Pandora v Sonnia Cridd

[xx7slayer7xx]

Hey there,my first post here, had about 10 games total now, getting the hang of the pandora crew , got a crew worth about 50 ss, do enjoy using it however seem to be struggling against sonnia cridds crew a lot, the ammount of shooting just seems to be obliterating me really, he even managed to kill teddy in one go which hasnt happened before so im a bit :/ now i am obviously new to this but so is he, but any way i can improve and beat that crew as its the only one i seem to be struggling against

[Vorschlag]

What are you using in your crew, what models, what upgrades and what schemes/strategies have you had trouble with?

 

Sonnia Crid is the perfect counter (in my opinion) for Pandora when playing Guild, alot of her upgrades and abilities cause serious issues for a Pandora crew but that doesn't mean that you can't beat them.

To give any real advise we would need more detail on what you and your opponent are running.

[xx7slayer7xx]

yh sure thing, well for example today i was using this

 

pandora

the box opens

fear given form

 

teddy

kandy

sorrow

sorrow

poltergheist

 

teddy, and polti died first turn. kandy got reduced to 2 wounds and pandora to 4....and that was only turn 1...was a bad game tbh.....iknew they were good against my crew but didnt realise it was that good.....maybe the lack of terrain didnt help either. the burning conditions were taking off like 4 wounds per model an average, thats what was causing the most damage. teddy died....i couldnt believe it....i think i didnt get pandora into  heart of the enemy in time either. she died turn 2....

[Vorschlag]

First big issue is it sounds like you are lacking terrain on your board or not using terrain effectively, you should not be losing that much in turn 1, shooters will always have an advantage when you don't have atleast 1/3 of the board covered in terrain (soft/hard/blocking).

 

I myself have given up on using sorrows, they just don't seem to make up their cost in the game, give fears given form to Candy and her personal upgrade.

 

Getting Pandora or Candy in close against a Crid player can also be difficult due to the effects she can have on your casting through any of her witch hunters, learn to play your attack range very carefully.

 

Your activations also might be causing you problems, depending on the situation in game remember you can soak up activations especially in the first two turns by using activations which achieve very little to force your opponent to "play his hand" so to speak, you may not have been out activating him anyway with Teddy, Kade and Candy in the mix.

As with any malifaux game, pick off his minions and keep focused on your schemes and the strategy, make use of cover more and force them to come to you if they want line of sight, using cover effectively will also give you more survivability due to negative flips (aslong as your not burning at the time).

Using Candy for healing is always an option but seems like your paying too much for her if that's all your getting, try taking a beckoner or using Kade to Lure more.

This is all just general advise but if you play them again keep the details of both lists and the game type etc and report it so people can walk you through options.

[asrian]

Same opinion for me on Pandora's Box set. I don't use Sorrows (replaced mine with 2 insidious madnesses), nor do I use Poltergeist (I use Primordial Magic instead). I rarely if ever take Candy either. I tend to go for a Control Pandora vs a Damage Pandora (Voices + Depression = Potential 3 Paralyze a turn). I use Pandora to lock down key models, and use my other models (kade, teddy, etc) to kill, lure, etc. It also means I can spread out more as I'm not dependent on the aoe bubbles of the Sorrows for damage. 

That's a general idea though. I change up lists depending on Strat/Scheme though, but still prefer Paralyze Pandora to Fear Pandora.

[xx7slayer7xx]

yh u see the problem is there is no point picking off his minions because the leader Bi*** has an upgrade to re summon minions, so i think i have to find a way to kill Sonnia, once i kill her it shouldnt be a problem, so u guys suggest using control pandora instead? can anyone suggest a good list i could use ? i have a lot of stuff available to me. the reason ive been using kandy is so that when i activate pandoras ability to soak up fire kandy can heal pandora? anyone can tell me how to use teddy and kade effictively as well please? thanx for the help so far i appreciate it

in his list he has 

sonnia with 2 unknown upgrades to me

hopkins

witchling handler

3 witchlings

[StaticVortex]

Consider giving Teddy On Dreaming Wings, the +1 wk and flight will help get him up the board.  Use Kade's Where's Teddy ability to move him up and give Teddy an additional push.  This can help setup a turn two attack.  Terrain is a big concern, you should have 1/3 of the board filled with terrain, and some of it has to be blocking.  If you're using trees, give them the dense characteristic.  Use the blocking terrain to your advantage while moving up the board.  Resist the urge to attack Sonnia and crew head on, you'll be shot up before getting there.  Instead, use a flank or guerilla type assault.  Don't forget about Kade's lure, it is powerful...and he has a built in pounce.  With Depression, can discard for suit.

