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The Real LaCroix-Ophelia tactica


DanteJH

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7 hours ago, Rosskov said:

I would add the Lucky Effigy to common choices (for me anyway).  Ophelia flips a lot of cards so having an ability that let's you heal one for every ram flipped is useful as is its "hit me ability" for closing down charge lanes and drawing attention away from squishy kin models. If an enemy model that is height 2 or above is tied up with the effigy,  ophelia and those around here and rami can all shoot at it without randomising. 

 

Good work on this. Thanks for taking the time to work on it.

Careful.  There's an irritatingly long running debate on what exactly that ability does.  The other camp will claim that unless you select the ram from the flip, there's no heal since you don't "flip" the ram...  not justifying it since I think there's a difference between flipping a card and flipping damage, but ask your TO if you go traveling to strange tournaments.

Link to long running debate

 

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Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm going to try soloing Ophelia for this next couple months. I've fallen into the trap of set lists and it hasn't been working for me. Hopefully this will teach me which models are more suited for which schemes. I'll attempt to put some battle repots in this thread to put some more info into it. Wish me luck!

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  • 2 weeks later...

A good thread!

I would add to Merris that her Burning is great for taking out likely Suckers when Frame for Murder or Take One for the Team is in the pool. This is especially relevant since Ophelia and Franc are so killy and tend to give full points for the Scheme for the opponent.

As for Lenny, I would mention that he can Toss Ophelia which is nice and a Young LaCroix who Focus Shoots near Lenny is the stuff of nightmares for the opponent. If they get hit, do they cheat a really high card to avoid potentially massive damage knowing that if they do, you'll just shrug and decide that it was 2SS well spent?

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3 hours ago, DanteJH said:

Could you write me a small pharagraph on Merris @Math Mathonwy? I don’t use her

I think what you have on her is already good stuff. Just add this (feel free to edit, though) as a last sentence to the first paragraph:

"And though she is not usually used for her damage in an Ophelia crew, Burning can be very handy for finishing off potential sucker models when there's Schemes like Frame For Murder or Take One for the Team in the Scheme Pool."

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Just got a game in the other day, sorry it took so long to post.

Setup:

Standard deployment

public executions

Eliminate the leadership, Dig their graves, Search the ruins, Vendetta

My list:

Ophelia LaCroix - 3ss cache

-useless junk 1ss

Young LaCroix 2ss

Young LaCroix 2ss

Young LaCroix 2ss

Francois LaCroix 8ss

-dirty cheater 1ss

The first mate 9ss

-Where the captain can't see 1ss

Mancha Roja 9ss

-dirty cheater 1ss

-mud toss 1ss

Iron Skeeter 6ss

-poorly handled explosives 1ss

Merris LaCroix 6ss

Public executions is my favorite strat for Ophelia by far. Very killy and giving out healing is helpful. My idea straight off would be to do scheme marker stuff toward the center to bluff search the ruins while doing dig their graves. That way I get points for strat and dig from the same kills. Mancha Roja is here to take away my opponents strat condition with mud toss. Merris is there to provide extra scheming in case my useless junk doesn't provide enough. Along with 'disable it' from my poorly handled explosives, I should have more than enough scheme markers to cover the kill zone. First mate is great for discouraging my opponent from doing scheme marker schemes.

My opponent's list:

Von schill - 3ss cache

Nythera aftermath 1ss

survivalist 1ss

the shirt comes off 1ss

Steam trunk 3ss

Hannah 10ss

I pay better 1 ss

lazarus 10ss

scout the field 1ss

librarian 7ss

friekorpsman 5ss

friekorpsman 5ss

desperate merc 3ss

My opponent is using a basic von schill crew that can tank hits while giving out solid damage. He says he took 2 friekorpsman and a desperate merc to keep up with gremlin activations.

Scheme selection:

After seeing his crew, I decided to take dig the graves AND search the ruins. It would be hard to kill his models with von schill giving out pseudo hard to kill, but I figured I could kill 1 per turn at least. merris would be able to set up search the ruins on turn 1 and then protect everyone else from lazarus blasts for the rest of her life.

