Tactica Pyrotechnica - Wong

[Rathnard]

Hey all, 

So since M3E's released I've fallen hard for Wong - he's easily my favourite Master at the moment and I've been trying to get games in with him whenever possible. Given how little people seem to have discussed him, I thought I'd at least make some notes on my experiences with Wong's crew. One thing led to another, and these "notes" have become a... *checks document*… 4800 word essay. Whoops.

Anyway, enough introductory stuff, here's part one of my rundown of Wong and his Wizz-bang crew! Feel free to provide feedback or add your thoughts - I don't profess to be an expert on Wong (yet...) just an enthusiast.

 

----

Tactica Pyrotechnica – Wong

 

Why Play Wizz-bang?

 

Do you like explosions? Irresponsible miss-use of magic and mass-destruction at any range? Well come join Wong’s troupe of magically infused hooligans performers and maul gift your opponent with a pyrotechnic display they’ll never forget!

 

The strengths of the Wizz-Bang keyword come down to three abilities that are found on most of their models – “Hard Knock Life”, “Magical Influence” and “Blast Resistant”. “Hard Knock Life” gives the model Fast and a Glowy Token whenever they take damage during a friendly activation. Fast in itself is amazing, but thanks to “Magical Influence”, the Glowy Tokens can be spent to add suits to any of their duels, which makes any triggers very easy to get. With “Blast Resistant” reducing the damage they take from pulses, blasts and shockwaves, this enables the crew to use such attacks to damage, and consequently buff each other with Fast and Glowy. All of this adds up to a crew that easily buff itself to become very dangerous, but the sacrifices some resilience to do so.

 

If Fast and easy triggers are the Wizz-bang keyword’s main strength, what else can they do? For one the Wizz-bang tend to be great at negating any of your opponent’s defences (more on that later) and they will utterly brutalise any crew that likes to cluster together! This is thanks mostly to Wong’s affinity for mass Shockwaves from his “Fzzzzap” attack but again, we’ll go into more detail below.

 

Beyond that, it’s hard to fit the Wizz-bang into a particular playstyle. They are generally not a mobile crew, but thanks to Fast and the Pigapult that doesn’t have to be the case. Wong’s own playstyle encourages dealing damage from range but again, he’s got access to some great melee fighters who get even better thanks to “Hard Knock Life”. And despite the inherent frailty that comes with “Hard Knock Life”, you can still build a pretty tough Wizz-bang crew by taking models with options for healing or damage reduction. Hand Control and Scheme Marker manipulation are also available to the crew, with Wong in particular being great at both (again, more on that later). The Wizz-Bang crew even has some inherent summoning, mostly in the form of Stuffed Piglets (for exploding) and Flying Piglets (for scheming).

 

The biggest negative to Wong’s Wizz-Bang keyword is the inherent complexity. It requires a lot of setup to take full advantage of Hard Knock Life. The first turn in particular can feel like running a rube-goldberg machine, where you need to choose your activations and actions carefully to maximise the Glowy/Fast on your crew and set them up for an explosive turn 2 (or late turn 1, if necessary!). For this reason, Wong arguably has the steepest learning curve of any Bayou Master. But when you’re raining explosions and piggies down on your opponent, all while tearing their crew apart with Glowy-infused Swinecursed and Taxidermists, you’ll know it’s well worth the effort!

 

So you can’t really talk about Wizz-Bang crews without discussing their Master – Wong. So let’s get into him…

 

The Irrepressible Wong

 

On the surface, Wong comes across as a Master focused on ranged attacks, who drops mass-shockwaves on enemy models to damage large chunks of the crew with each attack. But that barely scratches the surface on where Wong’s strengths lie. He’s also excellent at buffing his crew around him while emptying your opponent’s hand, imposing some effective board control and achieving certain schemes with minimal effort. He also plays a central role in what his crew does, and is especially important for taking advantage of “Hard Knock Life”. So let’s break down how Wong does this by looking at his strengths…

 

 

Explosive Rain (Mass-damage at range)

Here’s the thing about Shockwave attacks. Passing a simple duel to avoid taking shockwave damage is not hard. But passing 12 or more simple duels? That’s a lot harder! This is basically how Wong’s Fzzzzap attack can be so dangerous. With two Shockwave 2 markers, he can easily affect 4 or more models with each attack... more if your opponent’s crew likes to cluster together. On average your opponent will fail at least half of the required Mv 13 duels and whether you cheat those duels or not, the damage really starts to add up.

One other thing to note is that Thanks to Crackling energies, anyone who passes a duel from Fzzzzap gains a Glowy token, which itself increases the damage they take by +1 per token next time they fail the duel. This effectively means that Wong is always "damaging" every model affected by his Fzzzzap attack. It's just a matter of whether they're taking the damage immediately, or later on in the game!

 

 

“Dodge This!” (Circumventing defences)

Not requiring a model to target enables Fzzzzap to get around most of the defences an enemy model might have to avoid getting attacked. Stealth, Terrifying, Manipulative, resist triggers, cover, concealment, even Focus makes no difference to Wong’s Shockwaves. He can even damage models outside line of sight, just so long as they’re within 2” of the Shockwave marker Wong places. Needless to say, this can make Wong very dangerous to most models who would otherwise rely on those defensive abilities to stay alive!

 

 

You Can’t Cheat Everything (Hand depletion)

The sheer volume of simple duels Fzzzzap forces on your opponent means that they can’t possibly cheat every duel they fail. Your opponent is thus faced with a difficult choice – take a big pile of damage from Wong across multiple models… or start cheating with decent cards from their hand to minimise the incoming damage. So whether they’re emptying their hand or taking mass damage, either result is great for Wong.

