Mister Shine

Puppet Friends!
 
Ok, so Collodi has a fair number of options for hiring. In addition to the Neverborn Pantheon, if a model is tagged "Puppet" he can hire it, with the exception of the Voodoo doll because he is not Zoraida and the Coryphee Duet because he did not pay the Arcanists his union dues. Still, thats a bunch of extra models! Generally though, Collodi is going to be looking for Puppets and Minions, or as I've been calling them Puppinions, because those are the only ones that benefit from the vast majority of Collodi's Buffs. Yes, Teddy is a fun monster and you can certainly work him into a Collodi crew, but you'd be better served by something Collodi can twist the strings of.
 
Marionettes
 
Collodi's lovable totem. He can hire 4 of them, and I usually do grab 3 or 4 of them. At 3SS they are probably the least expensive significant model in the game. And with Df/Wp 5 and Hard to Kill can be tiresome to remove for most crews, despite their low wounds, amplified if you granted them Armor +1. Their melee attack is about what you'd expect from a 3SS minion. But bumps up to a respectable Ml5 in THE BUBBLE, with THE BUBBLE-based critical strike on rams. Something to note is their severe damage is 4, (5 with a ram) and with focus, fast and 4 of these little blighters draining your opponent's hand you can get some lucky and devastating strikes in with them
 
The big use most people will get out of Marionettes is Retract. When the Marionette dies it can throw any conditions it has on it (namely Personal Puppet) onto a friendly minion. This allows you to chain through ALL the Marionettes you have with proper positioning.
 
The 2" push is a bit of a trap, do it if you desperately need to move something 2", but dont go trying to be 1E Collodi, you cant afford 4 cards a turn to move 8"
 
Effigies
 
Why yes, Im putting these guys second because they are going to be very important to every Collodi player. You're going to want one Limited upgrade or the other and both feature the Effigies. Not to mention you can just hire them out of the gate for their very useful abilities. They all share the same stat block of 4SS Df6, WP5, 4 Wounds Armor 1 and Hard to Kill. They can be quite survivable little blighters, but not so much so that you should count on one filling a role for the whole game. Have backup plans. Each Effigy has a meh attack which Im not really going to go over. What you want is their (0) Master Buff and each one also tends to have a more generic Buff or Ability as well. Thats what we're going to look at
 
Arcanists: Arcane Effigy - Cleanse Fate is your access to condition removal on friendlies. Lovely for picking off that Burning +8. His (0) Master buff gives your attacks burning +1 unless your opponent discards a card  after each hit. This is a FANTASTIC increase in crew damage. Or in hand draining. Either way, top tier contender for crew buffs. Not bad on its own either
 
Guild: Brutal Effigy - My personal favourite. His regular ability is just gaining Finish The Job, sure thats fine. His (0) buff is spectacular though. Gaining 1 wound back when you do damage to an enemy with an attack and drawing a card when you kill. Strum + This. Gain fast, hit at least once, congrats you can strum again next turn! Hit twice? You're back to full. The card draws are just gravy. Even without spreading it to the crew its a great way to keep Collodi's wound count up.
 
Gremlins: Lucky Effigy - Not sure why the Gremlins have an effigy, not being a real faction and all, but its here and its pretty good! The (1) action forces attacks towards the Effigy, which is situational, but hey, sometimes I'd rather lose my effigy than face tank Nekima. The (0) action is another healing power, healing you whenever you flip a ram in any duel. So, this can potentially be a hell of a lot more healing than Brutal, just less reliably so. Great backup plan though!

Update: Oh hey, as written its ANY ram flipped during a duel, so flip 3 cards cause hard to wound? ANY of those being a ram heals you. So, if your opponent declares Resser, this could be better for you than Brutal.
 
Neverborn: Mysterious Effigy - Friendlies within 2" of this model can cheat face down. Being a Lynch player I can tell you this is a fun way to mess with your opponent if you've a good poker face. Making them waste a 13 when you cheat in a 4 is very useful too. His (0) lets you end the effigy condition to push 3" after resolving an attack against the buffed model. Pretty damn useless on Collodi, and most opponents will just tag one model, let it push then keep after it now that it can't push again. You'd be better off defensively with the Lucky Effigy flipping rams on defense and relying on Hard to Kill.
 
