A great first run with Sonnia

[Turbodog]

Guild 2012!

So I finally got Sonnia and put together my first game with her this weekend. She is my third Guild master to run, having already used Hoffman and Perdita in the past. I used this list:

Sonnia + Avatar

Peacekeeper

Sue

Guild Austringer

Witchling Stalker

Witchling Stalker

"fist full of soulstones" (7)

My strategy was contain power - which played well to Sonnia but the terrain didn't really favor me, there was alot to move around or make me slow. But I don't mean for this to be a battle report.

So on to what worked well, and why I had so much fun...

The Peacekeeper and Sonnia's "hunger for cards" was totally mitigated by Sue using (1) Hurt in timely situations. One turn, the Peacekeeper activated and "ate" 4 of my 6 cards on my first activation. Sue quickly refilled me to 5 by taking 3 wounds, which was awesome. It saved the rest of the turn for me.

By nature of the board and how we deployed and where we went, my opponent almost made Sue a non-factor. Too far out of the fight and not really fast. I was excited to see those paired pistols in action, or maybe that "burnin' ring o' fire". But it never came up. Again, having (1) hurt available with Sue essentially "safe" for most of the game was really nice. I like that Sue has utility for these kind of situations.

The ability to put down Ht 5 obscurring markers with Sonnia/Avatar Sonnia is really quite good, especially in conjunction with the Austringer. That ability I haven't witnessed in action, since Hoffman and Perdita can't really do anything similar. I was able to do some very nice things to attack, throw up barriers before he could counter attack in force, and continue small hits ignoring LoS after. I really liked this.

And lastly, between the Peacekeeper's movement, the Austringer, Sonnia's markers affecting LoS, and even Stalker scout movement/auras I have quite a bit of "table control" with this crew. Maybe even more if the ring of fire actually gets involved.

Anyway, people probably already know how awesome Sonnia is. I just wanted to share my experience - particularly the nifty Sonnia-Sue-Peacekeeper interaction. This isn't meant to be a "hey this always wins" kind of post. Just that in my case, with the terrain and strategy and crews and how the game played out it was a really nice list.

[loudo]

glad to hear sue worked well in this set up as i have sonnia and the peacekeeper and really like sue. i better get my wallet out ;D

[nix]

@Turbodog, did you get a chance to manifest aSonnia? What were your thoughts between mSonnia and aSonnia? Even being your first game with her, did you notice a shift in play once you manifested?

[Turbodog]

I did get the chance to manifest Sonnia's avatar. As for what that actually did and how it changed play...it's tricky. In my opinion, it did and it didn't. Probably I just need to figure out how to post pictures easily and submit a battle report...

Let's see if I can get the main ideas across here nonetheless.

During turns 1 and 2, Sonnia needed to double move to maneuver into a good position. The first turn her casting expert action was wasted (nothing to do or in range), but the second turn it was critical to place a Flame Wall between my opponent and the rest of my crew (especially the Peacekeeper which was further forward due to it's superior movement). The main point being, it was easy to use her (0) action both turns on Inferno and keep the rest of my crew more than 3" away from her. So I had one manifest requirement beginning turn 3.

Turn 3 was Sonnia shining on her own. Her 0 action to gain a tome made all my casting requirements. She single moved to behind a building, and used her ability to ignore LoS to Ramos to cast spells at him. He chose to chuck cards to cancel them, but that drained his hand, making the rest of his turn less effective. She also cast violation of magic on an "opportunistic" Witchling Stalker my opponent had left with one wound to get a new Witchling Stalker. Really good times. In the debate of Sonnia vs. Cherufe - I really needed Sonnia to make this turn work, not Cherufe because of distances. Only Sonnia could have ignored LoS and the distance to Ramos was right at 10" - really out of Cherufe's range. You might think Cherufe could fly over the building, but it was still about 3" to the building so by the time you (1) manifest, you only have a single move action - not enough to get over the thing. It was certainly the time to keep out Sonnia even though I could have manifested Cherufe.