 

 

I Can Cheat Everything (Card Draw)

While “The Glow” is your easiest way to stack those valuable Glowy tokens on your crew, it can also allow Wong to draw a truly obsene number of cards over the course of the game. The way this tends to work is as follows – in turn 1 you’ll use “The Glow” to prime most of your crew with a Glowy token each, before bombing your opponent’s crew with massed Shockwaves with “Fzzzzap”. Once the dust clears there’ll usually be at least a few models with 1-2 Glowy Tokens on them. In subsequent turns your opponent’s crew will likely close with yours. At that point Wong can use “The Glow” to strip some or all of those tokens to start drawing cards. Between the tokens on your opponent’s models and the tokens you can strip from your own crew, I’ve found that you can easily draw 3-4 cards in a single turn. As is typical for Wong, this requires a lot more setup than the card draw you can get with (for instance) Molly or Zoraida. But the potential number of cards you can get with “The Glow” is a lot higher, making it, once again, worth the extra effort!

 

Orbital Scheme-bardment (Scheme marker Manipulation)

“Launch into Space” is what makes certain marker-based schemes almost trivial for Wong. Together with the trigger (which you almost always want to get) it lets you discard one scheme marker in exchange for putting down two more, anywhere in Wong’s line of sight next turn. This is perfect for achieving most schemes that require a scheme marker on the table. Breakthrough, Harness the Leyline, Dig their Graves and Power Ritual are all super-easy for Wong. Launch into Space can also help you achieve Detonate Charges and Deliver a Message, though it relies on you keeping the target model in place for an entire turn. It’s worth remembering that you can also use “Launch into Space”  to remove corpse, scrap and (importantly) enemy scheme markers, enabling Wong to disrupt your opponents crew abilities and schemes too, if necessary.

 

 

Reckless on Steroids (Mass crew buffs)

Wong is GREAT at efficiently triggering “Hard Knock Life” on most of his crew. Fzzzzap specifically lets friendly models fail the simple duel and for those with “Blast Resistant” (ie. most of the Wizz-Bang), they’ll only take the 1 damage to gain Fast and a Glowy Token. The two Shockwave markers from a single “Fzzzzap” can easily cover most of your crew (especially if they’re still clustered together). In other words, for one action you can give a third action (via Fast) and a free trigger (via Glowy) to most of your crew. In terms of sheer action efficiency, this makes Wong one of the most effective crew buffers in the game!

 

What’s Wrong with Wong?

 

As hard as it is to believe, Wong is not the greatest, most all-powerful Master in the game! Like every Master he’s got some weaknesses. However understanding his limits enables you to know what to look out for in-game, and thus counteract with the rest of your crew. With that in mind, lets see what Wong doesn’t like, and thus how to deal it!

 

“Not the Face! Not the Face!” (Getting Engaged)

Given that Wong’s ideal turn often involves spamming his “Fzzzzap” projectile attack everywhere, it’s probably easy to see that Wong prefers to remain unengaged. That’s not to say Wong is useless when in melee. “The Glow” and “Launch into Space” are both still very effective. But after that, Wong’s left to bust heads with his mediocre “Iron Fan” attack.

Fortunately Wong does have a couple of ways to push out of engagement, namely his “Quick Getaway” trigger and the “Reposition” Trigger on his “Iron Fan”. Neither are foolproof – “Quick Getaway” requires your opponent to actually attack you while “Iron Fan”, despite having some uses, is rarely what Wong would like to spend his actions on. Not to mention that both require a Mask to trigger.

Keeping Wong out of engagement, then, mostly comes down his crew. Swinecursed and Gracie in particular are great at pushing Wong out of harms way for minimal effort, while Alphonse or a Gautreaux Bokor could move the enemy model out of engagement with a Toss or Obey, respectively.

 

 

The Couch Potato (Limited Mobility)

With no innate movement tricks beyond his own Wk 5, Wong is not a quick model. Fortunately, this isn’t too much of an issue. Wong is a primarily ranged fighter and as mentioned above, his Shockwaves have a nasty habit of hitting models who cower behind terrain or outside line of sight. I’ve generally found that once Wong is 5-10” up the board from his deployment zone, he rarely needs to move again to remain effective (besides avoiding engagement, as per above).

While Wong could walk up the board himself, it’s usually better to push him into position with Gracie, a Swinecursed or two or Alphonse. This suits both Wong and these models quite fine. Wong gets to where he needs to be, while the “pushers” can stay close to Wong and benefit from his
The Glow” pulse. Staying close to Wong also tends to put them near where the heaviest fighting tends to be, which suits these tanky melee beaters just fine.

 

“Shouldn’t you be dead by now?” (Damage Reduction)

Armored models (or indeed anyone with innate damage reduction) can be a challenge for most crews, and Wong is no exception. The effective damage output from each “Fzzzzap” is practically halved, although thanks to Glowy you can at least count on a good burst of damage if they build up a few tokens. Wong’s ability to deal heaps of plink damage (lots of independent sources of 1-2 damage) will eventually wear down an armoured opponent. But nonetheless, Armour and Shielded is not the kind of thing Wong likes to see.

Fortunately, Wong’s crew have a few innate ways to deal with damage reduction. Lightning Bugs, the Pigapult and Swinecursed all have the “Full Power” trigger to make their attacks irreducible. But with the required Tome and a Glowy Token, it’s best reserved for Focused attacks, where you can maximise the damage and hopefully finish off (or at least cripple) the target in one go.

 

 

Watch out for the Big One! (Killing Single Models)

As previously mentioned, Wong tends to be great at dealing a lot of damage divided across multiple models. But bringing down a single tough target is much trickier for him. Shockwave duels can be cheated, so if your opponent wants to keep one particular model alive and unharmed by Wong’s explosive exploits, it’s not usually that difficult.

