Somer crews

[BayouShark]

I had a big long post written out but lost the half of it which discussed gremlin gunlines, the core of a somer crew etc.

In short, the core of a somer crew:

Somer

1x skeeter

1x gremlin

1x slop hauler

from this basic building block, you can go pig heavy or gremlin heavy or a mix of both (because you can summon more pigs or more gremlins)

In short, the gremlin gunline:

The slop hauler makes the gremline gunline function without Ophelia, but Ophelia makes it better. I had 3 paragraphs discussing it all but, meh. I really think Somer crews come into their own when they are pig heavy. Ophelia led crews do a better Gremline gunline.

The rest of it:

First, a word on the War Pig. It's 8SS compared with the 3SS a piglet costs. It has slightly more wounds than 2 piglets, it does double the damage of a piglet, but with the same Cb score, it can heal itself without killing gremlins but has a Df score lower than the piglets and no armour. Oh, and it has a ranged attack. It's also the best model to use "Stick'm in the ass" from the Hog Whisperer.

Simply put, I only think the Warpig is worth it if you know you are facing a crew that has limited (in terms of damage output) shooting and armour 1 or 2 across the board, as gremlins usually struggle to put damage on those crews (Rasputina is a classic example) even with control hand shenanigans from the skeeters. Against any decent shooting crew, the warpig is going to die early as it's one BIG target that doesn't have the impact of, say, Killjoy.

Far more worth it are piglets, as you get 2 and change for the price of a warpig, which spreads your enemy's shooting and your own activations over 2 models rather than 1. Piglets are essentially suicidal guided missiles, but in a pig heavy crew, you have multiple ways of healing them (somer, haulers, hog whisperer) and relaunching them into the enemy lines.

The basic mechanic for the pig heavy list is to have one of your skeeters activate, fly 10 inches up the board and sooey your pigs so they are ready to activate should your opponent move into range. The hog whisperer and slop hauler operate behind them. You can also use truffles to move the hog whisperer and hauler up behind the pigs without activating them, giving you the opportunity to lower the enemy defence before your pigs first charge, and a sweet sweet reactivate. When your pigs have charged into the enemy, the hog whisperer sooey's them back (so they are safe from reprisal) and the hauler heals them (in case they have been hit). Next turn, rinse and repeat. The beauty of a gremlin crew for this is out activating your opponent so your pigs are rarely hit in melee and you're only healing damage taken from range. it's useful to have a second hauler to act aggresively, like in the gremlin gunline, as pigs still only have a Cb of 4.

Against some crews, and in some scenarios, you'll just want to let your pigs lose. Crews led by Perdita, for example, can really hurt you at range and you're better off going the melee option. That's when pig stampedes come into their own. The 1 action charge move counts as a push, so there is no penalty for disengaging and your pigs can bounce happily between your enemy units. This is especially useful for scenarios where you need to claim objectives or areas of the board because somer should be pumping out gremlins who have a potential 15 inch move get where they need to need. The way to do this is to fly a skeeter (or 2) to the side of your enemy, use sooey to get the pigs in base contact with the and let them stampede next activation (as they ignore models in base contact). If you get the initiative, having the hog whisperer activate first to make the pigs fly means the skeeter can land behind your enemy, bring the pigs to them, as they will ignore models in between and then set them loose. This will have the advantage of lowering the chances the skeeter will get charged by the pig's last remaining action. I recommend you use a skeeter with a full set of wounds though, as you will need to survive at least 1 activation from your opponent to pull this off. once you've set your pigs off stampeding, there's little for the hog whisperer to do, except for converting regular gremlins into pigs. This impacts on the cards somer can use to get yer bro though, so it's a balancing act. He can also sooey single, wounded pigs and heal them up. Same with the hauler(s) - get into positions to lower your enemy defences or heal clumped pigs (danger of being pig charged here!). Alternatively, you can sit back and create a gremlin gunline with somer. You should have 3-5 gremlins still active by turn 4 wehile your pigs are going wild, so use them in conjunction with the hauler to weaken potential pig charge targets.

Always remember that a pig who has already activated that has 1 wound left, can be sacrificed with "Bacon" to get a gremlin who can immediately open fire. Likewise, your Somer created gremlins can fuel your piglets, and grant you control cards.

For 25SS, it's tough to get everything in. I would not add the second skeeter or second gremlin yet. You want to maximise the effectiveness of your pigs and, as i said, producing pigs from gremlins is quite tough. all it means is your summoning engine is 1 turn behind (you have 4 skeeters at the end of the second turn rather than the first). The initial "sooey" should be done by the hog whisperer. So for 25SS, you add 4 piglets (12) and a hog whisperer (5).

