Facing Asami soon

[Paddywhack]

So, I am going to be facing Asami soon and wondering the best way to tackle her. Especially the Jorogumo, who I know will be there, likely summoned. 

I'm wanting to try Reva as she's still new, but not sure. I don't have Chiaki together and really, I know the other player is well aware of the vital importance of the upgrade that stops condition removal. I doubt she'd be able to do her thing much. 

If I can get Reva a chance to attack Asami right away, it could make things scary for him. Not sure if the upgrade with the free Corpse Candle upfield or the ghost charge one is better to help pull this off though.

[TheJoyInGaming]

Don't forget that the Candle's can use a 0 and kill themselves to give Disguised!

[Paddywhack]

Hmm.. hadn't thoguht of that issue with the corpses. That does put a wrench in those plans. Can always bring Maniacal Laugh I suppose. Nurse wouldn't be a bad idea. 

[Tris]

I had a game against her with (Guild) McMourning, so:

Yeah, watch your corpses. (could get especially interesting in the Reva vs. Asami Matchup, Reva attacks through them, turns them into scheme markers and whatnot, Asamis uses them to fuel her Onis flicker, maybe contest your markers,.... Very interesting indeed )

Nurse can paralyze Asami, as she is at Df 7, but only Wp 5 vs. the Nurses Ca 6 

Don't underestimate Asamis own mobility, she can redeploy really quick.

Ohaguro Bettari (?!) can charge anywhere she wants and can place herself in base to base with summons - friendly or enemy!

Also, make sure to kill her in one go, as she has eat your fill, which heals her up

Without the healing, she is quite squishy and I think you should kill her, if only to "get your Hard to Wound back" (because she has a 0 action aura which gives models in the aura masks on their melee and there is so much flay everywhere).

Don't underestimate her Yokai (the 5ss minion onis) - they can damage way above their cost curve and are super fast if she wants them to be, although all of this comes at the cost of lowering their flicker and maybe dying.

But the Yokai are her common summons, there may be the occasional Jorugomu, but there will always be Yokai.

Watch your Ap while dealing with the summons, if you can't kill it it may be better to weather the storm as her summons tend to flicker out of existence anyways, so only damage will achieve you nothing (also watch out for your schemes, marking them etc. may not be very effective )

Anything else may be just the usual TT stuff, so lots of recalled training and maybe one or two snipers.

 

If you can attack her hand and SS she will have a rough time doing anything, as she needs masks for her summons and at least some 8s, 9s for the many TNs in her crew.

 

That's it for now as I dont't have any rules in front of me and know not very much about Reva^^

 

 

One last thing - please share your results and opinion afterwards as I'm very curious to hear more concerning the new masters

 

[Tris]

So, any news?

Did you have your game already?

[Paddywhack]

Not yet - not till Sunday.

Hmmm. Trying to think of a good way to disrupt her hand. Grave Spirit is out as she needs her Corpse Candles. Can't think of anyone else except Belles with a trigger.

I'm thinking right now of taking Ann Lovelace - that might help disrupt her repositioning and hold her in place so i can kill her if I get the opportunity. 

[Fetid Strumpet]

I think focusing on WP is a better way to go. I play against Lilith a ton with Seamus, and to date I've never lost a game to her. (Keep in mind I'm not saying that is significant of anything other than having anti-WP shenanigans does make it harder for Lilith herself to be as active as she might like).

Hand disruption comes from having multiple attacks which force the choice of cheating on the opponent. Belles aren't great at that, in my experience, unless you get lucky with your triggers (I rarely am) because their attack stat is so high most of the time the enemy just concedes the duel and hangs onto their higher cards for use attacking or defending against other things. If you want to put pressure on their hand you need lots of attacks from things they feel they have a chance to win against, and you ultimately want something that will help advance your plan if they choose not to cheat. Models which have positives to their attack are also beneficial, as it is very important to try to force them to have the first decision to cheat or not. Volume of attacks is also important. 

 

If you are KNOW you are facing Asami, and your opponent is aware or doesn't mind that you are potentially going to list tailor against their master, I'd make certain to bring a Nurse and potentially 2 belles. The Nurse can mess up Asami's turns even without the paralyze by preventing her from being able to take the actions she wants to take (If you succeed on any of her take your meds triggers she won't be summoning, with the possible exception of downers, and then only if she spends a stone prior to making the flip for a positive) And in addition to using Lure your belles can toss out Slow on Asami.

The Nurse would be my first add though because they combo so well with Reva if you have also brought a way to get around armor, like Vincent's action, or Litany of the Fallen.

