Into the Dojo : Part three – Tormented vs Ancestors

[Regelridderen]

So I'm prepping for a tournament, while trying to learn how to use my ressurs. So what would be more natural than to pit two of my masters against each other to find out who to field, and how to play the scenarios.

Schemes & Strategy : 

Turf War w. Standard Deployment.

Detonate Charges, Assassinate, Spread them out, Catch and Release, Claim Jump.

THE TABLE

The table were dominated by two large forest on the left flank, while big rocks jutted out of the ground on the right. Pyre markers littered the scene providing hazardous terrain, along with some scattered walls and crates. One of the forest completely engulfed a strategy marker, while the other forest made going into the centre from the strategy marker better left for fliers and incorporeals.

TACTICS – Team J-Dawg

J-Dawg just wanted to do a little simple killing, choosing Assassinate, and then making a note that his minions are on par with Henchmen he picked Catch and Release. He chose to deploy Jakuuna Ubume to grab the marker behind the forest so she could just ignore it, as she'd glide towards the middle. Montressor then started on the other flank to grab the other objective, while the rest set up to head for the centre.

Jack Daw + Lady Ligeia & 8 Stones

Montressor

Jaakuna Ubume

2 Hanged w. GST

Guilty

TACTICS – THE LO GANG

Yan Lo saw a chance to exploit his superior mobility and action economy in Yin and Manos, and so chose Spread them out, thinking he and Izamu could then handle the centre and let Izamu score Claim Jump. Like daw he set up with most of the gang going for the centre, while Manus took rocky flank and Yin the forested.

Yan Lo + Soul Porter & 5 Stones

Manos

Toshiro

Izamu

Chiaki

Yin

Mindless Zombie

THE GAME

Round One Daw forced Yan Lo to start out and he sent the mindless zombie, unpacked his team, sending out Manos and Yin to grab the strat markers, while heading for the middle. Chiaki decided to put Izamu's reliquary on Manos, preparing him for a fight. Daw let Jakuuna and Montressor grab their markers, while using the guilty to bring himself and the hanged up to the middle. He handed out his upgrades to Izamu and Yan Lo, and ended up going across the middle to fight Yan Lo bringing a hanged with him - a definite overstretch blows were exchanged but no real damage done, despite Yan deviously picking up his Ash Ascendant. Meanwhile Toshiro turned the Zombie into a more thematic ashigaru and sent it to engage Lady Ligeia and the guilty just behind the middle.

Round Two Yan Lo grabbed initiative, using Toshiro to heal Yan Lo and Izamu to pound at poor Jack, who just had to dump card after card. Jack in turn used the opportunity to pound poor Yan into within an inch of his life, and Yan Lo still couldn't retaliate proper, because both the Hanged and Jack were too terrifying. Manos, being Ruthless, tried to join in killing Jack, but to no avail. But realising the potential that Yan Lo had, Jack had a Hanged kill him prematurely, capping his victory max by one. Ubume strode towards the middle, while Yin, empowered by the Soul Porter made a move and stole the objective marker Ubume had taken, but it was flipped again when Ligeia and the guilty managed to kill the summoned Ashigaru.

SCORE 1 - 1 Both scored a point for strat, while Jack got the end part of Assassinate.

Round Three with Yan Lo dead, Toshiro did his best to support Izamu by raising another Ashigaru, but Izamu had to deal with too many nooses around his neck. Chiaki crossed the middle and dumped a scheme marker, while the Guilty realised what was happening and tried to stop Yin, as he dumped a couple more. Manos killed off Daw, but suddenly Montressor arrived along with a hanged and the two pounded him down to one life.

SCORE 3 - 2 The Hanged score the reveal of Catch and Release, Yin and Chiaki, scored Spread them out, along with a second point of Strategy.

Round Four Manos got killed, as Montressor just pulsed out his Asphyxiation aura and then went to win the Strategy marker. The two Hanged and Jakuuna tore Toshiro apart – yet not after he had summoned yet another Ashigaru (he cheated in the 12 of crows on all three summons). Meanwhile Yin had a field day flipping yet another turf marker in Daws back field and the lone guilty had no chance of stopping her - While Chiaki proceeded to cross the half and dump a new scheme marker.

SCORE 4 - 3 As the Lo gang scored the third strategy marker, and the Daw crew the second.

Round 5 Yin and Chiaki collaborated on dumping scheme markers, which the Guilty were unable to stop. Neither the Hanged nor Jakuuna had any chance of getting home, nor to win a third strat marker - only to neutralise it. So Daw crew scored the End of Catch and Release and Assassinate, while the Lo gang scored the End of Spread them out.

SCORE 5 - 5

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AFTERMATH

So a glorious defeat to both sides left me non the wiser for going forward. Yet still. I learned the importance of not overextending my masters, as both Daw and Yan got a little too careless at first. Daw's primary focus should be to get those curses out there to ensure that his crew has something to work with, while Yan Lo should just accept that he is too frail without his ascendancy. Playing more cautious would have allowed Lo to leave the fighting to Toshiro and Izamu, and I think, he'd have gotten the upper hand. Yet again, with more upgrades out the Daw crew's card engine would have been smoking, and that's usually a bad experience for the opponent. What really gave the ancestors the upper hand was two Ruthless models, yet I made a mistake in dumping Izamu's reliquary on Manos, so he was forced to join the fray rather than work the schemes.

So if anything, there was a lot of lessons learned. I'm leaning towards Yan Lo in the tournament - especially if vs Ressurs or Neverborn.

MAN OF THE MATCH

I gotta say Toshiro (and his zombie). He was lucky getting the 12 of crows on hand and bringing out 18 stones worth of models. I think the use of a mindless zombie for him is great. It allows him to get the corpse marker into position. I know people like the more expensive corpse generators, but Foul-mouthed Motivation is just as nice an ability, and you can't guarantee those 12s on hand after all.

Yin is a close second. Her speed and interact allowed for turning a loss into a draw. It's a real strength of the Lo crew being able to change gears within a few activations.