Getting Back to Lady Z

[TimH]

Long story short, looking for some advice on Zoraida's crew in 3E.

Long story long, having been absent from Malifaux (and most wargames in general) since near the end of M2E I've been slowly getting back in, picking up missing pieces of Neverborn, painting up models and reading up on the big changes that have occured while I was away. I dabbled in a little of everything in 1E and then switched to pretty much exclusively Neverborn in 2E. Back in 2E I mainly played Lilith, Pandora and Zoraiada and was always interested in Dreamer but didn't really get him the way I did in 1E. Now getting into 3E Lilith is gone but that's fine, Titania appears to cover most of the bases on how I played Lilith anyway (I played terrain Lilith not Neph Lilith), Pandora still gets full mileage out of the models I ran with her in 2E but Zoraiada has had a big shakeup and I could do with some advice on what to get for my collection to run with her.

Back in 2E I mostly used Sillurids, Waldgeists and then chunky non swampfiends for obeying. Iggy for burning the doll, Illuminated for general heavy lifting and occasionally Nekima for the unexpected alpha strike using Dance Puppet Dance. From what I can gather my Sillurids and Waldgeists are still all good for the crew but with some faction shift ups, model changes and the alterations to Key words and versatile i have found myself to be missing a lot of the swampfiends.

I have all the versatiles I was missing in NB except for Hinamatsu (who seems to be awaiting a reprint/delivery in the UK judging by her scarcity) with the 2 big ones being the Rider and the Emissary who I should probably always run one or the other as my big friendly Obey target.

When it releases Z2 and Kurgan will be high priority pick ups but no date on that yet so ignoring it for now.

In Swampfiends I have the geists and Sillurids plus have picked up the Wisps and Adze cause the models are cool and they look like they could have some fringe usefulness. I have browsed around the forum a bit and haven't seen anyone mention Grootslang or gators so I take it they aren't well regarded (I know in current edition most low cost models are currently in a bad place). Juju I have never liked but if he is good in this edition I'm willing to give him another go as I already have the model. I know First Mate is currently regarded as a must have (and I can see why) so I guess at some point I will have to aquire him, and from what I can tell it seems the Gateraux Bokor are held in similarly high regard. What about McTavish and Spawn Mother? McTavish was pretty well recieved in 2E from what I recall but that doesn't necessarily translate into him being good in 3E, as for Spawn Mother I looked at her card and was finding it hard to justify taking her over the Rider or the Emissary.

For additional stuff I do have Vasilia for Z1 and every effigy but Intrepid for Z2 (back from when Collodi still existed), plus widow weaver from my Dreamer collection.

So is there anything in particular that I am missing other than First Mate and the Bokors? Am I undervaluing some of those Swampfiend heavy hitters and would it be worth picking them up? Has much changed in Z1's playstyle from 2E?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Roadhouse]

You've done your research!

You can pass on Spawnmother and McTavish boxes, though Spawnmother and Gators have niche cases, theyre not at all a must have or even a priority beyond completionism. 

Widow Weaver(WW) and Mysterious Emissary(Emi) are often takes with her depending on the pool. WW gets to turn the Voodoo Scrap into Stitched Together and her Webs combo with the Emi's Planted Roots and ranged attack that puts opposing models on negs to resist it.

1st Mate is absolutely vital, probably one of the top 3 Henchmen in the game even after the nerf.

Mature Nephilim are very strong OOK for her as they Fly With Me they provide can keep her from ever having to spend AP on Walks, Rider does this too but sometimes the Flight is better than Unimpeded, but its map dependant.

[TimH]

I had considered Mature Nephillim might be a take, I know they are in 3E Neverborn Lucius so I was pretty sure the sentiment on them was that they were the best OOK heavy hitting minion in the faction. I just sort of assumed Rider and especially Emissary would have more mileage with Zoraida. Good to know that Mature's are an option too though (especially as I got the Nightmare box for Gibbering Hordes and the fishmen look a much better visual fit for Z than the Nephs do).

You mentioned WW comboing webs for Emissary and turning scrap into Stitched which sounds strong. Is she substantially better than Vasilisa or can the puppet lady still pull her weight as an alternative for using up those scrap markers? They have the same summon value but Vasilisa appears to fill a much more supporty roll for a stone cheaper.

[extremor]

basicly WW is a Henchwoman and can use SS to get the needed mask to summon. Beyond that WW is faster and more synergetic due to her web markers. vasilisa is way tougher, has a good heal for constructs (of wich Z has little next to vasilisa herself) and can make a minion take an action (which can be a free action as well)... so it depends on your list. but with emi, mate and sillurids far off the board, you hardly get milleage from that i think

[Hawkoon]

I've only recently began playing Zoraida, but I find her highly flexible when it comes to crewbuiliding. From what I've gathered you really want to have other models that can move her around, like Mature or Rider, and you probably want some kw models as nodes, but outside of that you probably need to tailor her list to the pool and map you are playing. For killy pools you want fast hardhitting beaters to obey, but for schemy (is that a word?) pools you're far better off with Silurids/first mate and some tanky nodes (like waldgeist/kurgan) to obey your models from far away.