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Kudra as Pandora counter


dancater

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So was listening to the ever interesting Schemes & Stones podcast and they were discussing Pandora and her vulnerabilities.  It occurred to me that Kudra may be an exceptional anti-Pandora piece.

  • Reasonable Df (6:tome) and OK Wp (5:tome) but importantly both with a baked in on failure card cycle trigger.
  • When targeted by non-melee attacks can discard to butterfly jump push.
  • Her wounds are a respectable (for a 7SS model) 8.
  • Her base damage track on ranged is average 2/3/4.
  • Her base damage track on melee is poor 1/2/3.
  • Minor Illusion creating terrain which is severe and cover always helps and its a (0).

This means that Pandora cannot really smash her, she has a chance to resist and she can cycle cards when she fails (once/turn).  The butterfly jump also lets her discard a card to avoid a ranged attack by jumping out away (say also out of aura so only taking damage for attack and not also Wp fails) OR discard to jump forwards towards Pandora and into charge range.  Overall fairly cheap and durable against Pandora's attack block.

  • She has respectable speed Wk 6 and Ch 7.
  • Her ranged attack is useful (although only Ca 5 so hard to hit Pandora herself) against Pandora and is a Ca action so really hurts her incorporeal minion/enforcer support should she bring any (Sorrows, Poltergeist etc).  Can blast so hit Pandora with non avoidable blasts and she can cheat and regen the stone to get the trigger.
  • Her melee attack is 1/2/3 and Poison +1 with MI 6.  This is great against Pandora, once you lock her in melee you have a respectable chance of hitting (MI 6 v Wp 7) and can thousand cut and poison her to death.  In addition on a charge you get 4 attacks which at the least will drain her hand to avoid some damage hopefully.

In addition upgrades wise.

  • Her personal upgrade with a Wind Gamin or two (which are nice cheap models anyway) can add +1 to her MI so now MI 7 which against Pandora is golden.  The other Gamin buffs (Fire and Ice) are more situational in my scenario vs Pandora.
  • Imbued Energies is fast and card cycle so always useful.
  • Warding Runes could be OK depending on Pandora crew build.
  • The other upgrades (Powered by Flame, Imbued Protection, Blade & Claw, Recharge Soulstone) are very situational.

In short I think Kudra is a pretty fast moving model who against Pandora builds has surprising durability and she can deliver the type of attacks Pandora and her crew really hate.  Depending on build she will be either a respectable 7SS or a more mid-range 8-9SS I'd expect and she can also adequately run schemes.

This is pure theory-crafting but I am throwing it out there, I think the magical Indian dancer has real merit in crews vs Pandora and is solid in any anti Neverborn build.

Thoughts?

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Typically I'll drop Rasputina if I'm playing neverborn and especially if I think Pandora is coming. Frozen Heart makes most of Pandora's tricks go away and her damage output against anything incorporeal is downright mean.

Otherwise the Ox mages are excellent at tanking those WP duels and are effectively immune to the misery bubbles if they still have their arcane shield up. 

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True both but still worth thinking about I believe.

Single master tournaments for one.

Experimentation.

Also Kudra is potentially cheap enough to be a useful addition and scheme runner in any crew.  She is an alternative to Ice Dancer for speed and points in a Raspy crew for instance.

 

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While I like Kudra as a cheap henchmen I think I would not label her a Pandora Counter.  Ml6 to Wp7 is not a good thing here, so she kind of needs her upgrade and a wind gamin.  The Reason 4 attacks with Ml6 is not very solid is because once Pandora wins one of those duels she will push away to just outside your 1" mark or all 4" to go after a different target.  With only an 8" threat range on her own Pandora will out threaten her generally or be able to escape outside your reach unless you have movement tricks from other models.  And it is not easy to pin down her movement either as she either has to put herself against a wall for you or let you wrap several models around her.  Also with her mobility she can always engage Kudra with her 3" melee range before Kudra can charge.

The second issue is if Pandora has the Voices upgrade.  With only a Wp5 Kudra is not hard for her to paralyze.  She does not have to kill Kudra, just deny her a turn or two.  The only way to deny her this would be to take Warding Runes and make sure you have the Blood Ward on one of the mages within the 10" aura to prevent the condition.  But this makes her more expensive, now needing a mage, two upgrades, and a Wind Gamin to put her in position to deny Pandora.

Again not saying she is a bad model but I would not label her a Pandora counter as much as just a cheap potentially useful henchwoman.

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