Wong therefore needs to rely on his crew to take out those problem models. Alphonse, the Swinecursed, Burt Jebson and the Taxidermist can all be pretty lethal. Also Wong’s ability to buff them with Fast and Glowy goes a long way in helping them take on those especially hardy foes. It’s also worth considering Sammy, who’s ability to bury models with her “Glimpse the Void” can take a troublesome model out of the picture.

 

Don’t call the Doctor! (Mass Healing)

It should be pretty clear at this point that Wong is very capable of dealing mass damage across most of your opponents crew. This is great for softening up targets to kill later on, but less so if your opponent has easy access to healing. You can probably handle your opponent spending actions to heal the odd model in their crew, but what really hurts are the models with healing pulses, like the Slop Hauler or Low River Monk. Those mass-healer type models can undo a lot of the damage you just dealt, so it probably goes without saying that those are the models you need to kill first!

 

 

It’s not easy, being small (Size 1)

This might seem like a minor gripe but trust me – it’s a much bigger deal than you might initially think! At Sz 1, Wong can’t see past Sz 1 terrain or anyone else in his crew. Placing Shockwaves from “Fzzzzap”, Markers from “Launch into Space” and affecting models with The Glow” all require line of sight, meaning poor crew positioning or even just a low wall can completely hamstring Wong’s effectiveness. Thankfully, this is easily fixed with the “Two Gremlins in a Ghillie Suit” Upgrade. This bumps him up to a more convenient Sz 2, as well as making him “Disguised” and letting him poop out a Bayou Gremlin if he dies. The free Gremlin is inconsequential, but Disguised is great for a Master who doesn’t like being engaged, especially if Assassinate is one of the available schemes.

If the table has no Sz 1 terrain that might cause problems for Wong, then it might be worth leaving the Ghillie Suit behind and just being extra careful with your crew positioning. But every time I’ve taken Wong without the Ghillie Suit, I’ve found myself regretting the decision. So consider yourself warned!

[Rathnard]

Part 2, in which I talk in more detail about the hiring options available to Wong!

 

Keyword Models

 

Olivia Bernard

A fragile totem, but great at supporting the crew by interacting to place scheme markers, buffing models with Tossed Sparklers and using the Assist action to remove Burning etc. The Shockwave-buffing Lovely Assistant ability is powerful, but likely to get her killed before you get close enough to use it. Throwing Olivia into the crew before bombing them with explosive piglets and Shockwaves is potentially a devastating combo. But 90% of the time you’re best off keeping her safe in a support role.

 

Alphonse LeBlanc

Wong’s high-damage, beatstick Henchman with a side order of push effects. Glowy Tokens can be spent for damage prevention, making Alphonse a solid target for stacking Glowy. The Toss action can push models 10” for some strong movement tricks, both in disrupting your opponent’s crew and repositioning your own.

 

Sammy LaCroix

As mostly a support Henchman, Sammy’s strengths lie weakening or moving enemy models, drawing cards and replacing enemy scheme markers with flying/stuffed piglets. That last part makes her a solid choice for any game where you expect your opponent to drop scheme markers everywhere. The card draw from her Petty Illusions ability is especially useful to Wong’s crew, given how often you’re randomly damaging your own models.

 

Burt Jebson

The independent all-rounder. Burt is decent both in melee and at range, and between Agile and Reckless, can be a capable, independent scheme runner. Combos of note include using his free Clockwork Grenade action to damage multiple friendly models for extra Glowy/Fast, and using the trigger on his gun to push a friendly pig (eg. Gracie) 8” toward the target. Ideally you want to load him up with some Glowy, then send him off for flanking duties.

 

Pigapult

I can’t understate how strong the Pigapult is, mainly thanks to it single-handedly solving the Wizz-Bang crew’s mobility issues. Full Load lets you redeploy friendly Sz 1 models anywhere within 18”, damaging nearby enemies with a Shockwave in the process. You can fire Stuffed Piglets into clustered crews for mass-shockwave tests, or hurl Lightning Bugs, Taxidermists or Burt Jebson at isolated flankers to take them out and achieve your own flanking objectives in the process.

Most games, I’ll spend the first turn shooting Stuffed piglets at a cluster of enemy models,

 

Flying Piglet

Absurdly cheap scheme runners. Easy to kill, but mobile enough to achieve flanking objectives as needed. The scheme marker they drop upon death is a nice bonus. They can also be summoned by a Taxidermist or Sammy, which may be better than hiring them depending on your access to corpses or enemy scheme markers, respectively.

 

Gautreaux Bokor

A mid-cost support minion. They’re the best in-keyword option for healing your Wizzbang crew (like those damaged by Wong to trigger Hard Knock life!). The pulse to grant Shielded +1 is invaluable for improving your crew’s resilience - something a Wizz-bang crew can struggle with in kill-heavy strategies. Unfortunately the Bokor lacks Blast Resistant, making it a little harder for him to gain Glowy Tokens from friendly Shockwaves or Pulses without crippling themselves.

The Obey action has a high TN for the Bokor, making it tough to use consistently. But making other models take an action of your choice has some significant and powerful implications both for boosting your models and disrupting your opponent.

 

Lightning Bug

A cheap, ranged minion. They lack the resilience for frontline combat, but can move scheme markers around with a free action, and deals damage equal to their Glowy in a pulse upon death. This makes them ideal scheme runners/disrupters, especially when thrown into enemy flankers by a Pigapult for that sweet shockwave damage. Lightning Bugs also have a healing action, but its above average TN makes it too unreliable for consistent use.

 

Stuffed Piglets

Basically (un)living bombs that come free with a Taxidermist or Pigapult. You can use them to tie up enemy models who’d rather not risk getting damaged, but are usually best hurled by a Pigapult for multiple damaging shockwaves per pig. Not usually worth hiring in (unless you want to abuse the  Pigapult for laughs), but absolutely worth summoning or getting for free with a Taxidermist/Pigapult.

