25ss Misaki vs Zoraida - Nov Battle Report

[nix]

This went up on my blog on Friday after Thanksgiving, so I thought the weekend was enough time before cross-posting here. Also, its always good to get some games posted on here form time to time, especially with the new monthly battle report stuff going on. At some point I need to try my hand at a Story Narrative around the report.

This game was local Tim against me. This was a quick 25ss game to get some achievements checked off in our league.

Set-up

We had already pulled out the ruins board at the store for a small game vs Skillless-Brian's son, so Tim and I tossed some more scatter terrain on the board to get it to a full-game playable level. When I picked out my schemes I wanted to grab some I had not taken a lot. When I realized I was facing Zoraida I was a bit worried, as the schemes on the low end of my selections were not favorable to facing Zoraida. That said, I wanted to give then a whirl so picked out Assassinate and Eye for an Eye.

Our crews were:

25SS Scrap

Bill - Misaki, Yamaziko, Ototo, Ronin, Archer, 4 Stones

- Turf War, Assassinate, Eye for an Eye

Tim - Zoraida, Bad Juju, 2x Stitched, Wicked Doll, 7 Stones

- Deliver the Message, Frame for Murder (Juju), Grudge (Ronin)

Turn 1

I ended up having to set-up first, but also grabbed initiative. I had tried to set-up in a way that would make it tough for Tim to get Zoraida into LOS with my models I hid my archer behind Ototo, hid the Ronin behind Yamaziko, and sat Misaki out front. I ended up grabbing initiative and was able to bring Yamaziko over in front of Ototo and block overall LOS to him making sure there would be no Voodoo Doll action on him. In response Tim moved a Stitched together out in front of his crew and put up the Creepy Fog. From there turn 1 ended up being a lot of movement. Misaki was able to use up her three moves and make an attack on a Stitched together, dropping him to 1wd remaining, but not triggering his Does not Die. Misaki then used Shadow on Zoraida. Unforunately I did not get pictures of the end of turn 1, but I did get pictures at the start of how our hands looked. Tim drew his hand and promptly showed me as it was pretty darn bad.

A hand like that certainly did not bode well for how the game was going to go, especially when I had this draw on turn 1.

Turn 2

Turn 2 really turned up the action. I grabbed initiative and Misaki started out. Misaki finished off the stitched together from turn 1, then walked and took a reckless action to diving charge the wicked doll and killed it. Tim opened with having Zoraida create a voodoo doll of Ototo then charged the Archer, removing him solidly from the game. Yamaziko activated and moved up the board, the Voodoo doll obeyed the stitch to charge Misaki (missing the attack), Ototo moved toward Zoraida, and the Stitched delivered the message to Misaki. The Ronin did not need to go anywhere yet, so stayed where she was. Bad Juju came out at the end of the turn, charged the Ronin but I threw the joker to stay alive.

And View number 2, with a look at where Misaki ended up

Turn 3

I knew I was going to lose my Ronin this turn, and had to make the choice between attacking and doing damage to Juju and starting out going after Zoraida. I chose to move after Zoraida first, activating Ototo and charging Zoraida. His Height 3 balanced out the height of the ruins, so he charged to the edge of the 2 inches and tried to attack, but missed due to Proper Manners. He then braced, making sure Zoraida could not move him away with Obey. Tim started as expected and activated Juju to attack the Ronin. It took both Juju's actions to kill the Ronin, leaving him stuck at the far side of the board for the turn. Misaki activated and charged Zoraida, moving the the ruins, B2B with Zoraida but on the ground at the bottom of the ruins. Her 2 inch reach allowed her to overcome the ht4 of the small wall, and she attacked. Now, its important for those keeping track that I was holding a 11 and 13 of Ram's in my hand to attack Zoraida with. The charge attack missed and I proceeded to attack 2 more times (Melee expert and reckless) with Negative flips from Proper Manners and missed both attack. This was a big mistake, as I should have used Your Mine to become paired, and then have been able to cheat to hit Zoraida. Instead I ended up burning off 3 stones in this round of attacks for no success. The Stitched walked around to put some hurt on Ototo, hitting a Red Joker on Gamble your Life and dropping Ototo to Hard to Kill. Poison from the Voodoo Doll will kill him off the next time he activated unless I could figure out a way to heal him. Yamaziko moved across the board and dropped a heal on Ototo, bringing him back up to 3 wounds remaining. Zoraida obeyed the stitched to gamble his life, but ended up having that reversed and it took 3 damage.

