Killing Schemes and Strategies

[Vidd]

The Turf War thread is turning into a nice source of knowledge so I'd like to know what people do when the classic Reckoning or Make Them Suffer turn up. I think these and their close equivalents tend to favour a small crew of elite models which arguably feels unnatural when playing Gremlins. 

What do you break out? Mah, Pigs... the Whiskey Golem?

[Dogmantra]

You didn't ask about it, but my favourite killy scheme is Vendetta. Give it to Rami and it's 1 guaranteed point, and depending on your first turn card draw can be 3 points first activation.

So for Make them Suffer, I rarely build a crew around taking it. I'll keep it in mind and avoid taking too many Bayou Gremlins, but I rarely bring more than 2 anyway. I'll lean towards Som'er as my master (because he's the killy one I'm most comfortable with), although if the other schemes make Zoraida a better choice I'll take her instead. If I can fit him in, I will take Francois and then if one of my scheme choices turns out to be a bad idea (e.g. Vendetta when the 7+ss models are not easily killable), I'll take Make them Suffer instead and I have the killing potential in my crew. The only other Make them Suffer consideration I tend to make is that I will probably avoid Skeeters, and if I do take them I will use them more as trigger support rather than farty engagement bugs.

But the big one is Reckoning. I seem to like more elite crews than many other Gremlin players so I feel a little better about Reckoning. If there's one thing that Gremlins don't have trouble with, it's dealing damage. First port of call for Reckoning is an Invincibility Bubble (Lenny/Old Cranky/Slop Hauler). It did recently get absolutely destroyed by Lazarus managing some lucky flips and getting off lots of blasts, so Merris would definitely need to go in there if I was worried about blasts. Typically for Master I will avoid Zoraida because a] she deals no damage herself, b] the voodoo doll is just asking to be free points and c] voodoo doll kills don't count for reckoning cos it's a condition that dealt the damage. Again, I'm most comfortable with Som'er as a killy master, so I tend to take him.

Strong killy and resilient models are obviously good, so McTavish, Francois, Raphael, and Burt tend to find a place in my crew (I haven't used Gracie much but she's been great when I have), I'm still not 100% on how to not have Mancha Roja die super early so he might get a miss despite being rad as heck. But it wouldn't be a Gremlin crew without out-activation, so for minions I will tend towards a couple of different ones depending on the situation. Lightning Bugs get pride of place vs Arcanists due to armour and also as potential scheme runners if there are marker schemes around (they're a bit harder to kill than Bayous and can reckless more). If the terrain is right for them not to get shot to death and I can keep them away from Old Cranky, Moon Shinobis are lovely. They suck up enemy cards by threatening damage flips (especially against hard to wound models which are always a nice choice in Reckoning), and a 2" melee range is nice. Piglets get their usual spot in the crew if Cursed Object or Distract are around because they're just so good at handing them out, although with only Wp3 I'm a little dubious of taking them vs Neverborn and maybe Rezzers (for terrifying), but Df6 makes them stick around for far longer than they deserve as a 4 cost minion. Both Piglets and Lightning Bugs are super nifty because they can hand out Slow.

 

Headhunter is a totally different game. In my experience it's actually less about killing and more about having models annoying enough that your opponent can't do anything but kill them, then you drop the head somewhere you have easy access to and grab a point. In this case, Bayou Gremlins are lovely, and Zoraida works amazingly for Obeying interacts.

[Vidd]

Thanks, Dogmantra.

I'm still not 100% on how to not have Mancha Roja die super early so he might get a miss despite being rad as heck.

How I empathise with that. Mancha always seems to die on me without accomplishing much and his upgrade seems to be a waste of two soulstones, in my experience. I'm starting to think I'd rather hire a Merc in for some ranged damage but perhaps I'll have a game where he cleans up. I think I might be better taking him with Mah than Opehlia for Chores.

Thanks for the thoughts; I enjoyed reading your post.

[Brewmaster]

When you see the word "kill", Ophelia + Trixie + Francois... Then some other stuff or whatever ^_^. In a "murder-ate" game, going first is super useful, firing the most shots is useful, and the Lacroix are simply the best crew for it. If you want to get "serious" about it, Old Cranky is the totem choice cause anything that mitigates the cost of resources is awesome. Aaaand Bounty is an upgrade for Trixie as well ;)