First game with Nekima 2 went really well!

[Maniacal_cackle]

Well, just played Nekima 2 and I'm super impressed.

Overall impression:

While Nekima 1 is the brutal, "one of us is going to die" alpha striker of doom, Nekima 2 has a much more cautious style of play.

Due to the summoned terror tots and the combos with Hayreddin, you're really looking for attrition style play. Any weak models on the board can easily be converted to Terror Tots with Haydreddin's aura (although setting that up is a BIG challenge - see core crew requirements below).

As the game goes on, it becomes easier and easier to setup your combos as the board swings more and more in your favour.

So for matchups where a slow, grindy, black-blood-based attrition game is what you want, Nekima 2 seems like the way to go.

Thoughts on models for the crew:

This is what I played the first time on Wedge Leylines:

• Hooded Rider
• Hayreddin
• Hinamatsu with ancient pact
• Black Blood Shaman with ancient pact
  • For those wondering - I just didn't grow this one and used it as a scheme runner.
• Black Blood Shaman
• 5 stones

5 stones isn't quite enough, and I wonder if the hooded rider could have been 3 wicked dolls or something...

Mature nephilim... They don't feel right for this title, unless I'm missing something.

Nekima 1 puts a huge hulking god-master in people's faces. This alleviates a bit of pressure on your frontline mature nephilim.

Nekima 2 I found to be surprisingly effective just spamming out some shockwaves and corpse markers (so good at Research Mission by the way), although I did do cleanup duty with the melee attacks on anything that came up to the centreline.

As a result, if Nekima 2 takes Mature Nephilim, they are the main tanks... And unsurprisingly, that can lead to their deaths pretty easily...

Instead I had Hinamatsu as a front-liner, and it felt GREAT. She got the ball rolling on an alpha strike, and it took my opponent half of turn 2 to kill her, which meant my crew was set up so well. 

Double Ancient Pact felt super mandatory. Since Hayreddin and Nekima are trying to do such finesse maneuvers to set up huge black blood swings, the activation control really helps. I basically pinged his master to death with black blood pings and some Hinamatsu attacks (through about 6 healing as well). 

Killing the Terror Tots before they explode in a shower of black blood is priority one for the opponent, so getting some maneuvering room with ancient pact helps so much. The crew also has a lot of TNs, so can be really helpful to have some card draw... At one point I had to use an 11 of rams to summon a terror tot (I could have stoned, but with so few stones I thought the severe was worth the summon).

Black blood shamans just acted as scheme runners, but one did end up growing into a mature neph and smashing face. Really this crew mostly just needed hordes of tots and I occasionally managed to grow them bigger before they died.

To me, the core for the crew is Hayreddin + two ancient pacts. That provides all the nephilim synergies you need. From there, there's a huge amount of flexibility (and I would bring Mature Neph against a melee crew I think).

What do you think?

So far I haven't seen anyone else talking about the 'nephilim lite' builds. Has anyone else tried them? How do you like them?

[Hawkoon]

I've been playing her a few games now, and I think there are 2 ways of playing her effctively. One way is to go black blood spam with Hayreddin, using the summoned tots mainly for as nodes for pustule and annoyance, like @Maniacal_cackle does.

I've played her mostly the other way, as a pure summoner that can grows tots into young (or your occational Lelu/Lilitu/shaman). Being able to summon a significant model ~14" away from your flying mv6 master gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to scheming. Yes, you have to think ahead, as the summoned model can't score schemes the turn they are summoned, but it also puts a lot of pressure on your opponet to deal with a model that's far away from your main force. Alternatively you can summon the tot close enough to grow it the same turn, ready to join the fight if needed.

I like her a lot, and she really brings some variance to the nephilim. Not to mention the question your opponents will be asking themselves: will it be 1 or 2?

[SEV]

Never play with or against her yet, but she looks like the real deal.

There's probably a pure grow list here. BBS can upgrade to mature t1 and than you can upgrade your tots easily.

@Maniacal_cackleno love for the dead Nephilim as a tank (this is surprising since it's from your beloved forgotten).

Since this is not an alpha strike master could Lilu/Lilithu shine here?

So many masters to try but this one is the next one on my list.

[Maniacal_cackle]

6 hours ago, SEV said:

Never play with or against her yet, but she looks like the real deal.

