Friday 31 October 2014

Wave 20: The best & the worst

Best model: Master Akari.
I think everyone expected this one. While Temple doesn't need another excellent fighter as Akari he is still amazing.

Fast, high amount of ki, almost impossible to hit with a ranged attack and a beast in combat. What's important to remember that Akari isn't undefeatable and is a clear example of a glass canon. Low wounds, no toughness and no armor.



Best sculpt: Mitzuki Ito.
The Ito Clan finally got a good scupt and what a sculpt it is. A clear improvement on the previous wave with Satsuki.

The pose is impressive the few but noticeable little touches like the details on the staff, her clothing and the gorgon hair is just great. The biggest improvement upon the previous wave is the face.

A lot more expressive and detailed keeping in style with the rest of the sculpt.











Worst model:Nomi.
This was an easy choice this model has no use beyond removing camouflage and a cheap objective capper.

A pity as for the 3 rice I'd rather have the Akuma and Okkete animals. This gives you two extra activations and the chicken fights a lot better than this kid.






worst sculpt: Nomi & Kani.
Yeah sorry to say Silvermoon Trade Syndicate hit a low spot this wave. While thankfully my pick was made difficult by the all-round selection of good looking models. I've chosen Kani & Nomi based on their lack of details.

All the other models especially Akari and Yugio have details on the models or little tidbits making the models fun to paint and to look at.

While still decent sculpts the other models just seem better.

Monday 27 October 2014

Mizuki Ito Orochi's priestess

This is a good model, not only that it's finally a good sculpt for The Ito Clan, but her abilities are also good.

Pro:
3 ki statistic is great, a good amount of useful traits and three good ki feats.

First the traits. Blood of Orochi (1), bravery, Light footed and steady are all things the other naga models have. Immunity (poison) is a nice and a logical addition, fear (5) is nice to give her some more survivabilty and more use in combat. The poison (2/1), while a strong poison trait, I don't think you'll use this very often because of her low melee skill.

Now her feats are good, we have the standard token feat every faction will have. The tokens have a some very good effects. Lightening reflexes is amazing, auto disengage and elusive is great to save an important model, armour (2) is never bad and finally sixth sense another good trait the tokens give. No bad traits in the list and useful in every game.

Her other two feats obey and paralyze is where we see a bit of a gorgon influence. Obey gives a target model a control marker when succesful, great and can wreck an opponents plan. Paralyze makes a target model held and slow a good combination of effects.

Con:
The three glaring cons are her rice cost, melee dice and ki max. With a rice cost of 12 you need to be careful of what you put in your warband with her as Mizuki will take a big chunk of your warband. Her melee dicepool is low, but this is acceptable considering this is a shugenja. Lastly her ki pool max is a bit dissapointing, I would have expected her to have a max of 10. It does help that you'll be using her feats often enough that if you fill you're ki pool you're doing something wrong.

Tactics:
She's very good at buffing any list she's in, her tokens boost any model that get them and her ki feats are very useful. Pairing Mizuki with a very good fighter like Masunagi could be very useful. Giving Masunagi lightening reflexes or sixth sense when surprised.

Friday 24 October 2014

Kaihei a whole pack of fun!

The Kaihei are finally here and now we can see if the Kaihei Alpha is worth it for these guys.

Also of note is that the Kaihei is the first model with 2 cards making a total of 4 Kaihei you can put on the table.

Pro:
5 rice each is a decent amount for what you get. A fast moving model that ignores difficult terrain with some nice extra's. Such as a free trait or special attack at the start of each melee exchange. The co-ordinated attack will probably see a lot of use with a max of 4 on the table plus the Kaihei Alpha. The fear (3) is nice against things like ashigaru, bakemono or shatei compensating for the low melee skill.

Con:
The most obvious one is his poor melee skill of 2. Otherwise a decent model.

Tactics:
The Kaihei on their own can be used with their charging bonus to prone annoying or dangerous models. They can't do much on their own and depend a bit on the co-ordinated attack to do enough damage.

I would suggest putting 4 Kaihei, the Kaihei Alpha and Yusha as a base for a warband. What you got is a 40 rice warband then you can add some cards to make a 42 point tournament warband. What this gives you is a warband that supports itself. The Kaihei Alpha gives all Kaihei bravery and group activation. Yusha can, once per turn, give one of the Kaihei a nice boost to the melee skill and the spur on ki feat keeps your Kaihei longer in the game. As small problem with this list is that group activation makes you lose a lot of activations and you need to play smart not to let your opponent take a lot of advantage.

Monday 20 October 2014

Shuichi Prefecture priest

A nice addition and it seems that models with a feat that gives Disturb Flow is a theme for this wave and we'll probably see a few in the next few waves for the other factions.

Pro:
He's at a good price point with the 6 rice and his Cleansing will be useful for removing tokens from models. This is something that Prefecture had problems with in my opinion. And seeing as you can remove a large number of tokens with this feat this helps a lot against poison heavy factions like Ito.

As with Yugio the Warding Shomyo is nice and usefull for disabling an enemy fighter.

Con:
Unfortunately for Ryu I think Yugio is more effective. As Shuichi's Cleansing is only useful if your opponent actually uses those tokens. On the otherhand Shuichi receives more ki a turn so can use the Warding Shomyo often.

He's basicly useless without his ki feats. Bravery is normally a nice rule, but seeing as this model serves more of a support role you won't want to risk him by putting him in combat.

Tactics:

Basicly follow your main fighter or get him within 6 inch of an enemy fighter and use his Warding Shomyo. Use the cleansing to remove tokens and not much else to it.

Friday 17 October 2014

Nomi & Sukoshi Kani

It seems the Silvermoon Trade Syndicate is getting desperate with their recruiting. As we now get a bunch of children to fight demons, undead, kung fu monks, oni, samurai, etc. Yeah great plan.

