Gremlin take all comers: thoughts?

[SweatyDemon]

This weekend my FLGS is holding a Malifaux tournament. One list for all games, 30ss, strategies drawn from second book. I have the following models:

Som'er Teeth box set

Ophelia LaCroix box set

4 more Bayou Gremlins

Giant Mosquitoes are backordered, may or may not get Hog Whisperer and 4 Piglets in time for the tourney. I was thinking something along the lines of the following:

Som'er

Ophelia LaCroix

Raphael LaCroix

Pere Ravagé

4 Bayou Gremlins

- 3ss reserve

Ophelia supports the Gremlin Gunline and tows Som'er around if necessary in order to keep the mill turning. Raphael is for objective hunting, Pere Ravagé mostly causes psychological trauma by blowing himself up if they bunch up too much.

My thoughts:

I am highly set up for ranged, not much melee. I don't see this being too much of a problem: Bayou Gremlins are more-or-less disposable and can act as "speed bumps" if need be. Plus, they're good targets for blast origins.

I can get up to 11 activations first turn (if Som'er takes the time to pump out more Gremlins, and I get lucky with cards), so I should typically be able to force my opponent to show me what he's planning before I commit anything of too much value. Plus, Gremlins are fast, which should force my opponent to play more conservatively then they would like.

I see Pandora and Zoraida as the biggest problems, given the low-low WP across the board. God forbid I get Assassinate against Pandora.

Any thoughts/suggestions? I unfortunately haven't gotten too many games in; I just want to know what's going to kick my ass the hardest (and how to make it hurt less if possible) :whip:

[Gremlin Swarm]

If you can get enough Gremlins on the table (and get the right cards) to be able to do a lot of Y'all Watch This with Dumb Luck, you can do a scary amount of damage.

With the setup you have now, though, you'd need to summon (Git Yer Bro) a lot more Gremlins for this tactic to be effective.

I haven't had a chance to try out my Ophelia box yet (that comes Monday), but as it is, I'd be tempted to drop either Pere or Raphael for more Gremlins. That's just my favorite tactic, though.

You might also consider proxying (or converting) a Gremlin Taxidermist, if you can get your piglets in time. If you go with this option, you'd need to rig something so you can do Stuffed Piglets, as well. (Maybe some sort of mini-harness thing that you could put onto or take off of the Piglets to switch them back and forth at will?) I haven't tried that one yet, either (also for Monday, if I can get enough actual games in, as opposed to explaining/helping), but I've been itching to. Especially against some Resurrectionists.

In any case, I'd keep Som'er close to Ophelia, since he can heal her (Take a Swig), and she has Calculated Luck.

Just some (yet to be tested) thoughts.

[SweatyDemon]

I ended up doing this:

Som'er

Ophelia LaCroix

Pere Ravagé

6 Bayou Gremlins

Giant Mosquito (came in yesterday morning, had 4 on order, but only received 1)

- 3ss reserve

First game was Reconnoiter against a Kirai crew. We were playing that, in order to control, you needed to have only your models on a corner of the board. Our table drew when both sides were left with 2 models. In fact, out of 6 tables, only 1 table had a winner (who I played round 3 and won the tournament). The big highlight was the Mosquito doing 2 dg to Kirai and 4 of her weak (2wd) spirits with Pull My Finger, taking all but Kirai out and leaving her to die shortly thereafter.

Second game was a scenario created for the tournament. Carry a "bomb" to a building, blow open the door. I won on the second activation of turn 2, mostly due to the scenario needing some fine tuning - the Mosquito grabbed the bomb at the end of turn 1 (yay 10 move), won initiative, carried it over to my swarm of Gremlins near the Bank, where Ophelia used Family Tree to do a double activation with a Bayou Gremlin and won the game right there. Quick win, but kinda lame.

Third game was against the eventual winner playing this Crew:

McMourning

2 Nurses

2 Canine Remains

Zombie Chihuahua

Sebastian

Bette Noire

Scenario was another constructed scenario. Cut down a hanged nurse (didn't know how many activations it would take, that was kept secret), then move the nurse towards your side when in base-to-base. I screwed up and misunderstood the scenario; I thought we didn't have to be in base-to-base to move the nurse, so I spread out to ensure I would have Gremlins left to move her.

