GG2016 Colette

[Razora911]

Hey Guys! 

So I'm new, and only just about to finish my first crew ever.

In preperation for Gencon, I was thinking of getting some Arcanists, as I really like Colette, but I'm not really sold on any of the other masters. 

My question is; how well does she do the different strats/schemes, if I wanted to run her as my only Arcanist master? 

Thanks!

[admiralvorkraft]

She's fantastic, her theme crew plus raptors and December's Acolytes can cover pretty much anything.

[hippodruid]

Colette is a really strong Master, but she also benefits greatly from having a good selection of models to work with.  That said, she can still be quite competitive with only a few additions to her main crew box, such as Coryphee, the Sabertooth Cerberus, December's Acolytes, and Malifaux Raptors.

For GG2016, she works well in Headhunter, Interference, and Claim the Bounty, in that order from most well-suited to worst.  She can still score for Extraction and Guard the Stash, but a lack of default durability will make things a bit harder for her.  Schemes are a bit more complicated, of course.

Easier (will probably score 1-3 points):
Convict Labor, Exhaust Their Forces, Leave Your Mark, Covert Breakthrough, Undercover Entourage, Catch And Release, Frame For Murder, Detonate The Charges, Set Up, Search The Ruins, Public Demonstration, Occupy Their Turf

Colette and crew do a lot with movement and interaction.  They can put the right things in the right places at the right time, whether that's models or markers, so long as they're friendly.  Scheme markers are a particular forte of the Showgirls, and Colette makes it even easier than most Masters to put them down.

Maybe Easy, Maybe Hard:
Hunting Party, Show Of Force, Neutralize The Leader, Mark For Death, Inspection, A Quick Murder

These really depends on what you intend to buy to work with Colette.  If you pick up Howard Langston, the Cerberus, or another Arcanist damage dealer, some of these become almost trivial (Hunting Party, Neutralize the Leader, Mark for Death, and A Quick Murder, notably).  Arcanists have good generic upgrades and a good Enforcer/Henchman pool, so Show of Force isn't an automatic loser, but Colette tends to give more advantages to Minions or Showgirls.  Inspection is a little swingy and can go either way, although that's really the case with almost any Master, and isn't unique to Colette.

You're Probably Gonna Have a Bad Time:
Take Prisoner

I know I said above that durability is a factor, but this is really only the case for everything else in Colette's box.  Colette herself is really, really hard to actually remove from the board, and savvy opponents will take advantage of that.  Colette makes her Crew good at this scheme herself, but you could very likely end up trading points on it.

[Jordon]

I don't think you could really ask for a better master as an "all comer". She can be a real pain to put down but there are a few things that make her nervous such as pushes. Once you remove Colette from the safety of her scheme markers, she can become very easy to put down (harder if your running her in a thematic crew).

It also helps that her box set comes with what most people tend to agree as the best Henchmen the arcanists have. The only thing her box is really lacking is a heavy hitter. You can go thematic with the Coryphee/Duet or venture off and try something like Langston or Joss. Once you have a beater or two, you've pretty much covered all your bases.

 

[dancater]

The observations above are 100% valid from what I know.  However I'll also add that Colette and crew are regarded as one of the trickier master-crew combos to ....master??

This is a crew where a mistake can hurt you really quickly, durability is one weakness and the need to position things carefully is another consideration.  It not really much surprise to observe that every crew has a learning curve and you'll always have a composition debate of 'if I include this I lose that' but I think that Colette (at least in Arcanists) is slightly tougher than her colleagues.  So at least initially things maybe a little.. tense.. during your initial games.  The pure showgirls theme is very functional and adaptable but also mistake fragile, the lovely ladies rely more on tricks than raw wounds to stay upright, if you miss a key trick it is usually bad and often irreversible.

