Criid and what she does in 3e?

[Nightmeister]

I have not been able to get any games in yet of 3e but we have a few people purchasing crews around my area so hoping it has a revival since about 8 people have purchased and started painting them. I purchased the Sonnia box at the end of 2e and was wondering if anyone has any info on her and how well she's doing in 3e so far? Wondering also if what I have could be turned into a competitive crew for her?

I currently have:

Sonnia

Purifying Flame

Samuel Hopkins

2x Exorcists

2x Witchling Handlers

6x Witchling Stalkers

[eddy]

Imo she is no ranged blaster anymore. I had best results playing her as mele tank. LLC upgrade is must have on her, 10 ss also helps a lot. Basicly you rush her into enemy ocassionaly shoting and activating hazardous aura. If enemy charge her they will kill themself and stack tons of burning you can use for summoning, if they are shooty you can come back to traditional blasting.

From her key word spelcasters are usable as scheme runers. Thralls are quite nice beaters. 1 witchling hander is ok for movement aura and some extra burning. Samael is medicore and also need LLC to survive. Stalkers are quite bad, only good as summons. 

If it comes to ook picks steward is quite good for extra focus and heal. You also need something to boost Sonia mobility so either guardian or pale rider becomes handy.

Other then that models that can move enemy are really nice if you want make use of Sonias awesom hazardous aura. 

[Nightmeister]

1 hour ago, eddy said:

Imo she is no ranged blaster anymore. I had best results playing her as mele tank. LLC upgrade is must have on her, 10 ss also helps a lot. Basicly you rush her into enemy ocassionaly shoting and activating hazardous aura. If enemy charge her they will kill themself and stack tons of burning you can use for summoning, if they are shooty you can come back to traditional blasting.

From her key word spelcasters are usable as scheme runers. Thralls are quite nice beaters. 1 witchling hander is ok for movement aura and some extra burning. Samael is medicore and also need LLC to survive. Stalkers are quite bad, only good as summons. 

If it comes to ook picks steward is quite good for extra focus and heal. You also need something to boost Sonia mobility so either guardian or pale rider becomes handy.

Other then that models that can move enemy are really nice if you want make use of Sonias awesom hazardous aura. 

What would you use as a tournament competitive 30ss and 50ss crew with her? I haven't really thought about melee or ranged blasting since I adapt to either or on the field.

[Meliondor]

I think she still works as ranged blaster. 

You play her with steward and Pale Rider. As one of your last activations you "ride" her forward. On her turn she walks and shoots twice (with concentration because of steward). Better she shoots three times. Turn 2 you actiate her early and blast again. Then puryifing flame runs forward and does stuff (like exploding).

And yeah...then you should have done some damage around her and hopefully can kill 1-2 models for summons. 

 

My bigger problem with her is, that I do not like her minions. Thralls are ok  beaters - but for this price tag we have better beaters IMHO (with different key words). Spellcasters are ok sheme runners....but they rely on a Henchman or Quellers near them for this. And I really do not like Quellers...

Her Summons start too late in the game to have a huge impact on the game. And if the opponent can remove conditoins she has a huge problem. So perhaps I am playing her wrong and you should listen to the melee-tank-idea from above 🙂

 

[Angelshard]

27 minutes ago, Meliondor said:

Thralls are ok  beaters - but for this price tag we have better beaters IMHO (with different key words).

I love the thrall. It has an insane damage track, ruthless and a reactive push to close the distance if someone attacks them. The shockwave is solid too. 

Sure it only has HtW as defense, but it's still a terrifying model. I really want to try them with lucius. 

[Nightmeister]

So my list so far consists of:

Sonnia

Purifying Flame

Pale Rider

2x Thralls

Stewart

 

Where should I go from there for a 50ss list? Do I need to keep a pool with her or spend it all on putting models on the board?

[theamazingmrg]

35 minutes ago, Angelshard said:

Sure it only has HtW as defense, but it's still a terrifying model. I really want to try them with lucius. 

It's self-heal really helps with that.

[Angelshard]

@theamazingmrg not in a lucius crew😊 sure in a witch hunter there's plenty of burning to go around. 

[Nikodemus]

1 hour ago, Meliondor said:

My bigger problem with her is, that I do not like her minions. Thralls are ok  beaters - but for this price tag we have better beaters IMHO (with different key words).