There's probably a pure grow list here. BBS can upgrade to mature t1 and than you can upgrade your tots easily.

@Maniacal_cackleno love for the dead Nephilim as a tank (this is surprising since it's from your beloved forgotten).

Since this is not an alpha strike master could Lilu/Lilithu shine here?

So many masters to try but this one is the next one on my list.

Noxious nephilim is not tanky at all when you stack it up against hinamatsu or mysterious emissary.

It has fantastic card cycling utility, though.

Also interesting points above about scheme runners. Feels like she is quite good at doing a cagey scheme-y game.

[Hawkoon]

The noxious nephilim is probably better in Ressers, where you have access to GST. Regen +4 seems quite solid if you can keep him alive long enough to profit from it.

[Maniacal_cackle]

23 minutes ago, Hawkoon said:

The noxious nephilim is probably better in Ressers, where you have access to GST. Regen +4 seems quite solid if you can keep him alive long enough to profit from it.

Haha, funny, I've assumed he is better in Neverborn. Maybe he is just bad everywhere 😜

But with Nephilim at least, lost memories does black blood.

[Roadhouse]

Yea, I've come around on Nox with Newkima, pinging him with her attack and passing that off to cycle and splash has been very rewarding.

The T1 Regurgitate for corpse and proc the cycling is also nice, I just wish he had a trigger on one of his actions to take Rancid Smell. I've literally never used it or been in a position to.

[j3diii]

I've played her twice. Both times I mostly took the list Andre describes in in s&s ep 189. I still consider myself pretty new to the game so I like to netlist when I am trying something out for the first time. 

My first game was a rules disaster where I misplayed. The second game went a lot better vs Anya and at the end of turn one I had upgraded a BBS to a Mature and got a summoned Tot to a Young. 

So going into turn 2 from corners deployment I had 2 Matures, Nox, Hayreddin (AP), Young, Changeling (AP), Broodmother and Blood Hunter. It felt like a really strong start with a lot of scary and mobile models on the board. I drew into heat from the Bloody Banner trigger and was able to tank Anaya with a Mature because of the cards and Combat Finesse. I'm pretty sure we were playing Turf War and the game was close, but I was able to win it in the end 8-6. Doing Spread them Out with this crew felt good. 

In hindsight, I'm not sure that the Nox was worth it. He broke up a pair of Chain Ganging Surveyors with Bring It so a Mature could eat one, but that's not anything that Hinamatsu couldn't have done. I guess he did contribute to the Bloody Banner draw that put some excellent cards into my hand. After that he was just a midfield beater that didn't accomplish much. I didn't use Last Memories much and I missed that Regurgitate procs it. I also didn't use Rancid Smell and I did have an opportunity in the middle of the game where it could have been useful for keeping some hate off my Catch and Release Mature. 

I also didn't use the Changeling for it's intended purpose of growing a Tot to a mature on turn 1. It still felt useful as an Ancient Pact vehicle and getting that extra draw from Dark Bargain. 

Broodmother is very fun to play. I can't wait to get back to play her again, but I just took a dive into the Bayou on the BF sale, and now I have some murdercorns that need to see the table. Also I finished building Insomniac, Yume and finally got the Bearly Together. So my next games are going to be about trying something else new.   
 

[crimzzen]

I've played a handful of games with TwoKima and have had a lot of success with:

TwoKima +Ancient Pact (4 SS pool)

Blood Hunter

Mature Neph (ancient pact)

Noxious Neph

Hayreddin

Black Blood Shaman

Vasilisa.

 

T1 usually revolves around pulsing double focus on the whole crew, growing the BBS into a second mature, summoning a tot and growing it into a young. The crew puts enormous pressure on your opponent. Do they clump up and risk nekima shockwaves and terror tot black blood (summoning terror tots into combat with their crew is hilarious). Do they spread out and risk being lured in and dismantled by the noxious neph, hayreddin, and 2 matures? Once you're ahead on attrition, matures scheme pretty well with fly with me, vasi can make one of them take another action too as well. My stones are largely spent on triggers for nekima and hayreddin.

 

Fly with me + the bonus Wk from Vasilisa let you threaten most of the board at any time. Your opponent can't really send a solo scheme runner somewhere without risking a mature flying over and destroying it.