M2E+Dreamer

__Return to Neverborn__ toc
 * The Dreamer, Neverborn Master**

=__Overview__= The Dreamer is a child Earthside of the Breach whose dreams take him to Malifaux, where his powers manifest in the ability to warp reality to his every whim. But he is not aware that the lives he plays with are those of living humans, he thinks it is all a dream and plays "games" with them. Noticing the child's immense powers, the primordial Nytmare came to him and attempted to drain him of his powers but found he was unable to. Given the name Lord Chompy Bits, he now protects the child and follows him around in his adventures in the "dream land."

The Dreamer has two distinct play styles: Summoning + Support, and Chompy + Support.. The Dreamer by himself is a support Master. His crew does all the heavy lifting.

=__Mobility__= With impressive **Wk 7** The Dreamer can get to where he needs to be quite easily. **Incorporeal** allows The Dreamer to ignore models and terrain during any movement or push, making it easier to get around.

=__Offense__= **(1) Twist Reality** is The Dreamer's only damaging action. This is either a ranged projectile attack or a close attack. Twist Reality has two triggers:
 * The first can give a target **Paralyzed** if it has 4 Wp or less. Burning a stone to get the suit is sometimes your best option; a big beat stick can't threaten your crew if it's **Paralyzed**
 * The second allows friendly Nightmares within 6" to push their walk towards the damaged model. You can use this offensively by targeting a model and pushing closer, or defensively by pushing away from something dangerous. The target does not have to be an enemy, you can for instance shoot a friendly model, cheat in any Mask and have the model Relent to get a free push for a low cost.

The other half of this Master, Lord Chompy Bits, offers much more offensive options for this crew.

=__Resilience__= With the lowest Wound count on any master, a dedicated thrashing will see The Dreamer dead quite effectively. I recommend not putting ones self in that position


 * Safe in My Bed** is a Df/Wp trigger that allows The Dreamer to assign a Nightmare within 3" to suffer the effects of an Action instead of him. Be VERY VERY wary of models that target WP since The Dreamer needs to flip/cheat/stone for the Mask to get the trigger off, which is resource intensive.

Ca Actions completely ignore this as do simple duels. If facing a Ca heavy crew or a Master keep him out of sight and out of mind.
 * Incorporeal** allows The Dreamer to reduce damage from SH and Ml actions by half, making opponent's damage count for less.

Conditions are also a bane for The Dreamer. Multiple stacks of **Burning** will chew through him easily and **Poison** will tick away if not out right kill him (**Induction/Catalyst**).

The best way to keep The Dreamer alive is to make the opponent have to deal with your crew and not him.

=__Upgrades__=


 * Otherworldly** gives The Dreamer Accomplice, allowing a friendly model within 6" to activate after he ends his activation. It also gives him a tactical action **(1) Playtime**. Playtime gives a friendly model a condition that allows you to draw a card after damaging with an attack action. This upgrade really shines for Summoning Dreamer mainly due to Accomplice. The (1) action is decent but most times there are better options to use.


 * Restless Dreams** is an Limited upgrade to help get Lord Chompy Bits out on the table. It gives The Dreamer **Toss and Turn**, an ability that gives The Dreamer **Waking +1** after dealing damage with a Sh action. This upgrade also gives Lord Chompy Bits **Melee Expert** while The Dreamer is buried. If you take this upgrade you can't take the Summoning upgrade.


 * Tantrum** gives The Dreamer **Ranged Expert** right out of the gate and a (1) Sh action that deals damage based on the number of Nightmares within 3" of the target. This upgrade really shines with Chompy Dreamer. This is because a "free" Sh action that raises your **Waking** is great and you can get Chompy out faster. The action it gives you can really put the hurt on a model surrounded by Nightmares. Also targets Wp which gives him more options. This is an amusing upgrade to take in an Alp heavy list. The Alps would want to be close to the enemy model anyway. The Sh action could help get the Alps closer with **Feed on Dreams** (appropriately enough) or stack damage if they're already close enough to the target.


