Ophelia vs Flesh Constructs

[Griautis]

TL;DR: How does Ophelia deal with flesh constructs?

Setup: So me and my girlfriend jumped into Malifaux recently. I play ressers and I own Seamus, Mcmourning boxes and 1 additional Fresh Construct and 1 Canine Remains. She has the Ophelia box and Creative Taxidermy box. We also have the general upgrades 1, and broken promises upgrades packs. 

Problem: Due to my composition, I am often taking both Flesh Constructs into my crew, just because most of the other models around are support ones (Belles, Nurses). Constructs provide her a lot of problems, as they can Devour anyone in their crew, except for Stuffed Piglets. Using them to tie them up worked good in our last game, until I killed the Taxidermists, and thus stopped the tide of pigs. We're finding it hard to find effective counters to them, and the last three matches were all won be ressers (ever since I got the McMourning box and the second Flesh Construct/Nurse). 

Any advice what Ophelia can do to counter flesh constructs? We're interested in learning best ways to utilize what we have right now, as well as looking at other possible purchases which would be effective. Another note, my girlfriend will want to stick to Ophelia most likely, and she prefers ranged stuff. 

 

[Ludvig]

She can take stilts on someone who plans to engage them so the model isn't ht 1 anymore. Still need to watch out for the paralyzed condition.

Feeding them crap models so they can't get at high value targets is also an option but it's a bit risky since she might just give McMourning even more fleshies from easy expunges.

[Griautis]

stilts? What are those? And that's another thing, currently, she doesn't really have good melee things, which would have a plan of engaging them. 

I looked through the characters. Gracie, Gators, The Sow caught my eye, as all having some defenses, good damage and most Ht 2 to be able to engage Flesh Constructs. Would they be effective? 

Also, what about upgrade options? Or certain skill combinations available here for Ophelia? I'm personally not that aware of either of these.  

EDIT: Mancha Roja also seems like a good counter? If you have a mask and a crow in hand it's an instant kill, and you probably don't need very high cards either, since low defenseon the Construct. 

[Adran]

10 minutes ago, Griautis said:

stilts? What are those? And that's another thing, currently, she doesn't really have good melee things, which would have a plan of engaging them. 

I looked through the characters. Gracie, Gators, The Sow caught my eye, as all having some defenses, good damage and most Ht 2 to be able to engage Flesh Constructs. Would they be effective? 

Also, what about upgrade options? Or certain skill combinations available here for Ophelia? I'm personally not that aware of either of these.  

Stilts are an upgrade that make you +1 Ht and can be discarded to prevent damage from a ml attack I think they are rare 2. They will be in the general upgrade box.

Francois is very good in Ml from her box. 

And shooting them from afar is always an option. they have a lot of wounds, but a really low df, so most things hit them easily.  

[Griautis]

Is there any useful upgrade for this cause in General Upgrade pack 2? Also is there anything in Gremlins which allow to go around Hard to Wound?  Went through the cards for Gremlins we have. Listing options I found. Is there something else? 

This is what I found so far:
Gracie, Bayou Gators, The Sow, Mancha Roja as good melee Units to throw at Flesh Constructs. Mancha Roja can kill one in a turn with a Crow trigger, if it's paralyzed. And he can paralyze himself, or Ophelia can paralyze for him.

Sammy Lacroix - Can deal out horror duels to them (if they're not by themselves), and they're fairly susceptible to them, since WP 2.
Ophelia herself - heavy damage with Dumb Luck, horror duels from her reattachable upgrade.
 

Upgrades:
My Threatening Gun - Horror duels, which they're weak against. Either just to disable the thing for  turn, or to enable Mancha Roja, if he exists.

On Yer Tip Toes - aura to make stuff HT2 - undevourable

Stilts (offered above, rewritting just to have this in same space for now) - HT2 to one model, and Melee defense. Should be good on Francois or something else to go ruin their day.
 

 

 

[Ludvig]

Stilts are a general upgrade for gremlins from the first book/general upgrade deck 1. Francois basically comes with them attached to his card since they synergise very well with doing red joker damage with dumb luck and then discarding stilts to completely ignore the damage to yourself. I don't think I have ever seen a player play him without stilts. Any sort of condition you can apply will also be almost guaranteed to succeed because of their crap stats and gremlins can get some models with decent minimum damage which is nice to counter hard to wound.

[ArD]

Flesh construct is too dumb to care. It is immune to horror duels and manipulative.

[Griautis]

4 minutes ago, ArD said:

Flesh construct is too dumb to care. It is immune to horror duels and manipulative.

Bang. Missed that. This destroys most of what I had above. 

EDIT: Ok, not most of it. just the Threatening Gun, and Sammy Lacroix. 

[mock kin]

Double focused rami can get round hard to wound quite easily. With his shoot 5 vs df3 on the construct all u have to do is have a high ram and a high card to cheat in for damage. While devour is a good ability there are only 8 cards in the deck that can trigger this so trying to exhaust your opponents hand is also viable

[Griautis]

Swine Cursed seem great. 

[Eorek]

I've always felt that ophelia handles the construct quite well.

Like both her, rami and franc can do quite some damage with dumb luck.

Just go with my eyes closed on ophela and engange one of your choice. And save a ram or two on hand incase you dont flip one... Or use soulstones. Make sure franc is close for companion(oo it's a girl is a good skill here.) and have him nuke whatever contruct is left standing.

Most models in the box should be able to bring down a construct if they can companion into either ophelia or franc.

