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Kharnage

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Everything posted by Kharnage

  1. Glad people can get hyped about the two biggest master stans in the business facing off on a final round top table in the most points-valuable tournament before the invitational. I'm not saying this is an anime tournament arc, but if it is, I'm hosed. I beat him in a casual game a couple months ago, so when the stakes are highest now, he's sure to win.
  2. It was indeed with solo Nekima. 6-1 over Pandora. He chose to also hire double matures with Ancient Pact, and it was a bold strategy, and he even got first blood by killing one of my Matures, but it kind of all fell apart when his Candy moved to within 8 inches (so triple attack) range of Nekima turn 1. At that point, Nekima Blade Rushed one of his Matures to death (beaten low by my remaining Mature), and burnt all but one of his stones (neg to damage, stone to reduce) beating on Candy, so she died Turn 2 before she could activate to Hayreddin splat-batting her and then Pustuling HIS Mature, and then Pandora fell to Nekima the next activation before Pandora could activate (Nekima Scampered to block LoS to the rest of her crew so that he couldn't Mood Swing the activation off) because with no stones left Pandora crumples. He also hired Thoon which was interesting, but couldn't get to the combat fast enough. I was afraid though, Pandora is usually a very swingy matchup for Nekima.
  3. What are you asking for here, exactly? A battle report using GG2, or a long-form discussion with thoughts on GG2 generally?
  4. It was not that third Focus stack that carried Nekima through dark times. I find that, rather than focus stacking, Strategies have a much larger impact on her viability, namely those that reward aggressive alpha plays and mobility, which GG2 definitely does. No more Public Enemies and no more Recover Evidence means that folks can't just slow ball in their own deployment and expect to win. You've got to cross the center line and take non-killing actions, which Nephilim are just naturally good at (as well as denying) Beyond that, a lot of the "soft" stances that came with the new errata and GG2 benefit Nephilim. While our summoned Terror Tots no longer can run strategies for us, they were always meant to turn into Young Nephilim and just kill things anyway. This also means that the plethora of summoners who sought to overpower us with AP-dumping (Break the Line would have been RIFE with summoners without that rule) can't, and losing their cheapy resummonables doesn't work as a point scoring method, so rushing with focused Matures and Nekima into whatever they were hoping to score with is quite strong. With the new Toward and Away rulings, Shove Aside is now a cone of movement that I can choose from, making our in melee offensive movement way more adaptable. And of course, "Another" back to the way God intended means that Nekima can take her own Enraged by Insolence attacks, placing the heat back on Nekima rather than her crew, which is where I want it, as she's the most likely to absorb and tank. What Nekima does that Titania doesn't, is synergize with the Nephilim keyword, move a potential 18 inches a turn while taking attacks with Frenzied Charge, and rob AP with 2 inch reach. Titania's great, and she's got a high win rate for a reason, but she is not a better Nekima.
  5. The FAQ addresses We Are Legion healing in the same exact way that the Vassal FAQ handled it, so it shouldn't have any meaningful impact on this data.
  6. Usually it was stacked out Rat Kings and whoever was snorting that scheme marker cocaine in Bayou. Ophelia and/or Rami with 12 cups was my most common "that's a lot of focus" foes. Nekima could hit 4 focus though if I had the tomes in hand for the Shaman triggers and I didn't have any diving to do turn 1 (so, fairly rare)
  7. Is the Whisper a really great upgrade? Heck yeah. It's the reason Seamus and Kirai are so reliable in their roles. But Inhuman Reflexes and Ancient Pact are upgrades I take in nearly every crew I hire in Neverborn. Ancient pact gives us the initiative in the vast majority of my games, not to mention the ignorance of the black is good enough to just put it on masters so their turn is more reliable. Is Eldritch Magic bad? Yeah, it's not picked a lot. But it doesn't typify our upgrades. Beyond that, while I was the highest ranked purveyor of Free Win lucid dreaming Dreamer, I am glad to see it go. It was brainless. I felt stupid playing anything else competitively. And now that the word "another" works again, Nekima has some missing teeth back in her kit and I can play what I want competitively, moreso because I'm not going to be drowning in bodies of summoned models who can still run the strategy. Is Serena bad now? I think so. She lost a bit too much tank for my tastes. But Serena does not the faction make. Frankly, for as hard as some factions got hit (basically anybody who played Yan Lo is weeping openly) Neverborn are doing all right.
  8. You wot m8? Jedza wishes she healed her crew as much as the Intrepid Emissary. Their condition removal is indeed generally not great, and while hopeful prospects are great for certain crews (I find them invaluable in Cooper) they seem to find less room in other crews.
  9. You're sitting on that glorious pewter and aren't doing anything with it?! Give that God Empress the table time she deserves! A basement! BAH! The neeerve!
  10. Not gonna lie, if True Nekima™ was on sale right now as a classic, I'd buy another one... *whistles hopefully*
  11. I would weep openly if I was unable to use M1e Nekima, true Nekima, at tournaments.
  12. Real Basse players spam Home on the Range anyway. Remember kids; you don't have to waste time walking if you start the game in the enemy deployment
  13. Tragically for Tara, I don't think I'm sweating her on Recover Evidence Though people who do play her I would watch out for, simply on the basis that if they're madlads enough to do it, they might be extremely competent. Or insane. Or both.
