Stuffed Trouble with Little Wong

[gozer]

Is Wong any good with Stuffed Piglets?

On paper it seems like it'd be a fun and effective synergy: running the Stuffed Piglets up to enemies and having Wong target them rather than the enemy for neigh-guaranteed severe hits. The severe hits cause blasts and the pigs explode for a massive ball of bacon death.

If this might be a viable strategy, what other models would enhance or improve this crew?

 

 

 

[Four_N_Six]

It's a very popular strategy to throw stuffed piglets into engagement, use Gremlin's Luck when randomizing to hit the stuffed piglet, then cheat their Df down so Wong hits severe. The blast and pulse damage you can do is better than single target damage in a lot of cases (no Df triggers), and the trade-off is a 2 stone model, which will the Kersplode for even more damage. I typically being 3 or 4 with me. Plus it's a lot of activation control, which is a huge positive in a gremlin crew. Lenny might work in it, to help toss them up the board. If you don't care about them being paralyzed, the pigapult can drop them wherever they need to be, though I haven't tried that yet. Think I will next time I run Wong though. 

[Dogmantra]

It's not necessary to play him well and I haven't tried it myself but from what I've heard it works pretty well, particularly with the new Do Over upgrade from Wave 4 that essentially gives him a fourth AP to shoot into combat provided he hits a friendly. Something to get the piglets into position is probably a good idea, Lenny is probably your best bet here - he can throw them further than Trixie can push them, and they can still activate afterwards. The Pigapult might work, but remember that due to the paralyse errata, you'd need to activate them before killing them so they can still take Bacon Bomb (no taking actions while you're paralysed). If you took the Explosive Solutions upgrade too, Lenny would give you the ram for that to give +1 damage to all blasts. I'm not sure it'd be the best investment, but bringing the Emissary as well for an additional +1 blast damage would be pretty funny, 5 damage on the severe blasts and an extra 2 to any that flip a crow on their pulse. Nasty.

[Izzinatah]

Yes. Exceedingly. The "Do Over" upgrade in Ripples of Fate makes it even better. It lets you discard a card to take an action again if it hits a friendly in combat. You can also discard it to draw two cards. All for 1 SS!

Note that it's really handy to be able to use the blasts to hurt high-Df enemies without having to beat them in a duel.

Also, A Gremlin's Luck gives you positive twists to both randomisation and the pulse damage. It's a Limited upgrade that competes with Oooh, Glowy! but this brings me nicely on to my answer to your second question...

Sammy LaCroix! She can hold Oooh, Glowy for Wong and she can make more Stuffed Piglets. She's an auto-include for me in Wong lists now. That, and she keeps Jynxing big scary beaters

[gozer]

Is it necessary to take Lovely Assistant or Lightning Bugs in this crew? I'm asking to decide whether buying the crew box would be necessary if I have the option to buy or trade Wong on his own.

[Dogmantra]

I know a lot of people go for Old Cranky instead of LA, since he's a cheap activation to drop scheme markers for Wong's (0)s, as well as the amazing auras, but I do love my Lightning Bugs. Do you take them in a crew with this gimmick, maybe, depends on the strats & schemes, but they're not bad hitters who don't really care about any defensive abilities, can fight at melee or range and make dang good scheme runners.

Mancha Roja is also just super fun and the box is definitely worth getting for him.

[Clement]

The lovely assistant really gets you two useful things.

1) Prepare the show:   You can use it to shape the deck for randomizing (put a bad card down on top so you will always hit the stuffed piglet when you randomize).

2) Crackerjack timing:   People know that when they're facing Wong they need to spread out to avoid his blast and pulse shenanigans.  Crackerjack timing is a way to help mitigate that by possibly dragging stuff together into a ball for murder.

 

Depending on how terrain is laid out you might not care about crackerjack timing.

[Dogmantra]

Of course, if you really want to avoid the Lovely Assistant and you still want Crackerjack Timing, Burt Jebsen has you covered.

[Clement]

1 hour ago, Dogmantra said:

Of course, if you really want to avoid the Lovely Assistant and you still want Crackerjack Timing, Burt Jebsen has you covered.

Why not both?   Burt makes good budget "glowey" target.

[Bazlord_Prime]

On 10/10/2016 at 6:20 AM, Dogmantra said:

The Pigapult might work, but remember that due to the paralyse errata, you'd need to activate them before killing them so they can still take Bacon Bomb (no taking actions while you're paralysed). 

Nice catch! Hadn't twigged to that.

You could probably still pull it off, tho with a Pigapult i find you want a LOT of Stuffed Piglets if you're going to be keeping it busy both flinging them downrange, as well as using them efficiently for ammunition.

In a 5 round game, with 1 round of flinging and 4 of shooting, that 'Pult would need 7 Stuffies in order to get the most out of it, so Sammy or a Taxidermist could be an idea.

