Colette vs. The Dreamer

[Ratty]

Ah I didn't catch Sketches second ruling. There was a period where you couldn't unbury them.

[LoboStele]

I managed to beat Chompy in a Shared Slaughter game this past week, but man, was that tough. I took Power Ritual and Bodyguard for my Schemes, and he took the easy Kidnap (Coryphees, and something else), and then Kill Protoge (Cassandra). I was able to get Power Ritual by Turn 2 easily, while the Dreamer used some of the enclosed rooms (playing in the Theater) to move across the board. He ate one of my Performer's on Round 2 (after it had Power Ritual'd a corner, and was then by itself on one side of the map, haha). I fed him a dove or 2, on a whim of possibly winning init and hitting the Dreamer with Magician's Duel.

My main strategy ended up being an evade and get Schemes at first. I tried using my Doves in the first 3 rounds to take pot shots at stuff, or mostly to fly nearby at the end of a Turn, and be set up for the next turn. Eventually, we realized that for purposes of our Campaign game (currently League at our LGS), that it was completing the Strategy which ultimately decided the game, not just VP alone, so I remembered that I did indeed have to get some kills. I ended up using a combination of things to pull it off. He was hiding in a room, using his 2 Teddies (he also had Lelu/Llilitu) to cover the doorway. I used movement tricks to get Colette up close on her first activation of the turn, and use Disappearing Act on a Teddy. Then she swapped in a Coryphee, who used Sword Dance, and with a Trigger, hit the Teddy and then used the Push to reach the Dreamer, who was by himself back in the corner. Attacked twice more with the Cory's leaving him with 1 Wd left. You gotta remember that the Dreamer can do damage prevention as long as he has stones left, so be prepared for some of your damage to get lost. I then used another Push on the last attack, to move back a bit, and into range for Colette again. Then she swapped with the Cory's, summoned a Dove in the Dreamer's face, and then used the Mannequin Swap/Link trick to get fully back to safety. I luckily won init, AND pulled a Red Joker in my control hand the next round, which I used (along with a SS addition) to Magician's Duel the Dreamer and drop 8 wounds on him, which he couldn't stop. The other thing that was sort of cool, is that it put Teddy within 6" of my whole crew, and I was positioned in such a way to make Teddy have to deal with Cassie or the Cory's before it could get to my other pieces.

So, in this case, the strategy was to sort of deep strike behind the enemy lines and get to The Dreamer. Or, use the movement tricks and Disappearing Act to kidnap (no pun intended ) individual pieces, and break them away from the main group where you can more easily deal with them.

I have to say though, I much more enjoyed fighting against this LCB list than the Alp/Stitched/Coppelius lists though. Alps are squishy and not too hard to kill with Cassandra's Breathe Fire, but Coppelius is annoying, what with his 2 Healing Flips at the end of every turn crap.

[MrNybbles]

xD you make me sound like I'm some sort inspector patrolling the forums.. D:

You seem to be about a badge and an iota away from being a Rules Marshal.

You make an interesting point about the Teddy being Immune to Influence, I don't know the answer, but my gut feeling is that your trick won't work. Anyway I added the question to the thread I started in the Rules Section about targetting the Dreamer, so hopefully it'll get sorted out soon.

Great news everyone! Sketch made the ruling below. You can target the Dreamer with Wp Duels if only Teddy models are within 3" because Teddy is not a valid target.

From the Thread Transpostion and an enemy Teddy

You may not target a model with Immune to Influence with any Talent or Spell that requires a Wp Duel.

Relying on a single trick is never a good idea. The Showgirls are a Jack of all Trades crew so they tend to be able to adjust, but are not good at any one thing. If one trick won't work in a situation, try something else.

To answer your specific question, no. You may not target Teddy with Transposition as it requires a Wp Duel to resist.

As for actual advice I think it requires some experience to be able to tell when to do what (and I don't even main Colette myself, so I doubt I can be of much help).

He now has some experience and should be able to infer what his opponent will do. Now he needs is to know what his options are.

Currently it is questionable if the word Action in Shadowy Form refers to Talents listed under Actions or the verb Action. The only reason I think they mean the specific Talents labeled Actions is because they could have used the word Attack instead which isn't ambiguous.

Once this is cleared up we all will have a better idea of what the actual options are.

If you only react to your opponent then you are letting your opponent set the terms of the conflict and you should expect defeat.

Colettes crew generally have to be close to the enemy to do damage, most of the time however being close to the Dreamers crew isn't exactly healthy for you.

Normally the Showgirls play best when just taking objectives or taking down an isolated model guarding an objective with a few models. Sure they can make melee or ranged strikes, but your opponent will almost always be better at one or the other.

With the Showgirls (and all other crews really) it is important to know where your opponent is weak, and hit them there.

Could you bombard the Nightmares within 3" of the Dreamer with Disappearing Act (Colette, 3 Mechanical Doves and Cassandra can all cast it, and can all use Soulstones to boost it), and then whatever you have left can target the Dreamer?

Incorrect, the Mechanical Dove does not have Use Soulstone! Mechanical Doves can't cast Disappearing Act because it may only be cast by a model with Use Soulstone.

Colette always has Use Soulstone and Cassandra always has it in Colette's crew so both may cast it. (Any of Colette's spells or talents that say 'Discard one Soulstone' require the Use Soulstone ability).

The only time a Mechanical Dove may use a Soulstone is when casting a spell via Magical Extention to change the casting total, it can't use Soulstones for any other reason including as a requirement of the spell to discard one.

@LoboStele I'm glad to hear you had some good luck against The Dreamer and LCB.

[Wodschow]

Great news everyone! Sketch made the ruling below. You can target the Dreamer with Wp Duels if only Teddy models are within 3" because Teddy is not a valid target.

From the Thread Transpostion and an enemy Teddy

I'll keep my mouth shut about what to do when fielding Colette against the Dreamer, this however is rather interesting, great find!

[Sholto]

Not being able to unbury models that got hit with Pine Box would be silly considering that The Dreamer does exactly that in the story arc.

Doh!

I wrote that bloomin' story as well You think I'd remember!

[MrNybbles]

Another possibility when facing Lelu and Lilitu is to take Killjoy. With his Melee Expert and 1 General AP after being summoned he should be able to kill one of them. I'm not sure this is a winning strategy, but it is another option.

[Natty]

You can target Teddy with a Wp based duel, it just fizzles. So if the Dreamer is within 3 inches of Teddy, Wp based duels are worthless.

[Natty]

Wierd Sketch says:

Nope. Teddy would be the new target. But Immune to Influence would make the Duel not happen. Fizzles indeed.

If you go to the thread where he talks about not being able to target people with immune to influence, he corrects himself later on and mentions that you can target them, it is just that nothing happens and the spell fizzles.

[MrNybbles]

Yes, I know. He reversed his earlier ruling on being able to target Teddy after I made the above post. For me this was quite unexpected.