M2E+Performer


 * Performer, Arcanist Minion**

=__Overview__= They put the showgirl in the showgirls! Wait that doesn't make sense... we'll work on it. The performer is the "basic" unit in a Colette crew, and a generally useful minion in a Showgirls themed crew. With some great interact shenanigans, some unique Attack and Tactical actions, these performers are an interesting piece that can play as both a control model, and can also come at you with some damage from a very interesting angle. And with the **mercenary characteristic,** these beauties aren't just for arcanists anymore.toc

=__Mobility__= The performer has a walk of 5 and a nil charge, so anything they're going to be doing is going to be done by walking there. Walk 5 is just above average, so they're not necessarily slow, but they won't be winning a foot race with a Rooster Rider.

=__Offense__= They have two Attack Actions, but their Tactical Action can also feel pretty offensive.


 * (1) Poisoned Hairpin** //Ml 6, Rst Df, Rg 1// 1/3/5

This attack also hands out poison +2. It's a decent attack, but at 1 range no charge, it's not going to feel very flexible. You can lure someone into you, and with the right trigger you can provoke a 1ap melee attack, so it can perpetuate itself, but for the most part it'll be a "if I get the trigger" or "if I start engaged" kind of move.

Target is pushed its walk towards this model. Not quite as good for sheer movement shenanigans as a Rotten Belle's Lure, with 2 less casting and 6 less range. There's also the subtle difference in the push vs. the "takes a walk action" wording that will allow enemies to bump into walls for cover and disallow "pushing directly towards". However, this spell doesn't get tied up by rough terrain (the push goes its full length, tree, water or swamp), and what it loses in sureness and distance it more than makes up for in triggers: (//Ram) Deadly Dance:// After succeeding, take a (1) melee if in range and LOS. This is like pounce only a little different. (Only a little). //(Crow) To Their Doom// After succeeding, the target gains paralyzed if the target is in Base to Base after the push. Paralyze is a powerful tool, and it doesn't allow for discarding of anything to prevent it. It just happens if you beat their willpower and let them get real close. The best part is paralyzed models don't have engagement ranges, so if it goes off, you can walk away without a penalty. //(Book) A Sip of Wine:// Arguably one of the best, depending on your master. Going to take a melee attack? Cool. Applying paralyze if you're within your walk to the performer? Great! If your name is Douglas McMourning, or T. Brewmaster, **A Sip of Wine** is better. "After succeeding the target suffers poison equal to their condition value. Remove Poison from the target". That's right. It's a push your walk AND GET EXPUNGED. And whats even better than that is, it doesn't have the same Top End as McMourning's Expunge, so if you //really// stack the poison, you can **//really//** bring the hurt.
 * (1) Siren Call** //Ca 6, Tn10, Rst WP, Rg 12//

Sac a Scheme marker (or mannequin, or mechanical dove), and cause all enemy models within three of the marker to pass a TN 13 WP duel or gain "**Seduced:** Suffer double negative twist to Df and Wp duels". ... I'll let that sink in. Here's a model that with a Mannequin, can place a scheme marker //while engaged// to a point //that is up to 6" away from themselves//, and then make that scheme marker generate wp duels that cause //double negatives to WP and DF?!// Yes. This is that model. The duel is only 13, which is pretty easy to avoid with something like a 6-8 or higher, but if you center it on enough models, it can really drain a hand, or cause an opponent to think about who's getting those cards. And if it goes off, you can Siren and Poisoned Hairpin //much// easier. As well as anything else with other models that may have been hired for this crew. Models like Angelica with the **Practiced Production** upgrade or the Mechanical Rider could help setting up this WP bomb, as both are very easy to drop scheme markers near enemy models. You might thank that's enough to expect from Seduction, but its other use might be even more beneficial. Because the Action can can target any Scheme Marker and has an 8" range with no Resist, you can use Seduction to remove enemy Scheme Markers from the table. Even if there are no enemy models anywhere near them. Hit the Tn and the enemy Scheme Marker is gone. What's more, Colette can Prompt her to do it again and again, and even hand out Reactivate with the Prompt trigger if the enemy has a lot of Scheme Markers you want rid of.
 * (1) Seduction** //Ca 5, Tn 12, Rg 8//

=__Resilience__= 5 Willpower and Defense puts her right in the middle of the road. 5 wounds for a 5 stone model, about what we've come to expect. This model has two things that make it harder to kill her: One of them is literal (ie: game mechanics) and one of them is psychological (ie: People mechanics).