 * Dreams of Pain** is The Dreamers other Limited upgrade. It Is the single most expensive upgrade in the game. Reasons for this are as follows: it gives The Dreamer the tactical action **(1) Manifest Nightmares**. When using this ability, name a Minion or Enforcer Nightmare model that you would like to summon. Minion or ENFORCER. Let that sink in. The model summoned enters play with only a single wound, but Chain Activating the summoned model with **Otherworldy** can heal them up as long as The Dreamer isn't too awake. This also increases his **Waking** by **+1**. Using a Daydream to add a mask to Dreamer's Ca means you just need the right card for the model you want to summon and makes it easier to trigger **It's My Dream** so that the summoned model does not gain **Slow**.

The Dreamer can summon a Daydream for a 7 of any suit, and can summon the following Nightmares for the listed cost, also requiring a mask:

7 - Alp 9 - Insidious Madness 9 - Bandersnatch 10 - Stitched Together 11 - Lelu 11 - Lilitu 12 - Coppelius 15 - Teddy (using Mr. Tannen and a 13 of masks or Red Joker)


 * On Dreaming Wings** is a support upgrade option for The Dreamer or any Nightmare that can take it. It increases the models Wk by +1 and adds the ability **On Dreaming Wings**, which gives friendly Nightmares within 6" Flight.

The Wave 5 book, ** Broken Promises **, introduces two new upgrades for each master. The Dreamer gets **Growing Up** and **Sleep Cycles:**


 * Growing Up** is a Limited upgrade which represents an adolescent Dreamer, giving him four more wounds and a **Cg** stat. It also prevents him from being damaged while buried, and gives him an extra AP for use on **Ml** actions. But wait, **Ml** actions? Yep - **Growing Up** gives The Dreamer a **Cricket Bat**, a fearsome **Ml** attack with a decent damage track that also lets him modify his **Waking** condition by 1 and has a trigger to swap The Dreamer with a nearby friendly Nightmare. This gives The Dreamer a whole new approach to the 'Chompy' playstyle, where he can jump into the fray with his generous **Wk** and **Cg** stats and Incorporeal, then turn into Chompy before anything can hit him back. However, being a Limited upgrade, Chompy unfortunately can't get Melee Expert from **Restless Dreams**. Also, be careful not to end up a sitting duck on **Waking +3** - remember you can always summon a Daydream or an Alp to get the last point or two of **Waking** if you need to, without giving your opponent a chance to deny it!


 * Sleep Cycles** allows Lord Chompy Bits or The Dreamer to activate as a Chain Activation whenever the other ends their activation, letting Chompy immediately get to work or allowing Dreamer to get to safety. It also gives friendly Daydreams a moderate attack action, which is great for when you aren't using them to summon or to push your Nightmares around. The obvious synergy with this upgrade is to take it with **Growing Up** or **Restless Dreams**.

=__Tactics and Tips__= The Dreamer has **Pleasant Dreams**, an ability that heals models activating within 6" of him up to 3 wounds. This ability is lowered when he gets the **Waking** Condition. Every unit of **Waking** it reduces the healing by 1, so **Waking** +1 would only heal 2 wounds, **Waking** +2 wound heal 1 wound and **Waking** +3 heals 0 wounds.

When he hits **Waking +4**, **Release Nightmares** triggers. All conditions are removed from The Dreamer and he is buried. Lord Chompy Bits is summoned within 6" and LoS of The Dreamer.

If playing Summoning Dreamer you want as few stacks of **Waking** as possible so that models you summon will heal more when they activate and hopefully stick around longer. If you are summoning you will get **Waking** but The Dreamer has a 0 action (his only 0 action) that lowers his waking condition by 1. Otherwise it can only be dropped off by an enemy or by transforming into Lord Chompy Bits (and possibly turning right back with **Sleep my Child**).

A decent tactic is to summon a Stitched Together, hopefully with trigger to not make him slow (this is assuming you sacrificed a day dream for the mask). Accomplice him (via the **Otherworldly** upgrade) the Stitched heals at least a wound (**Pleasant Dreams**) then gambles the targets life. If you succeed, that's great, and if not you are brought down to **Hard to Kill** which gives him reactivate. When he activates again you can heal some more and gamble some more. Another Summoning Dreamer idea is to Summon both of the twins which they need 11s, but if you can do it then do it. It is highly suggested that you keep your **Waking** at +2 so you can lower it to +1 with his zero action. Accomplice whichever twin you need so then it heals 2 wounds from **Pleasant Dreams.** Regenerate is built in as well, so now you have 2 almost full health models that do many things. When the second twin activates also heals and regens, now you have extra 14 soulstones - full health models that cost you 2 high cards.

