The+Dreamer

include page="inc_1.5rules" **The Dreamer & Lord Chompy Bits, Neverborn Master** toc

=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 Nightmare 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 & Lord Chompy Bits (LCB) have one of the most unique playstyles of any Master in Malifaux. Much like Viktoria you have 2 models for your Master but that is where the similarity stops. The Dreamer's main strategy is burying and unburying his Nightmares, letting him quickly move them across the field completely protected and drop them on your opponent when he least expects it. But for that power, the Dreamer trades any real kind of combat ability himself. He has a versatile but weak ranged attack but it is good for little more then harassing your opponents models. This is where Lord Chompy Bits comes into the picture; he can't move the Nightmares around like the Dreamer can, but he is one of the most dangerous melee Masters in the game. The Dreamer or Daydreams can unbury him, letting him deliver LCB to a desired location.

The Dreamer's crews are almost always made up exclusively of Nightmares as those are the only models he can bury and unbury with his abilities. He is not restricted to only bringing Nightmares, but there are very few non-Nightmare models that are worth taking over another Nightmare model. So this does make the list of models for his crews a bit small, but it doesn't hurt him. The models in that list have a variety of uses for them and really none of them have only a single use, they can all be useful in a variety of ways and play styles. So with very little variety compared to other Masters, The Dreamer certainly does a whole lot.

As a word of warning, The Dreamer is one of the most complex Masters in Malifaux and often requires a very firm grasp of the core rules to fully understand.

Before We Begin...
The Dreamer and Lord Chompy Bits are a 2 model Master with both models having drastically different stats and abilities. When selecting a Master you actually select the Dreamer as your Master and Lord Chompy Bits comes with him and starts the game buried. Because both of these models are so different, I have made a page for each of them and added sections to both pages where their abilities uses cross over and have to do with each other. So please be sure to read both this model's page and Lord Chompy Bits's page to get the full details on this complex and engaging Master.

=__**Important Rule Update!**__= Many of the Dreamers and LCB's abilities which state "Replace" should now say "Place" and will be updated when his V2 card is released. This includes, Dreamer's Revenge, Nightmare Friend, All Done, and Calm Nightmares. See link [|Here].

=__Dreamer Errata!__= A major [|Errata] has been released for the Dreamer and Day Dreams as well is [|Bury]. This errata is far reaching and has changed many aspects of the Dreamer and how he will play, most predominantly it reduces the effectiveness of the Long Strike with LCB as well as increasing the cost to bury him afterwards. A page has been created to specifically discuss and examine these changes and how they effect our beloved Master: Dreamer Errata Walkthrough

=Mobility= Like most Neverborn Masters, The Dreamer is a very mobile Master and has several tricks for increasing his overall mobility. But unlike any other Master, his crew is extremely dependent on his maneuverability, relying on him to get where his crew needs to go. With this in mind, you will soon realize the Dreamer is one of the most movement-dependent Masters in the game.

I Can Fly!
This action forms the core of the Dreamer's personal mobility, changing his Wk to a very high 7 with Flight puts him well above most Masters' speed. This means he can very quickly get where he wants on the board when he wants to get there regardless of what is in his way. Be careful of enemy models that can stop you from using this action; without it his maneuverability drops dramatically, and his crew depends heavily on him getting where he needs to go each turn.

Daydreams and The Dreamer Hop
The Dreamer Hop is a basic movement strategy that any Dreamer player wants to practice and Master when you're beginning to play. The basics of it are:
 * __The Dreamer__
 * Unbury LCB by using Nightmare Friend.
 * Unburying Daydream(s) with Frightening Dream (and hopefully the All My Friends trigger).
 * __Daydream__is moved up field via some means (either through actually moving or being unburied up there).
 * Uses Lead Nightmare to pull LCB 4" further along.
 * Uses Calm Nightmares to place The Dreamer in B2B with LCB.
 * Uses Call Nightmares (which sacrifices the Daydream) to place LCB in safety.
 * __Lord Chompy Bits__can contribute to this by:
 * Using his All Done trigger to bury himself and place the Dreamer in B2B with him. It's safer to bury him with a Daydream, but if you have the suit in your hand to get the All Done trigger then go for it

This forms the core of the Dreamer's maneuverability and mastering when and where to use these abilities is how you will master The Dreamer. There are too many applications of these abilities to list them all so with all this in mind, here are several basic ways to make use of these abilities:

The basic use for this is going after a Master or important Minion/Henchman that is in a spot where you can't afford to leave LCB for the turn. It's a hit and run tactic that should leave LCB with 1-2 attacks before he is pulled out of there and hidden.
 * LCB Delivery:**
 * Dreamer uses **(0) I Can Fly!**
 * Dreamer moves up the board **(1) Walk** once (+7") or twice (+14").
 * If needed Dreamer summons one or more Daydreams with **(1) Frightening Dream**.
 * Dreamer uses **Nightmare Friend** to bring out LCB (about +2").
 * LCB moves with a **(1) Walk** (+4") or a **(2) Charge** (+6")
 * LCB attacks with **(+1) Melee Expert** (3").
 * LCB buries himself with trigger **All Done,** or Daydream buries LCB with **Lead Nightmare** and **Calm Nightmares.**
 * Optionally, another Daydream moves away and moves LCB to safety with **Call Nightmares,** which sacrifices the Daydream.

Total threat range: 23" for one attack, or 18" for two attacks.

Dreamer/LCB - Nightmare Friend
This is the Dreamers main way of getting LCB onto the field because it is a (0) action and won't cost LCB any of his precious AP to use. There is not a whole lot of complexity here, just remember that because of LCB's One Master LCB will Immediately Activate once he unburies so use this to your advantage. Use the Dreamers much greater Mobility to get into position and then bring LCB out to play.

Note that since June 2012 errata changes, there are only three ways to bring out LCB:
 * Dreamer: **Nightmare Friend**
 * Dreamer: **Release Nightmares** (Dreamer has to die)
 * Daydreams: **Call Nightmares** (sacrifices Daydream)

__NOTE:__ This ability has been errata'ed since the Rules Manual's release due to a change in wording. This should now say "Bury this model and Place a friendly buried Lord Chompy Bits in Base to Base with it".

=Offense= The Dreamers true offensive ability is not his weapon or even himself, his true offensive power is his crew and Lord Chompy Bits.

Twisted Reality
While this is not exactly a high damage weapon, it does have the superb 12" range with a high Cb of 6. Even though attacking isn't really the Dreamer's thing, this lets him harass from afar when needed. If he has a few Daydreams around him then all those little hits can add up after a while, just don't expect this weapon to blow anyone's head off. He does have Gunfighter with it, so he is not left to just having bash. Remember that Gunfighter gives you melee Rng 2" with the weapon and can make disengaging strikes with this weapon.

Frightening Dream & All My Friends Trigger
This is The Dreamer's main offensive measure, unbury his Nightmares at the right moment. Frightening Dream itself is very easy to cast for the Dreamer (which is a good thing because you will cast it often), you only need a 4 of any suite to cast it. But it only lets you unbury a single Nightmare which is where the All My Friends trigger comes into play, about 70% of the time you will want to get this trigger off. The good thing about this arrangement is that you only need a 4 Mask to get the trigger, leaving you a good use for those low Masks in your hand (you want to save at least one in your hand each turn you're able).

The Nightmares you unbury can be placed within 6" of the model casting the spell and by the Rules Manual (pg 6) within just means part of their base has to be within that distance. So you actually get a little bit more effective range with these Nightmares and this flexibility helps you place them when dealing with Terrain and base blocking.

The most common mistake when using the Dreamer is rushing to drop your Nightmares as fast as you can. While this is often very effective it will also get you killed just as often if your opponent knows the Dreamer's play style. Patience is your friend as the Dreamer, your supreme speed and maneuverability trump just about any other Master and crew. You want to deliver your Nightmares into the weak points in their crew, dropping them behind models that have already gone for the turn, or weak models with little true chance of retaliating. A favorite strategy is setting your Nightmares down in such a way that their support models are in between you and their main attacking models so they literally have to trip over themselves to get to you.

You don't have to set your Nightmares down so they are in combat already, while it is often very beneficial for them to start right next to their pray this can bite you in the ass. Mainly it's because those Nightmares will activate like every other model in the game and give your opponent chances to react and counter your assault (with the exception of Lilitu and Lelu and doing a Bond Alpha strike). So you may want to place them further away from your opponent but still in range to walk up and attack them or charge them, generally hiding behind walls, forests etc. Wherever you put yourself, just make sure that the Nightmare is close enough to reach its target and do what it wants. This is very important to do against crews that can Alpha strike (like Perdita and her Ortegas) or have a lot of durability/armor/death effects as this can lead to disaster for you. So make sure you look over your opponent's model;s cards carefully and keep an eye out for things like that, your Nightmares are not tough remember. You have a lot of offensive power, but you have to live long enough to use this.