Outcasts: Hodgepodge Effigy - My other favourite. A (1) action to gain a 4" bubble around Hodgepodge of soft cover for an 8. Until his next activation. What a wonderful way to move up with your crew! His (0) lets you drop a card for a SS whenever you kill or sacrifice an enemy model. Uh, yes please. On my whole crew? WHY YES. Just so freaking good for 4SS
 
Ressers: Carrion Effigy - (1) to remove immunities to a bunch of stuff within 5" of this model. If youve decided you like Horror, Paralyze, Poison or SLOW (remember Collodi likes slow a lot) its worth a look. Now, its (0) lets you eat a corpse marker with 4" of you at the start of your activation to make a healing flip. This is another good healing ability. If your opponent declares ressers you can be a real jerk and let your whole crew eat their basic resource every activation. Mean.
 
Ten Thunders: Shadow Effigy - A (1) and 10 gets you a scheme marker in base contact with target friendly minion at the end of its activation. Good for certain schemes, but goddamn pricey! But Victory Point may be worth it. Conditional on Schemes really. Its (0) is a one time negative flip on an attack your opponent makes against you. Not really going to save your bacon? Im not a huge fan of Shadowy, although Im still going to buy one of course.
 
Beckoners
 
Why yes, this is the next important model I think you should get. One of the main crew weaknesses Collodi has is that puppets tend to have higher Df and often have armor, but very low on wounds. Running your THE BUBBLE into your opponent's... lets call it a MISTAKESWEREMADE FIELD  means you're probably going to lose a few models as they knock off your puppet friends. We take a Beckoner because they can drag an activated opponent's model from 18" away. Even if they resist one or both of the Lures, Collodi can twist the Beckoner's strings up to 4 times to make her Lure with positive flips. You're going to get that model you want dead. She can also attack at range without randomization/worrying about cover like Collodi can. And hey, more Brilliance if you're taking Illuminated as well. Top tier choice for board control.

Coryphee
 

We now have access to Coryphee! Not the duet, but that could get a little silly with the buffs we can give out. The Coryphee is one of the main powerhouses of a Collodi crew, an excellent choice for beating up enemy models or running objectives (with its Wk7). Positive flips to Df and Wp with Df6 and Armor 2 ensure a bit more survivability for the 4 wound Coryphee, but being aware of Armor Ignoring and Wp attacking model on your opponent's side is going to be crucial in keeping it alive. But you should have enough healing in your crew to not die the death of a thousand cuts.

The attack of the Coryphee is a motley Ml6 with a positive twist on the attack. The 2/4/5 damage track seems about average for a 7ss model, the 4 being a great place to dump 6's and 7's when you get the chance to cheat your damage flip. Being a puppet, its also the only model in the 7SS range we have thats going to benefit from Strum (Sorry Beckoners, Illuminated, Young Nephs and Ronin). But the Mask trigger is why I tend to take Coryphee over those guys. Carefully timed, tossing a negative twist onto an opponent's Df and Wp means that model is dead. An inability to cheat means total card control over that model, and is a boss use of a Mask.

Stitched

The old stand by of old lists, Stitched are still pretty good, but not as auto include as they once were. First off, if you arent singing the oogie boogie song to your opponent during this model's activation you simply shouldnt be allowed to use it. A 7 for Creepy Fog is another good source of mobile softcover, so its a good pick along with Hodgepodge for that. Gamble Your Life remains much the same, loser takes a hefty 3/4/7 damage flip with no modifiers. Now, much like last edition Stitched are going to get to go again if they slam themselves too hard with this ability, unlike last edition, your opponent can totally kill them before they get the chance. But they retain Hard to Kill so after you drop yourself down to 1 wound and get reactivate you've still got a chance to heal yourself up. A note: you DO get to flip a card from Rotten Contents if you hit yourself (hooray!) you DONT get to heal if you flip a ram and have Lucky Effigy, thats not a duel. Nice try though.

