Gremlin Tactics for the New and the Frustrated

[Wombats]

My first three games with Somer have been essentially draws (one card flip's difference who wins) mostly against Lilith.

The pigs trash her crew and then its a matter of trying to bring Pull My Finger to bear.

If Somer survives her charge and has a pair of Skeeters around that is five Pull My Fingers, two of which need high cards and three can be Soulstoned if need be.

Making sure they have no hand with Gremlin's Luck Skeeters is pretty key, their cards are eventually going to fail them even with Defense 6 when most models in my crew are Pigcharging 3 times a turn.

If you really can't get Somer to work, just pick another Outcast Master and crew to switch to for the Strategies you have trouble with.

People have mentioned Assasinate as a problem, I've done pretty well timing the Pigcharges right.

My opponent is usually done activating and hasn't got much of a hand when three Piglets and a Warpig get Sooey'd into range and start Pigcharging.

I've never faced Perdita although if I do I know I won't be Pigcharging out of their melee range, by hiding Gremlins and a Skeeter using Sooey it should be possible to engage them before getting shot by anyone but Nino.

[Justin]

Making sure they have no hand with Gremlin's Luck Skeeters is pretty key, their cards are eventually going to fail them even with Defense 6 when most models in my crew are Pigcharging 3 times a turn.

What has defense 6...?

[Tyrant]

By the way, my next tactica: Gremlin vs Master will not be Ms. Criid. But instead Pandora, who's scary as crap when your Wp doesn't go over 4 for most of the crew.

Edited February 12, 2010 by Tyrant
Posted before reading the whole thing.

[n0signal]

If you really can't get Somer to work, just pick another Outcast Master and crew to switch to for the Strategies you have trouble with.

...or Zoraida if you wanna use your Gremlins and Pigs. (Albeit at an inflated price *gulp*)

[Justin]

I edited my initial post because of a rule I had been misplaying.

I think I'm going to be putting my gremlins aside for the time being. I just picked up the Victorias and I think they will be my go to master for the outcasts, but I'll keep an eye on this thread to edit links to any further advice into the opening post.

If I miss something you posted here and you want a link to it in the opening post, please PM me.

[Gremlin Swarm]

Newbie alert...

That said, some friends and I have just started Malifaux-ing, and 2 of us use Gremlins.

I've noticed that I have a much better time if I go bat poo crazy on one type of model in my crew setup, rather than going for a balanced selection.

Basically, this means that if I go for gremlins, I pack in as many as I can (usually 8 or so for a 25ss game), and a couple o' 'skeeters.

If I'm going to do pigs, I'd go for either 3 warpigs, or a bunch of piglets, with a 'skeeter or 2 and 1 gremlin.

I don't know if this'll work for everyone, but I've found this setup tactic to work for me in just about every wargame I've played. (Better than a balanced approach, anyway.)

I have played the Ortegas and Lady Justice and co., but even though I've tended to lose (sometimes by a pretty thin margin), I've had the most fun with he Gremlins.

'Kors, dat kood'a been 'kaus ah did da voyses fer dem da hol gaym.

:teeth

[Foxdie82]

Hello to all i'm totaly new of this game but i've already chose my team : Gremlin, cause i like the way its look , this is one of the most important thing when i chose an army i don't care to much of powerplayer army, still i'm reading this 3d to get some info, well i've not still the rulebook but in 7 days i'll get it, can you please tell me what kind of miniatures i can lead whit So'mer Teeth Jones?

For what i understand are Grem, pig and vermis, about those last , where i can find its?

Is a word for describe mosquito or other kind of monsters? I know what vermins mean but may be is a way to call some other stuff as "slang"

How many point the game is played usualy?

Any suggestion for good Grem list, not only powerplayer but balanced on fun and competitive for friendly game ?

My apologzie for my n00b question and thank you for patience

[Lucidicide]

Hello to all i'm totaly new of this game but i've already chose my team : Gremlin, cause i like the way its look , this is one of the most important thing when i chose an army i don't care to much of powerplayer army, still i'm reading this 3d to get some info, well i've not still the rulebook but in 7 days i'll get it, can you please tell me what kind of miniatures i can lead whit So'mer Teeth Jones?

For what i understand are Grem, pig and vermis, about those last , where i can find its?

Is a word for describe mosquito or other kind of monsters? I know what vermins mean but may be is a way to call some other stuff as "slang"

How many point the game is played usualy?

Any suggestion for good Grem list, not only powerplayer but balanced on fun and competitive for friendly game ?

My apologzie for my n00b question and thank you for patience

Well with So'mer, you're only taking Gremlins, Pigs, and Mosquitos. I don't actually think there's anything else that you can take at this point as his list is fairly limited.

Games are usually played at 25, 30, 35, and so on levels. The most common I see are 30, but I'd imagine that changes based on where you live.

