how do you use skeeters?

[shahryar]

I have been wanting to start learnign somer more probably summoner more then normal killy somer but i cant figure out how best to use the skeeters.

[Vorschlag]

They usually serve on of two purposes, Tar pitting or mobile buffing.
With a wk, chg of 10 + flight and Mi 6 with + to disengaging attacks they can highly effective at locking up ranged models or locking down some scheme runners.
With only three wounds they can fall pretty quickly but with df 7 you can use them to lock down models will low mi or drain your opponents hands.

Having access to pull my finger is also brilliant for this type of build as they can land amongst a group of lands and start flatulating to drain your opponents hand or soften up their models.

Another option is to use warn the kin, so once you've locked down an enemy unit your gremlins can fire into combat without any risk to the skeeter.

In a rare situation you might even be able to finish off an enemy and land their trigger to get another skeeter.


The second option is the mobile buffing unit
Do it like this allows you to hand out autotriggers to nearby units meaning in combination with lenny, somer and 2 skeeters you can have your entire horde hitting auto triggers.
quit screwin round can be used aggressively to shut down your opponents triggers or prevent triggers of your own like whoops ricochet or even dumb luck if your numbers are dwindling.
Down the hatch allows you to buff nearby models wp making it extremely useful against ressers and neverborn. 

 

[Math Mathonwy]

4 hours ago, Vorschlag said:

They usually serve on of two purposes, Tar pitting or mobile buffing.

Good stuff, Vorschlag!

4 hours ago, Vorschlag said:

With a wk, chg of 10 + flight and Mi 6 with + to disengaging attacks they can highly effective at locking up ranged models or locking down some scheme runners.
With only three wounds they can fall pretty quickly but with df 7 you can use them to lock down models will low mi or drain your opponents hands.

Just a note here: it's "Ml" not "Mi" - lowercase 'l' as in 'Melee'  

4 hours ago, Vorschlag said:

In a rare situation you might even be able to finish off an enemy and land their trigger to get another skeeter.

If I have Crows in hand, I like to Focus and change a Gremlin to have three or even four Skeeters. It can be a bit card intensive but due to Somer's card draw it works most of the time. And due to his Summoning there's usually models you can do this to (going Drunk & Reckless near Lenny lowers Gremlins from two Wd to one).

[Blacks85]

9 minutes ago, Math Mathonwy said:

Good stuff, Vorschlag!

Just a note here: it's "Ml" not "Mi" - lowercase 'l' as in 'Melee'  

If I have Crows in hand, I like to Focus and change a Gremlin to have three or even four Skeeters. It can be a bit card intensive but due to Somer's card draw it works most of the time. And due to his Summoning there's usually models you can do this to (going Drunk & Reckless near Lenny lowers Gremlins from two Wd to one).

Did you buy 2 somer box to have 4 skeeters?

Because i do want 4 of them just in case...but i dont want to buy a second somer box and most important they take too.much space in the case

 

[Math Mathonwy]

15 minutes ago, Blacks85 said:

Did you buy 2 somer box to have 4 skeeters?

Because i do want 4 of them just in case...but i dont want to buy a second somer box and most important they take too.much space in the case

I use these as Skeeters:

http://www.firestormgames.co.uk/stirges-4

I think that the plastic Skeeters, though pretty cool-looking, are way too fragile and big. Also, I had all of the contents of the Somer box in metal except the Skeeters so didn't get the plastic box.

[Dogmantra]

One impotant tip to play Summon'er with Skeeters is unless you absolutely definitely 1000% have to activate Som'er right now, activate a Skeeter first to cast Do It Like Dis for the to summon with, or you will flip the Black Joker on the cast with Som'er and be forced to either not summon, spend high masks in hand, or spend soulstones for the suit. I was at a tournament yesterday, and that exact thing happened to me. I had to activate Som'er first or my bayous were all gonna die. Black Joker Do It Like Dis and then I was a little bit screwed. It's a fairly small chance of happening, but it's a good habit to get into, particularly for your first turn to ensure you can get three Bayou Gremlins out there.

[Blacks85]

17 minutes ago, Dogmantra said:

One impotant tip to play Summon'er with Skeeters is unless you absolutely definitely 1000% have to activate Som'er right now, activate a Skeeter first to cast Do It Like Dis for the to summon with, or you will flip the Black Joker on the cast with Som'er and be forced to either not summon, spend high masks in hand, or spend soulstones for the suit. I was at a tournament yesterday, and that exact thing happened to me. I had to activate Som'er first or my bayous were all gonna die. Black Joker Do It Like Dis and then I was a little bit screwed. It's a fairly small chance of happening, but it's a good habit to get into, particularly for your first turn to ensure you can get three Bayou Gremlins out there.

Smart thing, but if you have to activate somer to avoid gremlin to explode...activate the skeeters is a problem

And i agree...cool models but way too big and fragile

[Dumb Luck]

I adore using the Skeeters in Interference. They are pretty quick and very good at locking down models in a quarter for at least a turn.

