Colette crew first impressions

[orkdork]

Got my first game with Colette in last night vs. NtK's Sonnia crew, and while I lost on some bad play, it was a narrow loss, and all signs point to my crew winning that board and S&S set more often than not, I think.

 

I love the crew. Even more awesome than I'd hoped. Insanely mobile and more fighty than I realized. It even has some solid board control with December Acolyte slows and hand destruction, metal gamin tanks (though I failed every summon) and performer scheme destruction & pseudo lure.

 

I think Colette must be in the top tier of masters, right there with Lilith and Sonnia, because she synergizes so well with some bonkers models from Arcanists: December Acolytes, Cassandra, Performers, and the Mechanical Rider (and Howie, I suppose, but I don't own him).

 

Cassandra is a beast. I didn't quite appreciate how awesome Southern Charm is. The fact that enemies have to focus to do squat to her means that shooters can't typically disengage and still attack her meaningfully. Add that to a 15" total charge range and she's just a nightmare for shooting models. Plus, her fire breath rocks. Even though it's Ca5, she can understudy prompt/prompt for the push + nimble to reposition 8" and still focus and blast, making it easy for her to circumvent cover! At 8ss, she is the best non-master model in the crew, imo. 

 

A December Acolyte with effectively 6+ AP (5 AP plus pushes to keep you from having to move yourself) is also a monster. If my December Acolyte can safely go bananas early in the turn, I can easily have killed a model and drained your hand, either by you cheating your Df flips, or by you having to discard from my trigger. And anything I didn't kill gets slow, too. I got both of my December Acolytes killed off early on mistakes (easy to do vs. Sonnia and her blasts), but even still, they were dumping crazy damage before they went down.

 

I'd say the main reason I lost was that my Mechanical Rider did literally nothing aside from place a scheme marker and flip a squat marker. Never hit once and failed every summon (I find this crew wants its moderate damage flips for all the 2/4/* attacks, so 6+ cards get used quickly).

 

I killed Sammy Hops, and even got Sonnia down to 1 wound with poison (didn't have a moderate left to cheat for the kill) before she got cleansed by a witchling and then slaked her thirst on her own dog's blood (healing back up to 5 or 6). NtK and I got the giggles over that one :) Oh the many ways Sonnia benefits from killing her own dogs :)

 

But yeah, what a helluva crew. So very fun and so very strong!

[Mach_5]

Awesome! I've heard a silent one is a good add as well...

[McNathanson]

Yeah it's quite an impressive crew and I'm envious that Guild doesn't have something as disgustingly good at S&S.  I'm going to have a tough time anticipating all the stuff you can do on your turn with that crew.  Still, at least so far, it feels like there's more play/counterplay than with Lilith, which I found fun.  Who knows maybe that was just because you had a crappy game with cards and stuff :)  Awesome crew anyway, me want!!

[orkdork]

Yeah, I can't think Sonnia will prove to be as versatile as Lilith.

 

Colette might, but then I don't yet have a good turf war crew in mind. Blasts circumvent all my lovely defensive abilities (manipulative and defensive triggers). It might be that I actually straight hire a metal gamin! Or that I stone for cards on turns 1 and/or 2 to ensure I have the 6+ tomes for the gamin summon from the rider.

[Guest]

How does Collette "Synergize" with mechanical rider? I think I'm missing something key.

[Mach_5]

Slate Ridge Mauler might be a good one to take in Turf war.  Impossible to Wound so there's a - flip to damage against him, and sonnia can never cheat even if she makes it a straight flip.  Also Hard to Kill, Bearskin Armor, and a trigger to heal.  In fact, he was originally designed as a Showgirl model, sort of a dancing bear with a little circus outfit and a fez.  Check out pg 31-32 of Wyrd Chronicles #4.

 

Mech Rider is just generally awesome, summoning models is something that any master can make use out of, and Colette can Prompt it for an extra push + attack or push + move.  So she makes an already awesome model... awesomer.

[Guest]

Colette might, but then I don't yet have a good turf war crew in mind. Blasts circumvent all my lovely defensive abilities (manipulative and defensive triggers). It might be that I actually straight hire a metal gamin! Or that I stone for cards on turns 1 and/or 2 to ensure I have the 6+ tomes for the gamin summon from the rider.

Wait...wait, isn't the Mechanical rider unable to use soulstones because he's not a henchman or master? Or am I misreading it?

[Mach_5]

Wait...wait, isn't the Mechanical rider unable to use soulstones because he's not a henchman or master? Or am I misreading it?