My opponent chose eliminate the leadership and mistakenly took vendetta with lazarus on mancha Roja, he hadn't known that mancha had dropped a ss on his cost.

deployment:

Ophelia lost deployment so I deployed on the side that would give merris the best path to a large tower in the center of the board. Everyone else deployed to get Max movement turn 1.

Opponent put all his models in a bubble behind a wall leading with von schill and lazarus.

Turn 1:

Gremlins win initiative and choose von schill to activate first.  The turn is mainly moving up for everyone. Lazarus gets a free walk from scout the  field and the Desperate merc moves forward to position to be out of the way of his other models. Young LaCroix gives Ophelia metal line coat and shoots it off to put down a trash marker near where I assume his models will end up. Friekorpsman moves up, 2nd young LaCroix does the same as the first to spread the trash. His second friekorpsman moves into position and my final young LaCroix gives Ophelia metal lined coat and jug rocket.

Now all our chaff models have activated and the interesting stuff can happen. He activates von schill and charges his desperate merc, dealing a point of damage to activate the merc's 'frantic'. Von schill uses his ability off nythera aftermath to Target lazarus with 2nd charge attack, using the trigger to place lazarus on top of a walkway to get a good location to shoot from. Sensing that I'm going to lose a few models to blasts, I activate merris and move her into position atop the tower to protect everyone from blasts. She also drops plenty of scheme markers for Search the ruins. 

He then activates lazarus to capitalize on merris being in range, focusing twice and ditching scout the field to shoot merris around the tower. Luckily he black joker's the damage and merris lives another day.

I then use Ophelia to try to scoop some damage onto lazarus with 'my eyes closed' to get extra positives for my shots. I hit once for moderate getting 4 damage due to his armor. Then she shot him and missed with her jug rocket mainly to place the trash marker. 

Nothing else happened really except iron skeeter moving Francois forward to kill a friekorpsman. I misplaced my trash markers so I didn't get any points for it. 

End of turn 1

0-0

Von schill wins initiative and activates to easily murder francois then move into position to cover everyone with his auras. Trying to protect Francois has cost me all of my soulstones and I feel alot more vulnerable. I activate Ophelia and pop a few more shots into lazarus, hoping that Hannah and the librarian will spend their turns trying to heal him. I hit him for 4 damage total, then I ooh a girl and 'your turn' a young LaCroix up to engage lazarus so he doesn't blow apart my field. 

Lazarus spends his turn killing the young and heals 1 wound.

First mate then tries to menacing croak to cause lazarus to push off a ledge to block Hannah from moving toward my models but fails twice due to lazarus' stupid high will power.

Librarian uses her turn healing lazarus to full, doing nothing else.

I have my iron skeeter focus and try to pull the librarian out of von schill's bubble with the trigger on grappling hook but I miss my shot.

Hannah then moves to threaten Ophelia and mancha next turn, while also blocking mancha's charge lane to von schill. Mancha charged Hannah, doing no damage but engaging her and lazarus. 

Nothing else of interest happened for the rest of the turn.

End of turn 2

My opponent scores public executions from killing Francois.

0-1

Sadly, something came up and I had to leave the game early, so we called it there. We discussed that there was nothing he could do to stop me scoring search the ruins and that his crew would be able to kill Ophelia since I had no stones and no healing in the crew. 

We agreed that end score was 3-4, the win going to Outcasts

Final Scene's final thoughts

Dig their graves was a terrible idea against von schill's auras. His models were tough as nails from the start and he had access to alot of healing. I also shouldn't have cared about lazarus  so much. He was a big scary shooter with sight on almost my entire crew. If merris hadn't gotten lucky with the black joker, lazarus could have done some serious damage.

I had a feeling that I was going to face von schill since my opponent was new with the master and very excited about him. I should have brought lightning bugs or banjonistas to ignore all the armor. It would have been nice to have some pushes and possible card draw from the banjos. 

