Skitt_Happens

I thought I would share a recent experience with you guys: I played a game last week, and picked my list simply by what I felt I needed a bit of experience with. The pool was: Guard the Stash; Convict Labour; A Quick Murder; Leave your Mark; Show of Force and Take Prisoner. My list was: McCabe w/ Badge of Speed, Glowing Saber, Promises (7 cache) Genbu w/ Hidden Agenda Jorogumo Chiaki w/ Pull of the Grave 2 Oiran Luna As the post title suggests, it's the Jorogumo I want to talk about. After building my conversion/proxy earlier this year I have put her on the table 3-4 times and on all but 1 occasion been happy with her. Usually she gets focused on and murdered early, but takes a lot down with her. The addition of Genbu, meant she was not the single target in this game. Between turns 1 and 4 I was able to reactivate her every turn, she almost always had nimble or the glowing sabre and to ml, and in that time she took out: a void wretch, a death Marshall, an abomination, Tara and finished off the Nothing Beast (previously battered by an Oiran with magic sword). By the end of turn 4, I had tabled my opponent. Jorogumo was on full wounds, although she did stop to snack on the abomination on her murder tour of the board. I think I might love her...

Doesn't do anything. Loads of them in the game.

This is my point. Defensively, putting your opponent on is almost always better than being on yourself, and if Shenlong uses Broken Promises, Sensei Yu picks it up, giving you two uses out of it. Theoryfaux: Shenlong w/ Wandering River Style; Recalled Training; Broken Promises. Sensei Yu w/ Promising Disciple. Other thoughts: anything with a discard ability can be kept in this method. Blot The Sky? Shenlong discards to push archers 6" - normally I consider this only as a last gasp panic button, as the ability it offers is too good to discard, but with Shen/Yu the upgrade simply moves to Sensei Yu. It may be worth doing this turn 1 to get archers in range to blot the sky from the off. Dragon Stone? Humourous to get Yu up to df/wp 8 but not worthwhile for the focus when Shenlong could use his (0) to gain focus and something else. Servant of 5 Dragons? Discard twice in 1 turn to remove so many markers that even McMourning will cry.

So, slight tangent: broken promises - has any one ever taken it? I haven't, but always look at it and think, 'that's good, but 2ss is a bit steep'; is it worth taking with the Shenlong / Yu combo, perhaps?

Really. REALLY. Like. Sculpt, art and concept: love it all. I like the cape too, yes it is a little OTT, but it's a steampunk, fantasy miniature game - there is more than a little licence to be OTT. Incidentally: anyone remember the pirate looking Silurid that was previewed a couple of months back? I think he may go here.

Don't know why I thought Yan Lo and Toshiro were brothers... that might be all in my head. I equated the "excesses" that caused the in fighting in the clan to be linked with Yan Lo being cursed. Toshiro though, "headed the Katanaka clan", which would imply he is himself a Katanaka, would it not?

I just listened to the latest beachside broadcast: as a player who started in m2e I am very excited they've reached the introduction of The Ten Thunders! I don't know why it surprised me, but I never realised Misaki is in fact, Misaki Katanaka. It makes a lot of sense now i think about it, but what is the history of the clan? As far as I can figure, the clan was massively powerful in the Three Kingdoms until it came under the control of Toshiro. Toshiro's brother, Yan Lo, was accused of some hideous behaviour (necromancy?) and banished from life itself. The clan split at the seams, decending into civil war, culminating in the death of Toshiro at the hands of his own men. The remaining Katanakas are driven underground, becoming a crime syndicate that specialises in training assassins (now refered to as Snipers). The Oyabun, and consequently Misaki, is a direct decedent of Toshiro. Chiaki is somewhere on the family tree too. This is the impression I've got from cobbled together memories of fluff - anyone know anywhere I am wrong/more info to add?

Chiaki's trigger only works against enemy models. They saw that one coming.

A 2 AP heal is not a problem when the model has reckless. And most of the models being healed tend to have bayou two card. Although, yes, he is often healing damage done to themselves. I'd take him in TT for 5ss! Other than that - TT healing:

I remember when I first started playing, thinking TT lacked 'heal other' abilities, but I'd gotten over that. This topic has been a real eye opener as to how proficient we are at healing. I wouldn't say we are the best at it though: a single model gives that accolade to Gremlins, surely?

My guess would be, on the assumption that Asami is a Futakuchi-onna, her Totem would be The Miser. Maybe Jade Oni in the box? I'd really like, on the back of her card or upgrades, some upgrade trading ability to make full use of the Wonder Weasel too... too much to hope for?

