Collodi man is he fun/a dick.

[EntrepeNinja]

Well, I have not really started with all my Collodi dirty tricks... Those are just the basic newbie ones!

 

We should talk.

[Rathnard]

I feel we need to balance this out with a bit more "how to stop Collodi" discussion. Not looking forward to being on the recieving end of this particular douche.

[asrian]

I don't see him as a douche or a dick. I frankly find playing against most gremlin masters to feel more painful than Collodi. In the end though, it comes down to the game, the opponent, and the overall enjoyment both parties involved had. I can play against something I feel is painful as long as I had fun doing it (Looking at you RGarbonzo as you beat me repeatedly like a red headed step child, yet I still have fun facing off against you. )

[EntrepeNinja]

Fighting against Collodi: (A little bit common sense, a little bit "from a Collodi Playing Perspective")

 

Mostly, the same stuff as deathball models. If you take out his support models, it takes more work to deal with him. 

 

Engaging him doesn't really help, if you can make him lose suits to his casting, then all but the "slow" trigger need a soulstone to go off. Think Hannah or Sue (they're both merc and all).

 

If he's using "fate of us all" trigger, then taking out the effigy gets rid of his ability to pass the effigy buff out. 

 

Minimum damage three is a huge boon against a collodi crew, as most of his "pets" are 4 wounds with hard to kill, meaning min damage 2 give them three hits, Min damage 4 is wasted (though welcome), and min damage three is the balance between just enough to knock them down to HTK, and finish em off in two attack. Also, armor ignore (if he passes it out) or ignore htk. (Vikis spring to mind.)

 

Blasts and other sources of secondary damage are great, Hit a doll, and blast onto Collodi, takes away his ability to strum, and makes healing back up harder.

 

Don't charge him. Maybe ever. Unless you can take away defensive triggers (like a guild executioner), as he's got the push after resolving, meaning any mask, or a soulstone means a wasted second attack on the charge.

 

Focus on schemes and strats. The Marionettes do die and can come back, so if they've locked up someone important, try to free 'em up before they activate, and then use them before they get re-engaged.

 

Large Area Denial or Large Area attacks all work pretty well- Flare and Accelerant on Kaeris comes to mind. Anything that forces a ton of TN checks will burn through the hand quickly, or cause the crew to be impotent for a turn. (The Shirt Comes Off) Also, because of the number of activations, things like Terrifying all, Manipulative, or other things can cause them to have to burn cards in order to be effective.

 

Killing marionettes can seem like a losing battle, but every time you kill a marionette, he either loses an activation and scheme runner, or he loses an AP and a card to resummon. Make sure you don't spend too many AP taking them out, though, as their main job is to tie people up. (Again, Min Damage 3).

 

Out range him- his money zone is 10", so if you can snipe him, or shoot him from 12-14", it'll make him have to move where you want him to deal with your models. 

 

Condition removal. If you can clean off the slow and the "your first ap is mine!" then, he doesn't get to take 'em. Johan is quite good at this, as well as your faction's given cleaner (arcane effigy, Chiaki, things like that). 

 

There are a few, I'm sure there are more. As always, focus on schemes and strategies, and denial as much as you can- you can win the game while still being wiped off the table. 

[asrian]

As a Collodi player I agree with Entrepeninja 100%. High minimum damage, focus on the crew, not the master, condition removal, and area attacks are all things I try to watch out for heavily in my opponents.

[The Godlyness]

@eninja. You are assuming that when they announce Neverborn that they are immediately picking Collodi. Unless it's a fixed master tournament you are gambling. (Unless you have inside knowledge that you opponent just likes playing Collodi.) So why yes good advice you build your crew same time as them.

[EntrepeNinja]

@Godlyness That's a fair point. True enough, but the question was "How do I battle Collodi", not "How do I write a list that can stop Collodi while still being broad enough to fight the rest of the Neverborn". There are things in there that aren't list tailoring advice, (like don't charge, and focus on his lynchpins), and some of it is good to have anyways, like condition removal (Can be good to get rid of hemmed vs. zoraida, rooted vs. Lilith, Fees vs. Lucius, Brilliance vs. Lynch). 

 

You also get to know a meta, like if I were to declare neverborn, my friends/locals would know, "Well he only owns Collodi or Lilith. It's Squatters rights, and there's no make them suffer... this very well could be a collodi!" 

 

So, yeah, it's advice that's tailored against a Collodi player, but the question was, "What advice do you have to go against a Collodi player?" lol.

 

ENinja

[RagingRodian]

I am fond of the Stitched in my Collodi crew, particularly when combined with My Will. You get positive flips on Gamble Your Life (which can also benefit from a shared Focus), and it ignores things like Hard to Wound making it a blessing for killing certain models. If you lose you can get your Stitched dropped down to 1 wound, triggering Reactivate. If your Stitched is Paralyzed you can still use this combo, and if you provoke a Horror duel you get a positive flip on the duel- which saves cards in your hand and may give you some immunity to Horror from the attacked model for the rest of the turn. If you are low on cards or your Stitched is already at 1 wound you can just switch to Game of Chance. 

[thegoatgod_pan]

While Eninja really spelled out what scares a Collodi player (not the brutal effigy! nooo!), there are many crews that can destroy him just by being themselves. Just speaking from my meta but Mei Fang and crew have a lot of excellent counters to Collodi:

First, Mei's normal henchman brings the aura of construct death, which Collodi's whole crew enjoys if Kang gets close to Collodi.

Second, Mei Fang herself can do her crazy combos off puppets that are bunched together, like they usually are, for the 6' Collodi aura, usually two shotting them (and letting burning kill wicked dolls) and using their mangled remains to make railroads to escape your response or to come right back. Collodi's defensive trigger has a lot more issues escaping her jackhammer kicks and 3' engagement.

If I don't prioritize Kang with Collodi, Kang gets too close and then all the small minions start to cut through puppets like butter. Both metal gamin and railworkers are damn good against puppets, especially with Kang near them. Of course, Kang is exactly the model you shouldn't be prioritizing, since he can massively heal himself t4 or 5, and generally wants you to hit him and not Mei.