Need some help deciding

[Denchfeng]

Hey everyone!

 

Just getting into this game and I'm trying to decide if I want to run Gremlins or Ten Thunders. Currently no one is playing either in my area. I am thinking about running an elite Ten Thunders ancestor force with Yan Lo or a shooting force with Ophelia. I've looked pretty deep into the Yan Lo force and like what I see but I've also been keeping an eye on the gremlins and like what I am reading about Ophelia and her ability to kill things. So...

 

If I were to go with the Gremlins and pick up Ophelia and her crew with a few more Gremlins how would things differ from the elite forces of Yan Lo? How would the play styles be different? Thanks in advance for all the advice and info!

 

~Denchfeng

[DevlinMudd]

I vote Gremlins, but I might be biased.

 

I can't say much for Yan Lo - I've only played against him and only in 1.5 - but I have a bit of experience with Ophelia. Her most obvious feature is her reliable and high damage output in both ranged and melee. She's also quite fast and has a variety of movement tricks to help her crew get to where they need to be. Generally most of her crew will be made of other Kin models (Francois, Raphael, etc) which also have high damage potential, but suffer wounds to do so so timing and healing is very important.

 

I think she's an excellent starting master - enough obvious punch that she's pretty easy to get the hang of, but also with a lot of subtleties and canny tricks to pick up on and improve your game.

 

If you do pick her up, I'd recommend Slop Haulers and some Bayou Gremlins as well.

[scarlett fever]

I've only played against Ophelia (against Devlinmudd as Ophelia actually) and the damage output of her crew is pretty formidible, made a mess of my Misaki crew.

As for Yan Lo (I play Thunders) I've only used him 4-5 times in the new edition but I've used his ancestors (Chiaki, Toshiro, Izamu and Yin) much more than that.

 

I would hesitate to recommend him as a starting Master (though he was my starting Master in 1.5) as you'll find you have alot of models that have independent actions and roles to play in the crew, which could be a bit of a puzzle at first.

 

But if you're sold on him his crew has some great abilities and you'll find his ancestors useful toolkits for most of the other Ten Thunders Masters.

His crew is mostly tanky with abilities to deny the opposing crew their mobility, push them away and hand out some damage. His Ability to throw the opponents models back into your own crew to be mulched is pretty funny. Yan Lo himself builds up over the course of a game adding abilities or buffing his crew.

 

If you grabbed his crew box and the extra Ancestors you'd be in pretty good stead. Unfortunately the next models you'll probably want if you play him as Thunder(Tengu and Komainu) aren't released so you'd have to proxy, though Kensei miniatures and Bushido do good versions of them.

However you can choose to play him as Resser instead but that's a whole other story (Faction).

 

Just my 2 cents.

[Baalbamoth]

I'd defiantly say Yan Lo is a rough master to play against, Chi makes him like a time bomb just ticking down and with all his defensive buffs its pretty darn hard to take him out unless it's in the first turn or two. 

 

that said.... I really don't like the Asian themes... it just doesn't float my boat, I just cant stop thinking of last air bender and cheesy anime.  I find the grems really humorous both in play and art and meh... that's why I went with grems.  Who wouldn't love little green rednecks with a pork fixation... 

[flindo]

go green or get off my land!

[Lupercal]

go green or get off my land!

So you are saying he should play ressers and therefore Yan Lo?

[Brewmaster]

soooo... the two choices:

 

If you play Ten Thunders, the big thing you have is "What faction do I want to play today?" You get access to huge adaptability since you get 7 different styles you can play.

 

If you play Gremlins, look at Ophelia and Trixiebelle, my two favorite Gremlin ladies. You're going first almost all the time, you're making multiple models go, and with the right upgrade on Trixie, when one of your guys kills something, you draw a card.

 

Personal preference: Go with the Dirty Pair... and Yan Lo's beard was stupid to glue on anyways

[Denchfeng]

Lol! Thank you everyone for the feedback! 

 

I'm leaning toward 10T right now. But Ophelia is still in the running. Gonna do more research and see what I'll roll with.

 

 

~Denchfeng

[Loveless]

The Brewmaster is quietly crying into his whiskey somewhere, lamenting his pushed-back release which took him out of the running for Denchfeng's affections.

 

It's okay, Brewmaster.  You'll get released one day, and I'll still love you.

[grave13]

Gremlins are just more fun to hang with......

[Scirian]

Cannot speak from personal experience with Yan Lo, but he appears to be a master that gains traction as the game progresses.

Early turns accruing Chi and upgrades while supporting his crew and building up defense/offense.

Ophelia and her crew work largely independently, but can co-mingle for some scary shenanigans.

Ophelia and her crew are steam rollers from the get go.

They may not be able to come back from the dead...but anyone who has gone against Franc/Ophelia with Dirty Cheater knows that's not always true.

[hypoking]

I say this as an Ophelia player, she's a seal clubber.  She's a good intro master who'll teach you some valuable lessons in regards to threat ranges and applying force. She's got about zero tactical depth though. She runs the same upgrades and the same models and uses the same tactics just about every game. If she's the reason you're going green, you'll have some fun for a few months. Then it'll start to occur to you that every bloody game you seem to be playing is the same last the last one.

 

If you want a master who wont bore to you tears go with Yan Lo, model has tons of options and his big gimmick is that he can flip between them in the middle of a game.