 

Swinecursed

Wong’s frontline melee fighter. Like Alphonse, the Swinecursed can spend Glowy to reduce incoming damage. They are otherwise a bit more brittle than Alphonse, so you definitely want to pile on the Glowy Tokens. In melee they can hit like a truck, thanks to triggers for extra attacks, irreducible damage and Rampage (push 5”, models you go through take a Mv duel or suffer 1 dg). They also have no less than two Tactical Actions to push friendly models (either away from the Swinecursed or away from an engaged model), which makes them great bodyguards for Wong. They can both move him into range for his Shockwave barrage, and get him out of engagement once your opponent tries to take him down. I’ll rarely build a crew without at least one of these.

 

Taxidermist

A deceptively brutal fighter with a side of Stuffed Piglet. Between Critical Strike on his melee attack, easy suits via Glowy and Fast from Hard Knock Life, a Taxidermist can dish out some serious damage. Adding the Inferiority Complex upgrade significantly boosts their killing power, thanks to the free Ram (for Critical Strike) vs cheaper models!

He can also hunt down mobile models with a ranged attack that will teleport to the target on a severe (again, not too hard to achieve thanks to Glowy giving you the Puncture trigger). The free Stuffed Piglet makes the Taxidernist even cheaper than his SS-cost suggests, and the opportunity to summon yet more Stuffed/Flying Piglets can be invaluable for improving your damage output and scheme running.

With merely “average” resilience for his cost, the Taxidermist is best utilised for hunting isolated targets, or supporting your tougher fighters on the front line.

 

Non-Keyword Models

 

Gracie

The Bayou’s Armoured Personnel Carrier. Gracie’s Ride With Me action is great for repositioning Wong, either to move into blasting range or get out of melee. She’s good (though not amazing) in melee and Armor +2 with healing potential make her very tough. Despite her low Mv she’s surprisingly quick, with Ride with Me and two walks giving her 13” of movement. Don’t take her if you expect to face anti-armour. Otherwise, she’s hard to pass up.

 

Slop Hauler

Offers excellent healing and Pig-focused support. Feed the Piggies is thankfully easy to cast and is perfect for mass-healing the incidental damage Wong deals to his own crew. With Hitch a Ride he follows friendly Swinecursed or Gracie up the board, all while either healing or boosting their lethality with attacks that apply Adversary (Beast).

The Slop Hauler is also one of the few Bayou models with a trigger to apply Staggered, which synergises with Wong’s Mv-based shockwaves. Finally, a Slop Hauler can summon Piglets from nearby corpses or scheme markers for added disruption. All these innate synergies make them well worth the +1SS Tax for hiring one into a Wizz-Bang crew.

 

Lucky Effigy

A cheap, hardy minion that can be hurled by a pigapult if necessary. He has an attack to apply Slow to troublesome enemy models. Aura of Luck, while risky, can reduce the crew’s reliance on your control hand.

 

Lucky Emissary

The only Bayou unit that can apply Staggered at range, giving it some natural synergy with the crew’s Mv-based shockwave attacks. It’s fast, tough, dangerous in melee and can impose lots of simple duels to further damage the victims it rolls over. The Emissary also has a trigger to ignore Armor and an action that pushes, then destroys any markers it moves over. This makes it very useful vs certain Armor or marker-heavy crews.

 

Gluttony

Your go-to henchman for marker-heavy games. Can discourage/prevent scheme marker placement with his Sin tokens, but his ace in the hole is Maddening Drums. This pushes models to a marker, deals damage based on how many markers they’re in contact with and then removes those markers. It’s handy for removing scheme markers, but most effective against crews that spam Pyre markers, Ice Pillar markers and similar such things to disrupt movement.

 

Bayou Gator

A solid alternative flanker to the Lightning Bug. The Gator exchanges the Lightning Bug’s range and versatility for better resilience (mostly thanks to stealth), mobility that’s not dependent on other models and better damage output via its melee attack. The lack of Wizz-bang synergy is a potential advantage, since it can work independently for no loss in effectiveness. Just stick him on a flank (possibly with 12 Cups of coffee for added mobility) and hunt down some lunch.

 

Mechanized Porkchop

A tough, armoured melee fighter who actively supports your front line. Rage Machine is a great aura that will let you improve the accuracy of friendly melee attacks and inflict that 1 dg for Fast and Glowy. Vent Steam is also pretty useful for protecting your front line with concealment. The only issues are his 50mm base and 0” engagement range, both of which might cause trouble if your trying to fit him into melee with your other large-based fighters.

 

Sparks LeBlanc

Evasive ensures Sparks can’t be harmed by Wong’s shockwaves, and Analyze Weakness is great for negating one of Wong’s weaknesses – Armor and Shielded. Upgrading Stuffed Piglets with “Bombs in yer Belly”, then shooting them at the enemy with the Pigapult is as brutal as it is hilarious. But alot of Sparks' value comes from his ability to support constructs, and make use of scrap markers. For Wong, this means he’s a good counter-pick for construct-heavy Masters (eg. Hoffman) and that you’ll probably want to pair him with the Mechanized Porkchop.

 

Bayou Smuggler

The Smuggler is useful for two things – card cycling and scheming. “Showboating” and “Tides of Fate” both effectively let you discard the low cards in your hand for hopefully something better from your deck. As for scheming, they’ve got a broad range of actions and abilities that let them move or remove scheme markers. Moving Scheme markers is particularly useful for Wong, since a Smuggler can shift a scheme marker dropped with “Launch from Space” into contact with terrain, thereby helping you achieve Search the Ruins.

[Rathnard]

(Reserved for Part 3!)

[wizuriel]

If you could go over how you get glowy on your own models would be appreciated. I find after turn 2 unless I try and play squishy ball of death my crew is too spread out to easily buff them and attack the enemy models.