  14. Shamelessly copying the faction discussion prep threads from other factions, here's the setup: I felt dirty playing Ten Thunders last tournament (though I will admit Shen Long is quite fun) so I'm likely to just solo the God Empress for the tournament, but what are others of our kin considering for Round 1? Do those that creep along the ground think that Marcus might be a solid choice here? Personally I am afraid of what might end up being other factions' Recover Evidence choices, since that's probably stuff like... Schtook, Hoffman, Misaki, Jack Daw, Ophelia, etc. Thoughts?
  15. Always happy to give out advice to servants of the God Empress 😈 Ophelia is a feast or famine matchup for Nekima, and public enemies makes it somewhat more harrowing. You will live and die by when and where you start your engagements. Reach-robbing will be supremely important, as every AP Ophelia and Francois lose (or at least one that isn't spent dealing big beefy damage) is a huge breath of air for a crew with no innate damage reduction. Additionally, Nekima's general reliance on 10 stone models to ruin lives, who themselves all possess a weakness to ranged firepower, is especially dicey in Public Enemies. So what do you do? This next map possesses a lot of concealment and LoS blocking terrain, so I'd wager you're actually at somewhat of an advantage, since you're likely to start the fight with specifically melee attacks rather than weathering a storm of ranged fire first. There's also not a super clean place for Rami, Ophelia's crutch, to set up and take shots until she can force you to engage in his LoS. If you can manage it, I'd recommend bodying him first; his damage output is huge for a 6 stone model, and his death is affordable in terms of effort. Your foe is likely to make use of Twelve Cups to ramp up focus on Ophelia and Rami. This means that concealment as a defensive tool is less useful, but makes cover very important. That 2/4/5 (before crit) track smarts a lot less if they can't guarantee a moderate or severe, and with the cover bonus to defense it adds to the potential to just clean miss, so if you must choose between concealment and cover, choose cover. Obviously not being seen at all is the best choice, however, which the Ht 3 towers and dense clouds help with. With all these tools, you should be able to close the gap and fight in melee, and if you can force Ophelia to fight Matures in melee, this is ideal, since every "oops flipped only a 7" is a master AP lost, and mitigating Ophelia effectively is what will win you the game. Also keep in mind that 12 cups is annoying because of the Diversion aura, so if you want to use Fly With Me in an activation, use it early, rather than when you've closed. Because of Regen in the crew, it's typically in your best interest to fight in protracted, drawn out fights rather than quicky snappy engagements. Obviously you want Ophelia and friends to die as quickly as possible, but what I mean is that if you have to choose between using a card to guarantee a hit or using a card to guarantee Ophelia misses one of her attacks or only deal damage on a neg, I'd recommend the latter. I'm not saying don't cheat attacks, but I would lean defensively on cheating overall. Also, I have to respectfully disagree with @ooshawn's assessment of Lilitu in this matchup. They're 7 cost, which is a perfect bite-size giving up of 2 tokens, and df 4 with 7 wounds, so if Ophelia can see them, they're likely good as dead, and with Mv 5 and no wings, they're just dang slow. In corner, the longer you give Ophelia to just suck up scheme markers for Focus, the harder your life will be, so I'd recommend a fast crew. Matures if you can, Young if you must. Speaking of Fast, using Candy's Goody Basket with Burn Out trigger on Matures can do wonders in the early turns where they can't be seen/reached, since they can just regen the Burn Out damage (make sure to be within 2 but outside of 1, so she doesn't splash herself), and Matures can just carry her up the board to ruin lives with her Corrupted Innocence aura for the subsequent turn. Alternatively, if you feel dirty about OOK, Hayreddin is a decent pick because he makes short work of Ophelia's useful and squishy totems with Pustule spamming, possibly giving you tots in the process. While this is summoning models for Ophelia and friends to shoot, you're probably giving up big chunky points with Matures anyway, so more bodies on the table is just a net plus, and they have a bunch of dead Young Lacroix to eat soon to get big. hopefully. Hope this gives you some things to chew on
  16. My mind would be unbroken, but my soul... My running paranoia is that Wyrd has OBVIOUSLY hired someone (must be that Alt Reva money) with the sole responsibility of nerfing what I play, and they would bring Nekima lower still, so I stay away like a lover scorned so that she might be safe.
  17. For me, there's very few S tier masters. S tier masters to me are the masters that people will jump factions for. If you or someone you know has thought to themselves "SCREW IT! I'll just play this because I'm so tired of it!" Then they're probably S tier. For me, beyond Nexus, it's Dreamer, Colette, and Schtook. Probably Ivan but I don't have enough reps, possibly Jedza, but my jury's still out on her. They all give some feeling of "their consistently-achievable end game condition has been met, it is over now." Did you hit turn 3 without killing half his crew and Dreamer's doing a Lucid Engine? You lose. Did you get your activated important model swapped into that pile of murderers Colette is friends with? You lose. Did you get your 8+ cost model killed by Valedictorian early and now he's got a Viscera out? You lose. Zoraida, Misaki, and Dashel make the top of the A tier list for me, because they do what they do well, but not so well that you feel it's over as soon as it begins. I think that where they are now, more or less, is where the top of the curve should be. Strong, annoying, but there's counterplay and clear losing conditions for each of them.
