Willie and Union Miners (Potentials for Colette Crew)

[asrian]

Ok, I'm nearly finished with my Neverborn crews and looking forward to my next crew: Colette. I have a few things in the crew already for options (Joss, Miss Step, Mech Rider and Metal Gamin, Coryphee, Angelica, Mobile Toolkit...and picking up Mei Feng Crew soon as well).

I was wondering if people have used Willie and Union Miners with Colette to any great success. I read them under her article on the Wiki, and thank you whoever wrote Colette's article, but I'm curious if others have had success with them in her crew or are they more of a niche fill that aren't generally useful?

[MasterDisaster]

Can't say I've played with Colette so take this or leave it. I've played against Willie on a number of occasions and he seems really good fun, he also poses a fairly substantial threat due to his ability to throw out blast markers. Given Colette's interactions with Scheme Markers he seems like he could be an ideal fit with a Colette crew thanks to his (0) Set Charge action. Although I've found that many of the people who use him against me favor the 2nd (0) "You Go Near Him" because it makes him incredibly tough to target. 

 

As for the Union Miners well they are amazing all rounders and should fit in perfectly with Colette because of their False Claim action. I've only used these guys with Kaeris and they were really good with her. By throwing out 2 additional Scheme Markers each a turn they can really fuel some of Colette and Co.'s abilities. I don't think you will get the most out of their abilities with Colette as she isn't M&SU Master but if you have other M&SU models within the crew then they can really put out some hurt with their Stand Together ability. 

[Sholto]

I wrote the bit about Union Miners in the Colette entry, but don't have much more to add. They are not core Colette crew, and you might be better off getting used to her Showgirl models first before expanding your crew. That said, a couple of Union Miners with Johan makes a great stand-alone unit in a Colette crew, and Colette can always nip on over and help them out if they need it.

[Myyrä]

I don't think most Colette crews require more scheme marker generation in the form of union miners and the models seem to bring very little else on the table. Willie seems like a fun option, but does not seem all that great either, because with Colette there are usually friendly models near the scheme markers too.

[Solicitor 6]

For me, Willie is Crazy Harry to Colette's Kermit. While not essential every time I go with Colette, he is in a majority of her crews that I run.

 

One of my favorite plays is to send a Mechanical Dove out for 1 walk action and then forfeit its second.  Then use Disapearing Act to send Willie into base contact with the dove.  Now he is near the center of the table.  If you have Angelica, she can do Give Them an Encore to push him another 5 inches and before he even takes a walk action, Willie with Demo Charge is in range of opponents still in their deployment zone.  He can throw a Demo Charge for Action 1, drop a Scheme Marker for Action 2, then do Set Charge as his zeo action and you have a ticking time bomb of exploding goodness center table toward your opponent's side.  It's beautiful for Turf War. 

[Gorbad]

While the Miners seems like a good fit, I rarely feel the need for more scheme marker placement options in my Colette crews so I've stopped using them. The crew needs other things more I feel. As for Willie, could be, I've never actually seen him on the table so I don't really know how well he would do.

[decker_cky]

Miners actually don't get 'more' marker placement, aside from in turn if both of the markers get burnt for something. If you only had to discard one if both markers were still in play, it'd be awesome for a lot of reasons (large arachnid, all the showgirl scheme eating stuff for benefit, etc..). Instead, if you eat one scheme marker during the turn, the other goes in the upkeep step.

[Jonasty]

Strong option for Colette crews are Gunsmiths.  They bring some missing ranged support and are overall really strong models.  They make good targets for Prompt, especially when they've already activated and used Switch Chambers to auto select their suit trigger on their attack.

 

Played with Union Miners before, they're ok with Colette but as mentioned their scheme marker trick isn't wholly necessary in her crew with all the other stuff she has.  Still not a bad option overall but you don't need to take them.  If Colette's crew hadn't lost the M&SU type, that'd be a totally different conversation.

 

Willie's just a fun model all round to play with.  I find him a little squishy and he draws a lot of enemy fire already.  Add to that the scheme marker threat of Set Charge and you can certainly dictate your enemies actions via avoiding the blasts but at the same time painting a huge target on Willie's back.