Also remember many of your Nightmares have Terrifying and the Dreamer can grant this to any that don't have it with Night Terrors and if you're going against Living models this can give you a big advantage. At the very least, this will create a bunch of duels (remember: If a model is in range of multiple Terrifying sources, they have to test for each of them separately) they have to pass and quickly take a toll on their hand.

Unhinge
While you won't find a lot of Wp 4 models that are really worth Paralyzing, sometimes it can just be extremely handy to have an ability like this. It's always worth asking your opponent at the start of every game if they have any Wp 4 models just for this ability. But mainly you will be using this against Gremlins which can be well worth it as they can always do random obscene amounts of damage.

Inflict Dreams
This is an often overlooked but very powerful spell. That Negative flip to the model's Defense, Casting, and Wp duels dramatically increases their chance of failure not only because they have a greater chance of pulling the card they don't need (most of the time), they also can no longer cheat the result. So when it comes time to go after your opponent's Master, this is a very good spell to get on them before you start making your attacks. Remember though, this is only when they are defending against Nightmares, meaning they are being actively targeted by some action or effect from a Nightmare model and are the Defender in that duel. Since it is a (0) action it conflicts a bit with the general actions you take to get LCB into position (I Can Fly! and Nightmare Friend), but by simply using Frightening Dream with the trigger you can use that 2nd (0) action for this spell instead and give LCB a huge advantage. Simply put, it is highly recommended that you cast this spell on an enemy Master before you send LCB in against them; particularly against those with powerful Melee Abilities and especially against Lady Justice (don't want to suffer from Riposte). Just be prepared to Soulstone the casting total up high when targeting a Master.

A quick point of clarification for those of you wondering what it means exactly by Defense, Casting, and Wp Flips.
 * The Defense Flip part refers to the flip the defender makes when being targeted by a melee or ranged attack and NOT to duels specifically involving Df stat.
 * The Casting Flip part refers to the flip made when Casting a spell, NOT to duels specifically involving the Ca Stat.
 * The Wp Flips part refers to any and all flips involving Wp.

Calm Dreams
Not a whole lot of tricks with this ability except making sure you understand the caster does not need LoS to the Nightmares he is burying because the spell does not reference anything about "target nightmare" and the spell itself targets the caster. This can be a handy tip to remember so you don't have to expose your Dreamer/Daydreams as often when you need to hide your Nightmares.

Rapid Eye Movement
Don't look down on Flurry so quickly, with powerful Nightmares like Coppelius that is an extra attack and a very very dead target. With the Dreamer able to essentially drop these bad boys into position, they have all their Ap free and don't have the usual problems of trying to use Flurry (not having enough Ap to use it in the same turn they move). So you can drop your Nightmares off and then give one of them an extra little boost which will either hopefully ensure they kill their target or draw even more attention to them making them a better distraction. A Coppelius with Flurry right behind your opponent's Master tends to get a lot of attention very quickly and often forces them to activate their Master next or some model that can save them.

=Resilience=

Resilience - Dreamer
The Dreamer has very little resilience and relies more on avoiding ever having the potential of getting attacked than being able to survive incoming hits. With a Df of 2 and only 3 Wds, he is very easy to kill if you can catch him even with the Spirit Characteristic. So his main methods of staying alive are staying away from potential harm and burying himself to bring out the much tougher and more dangerous LCB.

Dreamer - A Ghost of Malifaux
Not a whole lot to really explain with this ability except that there is the word "may" in the rules for it, meaning he does not always have to ignore these effects. He can choose to ignore them or not so that he can be effected by beneficial Pulses and Auras and avoid the harmful ones. He makes this choice at the time he would be affected by the effect and on a per effect basis.

Dreamer - Shadowy Form
This is one of the most talked about and debated abilities to come out of Book 2 but thankfully Wyrd has saved our rears and made a few tweaks to it which make it drastically easier to understand.

The new wording is: "Enemy models cannot target the Dreamer with Actions if there is a friendly Nightmare within 3" of the Dreamer that could be a __Legal Target__ of the Action" Post [|Here]

Target is defined on **Rm Pg 14** and includes the wording for Legal Target to which the most important distinction between Target and Legal Target is that Legal Target includes range. That means that in order to protect the Dreamer with this ability, the other Nightmare needs to be a possible Target and be within Range of the effect (ie making him a legal target).This means that this ability is often more useful when the Dreamer is standing in the open rather than hiding partially behind terrain.

