Nellie Vs Levie - what to look out for?

[Mikes]

Hey all. First game of Malifaux in a long time next week. I'm taking Nellie against Levie in Cloak and Dagger. All I remember was last time I played Levie was an absolute pain the arse to play against. Does anyone have any general tips to counter him? Thanks for any pointers.

[Brilliance Laced Whiskey]

Doling out conditions is good.  Nellie obviously excels in this field.

 

Levi isn't the speediest of crews, minus Ashes and Dust, and he will want to get in your face punch you.  His murder is almost unparalleled and likes to deny your abilities to heal.  Avoid fights as if, well, as if you are Nellie.

 

The ranged stagger and slow abilities are your friend.  Get stunned on Levi himself, as he is a freight train of damage, and that is only increased with his triggers.  Even if you get off stunned, he gives himself auto focus and will always be a threat.

 

Scavs are a problem too.  They have tools for the job, give out focus to his best models, with some other bonuses.  Even there basic gun with blasts can be bad if your crew is tight knit.

 

I recommend movement abilities to get your models out of Dodge.  

 

If you get ensnare, False Witnesses can almost guarantee you 1 victory point.

 

Go for schemey schemes. 

 

Sadly, I am not familiar enough with Nellie to provide other advice.

 

I haven't played my Four Horsemen Levi list yet, but conditions (especially stunned), greatly diminish the crews power as the Horsemen are top tier models.   They absolutely need their triggers.

[Regelridderen]

On 11/17/2023 at 10:33 AM, Mikes said:

Hey all. First game of Malifaux in a long time next week. I'm taking Nellie against Levie in Cloak and Dagger. All I remember was last time I played Levie was an absolute pain the arse to play against. Does anyone have any general tips to counter him? Thanks for any pointers.

Levi is an arse, as he dishes out tons of damage.

Nellie and her Journalists will have a distinct advantage in controlling the Interacts in Cloak & Dagger. So even though Levi might kill you, he’ll have a tough time scoring points off the strategy. So you’ll play for points.

Distraction +X will be one of your most powerful tools in buying time. Levi wants his Focus +X to do max. damage. That along with Stunned and Slow.

Soulstones, even if you can’t use them for reducing damage, you can use them to give negative flips to the damage flip. This again hurts Levi.

Levi himself is a distraction. Look to the crew that feeds him. Marlena, the Scavengers and Waifs, take them out, and you’ll neuter the old child diddler greatly.

 

[Mikes]

Thanks for the pointers, guys. That was really helpful, and I took on board what I could in the game last night.

First off, this was first game in around three years, and playing a crew I've never played before. so I knew it would be rough.

My opponent took Levi, the waifs, Marlina, Rusty Alice, two prosctors, two Abominations, and a scav.

I took Nellie, the printing press, Phiona, the Pale rider, a peacekeeper, a field report, and an Undercover reporter. Ad also Deliver a message and Espionage.

The game only went trhee turns, as we ran out of time both trying to remember the rules and me learn my crew. I was ahead by two point having scored  the strat wtice, and one point for each Scheme, but that wasn't really an indication fo where the game was going as we both knew the game wasn't going to reach five turns so took some decisions we otherwise woudln't.

FIrst off, the advice on loading up levi with conditions worked a treat. He barely did anything in three turns, despite start 6" up the board ona  wedge deployment. He did whittle Phi down to one wound left, but that was it.

I did lose the Rider on turn two to rusty alice. I hadn't used him before and after having watched some bat reps with him I think I had an inflated sense of his survivability. I should have switch his position with the peacekeeper who could have soaked up the damage more easily and used the irder to scheme and shoot from the flank before rushing in to explode.

Some lessons were just how survivavble and annoying field reporters are. I took the peacekeeper because I was afraid I wouldn't have enough hitting power (more on that ina moment) but the report just waded into Leve's crew and was pretty much unharmed come the end, after scoring a strat point, setting up the second, and dropping a load of markers.

