Collette vs Somer 35 SS

[jasonbeauchene]

Wadders and I had a good game Wednesday night, thanks for the game it was enjoyable. I am still learning the game, as is Wadders, so I wanted to try some things out that I hadn't done before. I started with a new master, Collette, and tried out two Scheme's I hadn't played before.

In the beginning flips we had our Encounter in the Quarantine zone, and got Disturbing Whispers (which we never flipped for-but neither of us had a WP duel either-does it impact the WP flip for Harmless? I don't think so, because I believe it says defender-but I could be wrong). The terrain was Koyote's ruins, which gave us a fair amount of area and obstacle pieces. For the deployment zones we ended up with 12" squares in corners-which has been my deployment type for the past four games. For strategies we flipped for individual ones, and I got Turf War and Wadders got Supply Wagon.

I was already committed to Collette as my master for the game, so Turf War could be tough for me because my models are fragile and Gremlins reproduce-so I didn't feel I could lose any Significant models (Mannequins and Pigeons be damned). Wadders had Supply Wagon which was a good one for him with me having Turf War because I couldn't afford to sacrifice a model or two in the middle if I was going to get my 4 VP-so I figured the game was going to come down to schemes.

I chose a couple of schemes I hadn't tried yet, it would have made sense to grab Breakthrough and Stake a Claim with Turf War, but I wanted to try some things I hadn't done before. I instead chose Sabotage-the Arcanist only one, which turned out to be pretty easy, and Kill Protege-knowing that Wadders crew would probably have a Warpig, and that it would only be useful against me in Hand to Hand-so either he would have to scrap a 1/4 of his models and his only real damage dealer to stop me from 2 VP, or I would have to kill it quickly when it got to me.

Wadders chose to keep one hidden, and Bodyguard. The hidden one turned out to be Thwart which is worth 2 VP if he stops me from getting any VP from announced schemes or 1 VP if I don't announce any.

For Crews I took Collette, Cassandra, 2 Coryphee, A Performer with a Mannequin, and 1 Pigeon leaving me 7 SS in my pool. Wadders took Somer, A Squeeter, A War Pig, 2 or 3 Piglets, and then a bunch of Bayou boys, and had a pool of 4 Soul Stones.

I am not going to do a move by move breakdown, as I think there are to many actions happening in a turn to get it accurate, instead I will give a summary of what happened (approximately-please correct any mistakes) of what happened in each turn.

Turn 1: Not surprisingly, with such fast crews there was some action on turn one that was not just moving around. For my part, I figured he would be coming down the middle with the wagon and then spreading out on my side of the board to stop my Strategy. I decided to load the flank, make a run for my Sabotage, and then try to use my speed to pick off enough Gremlins to hold my Strategy. I conceded that I would probably not get to stop his Bodyguard, but figured the only scheme available that was worth 3 VP that you don't have to announce is Steal Relic (and I didn't think that is what he had to win a WP duel with Gremlins vs Collette)-the other 3 VP one is Eye for an Eye, which you have to announce to get 3 for, so I figured if I could get my 2 Schemes and Strategy home, I would win without having to stop him from any of his Schemes or Strategies. On my turn I had Collette summon a Pigeon, and make some Soulstones (finally a use for 1-5 cards in your hand). The Cory's Danced Together, becoming the dreaded Coryphee Duet. I have to say this model is sick-on turn one they dance together and then the Duet gets to activate, and on Turn 2, you could have them do a couple actions, buff up, and then Dance Apart and still activate the 2 individual Cory's (basically giving you 5-0 actions and 4 1 AP-5 actually but you have to use one to Dance Together-on turn 1, and then 7-0 actions and 6 AP-7 actually but you have to use one for Dance Apart on turn 2-that's 12-0 Actions and 10 AP for 2 models in two turns), The Coryphee Duet then got into contact with the terrain feature for Sabotage and Sabotaged it. I then had Cassandra on my next activation use her Dance Partner ability and get into base contact with the Duet, blocking them from getting charged by Wadders War Pig-Cassandra also can not be targeted by melee attacks or charges on the first 2 turns. Wadders built a screen around his Wagon, and began advancing to the center of the board. He did send his Warpig after me and took some shots at Cassie with Gremlins but it was to little avail.