When dealing with long ranged Attacks/Effects (be they weapon strikes or spells) this is not that hard to do as many of the Nightmares are a good deal larger than the Ht 1 Dreamer. Often simply keeping a Teddy next to him is enough to foil Range attacks against you as long as the attack/effect doesn't have targeting restrictions (ex: Can only target Ht 1 could not be bounced off to a nearby Teddy as he is not a legal target of the effect). When dealing with ranged attacks/effects be sure to keep an eye out for models trying to cut the protecting Nightmare out of LoS as this would make them no longer a Legal Target and allow them to nail the Dreamer.

When dealing with Melee and close ranged Attacks/Effects, things get a lot trickier because that Nightmare has to be in range of the effect/attack in question. At this point there is very little you can do as often the model can position itself in such a way as to stay out of range of the Nightmare but still in range of you. So this can be a good reason to keep a big Nightmare slightly in front (about 1") of the Dreamer between you and the enemy or put a Nightmare on each of his flanks (his sides). This way you maximize your chances of him getting into range of one of them when he goes for the Dreamer.

With this in mind please understand this is not a critical ability to worry about, the Dreamer does not get pasted if you don't specifically tailor your play style to keeping Nightmares in position to be possible targets. You are often better off playing a Hit-and-run style and always making sure to hide the Dreamer out of LoS once you're done attacking. Shadowy Form should be looked at as being a last resort/special case ability and not something you rely on constantly. Maximize your Dreamer Shuffle and practice moving in to attack and getting far away afterward.

=Soulstones=

Dreamer - Soulstones
The Dreamer doesn't have a lot of uses for SS himself, his counterpart Lord ChompyBits is the one who is going to spend the bulk of your SS. But every now and then the Dreamer is going to need to get off Inflict Dreams on an opponent's model or need to save himself from an incoming attack. Otherwise, he has very little need to spend SS as he doesn't attack much (and you really shouldn't be relying on his attacks if you have the option) and has only 1 spell that affects the enemy directly.

LCB - Soulstones
This is where the bulk of your SS will be used, generally for attacking but every now and then for defense when you get caught out in the open and there is no good place to hide the Dreamer. Don't be afraid to spend them as you gain nothing by keeping them at the end of the game. If you have a shot at a powerful model and a SS should make you hit, use it. If you're being attacked and the duel is close, use one. Remember though, LCB is not all that tough. He has a low Df and only 10 Wds with no defensive abilities besides Terrifying, if he is left in the fray he will take damage quickly. So especially when you'er being attacked, don't be afraid to burn the SS and try to dodge the attacks or prevent damage where you can.

Master of Dreams
If you were wondering why the Dreamer has a Cache of 0, this is why. For each Nightmare the Dreamer player takes, he gets 1SS to his SS Pool at the start of the Encounter and he can't get more than 5ss this way. Don't read that last part wrong, this does not limit your pool only to 5ss it just means you can not get more than 5ss this way. Also remember, these additional SS count against the Maximum number of SS in your Starting Pool. So don't save any SS specifically to add to your pool if this is going to bring you beyond 8.

Daydreaming/Dreamer's Daydream
These two spells (one on the Dreamer and the other on LCB) both consume 2ss to summon or create a Daydream. But they are meant for emergency uses and should always be kept in the back of your mind.

=Tricks and Tips=

Understanding One Master
The "activates Immediately" of this ability trumps companion and normal activation. Totems stay connected when switching between the pair.

Understanding Shared Actions
3 general AP points shared between the two. You may still use AP granted from instinctual and melee master, but each may only use at most 2 general AP of the 3 AP pool. This means that in a turn the Dreamer may use two (0) abilities and one or two (1) abilities. If one of the (0) abilities was to turn in LCB then Chompy may use the +1 AP from melee master and whatever general AP are left in the pool

Release Nightmares
The Dreamer has a dead man's trigger built into his model in case of early game death. When the Dreamer dies (not LCB) you may place any number of buried Nightmares (including Lord Chompy Bits) within 6" before removing the Dreamer from play. This does work if the Dreamer was sacrificed as well as killed.

The Two most important things to remember about Nightmares:

 * 1) They are not living models so they do not have to worry about Terrifying and do not leave Corpse Counters.
 * 2) __**THEY ARE NOT TOUGH!**__

=Strategies and Schemes for The Dreamer=

The Dreamer loves movement and targeted kill based objectives. He is very good at Kidnap, Kill Protege, etc

=__The Dreamer in Brawls__=

Brawling with Zoraida
The Dreamer is basically a cruise missile that dispenses a payload of glass cannon nightmares into your opponent's face. Naturally, Zoraida's Bewitch can cripple enemy models that Dreamer plans to target (or that he's in danger of getting killed by) and aside from the usual shenanigans from obeying enemy models, she can also Obey Daydreams to walk forward and thus increase the reach of Dreamer's nightmare bomb. Zoraida is likely to be quite safe from enemy attacks - Dreamer is generally a massive enough threat that your opponent will probably be focusing on him instead.