Stitched are usually what I bring if Im taking Coryphee, slapping your opponent with being unable to cheat their Df certainly makes it very likely that this will be the last time they hear the boogie song (Woah-oh)

Mannequins

The Coryphee's baby sister. Insignificant and 3 wounds they rely heavily on their Armor 3 to not be taken off the board. So like so much of our crew, please be aware of what models in the game ignore armor. Cause they will wreck your day. You'd take Mannequins for 2 reasons:

1) They let you throw scheme markers 6". So if you're playing with schemes that benefit from that (Plant Explosives and Spring the Trap jump to mind) they're a good choice. Or if those schemes come up a good 4SS decoy making your opponent THINK you took those schemes

2) They have a Ml5 attack that auto triggers for giving out slow, with a 2" range no less. Collodi likes slow models because he can sap off that last AP himself. Bringing a Mannequin lets Collodi devote more of his AP to other things, rather than having to spend some of his time doing the Slow himself. If you're planning on going the slow heavy route you can most certainly consider taking some Alps as well.

Wicked Dolls

I didn't use Wicked Dolls with Collodi last edition, I took PILES of them with Zoraida though. And they are pretty different now. Their focus has shifted to Poison manipulation in the extreme. To get the most benefit out of them you're going to think you want models that play with Poison too; notably Weaver Widow or possibly Lelu if you've decided to make Collodi King of The Nephilim (we'll talk about it more under Young Nephilim), but the Wicked Dolls will turn your Ml attack into poisoned ones so long as the doll is within 2" of the target. Benefit is double poison damage. Down side: Df6, 4 wounds, no Armor. These little guys die awful fast. Either give your opponent something more important to hit or saturate the board with them.

You can "slingshot" Wicked Dolls by using their ranged attack to place them within 2" of the target, then melee attack with a tome to sling them back to their master, but its a bit card intensive. And you really want the Wicked Dolls hugging up on their target. What you really need to do is get off their Crows trigger on their ranged attack, limiting the activating model to walk actions unless they drop 2 cards. With 4 or more wicked dolls and your opponent clumping up a little you can decimate hand or activations; opponent's choice.

That said, these all tend to be fringe or somewhat gimmicky lists. Their common theme is needing a fair amount of wicked doll. Which I honestly wouldnt want to pay for. But hey, Collodi can summon them, so its a fine use of a scrap counter if youre full up on marionettes and cant summon Effigies.

Vasilisa

This is a new model, Collodi's Henchman, and a bit of a trick to use. She's 9SS but Im going to be taking her upgrade, bumping her to 11SS so she can place a Puppet in base contact with herself if it was within 2" of her when she started her walk. Df 7 makes her fairly survivable, less so against dedicated melee, but great against Ml4/5 chaff, and she has a Mask trigger on Df to push like Collodi. She's also Wk6 and ignores severe terrain (You did follow my terrain guide right? You are USING difficult terrain, right?) And as a pleasant little bonus drops Wp of enemies by 1 within 4" of her.

(0) Action give a non-you or Collodi puppet pal a free (1) action and she's got a maskless Obey if for some reason you find yourself flush with them. Her main attack is Needle and Thread, a Ml7 1/2/4 attack with triggers on all but Tomes to lock off an opponents Tactical, Attack or Walk actions forcing them to take 1, 2 or 3 damage to get them back respectively. Her attack is... less than impressive for such an expensive model, but shouldnt be discounted, Ml7 is accurate enough that if you really want to you can make it stick to any enemy in the game, and against chaff models will be able to hit even with poor cards.

So when should you take Vasilisa? Ideally when the following happens in scheme selection: you have both an interact with enemy model scheme, and one needing interaction on the enemies' side of the board, not with their models. Or just Territory Interaction. So we're looking at

Enemy Model Interaction: Disctract, Cursed Object, Spring the Trap, Plant Explosives (bring a Mannequin), Deliver a Message

Enemy Territory Interaction: A Line in The Sand (This is where Vasilisa will be, see image below), Stake a Claim, Breakthrough, Plant Evidence, Entourage,  Power Ritual (more debatable, two coryphee may work better)

Ideally, what we want to see happen is making the enemy deployment be spread out as they try to accomplish more schemes. We use Vasilisa to start work on A Line in the Sand and send off a Coryphee to pick off the outliers for Distract or Cursed Object, or Spring the Trap and Plant Explosives if they left their Master to fend for themselves. If they still bunch together then we try to accomplish Territory Interactions, as we can be near there turn 1. See below:

In frame 1 we didn't get deployment so we set up a Coryphee and Vasilisa mid board. We spend a few turns out activating our opponent with Marionettes and Effigies before shooting Vasilisa up to the Centerline in frame 2 and very little should stop her from getting there Unimpeded. Frame 3 we Twist the Coryphee into taking a walk action and frame 4 has them either charging to try to kill off the excess enemy minion, or simply walking up to use their last AP to Interact with the minion. You've got 32" inches of move here (6 Deployment, 12 V Double walk, 7 Twist Move, 7 C walk) so you should be able to get where you need to go, Even easier if you set up second.

