So is the general Gremlin strategy...

[Whut]

So gremlins are pretty strongly in the "glass cannon" territory, but unlike some Neverborn that tend to smack down and try to cage their enemies with large threats, it seems like Gremlins can't really fight in close quarters for large periods of time. And although their damage is crazy, their models are very squishy - especially their scheme runners - and much of their damage comes at the cost of hurting themselves as well.

With the exception of Zoraida who can more or less attrition using Waldgheists, is the general Gremlin strategy to try to get as many VP as quickly as possible before models start dying and they start losing steam?

[bertmac]

If you kill all your opponents models they cant kill you back.

[MasterDisaster]

"What is the general Gremlin strategy?"

"Kill as much of your own stuff as the enemy and you're on the right lines"

[Whut]

So do you focus with everything for 6+ damage with dumb luck and just "trade models" with your opponent?

[zFiend]

The Gremlins masters are pretty damn tough to take down actually. As are some of their henches and enforcers. I wouldn't call them glass cannons but rather just cannons.

[MasterDisaster]

So do you focus with everything for 6+ damage with dumb luck and just "trade models" with your opponent?

 

Honestly I don't know. I was messing around. I know very little about the recently "legitimized" faction. There isn't really a general tactic for any one faction. It's all down to the Master specific level although many Masters of one faction might share strengths and weaknesses in some areas. 

[Whut]

Well faction wide they seem to have very squishy models with high damage potential. Even their "tough" henchmen and enforcers aren't THAT tough (even Gracie because she damages herself to reactivate and has only 8 wounds, yes I know you can heal her with slop haulers, etc) so I was just taking a guess.

[Whut]

By the way, the reason I'm asking is because I really like Gremlins and some of their rules, but that play style really doesn't appeal to me so I just want to get a hold of what it's like before I choose to jump in or not

[CannibalBob]

Well faction wide they seem to have very squishy models with high damage potential. Even their "tough" henchmen and enforcers aren't THAT tough (even Gracie because she damages herself to reactivate and has only 8 wounds, yes I know you can heal her with slop haulers, etc) so I was just taking a guess.

 

Gracie heals herself better than Slop Haulers generally do.  Between take a bite and eat your fill she tends to sit at full wounds most of the time by the end of her activation.  She may "only" have 8 wounds, but she has a ton of self-healing tricks, armor-2, and hard to kill.  If you do not have the ability to ignore armor she is often not worth the effort to try to kill as it is very tough to do.

 

Gracie is not simply an old junk-laden sow she is a porcine force of nature.

[D_acolyte]

Hit Hard, Heal Up, Get Drunk, and Trust in Luck. I also have not seen a lot of Hand to Hand builds for them yet.

They have some really cheep models that are still somewhat effective if used well (3 ss shooting minion that can go fast and do interact actions, how is that not powerful for schemes) . There "expensive" models can also be rather mean and I think they have some of the best general upgrades in the game. The real problem is they lack plastics out right now so some masters are less seen.

Gremlins can out activate and AP most non summoning factions but they have some fragility to there cheep guys, so hide them and work them up the flanks.

[CannibalBob]

By the way, the reason I'm asking is because I really like Gremlins and some of their rules, but that play style really doesn't appeal to me so I just want to get a hold of what it's like before I choose to jump in or not

 

As mentioned before, the playstyle differs quite a bit from master to master.  The main common theme the gremlins have is a tendency towards silliness (more than usual in this game) and the ability to damage your own crew for some form of benefit.  The self-damage does not always mean you are killing your own things for benefit, although depending on the crew that can be a beneficial strategy.  In addition to a tendency for self-damage the Gremlins also have more easy access to healing than many other factions.  The key is often to balance the self-inflicted damage with benefit it gives you.  

 

I find that sacrificing your own models for gain is a common theme across the entire game, and not just the Gremlin factions, but the gremlins can be a bit more overt about it.  That said, it all depends on the master.  For example, I find that Ophelia does not usually throw away the other kin models lightly.  If you are running the traditional Ophelia kin crew, then your crew tends to consist mainly of above-average cost enforcers and less throw away models.  Your cheap models in that crew will often be scheme runners and so you don't want to dump them lightly.  The kin all have the ability to do extreme damage via some form of dumb-luck, but you don't always want to use it unless it is in your favor or you will survive and can heal the damage you take from the ability.