Okay while we have seen children before with Taka, well she's undead, and Aiko, who is a monk and a shugenja. These kids aren't that special.

Pro:
Nomi's use is to remove camouflage. His scout ability is nice when combined with Harukichi to make sure you get first turn, first pick.

He's cheap for 3 points he's among the cheapest non-insignificant models in the game. While being a horrible fighter being able to outnumber helps a lot in this guys usefulness.

Con:
Besides this Nomi doesn't bring much he's as slow as a karai, only has one melee dice, meaning he fights as well as Akuma. He's got a low amount of wounds, so you'll even have to look out for rat swarms in combat with this poor lad.

Tactics:
If you're opponent got something with camouflage, this guy can help with that, but Nomi will also be a target for his ability. I don't see much use in this modelas I think you can get more use out of an special card or two for the points.

Now Sukoshi Kani, bit of an odd note why does she have a family name? She's the only character in the Silvermoon Trade Syndicate to have one. Either there's something behind it or they made a small mistake.

Pro:
Camouflage (2) is really good and will keep this model alive long enough to use her makibishi. And that is the reason why Kani is better than Nomi. The Makibishi is a terrain that forces everything but intangible or flying models to make a movement test.

This is a really good ability and is a good way to protect an objective. As from what I understand you can place it on objectives. Be careful as your own models also have to make the test.

Con:
Same as with Nomi. Slow and can't fight although Kani has more utility.

Tactics:
Use her camouflage to get close to something important and throw the Makibishi on the ground to slow your opponent down.

Monday 13 October 2014

Wave 20 models revealed part 2

First up Prefecture of Ryu. Shuichi looks greatm clothes are nicely done, the face is good and his stance is as if he's ready to summon a storm on someone's head.

Nice model for people who like to freehand, as shown by the studio model. Not a lot of small details on him but well done.

Not really the best of the bunch but a if you know how to do freehands this could become a eyecatcher.











Here we have the Kaihei pack. These look a lot better than the Kaihei Alpha. With the chance to take 4 of these it's a shame there aren't two extra sculpts for diversity as a whole pack would be great to see running around on the board.

A good sculpt and I see the chance for people to try a lot of different and impressive patterns on the pelts.














This is a good model and a much needed improvement from the previous two waves. Her concept art shows in the model and I'm glad that a naga warband wouldn't only be tough to beat now but also an amazing sight.

Only problem I have is with her hair, I like the gorgon style but might prove a bit tricky to get right while painting.

Saturday 11 October 2014

Yugio the gravedigger

This seems to me as a much needed model for the Cult.

Pro:
He's alive so he'll at least me able to move around quick enough to be usefull. There are three shugenja available to the Cult at the moment so he'll at least be usefull in most lists.

now you'll probably only take this model for his Blasphemous Conviction feat. Reducing the cost of ki feats is a big deal for cult, them being a very ki draining faction.

The Warding Shomyo feat is a good defensive feat, that it's complex sucks though, but stil very usefull as it increases the ki cost withing 6 inch by 1 for enemy models and they can't use speacial attacks or defenses. Would be excellent to kill an enemy killer like Masunagi.

Con:
The ki drain on this guy is gonna be enormous because you want to use his feats as often as possible. You'd want to have a ki battery, a model with channel, nearby to keep this guy and your shugenja's supplied with ki. Unfortunately that isn't available for now. What is available is his conspiracy of the cult trait, while this gives him ki he loses wounds, while nice in a desperate attempt to gain ki I personally don't like weakening a already weak model. Although I might have a solution for that in the tactics part.

Tactics:
Tactics with this guy is straightforward depending on what your up against. Keep him near your shugenja to keep their ki abilities cheaper, or if your up against someone with a very strong fighter use the disturb flow to counter him and go in for the kill. Nothing else to him.

Now for his ki problem. I'd advise giving this model the healer card from the generic card pack. This will allow you to gain 2 wounds for a simple action. Every turn use his conspiracy of the cult trait to gain ki, then the shugenja nearby will most likely also have conspiracy of the cult. Remember to only take 2 wounds each turn. Now Yugio will have ki for his Blasphemous Conviction every turn increase his effectiveness massively. Now about those two wounds, Since conspiracy of the cult is in the starting step and Blasphemous conviction is an active player feat you can use one action each to heal this guy. This keeps him at max wounds while netting you two ki tokens extra and cheaper ki feats for your shugenja.

Monday 6 October 2014

Master Akari Guardian of the Jwar Isles


Master Akari card has been released and be afraid for this little guy.

Pro:

A lot is right with this model. 4 melee dice, boostable movement, can keep 10 ki stored, free combo attack, can improve his own condition and tremendous traits.

This model can dish out a lot of pain, unless he's surprised he attacks first and with his combo attack can force your opponent on the defensive.

He's also incredibly fast, with his Dash feat you can jump from one enemy to another. His Perfect Defence gives this model some much needed surviveability. His small size and ranged defense (2) means a ranged attack will need a 8 at least to hit him.

Con:
His biggest weakness in my mind is his 4 wounds this means that a single lucky hit can kill him. The nice offensive tricks he has are offset by his -1 strenght. He's got a steep rice cost, but seeing what he can do it's appropriate.

Tactics:
Keep him away from anything with armor, the penalties from the armor and his own strenght modifier will keep your damage on a minimum. I'd advise using him to attack things like ashigaru or low armored models. While the ashigaru have armor their low melee dice makes it worth it.

On the other hand you can use Akari to exhaust your opponents strong or important models. With 4 melee dice and a +2 on defense and his Perfect Defense feat, while ki draining, will protect him from most if not any fighters. But if you do this prepare for the next turn as this guy can't handle a long fight without support.