Lessons No. 2 was just how much damage Nellie can actually do. On the third turn in the centre I Twisted Their Ideals onto both Abominations and Marlina, having them attack each other, explode due to all of the markers around them, and also stack some damage on Leve. Not bad for one activation.

Lessons learned:

- Phiona needs LLC. She draws a lot of attention and needs to dictate when she moves.

- Be more circumspect with the rider.

- Don't be afraid to take two field reporters if the strats and schemes allow.

 

 

[Brilliance Laced Whiskey]

I didn't even consider Rusty.  Her ignoring hard to wound makes her a solid Rider killer.

 

Get some focus on her, with 3 shots, min 3, ignoring hard to wound is enough to give any rider a pause for though lt.  

 

The peacekeepers aren't a sure bet against Levi with all his irreducible damage.  My first game with Levi he took out a peacekeeper and pre nerf Hoff 2 out singlehandedly.

 

False Witnesses are great for the new GG.  If ensnare is on the schemes list, they can all but guarantee it with False Claim.  Edit:  I guess I already mentioned that.

 

You've gotten me to thoroughly check out Nellie.  I got to say, she seems right up my alley in terms of playstyle.

[Mikes]

20 minutes ago, Brilliance Laced Whiskey said:

You've gotten me to thoroughly check out Nellie.  I got to say, she seems right up my alley in terms of playstyle.

I had a lot of fun with her, and am keen to exmplore her options. I'm more of a ranged firepower player, so this was a change of gear for me. Although I will say the activation where she cleared out three models in one activation was one hell of an eye opener. For my oponent and myself. I had no idea she could do something like that.

Oh, one other lesson - don't forget the Undercover Reporter's Creep Along. Super, super important.

[theamazingmrg]

On 11/21/2023 at 11:05 PM, Mikes said:

Thanks for the pointers, guys. That was really helpful, and I took on board what I could in the game last night.

First off, this was first game in around three years, and playing a crew I've never played before. so I knew it would be rough.

My opponent took Levi, the waifs, Marlina, Rusty Alice, two prosctors, two Abominations, and a scav.

I took Nellie, the printing press, Phiona, the Pale rider, a peacekeeper, a field report, and an Undercover reporter. Ad also Deliver a message and Espionage.

The game only went trhee turns, as we ran out of time both trying to remember the rules and me learn my crew. I was ahead by two point having scored  the strat wtice, and one point for each Scheme, but that wasn't really an indication fo where the game was going as we both knew the game wasn't going to reach five turns so took some decisions we otherwise woudln't.

FIrst off, the advice on loading up levi with conditions worked a treat. He barely did anything in three turns, despite start 6" up the board ona  wedge deployment. He did whittle Phi down to one wound left, but that was it.

I did lose the Rider on turn two to rusty alice. I hadn't used him before and after having watched some bat reps with him I think I had an inflated sense of his survivability. I should have switch his position with the peacekeeper who could have soaked up the damage more easily and used the irder to scheme and shoot from the flank before rushing in to explode.

Some lessons were just how survivavble and annoying field reporters are. I took the peacekeeper because I was afraid I wouldn't have enough hitting power (more on that ina moment) but the report just waded into Leve's crew and was pretty much unharmed come the end, after scoring a strat point, setting up the second, and dropping a load of markers.

Lessons No. 2 was just how much damage Nellie can actually do. On the third turn in the centre I Twisted Their Ideals onto both Abominations and Marlina, having them attack each other, explode due to all of the markers around them, and also stack some damage on Leve. Not bad for one activation.

Lessons learned:

- Phiona needs LLC. She draws a lot of attention and needs to dictate when she moves.

- Be more circumspect with the rider.

- Don't be afraid to take two field reporters if the strats and schemes allow.

I think its fair to say the Peacekeeper is a trap if your crew doesn't have ways to heal it or prevent the Armor being bypassed, especially against Levi.

It's big and beefy, but expensive, slow and Armor doesn't protect against all that ping damage from Entropy and the like.

 

In this GG replacing it with models that can actually Scheme or hand out Conditions is probably better for you.