Collodi Box Help

[Violist]

Hello everyone, thank you for taking the time to view and hopefully respond to this post. I'm very new to Malifaux but I absolutely love the game system. I've all but stopped playing Warhammer because of it.

Anyway I've only gotten the Collodi box so far and with it I've played about seven games. I think four against Seamus and three or so against Zoradia. I haven't been able to beat my friend yet! So I was wondering if I could get some insight as to what I may be doing wrong.

In my games against Seamus he is using the basic Box and the Copycat Killer. I usually end up activating Collodi first and casting Filled with Stones on Collodi, I trigger Puppet Master, I believe it is called, the one that lets me activate a friendly doll within 6" when he is done and target a Wicked Doll. I activate all Marionettes and Pull Strings Collodi to mid field. This is my basic strategy now I feel like I have a few problems with this that I am trying to hash out.

First of all being a new player the movement of Collodi took me a little while to fully grasp. So this was an issue. Secondly in I felt that in both games after I did all that I was literally at his mercy. He could react anyway he wanted because all my activation's were essentially over. In addition once I finally did make contact with his, which he usually initiated, it was not long before my Marionettes were dying and I was losing a lot of steam.

Against Seamus he would just continually Lure the Marionettes out and kill them one by one and Seamus would pop like one off every turn or so with his .50 caliber.

Against Zoradia I could never really close the gap, the smaller beasts would jump or charge in attack then use that one ability to run back out. After a few of my Marionettes were dead my mobility was gone as well.

So that's where I am! I hope you guys/girls can offer up some help regarding, maybe, just inherent issues in strategy or just a new perspective. Thanks Again!

[011121]

Welcome aboard

Try to think of Collodi as an ambush predator, like a trap door spider. He can't (or shouldn't) just charge willy nilly at the opponent but should pick his targets. His spectacular mobility (over 32" in a turn if all he wants his marionettes to do is move) usually means he can target any isolated models or small groups of models, jump in, kill them or at least mess them up, and next turn bound away to safety (occasionally even in the same turn if the target is especially weak).

Typically I'll use the first turn or two for set up and getting a bit close to the enemy. Set up includes things like putting Filled with Stones on a marionette or two (which doesn't reduce your mobility due to the odd way Collodi moves) as well as finding a nice spot from which to strike.

Be careful not to attack if you are down one or more marionettes, that's the time to retreat until you can replace them.

Breathe life and puppet show are your bread and butter once it comes to turns where you want to kill stuff. Pump up your little marionettes with lots of melee experts buffs and Fast and pounce on someone, preferably someone within 16". With a 16" range the first marionette just moves. The second gets 1 attack (assuming it did not get melee expert but does have fast). The other two (you are using all four, right?) get 8 paired attacks, that granted don't do a huge amount of damage (but it really adds up, I've easily torn apart a teddy in one turn). Then the Wicked dolls come in...

That said always keep in mind it's VPs and not kills that wins malifaux. Fortunately with his extreme speed and ability to make his dolls not insignificant, Collodi is one hell of an objective grabber. Also you don't have to activate everything together if you don't want to. if it's putting you at a disadvantage, don't.

Seamus- keep in mind there is no force on malifaux that can pull a marionette more than 8" from Collodi (unless he uses Long Strings but I never have seen any reason to) so lure has a pretty short effective range on you. He can do a lot of damage if you let him get close, so don't, unless you're gunning for him, and then make sure he's in no condition to do anything after you've gone. Killing the belles will help a lot, but he may well keep them close to Seamus, in which case the best option may be to ignore him and grab objectives. His hand cannon is a beast, to be sure, there's not much you can do about it except stay out of sight and out of range.

Zoraida's a tough one. She's really slippery to try and get a hold of and does a number of just down right rude things to your crew. That said the paired weapons on the marionettes counteract her proper manners negative flip. so it's not all bad. try to keep out of sight of her until you pounce. She may well use raven to get up somewhere high that you just can't reach. Not much you can do there except focus on VPs and kill her crew.

I highly recommend getting an arcane effigy. It's an amazing utility piece for Neverborn giving you and extra card and also helping Collodi cast spells at the beginning of the game (later on he'll be miles away from it). Similarly the Doppelganger and Widow Weaver work well with Collodi. The weaver can create wicked dolls or produce scrap counters so Collodi can replace his lost marionettes.

Hope it helps!

---------- Post added at 08:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:36 AM ----------

Out of curiosity you say you use your marionettes to get Collodi to mid field, given that Collodi can pretty easily reach the opponents deployment zone on the first turn this makes me suspect one of two things:
1) you aren't using all 4 marionettes. This would be a cardinal sin for Collodi.
or
2) you're playing on a much bigger table than what malifaux calls for. The game is designed for a 3' by 3' board. Coming from warhammer you're probably used to playing on something 4x that size.

I may have misunderstood your original post, though.

