I'll write this in an existing thread, since the topic would be the same.
Had a game with Ophelia vs Kirai recently as part of the Shifting Loyalties campaign. The strategy was extraction and I chose hunting party and covert breakthrough as schemes (as did my opponent). It was a fun and relaxed game and my opponent is really nice to play against. She is a lot more skilled than I am so I try to pay attention and learn some. However...
I was soundly beaten and I honestly don't see a way to play evenly against the crew I was facing. It was a big game, corresponding to something like 60 normal points (76 campaign points) so I was facing Kirai, Lost Love, Datsue Ba, Izamu (with jet pack/flight as campaign upgrade, not particularly nice), Yin, Flesh construct, a couple of Onryo, Gaki and a Shikome. I had the Kin with Old Cranky and a couple of haulers. First turn, she summoned the Hanged, another Shikome and a Seishin and I started to feel a bit pressured. Next turn, she summoned another Shikome (which actually was not allowed we later realised, since the limit is 2, but that did by no means affect the outcome of the game) and a Seishin and soon another Seishin turned up and a Gaki appeared when one of my models were killed. There were spirits everywhere and I was out-activated, out gunned (they have lots of castings with good range) and I had a really hard time killing anything due to HtW and incorporeal.
Covert breakthrough was not a problem with Merris and I guess I should have taken undercover entourage instead and have Sammy sneak away towards the end of the game but I thought hunting party would be good, since her crew was mainly minions and mine mainly henchmen and enforcers. I managed to kill Izamu, the flesh guy, a Shikome and an Onryo but still scored nil. Ophelia did most of the killing (everybody else in my crew kind of died) and one spirit died from burning which I forgot didn't count. I was very careful not to bring Ikiryo out, maybe that was a bit cowardly of me. I maybe could have been more agressive with Ophelia as well, since she can use stones to prevent damage, but every turn ended with a handful of consecutive spirit activations so she would have had to be really lucky in the defense in that case.
I would very much like to hear some more experienced players share their thoughts regarding how best to deal with something like this. Any weaknesses at all? I couldn't figure any out myself. My friends who are participating in the same campaing (playing Neverborn, Arcanists, and Guild) also struggle. We are all more or less rookies, but still. My opponent said she didn't really see any way for me to compete either, her tip was to try and take out Lost Love but I didn't see the guy at all during the game so I don't know how that would have been achieved.
Anybody got experience on how to be able to compete with this? Maybe a few tips and tricks to share?