Correct, I'm guessing he means that he might need to use soulstones to draw cards turns 1 and 2 to ensure that the mech rider can start summoning models on turn 2 (he'll have 1 tome built in by then, and needs a tome card to cast the spell).

[Guest]

Correct, I'm guessing he means that he might need to use soulstones to draw cards turns 1 and 2 to ensure that the mech rider can start summoning models on turn 2 (he'll have 1 tome built in by then, and needs a tome card to cast the spell).

Ah.

 

With summoning abilities, Essence of Power is nice if you aren't already taking the Mechanical Doves.

 

As for trouble hitting things, those Steam Spiders are also eligible summons for the Mechanical Rider, so if you put those in base contact with the enemy, they get -1 Df, which makes it easier for the Rider to hit.

 

Though, with Collette, the Mannequin is probably the most practical summon for the Mechanical Rider, as it counts as a Scheme Marker.

 

Not sure on the other factions, but I've been really impressed how much the Arcanists synergize with their faction. So many options. So many ways to use the same models in different lists and roles.

[orkdork]

My expectation is that I will summon metal gamin most often. Hard to kill means that being on 2 wd isn't so bad, and magnetism lets them jump to doves. The rider already gets her schemes down through her attack, presumably.

 

I am sure a mannequin summon will happen occasionally, especially if I want to disappearing act somewhere away from enemies and I am out of doves.

[Guest]

My expectation is that I will summon metal gamin most often. Hard to kill means that being on 2 wd isn't so bad, and magnetism lets them jump to doves. The rider already gets her schemes down through her attack, presumably.

Are you really planing to use magnetism on the doves? It would do 2 damage to the doves, and only push you 6" (Doves move 10"). Would work fine if planning to use the doves in a very disposable manner, which to be fair, is their main function. Though it would make it difficult for them to survive in any other role (like as scheme markers). 

[orkdork]

It's all situational, but yeah, a 6" push can definitely be worth 2 wd on the dove. It lets my rider stay safe on turn 2 while still getting that summoned gamin where it needs to be.

 

I would expect a turn 2 gamin will use that magnetism on the dove trick for most turf war and squatter's rights games. On turns 3+, it'd be a common trick for reconnoiter (turn 2 reconnoiter could also happen, but the rider usually will still be hanging somewhere safe, making it easy to just run to the correct quarter for the summon).

 

As far as I can tell, the primary job for a dove is to hang around and burn activations until eventually sacrificing itself to give +Dmg flips to an acolyte or Cass prior to the prompt-frenzy. A +Dmg flip on 5 attacks with a 4 on moderate damage is pretty darn awesome. In that case, it doesn't need wounds much.

[Guest]

As far as I can tell, the primary job for a dove is to hang around and burn activations until eventually sacrificing itself to give +Dmg flips to an acolyte or Cass prior to the prompt-frenzy. A +Dmg flip on 5 attacks with a 4 on moderate damage is pretty darn awesome. In that case, it doesn't need wounds much.

It is most certainly a sacrificial piece, but the key is that your 2 damage will knock it to 1 Wd, so just about anything will kill it. It doesn't really have any defensive abilities. This should make it a pretty inviting target for enemy abilities, so if it's at one Wd, it won't likely last long enough for you to sacrifice it in another manner.

 

And I agree, situational.

[McNathanson]

At least from a Guild perspective, I think the 3Wd Dove (full health) is hardly any more difficult to drop than the 1Wd Dove, while the Gamin being in better position quickly after summoning is much more problematic.  The only time I can imagine having APs to spend shooting Doves is before the engagement has really begun, e.g. Turn 1, or with a model who is out of position to do anything truly useful.  I think you're probably winning already if someone is shooting down a 1 Wd dove that's presumably in cover, while there are Dec Acolytes and Performers and Cass and Mechanical Rider running around (oh my gosh what an awesome set of cards those are...)  I think it's a perfect use of the Dove: improve your Gamin's position, burn an Activation (for a crew that really wants to go last so they can flurry and not suffer the reprisal), and still have a good way to sac out to boost one of your bigger models.  That's just me though :)

[orkdork]

My next game turned to a tie because with my last ap on Colette, I could summon a dove that could position itself to where a distracted gamin could magnetism out of engage range and clear the distract :p Colette didn't have Los or range for the prompt (she spent her first two ap finishing protect territory and cursed object with other wild shenanigans involving trapdoors, disappearing act and her (0) interact).