For 30SS, add that skeeter and gremlin (4) and have a cache of 1 for somer.

For 35SS, you have a little flexibility. If you are confident in getting pigs from gremlins, take another slop hauler and a gremlin. That slop hauler is the aggressive one. It's also viable to use only 1 slop hauler and take 2 more piglets (giving you a total of 6). For this to work, you have to make the most of your somer summoning engine (cranking out more gremlins wherever possible) and really need to protect your hauler.

3. A word on Somer

I've recently started using Somer himself a bit more aggresively. After you have your requisite 4 skeeters, Somer can be pushed up the board with "Ooh, a girl" and "Truffles". He adds a pretty decent shooting attack, survival of the fittest and another source of "pull my finger" and healing. I'm pretty gratuitous with his reckless actions though, and often use an action purely to heal himself. He is also the only way you can use "A Gremlins Luck" and empty a 6 card hand with 1 casting. It seems to be going OK, but I do sacrifice my Bodyguard scheme when doing it.

So that's pretty much it from what I've found over the last 6 months. I know much of it is obvious and already stated on her and the Pullmyfinger wiki, but Gremlins threads seemed to have slipped down the boards lately. I haven't used the taxidermist, stuffed pigs or pigapult yet, but i've heard mixed reviews on all.

[Greenman]

Thanks for taking the time to type all that out. I've been scouring the forums as well as rereading the Pull My Finger wiki a million times. Trying to fully wrap ones mind around all the possible play styles Som'er is capable of can be a daunting task, choosing him as your first master starting out.

I would even suggest trying to find a way to squeeze it into the wiki. The info there is invaluable. Having it all in turn by turn detail helped me big time.

I would love to read your lost portion on gun lines as well.

Edited December 15, 2011 by Greenman

[Ozz]

Id like to see your thoughts on the gunline also, due to having bought the Hog Whisperer in black Friday im planing to start a Gremlin crew (both veritys) As my next list:)

And thanks for your input on the pigs:)

[BayouShark]

i had a whole whack of stuff written up on the gunline. essentially, you use the slop haulers to drop enemy defences and the gremlins to focus fire on particular targets.

you need to make judicious use of "A Gremlins Luck" to avoid "whoops" as they will happen, even against models with lowered defence. if your opponent is foolish enough to cluster his models, send a gremlin in and target him for the blast damage. works best if you have a ram in your hand.

these are the games when you can keep somer on the move once he has got his skeeters up and running. his boom strike adds some nice damage to your abilities despite his low Cb (for a master).

One thing I would say is that Ophelia really does improve the gunline tactic thanks to "aim high boys", "Ooh, a girl" and the ability to companion a gremlin. "Ooh a girl" can pull your haulers back to safety after they've gone in to do their stuff. However, she's so expensive that I would not use her unless the game was 35SS at minimum. She's also awesome in a brawl with somer, as you have the extra stones from not taking a second master, giving you Ophelia and 2 extra SS. always take 1 young lacroix with her to back up the gunline at 35SS

[Omenbringer]

Pretty good write up.

Would definately agree that Ophelia runs a Gunline better then Some'r (the main reason I have pretty much stopped using it with him).

Glad you have enjoyed the "Pig Boomerang" tactic. It caught a lot of players off guard the first few times they saw it. You did neglect to mention two of the best reasons to take a Warpig instead of piglets though . First, they are significant models (where as the Piglets are not, and usually dont survive long when using their All action to lose it). Second, they can be used to block LOS for the Piglets and assist in directing the Pig Charges to where you want them to go.

The "Alpha Stank" (running Some'r aggresively with 4 Skeeters) in my experience is a good late game tactic (after you have put the hurt on your opponent with a gunline or pig boomerang). If used to early it usually loses you the game.

I would recommend trying 2 additional tactics as well, "Suicide Gremlins" and the Taxidermist Assasination list. Both are very fun to run and difficult to counter (especially the Taxidermist Assasin list). For the Suicide Gremlins you spam the hell out of Y'all watch this, great for taking down those high defense models. The Taxidermist Assasin list requires some pre-planning (and of course out activating helps a lot) but can almost guarantee the kill on any model in the game (at a point where they cant do anything to retaliate). A word of caution however, the jury is still out on whether this will actually circumvent Hamelin's nifty respawning mechanic.