[PositronMike]

You need to remember as well that stuffed piglets are Rare 6. I tend to find with Wong the pigapult isn't worth it as you will just be able to run the piglets up to where you need them. 

If you want to have the ability to reposition them Burt is a good option as he can sic em onto people with either his knife or gun. 

[SinJ]

If you are debating on what to buy and intend to expand into Gremlins further I would just go ahead and get the Wong Box. Lightning Bugs are pretty good for playing against Arcanists or any armor spam and Mancha Roja is a solid Henchman. I still haven't assembled my Lovely Assistant because I don't really know why you would ever take her as opposed to Old Cranky.

The Lovely Assistant requires an 8, lets you see the top four cards and then put them back on your deck in any order. This is really limiting as you can't discard those in any way. You are much better served by Ol' Cranky's discard to draw combo'd with Winds of Fate on Sammy to get two instances of card cycling. Is this a much higher use of Soulstones? Of course but it doesn't cost you any cards out of hand and let's you build a stronger hand instead of a fixed top deck that requires the use of a moderate 8.

But yes Stuffed Piglets are very worth it, I would consider an auto-take with Wong. You will want a big scary model to put Glowy on, Sammy to carry OOh Glowy, Old Cranky to give defensive buffs to your crew and Stuffed Piglets for activation control and controlled blast targets. IMO those are the base requirements of a good Wong Crew.

For additions, the Taxidermists are pretty nice. They can make more Stuffed Piglets out of the corpses your opponents will be dropping as you blast them to bits and can give pigs Flight on a 5 of Masks which could be pretty clutch in a terrain-heavy board. I would always take at least one vs Ressurs to help mitigate the amount of corpses they use to summon. Even if they kill the Taxidermist he can use Dead Man's Switch to Detonate your stuffed piglets at once in a glorious shower of bacon and explosions. Creative Taxidermy overall is a good box for Wong.

[Clement]

 

2 hours ago, SinJ said:

The Lovely Assistant requires an 8, lets you see the top four cards and then put them back on your deck in any order. This is really limiting as you can't discard those in any way. You are much better served by Ol' Cranky's discard to draw combo'd with Winds of Fate on Sammy to get two instances of card cycling. Is this a much higher use of Soulstones? Of course but it doesn't cost you any cards out of hand and let's you build a stronger hand instead of a fixed top deck that requires the use of a moderate 8.

The way I run Wong, typically he's randomizing a lot of his shots into a combat with my appointed glowy beater or better yet, a stuffed piglet.  Being able to control the top of the deck ensures that your stuffed piglet/whatever is the target so you have complete control of everything and can get that sweet severe damage using the existing cards in hand.

Don't get me wrong, Cranky does good work, but it will depend on board layouts etc.   If you think you'll have an easy time setting up a big melee for Wong to blast into, give the assistant a good hard look.  If you think Wong will be hunting 1 or 2 models at a time, you might give her a skip and get out cranky.

 

[Four_N_Six]

Just now, Clement said:

 

The way I run Wong, typically he's randomizing a lot of his shots into a combat with my appointed glowy beater or better yet, a stuffed piglet.  Being able to control the top of the deck ensures that your stuffed piglet/whatever is the target so you have complete control of everything and can get that sweet severe damage using the existing cards in hand.

Don't get me wrong, Cranky does good work, but it will depend on board layouts etc.   If you think you'll have an easy time setting up a big melee for Wong to blast into, give the assistant a good hard look.  If you think Wong will be hunting 1 or 2 models at a time, you might give her a skip and get out cranky.

 

I just run Gremlin's Luck so I get the  for randomizing into engagement.  It's very, very rare that using that situation, you'll pull 2 low cards for the target you don't want, or 2 high cards for the target you do want.  The only time I've randomized into the wrong target was when I flipped the black joker for it, where my opponent and I both agreed I had to choose it to be that target's card, and that it was the lowest possibility.  Other than that, I've always hit what I want with Wong.

On the other side, if you want to be able to stack your deck accordingly, try using Merris with her tactical action to literally stack the top of your deck.  I haven't used it in a while (she's too busy running schemes for me), but it can work better than the assistant if you have the right cards in hand, and then you can still have Cranky in the pool.  I find him too valuable (Wong kills too many targets to not get a soulstone for it), and Wong's Df of 5 makes me really happy to have Cranky's Df aura nearby.

[Dogmantra]

THe downside of using Merris to stack your deck compared to Lovely Assistant is that you have to either risk an opponent's activation messing you over, or stall until your opponent runs out of activations. I tend to just let the s do their work tbh.

Also, Sparks's Packed With Explosives action was just brought up in another thread and honestly? I super want to see Wong shooting a Stuffed Piglet and getting 5 on severe damage.

[Bazlord_Prime]

I've been so close to buying Sparks a few times, now.  And if I ever do my dirty plan and play Wong with Lazarus as his Glowy target, I just can't see why I wouldn't also have Sparks. Making him Fast. Oh dear...