Gremlin dissection: Ophelia Lacroix

So this will be a small segment where I’ll discuss all the different models in the (current Malifaux 1) crew. Once the “new” box will be out, I’ll revisit this segment and talk about the new set as a whole.

For now, let us get our dissection equipment out and dive into the gremlin master: Ophelia Lacroix

The stats

If we have a look at the stats you can see she has a few interesting stats. She has a DF of 6 / WP 6 which are practically the same for all 3 pure gremlin masters. The rest of the stats are average, but the only thing she has is a WK of 6, which is fairly quick. She can zip around the board quickly enough and with some movement shenanigans she can do some board control as well.

She is Ht 1which is handy with her crew. They don’t have to target her or other HT 1 models within 3’’ of her. Some other models have the same ability as well which can come in handy.

The last thing is a cache of 3 which is OK.  You need a bit more stones I think since she can be easy to hit and you need those to get in suits for her offensive and defensive triggers. I normally play with a cache of 6 – 7.

The skills

She has 4 abilities on her card. Most of them I like and one of them is ok, but I don’t see myself using that one a lot.

The first one is companion. This one is like the previous kin-ability where you could activate more than 2 models each time to kill models in one swoop. Now you have the ability to activate one model and herself. It specifically states a friendly model and not a kin model so any model in her crew can trigger this ability which gives you a bit more versatility in model selection.

The Plink! ability lets you reduce the damage by one. This is before damage prevention, so it can give you a bit more durability, but you need the upgrades to make this gremlin work. I’ll not be using this one a lot. It’s a nice bonus for me, nothing more.

The next one is a defensive trigger which needs a mask. It’s Second Loudest Squeel. When you suffer damage, you can push up to 4’’. This one is nice since you can move out of combat this way or when you get hit by ranged attacks or casting, you can potentially push further behind a wall so that you’re safe for the other attacks. It also states up to 4, so you don’t have to go the entire 4’’. It can come in handy when you need to push away, but not that far so you don’t push into another melee, hazardous terrain, ect.

The last one is an ability she had in 1^st ed and that I used quite a lot. It’s “Shoot High, Boys” and it lets you fire into combat without targeting your own gremlin HT 1 models. I’ve used this one more than I can count. It’s effectively a 6’’ bubble in which your gremlins only target the enemy (HT 2 or greater) models. Combine this with her speed and other movement tricks and you have a very good shooting enhancing master.

The actions

She has 2 (1) actions and 2 (0) actions on the card.

The first one is “Rough riders”. It has a basic shooting attack which she can use in ML as well. It has a decent value of 6. It does 2/3/4 damage and gives [+] to all attacks (basically paired from previous edition).It has a trigger on a ram which does double damage and she gets one wound in return. It’s the same as her 1^st edition card.

Her other one action is Reload which let her attach an upgrade which has her name on it. Currently there are 3 upgrades. The action is also a tactical upgrade.

The 2 (o) actions are With My Eyes Closed and Ooo, A Girl. The first one gives your SH attacks a [+]. However your opponent can choose which enemy model you have to hit. It has to be in LoS and range. It’s for the rest of Ophelia’s activation.

The second one (Ooo, A Girl) lets you push a friendly gremlin within 8’’ into base contact with you. It’s great to get models out of combat or reposition your models so they can shoot better or attack faster, drop scheme markers, ect..

 The tricks

She has 3 personal upgrades. All 3 are guns she can use. They all have a secondary ability as well.

The first one is My treatenin’ gun. It hands out horror duels (TN 13) and dishes out 4/5/6 damage. The trigger on a ram lets you pulse the horrorduel for all models . You have the ram build in so you can always choose to let the gun do the pulse or not. The additional (0) action lets a gremlin within 8’’ do a (1)action which gives a [-] to that duel. You can use it to drop a scheme marker as well so it’s a sort of obey you can do with this action. Also you don’t drop the gun when you used it so that’s nice as well.

The Jug rocket ignores LoS and you discard this upgrade afterwards. The additional (0) lets you replace a gremlin within 2’’ to somewhere within  8’’  of this model. So this is a nice movement trick as well.

The Hooch igniter ignores cover, hands out blast and on the ram trigger it gives burning +2. You discard it when you use this gun. The additional (1) action takes away Slow and Paralyzed conditions within 10’’ and gives them burning +1 instead.

From these upgrades I would always take the treatenin’ gun. It gives you the option to hand out paralyze and the (0) action is nice as well. The other 2 upgrades are a bit situational. The Hooch igniter is nice against a crew like Rasputina which thrive on slow and paralyze. The other one is nice if you have a lot of blocking terrain. You don’t ignore the cover, but you can still shoot something, which you couldn’t do before.

Out of the other upgrades I would choose dirty cheater, which heals your model when you cheat. It gives some more durability to the model.

Some maybe upgrades are gremlin see (shrug off a condition)( but it competes with the other (0) actions you have as well), liquid bravery (which gives you stubborn and also another (0) action, giving +2WP) and quality mash liquor (giving you or a model within 2’’ a 1/2/3 heal for a (1) action).

These 3 upgrades give you some variety, but they compete with better (0) and (1) actions which do better things in my opinion than these 3 upgrades.

The looks

I love the models in this crew and I love the new artwork. I can see me buying a new box set when it comes out even though I have the old models. The overall feel of the crew and specifically this model  is the sort of thing I like in the “new Malifaux”. It a bit darker, more gritty and they look more dynamic as well.

Overall I can say that if you are looking for a master that can shoot well, move fast and do some crazy movement tricks as well, then this master is the gremlin you are looking for.