Now that we list it off... there's actually LOADS of healing in TT. Most of it self heal, but still... to update Invoke's list above, Mei Feng has the Price of Progress upgrade to heal when she kills (though I don't find Mei a reliable kill-bot), Brewy has the upgrade to discard scheme markers to heal, not to mention the drinks he hands out which can be taken by friendly models at will, including himself I believe (?) and the Kamaitachi heals when discarding an upgrade. As well as giving out regeneration, McCabe's Elixir of Life gives him a 1/2/3 heal... pretty mediocre for a masters ap, but there if you need it.

Also: Chiaki. Trigger on the condition removal.

I totally see the benefit of Lust in general, just in this crew I think there are better places to spend the stone - she will actually be bringing more people towards her which is probably an area you don't want large groups of enemy models to be.

I've played the Lure and Murder list before and 2 Beckoners are plenty for that. The issue is, you want to bring in one model and one model only a turn, so I don't see the benefit of Lust so much. Better to reinforce your front line: otherwise your opponent will just rush Lynch and the ladies, and none of them are great in that situation.

Emissary is non-leader, unfortunately. Otherwise Yu would very rarely get out the box (that sentence sounds unintentionally threatening...)

Hmm. Really like the artwork - I think the render probably doesn't do it justice as a 2d image. Can see that model being excellent.

What it doesn't say, is that it only works against enemy attacks. A good example is you put a TT Bro next to her. You have the ace of and in hand. Activate the Brother. (0) and cheat the to draw a card and discard the . Pick up both aces. Then Brother attacks Lust, cheat the on attack and the on defence. The attack misses (Bro Ml5, Lust Df6) and you draw a card and pick up both aces. Repeat. 3 cards drawn in TT Bro's activation. It doesn't have to be that models activation, as long as it is during a friendly models activation. It is the TT Bro's activation. I haven't tried it, just something I was told about. Danger being you spend all turn drawing cards instead of playing the game. Yes, doing 20 damage with 'Woke Up With A Hand' is going to kill anything, but it's no substitute for scoring VP.

I know someone who took Lust with Lynch too. Once he got the ace in hand, he would just repeatedly attack Lust (works best with <6 attack stat and another ace in hand) and cheat in the for defence. He claims to have drawn 15 cards in a turn this way. He tried it at a tournament and didn't do great - I think he may have been over using the combo, but theoretically it's sound.

Just checking: you are aware the 4 damage on the samurai miss ignores armour, right? Tannen is a better combo for this tactic in my opinion with his cooler bubble: 2 cards every time opponent wants to cheat. Huggy and Yin make a nice combo: Yin walks up then Huggy casts 'Heed My Voice' on target. Ca7 with built in suit. Walk target next to Yin to force a horror duel (Yin is terrifying (all) 12) which you still control. Cheat in an ace from your deck to paralyse. You could put 'Gnawing Fear' on from Yin too to make 'Heed My Voice' easier to get off, but then you won't be able to cheat the horror test....

+1. The upgrade is on there, but you have to untick "Restrict" and search for the upgrade. Great app though: loving it!

I actually nearly always take Wings of Wind on Mei: it allows her to push the construct into the right position to jump to and if I'm steam bubbling, it allows yu to move her (and as a consequence the entire crew) without suffering to cast. Depending on what she's doing it is not always essential, but a master without a (0) may as well have Slow in my eyes. With Mei, you are definitely going to be using that upgrade, put it on someone else and you'll only use it half the time. Interesting though - I think Yu is a more essential part of my Mei Feng crews than he is in my Misaki. I like to tank, tank, tank, explode! in every direction.

Not sure. I haven't played with the Porkchop yet, and only once with the Emissary (McCabe) on vassal - too much painting to catch up on to think about conversions or proxies. But I have had good fortune kickstarting a summon list with the Emberling. Key parts of that list as I remember were Emberling, Toshiro and Yu w/ Low River Style. The game went to 8 turns (damn you Tara!) but in the course of that time I was able to summon 6 Komainu and an Ashigaru (Something like that, it was a while ago), in fact I only summoned the Ashi to see what it did - could have easily summoned another Komainu. So as an alternate: Emberling Yu / Low River +3ss cache

As Rurouni said, ht3 models are good, you also want someone that can always put damage out, so ranged attacks very useful. Fuhatsu being Ht3, 50mm base and 14"(?) range fantastic contender. I also like Sidir for his Sh7 and Chiaki. I imagine people will raise their eyebrows at Chiaki, but consider: it doesn't matter how much damage you do, 1 is enough, late game Chiaki can be easily casting 8 on a (0) action; because it's a (0) attack, and combined with incorporeal, Chiaki has an effective threat range of 20" and even when doing other things you may as well throw out an attack; she is unlikely to be a priority target for your opponent; while I have taken Pull Of The Grave on several occasions, I very rarely use it - there's just so much other stuff I'd rather be doing with her.

I edited, I edited! Drew a blank mid-typing - nothing personal, promise. So... you guys are like the Rotten Belles of marketing? Is that how you'd like to be known?