25SS Set Up?

[CMKeller89]

Really new to the game but have decided to focus on the Ten Thunder crew. Local game shop runs a lot of 25SS tournaments. So I was wondering what would you recommend as a good 25SS set up. The only additional requirement apart from being 25SS is it must be led by a Master. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[yanlosbeard]

25ss is small. I'm really new to the game too, and have been playing 35ss games, but are consistently being encouraged to make the step up to 50. I would suggest that the following things that are likely to cause you bother in this format:

- Summoners. Something like Kirai with a Flesh Construct or a couple of Night Terrors will be horrible to play against in such low model count games.

- Big, Resilient beaters. If someone just throws a model like Archie into your lines, how will you deal with it? Maybe spread out to limit the impact of these models? 

- Pieces that can remove more than one model per turn. Do all that you can to prevent this e.g. spread out to prevent the melee whirlwind from the Viktorias.

 

Since summoning could potentially have a huge impact in games this small, Asami might be a decent pick.

Alternatively, Mei Feng plus Toshiro with Command The Graves and either Mechanised Porkchop or Emberling will give you a flexible Master who is capable of removing enemy models from unexpected positions, providing you can place the required scrap markers and construct models correctly. Toshiro brings some summoning (see statement above).

Lynch might also be a good pick, since Huggy is essentially free, allowing you to bring a big beater model and still keep your model count up (you might not have much of a cache though).

Misaki can potentially remove >1 model per turn. In a game with typically 4-5 models, she could have a massive impact on the game.

There is something to be said about 'elephant in the room' lists in this kind of format: bring something big, scary and difficult to get rid of; and ram it down your opponent's throat. The best models in 10 Thunders for doing this kind of thing are probably Izamu, the Emissary or Yasunori. 

Brewmaster, Shenlong and Yan Lo are generally regarded as the most complex Masters in the Faction; so you probably shouldn't being considering them if you are very new to the game.

[Tokapondora]

Are you allowed to summon in those games? I know the rules say games over 25 SS allow for masters but that's gonna be a very unbalanced setup.

I'd say Lynch+Huggy are a great start due to Huggy costing 0 with some Illuminated bring a lot of hurt to boot for their cost, and Shen would give you two activations for 2 SS and then just do well with a sniper, swordsman, etc. They're also both great masters in general.

Mei Feng might allow you to summon a bit with like a Toshiro and a Porkchop/Emberling, but that leaves you very locked into a specific Komainu list which doesn't lend itself to a lot of schemes. Asami, as a summoner, can naturally be great but also requires you to leave something for your Cache. 

Misaki can do fine given that you get a list that can have a decent go at the schemes. McCabe will struggle a bit due to his expensive upgrades. You can get some cheap hounds to balance it out but...

The Brewmaster can really just lock half the enemy team down and might be a lot of fun, but will ultimately struggle against a lot of lists. Yan Lo is a very simple no. The models that allow him to click are both very expensive, and without them he's just gonna be trailing behind.

 

In general, I'd say naturally the Ten Thunder Brothers give some great defenses for their cost; a Sniper can be absolutely insane in a setting where people are more likely to hire smaller models; at this size one of our 8 ss beaters will shine; a Monk of Low River or Shadow Efffigy are some okay cheap activations with the Low River healing a lot more compared to the hurt they can dish out and the Effigy just being sturdy in general while also decent enough at scheming... You're naturally going to want a list of at least 5 models, but you'll struggle to get more than that.

 

Some general lists that might work...

If bubbled up schemes;

Lynch - 1 SS Cache
-Rising Sun - 2 SS
-Recalled Training - 1 SS

Huggy - 0 SS
-Addict - 1 SS
-Recalled Training - 1 SS

Illuminatedx3 - 21 SS

Very simple, amd allows you to play very aggressively. You could swap out an Illuminated for something cheaper for more soulstones or leave out a Recalled Training or two, but...

 

Shenlong - 2 SS Cache
-Wandering River Style - 2 SS

Peasant - 2 SS

Graves - 8 SS
-Recalled Training - 1 SS

Katanaka Sniper - 7 SS

Ten Thunder Brother - 5 SS

Gives you six activations, the Sniper, TTB and pushes can be used for scheming around the board, Graves can be swapped out for really just any other 8-9 ss beater...

 

Asami - 5 SS Cache
-Heavenly Design - 2 SS

Amanjaku - 3 SS

Ohaguro Bettari - 8 SS

Obsidian Oni - 6 SS

Shadow Effigy/Low River Monk - 4 SS

Use the Obsidian Oni to just start throwing down scrap and turn that into summons. The Shadow Effigy might be a bit sturdier but the Low River Monk can provide ample healing and some scheme markers to boot if you want to use Asami a bit more aggressively.

[CMKeller89]

Thank you for the replies. Sorry about missing the ruling on summoning. I haven't really done much summoning yet so it slipped my mind. Here are the full rules that they often use 

*All Crews must be led by a Master.
*The game size is 25 soulstones.
*All Crews follow normal rules of set up, as allowed by the standard rules.
*The size of a Crew’s Soulstone Pool is limited by the Cache of the Master leading it plus one; any Soulstones above this amount are discarded.
*Models may summon models, but there can never be more models in the crew than the crew started with plus one.

 

You guys have given some awesome advice though and I really appreciate the in put.