Som'er of Love - Need Advice

[Soshi]

Hey All,

I've decided to play Som'er Teeth Jones exclusively for the next month, or more and I need advice on list building/mechanics. I've been reading the forums here a bit, but haven't had the greatest joy in finding posts on Som'er.

I'll be playing 30 and 35SS games, with an additional rule of no Ophelia (although other family are alright). I own a bunch of gremlins due to some recent acquisitions, so anything is open in terms of suggestions.

Currently I don't really understand (pre-games) how to balance the crew between support models, filler like piglets, and significant models, or what kind of cache Som'er requires... so I invite your advice!

My starting list for tomorrow's 30SS match is going to be;

Som'er Teeth Jones (2 cache)

2x Giant Mosquito

Gremlin Taxidermist

3x Bayou Gremlin

4x Piglet

I look forward to your thoughts, and will attempt to provide a battle-report as I move forward with....

Som'er of Love 2013

[Omenbringer]

Do a forum search for the following key words:

• Pig Boomerang
  
• Gremlin Gunline
  
• Alpha Stank
  
• Summon Factory
  
• Transition
  
• Bacon Bombing Assasination Run
  
• Pig Ladders (also some times called the Truffle Shuffle)

Those should get you a bit more information. Also take a look at the Pullmyfinger wikitactica page for Som'er Teeth Jones.

After that feel free to ask as much as you would like.

As for your list up there I really like it (it definately seeks a good balance between Support and the Staple Models). You will be mainly using the Pig Boomerang early with a transition to the Bacon Bombing Assasination Run later. The great part is that you will also have the option of both the Alpha Stank and the Gremlin Gunline tactics. You will need to be a bit careful though as you will probably be working to recycle the Piglets into Stuffed Piglets so will not be able to build effective Pig Ladders for the Truffle Shuffle. You will aslo need to guard those Bayou Gremlins a bit as they are your main objective grabbers.

Opinions vary greatly on the SS cache however I generally run him toward the low end and depend on quantity of hit versus quality (He has a lot of great options to offset there power). There are those that run him much hotter though.

Edited December 30, 2012 by Omenbringer

[Dumb Luck]

Som'er has so many potential lists, so I would recommend focusing on building one before trying another.

Also, with Som'er focusing purely on summoning Gremlins is a trap. You need a high card to do it and Som'er's cast is not high enough to get it off reliably. It's a handy tool, but not his greatest strength.

Edited December 30, 2012 by Dumb Luck

[LupusFerreus]

It would be more likely if you had a larger control hand *snigger*

..............

[Omenbringer]

Also, with Som'er focusing purely on summoning Gremlins is a trap. You need a high card to do it and Som'er's cast is not high enough to get it off reliably. It's a handy tool, but not his greatest strength.

I would argue this is true with most "summoners" in the game though.

Still Som'er can usually be depended upon to summon 1-2 "free" Bayou Grmelins a game though it will almost always require a control card to do (followed by AP spent Healing the little buggers).

[Soshi]

Missed my game today due to disappointing new years issues. Hopefully post a tactical battle rep next week.

In the meantime, pullmyfinger suggests that Som'er is well suited to movement/non-kill strategies, what schemes do you guys usually take with him? (yes, I saw that this is covered but it seems worth an update).

I know that Bodyguard and Holdout are my go-to schemes, to the point where I now refuse to take them together outside of new crews and tournaments...

[Ratty]

With mobile crews, and gremlins can be very mobile, Stake a Claim is golden. It's very hard to counter as you can just move a model in last activation, and it doesn't matter if they have models guarding it.

I've never been a fan of Hold Out, I normally take some fast assets and therefore assume the opponent will. If my opponent declares it, it's very easy for me to zip in last turn and twart it. If they don't declare then they have a lower possible VP score than me from the get go, and if I know they most of the time take Hold Out, I'll still zip in a model last turn.

Bodyguard is OK, but depends on the Master, Somer is middling in survivability, he's no Hoff or Seamus, but he's not a Rasputina either, so though not optimal it's not a bad choice.

Depending on the Strategies Breakthrough can be good. But look where your crew needs to be for your strategy and where the opponent needs to be before deciding on it.

Grudge can also be OK, it is possible to sidestep it by the opponent killing his own model, but chose the right target and tbh I don't care if my opponent does. Either I get my 2VP or the opponent finishes off a key model for me.

Sometimes Assassinate is good but it depends on whether it lines up with Strats, sometimes it's wise to put all your eggs in one basket, eg. You have distract, you know that your opponent will get through, so you will have to kill him, why not dump in an Assassinate on him and then go all out. And a Gremlin gunline is quite good at turning anything into Swiss cheese as long as you don't mind it killing itself in the process

[Omenbringer]

Stake a Claim is my go to Scheme and always announced. As Ratty points out it is very easy to accomplish during the last turn with Pig Ladders and the Truffle Shuffle.

