Dr Mittens

Minako wasn't versatile in beta, presumably they changed her to versatile to avoid the unintuitiveness of her being core to mei feng. As for masters, Mei feng and mccabe have a lot of synergies with their keyword, so they should be the leader of any crew taking them. Misaki got shangs cost increased to nerf her power as a hired master. She's still great in the role for some schemes and pairs especially well with leader youko as pass tokens synergise well with misaki. Haven't tested it yet, but I've heard good things about shenlong as a varied toolkit who also gets off solid damage through drunken style.

As far as budget options, Crew box+samurai alone gives you a well rounded crew with some ranged, anti armor, AoE, scheme running, and bulk. A bit more expensive money wise, but Minako Rei makes a wonderful addition as her summons add some support and mobility to operate either as scheme runners or decent attackers. The above should be sufficient, but Yamaziko and Snipers can be quite good for gunlines. Tanuki are undercosted support atm. The only out of keyword/versatile units I would consider are a geisha or rail worker for either lure or fling respectively.

Minako Rei specifically for Mei Feng is a great summoner. Haven't tested it yet, but Youko's distractions can be quite useful for stalling to yan lo's later power. The Geisha's are squishy but lure is useful at 5ss. Rail workers lack mobility without scraps, but there are worse ways to move your other units early and have a slow bruiser like old graves.

As a Ten Thunders player, I've seen more of every other faction except outcast so if one of your goals is uniqueness we're a solid contender on that front. Hard to guess what your looking for in a master, but I can vouch that Mei Feng is a very fun master with unique movement options, combo attacks, and positioning tools, who can also double as a solid gunline in place of McCabe due to her smokescreen. If you think Youko's manipulations look intriguing, you might want to check out Jacob Lynch. While he is more explosive his crew includes some very potent utility options like Tannen, Kitty, and Gwyneth's bloody AoE pull.

Anyone else think Inhuman Physiology looks a tad ridiculous, combat finesse but it applies to ranged duels, enemy damage flips, and makes it so opponents can't cheat when defending... yikes. It's going to be rough defending against this guy and trying to kill him.

Just want to add that even with the extra cost, Minako Rei goes very well with Mei Feng as a way to spend early scrap markers while still being a decent beater. The Katashiro then give you a construct with solid mobility (15") and support through removing status conditions from allies and buffs from enemies.

In ten thunders, Minako Rei works wonderfully with Mei Feng, as using the leftover scraps for summons puts more pressure on your opponent. Niche/map dependent, but if I need some extra movement, the new rail worker is pretty solid at +1=6 with 8 inches place on turn 1

Are you looking for competitive, or for budget? Mei Feng is probably going to be really strong in 3E, with rail ride applying to her squad, kang passing out focus at the start, and a decent mix of positioning tricks, and henchman summoning, a full collection will allow her some very productive turn ones with immense control over where she and her crew fight/scheme. For budget, the torakage/ototo buffs means misaki's entire box is self sufficient. Shenlongs crew got some notable utility nerfs, but more reliable bulk/damage and focus staying between rounds could help a lot. Yan Lo box seems almost self sufficient although he struggles a bit on mobility.

If I could change one thing, it would be to have discount or budget on theme models instead of tax on everything else. It would ease list building as instead of keeping in mind taxes on tons of units and either having odd ratios or pushing people away from cheap off theme models (as 3, 5pt models at +3 cost is generally worse than a 15pt model +1 in most cases) you would just spend the budget/discount on theme models and everything outside your special rule is default. This also plays into loss aversion, as getting a penalty feels a lot worse than getting a bonus, even if the underlying numbers are the same.

Seems like Minako would work best in a meifeng crew, with plenty of scrap to pop out Katashiro, and if you line up a wanyudo summon mei will love the abundant burning. She would also be great with any lure/pull models as if you get off a Wanyudo summon she is premium for her cost. While the 2 action is neat, at 8 points wanyudo is better as a situational summon than someone to recruit for most lists, as the low damage and passible bulk just aren't enough for 8 points imo. Katashiro are amazing, good threat range, mobility, passible bulk, situational condi removal/stacking, and absolutely bonkers with the amount of push Ten Thunders has access to. Worth fielding in any crew looking for cheap melee and especially nice when paired with Toshiro for push, fast, +attack flips.

Some things I noticed from what little I read, Conflux of Thunder on Misaki, while the confluxes are master specific, it is the emissary who equips them. They are just limited based on your current master. Burning soulstones on Shadow Emissary attack. Only Masters and Henchman can burn soulstones, and Emissary is an Enforcer.

What would you do? EX: Model - Ototo Unflinching Fury Cost - 1 Ototo gains the following abilities Ruthless - This model is Immune to Wp duels during its Activation Calm Before the Storm - At the end of this models activation, it may discard this upgrade to gain +3 wp until the end of the turn

There's a free download of the core rules pdf, but it doesn't include info on all the cards so you will probably want the Bad Stuff Happens app. If you prefer books, it's more expensive, but Retnab summed it up quite well.