Outside Wong and Merris (and lesser degree mechanized porkchop) don't know of many good ways to easily ping your own models for glowy

[Rathnard]

Good point @wizuriel. I'm going to go into more detail on the mechanics of actually playing Wong on the table, later on. Turn 1 activations is on the cards, but a section on triggering Hard Knock Life in subsequent turns is probably a good idea. Here's a draft; ;)

Hitting your own models with Wong's Fzzzap is definitely the easiest way to trigger Hard Knock life from turn 2 onwards, and I find you can often do it whilst hitting enemy models engaged with them for maximum efficiency. But beyond that, you've got a few other options;

Blast damage: Lightning Bugs, Bokor, Alphonse and Burt can all blast onto friendly models with their attacks. Alphonse and the Bokor are probably best at this, if only because they don't rely on a projectile attack to do it (and can thus hit things already in melee). 

Shockwaves: Burt's "Clockwork Grenade" is a quick action. So as long as you don't need to use Reckless (not hard if he's already been made fast), you can just throw a grenade back at a couple of your own models before he runs off. The Pigapult is an other option - hurl a (eg.) Taxiderrmist in to assist another model from your crew, and they both trigger Hard Knock Life from the resultant shockwave. 

Attacks from the Chaff: If necessary, you could always just attack your own models with a cheap Stuffed Piglet or Bayou Gremlins. It's not like they're doing anything else important, right?  In fact the Bayou Gremlin might be great for this. He's as cheap as an upgrade, gives you a card when he dies, and two of his "Boomstick" triggers can help you damage more than one model at a time. 

Other: The Rampage trigger on the Swinecursed could be used to inadvertently damage a friendly model he pushes through. Also Olivia's "Tossed Sparklers" is an easy source of Glowy, especially if you Assist right after to remove the burning. There might be other obscure tricks like that...I'd have to dig around. 

 

What all this comes down to is that you'll never be able to trigger Hard Knock Life on your crew anywhere near as efficiently as you can in Turn 1, before your crew has started spreading out. There's a few ways to easily do it within your own crew (eg. attacking with your own chaff). But in subsequent turns you're otherwise relying more on triggering Hard Knock Life incidentally, while attacking your opponent's models.

[Rathnard]

(And part 2 is up).

[Jubby]

Will you write up something about list building for Wong?

[Rathnard]

15 hours ago, Jubby said:

Will you write up something about list building for Wong?

That's the plan, yes. I'm currently working on part three, which consists of crew builds, what to do Turn 1, stacking Glowy in turn 2 onwards and other combos/synergies.  

[ShinChan]

I've been playing Wong a lot, and when I want to play the Pigapult game, I usually bring an Akaname. It's 2 extra Stuffed Piglets with a Taxidermist, so basically you're paying 1ss for the Akaname. In addition you can throw it far away with the Pigapult to drop a scheme marker, dying due to the flicker and so generating another corpse where you need it for the Taxidermist.

On 11/30/2019 at 9:41 AM, wizuriel said:

If you could go over how you get glowy on your own models would be appreciated. I find after turn 2 unless I try and play squishy ball of death my crew is too spread out to easily buff them and attack the enemy models.

Outside Wong and Merris (and lesser degree mechanized porkchop) don't know of many good ways to easily ping your own models for glowy

I feel like after turn 2, you're not going to stack much more glowy, specially in those models that you've send to do important stuff. So From turn 3 onward, you usually are going to be Fzzzzaping! 2-3 times (Launch into the space maybe), if you're opponent is smart, it's going to be extremely difficult for you to get 2 models in the same shockwave, so you have to evaluate when it's worth it to use one of those markers to give Fast to your other key pieces in order to score the points, since for me, at that point is more about getting the extra action that will allow my models to do something useful (mainly strategy/schemes) than to actually get the glowy for the triggers.

I'll come up with some of my more efficient and more funny lists I've played. My golden rule is: "Always bring something to move Wong around, since you really need to invest her 3 AP in Fzzzzzap and Launch into the Space"

[the tick]

This might be a question more suitable for the rules forum. Because most of the crew is blast resistant, and that ability doesn't say "may", how do you damage your own crew with Wong's shockwaves?

[ShinChan]

52 minutes ago, the tick said:

This might be a question more suitable for the rules forum. Because most of the crew is blast resistant, and that ability doesn't say "may", how do you damage your own crew with Wong's shockwaves?

Blast resistant can't lower the damage to 0, the same way as Armor or Bullet-proof. 

 

 

[the tick]

4 minutes ago, ShinChan said:

Blast resistant can't lower the damage to 0, the same way as Armor or Bullet-proof. 

 

 

Gotcha. I don't know why I didn't catch that. Somehow forgot that damage reduction worked like that. Thanks!

[Chancefrink]

On 12/4/2019 at 2:35 AM, ShinChan said:

I've been playing Wong a lot, and when I want to play the Pigapult game, I usually bring an Akaname. It's 2 extra Stuffed Piglets with a Taxidermist, so basically you're paying 1ss for the Akaname. In addition you can throw it far away with the Pigapult to drop a scheme marker, dying due to the flicker and so generating another corpse where you need it for the Taxidermist.

Akaname are neither Living nor Undead so they actually dont drop any markers when they die. Same goes for all the Oni, if you ever play with or against Asami.

[ShinChan]

1 hour ago, Chancefrink said:

Akaname are neither Living nor Undead so they actually dont drop any markers when they die. Same goes for all the Oni, if you ever play with or against Asami.

But they have a free action that provides you a corpse, scheme or scrap marker.

This provides a lot of plays with different models. 

[Math Mathonwy]

First of all - huge thanks for doing this in non-magenta text! Much appreciated!