 

On the opposite end of the spectrum is a traditional Bayou Gremlin Som'er crew.  That crew will mainly consist of lots of Bayou Gremlins and it is common to sacrifice them for whatever it is you want to do.  In this case it is not a big deal to sacrifice them since Som'er reliably summons more gremlins to the party.  But even Som'er does not need to throw his crew away since he has abilities that give him great control over the usually random Bayou Gremlins by either suppressing their mandatory triggers or guaranteeing specific ones.

 

So again, the playstyle really depends on the masters you are interested in, and even then there are a few ways to play.

[D_acolyte]

You win games by getting vp, I have been known to let Howard Langston die 2nd turn to deliver a message and soak up fire. At the end of hat turn my enemy was 3 behind me and had to fight hard mentally and game wise not to roll over. That being said it is best not to be to impetuses with things. The game is like a fight, you triad blows in order to win and sometimes that mean you take a hit to grab the arm, that is the way of things. I have an good amount of respect for what I call "gremlin comeback", take a few light hits early and hail marry at the end when your foe can not react to gremlins, with reckless and all there healing they can really do it well with a few models holding the center and others going up the flanks. Rami and Raphael are good at this, and bring slope haulers as they can heal and help in combat.

[rgarbonzo]

BAyou Bushwackers are competent in melee but the absolute best melee crew will run Warpigs. 12 Wounds makes them tough, whenever they kill a model they heal to full and they are Ml 6. The reason you haven;t seen a lot of crew builds this way is that Old Major isn't released yet, he makes it a ton easier to run a full pig list without the need for Hog Whisperers, though HW are very competent as well as Lightning Bugs. Often enough I lose chaff models and still have enough left on the table to win because of the damage output of the Gremlin faction as a whole. You don't always have to use Reckless just like (in most cases) you don't always have to use Dumb Luck. They take the most in resource management because of trade wounds for AP and damage abilities that they have. Also you can build an entire crew that isn't dependent on your hand or lack thereof which makes them wither really good or really bad depending on your flips.

[McSwervy]

I irritate the hell out of my opponents with my gremlins because almost everything has the Squeal trigger in some form or another.  Oh, Vik of Blood is charging Francois?  Enjoy the 1 hit you're going to get out of it.  I tend to never dump masks out of my hand, regardless of how low they are, for that reason.

[docbungle]

Who needs tactics when you have Bacon and Moonshine???

[Dumb Luck]

If you kill all your opponents models they cant kill you back.

 

This guy has it right.

Who needs tactics when you have Bacon and Moonshine???

Add VPs and deleting models wholesale off the board to that list.

[CannibalBob]

I think a more abstract way of answering "what is the gremlin playstyle" is to identify what it is that the overall faction tends to do better than anyone else and what resources they tend to utilize the most.

 

My answer to that would be that what the gremlins tend to have more of than anyone else is AP.  Most of the gremlins in the game have some form of the reckless ability to give them an extra AP in a turn.  I think the only basic gremlins that do not have it are the Moon Shinobi and the Bushwhackers.  In addition, gremlins lean towards the cheaper side of model costs.  This is a nice recipe for having more models than most opponents and also having more AP per model.  This even applies to pig-oriented crews since although the pigs don't have reckless they have access to a lot of reactivate and almost every pig has the ability to make charges for only a single AP - which means that pigs can effectively generate a lot of AP as well.  In addition, some gremlin crews can also summon more gremlins or pigs into the game.

 

You should rarely be out-activated as a gremlin player.  Even when you bring more elite crews you should still end up fairly even in terms of AP with most opponents.

 

As for what resources does the faction tend to use - I would say that the gremlins utilize health as a resource.  Some factions make use of more traditional resources such as scrap or corpses, but the gremlins really do treat health like a resource.  The gremlins have a lot of abilities that basically trade health for some sort of benefit, such as increased AP with reckless or increased damage with dumb luck.  Gremlins also have easy access to a large amount of healing and so that allows them to more willingly spend their health on things since it is not hard for them to gain that health back.  And since many of the models are quite cheap they are also fairly expendable.

[Mean Green Killing Machine]

I ususally dislike losing my fellow green ones everytime they kill somebody, but sometims this might be your weapon of choice. E.g. sometimes I use Rami with Lenny plus Wong as their master. With ooo glowy on Rami and the effects or Lenny´s auras, Rami becomes pretty devastating. His damage profile is totally over the top, and because of Lenny´s Big Target aura (-1 on the damage he takes when he gets half the damage he dealt), he can stand one big hit and be healed by a slop hauler or just wait and use the regeneration from glowy, if he´s not down to 1 wd.

 

Last two games, this combination killed Izamu and  Barbaros with one shot each in the first/second round.