If you're doing something like Plant Evidence you just aim for the spot where the enemy isn't or a spot poorly defended (If they left one necropunk to do a corner for Power Ritual you slap that off the board with a Coryphee). And while your opponent spends turn 2 dealing with a Coryphee (while you use superior speed to not be around that much), you spend turn 2 laying down scheme markers along the centerline. Even easier if a Mannequin is around. 

Long story short: Vasilisa is a sometimes pick, she's not the killy brute of a Joss or an Ice Golem, but tactically she can really shine and throw your opponent for a bit of a loop if they arent prepared for crazy movement. There are other ways to use her, like dragging Collodi up the board, but I've found the above to be a good general guideline on how to use her. Short story shorter: Sometimes take her, she isn't bad.

Weaver Widow/Widow Weaver
 
I'm not sure why she flipped her names between editions... But hey, let's talk spider ladies.

Right off the bat; strike against because Collodi can't buff Weaver. But she's a support piece unto herself. She's got the Wk buff to constructs (that's usually all of your stuff, less a Beckoner, so you'll be able to get to your objective positions just a little bit sooner. And you're going to want to to take advantage of your Webs.

A 3" bubble of -1Wp every turn is pretty crazy. Most of your models attack on Df, but Collodi attacks on Wp remember. If you can get Weaver within 6" of your center line objectives (which 6" of deployment and double walk of 10" should be no problem) you can start stacking -Wp markers right on the thing your opponent needs to be on. The markers are not easily removed either, basically they'll need to kill Weaver so make sure they don't do that. Hang back from the objective brawl until you've got enough Webs to feel confident in your ability to be protected by your Terrifying. Even then, I'd hold back and just barf Exhale Terror on things near the webs to force Horror duels.  Then just gleefully toss low Masks from Collodi to dominate your objective point

If there's no obvious choke point that will happen in your game (Reckoning for example) I find Weaver a bit less useful. I reeeeeally want those stacked webs. Still useful, but I think its a lot better when you know you can apply -5wp or gain {ALL THE VP}.

Her melee attack is alright. Nothing wrong with ignoring armor. I've generally preferred to Exhale terror though, letting me stay further back, drain my opponent's hand with Horror too. Situational to throw your opponent into a web as well. Poison benefits you if you're packing a lot of Wicked Dolls. Again though, I tend to prefer to hang back as much as I can, but tossing an Izamu or something into a Web/away from you is very viable.

Seize Prey: Nononono. Where's my star wars reaction meme folder.... Its a Trap. You're Collodi, you don't want to give up all your webs for paralyze. You want to make use of those webs yourself. Maybe turn 5? But nah, I just dont see myself really using this

A big draw of Weaver for most is her Handbag upgrade, letting you turn scrap into Wicked Dolls and 4 counters of any kind into a Teddy. I tend to not take this upgrade. All the power to you if you get use out of it, but needing high Masks and MAYBE getting a Teddy out of isnt the draw of Weaver Widow to me. If I wanted Teddy, I'd hire Teddy. I typically really need those 2ss elsewhere, but its not a BAD upgrade, you can totally get a bunch of Wicked Dolls out of it if you want, but you could also be barfing terror on people and making them drop cards and maybe drawing some yourself from Inhale Terror.

So long story short, Weaver is fantastic if you're playing anything with a choke point, you can hold center much easier with her in play and she's still alright if you're not. You can tailor your list to do more horror, but I think just sticking to Collodi's strengths and having her support him is going to be your best bet.

More Coming! Up next: Young Nephilim, Illuminated and Ronin

Hello Puppet-Lovers! This is going to be my first attempt at writing a Tactica for use with my favourite Master: Collodi. I used Collodi a lot in the Wave 2 Beta and think I have a good grasp of the tactics and abilities you can make use of in a Collodi crew, which I would like to share with New Players and old alike, as well as maybe give Collodi's Opponents a leg up if they are finding him a difficult Master to go up against in their local group.