I felt that way too, but by the end of my 13 game streak I was including 2 thralls + Handler as my core. It's a bit too one dimensional and expensive to be a proper, competitive core of a list I feel, but it got work done.

Thrall's effectively have 3/5/7, or if lucky 4/6/8 track and Sonnia can use her t1 bonus to give it Focus. Depending on the table and opponent I might even consider using Steward's focus on a thrall instead of Sonnia as well. Charge in (with mv7 from Handler), hit ridiculously hard and then blow up. Yeah they're on the frail side, but they were fairly consistent in trading up when I was playing.

[Adran]

1 hour ago, Nightmeister said:

So my list so far consists of:

Sonnia

Purifying Flame

Pale Rider

2x Thralls

Stewart

 

Where should I go from there for a 50ss list? Do I need to keep a pool with her or spend it all on putting models on the board?

Personally I don't build 1 list and tray and make it fit all circumstances, I will build my list to do exactly what I need it to do, so there will be changes to the list depending on stratergy, schemes, opponent and terrain.  So suggestions to buy the steward, pale rider and Thralls are useful, but I think what may be best for you is to play some games with what you have and find out how you play her and the models you already have , and where you struggle.

For example The cache size will often depend on how you play and who you face. if you try and put her into melee a lot, then a larger cache will be useful to keep her alive, but if you are happy to keep her at a distance, and you don't feel the need to get too many of her triggers, (and your opponent is also happy to leave her at a distance) then you might not need much of a cache at all.

[Meliondor]

Ok, 2 Thralls and 1 Handler + Sonnia is something I will have to try.

Completly in Keyword, you can shoot in melee and 2 with them with +2 spd and a ranged-nuke-master is something, that at least on paper seems killy. And medicore fast. 

[Cursed25]

4 hours ago, Nightmeister said:

So my list so far consists of:

Sonnia

Purifying Flame

Pale Rider

2x Thralls

Stewart

 

Where should I go from there for a 50ss list? Do I need to keep a pool with her or spend it all on putting models on the board?

I really like to have sanctionned spellcasters with Samael on a flank!

 

keep the sanctionned spellcasters back a little to protect them and once the field is clear with Sonnia killing everything or making her a big target in the middle of the board with the thralls and rider you send the spellcasters in opponent DZ really fast! in 2 turns they can move 25'' and drop a marker with Samael nearby! Also why Samael, is because he can keep up with them speed wise and he is a decent threat! Also he can still help in the middle with his gun if you need it

[Irritated Walrus]

On 3/9/2020 at 6:32 AM, Meliondor said:

Ok, 2 Thralls and 1 Handler + Sonnia is something I will have to try.

Completly in Keyword, you can shoot in melee and 2 with them with +2 spd and a ranged-nuke-master is something, that at least on paper seems killy. And medicore fast. 

Any + attributes stack. Add another Handler in there and that Thrall gets +4 to it's movement. 🤑

[Morgan Vening]

23 minutes ago, Irritated Walrus said:

Any + attributes stack. Add another Handler in there and that Thrall gets +4 to it's movement. 🤑

+ Attributes stack. Auras don't. And Goad Witchling is an Aura.

So I'm pretty sure it's only TurboThrall, not SuperTurboThrall.

[Irritated Walrus]

On 3/8/2020 at 1:47 AM, eddy said:

Imo she is no ranged blaster anymore. I had best results playing her as mele tank. LLC upgrade is must have on her, 10 ss also helps a lot. Basicly you rush her into enemy ocassionaly shoting and activating hazardous aura. If enemy charge her they will kill themself and stack tons of burning you can use for summoning, if they are shooty you can come back to traditional blasting.

From her key word spelcasters are usable as scheme runers. Thralls are quite nice beaters. 1 witchling hander is ok for movement aura and some extra burning. Samael is medicore and also need LLC to survive. Stalkers are quite bad, only good as summons. 

If it comes to ook picks steward is quite good for extra focus and heal. You also need something to boost Sonia mobility so either guardian or pale rider becomes handy.

Other then that models that can move enemy are really nice if you want make use of Sonias awesom hazardous aura. 

Samael has a 6" move, arcane shield, creep along, rapid fire, his shots deal out a point of burning, crit strike or ricochet triggers. He can use stones. I love the guy. 

[theamazingmrg]

41 minutes ago, Irritated Walrus said:

Samael has a 6" move, arcane shield, creep along, rapid fire, his shots deal out a point of burning, crit strike or ricochet triggers. I love the guy. 

