Misery loves Company

Introduction

So we know a lot about Pandora now, the question becomes who does she like to hang out with her? Neverborn have lots of options and to be fair, I've played with very few of them, especially the Wave 2 options. I'll offer my best opinions though and what has worked well for me.

Totem

Pandora can bring two totems, the Poltergeist or the Primordial Magic. Poltergeist is on a 50mm base, 5 points, 5 wounds and wants to play up front and personal. He gives a negative flip to the WP of all models within a 2 inch aura, can slow with his attack and can cast anything Pandora can at -3CA.

Here's the problem that I see with the Poltergeist, he's expensive for an expendable totem and he does best when he's on the front lines. All of this makes him an easy target. Incorporeal offers him a bit of protection, but its not something to rely on. He will get mowed down in no time.

Primordial magic, or the Puking Worm as I like to call it, is much cheaper, has less wounds, is insignificant and on a smaller base. It allows you to draw and discard a card at the start of your turn and can hand out insignificant at range with a decent CA. The difference between Poltergeist and Pandora is that the Magic likes to play back a bit and doesn't rely on being at the battle lines. It also may count as a scheme marker before or after the game, which means you can spent the last turn double walking it to the location of your choice and score that last pesky line in the sand or protect territory or set up a Spring the Trap that your opponent that your opponent doesn't expect.

All in all, for Pandora I feel like Primordial offers more utility than Poltergeist. Just the ability to drop a low card and draw a new one is fantastic, not to mention the surprise scheme marker.


Henchmen

The henchman I love the most with Pandora is Candy. I could write an entire blog on this little girl and I very well might one day. Suffice it to say, if I'm playing Neverborn I'll try to fit Candy in the list somewhere. Her Sweet and Sour ability can control who your opponent activates each turn, if you give her Fears Given Form on her and put her in a key position you can control a point on the board. She offers rare healing for a Neverborn crew if you choose to play her back a bit and her personal upgrade Best Behavior can remove her from danger.

Bad Juju is another fun choice for Pandora, especially in a kill focused game. He is a bit slow, but his Landslide (0) action triggers those WP duels that Pandora loves, and he hits like a Mac truck. If you take his eternal fiend upgrade and bring along a couple swampfiends, he's obnoxiously unkillable.

Barbaros is a tanky option for Pandora as well with lots of killing power. Send him up against to create a killing field around your opponent's henchmen. Giving him obsidian talons allows him to cheat on negative damage flips, which is awesome.

Enforcers

Who doesn't love this adorable combo

There's an enforcer tag team out there that makes me smile everytime I deliver the one two punch combo. I'm talking about Baby Kade and Teddy. These two can zip through the battlefield and leave a trail of corpse markers in their wake. Baby Kade can pull himself to Teddy, which is good as his attacks are pretty weak unless he's attacking with a partner, but he also has Lure, which is a "never hit the field without it" sort of ability. Teddy is a monster as well, gobbling up targets to heal himself after a battle.

I really want to try out Coppelius when I pick up the Hide and Seek box later this year as well. His eyeball plucking cause horror duels and being able to summon alps to tie up my opponent's side of the board seems fantastic as well.

Minions, or Counting Your Sorrows

So you have your heavy hitters, your support and control henchmen and a totem, what comes next?
Neverborn have two of the best scheme runners in the game, Terror Tots and Silurids.  Terror Tots come in cheaper but are easier to take down. Silurids are slightly more resilient with camouflage and work in conjunction with Bad Juju if you have borrowed him from Zoraida. Either way, Leap is a fantastic way to move across the board and drop scheme markers the entire game.

Beckoners are another high priority on the Neverborn support model list. Lure with a decent CA, and a trigger that basically becomes a Wk action for the Beckoner for a reasonable amount of points means you probably want at least one in your crew.

Waldgeists can jam up a 4 inch side of the table, park them in a major traffic zone and watch your opponent waste a few AP getting past them.

Sorrows, so the starting box for Pandora comes with 3 of these guys, they are 5 points, they have Misery and the can possibly paralyze. They also have 4 wounds and only Incorporeal to save them. Ask any two Pandora players and they will differing opinions on how many Sorrows to bring. The answer is generally 0-2 of them. When you can set it up correctly, the misery chain will tear through models like butter, that's assuming the sorrows live long enough to get into position.

(Tip: Do not bring Sorrows for Reckoning scenarios or against a blast heavy crew. Its like paying 5 points to give your opponent VPs) 

Insidious Madness are the other go to minions for Pandora. They have a huge walk, can move through terrain, cause WP duels and can be used as to support Pandora or run schemes. I haven't gotten to use one personally, but on paper they look perfect for Pandora. 

 Conclusion

This is not an exhaustive list of models Pandora can bring, just the ones I've played with or had my eyes on. Admittedly Graves and Tannen are solid choices as well and as I gather them, I'll have more to say. From my experience, these models give you plenty of options to strike despair into the hearts or your enemies. Feel free to leave comments on models that have worked well for you that I haven't mentioned yet.

Until next time, keep cheating Fate!  - John Fox