This man knows his Collodi and he was a requested Master, so without further ado...
Hello there folks! Not-Panzer here, let me start with a quick introduction… no wait.
There, that pretty much had to be first right? Anyways, I’m Graeme (Tayne on the forums when I bother to post) and one of Panzer’s teammates. I played Collodi pretty heavily earlier in the year to some success and much swearing by our friendly, resident tank-impersonator. Someone on twitter requested a shopping list for our Puppet Master so, for my faults (and they are legion), I volunteered my duties.
Naturally enough, I’m going to break Panzer’s established three sets rule a little. Collodi has two limited upgrades granting him two different playstyles, ergo I’m going to give you two sets of three. I honestly thought I would prefer one heavily and ended up loving the other, but all that tells us is that, when you get down to it, I’m a bit of a muppet at times (I agree with this sentiment - Panzer).
Fated Collodi
Fated Collodi is primarily a support master, giving his AP to his crew to get the work done they need, passing on focus or defensive and passing one effigy buff out to his crew each turn. Which leads to our first pick.
1. Brutal Effigy
Collodi will carry Strum the Threads every time he’s played. He just will. This allows any puppet activating within aura 6 to take 2 damage and go Fast (yes, that includes Collodi himself). 2 damage to self for 3 chances to heal through this buff. The card draw is icing on the cake here, you will not regret taking him.
As a side note, you can use his poor shooting attack to hit Collodi and give the Puppet Lord a free 3” push each time. You may have to cheat to make sure the attack misses though.
2. Stitched Together
These fiendish little treasures will have your opponents cursing you up and down every street of whatever town you’re playing in. Gamble Your Life is a shockingly powerful attack, dealing an uncheatable 3/4/7 to the loser of the duel with no + or – applied.
Now this does mean they can end up dealing a hefty damage to themselves. This is mitigated this by a) picking targets you can bully (Ca6 vs Df, pick the targets with the lower Df stat as a priority) b) them having Hard to Kill and c) getting reactivate when they drop to 1 wound remaining. Yeah, they only have one wound left, but another activation is very, very strong.
3. Widow Weaver
It’s a non-puppet! Yet she is thematically involved with Collodi as she can create Wicked Dolls with her upgrade (it’s an expensive upgrade though - I personally don’t take it) and giving friendly Constructs that activate within 6” of her +1 Wk. Remember those Stitched? Their downside is having a slow Wk4, good old Widow mitigates this for use.
But wait, there’s more. She drops Web markers at the rate of one a turn, lowering the Wp of enemies by 1 per marker within 3”. Collodi’s sole attack is against Wp. Nice. It also boosts her own Terrifying (All) to a potentially higher level. Be wary though, she only has a Df4 and will drop quickly if your opponent focuses fire on her.
I’ll give a quick nod here to Luke Cocksedge, a seasoned Collodi player who runs this Fated list regularly and schooled me with it at Bending Fate. Well played that man, your Collodi is terrifying.
Bag of Props Collodi
With this upgrade, Collodi becomes greedy and steals Focus or Defensive off nearby models to use for himself. He comes with plenty of Marionette totems that can become Focus-fodder in the box, no extra purchases needed there (I generally take 2-3). So, what do I put in his three?
1. Brutal Effigy
Yes. He’s that good he makes both lists.
2. Doppleganger (cue Rooney tinnitus...Eeeeeee-Doppleganger-in-a-dodgy-Canadian-accent-eeeeeee)
You can’t be surprised she made the list somewhere, right? This model is amazing. She has Don’t Mind Me for Interact shenanigans, Ill Omens for Initiative shenanigans and the ability to copy actions on top of a high manipulative value for her defence. She is amazing and almost always causes a pain for your opponent. She is also valued by every Neverborn Master if you’re thinking about later expansion. Buy her, you won’t regret it.
3. McTavish
It’s a tough choice here, you definitely want something big and scary and Nekima or a Teddy could easily be hired if you want to stay in faction or Lazarus as an alternate mercenary, but allow me to explain my reasoning.
Collodi is scary. His attack doesn’t randomise and ignores cover, it has a built in slow trigger and other triggers to make your opponent make an immediate 1 action or steal their first AP when they activate. He is mean and deserves far more hate than he has right now, in my opinion. He is, however, just one model.
Now look at McTavish. A 14” gun that ignores cover, doesn’t randomise and has an excellent damage track. Oh, and that the Doppleganger can mimic for you. On top of this, he has a healthy melee attack to boot. With him, Collodi and the Doppleganger you have a huge control area that your opponent should fear to enter. Nice, eh?
Honourable mention – Mannequin
Now I know I said I’d only do two sets of three, but the Mannequin has a certain place for me that I think needs highlighting. This is due to its 1 action, Magician’s Assistant, which allows models within 2” to place scheme markers anywhere with 6” rather than in base contact with themselves.
That’s right, scheme markers are like Frisbees now.
Now you do still need to keep them 4” from other markers as usual, and you cannot interact if you are engaged (usually, oh hello there Doppleganger!) but this makes schemes like Set Up fairly trivial to complete with Collodi. If I’m taking one of these, I normally have at least two Marionnettes in the list as well to use alongside.
Anyways, that’s all for me. I really need to stop procrastinating and paint models ready for the Nationals…
Apologies to Graeme for taking so long to post this. Yes, he did send it to me before Nationals. But I'm also a muppet.
Hope you enjoyed the article!