As for good So'mer lists, I'd look around the forum. I think there is plenty already out there that you could find useful. Your best bet is waiting to get your rulebook and determining what you think is the most fun.

Good luck!

[Foxdie82]

Thank you mate I'm keep reading this 3d for understand and learn more about those Grem

"Jones is a bit of an odd master in many ways. Firstly, his Crew is restricted to Gremlins, Pigs and Vermin"

Need to understand what and how "vermis" are used in this game:)

Edited May 4, 2010 by Foxdie82

[Lucidicide]

Thank you mate I'm keep reading this 3d for understand and learn more about those Grem

"Jones is a bit of an odd master in many ways. Firstly, his Crew is restricted to Gremlins, Pigs and Vermin"

Need to understand what and how "vermis" are used in this game:)

Vermin is just a designator for certain types of models. For example, many in the Resurrectionists have the identifier "Undead". The Razorspine Rattler and Hoarcats have the identifier "Beast." All the pig models have the identifier Pig.

Vermin is just another one of those identifiers. I believe, at the current time, Mosquitoes are the only Vermin.

Does that help?

[Hookers]

Also nathan said that there is going to be a whole chapter/section of Book 2 devoted to gremlins, which comes out in august I believe.

I think Gremlins are going to be the next box I pick up, they're just too hilarious

[Lucidicide]

Indeed. I read that as well. But no use planning for the future (unless it's in the beta testing) /crosses fingers.

[Foxdie82]

Vermin is just a designator for certain types of models. For example, many in the Resurrectionists have the identifier "Undead". The Razorspine Rattler and Hoarcats have the identifier "Beast." All the pig models have the identifier Pig.

Vermin is just another one of those identifiers. I believe, at the current time, Mosquitoes are the only Vermin.

Does that help?

Yes it help thank you

Glad to see how in each game i chose always the hardest army to play, leaded just by the miniatures look :laugh:

Gremlins book hurrayyy! ( crosses fingers)

Every time I play this game I want to feel like a win is possible. I know my friends have this feeling when they play their non-gremlin crews. I accept that I may lose and I may even have fun doing it, but knowing that I'm F**ked from the start is boring and I happens all too often.

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR GREMLINS!

I understand your feeling , this is the reason cause i don't like tournament usualy :shakehand

Edited May 4, 2010 by Foxdie82

[Gremlin Swarm]

Here's an evil trick for Gremlins.

To pull this off, you need a decent card in the Rams suit (preferably in your hand to make sure you have it), and an 11 (or better, of any suit).

What you do is get your Gremlin up close to (though not in melee range of) your victim(s) and set off Y'all Watch This.

Use the Ram card on the flip to hit. (You want a decently high one to actually get the hit, but you don't need to worry about getting a really solid one, just enough to be able to cheat the damage). Then you make sure you get at least moderate damage with a cheat to the damage flip, though if you've got the 11 I recommended above, you can get it up to severe.

Then you set off Dumb Luck, since you had a Ram in your cb total to hit, and since the Gremlin shooter is sacrificed anyway, the damage it takes from this doesn't matter.

Bottom line--If you pull this off successfully, you get 8(!) damage with 2 blast markers and 2 damage to anything within 2" of the shooter. Even if you miss, you still get the 2 damage thing, though you Whoops a friendly model, most likely.

I know, it's complicated/tricky, but I had an easier time pulling this one off last game than I have Parasitic Infestation, and I had plenty of Gremlins (9) to keep trying it with.

BTW: If you're having trouble with Resurrectionist crews (or anyone who uses corpse/scrap counters to raise new troops), don't forget the Warpig's Eat Anything.

"Counters?" >>Smack, Crunch, Slurp<< "What counters?"

Lalo--I'd forgotten that shoot your own Gremlin to get a blast trick, and now it makes me think of something...

(Insert maniacal laugh here.)

If you're willing to 'sacrifice' 2 gremlins to get a good hit in (potentially on several targets), you could use this trick to get off the one I described above.

:blowup:

[Amidian]

Shame to see this thread disappear into the nether, so at the risk of threadomancy, I thought I'd post something, and I am guessing a shameless 'bump' wont cut it.

I find the Gremlins to be reasonably successful. They are tough to play, and even tougher to get right. This is no Lilith or Guild crew, the tactic of choice is not screaming at you off the model cards.

First of all, talk up the weaknesses. If your opponent believes it, even for a little while, you may get something you can capitalise on. And, lets face it, they have plenty of weakness compared to other crews so its possible they can be complacent or flat out believe it already.

1 - Always hire 1 or 2 mosquitos. They help cycle cards and are great threats. Dont hire more because Gremlins cost the same and you want the free draws. BUT, try to Larva on Gremlins that have already activated.

2 - most of the models are very weak, so going it alone wont work 9/10 times. Keep the crew together. This goes for pigs as well. They need the whisperer to be truly effective. Unless going for a VP grab, keep em together.