Let's begin with where we came from: In M1E Collodi's tactics involved spinning a small ball of marionettes into anything and having that thing die rather brutally, from just about anywhere on the board. While maintaining a lot of the same flavour in 2E Collodi is not going to fly across the board with his entire crew, that said he has never felt more like a PuppetMaster in my opinion, and I'd like to show people why, especially if theyre having trouble transitioning.

StatBlock

First off Collodi is a Low-Wound Master. His Df is average at 5, with good WP at 6. 5Wk makes him a little faster than average, but is going to leave some players missing his old 40" moves. However,  he can push 3" after any Df targeting attack, so if youve got some low cards to toss you can attack him with your own models to push him up the board. We've also got Accomplice so he can always have a friend go after him and Puppet Friends, which gives him access to any out of faction Puppet model, which is currently Mannequins, Coryphee and the Effigies.

The 6" Bubble

Collodi's abilities and buffs all center around a 6" bubble around him. This makes him more vulnerable to blast-heavy crews, but also makes it much easier to buff your entire crew at once. Of note is that Collodi's buffs do not require you to STAY in this bubble. Learning when to venture from the bubble is going to be an important skill for 2e Collodi players.

Personal Puppet

This is one of Collodi's (0) actions and marks a friendly Minion as the Personal Puppet until he uses the ability again. This grants the PP a (1) action any time Collodi suffers damage from an enemy model while within THE BUBBLE, so long as they take 1 damage themselves.  It also grants Collodi the ability to kill (not sacrifice, so it will drop Corpse/Scrap) the Personal Puppet to negate all damage from whatever just hit him.

This gives us 2 courses of action with PP.

1) We can throw it on something menacing, like an Illuminated, Young Neph or Ronin, and furiously punish things for hitting Collodi (or stalk the PP closer to priority targets and mark something else PP on out next turn. Nothing says dont hit my Master like a magical crack addict clawing your opponent's Master's face off.)

2) We throw it on something throw away, most notable the Marionette totem, and kill them when a Seamus Flintlock RJ dmg flip appears. The nice thing about the Marionettes is that when they die they may transfer positive conditions off to other minions. So you can face-tank a number of hit equal to your marionettes +1 before taking any damage. Assuming they are all in THE BUBBLE.

Ideally you will get a chance to gauge your opponent and pick a tactic that most messes up their gameplan. I usually start off now by putting it on something big unless I guess my opponent is a "kill the master at all costs!!!" kind of player. Beater tends to deter pot shots, chaff tends to deter people from concentrated efforts.

Collodi Hates Mind Bullets

Ok, so Collodi has Df 5 and WP 6, why does he hate WP duels more? Well, first off you'll only usually only be taking one hit from a Df duel due to the auto-triggered Run Away Home; letting you push 3" in any direction, usually good enough to push out of melee or into cover/out of LoS against shooting attacks. Against WP? He's a sitting duck if the attack makes it past his WP6. So prioritize those nasty WP targets, or just avoid them if you can.

But Hates His Opponents More

Lets talk about what Collodi does to your Opponent's crew before we get into what he can do for his own. Collodi's lone offensive skill is Pull The Strings. It is highly accurate, extending 4" past THE BUBBLE and best of all, isnt actually a ranged attack, so does not scatter and does not care about cover.

The attack itself has a... poor damage profile for a master: 2/3/4, but comes with a positive twist to damage, so you can cheat in those middle of the road cards if you want the 3 damage. But no, where this attack shines is in its triggers. SO first of all we have a build in Mask. That Mask gives the opponent slow.  A crow lets us damage AND obey the opponent's non-Leader model, as many times a turn as we have AP and fancy crows to throw at them. The last trigger; Idle Hands, requires a second maske. On that model's activation, you control one of it's AP, and spend it. Now, that on its own is great, but you can shut down nearly any model in the game with 2AP and some good cards. Slapping a model once for slow and then a second time for Idle Hands means they are Paralyzed, without being able to Frozen Heart Immunity their way out of it. They lose 1 AP and you're spending the other. Even models with specific AP like Nekima can be forced to move out of position so they can't make use of their extra AP. Or just stab away with them, your pick. Nasty Ability.