Brawling with Pandora
With the Dreamer it's mainly to capitalize on the //Terrifying// and that they share a lot of preferred models (Madness, Stitched Together, Lelu & Lilitu, Coppelius, etc.). So Pandora can quickly zip up the board on her own while the Dreamer sets up for his drop, letting Pandora cover him or him cover her. Either way, their crossing model preferences make them a very lethal pair with very few wasted SS on models that will only benefit one of your Masters.

Brawling with Lilith
Both crews are heavily based around speed and melee power and even share some models (Lelu & Lilitu). The Dreamer brings a nice surprise element to the table while Lilith draws most of the enemy's attention. Have the Dreamer bring out his Nightmares and LCB at the right moment and aim to snap the enemies back while he's trying to fend off the Nephilim tearing into his front.

=Building a Crew=

The Dreamer's play style revolves around burying Nightmares, therefore while you can take other Neverborn you should avoid it when building a crew.
 * Daydream
 * Alp
 * Coppelius
 * Insidious Madness
 * Lelu
 * Lilitu
 * Night Terror (See //Dark Dreams// Errata)
 * Stitched Together
 * Teddy
 * Weaver Widow

=Starting The Dreamer=

The Dreamer's starter box contains The Dreamer, Lord Chompy Bits, Coppelius, and 2 Stitched Together. Regardless of the type of Nightmare force you want to run, your first purchase must be a box of 3 daydream totems. They are the linch pin to The Dreamer's bury/unbury style of play and the master functions quite badly without them. Adding the daydreams gives you a starting crew of exactly 25ss. While The Dreamer does have a cache of 0, his Master of Dreams rule means he gains 1ss to his pool per non-master nightmare in the crew up to max of 5. The starter set plus daydreams has 6 nightmares giving him the max 5ss pool

Your next purchases will all depend on what element you want for your crew. If you want some hard hitting melee then consider the Lelu/Lilitu combo. For cheap minions who can disrupt enemy plans and cause wounds by proximity consider a box of 3 alps (also good for being summoned mid game by Coppelius). Pure speed objective grabbers fall under the domain of the Insidious Madness or a flock of Night Terrors. Finally Teddy loses his rare status in The Dreamer's crew and can be purchased or summoned mid game by the newest nightmare the Weaver Widow.

=Playing Against The Dreamer=

Your task is not going to be easy. The Dreamer is fast, hits harder that almost anything else in the game, has a very powerful crew and even the 'weak' defense of 4ish for most of the crew is still average. He will dictate the place and time of the battle.

Base Block. High Armor. Don't spread out too much. Blasts/AE damage is your friend.

You will likely out active the Dreamer early. He might only have the Dreamer and a Daydream or 2 on the table to start. Can you take advantage of this is the question.

The Dreamer's ability to get LCB and his other nasty friends into melee almost at will is always going to be a problem. What you can do after is going to be the key. If you can survive his initial charge, both LCB and The Dreamer have low defense and few tricks to save them. If you can get them burning SS to prevent wounds, maybe give them slow or paralyze them then they can get into trouble fast.

The Dreamer does need to use cards to set up some of his attacks and to use triggers, so forcing him to use them on defense or discard cards can really limit his ability to do what he wants to do.

If you can kill the Dreamer or even just the Daydreams from afar (here is looking at you Hans!) then that can cause him to lose a good chunk of his mobility early. Something that can give the Dreamer slow early such as McCabe can also limit him.

The Neverborn don't have a huge number of magic weapons, so you may have some protection there...


 * 2 strategies that can work:**

A strategy of avoidance can work. He is going to catch models and kill them, but he can't be everywhere at once, and if you can keep your distance and focus on objectives then you can frustrate him, pulling his limited resources in many different directions.

Clumping your models together can work. If you can set up a counter attack you may be able to destroy LCB early. The danger is that is what he wants. He has a melee range of 3, so be sure you know you can kill him quick or he will just tie up 1/2 your models. Be sure to use SS on Initiative! Winning Initiative when he is in the middle of your crew is going to be a game changer!

As always, focus on your objectives!

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//"Without our imaginations, we'd be like all those other poor... dullards. Fear is the price of our instrument."// -Hannibal Lecter