Collodi

include page="inc_1.5rules" "//A wooden puppet made animate by ancient magics, Collodi's entire existence focused on bringing entertainment and joy to the people of old Malifaux. On their departure he became obsessed with building wooden puppets, dreaming of one day being able to entertain human children. Delighted upon discovering humans had once again made their way to Malifaux, Collodi rushed to them to put on a show. The humans, terrified of the living wooden puppets, shunned him and Collodi learned to hate them for it!//"
 * Collodi, Neverborn Henchman **

toc

=__Overview__= Collodi is a highly mobile, buffer-casting expert Henchman, who has a lot of tricks in his toolbox for improving the small army of dolls he is likely to bring to the table. He is a scavenger, and so will be able to benefit greatly from any scrap counters lying around the table. His interaction with the aforementioned dolls are his greatest strength however, in that it allows him to overcome what would appear to be limited movement from his basic statistics, turn a 2 Soulstone Marionette into a small killing machine and give you relatively good board control by being able to influence the movement and position of his dolls.

When reaching the enemy lines and fully utilizing his abilities will result in a //death of a thousand cuts// for anyone looking to stand in his way.

=__Mobility__= Collodi has a low Wk/Cg which is more than made up for by the abilities it and its marionettes have. A combination of Collodi's //Holding the Strings// and //Puppet Show//, together with the Marionette's //Retract// and //Pull Strings// allow Collodi to move a staggering 32" per turn if accompanied by his full allowance of Marionettes. Ignoring Collodi's movement, and assuming all of his four marionettes start within 6" of him, it is broken down as follows:
 * Collodi utilizes //Puppet Show// making his Marionettes Fast.
 * Marionette 1 walks once and then uses its ability to push Collodi into base-to-base contact with it.
 * Marionette 2, since it is still within 8" of Collodi, uses its **Retract** ability to push into base-to-base contact with its Master.
 * It then proceeds to follow the same actions as Marionette 1.
 * Marionettes 3 and 4 them simply repeat the actions of Marionette 2.

Collodi's mobility is very dramatic. It's not hard to leap forward far enough to get into melee combat with your opponent on turn 1. Be careful with this: moving forward this quickly can leave Collodi overextended in enemy territory without many of his Marionettes nearby at the start of the next turn, which leaves him very vulnerable. Save these bursts of speed for objective grabs or late game counterattacks.

=__Offense__=

Melee
Collodi has a fairly healthy Cb of 6 on his Wooden Talons with a relatively healthy damage profile. The difficulty in attempting to utilize Collodi as a melee shock troop is his aforementioned short Wk/Cg range, together with a 2 inch melee range. His Df is average and he has a healthy number of wounds so he would not be completely lost if he ended up in a scrap in the middle of the board but ideally this should be avoided. Collodi's main melee power is again in his interaction with the dolls he controls.

Breathe life
//Breathe Life// allows Collodi to make friendly dolls (a minimum of two if successfully cast) either //Melee Expert//, //Ranged Expert// or //Casting Expert//. This combined with //Puppet Show// making the dolls //Fast// will allow the dolls affected to lay down an astonishing number of attacks per turn. Cast this on a friendly marionette who has Paired Wooden Claws and //Flurry// and you are looking at a minion worth significantly more than its original cost.

His Marionettes, although not hitting hard //WILL// lay down so many attacks in a turn that you have every chance of burning through your opponent's control hand, even when attacking a high defense master like Lilith. This can free up other avenues of attack such as a Stitched Together's //Gamble Your Life//.

Ranged
Collodi has only one ranged offensive spell and it only affects Constructs. As such, and as mentioned before, it will be your interaction with your dolls that win or lose you the game.

//Disassemble:// Targeting a Construct who resists using his defense characteristic successfully casting this spell will result in the sacrificing of the target unless your opponent can discard two control cards.

//Breathe Life:// Mentioned above in the context of melee, but worth mentioning here, in terms of its 15" range and the ability to make up to four dolls, if using a Soulstone, choose //Casting Expert//. Stitched Together's //Gamble Your Life// has a 6" range and has a damage profile of 3/4/7 so if you prefer to keep Collodi away from your opponent while laying out some damage, then this is a route that may be for you.

=__Resilience__= Collodi has an average defense of 5 and a healthy 9 wounds which, in and of themselves, will cause most minions difficulty in taking him out timely. Other abilities make this task even more difficult.

Marionettes: allows Collodi to transfer any successful strike or spell onto a Marionette within 6".

//Perfect Machine//: allows Collodi to ignore any effect that specifically target Constructs.

In addition, //A Puppet's Soul// will allow Collodi to gain a Soulstone per doll sacrificed - within 4 inches. This is a very situational ability, but if it looks like you will //really// need those Soulstones for a damage prevention flip or such, then it is an option available to you.

Having your Marionettes close is Collodi's greatest protection, but does make a prime target for blasts or effects such as Lilith's //Whirling Death//.

