Learning Malifaux with Gremlins - Ophelia

[Distruggiuova]

Hello everyone 

I was recently introduced to the game by a friend and I’m enjoying it so I lurked the forums a bit and I decided to share my learning experience with the community to get feedback and hopefully be useful to fellow starting gamers.

I played an introductory game with Rasputina last week and then I played my first 50ss game (well at least a couple turns since we had a lot of rules checking to do) with a small gremlins lot I borrowed from another friend (I’m probably buying it in the future if I decide to stick with gremlins)

My current army consists in Ophelia and Somer crew boxes, Slop Hauler x2, Burt Jebsen and Lucky Effigy

Deployment: Corner

Strategy: Squatting Rights

Schemes: A line in the sand, Assassinate, Breakthrough, Outflank, Take a prisoner (standard missions)

Declared Faction: Gremlins 
Crew Name: 22/12/18 vs Lilith 50ss 
Leader: Ophelia LaCroix - Cache:(3)
Young LaCroix 2ss 
Young LaCroix 2ss 
Young LaCroix 2ss 
Francois LaCroix 8ss 
   Dirty Cheater 1ss 
   Stilts 1ss 
Raphael LaCroix 6ss 
   Dirty Cheater 1ss 
Pere Ravage 6ss 
Rami LaCroix 7ss 
Slop Hauler 5ss 
Bayou Gremlin 3ss 
Bayou Gremlin 3ss 
Bayou Gremlin 3ss 

vs

Declared Faction: Neverborn 
Crew Name: 22/12/18 vs Ophelia 50ss 
Leader: Lilith - Cache:(4)
   Wicked Mistress 1ss 
   Beckon Malifaux 1ss 
   The Land Consumes 1ss 
Cherub 3ss 
Nekima 13ss 
   The Mimic's Blessing 1ss 
Terror Tot 4ss 
Terror Tot 4ss 
Terror Tot 4ss 
Waldgeist 6ss 
Waldgeist 6ss 
Waldgeist 6ss 

Both players revealed Outflank and kept the other scheme secret

I deployed first with Raphael on a flank with a Bayou, the other 2 Bayous on the other side and the rest of the models centrally ready to shift to either side thanks to Ophelia’s movement tricks, Rami got a nice nest inside the deployment zone and threatened the entire board severely limiting my opponents options (until he realized he wasn’t  all that scary after all)

First turn I activated all the chaff (including the underwhelming Rami) before committing my heavy hitters and my opponent split his army with Nekima on the Bayous side and Lilith on the Raphael one, then I threw Pere inside a nice bunch of enemy models including Lilith but I didn’t realise I needed Tomes to make him explode so he ended up sitting there with 2 wounds and killing only a terror tot 

Turn 2 my opponent tried to assassinate Ophelia pulling her to Lilith but he failed and she retaliated killing her with a couple of bullets to the face giving me the Assassination 3 points and control over the right side of the board since he only had Terror tots and Waldgeist there and I had all my good pieces close by

We called it there with a rough estimation of a possible 9 points to 4/6 for the gremlins

Win for da Kin!

Ophelia’s upgrades Useless Junk, Metal-lined Cloak and Jug Rocket are incredibly helpful in moving Pere, Francois or herself around, Pere was extremely threatening but I had no tomes so it didn’t do as expected while Raphael proved a tough nut to crack for my opponent. Rami didn’t do much for a 7ss model while I didn’t had the chance to unleash Frank but his card is impressive.

My opponent did a bad mistake in splitting his army and I think he took way to many tricks and support but he lacked punch aside from 2 models.

I’d like to try Burt or possibly Lenny next game instead of Rami depending on the Strat&Schemes

A question about Somer: can he support a more elite play style or is he “forced” into summoning/spam lists?

Thanks for any tips and tricks you may suggest!

 

 

 

[CustardBomb]

Hi!

First of, welcome to the game and the faction! I have been playing Gremlins as my main factions for a fair few years now and I have always loved there versatility. 

Somer absolutely support an elite play style. But In my experience it works best with form of death balling. So will have the advantages and weaknesses of said strategy. 
He certainly has a lot of strength as a summoning master and it is my preferred play style for him but here is an example list I knocked together for a more elite Somer crew. 

Sommer (Cache 5)
- Dirty Cheater
- Quality Mash Liquor
Burt Jebsen
- Stilts
Lenny
Gracie
- Saddle
Raphael Lacroix
- Dirty Cheater
Slop Haulers
Wrastler

Sommer's suit providing aura combined with lennys can be a real force to be reckoned with in this list. 

Rams from Lenny or Sommer Buffs the damage of almost every model in the crew, and in fact stack on Burts Critical Strike. (In Fact if Burt benefits from Sommers Ram and Lennys Ram, If he also flips/cheats a ram he has a damage spread of 7/8/9 with a potential 3 attacks!) Similarly Sommer and Raphael can benefit from there Luck Triggers to put out ranged pressure, while Lenny protects from some recoil and the sloap hauler (being dragged by gracie) heals up the return damage. 

The Wraslter is honestly optional, I like them for free access to paralyzed which is solid. But you could swap them out for some bayous to scheme run and the like. or skeeters to double down on Somers aura (Which could lead to Burt having a weak damage of 9 I believe) 

Or you could swap it for a Banjonista. Which allows them to manipulate your threat range in surprising ways. 

