Which henchman for shifting loyalties

[Bumpasses]

My group is gearing up for a shifting loyalties campaign.

35ss

Henchman only for the duration.

Only one non campaign upgrade.

I'm thinking Toshiro.

Who would you choose and why?

[Lmjh1985]

Well, I've got the majority of the Henchmen. I'm tempted by Toshiro or Sensei Yu.

I'll likely go with Sensei Yu. He's pretty darn versatile and Wandering River Style is just so good. He weeks really well with the majority of TT minis too. It does mean that I will need something that can throw a punch in his place. I love Ototo, but I can imagine him racking up a fair few injuries!

[EntrepeNinja]

From a leadership standpoint, Yu, Toshiro, and Kang are at the top of my lists. Ototo is a good beater, but can't lead well, and is easy to placate. Fingers is gremlin only without Brewie. Huggy is a totem- and while he can technically lead, I think he's pretty limited in leadership moving forward into the campaign. 

SO! Yu, who can buy the Shen Long upgrades- if you just buy wandering river monk he can become a puppeteer style master, pushing people all over the place and giving out fast.

Toshiro can get the summon upgrade, and gives minions the plus flips, and he can give them fast. He's also no scrub in melee himself, paired melee 6.

Kang can be really good at guarding squshier units, as well as giving them an easy way around Terrifying, and boosting attacks against constructs and undead. If you expect to be seeing a lot of Ressurs, Neverborn, or Arcanists, it may just be worth it.

All are totally viable. Depends on your play style. Of the three, Yu is the only one that can effect things without being in melee. He's also the only one without a charge value. (Though, walk 7 kinda makes up for it...)

[Trample]

Sidir might be a bit slow for this role, but I really like him as a henchman. His upgrades (promises and by your side) make him a good buffer if you're running upgrade heavy crews so he works well for me since I like samurai. He is fairly adept in both ranged and melee and does have a self heal, which can be handy.  

Edited August 23, 2015 by Trample
spelling

[EntrepeNinja]

I had forgotten sidir... I knew I was gonna forget someone. I actually really like him as well. He's also got the ripsote, and if you're going to run cheap enforcers (Yamaziko, Mr Tannen, Samurai etc), they can get benefit from Promises giving out  to Ml/Wp. (That being said, Toshiro gives out  to all minions. So together...)

[embitteredsoul]

You could also consider Ama No Zako. She is pretty resilient as a hench-oni!

[ArcticPangolin]

Yeah, had some fun running Ama No Zako during the beta. Having Terrifying on your Leader came in handy a couple of times. Was also a great learning experience as I hadn't used her before. Flight, an Obey and Hazardous Terrain too, but you'll be spending a few soulstones to prevent damage.

Do 10T still have the Bounty to get kills without soulstones? Works pretty well for her  

[Math Mathonwy]

Sidir might be a bit slow for this role, but I really like him as a henchman. His upgrades (promises and by your side) make him a good buffer if you're running upgrade heavy crews so he works well for me since I like samurai. He is fairly adept in both ranged and melee and does have a self heal, which can be handy.  

Furthermore, in the campaign you tend to get all sorts of fun Upgrades making Promises even better. Heck, you can even turn Minions into Enforces and then give them Upgrades (I gave a Slop Hauler a Flammenwerfer this way).

[Rathnard]

We did a short campaign a few month back and from memory, my starting crew was;

Sensei Yu w. Low River Style
Lone Swordsman
Fermented River Monk
Katanaka Sniper
Shadow Effigy

To be honest I've not really tried Wandering River on Yu, but Low River was great in that it made him an all-rounder support piece, able to push, heal, remove conditions and generally just not die. 

[EntrepeNinja]

Main benefit from Wandering is that if he can lower his focus, he can give fast. So- if you push a friendly, you can focus (using Airburst). Then you can push again with the one on wandering river to push and gain fast. Giving them, effectively two walks and a fast action. It's also the action that lets the push relocate markers. Scrap, scheme, corpse, you name it. (Not claim or squat...) This can be very good for things like: Plant Explosives, Spring the Trap, Line in the sand. denying line in the sand. Etc etc. Can give some excellent utility in scheme running as well as all the extra mobility.

I did get to play Shen Long the other day, and Low River was, in point of fact, quite awesome.... Successful duels against enemies results in DF stacks, DF stacks turn into heals, and better chances at defending for more df stacks.

[tomjoad]

Low River is especially awesome with Shenlong in tow, so Yu can get at least Df +1 even if he has no enemy models around to help him build it up. Without Shenlong around I would also assume that Wander River is the best limited upgrade for Yu. Like EntrepeNinja said, Focus is the only condition Yu can give himself while providing excess value, and I just can't say no to the scheme marker manipulation. But, I'm making these guesses with zero experience, so Rathnard has a lot more evidence than I do to back up the Low River idea.

[virtualonmars]

My starting crew was:

Toshiro
Lone Swordsman
Komainu
Komainu
Tengu
Tengu

After 2 games, I have this:

Toshiro with Grotesque Trophy
Lone Swordsman (Shaken injury)
Komainu
Komainu
Tengu
Tengu
Katanaka Sniper
Chiaki

[bindi]

I'm thinking of running this in a new campaign;

 

Toshiro w Command the Graves 10ss

Thunder Brother 5ss

Thunder Brother 5ss

Guild Pathfinder 6ss

Jorogumo 9ss

 

It's got a nice big beater who is also a minion to make the most of Toshiro's buffs, a bit of ranged, plenty of summoning potential, and the versatile thunder brothers.

Opinions?

 

[D-solad0r]

Good begining IMO

[ArcticPangolin]

It should work pretty well bindi, extra flips help out the Brothers getting Triggers. Not much Ranged power, but the extra Fasts from War Fan might help compensate. I'm going with a Dawn Serpent instead, but had completely forgotten about Jorogumo  

Having played through a campaign in testing, I found that I wanted a Clockwork Trap to take with my Pathfinder in my Arsenal as so many games I just did not have the cards to summon one on turn 1.

Another Idea I was bouncing around involved Sidir, Hidden Agenda and 3 Oiran; with his Machine Gun it's not too hard to hurt things most turns with Sidir to make Hidden Agenda go off. The remaining points can go towards something bigger; an Emissary, a Dawn Serpent, whatever floats your boat. So many free AP is not to be sneezed at until you've tried it.