Second, good stuff! Lots of good advice. I'll note some stuff I disagree or wish to comment on below and that might make it seem that I'm generally over critical towards the guide - don't take it that way! The guide is excellent and I appreciate the work you've put into it a lot! The criticisms are minor.

1. I'm not at all convinced that Wong has the steepest or even arguably the steepest learning curve in the Bayou. I think that Somer is way more difficult to truly master and think that Wong is more comparable to Brewie. But of course that's very subjective.
2. Thinking that Fzzzzap "always does damage" is actually a bit dangerous, I think. I mean, I thought so originally as well but in practice since Wong is the only one who can utilize enemy Glowy Tokens, them turning into damage requires that Wong keeps hitting them with his Shockwaves and that they eventually fail the test. If you can keep it up, they will eventually fail the test, naturally, but otherwise opponents stacked with Glowy Tokens tend to die from other causes thus "wasting" the potential damage or simply move into such a position that bombing them further is not worth it. Or Wong uses The Glow on them (though that's usually way better than damage so I dunno how much this one caounts). Or Wong dies. So yeah, I think that the thought that Fzzzzap is "always damage" is somewhat dangerous.
3. Finally, you kinda touched on this but just to expand on the Mech Pork - having your models charge into each other and attacking with the positive to the flip makes it easy to miss and Rage is a very convenient way of generating Fast and Glowy. Just be sure to have a suitable low card to cheat with if you flip badly.

Btw, I especially liked that you dealt with the trouble of being Sz 1 for Wong touched upon the base size stuff for, e.g., Mech Pork. I often don't see that stuff being mentioned even though it has a massive impact in actual games.

[rober695]

So the thing is....is this keyword a bit underwhelming? Just seems awkward that no one can use glowy on enemy models except wong. And the amount of self damage on pretty low health models. 

 

I think Wong himself seems great. And his turns are always awesome. But then the rest of the in keyword models...idk. Just feel not fully flushed out.  

[Shlowmoe]

I think OP just got second at an event soloing Wong. So he seems to have legs. I'm sure he will share his experience when he can. 

[Rathnard]

On 12/4/2019 at 3:35 PM, ShinChan said:

I've been playing Wong a lot, and when I want to play the Pigapult game, I usually bring an Akaname. It's 2 extra Stuffed Piglets with a Taxidermist, so basically you're paying 1ss for the Akaname. In addition you can throw it far away with the Pigapult to drop a scheme marker, dying due to the flicker and so generating another corpse where you need it for the Taxidermist.

Hmm, I like your thinking with the Akaname. The only problem I have with it is that my Taxidermist has usually been lobbed into the enemy crew by turn 2 at the latest. That, and I'm usually not lacking in corpses to summon pigs off of, whether it's from the dead stuffed piglets or the hapless victims the Taxidermist just murdered. Still, I think I'll give it a try, especially since it's the only Sz 1 model I can think of who can drop a scheme marker after being thrown by a pigapult.

On 12/4/2019 at 3:35 PM, ShinChan said:

I feel like after turn 2, you're not going to stack much more glowy, specially in those models that you've send to do important stuff. So From turn 3 onward, you usually are going to be Fzzzzaping! 2-3 times (Launch into the space maybe), if you're opponent is smart, it's going to be extremely difficult for you to get 2 models in the same shockwave, so you have to evaluate when it's worth it to use one of those markers to give Fast to your other key pieces in order to score the points, since for me, at that point is more about getting the extra action that will allow my models to do something useful (mainly strategy/schemes) than to actually get the glowy for the triggers.

Re: stacking glowy after turn 2, I'm finding the same thing. It's rare that I'll be able to get more than 3 enemy models (if that) into range of the two shockwave markers. So he instead tends to move offensive shockwaves, to both buffing his crew with Fast and launching scheme markers into space. That said, by turn 3 my opponent is usually trying to get Wong into melee, so sometimes he's not even doing that! 

On 12/4/2019 at 3:35 PM, ShinChan said:

I'll come up with some of my more efficient and more funny lists I've played. My golden rule is: "Always bring something to move Wong around, since you really need to invest her 3 AP in Fzzzzzap and Launch into the Space"

Same. No matter what kind of list I take, I always make sure I've got some way to move Wong around so that he's not having to waste AP walking or attempting to Reposition out of engagement with his Iron Fan!

On 12/9/2019 at 6:03 PM, Math Mathonwy said:

First of all - huge thanks for doing this in non-magenta text! Much appreciated!

You're welcome! As much as I like posting in magenta, I'm not so cruel as to force everyone to read a 5000 word manifesto in that colour.

On 12/9/2019 at 6:03 PM, Math Mathonwy said:

1. I'm not at all convinced that Wong has the steepest or even arguably the steepest learning curve in the Bayou. I think that Somer is way more difficult to truly master and think that Wong is more comparable to Brewie. But of course that's very subjective.

TBH you're probably right. I've not had a lot of experience with the other Bayou Masters, so it was probably a bit presumptuous of me to claim that Wong had the "steepest" learning curve! Having since looked more into the others, I feel like you're right about So'mer - he's got quite a few moving parts to his crew. Brewmaster though... there's a bunch of setup with his crew to get the poison engine going, but beyond that he doesn't feel quite as complicated as Wong to me. 

On 12/9/2019 at 6:03 PM, Math Mathonwy said:

1. Thinking that Fzzzzap "always does damage" is actually a bit dangerous, I think. I mean, I thought so originally as well but in practice since Wong is the only one who can utilize enemy Glowy Tokens, them turning into damage requires that Wong keeps hitting them with his Shockwaves and that they eventually fail the test. If you can keep it up, they will eventually fail the test, naturally, but otherwise opponents stacked with Glowy Tokens tend to die from other causes thus "wasting" the potential damage or simply move into such a position that bombing them further is not worth it. Or Wong uses The Glow on them (though that's usually way better than damage so I dunno how much this one caounts). Or Wong dies. So yeah, I think that the thought that Fzzzzap is "always damage" is somewhat dangerous.

