So we decided on a 35 point match, and flipped strategies beforehand. He flipped Deliver the Message and I flipped Plant Evidence. With a week to go between the games, we announced our Masters – I took Kirai and he took Lady Justice. He and Dan worked up a few strategies (Dan’s better at Ressers than me, so I was curious to see how he would suggest coming out to beat Kirai) and finally the game started.
Kirai, Lost Love, Insidious Madness x2, Night Terror x2, Datsu-ba, Canine Remains, Desperate Merc, Seishin x2, 7 stones
Strategy: Plant Evidence
Scheme: Kill Protégé: Guild Captain, Breakthrough
Lady Justice, Lucius, Governor’s Proxy, Guild Guard Captain, Guild Hound x2, Witchling Stalker x2, 8 stones
Strategy: Deliver the Message
Scheme: Stake a Claim, Bodyguard (Lucius)
The board was terrain-heavy though there was little to block LOS entirely. Fortunately neither of us had a shooting-based crew, so it wasn’t as much a problem. I set up my crew spread out along pretty much the entire board so that I could use models to go after Evidence points regardless of what he set up to oppose. My main bunch of models – the non-Spirits, Datsu-ba, and Kirai, were all fairly centrally located. He deployed fairly opposite my Kirai grouping with his dogs taking a flank.
Sadly I don’t remember many of the initiatives, so I won’t be able to keep track of those, but I have the highlights of the turns.
TURN ONE
This turn went pretty straight forward for both of us. I moved out my Terrors and an Insidious Madness towards the side of the board that had the least opposition, counting on them to shore up my Plant Evidence markers throughout the game. Brian sent one Stalker after them to try to keep them honest, put his totem up on a building to keep him safe and give LOS to his whole crew, and slowly started bringing models up. Kirai sacrificed both her Seishin for a Shikome to go after the Captain, and then got two Seishin back when Datsu-ba killed both the Canine Remains and the Desperate Merc. The Merc healed Kirai back up and a Gaki and Onryo poured onto the table. I moved my Shikome forward, then charged the Captain hoping to get two attacks at him but was out of range and my last action just moved me into melee, wasting the turn of attacks.
TURN TWO
I led here with my Shikome attacking the Captain, knocking him to four wounds left and Poison 2 on him. Brian tried to kill my Shikome but I sold my hand to keep her alive, forcing Lucius to bring Lady Justice in for the kill. Meanwhile, my objective grabbers moved out a bit more and grabbed one objective on the way through. I brought my other Insidious Madness to help out, but the Witchling Stalker over there charged the Madness. Kirai, meanwhile, did very little this turn, not having a crow or mask in hand to use. The dogs continued their cautious advance. My Gaki and Onryo moved up towards the middle scrum to keep anyone from launching at Kirai.
TURN THREE
The Witchling Stalker engaged with my Insidious Madness waxed the poor spirit while my objective grabbers nabbed my second and third points, and positioned themselves for the fourth. Meanwhile, the dogs rushed around near Kirai in position to deliver her a message the following turn if I wasn’t careful. I knew I had to keep him from reaching me before turn 5 to have a good shot, so I brought Kirai towards the dogs (and away from the melee scrum with Lady J) and dropped Datsu-ba and Ikiryo on them. Both were killed and brought up new Seishin, and one was turned into a Gaki by Datsu-ba. In the melee scrum, I was able to keep Lady Justice in place though she managed to kill an Onryo and left herself with an opening towards Kirai.
TURN FOUR
No masks in my hand, so I couldn’t launch myself towards my Lost Love and get away as was my plan. Instead I tried to shore up as many models between Lady J and Kirai as I could, but I couldn’t get enough and Lady J double-moved into range of Kirai. Kirai summoned a new Shikome next to Lady J on the off-chance that I could kill her, but I was unable. Ikiryo jumped in to help, but she couldn’t do it either. My other models grabbed the last objective and hid in Brian’s Deployment zone, while I started moving after the second Witchling and Captain.
TURN FIVE
I stoned to win initiative but had no masks. I tried to cast Into the Spirit World and did not flip a Mask. I tossed another stone (I had a bunch left) and tried to luck into a Mask, but no cigar. Kirai cast a spell at Lady J to give her (-) flips against spirits. Brian let it go off since he knew Lady J would get him 2 VPs and he wanted to save his stones to keep Lucius, his Bodyguard, alive. Lady J activated and Delivered the Message, then smacked a Seishin. The Shikome and Ikiryo shredded Lady J, and the Shikome started moving after the Captain. Brian sent his Witchling Stalker charging the Captain to kill him and deny me 2 VPs. I gave Brian a hard time for that move, though after reflection, it was the right move for him to make since I had already denied him two VPs from his objective. Lucius moved after the Stake a Claim marker, and his other Witchling Stalker joined the race.
TURN SIX
Kirai summoned another Shikome as Lucius got himself next to the objective marker. Between the two Shikome, Datsu-ba and Ikiryo, I managed to burn through his stones and finally kill Lucius as my Insidious Madness held one of his Witchling Stalkers up and my Gaki and Kirai held up the other one.
We flipped to see if the game would continue and it did not – we finished with a hard-fought 6 points for the Ressers (4 Plant Evidence, 2 Breakthrough, 0 Kill Protégé) to the 2 points for the Guild (2 Deliver the Message, 0 Bodyguard Lucius, 0 Stake a Claim).
In the balance, a bunch of drinks exchanged hands:
I won a drink from Brian
I won a drink from Slaz (for not killing my master round one to prevent Deliver the Message)
eChris won a drink from Dan (for betting on me)
Pierre won a drink from… someone, I think… don’t remember if someone else bet
Overall, the game just helped to solidify my opinion of Kirai. After the beating that the Dreamer took from errata (and I never thought he was one of my top masters in the game), it surprises me to see other crews that work even better than his still have a strong presence and get less attention. It’s probably fair to say that I’m biased in my opinions of the top masters based on our local meta – I always get fits playing against Colette and Kirai – but I have a hard time seeing how to defeat them in most matches straight up. Colette’s got the ability to wrap up 8 VPs pretty easily in many games, and then the best thing you’re playing for is a tie. Kirai requires more interaction with your opponent, but even still, her movement and the sheer volume of models she can put out is insane!
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