Raphael would have been a better choice than Francois since he has armor and hard to kill. His damage track is also respectable. Francois is really tempting to take since he has built in dumb luck, but he's so easy to kill it's not a good option in some cases.

I don't regret search the ruins since useless trash makes it really easy to score, and merris makes it almost effortless. Thinking on it, I should have taken vendetta on lazarus with mancha. I think that between first mate and mancha I could have paralyzed lazarus and then instakilled him with mancha's trigger. It would have been difficult but it would have been easier than having to kill 3 models for dig their graves. A healer would be nice with public executions also.

Hindsight Ophelia list:

Ophelia LaCroix - Cache:(3)
   Useless Junk 1ss 
Young LaCroix 2ss 
Young LaCroix 2ss 
Young LaCroix 2ss 
Mancha Roja 9ss 
   Mud Toss 1ss 
The First Mate 9ss 
   Where The Captain Can't See 1ss 
Merris LaCroix 6ss 
Raphael LaCroix 6ss 
   Dirty Cheater 1ss 
Banjonista/ lightning bug 5ss 
Banjonistas/ lightning bug 5ss 

Lightning bugs and banjonistas are interchangeable since they fill similar roles though I like lightning bugs a bit more for slow and some healing tricks. Banjonistas also have their uses but I have less experience with them.

Raphael is more durable and usefull than Burt and Francois I think, plus he's alot cheaper. He's more powerful than people expect and can wipe a model a turn pretty easily while being able to take a few hits at the same time.

Sorry if this report is bad, it's my first attempt.

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Thanks for the Report!

I am wondering why you picked useless junk to start with? you can just attach it with "here you go" from your Young Lacroix and safe the SS.

Personally I would add the choice of a Slop hauler to your banjonista/lightning bug Option. the attack is often overlooked and the healing potential explains itself.

I agree that francois is easily killed but he offers a lot.

I like that you picked mancha, although I kinda don't see him in that list.

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30 minutes ago, Finalscene said:

Raphael is more durable and usefull than Burt and Francois I think, plus he's alot cheaper. He's more powerful than people expect and can wipe a model a turn pretty easily while being able to take a few hits at the same time.

Have to disagree with that. Raphael is a bonker once you have and access to high :ToS-Ram: to trigger Dumb Luck. If you don't then he is not that impressive but just a solid model.

Not to mention his lower stats on Df/Wp and attack actions. 

Burt has built-in Critical Strike which gives you consistent damage of min 3, has solid Df and excellent Wp, good gun and very nasty Df trigger. 

In summary Raphael is weak version of Burt.

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Thanks!

Useless junk is hired in so that I can focus on generating trash markers instead of putting upgrades. I like to attach an upgrade and shoot it off in the same activation with my first two young, then attach the upgrades I need with my last. If I use my first young to attach useless and another, then I'm only generating 1 or two trash with my setup.

I agree about slop haulers, but it's really hard for me to justify taking such a slow model with my crews. I know I can pull him along with Ophelia but I would rather ooh a girl some bigger model so they can get in the action sooner.

The only reason mancha is in the list is for his mud toss upgrade. Being able to take away my opponents she'd blood condition is really usefull if you can resist activating him early in the turn.

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8 minutes ago, daniello_s said:

Have to disagree with that. Raphael is a bonker once you have and access to high :ToS-Ram: to trigger Dumb Luck. If you don't then he is not that impressive but just a solid model.

Not to mention his lower stats on Df/Wp and attack actions. 

Burt has built-in Critical Strike which gives you consistent damage of min 3, has solid Df and excellent Wp, good gun and very nasty Df trigger. 

In summary Raphael is weak version of Burt.

I agree about Burt being better, but it's hard to say no to Raphael when he can put out a ton of damage (sometimes), has great defensive tech (armor, htk, a push out of engagement action), is KIN (my main reason for taking him over Burt), and is only 6 ss (my main reason for taking him over Francois).