 

I also like Coppelius, while not usually found in your crew...he can cause damage from failed horror duels and pop out Alps to tie up the other crew, and with a few eyes...he becomes quite resilient.  Alps can also provide a bit of healing when needed.  Don't forget, you can remove burning from yourself with a (1) interact by the model on fire, or another model within 2"

[xx7slayer7xx]

so depression on baby kade is a must? also the wheres teddy ability, what would i need to do to get the most out of it? hide kade and teddy somehere then activate kades abilty, give teddy a push and leave kade behind? (as he obviously wont be able to move that turn) then move teddy twice? whilst hiding him in cover? am i getting it right or? 

heres how my new list is looking so far

 

pandora + voices

teddy + nexus of power

kade + depression

kandy

sorrow

poltergheist 

[StaticVortex]

I wouldn't say that Depression is a must for Kade, but it is helpful for times when you have a 3 in your hand.  Turn 1, I would double walk Teddy, keeping him behind terrain, preferably blocking.  Then move Kade close to him (possibly using where's teddy) to push a little more  or using one walk and his lure if there is a target.  Turn 2 depends on what your opponent does....you can where's teddy to push him into a charge lane, or you can move next to teddy and lure someone close for the pounce attack with dmg buff and leaving them engaged for Teddy to finish off.  I personally have not found value in nexus of power, preferring other options.

[Thaarup]

yh u see the problem is there is no point picking off his minions because the leader Bi*** has an upgrade to re summon minions, so i think i have to find a way to kill Sonnia, once i kill her it shouldnt be a problem, so u guys suggest using control pandora instead? 

Sonnia doesn´t "resummon" witchling stalkers. She creates them by killing enemy models (with the burning condition) so It is a very viable tactic to kill off her minions.

[xx7slayer7xx]

thanx for the advice ill get rid of nexus for something else, not sure what though. and yes i know but i havent been finding the witchling stalkers all that good, sonnia is the only one causing problems for me as my oponnent just keeps her at the back of the board all the time.....killing my stuff and summoning extra stalkers. also when using lure does my opponent count as using an ap for the walk action? and teddys terrifying ability, does it only get used once per turn or every time someone tries to target, or is it every time a new model tries to target teddy? also can terrifying ability be cheated?

[PanzerHarris]

I've never lost to Sonnia yet - if you can get a big hitter in her face early, you can stop her throwing spells at you and she'll probably fold quite quickly. She can't take being punched in the face for very long!

Would definitely recommend Bishop. He can hit hard, and helps the Pandora crew as he can also attack Willpower to force another one of those duels the crew loves so much! A Freikorps Strongarm suit is very durable and immune to blast damage, or sticking in faction Barbaros or a Mature Nephilim would be decent shouts.

[xx7slayer7xx]

trying to keep my crew themed at the moment but will look into it in more detail cheers

[StaticVortex]

thanx for the advice ill get rid of nexus for something else, not sure what though. and yes i know but i havent been finding the witchling stalkers all that good, sonnia is the only one causing problems for me as my oponnent just keeps her at the back of the board all the time.....killing my stuff and summoning extra stalkers. also when using lure does my opponent count as using an ap for the walk action? and teddys terrifying ability, does it only get used once per turn or every time someone tries to target, or is it every time a new model tries to target teddy? also can terrifying ability be cheated?

The lure ability does not use one of their AP, and is a push, so Terrifying will not trigger.

 

If you're looking to get something up close to her quickly....you could always take Bad Juju with eternal fiend and a Slurid or two.  Run a Slurid right up to Sonnia and let her kill it off, then pop out Bad Juju in her face.  If you give him Fears Given Form as well, that makes for some fun card drain as they have to pass a df14 first, then get past his terrifying in order to make an attack.

 

Then have the rest of the crew run around accomplishing your schemes.  When she kills Juju off, throw the other Slurid at her and start the fun all over!

[xx7slayer7xx]

can someone explain to me how the burning condition works please? if my teddy say has 3 burning condition, at the end of the turn does he suffer 3 damage or is it just 1? also tried to play v sonnia again, didnt have much luck, even though teddy was behind cover, a building of height 4 was covering and yet sonnia managed to kill him even though he was behind the building just because he had a burning condition....sigh....