[DarcXON]

Hmm, I would need more info about the games to be able to help you. What was your Crew and how many Stones was the game. Also the strategies change how you approach the enemy crew. All in all it looks like small problems that stem from being new to the game.

1) You don't want to activate everything unless you are going to inflict heavy pain on the enemy crew OR you are leaving the area.

2) Make everyone Fast the turn BEFORE you plan to attack. In this case you want to set up in a place that a Single Marionette can put you in where you are relatively safe. Then try to hide the rest of the marionettes.

3) If Collodi is your Master, remember that he is a Henchman. That means that his Overall power is lower than a Master.

In general what makes Collodi such a great tournament model is his ability to manipulate activations paired with the unholy number of attacks he can muster. Usually this would not be a problem but he has great Defensive tools as well. Try to use those to your advantage.

[Korrosion]

The marionettes are constructs, that makes them immune to wp duels such as lure and terrifying right?

[Violist]

Maybe I just don't fully understand all of the movement shenanigans. Also if I am playing straight from the Box, 4 Marionettes and 3 Wicked Dolls. If I give my dolls fast it only lasts for one turn right? I would have to rebuff it again next turn. So what I struggle with is how to launch this assault. How do I give my dolls fast, cast breath of life, and get everyone close to the enemy and within 6 of Collodi to chain to their activation's. I just can't seem to pull it off.

[011121]

Basically when you are planning to attack you want to have at least a couple of your dolls start off within 4" of collodi. Those will be your heavy hitters. Collodi gives them fast and melee expert. Any marionettes that didn't get the buffs (because they were out of range) you use for movement. Activate everyone all together, use the buffs, and pounce. Next turn activate everyone together, maybe have collodi himself finish off a wounded target, then have the marionettes pull him away. You'll end up leaving one marionette in the area who may well die unless you target was pretty isolated. You can replace them though but having a ww so you don;t have to go grab the scrap counter can help a lot.

Collodi has a rhythm of alternating between set up turns and turns where the bodies hit the floor, to coin a phrase.

[nurglez]

I have the collodi box but am yet to play with him, however I have played a few games with Perdita, and while her crew can activate all together I rarely do it unless it gives me a huge advantage (like killing several enemy models in one mass activation). Also Stiched together's are a rather good purchase for Collodi as he can buff them, and they can help prevent him being shot + provide ranged attacks with their gamble your life attack (+2wp from collodi makes this a wp8 attack, which is pretty damn good).

[011121]

Maybe an explicit example will help.

we'll assume you only have the box set, and are doing a strategy where it's advantageous to kill some model.

First turn activate one marionette and pull Collodi 8" forward, maybe into cover depending on the opponent. Your opponent goes. Now if you like what you see you can activate another marionette and have it position itself 4" ahead of Collodi, not pulling him, just hanging out. Opponent goes. Move up another marionette, again just to hang near Collodi. repeat. If at any point you see a threat to Collodi emerging you can have your last 1 or 2 maris pull him back away from it.

Finally Collodi goes and fills one of his marionettes with stones. Why a marionette rather than collodi? Because Collodi can pass hits off on his marionettes. With 2 armor, hard to kill, and hard to wound 1, that marionette is actually pretty durable. Move up your wicked dolls next to collodi.

Next turn. If the alpha strike still looks like a good option you activate collodi first along with all maris. He uses puppet show so your marionettes and wicked dolls all get fast. Then cast breathe life to give 2 or 3 of the dolls melee expert. I'd first give it to marionettes you know will be attacking, then to wicked dolls, then to marionette who are going to be moving you.

One or two maris pull Collodi to the target, possibly with the second one getting an attack or two. Then your big hitters arrive. Two marionettes with 4 attacks each. They zip in with their (0) action and go to town on the enemy. Hopefully by the time they are done the target(s) are kibble.

Now the opponent gets a turn. Depending on what he does (like charge your clump of dolls) you may want to zip in a wicked doll to help out. Continue alternating opponent and wicked doll turns. On a turn that you pounce you will be out activated, there's just no way around that since you pile 5 activations into one. The good news is that wicked dolls have some great abilities to help in that regard. Specifically if you bring them in to react to enemy movements then their wicked intentions may slow the enemy in the next round if he tries to go before you can get away. Malice too can prevent the enemy from doing much o you before you get away or soften them for a protracted fight (usually not recommended).

of course if things are going well you may not need to get away, you may be ready to buff and strike again immediately.

The really big threats to Collodi are ranged attacks and blasts. He tend to be clumped up and if he loses more than one marionette his speed and offense drop dramatically.

[nilus]

The marionettes are constructs, that makes them immune to wp duels such as lure and terrifying right?

Nope.

Constructs just makes them immune to morale duels. Other WP duels still work unless they are immune to influence as well

[Korrosion]

Nope.

Constructs just makes them immune to morale duels. Other WP duels still work unless they are immune to influence as well

So they'll ignore terrifying but they can still be lured, obeyed, etc. Pardon my brainfart.