[BayouShark]

the Somer gunline can work with slop haulers. but yeah, Ophelia runs it better, especially with some of the lacroix family involved.

if you just want to do a basic gremlin gunline with Somer and Ophelia, though, all your good cards should go on producing more gremlins. you can get a suprising amount of the buggers. that and survival of the fittest is a key mechanic for us with the lower hand size.

i tend not to use the alpha stank purely because my skeeters are there to get rid of my opponents control hands and to sooey my pigs. it's nice to have late game, but not something i rely on.

"Y'all watch this" requires the slop haulers imo. but is hella fun.

[Omenbringer]

"Y'all watch this" requires the slop haulers imo. but is hella fun.

Doesn't require them at all (though you will probably have them anyway), "Pig Ladders" definately help with pre-positioning. Think of the Boomstick strike with extra damage and blasts as icing on the cake compared to the irrestible 2 Dg to every model within 2" of the little guy. Definately not a primary tactic but it has its uses.

[BayouShark]

Doesn't require them at all (though you will probably have them anyway), "Pig Ladders" definately help with pre-positioning. Think of the Boomstick strike with extra damage and blasts as icing on the cake compared to the irrestible 2 Dg to every model within 2" of the little guy. Definately not a primary tactic but it has its uses.

it is very handy if you find yourself with an overabundance of gremlins due to somer. you do have to make sure, though, that you're not in melee range of an enemy model (say, a ht2 model), and the slop haulers are there to help you add to the damage with the blast on moderate and severe flips.

[Omenbringer]

it is very handy if you find yourself with an overabundance of gremlins due to somer. you do have to make sure, though, that you're not in melee range of an enemy model (say, a ht2 model), and the slop haulers are there to help you add to the damage with the blast on moderate and severe flips.

HT 2 isn't the problem it would be 2 or greater that would cause the problem for this.

Additionally, though the Slop Hauler can help with lowering the targets Df, it will still usually result in an even duel flip (Target Df 4 vs Gremlin Cb of 4) so the likely hood of hitting Severe or Moderate Dg doesn't really change enough from a normal attack duel without the Slop Hauler present to warrant the risk(you aren't that much more likely to succeed by 11 or more on the attack flip achieving the flip on the Dg).

[BayouShark]

HT 2 isn't the problem it would be 2 or greater that would cause the problem for this.

Additionally, though the Slop Hauler can help with lowering the targets Df, it will still usually result in an even duel flip (Target Df 4 vs Gremlin Cb of 4) so the likely hood of hitting Severe or Moderate Dg doesn't really change enough from a normal attack duel without the Slop Hauler present to warrant the risk(you aren't that much more likely to succeed by 11 or more on the attack flip achieving the flip on the Dg).

2 is what I meant...posting at work doesn't do me any favours...

It's more to help you get the hit than anything else because "whoops" still applies when you use "y'all watch this"

[Talisinbear]

in a larger battle would gremlins naturally team with anyone?

[Omenbringer]

In a brawl (what I assume you mean be larger battles) Some'r may only join with a few other Masters because of his Good ol'Boys rule (basically Zoraida and the Viks, the other outcast masters can't take them because of their own special hiring restrictions). Ophelia can not act as a master in a brawl only a Henchman (Henchman rules limitation) and then can only join Some'rs crew because of her hiring restriction from Special Forces (Kin). Though if the Hamelin Mercenary model is also hired you can hire her as a Henchman into any crew via his Growing Influence ability (since she only has hiring restrictions when leading a crew or in Brawls) but she has to remain within 10" of him.

I think the most natural gremlin pairing is with Zoraida (though the Soul Stone Tax for hiring out of faction can be a bear).

Edited January 4, 2012 by Omenbringer

[Justin]

Teeeechnicallllyyyy...

Good ol boys only restricts Somer in Scraps, so he can hire any outcast model in a brawl. So he could hire non-master Hamelin, who lets him hire any height 1 model. And the dreamer is height 1...

[Omenbringer]

Now that would be funny as hell, but the Dreamer would still have to stay within 10" of Hamelin right?

[Justin]

Now that would be funny as hell, but the Dreamer would still have to stay within 10" of Hamelin right?

Well, he could leave the 10" radius, he would just die at the end of the activation.

...unless he were buried for some reason before the activation finished.

Can't imagine how you would bury the dreamer.

And when a crew includes the dreamer, it automatically includes Lord Chompy Bits as well...

[BayouShark]

that's...just....horrible....

talisin, Ophelia is a good match for Somer in a brawl. For the extra 10SS you get for not taking a second master, you get Ophelia and a young Lacroix, which is conveniently the maximum amount of totems she can connect as a henchman.

a 40SS brawl can have a very effective gremlin gunline and piggie boomerang.