[Clockwork_Fish]

Something to remember is that Sonnia can only use Confiscated Lore once per turn, so she's forced to decide between bumping up her Wp or Ca.  Debuffing her Wp using Project Emotions, Insidious Madness, or the Widow Weaver can really hurt her when trying to get around Pandy's defenses or the glut of horror duels her crew usually brings.  It doesn't hurt to debuff the Stalkers as well since they can't charge if they're paralyzed from horror duels.  Forcing her to focus on Wp defense can blunt some of her devastating attacks or at least starve her of cards.

 

Which is another thing; starve her of cards.  Tannen, Insidious Madness, and the Stitched Together can all rob her of her hand.  Stitched also give you some cover from her fireballs, and are frustrating opponents who refuse to die and hit like a ton of bricks.

[Clockwork_Fish]

can someone explain to me how the burning condition works please? if my teddy say has 3 burning condition, at the end of the turn does he suffer 3 damage or is it just 1? also tried to play v sonnia again, didnt have much luck, even though teddy was behind cover, a building of height 4 was covering and yet sonnia managed to kill him even though he was behind the building just because he had a burning condition....sigh....

 

At the end of the turn you suffer one damage for each point of burning and remove the burning condition entirely.  However, the afflicted model, or a nearby friend can take a 1 action to remove a point of burning.  So you can potentially remove burning entirely, but it will cost you your actions.

 

Another option is to go on the offensive.  Get that burning model into melee with one or more of her models, and she may hesitate in attacking it.  The fireballs are a ranged attack, and have to randomize in a melee.

 

Neverborn lack any condition removing abilities (as far as I know), but the mercenary Johan has a great spell that can remove all conditions from a model within 10".  He's also really cheap at 6 SS (7 as a mercenary).

[SteampunkCake]

A rather nasty tactic with Teddy and Kade. Have Teddy charge a target off to the side of them, smack them into within an inch of Kade and follow up. Kade then gets to attach them and because Teddy is engaging them as well, they take +2 damage, potentially +4 if you get the trigger. Then Teddy attacks again as it was a charge, pushes the model slightly and Kade will attack it again so that's 2 attacks from Kade and 2 from Teddy as well. Kade hasn't even activated yet!

[StaticVortex]

A rather nasty tactic with Teddy and Kade. Have Teddy charge a target off to the side of them, smack them into within an inch of Kade and follow up. Kade then gets to attach them and because Teddy is engaging them as well, they take +2 damage, potentially +4 if you get the trigger. Then Teddy attacks again as it was a charge, pushes the model slightly and Kade will attack it again so that's 2 attacks from Kade and 2 from Teddy as well. Kade hasn't even activated yet!

I believe, with Teddy's trigger, you must push the entire 4", as it does not say you can push "up to"....which would prevent such tasty shenanigans. 

[Insidiously Mad]

You can make it work if you push them directly into kade which would stop the progress of the push. Or impassable terrain. Thats the only way to make the push less than 4 inches I believe.

[xx7slayer7xx]

i think what i may do next time is to just try and rush him if i can , as much as possible.....so give him to many targets to deal with, then maybe get a sorrow or two into base contact with sonnia using misery loves company ability

[tmod]

You can make it work if you push them directly into kade which would stop the progress of the push. Or impassable terrain. Thats the only way to make the push less than 4 inches I believe.

Teddy's push is any direction right? How about investing in a single Terror Tot exactly 1" away from Kade, and whithin 5" of Teddy. Then you can bounce back and forth with pounces from both the Tot and Kade. If you have some obeys/lures in you crew you could potentially get off a flurry, with three attacks from each...

Quite a bit of setup, but would be hilarious to pull off! :-)

[Clyde_Davis]

I'd recommend trying Barbaros. His Nimble allows him to move up very quickly and with a large Charge threat range, he can strike at Sonnia and her crew, tying up whatever is a major threat to you. Also, his (0) Action 'Challenge' is a nice bonus, forcing the opponent to drain cards to target anything but him - giving your other models more safety to shift up the board.

 

Try the orphan list too - Kade, Candy and Iggy - coupled with Pandora's Depression upgrade gives you a crew that can very much interfere with your opponent's activation sequence. Target his less threatening models with 'Mood Swing' or 'Melancholy' and you can effectively play around them and plan against their activations. Again, giving your crew more freedom to mover around and get into range to damage.