Questions about collete Dubois crew

[ooshawn]

Hello there, I'm a avid arcanist player. Specifically I use alot of different variations on Marcus and Rasputina. I hear Colette is rather good, as far as completing objectives using movement and staying alive. Well that's what I use marcus for in tournaments, so should I get Colette's crew, apart from being awesome. Keep looking at magician's duel which I admit seems amazing, but keep going right back to that three inch range. Well, how the hell do you hit people that that consistantly. Granted i've never played against that crew and only have seen it played once out of the corner of my eye. Also the stats on the coryphee's sound good and A+ ability wise, but they just seem underwhelming. Basically 3 attacks max, damage medicre, paired 7. I don't know, maybe they are much better than marcus at being mobile etc, just don't see what they can do that marcus can't do almost as well. If not better. Throw some strategy at me, show me connections i'm not seeing. Whatever. Thanks for your time - Shawn

[Sholto]

There's not much I could say that isn't covered here - http://www.wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15883

On your specific questions, Magician's Duel can be cast by Mechanical Doves. Since they can move 10" and cast it with a 3" range, and can use a SS to boost the Cast, AND you can have up to three Doves at once, it makes for a very dangerous serious of strikes if there is a model you just have to take down. Colette herself uses it by Switching places with another Showgirl who is in 3" range, casting Magician's Duel and then Switching places again. If you use a Linked Mannequin for the last Switch, you will leave nothing behind for the enemy to hit, as the Mannequin will Push back into B2B with Colette.

And if you're wondering how Colette can appear to take three Actions at once, just take a look at the Tactica thread, and search for "bash"

One Coryphee is not much of a threat. Two can claim objectives in the blink of an eye. A Duet can wreak havok like you wouldn't believe, so long as you can get Use Soulstone on it to keep it alive afterwards. Check the Tactica and also the Maliwiki.

[Drake]

There are a lot of things Colette's crew can do. How about Disappearing Act on a model sat on one of the markers in Shared Line in the Sand so you can interact without having to kill the model in your way?

Or Claim Jump..got an enemy crew sat in the middle of the board, well u can cat Disappearing act 6 times in the last turn of the game (dont forget the re-flip for an extra turn to flip again if the game does continue, to try and stop it from doing so) and un bury them all outside of the Claimjump area.

And what about a big threat coming your way, u can attack a model up to 20" inches away with as many as 7 attacks and leave nothing within 18" of it when you have finished, thanks to Mannequin and Companion.

Those are just a few things you can do. I am working on putting together a new tactica for the girls, more focused on tactical actions and combo, hopefully it will give others some more insight into things I have learned whilst using them.

[AdrianMills]

Or Claim Jump..got an enemy crew sat in the middle of the board, well u can cat Disappearing act 6 times in the last turn of the game (dont forget the re-flip for an extra turn to flip again if the game does continue, to try and stop it from doing so) and un bury them all outside of the Claimjump area.

Thats a nasty low down rotten trick I like IT:bigthumb:

[Drake]

Thats a nasty low down rotten trick I like IT:bigthumb:

There are a lot more things like that you can do with Colette....How about Reconnoiter?...got a couple of models in a quarter you dont want there?....keep Colette near the middle of the board, throw cassandra or coryphee in the quarter near the annoying models, then bash Colette to switch, she disappearing acts against enemy activation 1 for 2 x disappear, then activation 2 disappear again once more if needed then switch your coryphee/cassandra back into that corner using Colette, and un bury those 2 or 3 annoying models in the middle of the board so they cant claim any quarters.

She is a tricky mistress once you get the hang of the finer points of her skills

[LoboStele]

Or Claim Jump..got an enemy crew sat in the middle of the board, well u can cat Disappearing act 6 times in the last turn of the game (dont forget the re-flip for an extra turn to flip again if the game does continue, to try and stop it from doing so) and un bury them all outside of the Claimjump area.

LOL that's a nasty plan, but I like it. I'm curious how you get to 6 times though, as the Doves can't cast Disappearing Act. So, max I see is 5 times, with Colette doing it 4 times via Reactivate, and then Cassandra casting it once with Understudy. Having a Performer die in there somewhere to give Cassie Reactivate as well?

