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Our Collective Impending Doom


tomjoad

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You guys, I am afraid of a certain henchwoman who's model will be hitting the tables more and more soon. I am talking about one Anna Lovelace and her potentially oppressive 8" aura of anti-movement-trick.

We have an incredible number of models who not only have pushes and places that Anna will interrupt, but these are models who's utility is hinged in many ways on being able to get these pushes. We have 4 Masters out of 7 (Shenlong, McCabe, Yan Lo, Mei Fang) who get a lot of utility out of pushes/places, and there are probably 10,000 hireable models who either need these pushes to be maximized (Yu, tengu, 10T Brothers, Shadow Emissary, Lone Swordsman/jorogumo/high river monks, wandering river monks, torakage...this is all off the top of my head, I'm sure I'm missing some). Having a 9 wound soulstone user with armor that can stop these models from being able to set up out charges, shots, and schemes is going to be no laughing matter, I fear.

So, if Anna joins Johan as the most popular mercs seen on the table, what thoughts do we all have for how to deal with her? With a gun that has weak damage 3 she is representing a threat to our models as well as our movement, and with her defensive capabilities it will take some work to take her down. Do we try to kill her? Develop ways to avoid her? Does anybody here have any practical experience with combatting her?

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34 minutes ago, tomjoad said:

But that doesn't really do anything to help the problems she's causing to our movement and efficiency options does it?

Not really ;)

I think if you want to still benefit from pushes/placements you can either ignore her/go around her but this is not always best idea or commit some resources and try to kill her but as she has very good Df/Wp, Armour +1 plus she is Henchwoman so it won't be easy to kill her. Something with good damage track and Glowing Sabre attached might be useful here. 

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As Yvarre said, assault with Huggy. Or Izamu, if she is a little weakened. Or a Jorogumo? Or just shoot her dead with snipers (this might take a while...). She is troublesome for sure, though - one of the models in the game that modify the way the game is played, and in a nasty way for us.

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I've played against her once, on Vassal. She was a very short term nuisance: she's reasonably tough but not spectacular in that regard, the blocking of pushes is a pain if you try to go past her but I can't think of a hitter that doesn't have at least an 8" threat range. Treat her as a priority target and she shouldn't cause you too much trouble.

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I think I'm most concerned with wanting to own more filthy Ressur models and fielding her.  Though the models she seemingly not so reliably can summon aren't super high impact, activation control can often be key to forcing an opponent into unfavorable positioning decisions, and all we have so far that can summon is Toshy.

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I can't remember whether she has a 40 or 50mm base, but either way it'll be difficult to screen her, so I anticipate I'll be able to have a sniper of some sort on her from t1 if I'm really concerned about her (barring something like a Yan Lo Ancestor list where I might be strapped for points between Izamu/Emissary/Toshiro). :+fate on attack and usually straight flip on damage, plus the odd crit strike trigger or armor ignore, should either put the hurt on her or force soulstone burning, either of which I'm fine with.

 

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Good point, I'll need to try it out when I get some more time as that range could be more restrictive than I first imagined. There are a lot of effects that are <=6" though, which if you're in close with her (and if you have some good tricks to move the enemy in to Brewie to begin with which I tend to run with him anyway) make it less likely for anyone to escape.

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Keep in mind that an enemy Anna will prevent you from pushing/placing your own models, but does nothing to protect the opponent's models. Set up a kill box and then use Sensei Yu/Beckoner/Oiran/Performer/Huggy/etc. to pull Anna into it, and her power is much less relevant. I think the only 10T master whose style she'll really cramp is Yan Lo, but it shouldn't be disastrous.

I will say that I hire her pretty often myself, especially in scenarios like Turf War/Interference, and haven't regretted it yet. Her damage isn't huge, but is very reliable, and she's quite durable, with access to a lot of good triggers.

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I've played against Anna once, and I didn't really experience a lot of adverse effects from her.  Situationally, I didn't need to do a whole lot of pushing with my models, and the strategy at the time (Extraction) didn't really necessitate them.  I was playing Mei Feng vs Kirai, and because of "Vent Steam", it kept Anna out of combat for awhile.  On the 3rd turn of the game, I managed to kill her with Mei Feng, but again, different players will have different experiences.

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17 hours ago, OneLittleThunder said:

I will say that I hire here pretty often myself, especially in scenarios like Turf War/Interference, and haven't regretted it yet. Her damage isn't huge, but is very reliable, and she's quite durable, with access to a lot of good triggers.

Do her Clockwork Dress and Gravity Well abilities come into play much when you do use her?

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3 hours ago, ArcticPangolin said:

Do her Clockwork Dress and Gravity Well abilities come into play much when you do use her?

Usually once or twice a game the opponent will try to do a push or place and then realize (or be reminded) that Anna prevents it. But I regularly hear them grumble about her preventing something they want to do, so I think her aura is pretty frequently a factor. Obviously, it depends on the crew; Masters like Lilith and Kirai, as well as Guild crews relying on Austringers, hate her. A shooty crew like Ophelia or Rasputina doesn't care so much. And as @tomjoad points out, a lot of 10T Masters find her particularly restrictive, in 10T or their native faction.

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