Tara | Rotten Belles and Drowned

[Clyde_Davis]

Hi all,

 

Just some theorizing here and no actual game testing but the more I play Tara, the more I enjoy playing her as a AP-denial master, pumping off slow onto my opponents crew (and the bury effect as an unintentional perk).

 

Keeping that in mind, I thought a combination of Belles and Drowned could work nicely with Tara.

 

Essentially, Tara activates and pumps 'Fast' onto the Belles - allowing them to Lure their targets three times, and basically along way down the board, isolated from their crews. Tara then reactivates, to pump slow into the Lured targets. The Drowned then come into play, taking on the Slowed enemy models, and possibly forcing Paralyzed onto them.

 

With Paralyzed enemy models floating about aimlessly, Tara's following activation allows her to Temporal Shift her crew safely without the threat from enemy models.

 

It's an interesting combo, with promising synergy.. What are your thoughts?  

[Dirial]

Might be overly complicated to achieve paralyze, and by turn 2 you'll usually have enough models to Temporal Shift on without Lure. I see nothing wrong with it per say.

[MasterDisaster]

There is a fundamental flaw in your master plan. 

 

 

Essentially, Tara activates and pumps 'Fast' onto the Belles - allowing them to Lure their targets three times, and basically along way down the board, isolated from their crews. Tara then reactivates, to pump slow into the Lured targets. The Drowned then come into play, taking on the Slowed enemy models, and possibly forcing Paralyzed onto them.

 

With Paralyzed enemy models floating about aimlessly, Tara's following activation allows her to Temporal Shift her crew safely without the threat from enemy models.

 

It's an interesting combo, with promising synergy.. What are your thoughts?  

 

You are off to a strong start with the triple lure from Fast Belles however your theory falls flat when you want to introduce the Drowned. Tara can ONLY reactivate once every other friendly model in her crew has activated. This means you'll have to wait until the following turn to achieve the paralyze. This of course then has a draw back as Tara will then need to get initiative (not hard I know) and activate first to achieve a reactivate that turn. This then gives the opponent an opportunity to run their model back to a safer distance before Tara or the Drowned can get their hands on it. Granted when you Activate Tara first you could hand out slow then giving your target 1 less AP to escape with but that's still 1 walk further away from the Drowned.

 

In theory this is a cool idea however I don't think it's going to work as well as you initially thought in practice. However one way around this is to have Tara target the Drowned during her 2nd activation on the first turn to give a Drowned Fast and Bury them, then Unbury them and chain activate it the next turn to get at your target denying them the chance to escape and go in for the Paralyze then. 

[Clyde_Davis]

I like the idea of using Glimpse The Void to slingshot the Drowned to where it needs to be! 

 

My first thought was to just activate the Drowned first in Turn 2 (after winning initiative) and charge it headlong into the Slow enemy. 

 

But I like your suggestion! 

[MasterDisaster]

I like the idea of using Glimpse The Void to slingshot the Drowned to where it needs to be! 

 

My first thought was to just activate the Drowned first in Turn 2 (after winning initiative) and charge it headlong into the Slow enemy. 

 

But I like your suggestion! 

 

I see where you were coming from however if you want / need Tara to re-activate on the 2nd turn she needs to go first. So by using Glimpse the Void to bury the Drowned with Fast when she reactivates she can not only deny the enemy a chance to activate on the 2nd turn but she can get herself reactivate as well. When she goes first use her (0) for reactivate then Unbury and fire off that Drowned Torpedo. Additionally with the Extra AP you'll have more chances to get off the Paralyze trigger or Movement to reach your prey. It's win win baby

[SpiralngCadavr]

Yeah, just overcomplicated. I occasionally run belles with her, and they're quite strong on their own, plus they can help set up her fast pulse, but that's about as far as it goes.

 

Drowned are fine with her, but I'd never actually buy one when they cost as much of a DM which has way stronger interactions (so consider them summon-only) and then that combo takes a lot of leg work, and most importantly once you set it up, you're needing a high crow (since your opponent will see the trigger coming), which a Tara crew has hugely better things to do with, such as Karina's summon.

[Clyde_Davis]

Yeah, just overcomplicated. I occasionally run belles with her, and they're quite strong on their own, plus they can help set up her fast pulse, but that's about as far as it goes.

 

Drowned are fine with her, but I'd never actually buy one when they cost as much of a DM which has way stronger interactions (so consider them summon-only) and then that combo takes a lot of leg work, and most importantly once you set it up, you're needing a high crow (since your opponent will see the trigger coming), which a Tara crew has hugely better things to do with, such as Karina's summon.

 

Thanks Spiraling Cadaver! With the Scion and Tara running the Bury shenanigans and Tara and the Drowned exploiting Slow, I think the Drowned's interactions/AP are just as worthwhile. Both the Drowned and DM's have Finish The Job - so nothing is lost there - and with Wretches running my schemes, as well as the Belle being able to do the same the Drowned are free to fulfill this role per say.

 

I know we've had discussions on Karina before, and although she seems to have worked well with other players - I haven't a good experience with her in any game I've deployed her (and trust me, I've wished and hoped she'd deliver something worthwhile). I have little confidence in Karina, and hardly include her in my crews now.  

[Mikey_C]

If you are handing out slow via Knowledge of Eternity, don't forget you can only take that cast action if Tara has other models left to activate. 

 

If you already have drowned though, why not consider adding Jaakuna? 

[MasterDisaster]

 

If you already have drowned though, why not consider adding Jaakuna? 

 

Not a bad idea at all. Drowned and Jaakuna are like Bread and Butter. They worked together very well. 

[decker_cky]

A side of Ama No Zako goes well with those too.

[SpiralngCadavr]

Thanks Spiraling Cadaver! With the Scion and Tara running the Bury shenanigans and Tara and the Drowned exploiting Slow, I think the Drowned's interactions/AP are just as worthwhile. Both the Drowned and DM's have Finish The Job - so nothing is lost there - and with Wretches running my schemes, as well as the Belle being able to do the same the Drowned are free to fulfill this role per say.

 

I know we've had discussions on Karina before, and although she seems to have worked well with other players - I haven't a good experience with her in any game I've deployed her (and trust me, I've wished and hoped she'd deliver something worthwhile). I have little confidence in Karina, and hardly include her in my crews now.  

I hardly ever use slow, actually- I've found I much prefer to run other sources of bury than her spell (since it's not very strong other than a high accuracy and I don't generally consider a master's action and a test to be worth using to get take another model's activation and 1 HP, and Glimpse is rather poor at burying) and my wretches are usually only giving slow on flanks where they're not likely to get a strong combo.

 

Not saying it won't work, but it takes fairly demanding circumstances for me consider gambling an action for an action to be an advantage over just slugging something most of the time (since it takes all the regular requirements of an attack to hit, so can also just fail).

 

On Karina, I consider 10-15ss of non-slow summons of a 5ss model very strong. I also tend to buff my hand with hannah and spend soulstones more often, but I'm still confused how people are getting such anomalous luck that they can't get at least a couple guild autopsies off of her easily.

[valhallan42nd]

Things I like with Tara & Belles/Doxies. Either Valedictorian or Dead Rider. Have the Belles lure a choice target into a Pounce pocket. Then have the dead rider push the target around, moving the target just enough to get Pounces working. It's like rubbing an opponent's face against an undead cheese grater.