Natty
“Pwease sir, I aint done nuffin… Much.”
Do you ever wonder what a Commonwealth human with 4 energy would look like? Expect them to have a huge melee? Good armour? High Wds? Not quite, as today we will be looking at Natty!
‘Concealed Dagger’ and Melee
Unlike most humans, Natty has neither a large melee, good armour or high Wds. She is however, a human, so she isn't completely helpless in a melee fight despite her diminutive nature. What she does have is a 'Concealed Dagger', which will increase her piercing and rising attack damage in melee. However, this is where the good news ends for her ability to deal damage in melee. Unfortunately, the dagger mainly offsets another passive ability of hers, 'Weakling'. This means Natty will be dealing decreased melee damage and will find it more awkward to pick up Moonstones than other non-weakling characters.
Reaction Steps, ‘Swift’ and ‘Look of Innocence’
So, what are her melee tricks befitting a Commonwealth character? Well, as mentioned earlier, she is the Commonwealth’s only 4 energy human and so has a plethora of energy to make reaction steps. This is helped further by 'Swift’, which allows her a larger reaction step once per turn, letting her get out of melee the second she finds herself in a troublesome position.
As well as 'Swift' and 4 energy making her hard to attack in melee, she has yet another trick to make her about as hard to pin down as nailing a Jelly to a wall. 'Look of Innocence' means enemies must discard an additional energy whenever they want to attack her. All in all, this could result in an enemy with 4 energy having to jog, step after Natty reaction steps, melee and then find themselves unable to attack again. This is a stark contrast for such a character who could normally jog and melee four times, which hugely increases Natty's survivability!
Evade -[#]
So, if Natty is tough to attack in melee, why not shoot her with arcane? Well, as it turns out, Natty's skills in evading arcane attacks make faeries look like comparatively easy targets. Natty is the only character in the game so far with an evade stat of -[#], but what does that mean? Well, quite simply, her evade stat is equal to the number of models within 3" of her. All models within 3” of her. In the unlikely event she has 4 friends within 3" of her and 5 enemies within 3" of her, she has an incredible -9 evade. Naturally, you're very unlikely to get that good an evade, but it's normally high enough to easily dodge most arcane actions in the game.
Moonstone Carrying and Slingshot
So then, Natty is tough to pin down and attack, and thus hard to slay. So what does she do whilst not being slain? As with all hard-to-kill models, she can be an excellent Moonstone carrier. Let other characters dig them down to 1 depth, and Weakling Natty can swoop in to take the last harvest action and possession of the valuable Moonstone.
Else, if you want to go for a more Commonwealth-y approach, she can sling rocks at enemies with her slingshot. This only deals X impact damage, but she can do it twice a turn, which can be great against enemies which lack armour, have high evades, or are about to have an energy dot pipped.
Signature Upgrades
Finally, you can take the approach Dhimesh Parmar used to win the 'Mayhem & Mischief 4, The Goblet of Squire' event. Spend the first few turns of the game staying safe and casually tossing pebbles at people, then turn 4, run in and melee attack. This melee attack, however, is not to deal damage; this is for her signature. With a sweeping cut, Natty can deal no damage, reduce damage suffered, and most importantly, steal a Moonstone from the enemy. Doing this at the last second - as one of the last actions of the game - can be devastating and, when timed well enough, can turn a 3-4 loss to a 4-3 victory!