Break Thru is another that can be accomplished in a similar manner.

If I am running the Pig Boomerang (and that is most of the time) then Grudge can be another that is rather easily to accomplish with the squadron.

About the only one to really avoid is Steal Relic due to the low Wp of the crew.

[Soshi]

Preliminary Battle Report

Som'er Teeth Jones

2x Mosquito

Gremlin Taxidermist

3x Bayou Gremlin

4x Piglet

Vs.

Misaki

Shang(?)(Totem)

Yamaziko

2x 10T Archer

Oirian

Wastrel

Strategy: Shared Distract

Schemes:

(Me) Kill Protege (Yamaziko), Breakthrough

(Opposing) Kill Protege (Gremlin Taxidermist), Assassinate

The board is mostly open, with terrain pieces with some largish terrain (LOS Blocking) forming a square about half-way into the board. Misc. low walls, forests, etc. make up the rest of the terrain, but did not greatly effect the gameplay.

T1: Both crews move up, with Som'er remaining stationary in back after being shadowed by Misaki. I summon a gremlin, heal the new one, and summon a 'skeeter off the original gremlin, pigs split left/right (2 each) with gremlins going 3-1 to the left, everything is in cover. Misaki's crew generally advances forward. T2 Misaki, Yamaziko and Shang all commit towards the left (Around a largish piece of LoS blocking terrain) while the 2x 10T archers & Oiran advanced in the middle, the Wastrel used some silly movement tricks... getting back into my deployment zone on the right side.

T3 & 4: Having feinted left, I abandon two of my three skeeters, one bayou gremlin, and 2 piglets to tarpitting that part of the board. Som'erteeth (shadowed by Misaki) and the Taxidermist start to use reckless to book it towards the top-right corner of the board (his deployment zone) while my remaining skeeter and 2 piglets clean up the 2 10T archers and the Oiran... my two Bayou Gremlins from the depoyment zone eventually deal with the Wastrel, losing one Gremlin (Harmless.... is insane vs. gremlins it seems).

T5 & 6: Som'er flees towards his deployment zone, with an initial pig-ladder from the 2 center piglets. Misaki chases Som'er down, with them ending up based to base in the 10T deployment zone. Between shadowing, and flipping/drawing like a king I wasn't able to slow her at all, although she eventually fell to some early damage via PMF (T2-3) and the Taxidermists exploding piglets T4/5/6. Had my opponent chosen to ignore assassinate and hide in my deployment zone, the score would have been 2-0 (I make breakthrough, lose distract & kill protege), Instead I killed Misaki through healing flips and Stuffed Piglets, winning 6-0.

Lessons Learned?

Trying to balance piglets stampeding/doing some damage with crew against setting up a pig ladder really hurt me this game. Although I did accomplish a late pig-ladder, if I had tracked it better I could have ignored shadowing by pulling Som'er around and never actually walking. Similarly Skeeters didn't get a chance to cast Sooey! or Gremlin's Luck very much, which seems sub-par, On the turn I set up the Sooey! to rescue my poor left pigs, I simply forgot to do it.

Alternatively, without stuffed piglets or PMF, I find that I have no idea how Som'er will deal with high-value targets like Yamaziko or Misaki, which is a problem I'll have to consider next game. I think Kill Protege was an overambitious scheme, but could have worked if Yamaziko had been positioned poorly.

During the entire game, I summoned several stuffed piglets (from corpse counters), as well as 1 bayou gremlin, and 1 mosquito. I didn't really feel that trading an 11 for the summon+the action for the healing flip to summon a mosquito out of a gremlin was paid for, and in the future I think I'd rather just start with another mosquito and keep my AP.

Anyways, that's my quick thoughts for now, hopefully more games later.

Soshi

[Dumb Luck]

How does Som'er deal with high damage targets? He himself would either keep using Pull my Finger on them or dropping a Dumb Lucked Boomer strike on them.

Mind you, Misaki isn't a good match up for Som'er. Far too mobile.

[Soshi]

Without the Torakagi it wasn't nearly as bad, but shadowing is still an amazing ability in my book.

[Omenbringer]

How does Som'er deal with high damage targets? He himself would either keep using Pull my Finger on them or dropping a Dumb Lucked Boomer strike on them.

Mind you, Misaki isn't a good match up for Som'er. Far too mobile.

Seems like she would be a perfect target for either a late in turn (once she has activated and been frozen in place) Bacon Bombing Assassination Run or Alpha Stank.