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By all means Raph is now very very interesting choice when you want some flanking model with the punch. I like him but what i was trying to say was if you need beater who is not that dependable on having a card with proper suit in your hand then Burt and Franc is the right choice.

Plus since Burt/Franc went up with SS and Raph went down why not to take both? 😁

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2 hours ago, Finalscene said:

Useless junk is hired in so that I can focus on generating trash markers instead of putting upgrades. I like to attach an upgrade and shoot it off in the same activation with my first two young, then attach the upgrades I need with my last. If I use my first young to attach useless and another, then I'm only generating 1 or two trash with my Setup.

Oh... I wasn't aware that Ophelia Drops junk markers, when the Young ones use her Upgrades. I thought ophelia only discards the upgrade herself when she uses it and the young Lacroix discard the upgrade when they use it.

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2 minutes ago, Davie said:

Oh... I wasn't aware that Ophelia Drops junk markers, when the Young ones use her Upgrades. I thought ophelia only discards the upgrade herself when she uses it and the young Lacroix discard the upgrade when they use it.

They don't drop trash markers for discarding an upgrade. What they do is attach a gun to Ophelia then shoot her so Ophelia Plink's off the upgrade to drop a trash marker. 

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28 minutes ago, Math Mathonwy said:

I think Raphael is an apple while Burt is an orange. Raphael excels in solitude while Burt requires friends. I usually play them very different from one another using them for different things.

Agree on that. I use to play them differently too.

Burt loves Iron Skeeter's taxi service.

Raphael is rather a solo.

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  • 2 months later...

Howdy everyone! 

I just played a few games with Ophelia, my play group is now trying out different things to get us excited about the game again and to try and pan for any gold before M2E goes the way of the dodo. After properly playing I cannot overstate just how important Franc is to the crew and how good Sammy becomes with My Threatin' Gun. Being able to use her to focus or just Obey Ophelia to attack as a zero, Jinxing something then companioning into Ophelia is just bonkers, especially on T3 and onwards when Franc is often dead. 

There is no way I am not taking three young Lacroix. You need the activations to get up to the 10+ mark while also having strong expensive models in the crew. I consider core: Opehlia, 3x young lacroix, Franc w/ stilts and DC, Sammy with the Gun and a slop hauler. I will usually also take Raphael, with or without DC, a bangonista (damn he does work, although this can also be a bug) then I have around 8 stones to play with. You can take Trixie who sometimes can single handedly win the game or something like a swinecursed to punch through armour and provide more pushes early game. In some missions I will cut the slop and turn him into Fingers when it's necessary, and if I'm against Arcs or guild I 'll take merris as insurance against their insane blast masters. 

She has those big weaknesses to Incorporeal and Armour but with a mix of swines/bugs/banjonistas you can really get around that. The one-two punch of her with Franc is absolutely bonkers and she can really protect him too. Don't ever be afraid to pull him back after killing a target; if you can make the opponent burn resources to bring him down then you're winning. 

As a note on the Junk markers; I place two on turn 1 and that's enough. I don't normally need to use it to alpha with franc turn 1, the 17ish inch push-place is normally enough and I try and place them for use on turn 2. 

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  • 4 months later...
On 4/10/2018 at 8:38 AM, DanteJH said:

My typical alpha strike is to walk or be lured by trixie, use Ooo, a Girl to pull frank 8, use Your Turn to throw frank 8 then shoot an enemy model with the Threatening Gun and drop the junk marker 6’ in front of Frank. I’ll go into more detail about alpha striking later but when Francois activated he will have gotten 24’ of free movement and that’s mental.

I love this thread and thanks for the tactica.

Maybe I'm missing something here but from what I can tell you'd need Jug Rocket (Your Turn!), My Threatening Gun and Useless Junk all equipped for this to work but you'd also need Metal-Lined Coat for the 2 zero actions.  Is there something I'm missing?

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