[Bazlord_Prime]

On 19/12/2017 at 1:39 AM, aquenaton said:

Hey! Sammy can still Jinx them with ease! Do not forget that the horror aura is just one of the possible conditions she can apply. At rng 8, her prohibition of walk/charge can make those fleshies to remain in the middle of your gunline to be perforated. 

I second the above, and remember that Sammy's third option with Jynx is to prevent the target from declaring Triggers. So if you can get her within range (8") of the Flesh Construct, she can use either that Jynx (if it's already engaged), or the "no Walks, no Charges" one (if its not), to mitigate the FC's attacks. Plus, the FC is only Wp 2. Sick...

Another generic Upgrade to look at besides Stilts, is "On Yer Tip Toes". It makes all friendly Ht 1 models within 10 count as Ht 2, and it can be carried by a Master or a Henchman, so Sammy or Francois could carry it (it also benefits the carrier), and just make sure anyone near the FC is covered in that aura.

Mancha is awesome, for the reasons you mentioned.

McTavish is awesome, and could easily shoot at the FC three times per activation, without randomising into engagement. He's got a 14" range, but he won't easily negate that  from HtW.

The Sow is cool, and has a  to Damage to negate the HtW, but she's pretty soft, and her damage track may or may not deal wth the FC quickly enough. On the plus side, when she dies she drops 2 Piglets, which are enough to keep the FC occupied for another Turn...

[Platov]

Hm. I know my opinion will be kinda unpopular, but still. It's not about the models, it's about skill. FC is 3 and 2. 13 wounds are not much compared to gremlin damage. HtW is easily avoided by focusing. You can control FCs with Sammy, you can burn the hell out of them with Merris + Ophelia's hooch igniter(Burning not only them, but everyone around. You can place ALOT of burning this way. Like 6 burning from Ophelia, to a target and anyone up to 6" away from target. Merris can place even more). You literally can do anithing with them. With careful placement and The Kin's new mobility tricks - FCs are not scary at all. Ophelia can kill FC at ease with her pluses and stones, stilted Franc have minimum dmg of 12(per activation) w dumb luck, and can act immidiatly after Ophelia. If you want to buy new models - Burt and Gracie are always bold choise. If you want to play only against ressers - buy Wong, Burt, SwineCursed, Old Cranky and Sammy. That would be more than enough. You don't even need Mancha(Insta gib trick is good, tho).

Sammy with "Ooo Glowy", Burt With magical and DC, Cranky, 2 Swine Cursed and 1-2 Bugs.

Wong loooooves low df enemy models. And with his ca7, if enemy takes 2 flesh construct from the begining and fail with deployment - Wong can wipe half of an enemy crew with blasts and pulses at the start of turn 2.

I did this alot of times. 2 low def models(htw is pain, tho) in enemy crew is an opportunity to use Lightning Jump alot of times in single activation, blasting and pulsing everyone near low df models.

Sorry for my broken english.

[Platov]

Oh, oh, and I forgot bout Pere! Just wait till late turn one, activate Ophelia, place junk marker near enemy crew, pull Pere with "Ooo, a girl", then throw him with Jug Rocket. Activate, push to junk marker, and now, as you are 20+" away from your deplyment zone, and among enemy crew(You can reckless and walk one more time) you just KABOOOM, killing everyone around(Like, TN 13 Defense duel to everyone within 6" or they will suffer 5 damage. 2 times. Then 4 dmg more. FC's WILL be dead with 3 Df.) Just make shure you have 2 6+ tomes.

[Nukemouse]

Flesh constructs are one of the few things Moon Shinobi are scary against. If she really hates Flesh Constructs, buying brewmaster's Box gives her 3 of them (plus a new master and a very interesting scheme guy called fingers) they love running up to poisoned things and they are super effective vs hard to wound models, plus they can target the 2wp instead of the 3df. They also got reduced to 5 soulstone cost in january errata. Unfortunately i don't know of any way to avoid them getting eaten.

[Nukemouse]

1 hour ago, aquenaton said:

I would not recommend moon shinobis nor any model that relies on poison if I expected facing McMourning, maybe becuse I am paranoid, maybe because we are gremlins, and our plans tend to backfire, A LOT.

Moon Shinobi do not poison themselves and their trigger to poison their enemies is optional. McMourning likes to poison his own crew, which makes their 0 stronger. Also if he forces poison onto them unlike all your other models they get a benefit from it through thats the stuff.

[Haagrum]

7 hours ago, Nukemouse said:

Flesh constructs are one of the few things Moon Shinobi are scary against. If she really hates Flesh Constructs, buying brewmaster's Box gives her 3 of them (plus a new master and a very interesting scheme guy called fingers) they love running up to poisoned things and they are super effective vs hard to wound models, plus they can target the 2wp instead of the 3df. They also got reduced to 5 soulstone cost in january errata. Unfortunately i don't know of any way to avoid them getting eaten.

Moon Shinobi have a defensive trigger that allows them to push away, regardless of whether they succeed. As long as they aren't swallowed whole, and you can flip or cheat for the trigger, they shouldn't get squashed too easily. If they can't kill their target, you can push them away reasonably readily.

Their Drunken Gremlin Kung Fu ability converts Hard To Wound and any other [-] modifiers into [+] modifiers, so hitting their Severe damage becomes much easier. They can also play a decent game of hit and run against a McMourning crew - charge in, attack, then use their 0 action to push towards a model with Poison to escape retribution.

Edited January 7, 2018 by Haagrum
Extra information added

[Dominion]

On 7/1/2018 at 3:40 AM, Nukemouse said:

Unfortunately i don't know of any way to avoid them getting eaten.

On yer tip toes on Fingers

Nuff said