and nearby daydream remain on the field (at minimum). - Dreamer uses Frightening Dream with Trigger, and unburried the lot of his crew nearby the main force of my opponent. In this case it was kirai. Note: This includes unburying chompy-bits and thus removing dreamer from play. - chompy is placed within three inches of high priority model (master, hench, etc.) I.E. Kirai. - Other nightmares are placed surrounding Chompy's base entirely. Hopefully about .5" away from his base. (keeping anything with a reach of 1" away from attacking him). - Chompy attacks high priority models with claws, finishing with All Done trigger. - Daydream companion activates, and replaces Chompy with Dreamer if necessary (insurance plan). Outcome: Chompy did his duty. Though Kirai wasn't killed, she took a good chunk of damage. Everything else that activated nearby was crippled by the four alps surrounding Dreamer. Attacking Dreamer in retaliation is difficult as you basically have to kill just about every Nightmare near him to get the bugger. Result: Kirai's player forfeited a few activations later. Ring of Nightmares: 1. Use Dreamer to unbury Chompy and surround him with other unburried Nightmares. Ideal crew consists of Alps and Stitched Together (Alps punish models that try to activate nearby. Stitched can use Creepy Fog and prevent attacking models from seeing some, or all of the ring, depending on placement). Other models are certainly useful especially if they have terrifying, etc. 2. Ideal placement leaves surrounding model bases about half an inch from chompy. Why? If for some reason you have to leave him in play, models with 2" reach can still attack him over your HT1 models (and will be highly tempted to do so). However, if by step 1, you've taken Alps, those strikes will have to be within an inch of an Alp. Anyone trying this will regret it. 3. Include a daydream in the ring. They are reasonably defensive if attacked. Despite only 2Wd, they're hard to get rid of. If it does die, simply use it's dying ability to unbury another daydream (good luck killing the second one during the same activation when you have all this other stuff to worry about). 4. Despite the outcome of events, you may end up wanting to bury some or all of the nightmares that are currently in play. Use the daydream that's part of the dream to Magical Extension the Dreamer's Calm Nightmares. You can bury the entire ring, including the daydream itself if you would like. 5. Attempt to pull this off late turn. Alps are effective without having to activate. Blow their activations early on other portions of the map. Bury them with a Daydream, and unbury them with the Dreamer later. Do the same with stitched, only Activate Creepy Fog before you bury them. It's annoying to have a crowd of nightmares suddenly spawn in your midst. It's worse when you don't have LOS to any of them, because the fog comes up as soon as the stitched do! It's simple to pull off, unfair to your opponents, over all, it's a mean trick. Just the type of strategy us Neverborn like I'd be interested in hearing any comments/reactions. Until next time, -Q

So far, I think the best way to get around this was what was mentioned earlier in this thread. In your deployment zone, surround one of your daydreams with a load of Alps, or other nightmares that don't require activation to be (as) effective. My other pick would be coppelius. While his attacks are great, he has terrifying, and a few other auras that make him a threat when he's just standing there. Activate them all early on. Waste your opponent's activations in this way. Then use the daydream to bury the lot of them. You can either leave the daydream there, as a way out during later turns, or you can bury him as well with the intention of moving him up with the rest of your squad. The plan is to then drop the units that are still dangerous without their activations on your opponent's completely activated crew. Alps will stay in play, and pin down whoever they will, Coppelius can be there for the terrifying at the start of the next turn, etc. My idea is to put the pressure on early turn 2 rather than early turn 1. Hopefully this will work! Wish me luck, sounds like I'll get another attempt at this on Sunday.

Thanks for doing what I was about to do, mythicFOX. Also, that back to topic smiley is brilliant, hah. Yea, keeping a daydream in a "safe zone" sounds like a great idea, but more often than not, I'm finding that I really want three of those buggers in and around the bulk of my crew and the action to support, recal, reposition, whatever. One game, I only bought two of them, and was really hurting for it. Anyone else have some bright ideas about how to get around early turn activations for dreamer?

Note that any eye counters the Doppelganger gains are not sacrificed when it dies. They are dropped. From there, Copp can pick them up and use them. It's a neat trick since the ability that Sacrifices them when he dies is a separate ability from the one that allows him to get them.

That is very good advice. Alpha striking is abrupt and brutal. Opponents that are not ready for it may panic and make mistakes. Trying to initiate that reaction from this crew is as good a tactic as any IMO. I just have yet to pull it off properly. I am currently exploring different methods of "the setup" with The Dreamer's crew. Ones that don't require relying on the Alpha strike and such. I'll be sure to update this thread with the results of our next game so you can see how it went.

It was exactly that: The Alpha Strike. I had a hidden Kidnap scheme on the Convict Gunslinger, Samael Hopkins, and a Witchling stalker that were all in the same corner of the board. Turn 1 I flew up with The Dreamer, and unburried my daydreams ahead of me, leaving all of my models behind some low walls (yay cover for HT 1 models!) I then flew in a daydream, and sacrificed it to bring out four alps. All were placed within three inches of Convict and Samael (activated). Two of the Alps were within 4" of the Stalker. Such as my opponent's deployment was, Sonia didn't have LOS to any of them. She was blocked by the bases of a second stalker, her own totem, and a large wall that I'd dropped the Alps behind. In order to get LOS, he would have needed to move around the bases of his own crew (just the companion activation of the totem, moving it out of the way would not be enough). I thought since the terrain condition was Difficult Terrain (1/2 Wk on all terrain without a terrain element on it) that I would be safe at least for a little bit. Maybe long enough to activate a few of the Alps and at least do some damage. Much to my dismay, Criid managed to just barely get LOS on the lead Alp. Although he had cover, Criid flipped relatively high on the AND soulstoned for a CC of somewhere in the mid 20's. The Alp with his defense of 4 never had a chance. The lot of them got blown up pre-activation. Essentially wiping half the models I'd payed for before they could even affect the game in the least. My remaining Stitched Together, Coppelius, Dreamer & Dreams, and of course Chompy fought hard, and caused a few casualties, but it was a downhill battle from there on in.