=__Tricks and Tips While Joining a Crew__= All Neverborn and one Outcast (Leveticus) can hire Collodi. Usually, it's going to be Zoraida who wants to hire it, but there's some possible benefit to any Master who can spare the Soulstones for hiring Collodi and his Marionettes.

Zoraida: Collodi has plenty built-in synergy with Zoraida, since Zoraida can summon Wicked Dolls as Voodoo Dolls, which Collodi can then support and buff. Wicked Dolls get stronger the more you have, so this works nicely. They work very naturally together.

Lilith: Collodi can keep up with Lilith's forces, which is nice, but there's little reason for them to work together. Both are very mobile melee-based crews that are good at supporting their own units. It's probably better to pick one or the other.

Pandora: Pandora can work well with anyone, but there's little direct synergy between the two. Stitched Togethers, which often work with Collodi, cause a lot of Wp duels which may help Pandora, and Collidi can provide some melee strength to a Pandora crew, so it's a possibility. It's also possible to use collodi's movement and cheap significant minions to complete objectives and schemes, freeing up pandora, and her woes to cast spells at the enemy. Project emotions can greatly benefit any crew, but collodi can get a lot of use out of it. Give the enemy a [-] to willpower and have a fast, wp 8 stitched use gamble your life and gambler to stack massive damage on them. Give the enemy a [-] to defense duels, and have a marionnette potentially with fast, flurry and melee expert use paired weapons to inflict up to 5 strikes on them. You'll be winning most duels, doing 1/2/4 damage on each strike.

The Dreamer: Some of Collodi's favorite Minions are Nightmares, so there's a possibility for a little synergy, but not much. The Dreamer usually prefers to pick only minions that he can use his Nightmare-unburying tricks with, so this does not seem like an easy fit.

Leveticus: The only non-Neverborn Master who can hire Collodi through his //Pariah// Ability. Leveticus can benefit from Collidi's mobility and shock troop tactics.

=__Tricks and Tips While Leading a Crew__= //To be completed//

Strategies and Schemes
Some schemes to consider for Collodi:


 * Bodyguard:** Since Collodi is fast enough to avoid most assassination attempts, and can redirect damage to his Dolls, this is a great Scheme to take against most enemies. Avoid this one if you're going against an opponent with a lot of blasts and area effects.


 * Breakthrough:** This plays to Collodi's strengths: getting a lot of minions across the board quickly. Since Marionettes are not Insignificant, and neither are Wicked Dolls if they're next to Collodi, this is a pretty reliable Scheme to take unless your Strategy requires you to be somewhere else at game's end.


 * Eye for an Eye:** You can control whether or not your Wicked Dolls count as Insignificant (they don't count as Insignificant if within 12" of Collidi) so you have some room to balance this one out unless your opponent kills all your Wicked Dolls. Wicked Dolls are pretty fragile, though, so be careful with this.


 * Grudge:** This scheme requires you to kill targeted units with Minion melee strikes, which plays to Collidi's strength. Pick a fragile enemy Minion, but avoid picking Minions that may die some other way.


 * Stake a Claim:** Pick a terrain feature that's close to where you want to be anyway. Collodi and his Marionettes should have no trouble reaching it unless it's well-defended.


 * Kidnap:** If your opponent has units they're likely to sacrifice anyway (like Kirai's Seishin or Desperate Mercenaries) then this is an easy choice - it's just free VP. Collodi is good at getting to a place and making a lot of attacks, so if your opponent has vulnerable units, this is a great scheme to pick.

Building a Crew
The full list of models available to Collodi can be found here.

Deciding on a crew for Collodi as a leader is very easy, because he has so few options. Four Marionettes are a must. After this point, fill out with Wicked Dolls and Stitched Together, or Effigies. Weaver Widow has plenty of synergy as well.

Starting Collodi
The standard Collodi starter box provides Collodi, four Marionettes and three Wicked Dolls. This is 17 Soulstones worth of models. A good initial addition to your crew will be a clamshell of Stitched Togethers, which are your only available resilient minions. In addition, it may be worth having further Wicked Dolls available to you as their //Murderous// ability allows you to summon more of them in-game.


 * Starting Difficulty.** Although there are difficulties in grasping the nuances of Collodi's interactions with his dolls and fully utilizing his movement abilities, the low number of minions available for him to hire are an advantage in getting to know your crew and being able to use them effectively.

=__Playing Against Collodi__= Collodi can buff his Marionettes allowing them for an alpha strike that can cover 1/2 the board. He can also gives these paired puppets Melee expert. Nasty. The bad news is - there may not be much you can do to stop it either.

When playing against Collodi, it is often best to begin destroying Marionettes. Collodi's effectiveness is directly proportional to the number of Marionettes on the table. The reverse is also true, if you can limit Collodi you can break down his whole crew. This is not an easy task.

Models with pulses and blasts are good for combating Collodi because his crew tends to bunch up around him. He can also be limited if you can force him to fight on two fronts as he is mobile, but can't teleport.

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 * __Ownership__ **

//"Pull the strings! Pull the strings!"// //-- Bela Lugosi, in Ed Wood's __Glen or Glenda__//