Colette is also an amazing support master across a wide variety of models however (outside theme), I'd get in rough order;

1. Coryphee Duet (either one box, modelling skill and magnets or two boxes and laziness), theme, beater with speed and durability, SS expensive and NEVER let them die alone
2. Ramos box, Joss and Howard are superb and the Spiders are useful especially if you have the Mech Rider, or get it later. In addition you get a free master for variety
3. December Acolyte because they are inexpensive to purchase and really good with the Queen of the stage
4. Angellica, she's theme, she's good, but in general it's a choice to double down on what Colette and the girl's already do really well
5. Mechanical Rider, brings some durability and punch with speed and potential end games summons (hence you'll need spiders or metal gamin here)
6. Arcane Effigy it's cheap, it's useful
7. Raptors are really mobile but I think that this is less vital for Colette as her crew does this well already
8. Ice Dancers, never used them, they are released soon, showgirls theme and add yet more speed and scheme tricks and shenanigans to further the objective of 'make opponent cry with frustration as pretty girls in dresses tactics own hard-bitten desperadoes armed to the teeth'
9. Than it gets more open Arcane Emissary is good, you can theme things like burning [Willie, Fire Gamin], Gunsmiths are reliable all rounders, plenty of great mercs [with Johan I think to useful to not be a must buy], Marcus box and Mei Feng box both have some useful models 

[RustAndTheCity]

I've been playing Ramos for a few months and I've recently added Colette and played around 8 games with her.

As others have said, Colette is great at scheme marker schemes and things where the prompt for an activation is great (exhaust, headhunter, etc). I think her big weakness is that her models are quite fragile and she tends towards a smaller crew and so has trouble with the lots of models in the center holding ground strategies and schemes (extraction, turf war, sometimes guard the stash, etc). 

I think Ramos and Colette are a great compliment to each other. Howard Langston and Joss are very good with Colette. Howard Langston is fast with incredible melee (great prompt target ). Joss is very durable and does reliable damage. They make very good additions for Colette.

As a master, Ramos is a great compliment to Colette. He excels at schemes in the center with his spider summons. He's very durable and usually takes a fairly durable crew. Ramos excels at many of the strategies that Colette has difficulty with (and vice versa). I find that Cassandra is a very good addition to Ramos' crew too (for scheme markers and speed).

If you added Ramos, I would recommend on getting another box of spiders initially (9spiders + 1 swarm is plenty ). Johan and mobile toolkit/electric creation would be great second additions. 

I've done a few events with Ramos and Colette as my only Arcanist masters. I haven't found a set of strats and schemes yet where 1 of them wasn't a great choice.

 

Good luck. I've found playing Colette is a steep learning curve. I find she is a tricky master to get the hang of. When everything works she can be incredible. 

[surly]

11 hours ago, admiralvorkraft said:

She's fantastic, her theme crew plus raptors and December's Acolytes can cover pretty much anything.

Mind explaining the Raptors?
Only because of Practised Production?

[mythicFOX]

Yes they're amazing with PP.  They're also amazing in the Interference strategy. 

[admiralvorkraft]

What mythic says, plus if you expect to be facing a gunline.

[Mxbedlam]

So I've been dabbling with Colette a lot lately, and I have 2 main crews I run with her. One is 90% frozen heart models and relies heavily on prompt to turn Silent Ones into nuclear warheads. The other is an elite list that runs Myranda, Miss Step, and Cassandra as a tirumvrate and uses acolytes and performers to get models into position for the alpha strike. Between these two lists there's honestly very very little that Colette cannot do. In GG2016 I feel like she is without a doubt one of the strongest masters in the game.

There's a caveat though: as stated about, she can be very fragile and you need to make sure you don't over extend. 90% of the time my first turn is a  single advance and drop scheme markers for my entire crew. It leaves me with a mine field I can use for schemes later on, or to save a model when I have to pull it out of the fire.

Secondly, raptors are OMG amazing. period. If I have a few extra points, a raptor goes in. It can tie up models, deny schemes like Convict Labor, provide extra scheme support through Practiced Production (always on Cassandra, Colette has better things to do), and generally just annoys the crap out of your opponent.

[RustAndTheCity]

Have you ever found a need or a use for 2 raptors?

[Adran]

46 minutes ago, RustAndTheCity said:

Have you ever found a need or a use for 2 raptors?

With Kaeris and Grab and drop, 2 raptors are pretty good. Also, if you are relying on only 1 raptor to play around with Practised productions, they can be killed. If you have 2, then they probably aren't worth the effort to kill them both. If you're playing Colette, then 1 raptor and Doves is probably plenty. 

[Razora911]

Thanks for all the replies.

