CircusBear

As MisterSparkles said, student of conflict can give him an extra AP. There is also the shikome and careful selection of prey and hunting partner to give hime +1AP when he gets close to the prey.

I'll try to organise my thoughts on the non coryphee crews and write something detailed when I get the chance and am not doing a crazy work schedule before the christmas hols!!

The main general point that has been made is not having a coryphee reduces movement and (to some extent) hitting power, I find I need to think more subtly when playing Collette without the duet, which is why I enjoy it!

@Kadeton, if you wanna be bored by my rambling we could catch up for a game sometime *grin*

In my experience, the thing that takes Colette from "decent" to "ridiculously overpowered omg I can't believe it" is the Coryphee Duet. It makes everything so easy, mainly because pretty much the only thing that can match it for mobility is Collodi.

I hate to recommend it because it's such a crutch, but if all you want to do is win some games it's the easiest first step.

Bad Kadeton, go sit in a corner and think about what you are suggesting *grin*

I'm yet to get the avatar, so can't offer much help with that, but in terms of a Colette none coryphee crew, I can offer some suggestions (as its my prefered crew build!). The main mistake is getting too focused on the movement shennanigans, much like all things in malifaux, there is a time and place for them!

One of the most powerful things I have found within the the none coryphee crew is the ability of you models to hand out paralyse. The seduction spell that the performers have is as far as I'm concerned very powerful, its effectively a lure to get your opponent out of position/isolated and possibly paralysed if you can pull them close enough! Don't forget also that Cassandra can copy this spell as is a (1) spell. Combine this with the ability for any of your showgirls to get the ability to use soulstones (inherent for Cassy, and through a mannequin for performer) and a +ve if that soulstone is a mechanical dove, and you have the chance to get the resist well out of reach of most models (I've managed to get Von shill to follow showgirls around the table like a dribbling idiot *grin*).

This is not only useful for getting your opponent away from objectives/areas you want/need to be in, but is also useful for isolating models from any protection that was offered by other members of their crew for you to then gang up on with the movement tricks of colletes crew.

In general - never forget your schemes and strategies!

But as Jonas Albrecht says can you be a bit more specific, how do you normaly play? which masters/factions are you normally playing against? What persuaded you to choose the showgirls in the first place? (I ask this as there are a few different ways to play these girls and I've found that the reasons different people choose collette can differentiate their play style).

Which models do you have available to you?

You could always greenstuff a dress on marcus ...

(oh and on topic I'd be another one for adding a big cat into the pack)

Cheers osoi, it was a good fun day.

I particularly liked that I've worked out how to deal with Von Schill with the showgirls, get Colette to drop him near the pretty ladies and he turns into a drooling old man and doesn't do anything for the rest of the game :-)

I really enjoy running Angelica, she gives your oponent something to think about, as she's not often seen (or considered) by a lot of players.

the base of my showgirls crews are (25 SS);

Collette + 1 dove,

Cassandra,

Angelica,

performer + maniquin.

strats and schemes will vary what I do a little, but as a general rule, I try to keep Angelica near Colette to gain the extra WP from Colette, and then use Angelicas' ability to make showgirls immune to falling back. this can create a bit too much of a 'bunch' in the showgirls crew, so sometimes its good to drop back a showgirls behind your line for the Colette rescue swaps!

With Angelica in attack I will use the shout (hoping to drop the blasts), and try to either have a dove nearby to allow Angelica to use a soulstone to boost the attack if needed. I have also once had luck with triggering the paralyse (when oponenets hand was depleted), and using the normal showgirl movement tricks to get poison 4 on the paralysed model, but this is most definately one of those nice if it happens, not a reliable tactic.

Hope that helps and gives you some ideas, if you want something more in depth I can post up some other things when I have more time to organise my thoughts

Nice work Osoi, can't wait to face these guys across the table again!

Better get myself in gear an finish painting my crew so we can have an all painted game :-)

Hi Osoi,

I'll definately be in, will put my name down on westgamer when I get round to registering for it :-)

Now I just need to decide which crew to take, Collette/Marcus/Viks/Ophelia ...

Look forward to hearing from you

I have marcus and colette crews, not exactly sure of SS, but at a rough guess I'd say maybe around 40SS for each master.

Ok, I really need a partner for this now, preferably a fellow Arcanist.

MythicFOX, if you don't mind being severly handicapped by a novice I may be interested (this would be my first tournement!), I play arcanists was going to PM you, but my internet explorer is being rubbish, if you wanna make contact email me at, *edit removed email address*.

Hi everyone,

Just registered so thought I'd introduce myself, I'm based in North East England (Newcastle) and play various game systems, and have been very much drawn in my malifaux and puppet wars.

I mainly play arcanists (Collette and Marcus), I don't have loads of experience playing yet, but hope to run into a few of you on and around the UK tournement scene.