Black Blood for all!

[Joel]

Hi there,

 

This last week I've been experimenting with the black blood shaman and have got 5 games in with him - 3 at an event.  Now that I've got the idea out into the wild, I thought I'd post up the core of a list and see if the community can improve on it.

 

Here is the core 5 models I used in the list (totalling 23ss, so about half of a crew):

 

Lilith

Primordial Magic

Black Blood Shaman (BBS for short)

2 Illuminated

 

The first activation of the BBS is to strike at each of the illuminated once.  They relent and he applies a little damage to them (doesn't matter what he flips as long as its not a black joker) and gives each of them black blood for the rest of the game.

 

this does mean that the 3 models have to be deployed as a group as the BBS only has an engagement range of 1"

 

when the illuminated activate they regen the damage and get moving up the board into combats.

 

Now, the BBS moves up with them, keeping them both with 12" and LoS if possible - if not, he tracks the one heading towards the biggest group of enemy models.

 

He then hits them, once engaged, with black blood pustule - pulsing damage from them and buffing them at the same time - either giving them positive on Ml or Df duels - or, and this is the biggie, healing them up more on top of their own regen and healing flip action.

 

with Lilith taking the summon the blood upgrade, you can hit an illuminated with this 5 times in a turn doing him 5 damage, pulsing 10 damage in a 1" radius, and potentially only causing 1 wound to the illuminated if the black blood shaman healed him up on both of his shots.  Then the illuminated has his own attacks.

 

The BBS basically takes a great minion and makes it better.

 

Now, illuminated probably aren't the only good model to try this with, and the crew could be further augmented with say a doppleganger or a second BBS perhaps, or maybe something else?

 

let me know what you think and maybe some directions you would take this crew.

 

Lilith doesn't have to lead it - maybe Lucius or Collodi to have the BBS perform actions outside of its activation would work out well.  Lucius could even teleport an illuminted into a well-positioned fight...

 

...anyway, its over to you - what do you think of this mini-team?

[Gorbad]

Ohh, that seems mean. I must admit I have not looked at the BSB at all so far, so something like this hadn't crossed my mind. Don't know how much healing it gives, would something like this be possibly to do with Hannah? Was just thinking that she is on a large base, so could possibly catch a larger number of models in range of Black Blood, and if you got a sorrow around she can copy Misery Loves Company so you can put her right where you need her. And of course, her melee damage can feature blasts for more irresistible damage output. It does require a fair few models to work though, but all of those models are good on their own too.

 

Another version might be Silurids who with leap can get somewhere good very fast, engage something, hopefully bite it a bit, then splash black blood all over them and then when killed bring out either Bad Juju or maybe even Killjoy if you wanted to continue the black blood theme.

[Joel]

a black-blooded sorrow would be a very nice thing, but might well not get to pulse the black blood more than once due to its low wound count, still in a Pandora crew where activation order can be controlled, it could be very useful

 

the BBS pustule, with a crow, does 1 damage to the target (causing the 2 damage in a  1" pulse) and then heals the target 3 wounds if its still alive - so an overall healing of 2 wounds while doing 2 damage to those close to the target.

 

I haven't thought abpout Hannah either, but yes, she could be rather useful.

[namtar]

Hi!

 

I already tried this one with the following team:

 

Pandora

Widow Weaver

Kade

Teddy

Primordial

BBs

Tot

Tot

 

First round: black blood for teddy and Pandora. In the second for kade, after it kade can go after teddy, so it doesn't hold him back, to wait for the second round. The tots can run for schemes, and after finished, they can grow after a kill, or with BBs and a corpse marker to young, for more killing power.

 

As a master my favourite is Pandora, and IMO Widow Weaver is one of the best hanchmen for her. (Sometimes Barbaros, if more killing power is needed  ).

 

The only problem is the  1, which is often not enough after the enemy notice what would you like to do and the range of most meele attack is higher than this value. For this a perfect thing is pandora auto trigger for Wp duels, and the auto trigger of Hug on Teddy. With theese you can push them often in BtB, thus the black blood can work.

[PraetorDragoon]

Great mini-team Might be interesting to see how well it works with Matyr/Woes.

[Falconrider]

I've considered Juju as a target for the BBS though if he's killed (buried) his BB condition gets removed.  Though if one can get enough heals on him he will be a huge pain to remove. 

[Snakeshit]

Sounds Interesting, but lets say I kill the BBS what then. I know you still have a lot of other models. You might get it right for 1 turn then an experienced player sees what you are doing and kills the BBS that's all your fun over. Well with those 3 models anyway. I love all little tricks like that and all for them but just make sure you have a back up plan. I think 2 BBS would be good.

