Initial Collodi mini bat rep - survival tips?

[Stonedog-7]

So i had my first game using Collodi last night, 25ss vs Lady J and i think i need some advice on survival tactics for Collodi's "pack" of marionettes

A quick bat rep to give an idea where i'm coming from...

Collodi (cache 5), 4 Marionettes, 3 Wicked Dolls, 2 Stitched vs Lady J (cache 7), Scales, Judge, Witchling, Marshall, Austringer

I re-flipped Reconoitre and got Line in the sand and my opponent had Turf War and i got a real taste of Collodi's insane speed from turn 1 even though i forgot about the marionettes having fast... 2 markers lit turn 1

Turn 2, lit another 2 markers (1 with a wicked doll far off on a flank) and made a start on killing myself a judge, 1 wicked doll activation and 1 marionette leaving him on 4w with poison 2 and an easy kill for turn 3, which i did along with leaving the marshall on 1w

But then things took a turn for the worse, not terminally but on turn 3 alone, after collodi's alpha strike, i lost 2 wicked doll & 2 marionettes (damn judge's blades & bullets on slow to die) and in the first activation of turn 4 another marionette & 6w from Collodi himself

In response i healed up collodi, made a second marionette and had the marionettes pull him out of the cluster of J & co and letting the stitched explode the witchling ruining my opponents day and knowing i could happily keep collodi away from J for the rest of the game if needed

Now, at that point with only J, Scales & Austringer left, a Stitched still to activate and time constraints closing in my opponent called it and we wrapped it up for the night

So, Collodi rocks when it comes to covering the board even when you forget fast on marionettes for a turn, my opponent bricked up when he realised just how much speed i could apply but came off far worse in terms of strategy despite the bloody nose it gave me when i did leap into combat

My issue was that thanks to guild crit striking for generally 3w weak hits, whenever he was able to get a hit in it seemed dolls were exploding left right and center (and the cards were not in his favour last night, he was flipping 6's to my 10+'s when it came to his attacks)

So if Collodi is in charge, is it worth spending a turn or two filling some dolls with stones before you go careening accross the board?

Is there some trick to keeping marionettes up and about that i've missed? or is it just keeping high cards back for def flips?

Is it worth trying to yo-yo Collodi & Co into and back out of combat again against a bricked opponent?

And yes, i know, run him with Zoraida and i will be doing so, just figured it's be good to get the hang of him before i leap in and try to learn both at once

[Ozz]

My friend usually runs him with Z and had the idea of filling Colodi with stones, there is no resist so he can target himself with it. As for the Dolls, id say only bother doing that to the stitched, means at least on their first gamble your life they cant kill themselves, makes them a pain to get rid of as they scare people and people often focus on them:)

[Adran]

Filling collodi with stones seems a good plan, its not like he is ever going to use his walk stat. Other members of his crew, well sometimes, but it will reduce their mobility.

The fast marionettes on the first turn probably aren't going to have much use for their fast action (except dynamite lighting I suppose...) as the pull with strings is once per model.

You will need to be a little bit careful that you're not leaving a trail of easy to kill marionettes across the board each turn, if you do, you've limited his threat of alpha striking. Yo've often got spare movement on them (they have a walk of 5 but can't get more than 8 away from collodi) so try and leave them somewhere safe when possible.

[Cthulhurising]

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that if a spell had a range of anything other the C, and did not specify. They could not target themselves with it. Like Lilith and her Transposition. So the trick with filling collodi with stones wouldn't be legal, correct? If it is. Give me page reference cause that'd be HELLA handy. Exspecially with the Arcanists effigy +1 AP to casting spells.

I ran Collodi for awhile, quickly got a Z proxy and loved it. Though it seemed to be lacking for what I do, so I have a Lilith on the way to run with. If I had the money, I'd rather have the dreamer, but eh.. what're you gonna do.

As of now however, I've been running him solo in a story campaign.

First tip of surivial. Be patient. Wait. Don't go screaming down the board just cause you can. I see EVERY Viks player usually fail cause they rush on the first turn to do their slingshot hijinks, and if there's anything moderately capable of killing them on the board, they die because of it.

Collodi doesn't have the killing power Viks do, so patience is ever more of a factor.

I find its useful to use Stitched to gather markers if you can afford the time cost of them getting there. They can kill better then anything else, and a Filled With Stones Stiched is a pain to get rid of. and thus, good to sit on something.

Wicked Dolls, Use the defensive stance. Unless you have a good purpose in mind for them for their ALL action, or a second (1), I found it was a good idea to get it in my head they were "Slow", and always used defensive stance. An extra flip on a defense of 6 can mean the world of difference. Even if it makes your opponent waste cards, he still has to put forth the effort of doing so. I had a game last night, ran Collodi and Co, with Nekima and Lilith and OMG. Dolls were there and just burned through soulstones and cards and let my other stuff have a field day. It was a massacre in terms of killing. But yeah, Defensive Stance. Use it when needed. They have a teleport and their not that good at killing. I'd rather have 2 dolls live, give two marionettes/etc poison and force the DF 14 test on the model, over an extra Cb4 1/2/4 damage or two.