Collodi Loves His Children

Collodi has two more actions on his -base- card, both of which are for helping his wonderful friends out.  Collodi has a deep affinity, like many buffing masters, for Minion and -Keyword- models. His keyword characteristic is of course, Puppets. The first, My Will, allows him to transfer some AP out to his minions/puppets giving them a positive twist to any DUEL they make during the action. So this allows for more easily passed Horror/Manipulative duels, as well as just flatly being more likely to hit. Often you'll be better off attacking with your own strings, but this ability should not be overlooked. It doesnt work on Collodi so dont try.

Second, he can summon back his totem, the marionette, or wicked dolls from scrap left lying around from killing all your decoy personal puppets or killing whatever mechanical beasties your opponent brought. This requires a 9 of Masks, making it one of the worst return-on-investment summoning powers in the game. But only by a TN difference of 1 so, its not the end of the world. This ability is one of the reasons you might pause on taking some of the NB minions I mentioned because they will all be dropping corpses, save the Coryphee. But you should have plenty of scrap from marionettes dying and effigies getting taken out.

Fated VS Props

Collodi's two Limited upgrades are going to change how you're playing with him. Both provide Creep, a handy little 3" push (0) action, good for getting out of engagements and moving up the board. What they differ on is key though: Do you want to Buff Your Crew or do you want to Buff Your Master?

Fated was my go-to during the playtest. Effigy buffs are very powerful and will be covered in more detail in their own section. But suffice to say, being able to grant your Puppinions healing on causing damage, burning on every attack unless your opponent discards, etc and being able to do so -without activating Collodi- is very powerful indeed. When Collodi activates he can also grant a second buff to the crew by taking an action. This is usually defensive stance or more notably: Focus. If you have been reading game dev Justin's blog, you'll know how valuable AP is as a resource and I found myself on average granting it to 4-7 Puppinions, which is a heck of a lot of AP saved.

Props is the contrast. It allows Collodi to sap off Defensive Stances and Focus conditions from friendlies as required. Now on the surface this seems much less useful, but having Out of Position models ending their turn on a Defensive Stance or Focus can free up a LOT of Collodi's AP, let him stand a higher chance of drawing suits he needs and just generally let him be more effective while chaff models secure you activations and are no less effective at being in your opponents way. If you find yourself thinking Marionettes are not useful, this may be the upgrade to try. Especially with Avatar Collodi's attacks (covered in the third post) You'll also get the option to summon Effigies! You dont get their buff across your whole Puppinion base, but if there's scrap around they can be more useful than a Wicked Doll and Collodi certainly does still get to benefit from the Effigy buffs!

I Heard There Are Other Upgrades?

Right you are title! My favourite/always taking of the remaining upgrades is Strum The Threads. This allows Puppinions Puppets-Only in THE BUBBLE to take 2 unavoidable damage to gain fast. Now Puppets tend to have low wounds high defences, so if you dont have a way of healing (which you do! See: Effigies) you can quickly wipe yourself off the board, but Illuminated could heal that back same turn. And now they are FAST magical crack addicts. It should be noted this is NOT an action, its just an ability so you cant spread Fast to your Puppinions with Fated. Stop doing so, take your 2 damage like a... man puppet? Like a muppet.

Breathe Life exists! Its another option for a (0), letting you toss 2 wounds back on a model, but it can't be you, so probably pass? Pushing Puppinions 2" is actually more useful than it sounds. You can unlock a lot of models from combat or manage some extra distance. If you're hitting 8 models with it, it is 16" of free movement? I dunno, I still haven't got it to be as useful as I think it COULD be.

Threads of Fate. Not to be confused with Fated, this makes Collodi immune to forced movement, which is pretty dang super. You also get a (1) to give yourself Armor. Now, aside from the obvious interaction with Fated and giving that armor to your Puppinions, did you consider making yourself Fast with Strum, giving yourself Armor +4 and then not caring so much about the Beatstick in your face? Especially since that 1 minimum damage still lets your PP get free AP. Im sure I can do more with the Collodadillo. 

Next we'll be discussing Collodi's best pals the doll friends, followed by some Avatar Collodi pondering!