 * Manipulative 13:** If this model has not yet activated this turn, an enemy model must pass a TN 13 wp duel to target the performer with an attack action. It's like terror only not quite as good- as it doesn't give them paralyze, it just causes them to fail //that action.// It's still a relatively high number, and can draw out some good cards that might have been meant to apply some hurt later down the road, or even directly to the performer. Bear in mind that unlike Terrifying a model attacking a Performer will have to keep taking the Manipulative test for each new attack, even if it passed one earlier that Turn.

The most interesting part about this ability is the "or sacrificed" caveat. This means that if Colette uses her oft-neglected "Death Defying" trigger, she can place herself into base contact with a performer, sacrifice it, gain health equal to the performer's remaining wounds, and then as the Performer is being sacrificed for the cause she can //give Colette reactivate//. How ice cold is that?
 * Precious:** This is the mental challenge. Precious says "If this model is killed or sacrificed, Target friendly minion or showgirl gains reactivate". That's right. Strike her down, and she will become more power full than you could possibly imagine. I mean... strike her down and one minion or showgirl within 2" will gain reactivate and get to do all of it's stuff again... This is really great when you're doing it to a model that has 2 Mechanical Dove buffs on it till the end of the turn. Or even Colette herself. Think about that. Two activations of Colette being a nuisance.

=__Tactics and Tips__= Because she's sort of the Belle for a broader audience (or more like an Oiran I would say, 'cause the Belle will really get naked, and the Oiran is also a mercenary), she has a lot of potential synergies. Look at your master, look for ways to manipulate WP and Lures, and Poison, and potentially even Minion Reactivation, and at 6 stones, the performer is still a steal. Some notable examples:

Of course, Colette. They have "Don't Mind Me" which can let them place scheme markers wherever they want, and also with a Mannequin in tow, they can place them at 6" away, and with Colette within line of sight, they can place them with a 0 action as well. Properly placed, they can fulfill 60% of Line in the Sand in one turn while engaged. They've also got Precious giving either Colette or Cassandra reactivate which is totally boss.
 * Colette:**

As Mister Shine says, Collodi loves pupinions. That's puppets and minions. He also loves attacking Willpower. He also loves hiring people who //lower// said willpower, such as the weaver widow. The dreamer falls into this category as well, becoming a list I like to call "That creepy ballroom scene from labyrinth". Essentially what happens is, Dreamer or Collodi set up just like they would be normally: Throw some web markers. Throw some Daydreams, or Insidious madnesses around. Whatever. Then, use a lure to drag an enemy into a trap, or use seduction to try and give them severe penalties to their WP/DF. Then eat them alive. If it goes off, Collodi's Ca7 vs WP will become more than just strong, it may be unstoppable.
 * Collodi:**

