How do I deal with Collete with a Nicodem crew?

[ilikepizza]

hey guys, ive only started getting back into malifaux over the last two months but ive picked the game back up pretty damn well. Used to run a Lilith Nekima grow list but ive decided i want a new crew to play competitively. My war gaming club is a very competitive one so the games have a tendency to be very intense.

But yeh i have a game against a collette crew soon, now my main worries with my list is that he'll do some stupid swapping about and paralyse key models i have that i need to not be paralysed so i was just wondering whats the best way to deal with a collete crew and all the crazy moving about using nicodem? I tend to use avatar form Nico, Rafkin, some dogs, bete noire and a couple of mercs in my list but i dunno how well this build will fair against Cassandra and Coryphee... i hate those guys :(

[Thechosenone]

Well, I play against Collette a lot and assuming she's running her standard crew here's what I'd do.

Canine remains and Necro punks are fast and cheap. They work well as a Bete Delivery system, the Resser one stop solution to all problems. Ranged stuff like Rigor Mortis and decay are decent. Crooked Men and shafted markers aren't bad. The result flip on shafted markers are harsh and if dropped on objectives its a good way to cost them wounds and models. Remember, they don't have a lot of wounds to give. Collette is 6, the duet and cassadra are a bit higher.

Kill off show girls. Just pretend that the showgirl crew exists anywhere there is a showgirl. With that in mind you have the worst case scenario already planned out. Now, each showgirl you kill off limits that movement and threat. I drop my entire crew on icing the duet first. They have the greatest movement and utility to the crew.

After they are removed it forces Cassandra into the role of beat stick. She doesn't last long either once she's out of places to port back to. Now remove Cassandra.

Once Cassandra and the duet are removed as a threat (Or just paralyzed every turn) You can ignore Collette. Collette is utterly worthless once she has no showgirls left to dance around with. I'd consider her on par with Kirai having no spirits around. She's slow, fragile and with super limited damage potential without having a delivery system.

Soul stones you say. Half the crew can you soul stones! I never look at this as a strength on their part. What it means is that, if you pressure them correctly, they'll be out of stones by turn 4. You have to pressure one model at a time. Everybody's willing to take a hit or two but the stones start coming out when its clear that hit after hit is coming your way.

Collette can man stones! Sure, if she has nothing but time on her hands. But it costs cards. That means you have a knowledge advantage. Also, Colette is threatened by any model that has a potential to deal two three wounds with an attack. She could be dead in a single activation. Dogs and Necropunks are great for forcing her to do things other than make stones. Dogs especially because of hard to wound. It means you don't have to try to hard to keep them alive when she magician duels them. They're also great because of the DF -2 effect. And, she'll be loath to kill them because of Bete.

Better yet, get two dogs up there and kill one with the other. Then drop bete. Flurry Collette, paralyze, slit jugular and rot till your heart's content. Slit jugular and Sever spine are particularly nice because all you have to do is hit her and she has to drop cards or stones AND she's paralyzed. And you only need to hit her once out of three flurry attacks to do it.

What else what else, that aura damage thing Punk zombies do is neat. If you have the chance do that. Mortimer kinda sucks in my opinion so don't waste the points. Sebastian is good. Shikome is just as fast and gross in combat as a Coryphee. Dead Rider is fast enough to catch someone.

If you wanna win objectives get Night Terrors or Necro punks (But i say Necropunks only to be avant garde). Get Night Terrors. They are more maneuverable than anything the Showgirls have to offer.

Good luck

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Just want to say bette worthless because of their ability to leave her in the dust. They will wait for her to pop then basically ignore her.

Rigor mortius collete and she can't stone heal, she will probably know this and hold back. Crooked men can lay down boundaries to protect against duet.

Spam attacks burn their stones.

Just a few thoughts.

[Kadeton]

Yeah, Bete is really not that scary for the Showgirls. You pop her out, I guarantee she's dead on the Showgirls' next activation unless you plan it extremely carefully. With at least three separate ways to inflict Paralysed on Bete, at least two of which can be Soulstoned for almost guaranteed success, she's not going to get her Slow to Die action to bury and she will be gone, kaput.

