First time arcanist into Mama Z’s Ley Lines (game over and won)

[Regelridderen]

So I’m finally putting Cooper on the table to bedazzle the world - although I could need some pointers, as it’s his first time on the stage.

the pool is :

Wedge 

Corrupted Ley Lines 

Death Beds, Vendetta, Catch and Release, Detonate Charges, Assassinate

And my opponent will field Mama Z

So how would you go about this?

[Mycellanious]

Cooper? Isn't he Exso?

[Vangerdahast]

Mr Cooper, the nightmare version of Colette, not Lord Cooper.

 

[Regelridderen]

But you can call him Alice.

[Regelridderen]

GAME OVER

So the game is now over.

MI brought :

Mr. Cooper and his monkeys, Baritone Lola, Vasquez, Angelica Durand, 2 Coryphee, Thin Lizzie w. Magical Training

to face :

Mama Z, First Mate, Spawn Mother Gatreaux Bokor, McTavish, a gator and a silurid.

The nature of the board, divided it into three zones, a right, a middle, and a left - and even Mama Z had trouble reaching beyond.

The left flank quickly turned into a skirmish, when the spawn mother and the first Mate rushed it. They were met with my ball carrier Vasquez, Barritone Lola and Thin Lizzie, but by sinking tons of soulstones into Breath of Fire the opposing henchmen were incinerated by turn 4 (and Vasquez eaten by Gupps).

As I was the attacker, I was the only one with direct access to the centre, which were rigorously defended by Angelica and Cooper, as the swamp things (McTavish, a ball carrying gator and the bokor) tried to Breach it from the right flank, but when my Coryphee arrived from my right flank, it brought that advance  to a full stop.

Turn 3 was a stalemate - we’d both scored 1 strategy point, and I managed to Detonate Charges. A lucky monkey planted a red joker between Zoraida’s eyes, but-i was far from scoring Assassinate, as she wouldn’t allow it to explode

But by turn 4, Lola managed to grab the ball and score a touchdown on Zoraida’s half. Meanwhile on the right flank the Coryphee stabbed McTavish to death, but then turned on Cooper and forced him to vanish in a puf of smoke. This in turn allowed Cooper to appear out of the monkey engaging Zoraida and perform a sword trick on her before disappearing once more - Z tried to get the Bokor to help, but it only managed to get her to 6 hits. So that was the first point of assasinate. 4-1

Turn 5 was just for show. A desperate Z tried to get healed by a Bokor, but no amount of healing works against a Sword Trick and a 13 popping out of a monkey, but before burying Z, Cooper teamed up with Lola and Angelica managed to get the ball in the centre, while the Coryphee held the opposing ball gator back on the right.

So the final score 3 Strat, 2 Assassinate, 1 Detonate - vs - Strat 1, Vendetta (spawn mother vs Vasquez) 0, 

-

Coming from Neverborn, I’m amazed by the performers. They’re fast, they hit deceptively hard and there’s plenty of defense. And the new Distracted condition is pure evil.

I never really wrapped my head around Cooper, he mainly handed out Stunned and Distracted, and did his sword trick. But never really found out how to use presto-chango. Not that it wasn’t enough since he and the Coryphee held back the opposing point makers. The doves were nice, I managed to use a couple as stones, resummon them, then focused on using them as homing missiles.

I wasn’t impressed by Angelica either. Although she managed to kill the pesky silurid posed to run the Strat along with the gator, and her extra move allowed me to get the final Strat point, but she never did something really cool. Then again…

The tandem Fire Breath of Lola and Vasquez was devastating, Focus, stone an extra tome and pour on the burning with blast. After I had both the first Mate and the mother on burning +4, I knew the left flank was mine. Celebrity and Detonate Charges are a match made in Malifaux - it just felt nasty.

But any advice on Cooper/Colette and Angelica would be much appreciated.

 

 

[Vangerdahast]

Concerning Angelica, use her bonus action to move other models like Cassandra, Carlos or the Duet and use her shockwave to spread Distracted.

I usually run Angelica and Cassandra in a pair to scheme or making Strategy points (Break the line for example).

 

[Regelridderen]

4 hours ago, Vangerdahast said:

Concerning Angelica, use her bonus action to move other models like Cassandra, Carlos or the Duet and use her shockwave to spread Distracted.

I usually run Angelica and Cassandra in a pair to scheme or making Strategy points (Break the line for example).

 

Thanks. Any pointers on using Colette as well? 😊

[Vangerdahast]

Concerning Colette, you can read my tactica (even if it was written before errata).

Activate Colette and a Dove late Turn 1 in order to Presto Chango an overextended ennemy model. Then Colette can charge it. Then Sword Trick with the Trigger to bury Colette.

After that, the Duet can attack four time and the ennemy should be dead.

Can depend on what cards you have in hand.

During game, Presto Chango can be used to reposition allies.

And don't underestimate False Reality.

Won't be useful each game but can allow you to deny some Schemes like Outflank.

 

[Jordon]

Angelica also has a nifty trigger on her shockwave to drop a scheme marker up to 10" away. The other thing to do with her is camp her next to a distracted model, allow them to waist an attack on her, then use her Df trigger to shoot them across the board. It's not the most reliable but it can really make the opponent think twice. You can take soul stone cache to make both of these easier to use. 

The Duet is probably the most complex non-master model in the game so don't worry if it takes a few games to really understand how it works. Basically you're exploiting the replace rules to get a ton of AP, activation control, and hopefully focus. When used properly, they are really efficient models.  

Cassandra is very versatile. She can be a real challenge to deal with if you stack her finesse with distracted. Breath of Fire is a really good attack, and especially so on Cassandra who can nimble, focus and then use it to cheat in those moderate/severe cards. Upstage has way too many possible uses to list here but can be a total clutch ability. She's very reasonably priced for the amount of utility you get and likely one of the best henchmen in the whole faction.