3 - A gremlin should never die outside of 6" from a Survival of the Fittest. Let that happen, then you've wasted a 2 card draw.

4 - Jones, Whisperer, and Warpig are important. Everything else is very expendable. Dont waste heals on anything except those 3 models. I believe the heal ability is a sucker move to waste AP. That model you let die could mean 2 cards, and that extra AP may be another summon, or another shot etc. This rule doesnt hold if your last Gremlin or Mosquito will die too early in the game, as you need something to summon off.

5 - Whats more, do you really want to go the heal and flip a severe on a Gremlin? Bam wasted high card that is soooo much more useful casting a spell, or better yet, in your hand!!! A wounded Gremlin is just as effective as a healed one, BUT a wounded one is closer to cycling another 2 card draw... so I see it as a positive.

6 - Your willpower is so bad, that its likely not to matter anyway, so be willing to sac a model for a SS if you run out. They are great to stay alive with, BUT they are better for that cast/shot that just must succeed! Consider this, opponent believes you have none left so leaves a window open - sac a model, now you have 1SS, and still 2AP to try what you need.

7 - Activation order is critical in Malifaux. This is particularly true for Gremlins as there isnt companion all over the place. Know which model you are going to cycle out, or is likely to die - probably a wounded one. Make sure it has activated BEFORE it dies. This means no wasted models, and means models such as Jones have time to see the turn unfold a little before going.

8 - Dont blow a kill run on a master if they have a bunch of SS, the models you will lose, you wont recover from.

9 - Any time you want to kill something important, try to empty their hand first. Therefore to have a decent chance at Assassinate, you want to wear down SS, to lead to a chance to empty a hand, to lead to a kill run - almost impossible, but easier if you are waiting and watching for it.

10 - Ham it up, this is THE fun crew in THE fun game. Doesnt feel nearly as bad to lose when its funny.

I'm sure theres more, which may occur to me, but this is a wall of text already. Of course, my rules above are all dependant upon what is happening in-game, so theres obviously times when they wont hold true, which Im sure you've already thought of some...

[cryptfeller]

Sounds like solid advice. I currently only have a warpig on order to run with Zoraida, but these tips kinda make me want to run a full gremlins crew, heh. Who was it that said something about baconpunk?

[Gremlin Swarm]

Remember that if the Warpig starts its activation more than 8" away from a friendly Gremlin, it'll stampede and go after the nearest non-pig model (friend or foe). If you're going to use a Warpig with Zoraida, you'll probably want to get at least 1 Gremlin or some sort, too.

[cryptfeller]

Remember that if the Warpig starts its activation more than 8" away from a friendly Gremlin, it'll stampede and go after the nearest non-pig model (friend or foe). If you're going to use a Warpig with Zoraida, you'll probably want to get at least 1 Gremlin or some sort, too.

Well, my general idea (non-tested) is to have Zoraida go first, drop a voodoo doll to gain a conduit to the warpig, and either obey it to walk or charge towards the nearest enemy. Then the Voodoo Doll itself could copy an obey as well to push it further, perhaps. That would hopefully leave it closer to enemy forces, or at least break line of sight with the pig.

Ooh, alternately I could conduit an enemy, have it charge towards the pig, then use the doll to have the pig charge the enemy. I guess that'd work if there's an available enemy faster than the pig.

Seems a lot of work, though. I could alternately spend my first activations using Raven and Leap for the Silurids to get the heck out of dodge, and leave the pig to its own devices?

Any comments? It's kind of a harebrained scheme, but it could be amusing at least. The warpig sorta ends up as a semi-guided missile, with close-in support by Silurids I suppose.

[Gremlin Swarm]

Interesting...

Basically, you want to set the stampeding Warpig loose amongst your opponent's crew.

Possible, but tricky.

You'd have to make sure all your models stay out of the pig's charge range as long as it's alive, and even with the obey trick (using it twice with Zoraida and the Voodoo Doll in some combination), you might end up losing the Vodoo Doll if you send it up to do that. (If that ends up happening, remember that you can cheat down the Doll's defensive flip, thereby freeing up your pig sooner to go after your real targets. You can always bring in another with Zoraida.)

Don't forget that there are other models with Obey, too. (Perdita has it, for example, though I can't think of another one off-hand.) Something to watch out for.

It seems to me to be a lot of effort for the potential return involved, but hey, if you can get it to work...

If you field a Gremlin, you could keep control of the Warpig and maybe use it for eating counters to keep them away from Scavengers and Graverobbers, as well as being able to have the pig do Eat Your Fill (which it cannot do while stampeding).

Interesting idea, in any case.

Let us know how it works.

[cryptfeller]

I know it could all fall apart, heh. In any case, I doubt a warpig is a bad purchase, and a gremlin or two are pretty cheap even with the +1 cost when hired by Zoraida. So I have plenty of options.

