M2E+Nekima

** LIVING, NEPHILIM **
 * Nekima, Neverborn Henchman**

=__Overview__=

ekima is Lilith's sister and rival for rulership of the Nephilim of Malifaux. A vengeful warrior of terrible fury, she cuts down enemies in masses to feed her beloved Terror Tots. She feels that Lilith's rise to power was wrongful, and she herself is the true ruler of Malifaux. Until the time comes when she can usurp her rightful place, Nekima the Nephilim princess bides her time.

Nekima is most often seen working with her hated rival Lilith, providing heavy melee and growth options, but she can also be found in a Crew with other Neverborn leaders. Pandora benefits from the Wp duels she creates, and Zoraida can move her into position as a very frightening beatstick. Dreamer can remove conditions efficiently and push models in order to keep Nekima's summons up to pace. toc

=__Mobility__= Nekima is fairly fast, with **Flight** and **Wk 6.** However, she can definitely benefit from other models that can assist her in getting into melee more quickly.

=__Offense__=

Melee
Nekima is renowned for the tremendous danger she poses with **Lorelei, the Living Blade**. At 3" range, with **Ml 7 rams** and **4/5/6** damage, it's definitely something to be feared. On a mask, she gets the trigger //The Bloody Beauty//, which forces all models within 4" to make a **Wp** duel against a 13 or be pushed up to 5" in any direction (likely toward a friendly model with **Pounce**.) On a tomes, she can draw a card with //Rejoice.//

She also has **Melee Expert** built-in, for an extra attack with the blade.

She also has a built-in ram trigger for this attack, only usable when she slays a friendly Leader. She becomes the Leader instead, gains **Melee Master** for the rest of the game, and heals 4. This isn't an Ability you're likely to use very often, but it could be a way to buff Nekima significantly and possibly score some VP if your Leader is about to die anyway.

=Black Blood= Nekima can export a lot of damage passively with **Black Blood.** This does 1 damage to any models without **Black Blood** whenever Nekima takes damage. Nekima can get a lot of mileage out of this ability. She can heal herself back up after damage and has a lot of **Wd**, so **Black Blood** damage will often work to her advantage, especially when she's surrounded.

Furthermore, Nekima can trigger this effect herself with **(0) Blood for Blood**, which just does 1 damage to Nekima on a 4 card or better. If that card is a mask, she can do it twice, to do 2 damage to herself and damage everyone nearby as well. This can soften up resilient enemy models.

=Bonus Killing Benefit= Nekima can amplify the effects of killing a model as well, no matter which method she uses to kill.

With **(0) Teach Them Fear**, she can improve what happens when she kills a non-Peon model. If she kills a model after using this ability, Nekima heals 2 damage, and all enemy models must make a TN 14 Horror Duel. If you suspect Nekima's going to kill a model (she probably is), remember to put this up beforehand unless you need to use **Blood for Blood.**

If she takes **The True Mother** as an Upgrade, killing a model with this will also let a nearby Nephilim **Grow** or **Mature**. If she manages to kill with **Black Blood** or **Black Blood Postule** from Lilith or a Black Blood Shaman, she can even discard a card to summon a Terror Tot!

=__Resilience__= Nekima has a so-so **Df 5** but a very strong **Wp 7.** Most of her defense comes from her very high **Wd 12**, the discouragement of **Black Blood**, and her multiple ways of healing.

Nekima can heal herself in several ways:
 * When she activates, she heals 1 from ** Regeneration +1. **
 * With ** Teach Them Fear **, she heals 2 each time she kills a non-Peon enemy model.
 * With ** Birthright **, she heals 4 when she kills a friendly Leader. This is usually not a good idea.

Other models can also heal her, including The Dreamer, Black Blood Shaman, Coppelius, and the Wicked Doll.

=__Upgrades__=

The True Mother
A powerful upgrade for a Nephilim grow list. Nekima's kills count for a nearby Nephilim for **Grow** and **Mature**, and if Nekima kills a model with **Black Blood,** she summons a Terror Tot. Take this every time if you want a Nephilim grow Crew!

