M2E+Marionette


 * Marionette, Neverborn Totem (Collodi)**

=__Overview__= toc Marionettes are Collodi's lovable totems. He can hire up to four of them, and its usually worth it to grab a handful. At only three soulstones each, they are probably the least expensive significant model in the game.

=__Mobility__=

Marionettes are pretty average in the mobility department, with a Walk of 5 and a Charge of 6.

They do have a bit of extra movement in the form of their Dragging Along action, which allows them to discard a card to push a target friendly model within 6" up to two inches in any direction. While this can be a useful way to use the low cards in your hand, don't get too carried away with it and toss your entire hand at your Marionettes just for a few extra inches of movement. That being said, Dragging Along is a great way to pull your models out of combat without having to worry about disengaging strikes.

=__Offense__=

The melee attack of a Marionette is pretty alright for such a cheap minion. It goes from a lackluster Ml 4 to a more reasonable Ml 5 while you're within 6" of Collodi.The Made to Follow trigger is pretty much custom-made to be used in conjunction with Collodi's Personal Puppet condition or his My Will action, as it grants the Marionette an extra attack if the original attack was taken outside of its activation. With Personal Puppet especially these little papercuts can quickly add up.

The Protect the Puppet Master trigger is solid, giving the Marionette +1 damage if it's within 6" of Collodi. This brings its attack up to a very impressive 2/3/5, which is quite something when coming from a 3ss totem. If you're got Fast or Focus on the Marionette, this can make them surprisingly dangerous models to have hanging out near Collodi.

Tell No Lies is a weird little action that makes it so that neither the Marionette nor its target can Cheat Fate or use Soulstones during the Marionette's next action. It's a bit of a gamble, because it prevents you from cheating as well as the opponent, but if you're Focused and have the Marionette within 6" of Collodi it can be a good way to put some real hurt onto some enemy models without them being able to do anything about it.

=__Resilience__=

For how cheap they are, Marionettes are annoyingly durable. They have a decent Willpower and Defense of 5, and while they only have four wounds, Hard to Kill makes difficult to take out in a single activation.

The Perfect Match ability makes them all but immune to Poison, and can even help to mitigate the damage of conditions such as Burning.

=__Tactics and Tips__=

Marionettes are, not surprisingly, custom designed to support Collodi and all of his various tricks. The Perfect Match ability allows them to ignore the damage they would take to gain extra attacks when Personal Puppets, and their Made to Follow trigger rewards them for taking attacks out of their activation in this manner. Furthermore, their Retract ability allows the Marionette to throw any Conditions it has on it (such as Personal Puppet) onto a friendly Minion within 6" when the Marionette is killed. If the friendly Minion is also a Marionette, it can be quite difficult to keep Collodi from having a Personal Puppet active at any given time.

Because they're Minions, Marionettes are great at holding territory for Turf War or Reconnoiter, and a horde of them can easily spread out to lay down Scheme Markers or to capture markers for Stake a Claim.

Because they're constructs, when Marionettes die they'll drop scrap markers, which Collodi can use to summon new Marionettes or Wicked Dolls, or they can get picked up and used by the Widow Weaver (who also provides the Marionettes with a bit of a speed increase) to transform into Wicked Dolls or even a Teddy (with her Handbag upgrade).

=__Playing Against Marionettes__=

With how clustered together Marionettes want to be around Collodi, Blasts are probably your best bet to clear out a bunch of Marionettes all at once. Even if you kill all of them, however, Collodi can just bring them back, but at least it forces him to waste his AP summoning instead of taking control of your crew.


 * __Ownership__ **

Unless otherwise stated, all names and images on this site are property of Wyrd Miniatures, LLC. ([|Link])