This has been tried in numerous pvp games, and historically results in terrible balance, as in trying to balance everyone around the strongest masters/models in the game, you will inevitably by statistics create new stuff even worse than the old problem. It's also non-sustainable as it constantly forces the power level of the game up, making older models that weren't brought to par unusable and creating a constant sense of power creep. It is both far easier to hit 2-3 outliers than 20 mid tiers, and more sustainable as the prior maintains the current norm of power while the latter warps the whole game around the new standard.

@Cashewmellow Samurai -Better against groups -Higher General Bulk -Low card reliance -Melee covers a vital niche while still being pretty solid Sniper -Better range (Do not underestimate) -Much better positioning due to from the shadows -Hard to kill has less things that bypass it than armor -Lower cost -Reactivate on leader death Samurai are ideal when you want to hold a position, don't want to invest cards in ranged support, aren't as concerned about mobility (ex: shenlong/misaki compensate with tools) and want to have a tool against armor Sniper is ideal when their is minimal blocking terrain to counter obscene range, you can afford to give them severe cards, there is a good sniper post that would be time consuming to reach, and you don't want to throw mobility tools there way Overall I prefer samurai due to their versatility and how well they scale with mobility tricks to cover their weakness, but the snipers can be very helpful depending on the map. Basically Samurai need mobility support, while Sniper needs card support.

For beaters, it is important to consider how you deal with defensive abilities. Hard/impossible to wound is best dealt with high min damage. Common in ressers, Yamaziko, Izamu, and Yasunori all fill this role and have the wp/abilities to bypass horror duels. The lone Swordsman has two triggers that also bypass this although with min 2 he struggles without them. Armor is best dealt with by either hitting high, piercing, or death by a thousand cuts. Samurai pierce is great, Kang hard worker works wonders, Yasunori/Izamu have the raw power to still work but aren't very cost efficient for armor 2+, Katanaka Crime Boss and Sniper can work around it through "cannot be reduced" and cross map 5 damage severe. Burst damage is helpful against healers such as anything with call unto chi and is where Ten Thunders Shines, as recalled training turn Izamu/Lone Swordsman/Yasunori/*insert master* can basically delete almost any model in the game.

Always happy to see a new video by you guys. Your battle reports are always such high quality and surprisingly fast given the amount of detail you provide.

Noone else voting for Shang? He is willing to sacrifice his own life to protect his owner.

@Tokapondora Fair enough, all I know is my brother looked at sonnia and thought they needed to avoid units that didn't inflict burning due to her synergy with it.

Additionally, many of Lynch's units focus on the Brilliance characteristic, which can lead to new players focusing to much on the mechanic or not knowing how to utilize it. The fact that Misaki doesn't rely on any specific synergy leaves players more likely to take something for its general use/flavor rather than thinking they should only get units with the same synergy.

The 0 action is incredibly useful for repositioning your units and basically gives you psuedo nimble to whoever needs it (pull a gunner out of melee, push melee into charge range, push a scheme runner into position) and while it competes with stalking bisento for 0 action, if you take disguise or the storm she has little competition for her 0. The 3" at the end of turn may not seem like much, but you can park her safely behind woods for LoS denial before freely tapping her in next round before a charge or away if the situation calls for it. It's definitely not very good on cruise missile misaki, but this build is designed to deliver an army, not 1 assassin.

Wings of Wind. Line up Shang behind misaki, samurai, samurai, *insert beatstick here* Be sure to angle them so that they get pushed towards the middle instead of diagonally towards a far corner Downburst Shang, cheat as necessary, it's the first turn so not a big deal if you burn through half your hand. 0 action move Shang with Wings of Wind Downburst Shang again, Now you have 4 units up 8" (32" of net movement on important models) and 4" on shang. If you didn't need to recast downburst, you now have 1 ap left for a walk to get about 40" of movement off just Misaki. Of the 7 times I've tried it, only once did I get messed up and only pulled off 20" of movement due to tons of high defense flips

One thing I feel the need to add as nobody has mentioned it is Misaki's synergy with low mobility models. Sure, cruise missile Misaki needs teammates who can catch up, but her downburst post buff is one of the most underrated abilities in the entire game. Pushing a group of +4 other models and herself 8 inches up field with (2)AP is unmatched in ten thunders for group mobility and allows you to patch the supposed weakness of models like the samurai and izamu. Pushing a unit 20 inches with Shenlong is strong, but getting your army to mid in the first turn gives you excellent control over the board Coupled with the samurai's ability to laugh at cover, and you can force your enemy to catch up to your 4 walk instead of the other way around.