Day 10: Sonnia Criid

Time for the big gun.

Very quickly, a reminder what this blog is and what this blog isn't. This blog is my daily painting and discovery project.  Whilst I will go through various combos and tricks as they occur to me, the point of this process is my practice, discovery and fine tuning with a new keyword.  I cannot profess to have thought of every single combo, tip, trick and usage.  You may very well spot or know things that I miss, and if that's the case please do leave a comment letting me know: Handy Reader! (ooh a new one), such as you are. 

That out of the way, stats. Df and Mv4 are bad. They're just bad.  It's not uncommon to see Sonnia taxi'd about by the Pale Rider or similar as a result.  The internet deeply frowns on you if ever you use Master Ap for walking (long running gag over at Beardminis) and being Mv4 certainly makes this even worse. Wp 7 ofc, lovely. I would much prefer a 5/6 spread but you can't have everything.  She probably needs a coat as often as possible. A solid enough resistance trigger on both Df & Wp, not baked in but is after resolving so is happening win, lose or draw. Means that ranged attackers can not expect to get multiple shots off at the extremes of their ranges and expect to still be in range after the attack has resolved, equally they'll lose cover and concealment thanks to two other front of card abilities that'll get to shortly.

Arcane Shield and Counterspell like much of her keyword, but she benefits from one extra shielded compared to the rest of her crew that have it. 

Seeking & Smothering Flame. I love these two abilities.  Seeking Flame means that Sonnia can ignore cover and concealment on targets with Burning (see above for ruining snipers days) after the Hex Bows or other Witch Hunters have made the initial bombardment (probably not Sammy) making a clear play style of Paint & Nuke appear.  Smothering on the other hand meaning that opponents that can draw LOS to Sonnia must reduce the range of their non claw actions by their burning level.  This can really, really ruin some crews days.  Healers, ranged crews and support masters especially.  The more their ranges are reduced, the more they have to bunch up and the more they bunch up...

Flameburst, it doesn't have the top end 5bbb it had in 2nd edition when I last saw Sonnia on the table, nor does she have Pyrotechnics anymore (give it back Bayou! you're not even using it!) but it does have Burning built in now and with the built in trigger another burning.  This before anything else means you're doing 2 dmg and 2 burning with each hit at a minimum, if you've flipped or stoned for another Tome you can increase that by another burning, or on a Ram an extra blast marker.  Two very, very solid triggers.  You want her focused ideally and there are a number of ways to do it, either with the Guild Steward or using the Purifying Flame to give her Burning +2 and then a Guild Mage or a Spelleater to Transmute that burning into Focus.

She has a sword.  It's not great.  But she has one for an engagement at least. 

Scorch the Soul is an absolute favourite of mine.  Any ability that kills a model and summons a model has been a favourite ever since I first Abracadaver'd a model into a Flesh Construct with McMourning back in M2E.  Is it win more? yes, yes it is. Do I care? absolutely not.  I dream of the day Sonnia activates at the top of a turn with 3 models within 8" with Burning 5 and <5Hp. A 6 activation swing! just imagine. 

I'll round this out her two fast actions, both of which need a 4.  Smouldering Soul puts up a 3" Hazardous aura of 1 dmg and 1 Burning which can be surprisingly effective when people dive in on Sonnia, which they will. Lastly there's Stoke The Flames which gives a focus and a little ping heal to a Witchling within 8".  I'd like this more if Thralls had Hard to Kill, but they don't and to be frank I don't want them too as I want them to explode. 

She's a turret, a big glorious turret but also not held in high regard at all.  I can't ever recall a time when she sat atop the meta in any edition, but I do remember a time when people were deathly afraid of her and I think it's a shame that's no longer the case, right now I don’t even think people have respect for her.  Very much looking forward to putting her on the table for better or worse and if Wyrd wants to give her a little tickle and bring her and her keyword up a bit I don't think anyone would really object.  She's one of the original characters for The Guild and I hope she returns to being a force on the table at some point.  I will probably have a mad speculative wish list at some point, but not until I've had a good number of games with her.

Bit of a shame she didn’t get a resculpt between editions, some of the new ones are absolutely gorgeous.

Unmasked tomorrow.