An Alternate view

Turn 4

I got initiative on turn 4 and Yamaziko moved around just a little bit to block LOS between the stitched and Ototo, following up by swinging on the Stitched to trigger Does not Die, then healing Ototo again. The stitched activated, walked around Yamaziko to get LOS on Ototo, and Gambled his life to bring him back to his hard to kill. Misaki activated and focused an attack on Zoraida but the cheats and stones went to Zoraida and the attack missed. I followed up with 2 more attack, still not remembering that I should use Your Mine, but missed them all. Zoraida cast repulsive (needing to cast it twice due to a black joker), pushing Misaki back to the board edge and pushing her own Voodoo doll to its death off the side of the ruin. She then used Raven to fly over to the other ruin, allowing Misaki to walk toward her due to shadow. Bad Juju finished up by moving up the board.

Turn 5 and 6

Initiative once again to me, which was a theme for the game. Misaki diving charged into range of Zoraida, attacking and finally remembering to put up Your Mine. This time I was able to cheat but Tim's soulstone advantage took its toll, with me missing 3 more attacks. Juju moved toward Yamaziko but missed his attack. Yamaziko healed Misaki and ran for the Tim's deployment zone. Zoraida cast repulsive three times to push Misaki off the ruins away from her.

I did not grab a turn 6 picture, Misaki started out by jumping back to the top of the ruin and attacking Zoraida again. I burned off the last of Zoraida's stones, used Your Mine, then hit and killed her with my second attack. Misaki grabbed Reckless and moved off the ruin, away from Juju. This was another mistake as I had just enough movement to make it across the mid-line of the board for Turf War, but chose to get away from Juju instead, losing my turf-war. Tim passed his AP with Juju and the game was over.

At the end of the game it ended up a win to Zoraida, 6/4.

Misaki: Turf War - 0, Assassinate - 2, Eye for an Eye - 2

Zoraida: Deliver the Message - 4, Grudge (Archer) - 2, Frame for Murder (Juju) - 0

Final Thoughts

Tim and I both made critical mistakes in the game, but I made more and ended up losing. Tim forgot to use Zoraida's trigger to take Moderate or Severe damage and no longer be attacked when he was cheating his defense on the last turn. This let me attack him a second time and kill Zoraida off. I forgot to use Your Mine in both turns 3 and 4, which would have really locked the game up at that point. I was burning stones on negative flips and Tim was able to counter me nicely. Had I remembered I could have started with the Decapitates on my early attacks and Zoraida would have been killed on one of those earlier turns. That would have left me time to consolidate up the board for Turf War.

Overall, it was a fun and quick game.

[Argentbadger]

Thanks for the great report. It’s a good mix of text and pictures, and has enough detail to understand some of the reasons for the flow of the game. I have one question though. In turn two it states:

Tim opened with having Zoraida create a voodoo doll of Ototo then charged the Archer, removing him solidly from the game.

I read that as Zoraida killing the Archer and getting the points for Grudge. Doesn’t Grudge require a minion to deliver the final blow?

[ninjahamster]

I'm guessing zoriada then obeyed ottotototototo to charge the archer, thus it was a minion delivering the final blow

[nix]

Thanks for the great report. It’s a good mix of text and pictures, and has enough detail to understand some of the reasons for the flow of the game. I have one question though. In turn two it states:

I read that as Zoraida killing the Archer and getting the points for Grudge. Doesn’t Grudge require a minion to deliver the final blow?

I'm guessing zoriada then obeyed ottotototototo to charge the archer, thus it was a minion delivering the final blow

Ninjahamster has it right, sorry about the confusion there. Zoraida used obey to have BamBam do the charge.

We have always ruled it to count for Grudge when you obey a model and the obeyed model does the killing. A funny aside for those very specific rules lawyers:

RM Pg 101

Grudge: Blah Blah:

Victory

If the noted Minion was killed by one of your non-Master models' melee Strikes or Melee Spells, you score 1VP

So, by RAW, an obeyed model cannot get your grudge. Kind of funny although I would always rule the opposite as a TO.

[Adran]

Hmm, I'd never noticed that. I guess that it is written as is because turn 1 Zoraida Obey enemy beatstick- Charge weak grudge model, is a little too powerful. They have some defense from you getting models to kill it. Stopping their own models being in a position to kill it as well is quite tricky.

I imagine that its only Zoraida that this is really a problem for as you need the conduit to get the easy obey.

Obeying one of your own models will still work for Grudge.

[Argentbadger]

Thanks for the explanation everyone.

Nix –with Adran’s suggestion about the power of Grudge in a Zoraida crew, would you stick with your interpretation of the rules? It seems to me that a ‘standard’ Zoraida crew of the hag plus Collodi and his puppets could easily rack up 6 vps in the first two activations of the game if playing (e.g.) Destroy the Evidence and Grudge.