I am working on putting together a new tactica for the girls, more focused on tactical actions and combo, hopefully it will give others some more insight into things I have learned whilst using them.

Be sure to make additions to the Tactica Wiki at pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com with whatever you come up with!

As for the Coryphee, one of their most powerful things is their 9" walk, with free melee strike, meaning you can move 18" across the table, and still have 1 action left for an Interact, WHILE making two attacks on stuff along the way. And with the right triggers, you can move even further. Can get up to 39" in one activation. Also, their Hypnotic Movements trigger is just frightening, since it's not terribly hard to get it off. If you can manage to hit a Master with that trigger, and THEN have Colette pop in to Magician's Duel....ouch time.

[Drake]

LOL that's a nasty plan, but I like it. I'm curious how you get to 6 times though, as the Doves can't cast Disappearing Act. So, max I see is 5 times, with Colette doing it 4 times via Reactivate, and then Cassandra casting it once with Understudy. Having a Performer die in there somewhere to give Cassie Reactivate as well?

Yes, if you incldue the Performer dying you actually can make 7 disappearing Acts!

4 for Colette, inc her reactivate, 1 for Cassandra's Understudy,1 for Cassandra's understudy for her free activation at the end of the game but before VPs are calculated, and ofcourse 1 for reactivating from death of Performer!

Be sure to make additions to the Tactica Wiki at pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com with whatever you come up with!

I am a competent gamer but not as good with internet. Was going to post up a Tactica in the same as as MrNybbles did, and if someone kind can cut and paste it into the wiki, great. Unless someone can tell me how to add to web pages?!....

[Sholto]

Disappearing Act is a great spell, but since it costs a Soulstone every time you use it you would need to have a bag full to shift a whole enemy crew at the end of the game.

[Drake]

Disappearing Act is a great spell, but since it costs a Soulstone every time you use it you would need to have a bag full to shift a whole enemy crew at the end of the game.

Agreed, but in Claim Jump I plan for the contingency. You can comfortably create 1 stone a turn, 2 if your willing to sac more cards. With spells like Magicians duel and Elegance you can create more too.

Just make sure you go into the 6th turn with atleast 6 stones in your pool, plus your Artificial. Shouldnt be to difficult unless your opponent is being extremely aggressive, and if that is the case you dont need this tactic as you can force the to leave the claim jump area to attack you thanks to your mobility and threat range.

[Odin1981]

I admit they might be a "normal damage crew ", but don't confuse normal damage range (2,3,4) with inability to fight. Outside of a resser crew with all the models at hard to wound 2 or more its very rare for a "combat colette crew" to not have an easy time finishing off crews via attrition.

While their damage isn't guild or neverborne range what the crew has is the best defense compared to any other crew (not counting insignificant models). Also if you want a heavy hitter its not to hard to fit johan or taelor into your list (assuming 35ss) and still have around 7-9 models.

The duet or if you like living fast and hard pumped full of adrenaline 2 coryphee can keep the 1-2 best models an opponent has perma paralized when they are done activating (yes this is including masters as well). They can easily cut down 20ss of models a turn in perfect situations ( 2 weeks ago I took down perdita, fransicsco, and santiago all in one activation with the duet with only the real convict gunslinger ie santiago being pre wounded).

Cassandra with mirrors from a linked mannequen and southern charm up can tank just about every model that isn't paired in the game she also is one of the best objective grabbers in the game. Also the key point for this crew is selecting which model you want to die each turn then charging the duet in, dance togethering cassandra in next, and if need be illusionist switching out cassandra with colette on her reactivation to finish said model.

I didn't mention much about objective grabbing and the like because we are the most mobile crew in the game and well you should have already figured that out that we are in the top three at doing that in the game.

[Drake]

Further to Odin's post, there are 2 ways to win a game through fighting, rather than objective grabbing, imo.

1. Take out several weeker models first with Coryphee and Cassandra in the first turn or 2. This is while you are at range and enemy has little response. By doing this, when your forces clash properly, you should have gained activation control (more models than your opponent to force them to activatate their more powerful models before you do yours). Then you can pick off what you want more easily.