On Turn 2, Collette (who gets a free reactivate) made some more stones and another pigeon. One of the Pigeon's used Discharge Soulstone to end the Squeeter's life, and the Coryphee Duet used Soul Dancer (gain soulstone use-for me it is for damage prevention flips), Sword Dance (which lets her take a move action and a strike action for 1 AP-the Duet's moves are 9" also), and Sublime Performance (which gives her a Mask for her triggers). With the Duet's +twists to hit and damage she was able to put 11 wounds on the Warpig-Wadders kept Squeeling away, but with the Duet's ability to move 9 and strike, she didn't care. I then used Cassandra's Dance Partner to get Cassie into base, and finish the Warpig off. I think Wadders got his Supply Wagon to the middle on this turn. He spent a couple actions wounding my Mannequin who kept putting up Mirrors (which makes all Weak Damage Flips result in 0-Damage)-but with their Armor 3 and Object 2 he would need to do 7 or more wounds get more than 1 on the Mannequin-Gremlins max out at 6, and they kill themselves to get there.

On Turn 3, I had the Cory advance up Wadder's side of the board and take out a Gremlin, Cassie followed using her dance together then Breathed Fire, a good cheat by Wadders stopped Cassie from getting Severe Damage and two blast templates-instead getting moderate, but still netting two Gremlins (it was the Gremlins I needed to kill as the piglets were insignificant). Wadders continued to grow his group with Git Yer Bro, heal flips, and Piglets coming on the board-he also realized the threat pigeons were with a 12" 2/3/5 ignore cover and armor or a 3" 2/3/5 goes against casting rather than defense spell from Collette that netted soul stones if they kill the model-so burning a soulstone on the cast usually resulted in me not using any soulstones to cast the spell at sometimes 20-25 totals. His Gremlins went hunting Pigeons. I am not sure if he knew it or not, but they also have a blast damage ability that I kept trying to use, but couldn't get in range of a group of his guys. Collette did her usual generate 2 stones, make a pigeon, and 2 walk actions.

On Turn 4, it was becoming clear that Wadders was going to take his 5 Gremlins and Somer onto my half of the board and try to deny me my strategy. I had to decide which strategy I was going to employ. I could a) use the Coryphee Duet's insane movement and go Gremlin hunting, with Cassandra in tow but that would expose them to Somer's big gun, and other possible issues-Cassandra also has the ability to activate one last time after the game ends but before VP are counted and Collette has the ability to make us reflip for the game ending if I don't like the result-this strategy would have been exciting, but risky because my models are fragile (maybe not to Gremlins) or take a pigeon army, burn through my SS cache, and try to pick off gremlins 1 by 1. Any pigeon on the board basically has a 22" Gremlin death cannon spell, and any summoned one can get a 32" range with two turns. I chose option B figuring it was the safer of the two options. On this turn I also got Collette's dreaded triple tome spell off-turning one of Wadders Piglets into a Mannequin.

Turns 5 and 6 saw Wadders hiding in a corner healing Gremlins and telling them to Git Their Bros, and me using Collette to make stones and pigeons to go ahunting Gremlins. Luckily I was able to get 3 pigeons through his Gremlin shooting, and 2 of them killed Gremlins leaving Wadders with 2 or 3 Gremlins and Somer on my side of the board, and me with Collette, 2 Coryphee (Danced Apart), A Performer, and Cassandra on my side with several in his Deployment zone.

The game ended up being me 8 and Wadders 6.

Good game, and enjoyable for me. I think Wadders and I agree though that the Gremlins can not kick out the damage to handle most crews-I think he is going to try some Ophelia love action next time.

[Sholto]

Great report. I would have loved some photos, but your description of the action was fine, and I really liked reading your explanations for your decisions.

Ophelia would have more luck against Collette, I think - she can outshoot the Ortegas, after all.

[xGIxJOKERx]

Great bat rep. This gives me some ideas for my Colette crew.