[Dumb Luck]

I think there is less of a 'I trade my cheap model for your pricey model' in Gremlins than in V1, but back then our only trick was that with Ophelia.

[zFiend]

I think there is less of a 'I trade my cheap model for your pricey model' in Gremlins than in V1, but back then our only trick was that with Ophelia.

 

Now it's more like, "Just take that model of the table"  

[J Rzasa]

I generally play Gremlins as a lockdown/control.  I like Somer for this, as his "Bigger hat than you" can really cause the opponent to lose their cool.  Piglets are amazing Speed Bumps, and if you get cute you can stop up your opponent first turn.  There are plenty of movement Shenanigans you can use to move piglets forward (like Pig Feed, or Sooey on the Hog Whisperer), and they have a 13" charge range (4 inch move, 8 inch charge, 1 inch reach).   Lenny can create more of them, and keep models in the fight longer.  Then I either run Schemes with more Piglets, or with Bayou Gremlins.

 

If you need to do damage, Somer can hit like a truck with Lenny.  He really is a sledgehammer with his gun, and Dirty Cheater makes him really resilient.  I like to take a War Pig just in case I need a bigger tarpit that can hit like a truck.  Once your Bayou gremlins run all their schemes, they are also speed bumps. If I can stop my opponent from reaching the center line, I'm probably going to win.

[Dumb Luck]

Y'know what is better than Som'er with Lenny? Ophelia with Lenny. Much gun. Such shoot.

[McSwervy]

Yeah I find that I'm not using Lenny as much directly with Som'er; he just uses Do It Like This for his  .  I do use Lenny to throw my summoned Bayou Gremlins that are slow and to sometimes follow Burt around.

[thebarbalag]

They're all over the place, Master-to-Master/Crew-to-Crew. People often don't expect a Glowy Burt, flung up the field by Gracie via Reactivate Saddle into their toughest whatever, stab it three times for min damage 4 (5 if you flip/cheat a Ram), ignoring just about all defenses, and then being immune to retaliation via Slippery onto Armor +2 Gracie. 1st Turn Rider kill, take out Hank, or Joss with no muss, no fuss...

 

Then there's Som'er gun line, guaranteed loose trigger from Francois, healing whenever he cheats, tying up important models with Skeeters who just fart all over everything as Som'er and Lenny hold a point, tossing Piglets into enemies, or just blowing them away with Thinkin' Luck from Som'er.

 

Or you can bring a board controlling, crack-shot crew with Mah, controlling position with care, offering -flips to anybody who wants to shoot back, while sending Roosters deep into the back field to score objectives, or murder enemy support, while Mah bides her time for that moment when she can unleash in a carefully chosen target or two.

 

Maybe you like a little Swampfiend smashmouth, with some Waldgeists to hold whatever you need held (they're just hilarious in Interference), Wild Boars and Gators to harry your opponent, and a Silurid to run your objectives while Zoraida keeps your enemy busy obeying Roosters or Warpigs to charge.

 

Alternatively, if you really want a brutal close combat crew, Ulix can send the Sow into the enemy, tearing up scheme runners and Enforcers alike with repeat charges, and when the enemy finally takes her out, well, they've got to deal with her Piglets, as well as the Warpig(s) Ulix has summoned, double or triple charging each turn, getting extra attacks as Ulix slops up your enemy.

 

Want to lob magic doom on your opponent? Unbelievably, Wong does things other than give a model Magical! Armor piercing Lightning Bugs, getting extra AP from being burned by Wong's lightning bolts...oh, and Wong's lightning bolts, possibly the single most damaging attack in the game (depending on positioning and flips...and you took A Gremlin's Luck, right? Because you put Ooo, Glowy! on Sammy, right? So you're totally getting plus flips on all of your pulse checks), and then he blows up Scheme markers, moves them around, oh, and he teleports! And turns people into pigs!

 

There's a lot to Gremlins. A really lot. It's not all model trading (though they're very good at it...even their great stuff is cheap). It's pretty much whatever you want. I didn't even mention the old standbys of Som'er summoning factory, or well, Ophelia...

[Brewmaster]

What is the general Gremlin strategy?:

 

"Don't play by the rules"

 

Generally, approaches to gaining VP are fairly straight forward. Where Gremlins excel is by approaching the problem sideways.

 

S'omer makes your opponent more reliant on luck than you, Ophelia keeps the Alpha Strike style of crew still running strong, Zoraida lets you bend crew construction rules and really make things outside the box. For Gremlins, it's all about finding creative ways to get to what you want.