Agreed - I'll probably edit that bit accordingly. 

On 12/9/2019 at 6:03 PM, Math Mathonwy said:

1. Finally, you kinda touched on this but just to expand on the Mech Pork - having your models charge into each other and attacking with the positive to the flip makes it easy to miss and Rage is a very convenient way of generating Fast and Glowy. Just be sure to have a suitable low card to cheat with if you flip badly.

Hmm. I hadn't thought of using Rage Machine to attack & miss your own models - I'll have to give that a try next time I take the mechapig! 

On 12/15/2019 at 11:02 AM, rober695 said:

So the thing is....is this keyword a bit underwhelming? Just seems awkward that no one can use glowy on enemy models except wong. And the amount of self damage on pretty low health models. 

Whether it's drawing cards or inflicting extra damage, Wong can get alot of value from having Glowy on enemy models. But otherwise you make a fair point.  If nothing else, I'm hoping it becomes some design space that Wyrd will build upon with future models/upgrades. 

Like I said above, the self-damage throughout the Wizz-bang keyword can make Wong's crew pretty brittle, which is why it's so important to bring at least a healer or two to keep their health topped up. The payoff is significant though - Fast and free suits is not a small thing, and it seriously ramps up the the damage potential of the crew. 

2 hours ago, Shlowmoe said:

I think OP just got second at an event soloing Wong. So he seems to have legs. I'm sure he will share his experience when he can. 

I did indeed. I won all three of my games to come second overall out of 18 players - a result I'm very pleased with! Here's a quick rundown;

Game 1;
Size: 50 - Pool: 5
Leader:
  Wong
    Two Gremlins in a Ghillie Suit
Totem(s):
  Olivia Bernard
Hires:
  Gautraeux Bokor
  Pigapult
  Taxidermist
  Burt Jebsen
  Swine Cursed
  Swine Cursed 2

Played vs Rasputina with Plant Explosives. Pigapult shot the Taxidermist & Burt at flanking Hoarcats to wipe them out, while the Swinecursed each hunted down Rasputina & the Ice Dancer. The game ended 7-1 to me, having scored power ritual (duh) and Hold up Forces. The latter scheme I'm starting to think is great for Wong, thanks to movement shenanigans with the pigapult (of course) and the piglet that comes out of any slain Swinecursed. 

Game 2:
Size: 50 - Pool: 2
Leader:
  Wong
    Two Gremlins in a Ghillie Suit
Totem(s):
  Olivia Bernard
Hires:
  Gautraeux Bokor
  Taxidermist
    Inferiority Complex
  Pigapult
  Gracie
  Gluttony
  Bayou Smuggler
    Twelve Cups of Coffee

Played vs Von Schill in Turf War, and superior mobility won the day for me, scoring 4:3 at the end of turn 3. The Bayou Smuggler and Gracie tag-teamed the Freikorp Scouts, but not much else died thanks to all that armour and all those damn Librarians. So instead i flipped Turf War markers and scored a point each for Breakthrough & Harness Leylines. In retrospect Deliver a message would have been much better - Harness was too many scheme markers to poop out when combined with Breakthrough.

Game 3:
Size: 50 - Pool: 6
Leader:
  Wong
    Two Gremlins in a Ghillie Suit
Totem(s):
  Olivia Bernard
Hires:
  Gracie
  Mechanized Porkchop
  Swine Cursed
    Inferiority Complex
  Swine Cursed 2
  Gautraeux Bokor
  Lightning Bug

This was vs Brewmaster in the Strategy I was dreading - Reckoning. I don't rate Wong in this strat, especially when the scheme list was almost entirely kill-focused. As expected, it boiled down to a big ugly fight in the middle. Fortunately however, I managed a 7:6 win, edging out with 3 points for Reckoning and scoring full points for both Vendetta (Swinecursed vs Whiskey Golem) and Dig Graves. Wong didn't achieve much thanks to Brewmaster with Coffee dragging him into his bubbles, but the sheer power of the pigs helped me grind most of his crew into dust.

 

Overall, I'm really pleased with how Wong and his Wizz-Bang performed over the course of the day, although I still made plenty of mistakes. Game 3 especially was a mess - I completely forgot to Fzzzap my own crew in turn 1 to load them with Fast. My positioning was just all over the place too, the worst being Wong, who should have hidden behind the pig-wall and played support instead of trying to Fzzzap the enemy crew (he was the opponent's Assassination target, of course!)

On the whole, Wong seems to do well in Plant Explosives and Turf War, as well as most schemes involving scheme markers and even a few that don't (as above, Hold up their Forces is pretty good for him). I have a better opinion of him in Reckoning too - he can take a pretty brawl-friendly crew, just so long as Wong himself concentrates more on supporting his crew rather than hurting the enemy!

I'm convinced Corrupted Idols is his worst strategy though, thanks to his tendency toward a high model count, no inate advantages for winning initative and difficulty in rapidly redeploying his crew.

 

[ShinChan]

On 12/16/2019 at 8:08 AM, Rathnard said:

Hmm, I like your thinking with the Akaname. The only problem I have with it is that my Taxidermist has usually been lobbed into the enemy crew by turn 2 at the latest. That, and I'm usually not lacking in corpses to summon pigs off of, whether it's from the dead stuffed piglets or the hapless victims the Taxidermist just murdered. Still, I think I'll give it a try, especially since it's the only Sz 1 model I can think of who can drop a scheme marker after being thrown by a pigapult.

Well, you still can make use of Akaname in turn 1 and turn 2. Taxidermin has a range of 4", so most likely you'll be able to do it those turns, leaving those piglets close to the Pigapult, which means 4 ammo (+ the Akaname).

