Ain't No Party Like a Hunting Party

“Go ahead Faerie, make my day…”

For the vast majority of errata tweaks, characters are usually tweaked up slightly in stats, down slightly in stats, or tweaked for some corner case scenarios. The idea is to keep characters functionally similar, so people can continue to enjoy them as they have before, but tweaked a little to bring them in line.

Gertrude, however, is not one of these characters.

Whilst it's true she can still be played the same as before, she now has additional brand new roles after the 2025 errata, which will make her more flexible and less rigid in her role.

As the Faerie Hunter’s name would suggest, Gertrude has a variety of options for dealing with irritating high energy, low wounds, and good evade enemies. Obviously, this is best against Faeries, but sometimes other characters with similar stats can fall for her tricks, such as some Goblins and Spirits. This is mainly done through 'Natural Order' and 'Blunderbuss'.

Natural Order

“Pest? Me? Perish the thought…”

‘Natural Order’ simply deals wounds in a pulse, based on the energy an enemy character has over 3 . For any character with a 5 energy base, this can be devastating. It may not seem like much, but 2 Wds is a huge chunk for anything with a low wound count. Furthermore, it can usually hit a couple of energy pips, meaning characters hit by this will be going into the next turn with less energy unless they can heal.

Finally, this isn't an arcane ability so no Arcane cards are drawn and no Evade is taken into account, meaning little pests have no chance to dodge this!

Blunderbuss

So is Arcane completely useless against anything with good Evade? Not at all - and Gertrude has the attack that proves otherwise. 'Blunderbuss' is frankly quite weak as a ranged attack. At a max of 3 Impact Dmg, it's borderline useless against anything that resists Impact damage and unimpressive versus most others. But for low-wound and high-energy characters, even a few wounds can be utterly devastating... so long as you hit them.

“Alright, I’ll admit she’s pretty good with that thing.”

So how does Gertrude, or more accurately, the blunderbuss, get around Evade? Essentially, it's by dealing damage on two cards instead of one.

For Gertrude and her 5 Arcane, she'll be drawing 3 Arcane cards for any shots vs -2 evade enemies. Without going into too much detail, the effect of needing 2 different colours to successfully deal damage as opposed to 1 colour is huge. In fact, for the blunderbuss at 3 Arcane and 2 colours required, you're as likely to hit as any ability which only succeeds on 1 colour when they draw 7 cards.

Gertrude is more likely to blunderbuss a faerie than Mama Gimble is to successfully heal!

Forming a ‘Hunting Party’

Continuing her theme of hunting down high-energy enemies, Gertrude now has a method of dealing with any cowardly characters who save their energy for reaction steps or more melee cards. Additionally, she can further support her fellow Humans and hunting enthusiast fauns when they descend upon the unfortunate victim. This comes in the form of bonus Melee and Arcane, leaving Gertrude's target of interest in extreme peril.

“I see your mark, friend Gertrude.”

Baron Von Fancyhat, for instance, with a nearby Eric, is now drawing a staggering 11 cards against Gertrude's victim. Jayda meanwhile can fire her bow at an incredible Arcane 5, which she could then follow up with a superb 9 card Melee attack, assuming Hoff is also nearby.

For any Commonwealth players who fancied trying fauns, now is a great time with Gertrude supporting their martial prowess as opposed to the Leshavult's focus on mobility. Or how about a mix of both?

Whatever way you go, Gertrude is sure to make an impact, making both Humans and Fauns hit harder than ever!