This all seems like I figured. She is strong, and fits my playstyle. 

But, what about the new masters? Is she gonna be a bit more balanced with all the marker manipulation/removal being introduced? 

[Adran]

Lets see - Going from the Master card-

Asami eats scheme markers to heal, so you won't want to bunch up the markers too much. You might change a little, but on the whole this shouldn't be a problem

Zipp makes interacts harder. Just don't interact near him unless you must. 

Sandeep, Reva - Don't care about scheme markers

Titania - Mostly seems to play with her own scheme markers. About all she gets from Colettes scheme markers is a heal, so if you're tryign to kill her, don't drop markers near her. 

Nellle gains Evidence when you interact near her. It depends on how much she wants to use this evidence. She might also get a push if she is in base contact. Probably not much of an issue. 

Parker - This looks like a very interesting mix. I think Colette will be ok, but need to think a bit more about where she places her markers as Parker makes good use of them with his 5 finger discount 

 

You migth need to adapt how you play colette. All togeher now is probably not going to be great against Parker. Conversely, she can make use of the scheme markers PArker is dropping as well, so he'll have to adapt to her as well. Sometimes carpetting the board will be a bad idea (just as it is now if the opponent has an executioner for example) but not always. 

[Bengt]

51 minutes ago, Adran said:

About all she gets from Colettes scheme markers is a heal, so if you're tryign to kill her, don't drop markers near her.

Titania's (0) push action also works with anyone's scheme markers so if you put them all over it will increase her crew's mobility. It also means that "Now You See Me..." can only be reliably used with Doves and Mannequins if Titania is near as she can (0) away three.

[Razora911]

Its quite interesting. 

Nellie and Asami (also Parker?) I would assume would be most prevailent (as they are quite unique in their respective factions), but it would probably still warrant some change in strategy. 

It would raise her skill cap a bit.

[Mxbedlam]

There's already at least one instance that you have to be careful of when dropping scheme markers. I'm talking about Sammy LaCroix. She turns scheme markers into stuffed piglets. I had to learn that lesson the hard way. Its all about being aware of what they can do and how they do it. MOST of the time when playing Colette scheme markers are on my side of the board or the center line. I tend to take Convict Labor a lot, just cause its so darn easy with Practiced Production and a single Mannequin

[Jordon]

Yeah it will definitely be interesting for Colette once the new masters hit the meta. Parker, Asami and Titania can all use (0) to blow away scheme markers, which can be extremely scary for Colette. Luckily she does have a backup Df trigger she can rely on. It may just be that people run her a little more thematically to ensure plenty of showgirls are around to keep Colette safe. Colette also has the advantage of being insanely mobile so it's not too difficult to teleport if you suspect those masters closing in. 

If all else fails just insert prompted Langston/Joss/Duet. That usually solves most threats

[Ampers&nd]

I've found an Ulix crew challenging against Colette  with Old Major's upgrade allowing all pigs to eat markers for heals, plus the vast spawning of piglets can strip activation advantage quite quickly leaving my manipulative models and support pieces unable to react when being chased down by angry bacon. 

Insert other media

[Mxbedlam]

That's why you use blasts to wipe those pigs off the map. Bacon ball doesn't generally hold up to mass explosions.

[Ampers&nd]

yeah, next time I'll be bringing my Willy along for the fun.

[bstorz]

4 hours ago, Ampers&nd said:

yeah, next time I'll be bringing my Willy along for the fun.

That sounds all sorts of wrong.....

[Mxbedlam]

Silent ones.... easy 3-4 blasts a turn. More if Cassandra understudies

[surly]

On 25.7.2016 at 10:25 AM, mythicFOX said:

Yes they're amazing with PP.  They're also amazing in the Interference strategy. 

 

On 25.7.2016 at 9:29 PM, admiralvorkraft said:

What mythic says, plus if you expect to be facing a gunline.

 

Sorry to bother again, but I think I'm still missing something. Tbh I don't really see why they should be amazing at Interference ... they're peons, so they don't count for the strategy.

I guess I just really don't get something obvious - would be really cool if someone could point it out.
 

[osoi]

No but they come in at the end of the turn after everyone has activated  and can engage enemy models denying them points