[Omenbringer]

I agree with a lot of the above, however would re-emphasize caution against tar pitting certain models. While they have nice defensive stats they aren't particularly durable. Their best tar pit targets are those longer range shooting models (my favorites are the Ten Thunders Archers), especially since they can often get to them from outside of their shooting range.

[EnternalVoid]

I am surprised one of the uses I have been loving has not been mentioned, shutting down triggers.  Having it fly its 10" and then use its (1) Somer's Totem to use the (0) Quit Screwin' 'Round to force my opponent into tough calls have been great.  They either have to kill the Skeeter, get away from it, or just accept not having triggers for the rest of the turn.  So far it has forced my opponent to kill the Skeeter, sometimes wasting a couple activations.  In my last Somer game I had one land engaging Bishop who had been eyeing my Gracie.  I also caught Von Shill in the 4" putting him into a tough spot as he had no other models that could intervene at the time.  In the end Bishop killed the Skeeter but it basically made him waste the action and let Gracie, Lenny, and Francois come after him.

[rufusmcdufus]

Somewhat off topic but how am I supposed to fit these on 30mm bases?

[Gremlin66]

I set mine so they were flying. I cut a paper clip in half. Can't post a picture right now. 

[EnternalVoid]

I have two of the old ones.  I grabbed an old GW flying peg, cut it to the size and angle I wanted, and glued it to that and from there to the base.

[Adran]

I've set mine on bases attacking models or hovering around scenic elements (I've got it arouns a pine tree but a pile of rocks or so should also work well). It makes for a large volume but they don't look like 30mm is too small a base.

Also remember a third use, probably alongside tarpitting, is area damage if you give Sommer a can o'beans. 

[rufusmcdufus]

And one of my skeeters lost his antennae.  I guess I'm not using skeeters.  

[Dogmantra]

It's okay, mine have lost all their antennae and one has lost both its wings. It just adds character

[Guildenstern]

On 7/5/2016 at 6:02 PM, rufusmcdufus said:

And one of my skeeters lost his antennae.  I guess I'm not using skeeters.  

Mine have lost both I think as well and one lost a wing, which actually was kind of convenient as I find it easier to tell them apart now lol

I won't put them in foam though for carrying. I magnetised their bases and put them on a cookie tin lid so they wouldn't get any more damaged. Works very well.

[Hateful Darkblack]

I have been loving Skeeters lately, but I feel like I'm throwing them away too quickly.

• They're great for cancelling out enemy snipers (and I can't wait to send them into a nest of Blot the Sky-boosted Ten Thunders Archers hiding behind terrain to shut that machine down.)
• Against Neverborn opponents especially, they can copy Liquid Bravery to protect against Wp attacks.
• They provide activation control just by hanging out.
• They can drain a lot of enemy firepower if they fly into enemies and start mocking them. (This is how I use them most often, and I worry that I'm just sending my guys in to get killed.)
• They ramp up to Ludicrous Speed when they activate near Aionus.

I like the idea of using them for Black Joker insurance for Somer's summoning, by using Do It Like Dis before Somer activates.

Does anyone use them to crank up the Rams on Burt Jebsen with Do It Like Dis so Burt can do crazy high damage? Does that work, both mechanically and tactically?

Also, I need to figure out when it's a good idea to send them into my enemy early and when I'm just wasting activations. 

[Dogmantra]

1 hour ago, Hateful Darkblack said:

Does anyone use them to crank up the Rams on Burt Jebsen with Do It Like Dis so Burt can do crazy high damage? Does that work, both mechanically and tactically?

It works mechanically as in you can stack up + per skeeter with two uses of Do It Like Dis, but I'm not sure more than one or maybe two is likely at all - you need a ram to discard for each one, and at least an 8 for it to go off makes it actually somewhat difficult.

[Hateful Darkblack]

Good point. Somer has some tricks for card flow (and by "tricks" I mean "expendable Bayou Gremlins") which can make it more possible, but it is a big investment in Rams.

Still, if you can crank Burt up to like min damage 8 (with Lenny and two Mosquitoes each boosting Rams), it could be kind of amazing.

[Blacks85]

10 hours ago, Dogmantra said:

It works mechanically as in you can stack up + per skeeter with two uses of Do It Like Dis, but I'm not sure more than one or maybe two is likely at all - you need a ram to discard for each one, and at least an 8 for it to go off makes it actually somewhat difficult.

I've used two nights ago with Lenny, Card, Built-in ram, Mosquito do-it, Somer do-it.

Having a +5 on min. damage...for a track of 7/8/9 is absolutely crazy with a Ml 6 and 3 AP.

(Of course I was lucky, 2 low rams in hand and 2 medium rams in hand)

I was engaged with 3 lot-of-wounds but weak resser models...all destroyed.

[Omenbringer]

I wouldn't be surprised to see this one get dialed back.

[Guildenstern]

I dunno, I mean it seems like you would have trouble doing it regularly at all, at least enough to get complained about?

Wish I'd thought to use a skeeter to help with summoning before, I'd been using Somer only for the do it like dis.

I need to learn how to tarpit better I guess as well - last two games I've gotten my skeeters blown up rather quickly by turn 2. Kind of good in one sense, they kept models busy at least. But I was hoping to get more use out of them.