Alternately, I could just spend turn 1 hexing away Set'er Off, if I want the pig to behave. No 1-cost pigcharges, but it'd act in a much more civilized manner.

[Gremlin Swarm]

That is brilliant! (It also hadn't even occurred to me...) :doh:

Yes, having to use 2 ap for pigcharges is a bit of a let down, but being able to use all the pig's other abilities is definitely a good deal. Being able to do Eat Your Fill is really nice, and don't forget Eat Anything, which allows you to remove at least some of the corpse and scrap counters those pesky opponents could use.

The Warpig itself would be a bit expensive at 9ss (8 plus the 1 extra for out-faction hiring), but if you've got a good plan for it, it may well be worth it.

I'll have to try this myself sometime. (Be interesting to see my opponent's reaction.

Something just occurred to me--if you're going to do the hex thing, make sure you get it off before the Warpig first activates to get rid of Set 'Er Off. (Remember you can cheat down the pig's resistance flip.) Reason being, once the pig is stampeding, it'll stay that way for the whole game, unless you've got another trick (like a Hog Whisperer) to calm it down.

[cryptfeller]

I didn't think it up myself, someone else here mentioned it first. And similar to the need to use obey first if I intend to keep Set'er Off, I had also considered the need to Hex it away before the pig kills my master in a turn. Also, I believe the errata states you can choose to have a friendly model tie any resistance duel after the cards are flipped, so Zoraida would just need to get a high enough value to cast it. Unless I'm interpreting that wrong?

Anyway, I'm mostly taking the pig to avoid using Nephilim, which seems to be the de facto wrecking ball to use in conjunction with Obey. I want to keep the theme swampy for Zoraida, and the list is a little short if I stick solely to the Neverborn. A few Waldgeists will help, and I suppose I could run more Silurids, but they need some backup. Juju's ok, but hopefully the pig's lack of Influence Immunity will give Zoraida more options. Effectiveness of the list comes in about third place, but maybe I'll get lucky now and then.

[Gremlin Swarm]

Don't sell the Silurids short. They need to keep near each other to keep from taking damage, but they're obscenely fast, so long as you can get off that leaping spell of theirs. They hit pretty hard, too. Especially with that claw/bite bit they can do. (I was on the receiving end of that recently.)

Hmm...

Maybe have a couple of them and keep the pig as a sort of bodyguard/troubleshooter for Zoraida?

Or maybe Bad Juju and a Warpig? (Yeesh...lots of pounding power.)

I should've remembered the tie thing for resistance duels. (I was thinking of dealing with Som'er killing off a wounded Gremlin to get a piglet with Come an' Get It.) I haven't used my Zoraida much as yet, so I haven't done much in the way of resistance duels from the casting side.

Interesting idea, in any case.

[cryptfeller]

I know Silurids have potential, but I made the mistake of mobbing them up on some of Raputina's crew, and they all died in an icy chain explosion.

Also, it is possible to end a stampede, so long as no models are in line of sight. Which could be the case, if the pig does his job! Also, do you know if stampeding pigs get their Reckless/Fast (+1) ability? I hope (+1) are more like modifiers, and not something that counts as a 'free' action to gain the bonus?

[Gremlin Swarm]

The pigs can indeed use the Reckless ability for the extra AP (if you're willing to let it take the wound) while stampeding, and it still counts as optional. (You can decide whether or not to use it from turn to turn.) The (+1) just indicates that the model gains something from the listed ability.

That's an interesting point about the LOS/Stampede interaction.

The problem is that the pig automatically stampedes when it activates more than 8" away from a friendly Gremlin. Granted, the Stampede ends when the pig attempts to Pigcharge (which it must do while stampeding) and there are no non-pig models within LOS, but It'd just Stampede again the next time it activates.

You might run into a bit of stickyness figuring out if the pig loses the AP when it attempts to do the Stampede-ending Pigcharge (I'd be inclined to say it does, since it's basically a failed action). After that, I suppose you could use its other AP to move, but to keep the pig 'under control' you'd have to keep it so far away from the action it'd be essentially useless.

I'd go with the Hex trick.

On the other hand, if you do the Obey trick and move the pig into your opponent's crew and set it loose, you'll have given them something to really worry about.

Good and bad points to either trick.

I've seen what multi-blast attacks can do...yeesh. (I was facing Sonnia Criid at the time--that Flame Burst spell of hers is nasty. She's a walking flamethrower with it.) You can have the Silurids up to 6" apart and still avoid taking the damage from Unstable Evolution, and you can daisy-chain them. That's probably your best defense against a repeat of the fishman icicle problem.

The biggest problem I've had is when I send multiple models into melee with a single target. Lots of potential targeting for a sufficiently ruthless opponent.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Gremlin Swarm