Filled with stones, I haven't actually tried this yet. Been meaning too, but Puppet Show is just so handy. ^^;; I can see where it'd work, depending on the strategy, really well.

The force that your opponent is playing, pay attention to. Go for the models thats gonna be an issue. Like the Austringer. Collodi has the speed to get there. And if you can burn off activations before collodi. Awesome.

And another thing to keep in mind of is blasts. HATE blasts for obvious reasons. But keep in mind they need to trail the blasts, so if you have your dolls spread around collodi right, they might catch a doll or two. But they shouldn't ever catch more if your careful. Its like a fun game of chess, with a really demented king.

Speaking of Chess, if you flip a bad strategy, some good Schemes I found work really well.

Frame for murder - Collodi. People wanna target him cause if he goes down, so do the dolls. If not, it keeps him alive.

Steal Relic - Collodi's +2 WP, coulped with the Wicked Dolls defense of 6 and defensive stance is awesome. I prefer the wicked dolls for it because if you run them with Z, you can steal it and teleport back to her and be safe and sound for a good 3vp. If they live through a turn that is, but again, defensive stance. Or even a marionette would work, but it requires more work, but thats usually flinging him down the board to safety and casting the Long Strings spell.

And the rest of the good schemes should be obvious. Reclaim Malifaux, Grudge, etc.

I just missed those two schemes specifically the first few games. I was under the impression Frame For Murder, had to be a minion. But the book just states it has to be a non master. And I thought Steal Relic had the movement limitations things like Treasure Hunt did, so happy I was wrong.

All my views are opinions and if there's anything you think would work better please bring it up. I'd love to see how other people play. Heck, we've got Viks players out the ying yang, but they pretty much all play a little different. Its kinda neat actually. Some save soulstones, some kill asap, some take first blood, get it. and then run around the board. (Really annoying btw, unfortunately, I have to play against some really aggrivating/lame people. Though once we found out he couldn't cast Ice Pillers with Rasputina, blow them up herself, cheat in severe and use the blasts on my crap with no save it made the world of difference. He's one of those players... do those exist everywhere?)

Apologies if I stated the obvious and I have'nt been playing Collodi a really long time. But we play a lot, pretty much at least once a day, and my normal crews I fight is Colette, Rasputina, and Viks. So thats just what I've learned cause he's incredibly frail. One guy quit playing him I think... granted he came from playing Warhammer, so he still had the "Kill to get points" mindset I think, and had a hard time grasping not doing that every game. But Collodi's just to awesome IMO, granted I'm a sucker for story too. Good luck next game!

[Stonedog-7]

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that if a spell had a range of anything other the C, and did not specify. They could not target themselves with it. Like Lilith and her Transposition. So the trick with filling collodi with stones wouldn't be legal, correct? If it is. Give me page reference cause that'd be HELLA handy. Exspecially with the Arcanists effigy +1 AP to casting spells.

That i can answer, Transposition can't be used on yourself because it has a resist and therefore counts as an attack, Fill with Stones doesn't have a resist and i believe there's nothing else stopping you target yourself with it

I think the key is going to be to learn to be patient with him and go after some schemes early before jumping on my opponents, try to get them to spread out a bit more

The defensive stance tricks are definitely going to have to be tried, particularly with Collodi handing out fast it shouldn't limit the crew's speed much at all

Cheers for the advice

[Shank Seamus!]

To clarify, you can Target yourself always, unless its an attack.. I.e models can't hurt themselves intentionaly but can buff (fill with stones) one thing id like to check, collodi is a doll and can give dolls fast.. therefore gives himself fast? Had my first game with him last night.. sooooo impressed!

[Talos]

If you can I would try and put filled with stones on a few dolls. With the Arcanist effigy you can cast Collodi's fast and filled with stones in a single activation.

You dont loose any speed giving the marionettes filled with stones. It does make their walk 4 instead of 5 but as they can only move a maximum of 8 a turn it does not matter.

Giving them hard to kill, armour 2 added with their hard to wound makes them quite alot harder to take down.

[Cthulhurising]

To clarify, you can Target yourself always, unless its an attack.. I.e models can't hurt themselves intentionaly but can buff (fill with stones) one thing id like to check, collodi is a doll and can give dolls fast.. therefore gives himself fast? Had my first game with him last night.. sooooo impressed!

The filled with stones thing I think is right, and until I find out otherwise, it makes sense to me. Since theirs no resist to it.

But his Puppet Show only affects his dolls. He is a doll, but its a pulse. Unless otherwise stated, Pulses and Aura's never affect the person causing it.

It would be pretty wicked to give him fast with the arcanist effigy though.

2Ap - Fast, gain 1 Ap, use effigies ability, and casting expert to cast filled with stones and then his last action to cast breathe life. If only... lol.