Anyway, McMourning is a monster; healing what the damage flip is and not how many wounds lost really hurts. Nearly killed him twice (down to one wound), but he got himself back to full next activation. I lost when all but a Gremlin was dead, almost entirely due to 1) McMourning and 2) Pere Ravagé just barely casting "Oopsie" (flipped a 6, had a 13 to cheat up), so his dogs and his nurse all made the Df flip. Oh well. Placed 4th out of 13, not bad for my 3rd, 4th, and 5th games, and first games with Som'er.

Some thoughts after my first Malifaux tournament:

Bring the Errata - we screwed up some things (like not using the Red Joker on a -fate damage flip) and getting them to change the initial scenario would have changed how we both approached it.

Demand written explanations of the special strategies - the tournament organizer worked hard at them, but they were definitely confusing, and not having something to reference really screwed things up and made it harder to deal with (although everyone was in the same boat).

Need more Mosquitoes - it seems that Som'er really needs to be drawing a bunch of cards in order to pull of Git Yer Bro; sacrificing Gremlins for Mosquitoes seems to be the most effective way of doing so. Plus, discards and Pull My Finger are really, really powerful.

Clump up - The ranges on a lot of buffs are really short. There also doesn't seem to be that much blast damage floating around, so keeping them together will let more Gremlins benefit from Ophelia's buffs and get more cards from Som'er.

[Gremlin Swarm]

Yeah, it's harder to pull off Git Yer Bro than a lot of folks think at first. It's still really useful, tough.

Also, you can have Som'er kill a nearly dead Gremlin to get a fresh Piglet. (Nasty little trick.)

If you do go for what's become known as the Alpha Stank (the 4 Mosquito Pull My Finger attack--I don't know who first came up with the nickname), be careful to not get your 'skeeters caught in each others' damage radii. (They're not immune.)

There's not too much blast damage around, but the ones who have it (>cough< Sonnia >cough<) are really nasty with it.

[dakrulz55]

one word could ruin your whole day, Hamlin(the plagued) thers no way of getting around him. also ratcatchers give you a problem as well. the only way i could see you dealing with him would be to hey yall watch this but thats all i see hapnin.

[Wodschow]

Som'er, Blasts and Mosqitos casting Pull My Finger.

Also.. Hamelin will really hate the Mosqito card drain..

But yea.. Hamelin will be rough on Gremlins in general.

[dakrulz55]

Som'er, Blasts and Mosqitos casting Pull My Finger.

Also.. Hamelin will really hate the Mosqito card drain..

But yea.. Hamelin will be rough on Gremlins in general.

yeah but that means somers pullin his finger next to hamlin wich isnt a good idea since he can give him insignificant and do some mean things to somer. also hamlin ignors things that require him to doscard cards when you target him. also i find it funny if hamlin pipes somer and he ends up makin a friendly guy take a swig (if somer gets hit with rabies hes succeptable to pipes effect)

Edited September 6, 2010 by dakrulz55

[Wodschow]

You should obviously just target a rat or whatever rather than Hamelin himself to make the player discard his cards..

[SweatyDemon]

Yeah, I think that if I got some more card draws (through Gremlin death near Som'er) I could have gotten Git Yer Bro off more often. Hopefully mosquitoes will come in soon and I'll be able to play around more with making mosquitoes and getting the machine rolling.

[Matamane]

We both made the mistake with the Red Joker, so it evened out I guess.

I ran the Dr. McMourning crew, looking forward to sunday BTW, hope to see you there.

As far as the tournament went, we should have ben told the number of activations that were needed, and especially in a game where we were all noobies, we should have checked everything. Apparently we can cheat and soul stone, go figure. Another tidbit I picked up is you can soulstone a Black Joker.

Yours was the hardest army I played, Ophelia and a critical strike is bullshit.

[SweatyDemon]

Hey M., nice to see you here. That was the hardest match for me as well; Kirai was annoying, but the Giant Mosquito put that down hard. Don't know if I'll be there on Sunday; gotta see how much schoolwork I get done tomorrow.

So we were screwing up that stuff. Ah well, we're all still learning up here in Montreal I guess.

[Matamane]

Yep, but I've gotten better