[Joel]

but remember, the BBS doesn't need to be anywhere near the front line - he can be 12" away and still use his pustule ability.  He can be holding a recon corner or protecting some territory or the like away from the fight and in cover.  If you lead with Lilith, then her own summon the blood is plan B - it doesn't have the triggers, but can still pulse out the damage quite nicely.

[zFiend]

Sounds pretty amazingly wicked actually! How would you see this working on a Lynch list? With Huggy + Rising Sun and the Illuminated's profiting from Brilliance as well?

[Myth]

I've looked at using the Black Blood Shaman with Collodi. Have him give Collodi Black Blood, and have Collodi give him Personal Puppet, and have the two of them hang out together.

Then let an unsuspecting enemy charge Collodi, and watch the following happen:

1) Collodi takes damage. Enemy takes 1 damage from Black Blood.

2) This activates Personal Puppet. The Black Blood Shaman takes 1 damage to take a (1) Action. Enemy takes 1 damage from Black Blood.

3) Black Blood Shaman uses his free action to cast Black Blood Pustule from Collodi, possibly healing Collodi, while dealing 2 more damage to the enemy.

Especially if Collodi happens to be running a more survival-focused list (with the buff to gain Armor, and Effigies that can provide healing), the enemy can end up taking more damage by hitting Collodi than they actually deal to him! And if you hand out the Black Blood to other minions (and Illuminated can also work well here), you can make it really painful for the enemy to get near your guys, since Collodi can use My Will to give the Black Blood Shaman more castings of Black Blood Pustule (with a +Flip bonus to help land the cast or have more options for triggers.)

One final little perk - while the Black Blood on the Shaman is an Ability, the Black Blood he hands out to his friends is a Condition. Marionettes reduce damage from Conditions by 1, which means they can safely hang out near Collodi or anyone else the Shaman has buffed!

[Csonti]

I've looked at using the Black Blood Shaman with Collodi. Have him give Collodi Black Blood, and have Collodi give him Personal Puppet, and have the two of them hang out together.

Then let an unsuspecting enemy charge Collodi, and watch the following happen:

1) Collodi takes damage. Enemy takes 1 damage from Black Blood.

...

 

Unfortunately the most dangerous melee beatsticks out there tend to have a 2" reach.

[Myth]

That is true - though Collodi can at least Push next to them after the first swing, thanks to Run Away Home. Which won't help land the initial Black Blood, but should let him get into position for the Black Blood Pustule.

[oreaper]

So i have recently found this topic and wanted to say that i have been recently trying this tactic with a lynch list (due to a niffty conversion i've made). I've been running a few illuminated, a BBS, hungry,lynch, a doppleganger with useless duplications (lurks aroung the the BB Illuminated), and then and to taste. This crew has been money for any schemes requiring killin and not being killed. Its no suprise that crews tend to give a wide birth to the illuminated. Only problem has been ramos. Was wondering, but maybe for a different topic, does nakima add anything to this sort of crew. I got a cheap conversion from an old model and im thinking i could use a fast stand alone threat. Does she function in this role. (Also seeing lynch finaly paying for his debt at the hands of nekima sounds fun!). What do you think wisened sages of malifaux?

[StuffedKiwi]

I don't run Lynch, and I'm certainly not one of those wise (though maybe I'm old enough to be wizened?) sages, but with my Lilith crew, Nekima can be devastating with the BBS, especially if you've taken her True Mother upgrade, and especially against crews with lots of Hard to Kill (where her big sword can usually get minions down to just the H2K wound remaining, and then either her own (0) action or the BBS's Pustule can kill them off, ideally healing Nekima or giving her + to Df and summoning a tot via Born of Blood at the same time -- and though such a summoned tot cannot immediately benefit from Grow or Mature, he CAN benefit from the BBS's Bloody Feast ability to be immediately grown into a (non-wounded) Young Nephilim using the corpse counter that just appeared, courtesy of the newly-deceased enemy, since Bloody Feast isn't excluded from True Mother the way Grow and Mature are). The main downsides to Nekima used this way are that she doesn't have anything fancy in the way of Df, so if you're not careful she can be cut down pretty quickly (since for the tactic to be most effective, you want to be depositing her into the midst of large clumps of enemy), and, obviously, she's a big SS investment, so you have to be sure that this tactic is directly useful to achieving your Strategy and Schemes.

Have fun! And let us know how it goes.

[Joel]

I think that a mature nephilim is a good choice here too. Being able to charge through things means that it can disrupt crews in unexpected ways.

[oreaper]

Thanks for all the good advice. Its been tough getting the stones free to add either big nasty in the list. The time that i did it was in a make them suffer scheme so i thought killy would do well. Didnt work out in my favor, it is just one model after all and my opponent wisely didnt bunch up. Only real advantage over an additional illuminated is the base size imo. Splashing those pustules on a 50 does cover some ground.