Scheme Choices for Kirai

[Raythus]

I've got my first game with Kirai tonight (unsure of size yet) and was wondering what people would suggest to take in terms of her schemes? Obviously hers is a mobile gang, so I was wondering whether it would be better to take generic schemes involving objectives rather than the Ressurrectionist-specific ones.

I think the Kirai-specific 'Betrayed by Spirits' will be more dependant on my Strategy and the gang I am playing, but then again still confused...

Any advice? =D

[Ratty]

I like Breakthrough, if they have to start worrying about getting back to their deployement zone turn 4 it gives you a huge advantage. You can normally jump there turn 6 and still take the scheme. Meaning you have 2 turns model advantage in the center board.

[Mike3838]

If you have a Shikome then announcing Grudge can be very effective. She's the perfect hunter.

Mike

[Nightjar]

I don't really have a huge amount of experience, but so far I've had good luck with Bodyguard for Kirai. As long as your opponent is distracted by their strategy and your other scheme (particularly if it is a more aggressive scheme and you announced it), I've found that they don't waste much time trying to kill off Kirai, since she's pretty good at avoiding death.

[Ratty]

Does depend on the opponent a bit with Bodyguard. Certain crews can really put the beatdown on her... Viktoria for example. I don't think I would want to give them any more incentive to kill her.

[Raythus]

Well I really wish I'd chosen Bodguard now lol, got my ass handed to me!

30SS game versus Collette. I flipped Claim Jump and figured that'd work fantastically with Stake a Claim and Breakthrough, whilst Collette flipped treasure hunt, whilst taking announced (Collette specific) gain 7 ss and secret bodyguard.

A combination of poor activation choice, poor timing, over-protection for the Seishin and inexperience caused a loss of 6-0, with just a single Seishin, Kirai and Lost Love left on the table. I made some bad choices and played like I was still using Rasputina, forgetting my tricks and gambling too much on card flips when my hand was terrible.

I think that Bodyguard is a fantastic choice for Kirai when she has a Seishin shield and Lost Love available, but I'll have to work a lot harder to understand the synergy this crew has available to it.

[Raythus]

I make it sound like it was all my lucks fault, however I do an injustice to the Collette player (having a gaming club upstairs in a pub will do that to you; one too many and you forget the details!) who had a solid plan, well planned activations and a good amount of luck as well to boot (especially turning the Datsue-Ba into a Mannequin!)

I plan to take less Seishin in future and possibly start with a Shikome rather than a The Hanged, as I found it had little bearing in the game thanks to a lack of range and the Showgirls high WP as standard.

In future I plan to take Bodyguard, and possibly Army of the Dead (not entirely sure here, the Ressurrectionist specific scheme where I end with more models than I began with?)

Or am I reading into my loss too much?

[snord]

Hi Raythus,

I've been playing Kirai for some time now and one of my most frequent opponents is Colette, played by a really good player, friend of mine. A few comments: my first few games with Kirai I lost badly, due to not knowing how to play Kirai. After I "learned", I haven't lost any single game yet.

A few comments:

1. learn how to out activate your opponent.

2. did I mentioned you should learn how to effectively out activate your opponent?

3. Starting crew: read other posts, but basically, take as many cheap spirits as you can: 5 seishin, Lost Love, add some Gakis if you have space. The exception is: I like to always have Datsue Bah, because of the extra move she gives to a spirit with a 0 action, and Jack Daw, because he is awesome (even better with Kirai). Play with at least 5ss cache, ideally 6ss.

* Use your first turn to position your models and summon 2 Shikome (use SS if you must), targeting the coryphee as prey, or the showgirls if he is not playing the coryphee. Don't forget to out activate your opponent to have the 2 Shikomes do the 2 kills right at the first turn and get your opponent very worried.

* From the second turn and forward, you may want to summon Ikyrio to have the Ikyrio cycling your hand and using 3 APs per turn... but be careful as Ikyrio is a lot more fragile than she looks like.

* Keep your crew within 8" from Kirai (except for Shikomes and the Lost Love), but protect Kirai. Keep at least one seishim with Kirai at all times, but be extremely careful with the coryphee duet if he is in play as he can cut through seishims like a hot knife cutting through butter.

* Totally ignore Colette. Against a good player, you will only be able to kill her if you kill all show girls first.

* After Cassandra makes an attack (or after the first 2 turns otherwise), focus on killing her.

* There is not much you can do against Disappearing Act except keep some high cards for defense. If you are playing Jack Daw and properly using the Shikomes though, they will probably be the primary targets of the spell, leaving your other models to do what they need.

* Schemes, the easiest ones are Bodyguard and Grudge (using the Shikomes to target your grudged model). Piece of cake really and I always announce them if I take them. When you are comfortable with Kirai, you will want to try others to make things more challenging for you.

Hope it helps, have fun!

Edson

Edited June 6, 2011 by snord