Jump to content

Sonnia - better with burning?


qoob

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone! 

I was listening to the schemes and stones podcast regarding Sonnia. I have to say I love the idea of playing her mainly without burning, don't get me wrong...  but my honest question is, isn't she predestined to be played in a burning list? I mean that's her trade mark, right? Without the burning condition,  she is a weaker Perdita in my eyes. 

What do you guys mean and prefer? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, qoob said:

Without the burning condition,  she is a weaker Perdita in my eyes.

If that's how you use her, it's all you will get. Their roles on the field are pretty different, especially their target selection.

I personally take Burning whenever I can get it, but I don't go out of my way to get it going. It's a bonus, not a necessity.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Myyrä said:

All other Guild models are so terrible at giving out Burning wherever needed, I usually don't bring anything to help Sonnia get Burning on the models. She can do it herself just fine.

I agree totally. Sonnia is great in herself and rarely needs support from other models and the fact she can apply burning herself is a bonus. Theres nothing wrong with the mega burning lists though, its a nice theme in itself. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Playing her without Burning basically means you aren't building your crew to give out lots of burning. The Burning gives her the ability to ignore LOS and Cover, and with an upgrade the ability to Summon from Death.

And something had to see the target to set it on fire in the first place (or you have the Emmisary), so it doesn't always help. 

So she can play an area blasting master without worrying about burning just as well in about 90% of the situations.  

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, CapnBloodbeard said:

So how else do you run her if not burning?  I thought a big thing from here was the ease of which she can hit targets with burning...

Burning helps certainly, but its not the be-all and end-all of crew construction i think people are trying to say. Sonnia is flexible in her performance and doesn't need burning support to achieve on the board. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find burning is a great thing if it happens, but not to entirely plan your crew around it. One of my favorite things to do is hit one of my friendly, fast and melee models with a witchling stalker's attack, doing a min damage and setting them on fire. The melee model then runs into combat before Sonnia activates, and she can bounce blasts off of the burning friendly, regardless of los, especially with her pyrokinesis.  Ya your melee guy will probably die from the retaliation, but the damage Sonnia can do is well worth it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally her denial aspects are what I love. Walls, disrupting magic and then badge of office can really help her defensibe game. Never really explored counter spell, mainly as I would need another model which can take so e damage to hold disrupt magic.

One of the main things I want to do this year is play her in the hunter theme to really help get my head around denying vps whilst still scoring more than them, mainly due to ahunch that orderly's unlock quite a bit of scheming for her

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, CapnBloodbeard said:

So how else do you run her if not burning?  I thought a big thing from here was the ease of which she can hit targets with burning...

I've been really enjoying running her with Grimwell, Heartsbane, and the Brutal Effigy. The starter set Witch Hunters want to be in close anyway, so Disrupt Magic is suddenly much more viable, and with a crow Heartsbane can position her 6" away with a good angle to start blasting. A Witchling Stalker is always useful, and a Handler synergizes really well with the Dr. and Nurse because they give her ways to get to combat without charging. A Watcher or the Eternal Flame can help Sonnia get shots off if there's a big piece of blocking terrain near where you have to engage, and Hunters are great for board control, influencing your opponent's activation order, etc.

Those are the models I've been tending towards lately, and I'm finally really enjoying running our fire witch. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 29/01/2016 at 11:38 PM, Adran said:

Playing her without Burning basically means you aren't building your crew to give out lots of burning. The Burning gives her the ability to ignore LOS and Cover, and with an upgrade the ability to Summon from Death.

And something had to see the target to set it on fire in the first place (or you have the Emmisary), so it doesn't always help. 

So she can play an area blasting master without worrying about burning just as well in about 90% of the situations.  

 

 

I need to get more games in with Sonnia (the way I play her I should probably proxy the Golden Axe Amazon for her and a pair of gnomes with sacks on one base, one blue and one green for the Brutal Effigy ^_^ ) but I'm not the biggest fan of blasting things I wouldn't ordinarily see due to Burning, so I don;t base my list around it. I like getting as much mileage out of Violation of Magic as possible, and if she couldn't see the target without her wizard eyes then she isn't getting a Stalker. I actually like a Watcher for getting rid of cover, Scheming and the occasional (2) action.

I do consider the Witchling Handler an auto-take for her to get more Burning around with models that wouldn't ordinarily give out any, but once again this is to net me more Stalkers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Burning isn't really a "thing".  Outside of Hopkins and trying to pull off the summon, is really just an iffy alternative form of damage.  She doesn't really do anything to change that, so building around it is kind of a waste when just a little is all she needs.

As far as Sonnia vs Perdita:

Perdita:
+ Better direct Damage
+ Armor Piercing
+ More Survivable
+ Better in melee

Sonnia:
+ Better damage over multiple targets
+ Counterspell shuts down some significant threats
+ Fire Walls are great denial pieces
+ Easier to adapt crew build to different playstyles

They're both among the best Guild has to offer.  I tend to rank Sonnia a step below, but its more of a 1A vs 1B thing than 1 vs 2.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah.  Arcanists are sadly a faction that got absorbed by one of its own subfactions and are way more a "heavy armor construct" faction than anything that really has to do with offensive spell casting.  Even Raspy tends to armor up quite a bit and the ability to ignore that is what makes Perdita the go to pick there.  Sonnia's blasts just lose too much against them.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The real benefit of burning that I've experienced is the ability to ignore LOS and cover when using her ranged attack. With a 14" range that ability against burning opponents is massive in my opinion. You just can't hide from it! I lost a tournament game yesterday 6-5 almost entirely because of this ability. I just couldn't get away from her ranged attack.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

On 2/14/2016 at 4:11 PM, Clockwork Top Hat said:

Sonnia is a blaster with a burning theme. Other models (Kaeris for example) use burning far more effectively.

I agree with Clockwork.  I guess I don't get the Sonnia burning vs. non-burning argument.

Yes she doesn't have the synergy of some other condition masters, but the burning tokens help.

I usually bring  Witchling Stalkers and a Handler because they are excellent models for the price and just so happen to help Sonnia with burning, not because they burn.  I have summoned stalkers and it is nice when it happens, but I don't plan on that as a necessity.   

So I suggest you not making a "burning list", but don't shy away from some models that would be in that list if you don't make a "burning list".

Also, Sonnia brings many more options than Perdita.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information