Sommer Problems: Hit me up with your strats!

[CustardBomb]

Hi all! 

I have been having a great deal of trouble with Sommer. I have had about 5 games with him so far and have not once felt like I was doing well or having fun. 

Now this just might be a play style difference but I realy do want to make the Big Hat man himself work!

So what do you look for in a strat scheme pool to play Sommer into. I always feel like I have a different master I would rather take? 
What are some situations you look for that Sommer can take advantage of? 
What factions does he work into? 

Whatever it is if you have some Sommer knowledge I would love to here it!

[Mxbedlam]

oooh boy well first of all I don't wanna give up all my secrets as I'll be discussing Somer on 3rd Floor Wars next month but lets just start off saying that Somer is THE most complex master in the Bayou. He's got a lot going on, which leads to him being incredibly versatile but also hard to get the gears turning properly. 

So in general what I'm looking for with a somer pool is: Do I need to have a large amount of board control? He's great at Turf War, Reckoning and decent at Plant Explosives if you build him correctly. Scheme wise: Search, Leylines, Hold up Forces, Take Prisoner, Detonate Charges, Claim Jump are all schemes I regularly take with him and the secret to most of it is summon diversity.

So the most important model in a Somer crew is the humble Bayou Gremlin These slippery bastards are multiple use 1) They are speed bumps. Drop one in a spot it takes up space and is begging to be killed. 2) After they kill it, you can draw, discard and then shoot whatever killed it with one of your other models. 3) They are a card investment. Say turn 1 you summon 3 Bayous, that's 3 cards you will be getting back in a later turn. Need a card? blow one up with Somer. 1 AP to do 2 damage and draw a card? Thanks.  I will almost never summon just 1 model. Its much more efficient to grab a bayou and the model you are summoning in. You are effectlively trading a card for another card.

Following that you have Criers. Criers make the crew work. Their built in Bully and only needing a 7 to Obey plus a trigger that lets Bayous interact means that you can summon models into position and have the Crier make a marker or flip a strategy that gets you surprise vectors. 

Good Ol' Boy: Need a model that won't die easily and hits back fairly hard? Go for a good ol' boy. He's your go to Hold Up their forces on a juicy enforcer or hench. 

Banjos: Somer crews are slow! Nah just bring 2 Banjos and your whole crew gets 4 extra inches of move per turn. Plus condition removal

Lenny: Essential for 2 things. Toss is amazeballs. Need Somer closer? Toss. Need a good ol' boy tying up a beater? Toss. Someone messing up your claim jump? Toss. 

Georgy and Olaf: Pulse focus, good gun that can shoot out of combat.  He's your primary set up for Pig Eatin' Grin. 

Big Brain Brin: Of all the crews in the Bayou that want to see Brin, Somer is the most Brin loving. Bayou Two Card lets you cycle your deck so hard that it doubles the effectiveness of Calculate. Plus, you always have easy Protect targets for Brin making him extremely tanky. 

Test Subjects: So they have a dumb ability. It makes it so you have to damage to kill them. No executes. ANNDDD they don't die when you target them with Make Me Proud Boys. They are a node to toss into a group and nuke for 2 unresisted damage in a 2 inch pulse. 

Pigapult and Sparks: Its ugly, real ugly, but you can load up bayous with Bombs and toss them out with Pigapult, putting a huge drain on your opponent and punishing anyone who bunches up. Added in Make Me Proud if they survive the initial punch and well its a bit dumb. 

TLDR: Somer has an amazing tool box and is a very board control master. Try to force your opponent to kill your models, especially Bayous, or just kill them yourself and enjoy cycling cards like no one's business. 

[CustardBomb]

Wow that is a lot! 😮 thanks for all your help! Cant wait for the podcast episode to drop!

Does the Criers obey get around the no interact on the turn you are summoned rule? I have had several opponents call me out there so was under the impression it didnt work. 

Gonna try him again in the coming weeks and see what I can manage! 

[James Dyson]

Unfortunately, the Crier cannot Obey a Bayou to interact the turn it is summoned.

The Crier's obey trigger states:

Quote

 Threaten Beatings:  The target may ignore being engaged and it's Insignificant Ability when resolving the generated Action.

While the rulebook (P.32) says:

Quote

Summoned models cannot take the Interact Action during the Turn they were Summoned.

That said, you can still summon models the turn before you need them, and get them into position.

[Kiryn]

I'll be interested to hear the third floor pod on this. Seems like some good shenanigans. 

[GrumpyGrandpa]

How do you guys deal with Terrifying on this crew? 

It is my understanding that Terrifying (sadly) isn't an oppossed duel, and so Bayou Bash doesn't help.

Maybe upgrades? If so, who do you like putting it on?

[Scoffer]

7 minutes ago, GrumpyGrandpa said:

How do you guys deal with Terrifying on this crew? 

It is my understanding that Terrifying (sadly) isn't an oppossed duel, and so Bayou Bash doesn't help.

Maybe upgrades? If so, who do you like putting it on?

Bayou Bash doesn't help, but you still can use Bayou Two Card and save resources of your hand for the most important attacks.

[wizuriel]

What could be amusing is denying bomb markers in plant explosives with Criers and Bayou Gremlins

 

If a crier obeys a Bayou Gremlin with Bully since they ignore insignificant for the action they can steal the explosive marker as long as they are within 3" of the enemy model. If the opponent kills the Bayou Gremlin though since they are now insignificant again they are ignored for purposes of the strategy and schemes and remove the bomb when they die

[Chancefrink]

On 11/26/2019 at 4:30 PM, wizuriel said:

What could be amusing is denying bomb markers in plant explosives with Criers and Bayou Gremlins

 

If a crier obeys a Bayou Gremlin with Bully since they ignore insignificant for the action they can steal the explosive marker as long as they are within 3" of the enemy model. If the opponent kills the Bayou Gremlin though since they are now insignificant again they are ignored for purposes of the strategy and schemes and remove the bomb when they die

This came up in a game i had last week. If a Crier Obeys a Bayou Gremlin to pick up an Explosive Marker, does it drop it whenever the Action is finished? We ruled no, they can keep it and be Obeyed again to drop it later.

[Mxbedlam]

12 hours ago, Chancefrink said:

This came up in a game i had last week. If a Crier Obeys a Bayou Gremlin to pick up an Explosive Marker, does it drop it whenever the Action is finished? We ruled no, they can keep it and be Obeyed again to drop it later.

For sure, they don't lose the token, they just can't use it unless a crier hits them up.  Its a cute denial trick but man Som'er feels very slow into plant explosives. 

[GrumpyGrandpa]

On 11/22/2019 at 2:43 PM, Mrbedlam said:

oooh boy well first of all I don't wanna give up all my secrets as I'll be discussing Somer on 3rd Floor Wars next month but lets just start off saying that Somer is THE most complex master in the Bayou. He's got a lot going on, which leads to him being incredibly versatile but also hard to get the gears turning properly. 

Any news on the episode? I've been counting the days since you tossed this teaser out! 😁

[Mxbedlam]

Its recorded. Just up to Craig to work through his backlog!