Turn 4 was my "bomb" turn. I think I did this correctly - let me know if I didn't. I won initiative and activated Sonnia first. Sonnia used her (0) to gain her tome (because my hand was a really bad draw this turn). She walked forward to the corner of the building (1) and (+1) casting expert cast flame burst on a gunsmith - doing damage and blasts to Ramos' crew. She then used a (1) action to manifest Cherufe. I used a soulstone during the manifest to heal the two wounds she had taken earlier in the game from a dirty little electrical creation... Cherufe then used (+2) casting master to cast Violation on ... well ... remember the Witchling Stalker I had made last turn? My opponent had left it with one wound at the end of the round...so I needed a new one. The last cast was to create Pyres (actually side by side in the exact same position as the flame wall two turns ago) to wall off my crew and Cherufe from a counter attack.

My next activation, incidentally, sees my austringer move up behind the pyres and severe damage the gunsmith dead. This kill denies my opponent some VP due to his having Escape and Survive as a strategy.

I have no turn 5 or 6 to mention because we had to call the game on time shortly after this activaiton.

But we did discuss how we thought the game would have ended. At this point in turn 4, Ramos, the Mechanical Rider, and Joss "bug out" and move like mad away from me. He had a high tome and a brass arachnid so Ramos was getting reactivate later in the turn to run, as well as Joss using power counters to reactivate and run. I think this was going to pretty much single handedly end my chances of killing Ramos during turns 5 and 6 with Cherufe and deny me my Contain Power strategy. And it has to do with Cherufe's play style...

Cherufe's good damage (particularly against Ramos) looked like it would come from using melee attacks or possibly pyres against him. The problem is that both of those are vying for Cherufe's regular AP - they are not casting related - which is also how Cherufe moves. So I couldn't figure out how I was going to move far enough to get him in range and still have AP to attack or shift pyres on top of Ramos. The casting master actions could be for Violation if I have the suits I suppose, but Ramos could always chuck cards/soulstones to ignore them and late in the game like this, I didn't have very good options to follow up on a +2 armor model to do damage. So like I said, I don't think I kill him with Cherufe.

Sonnia would have been very slightly superior if she was still around. She has better longer range (1) spell damage options - I'm thinking I can reach out to 10", ignore LoS, and potentially do the trick of hit someone else and then put Ramos under blasts to hurt both him and the crew. Also, he can't counterspell that. She also has the (0) action to grant her the suit she needs making this easier to get a high total regardless of the draw. But considering the bug out and the board, she would need to walk at least once - leaving her with only two actions to cast. It's probably not enough damage to take down Ramos during turn 5. And even if his crew is entirely dead turn 6, then the counterspells become a problem and I'm just not sure I could get him to zero wounds.

So, yes, Sonnia and Cherufe do seem to play differently. Of large importance, I'm realizing, is choosing what exactly to do with Cherufe's 2 general AP. If he needs to move, you're going to be kinda limited, since he doesn't have that nice blast spell. Now, different crews, different strategies, a LOT can change. For example I'm not mentioning Cherufe's big (0) pulse damage or the burning counters options. In this game I don't think they would have helped. In other games, particularly where I care about the opposing crew and not just their master, it may have been game changing. Sonnia on the other hand, can move and hit things father out (or make her job doing so easy with granting her casting requirements and/or ignoring LoS to high Ca models) with the combination of using general AP to move and still use casting AP to damage. That's kinda what I found the difference between the two to be.

This difference is not huge.

The range difference - particularly if all you need is small damage spread out not piling up wounds on a single model - is minimal. And in my specific case, as I said, Sonnia is not so much better than Cherufe that I could say "I can achieve my strategy with Sonnia, but not with Cherufe". I think neither would have completed the strategy.

In hindsight - and just realizing now - had I gone for Sonnia's master scheme, it may be a little easier with Cherufe since that casting master gains me an additional Violation of Magic attempt per turn. hrm... I'll have to keep that in mind.

I played conservatively, so my "nifty trick" I learned of using fire to block opponents was precisely the same between Sonnia and Cherufe. Sonnia used Flame Walls, Cherufe used Pyres. I particularly like defensive use of Pyres because it uses Cherufe's casting AP to make them and I don't need to use his general AP to move them. (And you've dedicated both your general AP if you want to move both). So in this case, Cherufe does not play any differently than Sonnia.

So there's some thoughts as to Sonnia vs. aSonnia. Feel free to ask other questions. I realize that 1) I rambled on a bit there and 2) it's hard to get a good overall picture without a full battle report and 3) it was long - cuz I rambled on a bit and 4) it was long - sorry and thanks for reading.

Edited February 1, 2012 by Turbodog