[Paddywhack]

Wow, I hadn't thought of the Nurse and ignoring armour thing! That is a very nasty little combo that could ruin someone's day. I may rethink forgoing Vincent this time after all...

I'm also thinking a Belle as Asami's summons only get to Charge for 1AP while within 4 of her. If I pull them away, it severely reduces their ability to do much on the turn they are summoned.

 

[Fetid Strumpet]

True, but be careful you don't pull them into range of something they do want to attack anyway, in which case you traded 1 AP from your belle, and whatever card required to do it and the attack you still potentially need to eat from the Oni that was going to charge, for the two attacks the Oni was going to make. If can be a good trade, but make sure you know its a good trade and aren't doing it just to do it.

Yin might also be a consideration. Put Gnawing fear on someone and then attack that model with Reva, and target their WP. Asami won't like her because that effect can also prevent her from summoning or using Ca actions without using stones or focusing to offset the negative modifier. Lilith HATES it when Yin manages to land that debuff on her.

[Paddywhack]

OK, managed a 9-7 win, but my opponent misread Search the Ruins and played it wrong (thought it said center line rather than center). That would have changed the game completely so hard to say how it would have turned out if he had read it right. 

I ended up with:

• Reva - Decaying Aura, Screaming Death (one of the limited), one that lets her push models
• Vincent - his upgrade and MLH
• Anna Lovelace - MLH
• ShieldBearer x2
• Rotten Belle
• Nurse
• Night Terror

He had a pretty typical set up with Asami, Oghura (sp?), 2 Brothers, the totem, Ama No Zaka, and a Samurai I think.

Overall it went pretty well with me scoring 3 points turn 2 by killing Ama No Zaka (got really lucky with a RJ on a pot shot with Vincent and then finished her off with Reva). Decaying Aura on Reva is pretty brutal. Ama couldn't stone and later it helped me really hurt and then kill Asami. That and the no healing within 4" hurt Asami quite a bit.

The Rotten Belle helped a bit by pulling a summoned Jorgumo out of position. Better that it attack and kill a Belle than Reva  The Nurse was awesome and survived far longer than she should have (lucky flips). Without her Turn 4 would have really hurt as she basically shut down a Jorugumo and Oghura when I was already hurting. Shieldbearers didn't do too much but place schemes and hold the Stash Markers most game. He just didn't focus on them much. The Night Terror was OK, but as usual died quickly. Threw Asami off for one turn a bit though (Night Falls is so annoying to a Caster).

Anna Lovelace helped stop Oghura from jumping around and managed to get one Mindless Zombie out. Her Vortex was annoying as well, though I didn't make great use of it. She got smoked hard my Oghura and a Jorugumo  - both of whom managed several sever damage hits. I wasted 2 stone trying to keep her alive when I should have saw it was a foregone conclusion.

Vincent managed to kill the Samurai in one activation by getting the 0 off and then getting 3 shots with his crossbow. Without armour, even with 9 wounds from and upgrade, he went down fast. Otherwise he managed to help hold a Stash marker, but was almost always engaged. I didn't always have a card to push away either.

One issue was that Asami can use my Corpse markers to help her summons. This means I didn't want to kill my Candles as they could be used against me as corpses. However, Oghura and the Jorugumo also have Eat Your Fill, meaning they can heal back to full by killing an enemy, even a Peon, so they also served as cheap ways to heal nasty models. I had Oghura down to like 3 wounds when she healed back to full. Between that and the the Death Contract he had on her, I ended up not worrying about killing her. Managed to feed her stuff and shut her down with the Nurse.

Fun game, but it was rough. We're going to have a rematch soon and I am really thinking about taking Yin this time. Getting her 0 off on Asami could shut down her summons hard. A  on CA and WP will ruin her day. I'll feel great though!

[Paddywhack]

Oh, he didn't take the upgrade that gave him a free summons when the opponent is ahead in VP this game, but if he had he would have received like 2-3 free models due to me jumping ahead early with a Quick Murder. That would have made the game just awful. 

[Kadeton]

Definitely consider taking Yin (especially with My Little Helper). Getting her Gnawing Fears off on anyone will ruin their day (and they're practically fish in a barrel for Reva), and she's very resilient against models that like to charge (unless they're getting a  on their attack flips) which Asami will really hate. Good luck in the next game!

[Paddywhack]

Thanks! If you haven't faced Asami's core crew she has access to a lot of models with Flay. Being able to cheat on  is huge. 

I am leaning towards Yin this time and maybe switching my belle to a Doxy, who I tend to get a lot more use out of as I can choose where to push. That can help alleviate Yin's slow walk as well.