Fears Given Form
This upgrade can give Nekima even more of a reason to get into the middle of everybody, and cause even more damage in an AOE in addition to **Black Blood** and **Black Blood Postule**. Be careful about taking this upgrade on a Nephilim Grow List, however, as this can potentially keep you from being able to kill things with **Black Blood** and keep you from getting a Terror Tot for your trouble. Still, this can be highly effective against lots of minions, and it can make attacking Nekima in melee very dangerous to all but the hardiest of models, and can lead to lots and lots of healing from **Teach Them Fear**.

Obsidian Talons
Gives all Nephilim **Flay.** The ability to cheat on a negative flip is huge. It is not as important for Nekima because her Weak damage is so high, but the extra damage can still be devastating, and if you've got a Red Joker to cheat in you can do a simply insane 10 damage with a single hit. The main reason not to take this ability is that you can put it on another Nephilim instead.

=__Tactics and Tips__= Using Nekima is pretty clear: you move her into close combat and use a combination of Black Blood and Lorelei to cut down everyone nearby. This can also grow and spawn more Nephilim if you took **The True Mother**. It is important to note though that Nekima will not be able to handle a lot of retaliation. Going into a crowd of enemies will probably end up with her being killed, if she cannot kill and/or Paralyze everything in sight. Sometimes that is called for; but more often than not, Nekima will benefit from having the unfair fight with a single enemy model or two scheme runners. A good way to go about this is to calculate how much damage Nekima can dish out after reaching her prey, and how much retaliation she will be exposed to.

Since Nekima isn't the sturdiest model around, having her going late in a turn if often a good tactic (unless you have other models who can keep her safe, like her sister), as is going after already activated targets. Neverborn has plenty of ways to cheat activation control (Incite from Iggy and Pandora, Doppelganger's Ill Omens), which can all help to keep Nekima safe for enough time to either kill everything in sight or escape.

Often the biggest dilemma when using Nekima is how to get her into combat as quickly as possible. She definitely benefits a great deal from friendly push and move abilities, which are fortunately very common in a Nephilim crew. These include Black Blood Shaman's Blood in the Air, Mr Graves' Show You the Door, and Lilith's Transfixing Gaze and Tangle Shadows.

=__Leading a Crew__= Nekima can lead a Crew in a Henchman-led game! Actually, she can also assassinate any leader and lead a Crew in a Master-led game, which she feels is her right. Nekima is quite powerful compared to other Henchmen, and has a lot of abilities you don't normally see with other Henchmen, like extra AP and Summoning.

If playing in a Henchman-scale game, one expensive but nasty trick to consider is to have another Henchman start leading the game (preferably an inexpensive one like Bad Juju or Widow Weaver), with a plan to use Birthright during play. This gives Nekima more Soulstones to use during play, as well as the extra healing and Melee Master, but it also means risking losing a lot of Soulstones on a gamble and a wasted leader.

Strategies and Schemes
Nekima does best when she has a clear set of things to kill, or a cluster of enemies to explode on. She loves Schemes like Assassinate, Make Them Suffer, and Kill Protege, as well as Strategies like Turf War and Reckoning. For Interact-based schemes, she's likely to rely heavily on her beloved Terror Tots.

Building a Crew
Most of Nekima's interactions benefit from Nephilim, who all have Black Blood, can benefit from Grow abilities, and can push her into position and benefit from Nekima's own push abilities. In a grow crew, she especially benefits from having a Black Blood Shaman around.

The Doppelganger and Changelings can all copy Nekima's trusty sword. Thus are great running mates for her.

=__Playing Against Nekima__= When Nekima wades into combat, she's terrifying, especially to a crowd of enemy models with friendly Nephilim nearby to synergize with. If possible, it's great to damage her from range so her Black Blood can't come into play. Keeping her away from you is a good strategy if you can do it.

Nekima has very high Wp, but her defense is average. If she gets water over her head, charges into a too large group of enemies, she will have a hard time surviving. Setting up traps by feeding her juicy targets is probably a good way to try and overextend her.

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