This is usually my deployment with my standard 4x4 list:

Start to activate Olivia, drop a scheme marker, Tossed Sparkles on Swine Cursed and assist/focus (usually you don't need the assist in turn 1, since you should have the shielded from the Bokor, but make sure to assist in turn 2.

Remember that Burt Jebsen is the best bodyguard for BBB, in case someone wants to target him against Df, since you'll be able to put some damage in the enemy due to It's all in the reflexes.

The flying piglet is usually on a corner, being a distraction or trying to die in the proper place to become a scheme marker.

This setup stays mostly the same during turn 2 and in turn 3 is when it splits. Depending on the Strategy and Schemes, some times is just better to wait for your opponent. and move cautiously the first 2 turns, which allows you to have 3 good Fzzzap! turns.

Keeping Wong alive was never a problem for me, between Counterspell, Quick Getaway and Disguised, he's not easy to engage, and since his damage is really low, my opponents always prefer to go hunt all the other pieces and take care of him only in the late game and only when is really needed.

[Kevinsmith101]

On the look out for help/ advice.

Is it worth running 2 bokors? Can't help but feel 1 is enough and even with glowy that 9 is still restrictive for obey in the crew.

Sparks.... like him for bombs in ya belly. But other than that I use no constructs, he just hangs around giving out his upgrade and at 9 stones... not much else. Is alphonse a better take at 9 and ditch sparks? 

My current list tends to be

Wong

Olivia

Taxidermist with complex

Taxidermist with complex 

Sparks

Borkor

Borkor 

Pigapult 

2 stones 

 

Thanks in advance

[ShinChan]

1 hour ago, Kevinsmith101 said:

On the look out for help/ advice.

Is it worth running 2 bokors? Can't help but feel 1 is enough and even with glowy that 9 is still restrictive for obey in the crew.

Sparks.... like him for bombs in ya belly. But other than that I use no constructs, he just hangs around giving out his upgrade and at 9 stones... not much else. Is alphonse a better take at 9 and ditch sparks? 

My current list tends to be

Wong

Olivia

Taxidermist with complex

Taxidermist with complex 

Sparks

Borkor

Borkor 

Pigapult 

2 stones 

 

Thanks in advance

I found that 1 Bokor is enough, but I bring Sammy too for the card draw and all the utility that she brings for 7ss. Alphonse is really good in my opinion. Well, actually he just plain good, but we don't have a better beater that is tanky in keyword, so there isn't much to compare to. I would take him only if you're ditching the Pigapult o you need the extra mobility or Toss.

I'm not a big fan of Taxidermists, since they're too squishy, and vs elite crews, they can't do much. You're paying a 10ss minion (with the Inferiority Complex) that is just plain bad against anything that a) Can use soulstones b) Any other 9-10ss beater in the game. If you're going to face a crew that relies mostly on low cost minions (under 8ss) maybe having 2 is worth, but otherwise, they're just hunters of support models.

So, my advice, drop Sparks for Sammy and bring Alphonse instead of one of the Taxidermists win Inferiority Complex. You'll go up to 4ss to use during the game, in order to keep Sammy and Alphonse alive longer. I would remove 1 Bokor and keep the spot open to adapt to the scenario and terrain, considering the following models:

• Akaname: Provides corpses to create a Stuffed Piglet in turn 1/2. It's the only model that you can launch with the Pigapult and drop a scheme marker.
• Lightning Bug: Is a good scheme runner, being able to drop 2 scheme markers on a turn. Can deal a reasonable amount of damage against the right targets thanks to the irreducible. Worst case scenario, you launch him with the Pigapult and let him die for 3 unavoidable damage in a pulse. Situational heal too.
• Swine-Cursed: Load him up in Glowy turn 1 and 2. Throw him with Alphonse and see him start the apocalypse thanks to his 3 actions  + Frenzied Charge + Rampage or Onslaught triggers. Take into account that is a 1 shoot missile most of the time.
• Gracie: She's tanky and she can move Wong around. What else do you need?
• Burt Jebsen: Probably a Taxidermist is tougher than him, but he's a fast scheme runner that can put some damage while dying. And he's the coolest guy in the Bayou and he's Wong's cousin after all  

[Jubby]

So looking at the faq and pigapult, how can a stuffed piglet be killed by a Full Load if its not dmg by shockwave? Do i miss something?

[ShinChan]

On 6/7/2020 at 4:06 AM, Jubby said:

So looking at the faq and pigapult, how can a stuffed piglet be killed by a Full Load if its not dmg by shockwave? Do i miss something?

With the current FAQ and wording, appears to be that the trigger cannot be used.

The trigger can be used, but that part of the trigger it's redundant, since with the current wording, the action can never kill the Stuffed Piglet.

More info here:

 

[Adran]

9 hours ago, ShinChan said:

With the current FAQ and wording, appears to be that the trigger cannot be used.

The trigger can be used. It does something if the stuffed piglet wasn't killed. 

You can say that the text is a needless reminder that confuses things, but it does remind us what the rules tell us if the stuffed pig died whilst being thrown. It's possible if you throw into hazardous, or next to black blood models that then take damage.

The timing rules already tell us in those cases that the stuffed piglet would die before it got to take the bacon bomb action. 

 

[ShinChan]

4 hours ago, Adran said:

The trigger can be used. It does something if the stuffed piglet wasn't killed. 

You can say that the text is a needless reminder that confuses things, but it does remind us what the rules tell us if the stuffed pig died whilst being thrown. It's possible if you throw into hazardous, or next to black blood models that then take damage.

The timing rules already tell us in those cases that the stuffed piglet would die before it got to take the bacon bomb action. 

 

In those cases, the stuffled piglet would be killed by the model with Black Blood or the terrain, never by the action "Full Load".