Perfita v Hoffman need help.

[ICleadpeople]

Ran up against Hoffman for the first time and was stumped. I am a pretty new player and was wondering what the genegal stratagy was against Hoffman.

Edited September 11, 2012 by ICleadpeople

[ICleadpeople]

Nothing to say on this.

[TheUnseemlyOne]

It would help to give some tips if you gave a bit more information. What do you generally run into in a Hoffman list?

Some general advice I can give is if your opponent is running a guardian or two and doing a protect chain, it can help to focus on the guardians first to keep them from evenly distributing wounds among the crew. Also, taking out the construct that is pulling Hoffman around can greatly reduce his mobility, especially if it's a peacekeeper or a warden.

Hoffman can be a tough nut to crack and it would be easier to help if you gave a few more details about what you're generally up against in the Hoffman list.

[ICleadpeople]

It was my first time seeing him hit the table. He was running the protection chain with 2 guild hounds and a watcher. I am not familiar with Hoffman so I dont even know if this is the tipical build or just what is played around here.

I like to run the Oetega box swapping out Loco for the neph if I want to have more stones.

[Iron Skies]

Usually try and keep the hoffman tips secret but I'll divulge them

Depending on the protect chain your first priority would be the Guardian. Thanks to their armour and ability to heal you'll want to concentrate on them till they die. Don't hold back on the guardians.

If the protect chain is on something big use that to your advantage. Hit that with heavy damage then go for the guardian.

[GTDemon777]

the highest cb his crew should have available to him is 6, itll be hard for him to hit perdita unless he brought spiders with him. the only he could hit you easily is with his explosion spell, but perdita takes a reduced 2 dmg cuz she's evasive. Also, his crews are really melee-centric, just have nino sit back and snipe away. Also, you might want to keep loco instead of the nephilim, i dont remember much about it, but i recall that it was mostly good for melee which would be a bad idea against Hoffman, plus, isnt the only spell it can magically extend obey which almost all of Hoffman's crew can ignore?

[Turbodog]

No worries, ICleadpeople. First time up against any Book 2 master usually equals stumped...you are in good company.

Perdita has one of the easiest times against Hoffman. The reason is Spellbreaker. You may have noticed, that Hoffman had to do a bunch of actions (casting protect, possibly cheating for the guardian, assimilating, casting with Hoffman, possibly totem). Turn one involves an investment that is easy, but time and AP consuming, in order to set up the protect chain in the first place. It's worth it because protect then is an effect that sits on the model and doesn't leave like normal at the end closing phase. Enter Spellbreaker from Perdita. One spellbreaker from Perdita can strip that protect effect off several models (with no resist). No longer is there a protect chain and if Hoffman wants it back, he needs to waste precious AP to do it.

Ortegas, in general, need this help, because with all the armor around a Hoffman crew, the Ortegas won't do much damage before getting locked up in melee. There's no good way around that...guild is poor vs. armor (excepting a few book 3/4 models). So consider bringing someone of your own that can hang in melee or can at least act as a speed bump. Be up on your Francisco counter charge tactics. Without protect, Hoffman's peacekeeper isn't so different from Zoriada's Mature Nephilim. Handle it the same way.

Also, as most anti-Hoffman players know, moving the models is the way to go. As has been pointed out, Lure type options don't work due to immune to influence. So look for things that DRAG or TOSS or otherwise generate push effects. Hoffman's models have low Df, so are easy to hit so this works well. Mercenaries can help with this along with some guild models like warden, peacekeeper, hunter, etc. The Hoff-Ball is strong, so long as all those critical distances work out for his abilities. Move things even 2-3 inches the wrong directions and it plays quiet havoc with Hoffman and he'll have to (once again) waste alot of AP fixing it.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Turbodog

[ICleadpeople]

Thanks Turbodog. I didnt even think of stripping the spell away. My shots were all over the place as well. I will try these tips out thanks.

[Odin1981]

Purely imho the biggest challenge to getting perdita to click is knowing when to use what (0). Most people just gunline up and always (0) quickdraw but in reality this leaves your crew in situations that are hard for them to get around. I am unaware of the models you own but when I run dita I often try to go for a 50/50 split of melee/ranged models. This helps so you aren't found wanting for melee stuff when it happens.

The (0) spellbreaker and (0) hero's gambler give so much to your crew if you know when it is optimal to use them. I personally almost wish instead of fast perdita had nimble and instinctual (ala Hulk Hogan from outcasts) but book 1 models aren't often handed extra ap with reckless abandon (as compared to book 2 models on).