In general, go for hordes rather than strong high-SS individual models - Nico (especially aNico) is already very good at this, so capitalise on it. Remember to bring some objective grabbers, preferably Night Terrors as they can also be used to bring down the girls' Wp a bit. Pick a vulnerable model and swarm it with attacks to burn through cards and stones. Every model the Showgirls lose is a big blow to their crew, even the Performers and Mannequins - every death reduces their available options by significantly more than other crews.

Pick schemes that force the girls to come to you as much as possible - Bodyguard, Hold Out, etc.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Belles are awesome, one of the toughest models to kill for 4ss a lot of woulds and htw 1. Also cb 6 attack with bolster makes them a reliable attacker. Have had great success with them against collette.

[SoulG]

You don't paralyze Collette, you paralyze the Coryphee (always cheat high, always stone), drop off your +2cb aura and then push past her positive twists with sheer muscle. Even the Coryphee can't stand against an effective Paired CB of 11. On that note, dogs are great for the -2 Def and the fact they're cheap bodypart counters (but mostly the -2 Df, so be hesitant to kill them yourself).

Belles are also good against Coryphee because of their Ca 8 Lure and ability to move them 8 inches per casting. If you can get the belles to -see- the Coryphee your other models will never have to move to it.

Reanimate actually serve a purpose. You generally want to summon either a Punk Zombie or a Flesh Construct on top of an activated / paralyzed Coryphee. An effective CB of 9 can still do some damage.

When you get to dealing with the nest, you need to send your models in with the expectation that collette will kill them. Summoning a Flesh Construct / Punk Zombies into the nest, especially after out-activating them, is devastating.

Example list, good for killy strategies.

Ressurectionists Crew - 35 - Scrap

Nicodem, The Undertaker -- 8 Pool
Grave Spirit [1ss]

• Canine Remains [2ss]
• Canine Remains [2ss]
• Canine Remains [2ss]
• Dead Rider [10ss]
• Punk Zombie [5ss]
• Rotten Belles [4ss]
• Rotten Belles [4ss]

Dead Rider is essential to Nicodem keeping up with Collette, and it can actually fight the Coryphee pretty well when push comes to shove. Beware the red joker. You can technically get away with another 3 Canine Remains instead of the Punk Zombie and reanimate Punk Zombies / Flesh Constructs later.

[Shut Up]

the key is to take a large cache so as to be able to paralise models with use soulstone, without the cache youl just see stones bein trhrown in to stop the spell going off.
watch out for mirrors, it stops the 'muscle past the +ve on coryphee' working, all the colette player has to do is get the damage flip to a -ve (not too hard on df 7, wp 6) and odds are you will do no damage.

also, how many proxies do you need :P

[SoulG]

I -almost- forgot about that. If you have a model that can one-shot a Coryphee, it is -so- worth it to focus strike. I've done it with Taelor and Von Schill before--it was BEAUTIFUL.

[Golden]

I never hesitate to beat the snot out of Colette directly when I get the chance. 6 wounds is pretty low, and putting pressure on her forces the opponent to react. Each time you kill her they have to sacrifice a showgirl, a soulstone and a mask from their hand, unless they get lucky, to keep Collette alive. Without her they have much less reliable methods to generate soulstones.

[Shut Up]

they dont need to sacrifice a showgirl at all!
as colette has use soulstone she has a (1) action 'discard one soulstone, make a healing flip'
you never need to use that spell as if you need to swap colette out to avoid her getting mullered you use her defensive trigger, which works even if you opponent misses, and then use ss healing flip before she dies, exactly the same effect except the showgirl swapped in doesnt sacrifice. can be very nasty if you sub in an unactivated duet or something similarly awesome (ie cassy, there aren realy that many nasty showgirls :P). wailing on her hwne you get the chance is not a bad idea, it drains ss from the crews pool, its just blinding flash makes it difficult to get more than one strike off at a time.