With decent cards Summoning Dreamer can bring into the game and upwards of 20+ss worth of models. This is huge because every new model is a new activation, more AP to complete schemes and the summoned models are not slouches. The downside of this is that you are going to want a decent cache of SS; not for suits, but for drawing cards at the beginning of the turn. Having no high cards means he is sitting on a useless upgrade that cost him SS. If you don't have the cards to summon something, either use his **Empty** **Night** Action and try to support your crew, or run and hide and play defensively for the turn.

Don't be afraid to Hit **Waking +4** and bring out LCB. If Dreamer is in trouble burying him and getting him safe is something you should do. doing so removes Conditions like **Burning, Poisoned,** and **Stalked**, and can get him out of a tight spot. You can then zero action bring the dreamer back out later in the turn with Chompy's **Sleep, My Child.** Note that, since **Release Nightmares** is an Ability and not an Action, you can even use this to remove Scheme-based conditions like **Distracted** and **Cursed Object! ([|See the forums for discussion of this].)**


 * (1) Empty Night** gives The Dreamer options to manipulate his crew. This 6" range spell targets a friendly Nightmare or Minion model and must declare a trigger. Triggers allow you to push that model, give it fast, end conditions on the model, or heal the target.

=__Leading a Crew__= Keeping a friendly Nightmare close is important to insuring The Dreamer's survival.

Strategies and Schemes
Strategies and schemes typically fall into one of three categories for the Dreamer, with a bit of variation depending on which upgrade set you went for.

Summoning Dreamer is very good at Strategies which require you to place non-Peon Models in particular board areas. He can easily generate the two models required for Guard the Stash, Extraction and Turf War by summoning, and if you activated him late in the round your opponent will only have a short window to get rid of them. For Reconnoiter and Interference summoning is pure gold, and the fact that the Dreamer himself is so mobile means he can easily swing one or two table quarters in your favour. All the Enforcers and Minions the Dreamer summons through Manifest Nightmares can also help you complete marker placement schemes (although bear in mind they can't take interact action the turn they're summoned, regardless of whether they're slow or not). The Dreamer is often quick enough to get behind enemy lines and start dropping models who can complete Plant Evidence, Breakthrough, Stake a Claim (that's a strategy), Protect Territory and Power Ritual later on, provided they're left to their own devices.

Summoning a bunch of low wound models isn't really ideal for strategies like Reckoning, Headhunter or Collect the Bounty. It can also provide pretty easy points for your opponent if Make them Suffer, Plant Explosives, Distract or Cursed Object are on the table, although Alps and Daydreams aren't valid targets for the last two. Assassinate is also a tricky scheme for the Dreamer since he's mobile and can put down a fair bit of damage (indirectly) but that opens him up to being assassinated himself. Chompy focussed Dreamer is possibly better for these objectives, but you'll still need to be careful about where you place any Alps or Daydreams you summon, and indeed Lord Chompy Bits himself.

Building a Crew
The Dreamer's crew box contains The Dreamer, Lord Chompy Bits, Coppelius, 3 Daydreams and 3 Alps. This can provide all the models you need for a basic Dreamer list that can be padded out with other Neverborn models. For a summoning Dreamer Insidious Madness and stitched together are must haves, although the latter is currently out of production. Teddy and Widow Weaver are nightmares and solid additions to the Dreamer crew while Lelu and Liltu are nice additions but not essential.

Outside of Nightmares the Dreamer does well with minions such as Silurids, Waldgeists and the various Darkened Minions. Individually powerful models like the Hooded Rider or Spawn Mother can cover parts of the board far away from the Dreamer, as can model which support eachother such as Candy & Iggy or Mr. Tannen & Mr. Graves.

A Doppelganger is a worthwhile addition to nearly any Dreamer list for it's ability to cheat the intiative on key turns (i.e. Dreamer is about to get eaten) and it's general utility. As a Mimic and a Woe it can also also synergises some other models through the Upgrades, allowing your non-nightmare models to support eachother.

=__Playing Against The Dreamer__= Watch The Dreamer's Waking condition. This is the mechanism for summoning Lord Chompy Bits, Also keep an eye on how close other Nightmares are to The Dreamer. He can discard a card to assign the effects of any action to a friendly Nightmare within 3", wasting strong actions if you're not careful.

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