I love that he can Creep Along out of engagement, fire two shots into someone else to spread the Burning, and then charge them and whack them with his big mallet.

 

I'd have liked if he was HtK too, but I'm happy with what we got.

[le_wahou]

7 minutes ago, theamazingmrg said:

I love that he can Creep Along out of engagement, fire two shots into someone else to spread the Burning, and then charge them and whack them with his big mallet.

 

I'd have liked if he was HtK too, but I'm happy with what we got.

Using a 2/3/4 damage 1" melee, even at  on damage, with a 9 stone model build to kill things still seems so wrong to me.

[Nikodemus]

Not a fan of Samael. He did.... ok... ish.

Fluffy list filler that doesn't entirely kill the list he's in. But I wasn't able to get consistent results with him. Not strong enough to love. Possibly not weak enough to buff via errata.

Might just be my poor piloting of him though.

[ShinChan]

I really like him, with Mv 6 and Unimpeded, he can shine against some crew or in some terrain setups. I miss him having +1 to Wp/Df.

Also with critical strike, if you really need the minimum 3, you can easily stone for it

[le_wahou]

25 minutes ago, ShinChan said:

I really like him, with Mv 6 and Unimpeded, he can shine against some crew or in some terrain setups. I miss him having +1 to Wp/Df.

Also with critical strike, if you really need the minimum 3, you can easily stone for it

That would be worst. 10 stones for for a model dealing only once 3/4/5 ? He is fast, he could be a good scheme runner if he add something that allowed him to disengage and scheme easily, but Creep along can be countered by your opponent. And a good opponent will counter it when there is 1 VP to gain/lose. I see Sam as a bad Grimwell with a good ranged attack and a little less survivability.

[SEV]

I'm looking at Sonia as my first Guild crew (mostly because I like the keywords models). I read this thread, but I would like to know a little bit more about the play style (beside burning things at distance). Could someone enlighten me? Also what are the most important models to have to start this crew? 

Thank.

[Meliondor]

13 hours ago, SEV said:

I'm looking at Sonia as my first Guild crew (mostly because I like the keywords models). I read this thread, but I would like to know a little bit more about the play style (beside burning things at distance). Could someone enlighten me? Also what are the most important models to have to start this crew? 

Thank.

Actually all the information is here: She can either burn things or tank and spread damage around while standing still. Or Switch what she does.

 

The important in name models are Thralls and a Witchling Handler. Then you have fast heavy beaters. The other option with her Henchmen and Spellcasters is IMHO less optimal.

Pale Rider is also useful to move her around, so she can shoot one time more. Pathfinder is also an option to pull her out of melee, so she can shoot more. 

 

The Thralls I did not use, yet. Just ordered them. They just seem not very useful...until you count in the +2 movement from the Witchling Handler. That suddenly makes them very intersting.

[trikk]

I think going with Witch Hunters is suboptimal with Sonnia. They don't buff her mobility, they don't increase her damage, they don't scheme and they don't do utility. 

The only model worthwhile is Spellcasters because they are kind of durable, shoot pretty well and have the fast shenanigan (+ negation aura)

[Irritated Walrus]

20 hours ago, trikk said:

I think going with Witch Hunters is suboptimal with Sonnia. They don't buff her mobility, they don't increase her damage, they don't scheme and they don't do utility. 

The only model worthwhile is Spellcasters because they are kind of durable, shoot pretty well and have the fast shenanigan (+ negation aura)

Sanctioned Spellcasters are good scheme runners on the fringe of the board away from the action since they get fast easily, but they are NOT durable. They are defense 4 with arcane shield and 4 wounds. It's not hard to kill them with two AP. Often if I see an opponent with models like that on the board, I kill them first since they go down easily and provide me with activation control early in the game. 

[trikk]

16 hours ago, Irritated Walrus said:

Sanctioned Spellcasters are good scheme runners on the fringe of the board away from the action since they get fast easily, but they are NOT durable. They are defense 4 with arcane shield and 4 wounds. It's not hard to kill them with two AP. Often if I see an opponent with models like that on the board, I kill them first since they go down easily and provide me with activation control early in the game. 

They are durable for 4SS compared to Stalkers for 5SS. They are not super durable per se, but compared to most other 4SS models they are probably above average