  18. Honestly I can say I breathed a sigh of relief when Hinamatsu went for the middle; I had no plan to stop you from scoring over there, and I wanted to take advantage of the only stone user without a Terrifying duel to steal stones from. That being said, her tying up Fuhatsu did cause some problems for me, and Fuhatsu otherwise would have had some fairly clear shots into Dreamer. I can also say with confidence that I made some mistakes, but only in retrospect. I set up Desper to break the Web Marker, leap, and score the strategy, but cheated my cards 7+ earlier in the turn, and was afraid of failing the topdeck. That's why I attempted to charge him up the board with Misaki (hoping to flip more cards at it, just topdecked the 8+ then instead of the 7+ later), so he could walk and interact for sure. That ended up giving you points, and put the Bandersnatch in a position that mattered for the rest of the game. I also regret not being able to go for the Daydreams earlier in the game on account of my inefficient Shadow marker placement, and not being able to heal Ototo because he was too far from the monk, instead just healing Fuhatsu at full for focus. My Play of the Game definitely goes to the Katashiro slicing up Serena though, that was nuts. 8 Health pre-demise to 3 health post-demise, so 13 damage in a single activation, seems like a lot of power for a 5 stone summonable model, even if it costs him his life. Great game, and I hope to play more!
  19. I would argue true Lucid Dreamer is just as bad as current Nexus, and had Dreamer come out with the ES, I would be just as mad. He too is a braindead 2 turn win condition. The joy is that he's, you know, on the menu. Which is really the key here. The things that Nexus are able to compete with, or win out against, even, are already confirmed to be too strong. Rare is the individual sitting around thinking to themselves "What's the fuss with Schtook and Colette? They seem fine". They're waaay better than their compatriots. So is Nexus. Debatably more so. And from a pure fun perspective, I'd rather play into those masters in a heartbeat. That grimy feeling that Zoraida gives out when she takes your dudes, uses your focus, and ruins your position at least has the good sense to *end* when her activation's over. Nexus hands that to you, and it doesn't go away for the whole game. Worse still, they remind you nearly every activation until the sweet release of death takes you. That combines with their flat numbers strength to be the NPE Nexus truly is.
  20. Actually, the Lucid Dream engine works out pretty well into Cadmus. A replenishable front line that by turn 3 doesn't fail "or gain a parasite tokens" and can mindlessly dump 30+ damage into the network a turn. My game into a Nexus last month wasn't counted towards the overall stats of Nexus because of a tilt-out over time management, but it was quite arguably going my way already. But saying that Lucid Dream spam can deal with Nexus is like saying if the Romans just had thermonuclear power Rome wouldn't have been sacked. Sure, it's probably true, but for most folks, it's not really useful information.
  21. More power to ya, I'm just trying to make this thread specifically about Nexus. There's decent masters for decent folk in ExpSo, I want to make things concise for when folks are trying to form an opinion on the matter of Cadmus, and diggin' through a will-they-won't-they Molly x Ivan pair off doesn't work to that goal
  22. Quiddit, dang it. Just play the game out if you're both up for it.
  23. Hey! Hey! You two, go make an Ivan thread. We have to compartmentalize the flow of salt, lest we sink the whole ship.
  24. I am by no means an expert, but general Lucius approach boils down to a couple of ideas; superior card manipulation, and AP dumping into key models. Making your dudes do things draws you cards, you have arcane reservoir, and Lawyers have Tools for the Job and access to surge triggers. Lucius in keyword doesn't have a strong front line, and certainly not in Neverborn. Some people import Mature Nephilim since his Command works on minions of any variety (though you don't get card draw for this). Agent 46 is an intimidating beater with his Inhuman Physiology preventing cheating to dodge, but lacks tanky qualities outside of stealth and being a stone user. Passionate Defense from Lawyers and OOK healers make this less of a terrible fate, but he's not gonna be able to dish and take, just dish. He can dish quite a lot though, since you can hire a couple of Changelings, and make it so that Lucius's activation is just spent giving Agent 46 more AP, by commanding Agent 46, then commanding each Changeling to Command Agent 46 (via use of Just Like You copying Command). Investigators are interesting and like Inhuman Reflexes so their 0 inch reach doesn't cripple them, but they're still squishballs and with no healing, they crumble quickly. Alan Reid is a good hire, and Diversion is a strong front of card ability to mess with certain crews. Hinamatsu is an interesting hire with a Lawyer heavy crew because Passionate Defense shielded combines with an unexpected Armor +2 quite well. Obeying Hina becomes an option, but don't forget you can Obey foes to disengage from her and control both the attack and defense on the damaging attack (since Hinamatsu is wicked). Other than that, I don't have a lot on how to make Lucius work, I haven't been successful with him quite yet.
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