Oddly Ophelia is one of the masters I haven't picked up yet! Most of my experience lies in Sommer/Ulix/Zipp. 

Hope it helps and you enjoy more games!

[CustardBomb]

If you wanted to edit that list to your current selection to. 

Just drop Gracie and the Wrastler. And add Francis and Rami. 

Same principle. Sommers/Lennys Free Rams gives everybody Dumb luck. Lenny protects them and heals them back up. (I would very much recommend getting Gracie or Old Majour though, having a saddle to move your Sloap hauler around is very usefull.) 

[Distruggiuova]

Thanks for the reply! Now I’m struggling to decide between the two casters for my next game 😮

Death balling means buffing one or two models to remove the enemy’s strong pieces AKA first or second turn aggression right?

 I’m having some trouble understanding the utility of the Do over upgrade, I see it in a lot of Somer’s lists but is it taken for 2 cards first turn or for the “do over” ability? How do you draw cards after useing Bigger Hat then you or do you just rely on bayou 2 cards to give you an edge over other masters?

thanks again for the input on Somer!

[CustardBomb]

Pretty much yeah. It refers to a stratagy of keeping all of your models in a small area where they support each other (in this case Sommer's 8' bubble from 'do it like this') it tends to result in a strong centre but a weakness at spreading out for strats and schemes like reconnoiter. So it's a case by case decision based on the schemes weather or not it works! 

Personally I have never been a big fan of the Do Over Upgrade. (I normally run Familey Tree and Dirty Cheeter on sommer yo heal the damage he takes from constantly having thinkin luck) 

But Somer does have a lot of card draw abilities with both himself and crew he favours (like gremlin criers)  the utility of Bigger Hat then you is very case by case. It can cripple certain masters like Ramos who are very card intensive. But you can also play it a little bit sneaky. 

If you see your opponent hold on to 3 cards from there last turn. Hey you know they have three good cards. Which you can get rid off. Similarly if you run out of cards early in the turn you can use it level the playing field. There is a bit of finesse to it but I am sure you will get there! 

In terms of drawing cards after Bigger Hat you can take advantage of survival of the fittest. Or you can have some gremlin cries nearby to draw of the discard. 

I also quite like Sami Lacroix withbSommer. She can take 1 of her masters upgrades for herself which let's Sammi take Familey Tree. While Sommer can focus on blowing stuff up! 

P.s. 

Bayou two card is pretty incredible. Especialy when stacked with the dirty cheeter upgrade. 

[Distruggiuova]

Hello again soon-to-be-Bayou people!

tomorrow night I’ll have my second Malifaux game ever and it’ll be my farewell to 2nd edition as well since we’ll jump on the M3E train next week.

We already extracted S&S and I have my crew ready to take down those pesky Neverborn but since there’s a chance my friend is lurking the forums I won’t share it yet.

I’m looking for advices on how to tailor the crew knowing the strat and schemes and how to choose the schemes appropriately so I'll give you the encounter setting:

Standard deployment

Ply for Information 

Surround Them, Inescapable Trap, Search the Ruins, Hold Up Their Forces, Vendetta

I know he’ll play either Lilith or Collodi since they’ll be gone in M3E so...fire away your lists and why’s if you’d have to play this game!

I’m going to play Ophelia btw, not worth it to learn all Somer’s abilities just to unlearn them next week  

[CustardBomb]

Good luck with it!  I'm greatly looking forward to M3E myself! Keen to see where the faction is going! 

Don't have time to go into a super detailed list build atm. 

But overall if I was expecting Colodi I would absolutely take Pere Ravage. Colodi has a 6' bubble which he likes his models in. So having something as devastating as Pere on your side to threaten his clump can be a powerful psychological weapon.  As well as you know. Just a powerful weapon weapon  

Lillith is a bit trickier. She is very good at destroying your own crew synergy and isolating your models. So going for people who can survive long enough on there own for backup to get there is good. While avoiding models which are vulnerable in melee (no hiding you sniper back field from lillith) 

Vendetta is strong for Ophillias crew. As a lot of your enforcer models have powerful ranged attacks which you can use to pick of the target easily. 

I have always liked Hold up there forces with gremlins but I normally take a pigapult with it. Wait till the last activation and then just catapult a gremlin/piglit into the ideal position to score. 

If i manage to remember after work tonight I will take another look and do a more detailed reply! But good luck in the game!  

[Distruggiuova]

Hello again!

The game was a blast and we both had a great time, unfortunately we’re still too slow, we managed to do just 2 turns with 2-1 for Gremlins so I won’t do a full bat rep.

Francois was the MVP surviving a round of melee with Lilith and killing her (as well as himself) while Raphael got me the first Vendetta point vs a Young Nephilim. Ophelia’s Useless Junk upgrade was super useful for Search the Ruins while he ran his terror tots around corners for Surround Them.

 I think I was in a good position end of turn 2 but his army was ready for some heavy melee work so it could’ve gone either way.

next week we’ll start playing M3E beta so I’ll probably start a new thread for that in the new Beta forum

thanks for helping out a new noob player!

[CustardBomb]

Glad it went well! Dont worry speed of play will come with practice! 

 

Looking forward to seeing you over in the beta forums I will definetly be there to! Seeing how M3e treated all my favorites