2. Concentrate Coryphee/Cassandra/Colette at the enemy's most powerful model or biggest threat to you (doing this via companion so that you can attack and leave your models out of range to counter, as discuseed earlier in this thread). With the biggest threat or 2 out of the way in the first 2 turns, you are more able to take chances later on and be more aggressive.

The above 2 options should be considered during deployment. Obvioiusly the best option will depend on what your opponent is taking.

[CannonFodder]

Disappearing Act is a great spell, but since it costs a Soulstone every time you use it you would need to have a bag full to shift a whole enemy crew at the end of the game.

SS management is the key to her. it is effectively her life and ammo in one. when she runs out, she is in danger. I love the dove to magical duel small targets fro SS regeneration. But also not that she can get one back from a from a trigger, that the manikin can give the suit for.

[ooshawn]

Definitely alot of good tips and strategies I hadn't thought about. I think there was some debate as to whether or not you use a action point for the strike on the coryphee while they are moving. Nobody has said anything in regard to that, so i'm assuming it doesn't. I'll be at GenCon doing tournaments all saturday. If I don't spend all my money on puppet wars or book3+ new gangs, Will probably pick up Colette. Thanks for your time -shawn

[LoboStele]

Definitely alot of good tips and strategies I hadn't thought about. I think there was some debate as to whether or not you use a action point for the strike on the coryphee while they are moving. Nobody has said anything in regard to that, so i'm assuming it doesn't. I'll be at GenCon doing tournaments all saturday. If I don't spend all my money on puppet wars or book3+ new gangs, Will probably pick up Colette. Thanks for your time -shawn

Nope, Sword Dance gives you a free strike while you're moving. It's one of the main powers of the Coryphee/Cassandra.

Another trick I have REALLY learned to like is to hit somebody and use the Hypnotic Movements trigger, and then cast Blinding on them, which should be easy to get a straight flip then. That way, you can cheat in for the Severe and Paralyze a big target. Or, Hypnotic Movements also works really well for prepping somebody to get pounded by Cassandra's Breathe Fire or Colette's Magician's Duel. Also, if you can get Hypnotic Movements off on somebody, it can make it a LOT easier for your Dove's to successful hit stuff with Magician's Duel as well. Will save you a lot of Soulstones too, since you won't have to burn them to up your casting totals as often.

[Drake]

Your welcome. And it was ruled by sketch iirc that u make a 1 action to move and make a free strike as part of the action. On mobile so can't link here but it was fairly recently ruled I believe.

So 3 moves a turn inc a strike each if there is a model to attack during the move.

[Naravus]

Lobo, why can't the Doves cast Disappearing act?

I used an interesting tactic the other day which, while hard to pull off, could be rather devastating to a single model.

I ran a Coryphee Duet at a Mature Nephilim who had not activated yet. The Duet successfully struck the Neverborn and triggered Hypnotic Movement. With its next action, it proceeded to cast Blinding on the Nephilim and, due to a straight flip, was able to cheat it up to severe damage, thus causing paralysis.

My opponent foolishly decided to activate the Mature Nephilim last which, in the mean time, allowed me to Illusionist the Duet with Collette, summon a dove and then to switch Collette with a performer. The performer then gave the Nephilim a nice Poisoned Gift! The Nephilim activated and died.

[Scurry]

the dove cannot cast diassapearing act (or dicharge soulstone) because it cannot discard soulstones other than to chage the casting total of a spell through magical extension.

[Naravus]

Ah that makes sense. I just guessed that discarding it was simply part of the spell effect and that anything could use it.

[LoboStele]

Ah that makes sense. I just guessed that discarding it was simply part of the spell effect and that anything could use it.

Nope, have to have 'Use Soulstone' in order to discard stones, unless something else specifically says you can (like the wording for Magical Extension). Disappearing Act says you must discard a stone in order for the spell to work, but nothing about the Doves say you can discard one.

There's a long thread in the rules section about it, which you could probably find easily by looking up 'Disappearing Act'.