Nicodem strategy questions

[MrScotty]

Recently I played my second real game of Malifaux using Nicodem's army from the starter set, plus one vulture. I have read the tactics discussion on Nicodem, and my plan was to focus Nicodem on summoning and healing rather than combat. However, I was playing the bayou gremlins, and my opponent was able to do several things.

1: summon things a heck of a lot faster than me. In two turns, I was able to generate one hanged, wheras my opponent gained one piglet, a mosquito, and a gremlin.

2: make me discard my whole hand. Basically his mosquitoes used some'ers ability to make me discard cards, and

3: instantly eat all mindless zombies. According to what we could figure out, since Nicodem's mindless zombies count as corpses, the pig can instantly kill all of them within a ten inch radius and heal itself as a zero action.

First of all, is number three correct? If so, how do I counter that, or any of these things? It seems like I need three things for Nicodem to be effective: raven cards, corpses and zombies, and the gremlins seem to be able to deprive me of all of them without any trouble, as well as blasting my punk zombies to bits well before I can enter melée range. Does anyone have any suggestions that might give me a fighting chance against what the forums seem to claim is the most woefully underpowered army in the game? Thanks in advance, folks.

[Soulreclaimer]

Well the "Eat anything" ability is a 1 AP spell to begin with. HE also NEEDS to flip a ram 6> in order to beat the 10 CC.

Once he succeeds its a 5 inch aura where the zombies would be removed.

I would try to lock down the pig with rigor mortis if possible. the low WP of the pig should let you succeed at some pt.

Don't forget you can also summon punk zombies not just mindless zombies with Nic. Don't forget the gravedigger can carry them as well.

Hope this helps I am sure more vet players will add.

[shekbo]

when he talks about summoning Mindless zombies I think he means with "Arise" which does only summon mindless zombies. To summon anything else you need to use "Reanimator" which is much harder to pull off. You need a Crow card, which is more difficult if Gremlin's Luck has caused you to discard your control hand.

[Headcase2]

Well, for starters you can't summon Hanged, since they're spirits. Sucks, but it does make them a hell of a lot harder to kill (especially with a grave spirit linked).

Secondly, eat anything will indeed deprive you of corpse counters if you have them walking around as mindless zombies or just on the board, but counters carried are safe as long as the carrier doesn't kick it. So use vultures and canine remains to get them to Nico and you'll rarely ever run out of dead stuff to work with against gremlins. Don't rely on zombies to take any hits for Nico either, try and keep him safe at the back or behind terrain (and watch out for flying pigs).

Skeeter card denial hurts, so if you have a good crow use it right away. If you have an okay crow just use it too, burn a soul stone and hope you pull off Reanimator with the extra flip. Don't count on cheating much as long as there's a mosquito in play (or when Som'er gets close enough to anything you control). Also, a skeeter needs a 10+ to cast the spell, so at least it'll cost your opponent some good cards too.

And finally, the things Som'er summons are weaker than what you can conjure up, especially with bolster undead on them. Those piggies and gremlins can do some real damage, but in a more-or-less straight-up fight you should be able to come out ahead if you play your objectives.

Hope this helps.