I put this here more for guild McMourning than resser McMourning, and the reason is this: If you take him with guild and you use "a sip of wine", and do a bunch of damage and kill something or remove their poison, it's good. But it's getting rid of an opportunity to expunge him yourself with "Abra Cadaver". The Performer will never be able to poison a model into being a flesh construct, which ends up being disappointing. On the other hand, as a Guild operative, bringing a Performer frees up Doug's 0 action from wanting to be an expunge, and allows it to either inject some poor schlub and make them do more for their salary, or use his Scalpel Slinging attack to get more attacks, damage, and at the end of the day //poison// onto enemies. Let's say Doug attacks a dude four times. Minimum damage two, and no extra crows for extra infect. That's 8 damage and four poison. The performer can then //Sirens call// and drop that poison off immediately. But let's take it a step further. Let's say you know you've got a performer nearby, and you've brought the upgrade that makes models around you undead: That's where the fun really begins. You swing in with scalpel slinging (with the "this one's ready" trigger), make everyone close undead, and then start stacking poison with Rancid Transplant. You can spread a bunch of damage to nearby enemies, and get the poison to a much higher point. Situationally much higher than the 9 hard cap of expunge's insta-poison damage. Then use the performer to insta-gib an enemy for 10+ damage. Priceless.
 * McMourning:**

I will preface this with: "I considered not writing this. It looked filthy. It seemed filthy. I haven't seen it on the table, and I don't really want to, but it deserves to be seen." If you hire a Performer into a brew master crew, a lot of things happen all at once. First, the Brewmaster loves people to be poisoned. He loves making people drink, through drinking contest, or whatever. He's also really good at making people have negative twists to things. He's also quite good at snowballing poisoned enemies into more poison. WIthin a certain range, that poison also lowers their WP. So, a model that's close to Brewie will likely be poisoned, and then anytime they try to do anything, they have a high chance of becoming more poisoned. I've seen this number get exceptionally high. Frighteningly high. Now: We presume that a model vs a brewmaster crew will have a decent amount of poison on it, and once that happens, their WP will drop. This will make several things more difficult. This is where the ugly starts to happen. The minute someone is close enough to be in the web, the performer can give them Seduction which causes them to be at a double negative twist to resist anything. As the poison stacks higher and higher, you get closer and closer to the one hit kill. We presume at some point in time they will be so poisoned and hungover that a performer will be able to Sirens Call with a 6ca vs a ~3 WP at a negative flip (hangover) or double negative flip (seduce), and at that point literally anything will cause them to push their walk and take whatever poison they've accumulated. It is this move that could potentially allow the Performer to single handedly earn reckoning. The performer, a utility piece can become the big hitter in a Brewie Crew, and what's worse is, they're nearly untouchable from melee, because having to win both drinking contest and manipulative in order to target them becomes more and more difficult as the time goes on.
 * The Brewmaster**
 * Attacking the brewmaster.
 * Running away from the brewmaster
 * Doing anything besides take a drink (a healing flip, and more poison).
 * Resisting any WP duels (such as drinking contest or Manipulative).
 * Resisting Sirens Call or Seduce.

=__Playing Against Performer__= [[image:http://static1.paizo.com/image/product/catalog/WYR/WYR3027_500.jpeg width="176" height="317" align="left"]]Playing against a Performer isn't awful- you just have to watch for the telltale signs of their power combos. If they've got a mannequin with them, or are getting close, watch for scheme markers getting thrown in your face. In a Colette crew this could mean a lot of things. In a non-colette crew this usually means a seduction or a Plant Explosives is coming.

Consider bringing condition removal like Johan or whoever you have in your faction, to cleanse poison as it's starting to get too high- my recommendation is approx 1/2 the models single hit kill. Got a 10 wnd model? Start thinking about a cleanse at 5 poison. 6 wound with two armor? You might be able to wait until 4 instead of three. As your wounds go down, take that into account. Causing them to have to rebuild a stack might make them rethink the AP effectiveness of the strategy.

Try and save something that can kill her for just after she's activated. Having to deal with manipulative is a pain, and you have to do it every time you try, because you don't gain any immunity to it.

When you //do// go for the kill, look for models nearby that could use the 2" reactivate ability. If you can lure them away, it might be worth your trouble, especially if it's near the end of the turn, and they can't puppy guard.

Try not to bunch up around enemy scheme markers, 'cause a //Seduction// is a pain. If fact, this might be a model that will keep you from bunching up in general, because with a mannequin, she can seed her own seduction attempt.

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