What to Play and List Advice

[chryspainthemum]

Hi, I'm a fairly new Neverborn player and I have been rapidly buying into the game. I've played largely Lilith so far, since I really enjoy her versatility, but am also comfortable playing Pandora/Dreamer. That said, where applicable, I prefer to play Lilith because Beckon Malifaux is the shit.

So, I have a GG2016 tournament coming up on the 2nd of April that will be using Turf War for all three rounds (deployment/schemes randomly determined). To me (and my limited experience) this would seem that Pandora would rock the hardest. I'm trying to decide which of the above three to play, and I know that generally you should play what you're most comfortable with, but I'm also looking at this tournament as more of a valuable learning experience than to WAAC - so if I lose, but learn a lot, I'm happy to kick it with a non-Lilith master. I've got a few generic starting lists here, and would love your advice on which you think could get me further (they only go to ~40 points since I figure I can tailor the last ~10 towards the particular schemes).

Lilith:

Lilith w/ Beckon Malifaux and On Wings of Darkness
- The Master, with my standard loadout. I can't imagine playing Lilith without either of these.
Cherub
- Totem, could switch it for pMagic, but I want to try the pushing shenanigans. But who knows, Rush of Magic is pretty dandy.
Black Blood Shaman
- Just got my hand on them and want to try it out. I think the healing along with the Pustule could be super helpful, but unsure. Maybe a better use of 7 points elsewhere.
Doppleganger
- Honestly if all she did was cheat initiative, I'd still love her.
Nekima w/ FGF
- I've had some good experiences with her massive engagement range + FGF, and figure it would be nice alongside BBS.
Tuco
- Advance deployment, blast markers, pushes, prevents walking/charging... and given a good hand, allows me to shunt Nekima into the enemy's face with Tangle Shadows.

Pandora:

Pandora w/ AEther Connection and The Box Opens
- The Master, figure this setup is better for when I know where the enemy's going to be.
Doppleganger
- I really love her.
McTavish w/ Hexed Among You
- Another 'I'm getting the model and want to try it out'-case, I also like the advance deployment on Waldgeists. But maybe a Bad Juju would do well, since the enemy's going to have to deal with the Waldgeists? Being able to shoot into melee and getting a bonus for nearby Swampfiends seems pretty sweet for Turf War, though.
Sorrow
- Aura could do work, but dunno. Maybe an Insidious instead? This is where my inexperience kicks in... Maybe a Mr. Graves to push McTavish up closer to the action?
Waldgeist
Waldgeist
- Dat engagement range.

Dreamer: Not too sure, since I prefer the above two, but if he has a clear advantage over them, I'm happy to throw down with him, too. Gotta learn sometime!

So, yea.

TLDR: upcoming 50ss tournament this weekend that uses the GG2016 scheme pool and Turf War for all 3 rounds. Fairly new player wondering if he should run Pandora because she seems sick at area control or Lilith because he's more comfortable playing her, and then any advice on lists is appreciated. Also the lists deliberately do not go up to 50ss, since the last few is to be tailored to the specific pool/deployment/faction.

 

Thanks for any and all advice!

[Mxbedlam]

I would say for your first tournament and very little practical experience, sitck with the master you know the best. If that's Lilith then take her and rock it out. Learning on a single master is the best way to really get the full scope of the game down when you start. Rotate out one or two models as you practice so you don't have an overwhelming sense of new rules to figure out. Overall, just go in not worrying about winning. Have fun, think of it as 3 more practice games.

Neverborn models that excel at Turf War are Mr Graves, Waldgiests, Mysty Emissary (making difficult terrain for opponents to get through), Nekima (she just murders everything who would contest), and most black blood models (as you can get more chances to spread the love to the enemy). 

Pandora is a fine choice for Turf War, as she can actually pull of the misery bubble. However Lilith works too by making it harder for the opponent to get there. Lilith, Mysty and two Waldgiests can make a lot of terrain hard to fight through

[Eclipse]

For my first tournament I took my first master, Jacob Lynch. I did OK (and learned some things that I didn't know before that). The reason I chose him was because I felt like I needed models I could reliably play as I knew their rules well enough.
Going to a tournament with a Master and some models you are not quite familiar with is a fun challenge, but can be quite overwhelming as you have a harder time remembering things while your time is limited and keeps ticking away. Quite frankly both Lilith and Pandora are very good in Turf War, albeit in a different way. If you set up a dispersed perimeter with Sorrows they can be quite lethal in combination with Pandora. For Lilith, she has excellent terrain control - try however to include at least eight, even better nine activations as if she falls behind in activations a savvy opponent might manipulate you hard.
I see no reason to take On Wings of Darkness with Lilith as with Primoridal Magic you filter you had without spending the extra SS. Even if I had bought the Lilith box and had the Cherub (instead of using a proxy or a gifted Lilith model as I do) I would still use it every time instead of the flying baby. This is a matter of personal preference, though - I find On Wings of Darkness indispensable for Lucius, for example (and it might be great for Dreamer, I reckon).
Also, the way I play Nekima is like a cruise missile of summoning doom - when I give her The True Mother and Growth she can slowly start making an army out the opponent's dead models. She will either take up attention and resources before dying or kill stuff and summon more stuff for me, ideally both. Tuco is a great holder for the Growth upgrade (or somewhat decent for Retribution's Eye) as well.
As you see, different people play the same models in a different way, or in different combinations. Pick whatever you feel like, the experience is very useful no matter what happens in the games. Most importantly, have fun and never look back

[Ludvig]

I'd go with the most familiar one. There is often a lot to take in about the enemy crew and time is usually a factor (a lot of tournent games end in turn 3 because of time constraints). Anything you are familiar with will greatly decrease the stress on your part and allow you to enjoy the game more. A model you are using in a tournament should preferably be so familiar that you could play the entire game without the card.

[feagaur]

I took Likith to my first tournament and managed 14/32. She does rock. But I'd say the waldergeist were the stars. The fact they hold the line so well and can start up field with Juju's upgrade makes them a must. Especially for turf war. Then if you use Mr Graves to move everyone up (with dopplegangers help) you can have the middle held in no time.

[Ludvig]

Replacing the really durable enemies with your own models makes Lilith able to deny strategy points sometimes which is saying something.

Starting upfield isn't always necessary in turf war since you have plenty of time to walk there with most models. Locking enemies in place with waldgeists might prevent them from getting there the way they had planned and cause a lot of grief though, especially combined with Lilith then wisping them away at the very end of t2. That strategy would require a lot of activations in the list since both waldgeists and the denial will rely on it.

[goth]

You mention sorrows OR insidious madness... I'm of the belief that you should consider either both together or neither