Game of the Week - 4/17/12

I have been trying to get this battle report posted for a week now, but work and vacation plans have conspired against me. A couple weeks ago I made the mistake of boasting that I had a very good record with Pandora (hadn’t lost with her since my early days of playing her). True and deserved, Aaron, one of our local henchmen, challenged me to a game with his Leviticus crew for last week’s Game of the Week.

We rolled up with 30 stones each. Aaron asked if I would prefer to face Collodi or Ashes & Dust. I have faced Collodi many times before, but had yet to see Ashes & Dust used to its utmost. Plus, Aaron liked to talk about how good a model it was, so I asked him to put it on the table so I could see what it was all about. We flipped Strategies and I ended up with A Line in the Sand. My first instinct with Neverborn and that strategy would be to take Collodi, but having just told Aaron not to use him, I felt like I couldn’t justify turning around to use him myself. So instead I took a basic Pandora list and counted on my superior intellect and skill to guide me to a victory.

Crew: Pandora +8, Primordial Magic, Lilitu, Lelu, Baby Kade, Stitched Together  
Strategy: A Line in the Sand
Schemes: Stake a Claim, Kidnap (Ashes & Dust, Canine Remains, Watcher)  

Crew: Leviticus +4, Canine Remains, Rusty Alice, Ashes & Dust, Watcher  
Strategy: Supply Wagon  
Schemes: Kill Protégé (Lelu), Soulless Life

It’s been a little while since the game was played, so I’ll try to recall as best I can.

TURN ONE Most of this turn went pretty simple. I was being out-activated as the Waifs and Canine Remains moved up to do stuff. I moved Baby Kade up on his own towards one of the side Dynamite markers. Leviticus moved up and got himself killed so that he could come back and move the tracker on Soulless Life. At the end of the turn, Ashes & Dust moved out with Reactivate on it from Rusty Alice, then went after Baby Kade and killed him with a couple swings, Harmless and DF 7 be damned! No doubt this shocked me, and threw a wrench in my plans. I was intending to use him as my primary objective grabber.  

TURN TWO I pulled Pandora and Lilitu in the middle of the field with Lelu going after another objective himself. The Stitched Together held the center while I had Lilitu yank the Watcher into killing range. A quick shot later from Pandora and I had wrapped up two victory points (the Canine Remains had been turned into a Waif, the Ashes & Dust had already separated, and now the Watcher was dead).  

TURN THREE Pandora activated and zapped Leviticus, making him turn around and run away. It managed to get rid of an activation for him this turn, but Rusty Alice just shot him in the head and killed him anyway. In the meantime, Ashes & Dust rolled over and killed off Lelitu. My Stitched Together killed the Ashes & Dust, but I lacked the ability to do any more damage to him after that. The Ashen Core stuck around the middle while the Dust Storm jumped to one of the sides and started coming in.  

TURN FOUR Levitius popped back up and with the newly reformed Ashes & Dust managed to kill off the Stitched Together. The poor Stitched had nothing else left he could do, so he died a lonely death. Lelu had activated one of the markers and was moving in to another of them. I moved my Primordial Magic up to the center, trying to find a way to squeeze out some points. Pandora managed to thread the needle and hit Rusty Alice to make her run away. The woman dropped to 1 wound left, but was too far away to finish off by that point.

TURN FIVE The Ashes & Dust split apart and the Dust Storm deactivated the Dynamite marker on the board edge that I had flipped with Lelu. Very sneaky. The Primordial Magic gave Pandora Dementia and she activated two Dynamite Markers herself that turn, while Lelu activated yet another one.  

TURN SIX The Ashes & Dust reformed and killed off the Primordial Magic while Leviticus killed off Pandora and the slowly-dying Lelu. The game blessedly ended and my Pandora streak came to a well-deserved end. I ended up losing the game, 2-8.

 Fortunately, Aaron’s not a drinker, so I only had to buy him a soda at dinner. But Dan had also bet on me, and had to buy Pierre a beer.

Game of the Week - 3/27/12

It’s almost a week late, so my memory might be a little hazy on what specifically happened during the game, but I figured I’d post up how my second Game of the Week went last week. Skill-less Brian challenged me to a Guild vs. Resser game to try to knock off his Skill-less moniker. He had to defeat the three people around when he received the nickname. So far he has beaten Bill and eChris. I’m the last hurdle.

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!

Mass Effect 3 - The End

So last week I finally finished playing Mass Effect 3. I know there are a lot of people who are dissatisfied with the ending, with the story, with the game, and with the series as a whole now. I figured I’d toss in my thoughts after taking a little while to digest them.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!



SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

When I first finished the game, I was struck with a sense of “… that’s it?” There was no big boss fight. The last time I had actually been in any appreciable combat felt like it was the beginning of a long-winded fight to get to the end. But it basically turned out to be a string of cut scenes through to the end, and then it didn’t really matter what you chose to do. Whether you chose to control, synthesize, or destroy, the only change was that in one of those three choices, you had an outside shot of surviving. Other than that, nothing you did mattered.

Add to that the fact that the final confrontation with the Illusive Man was terrible. I said nothing to him that I had not said to him in the past, yet for some reason this time he listened to me? There was nothing different this time around than any other, so why did it end differently?

So after the game ended, I felt dissatisfied. But the feeling only stuck with me for a few hours. It was like any other session I sat down to play the game. When I killed the Quarians, I felt dissatisfied because I felt like I was giving a choice to the Geth and they chose a path I didn’t want them to take. But when I prevented the cure for the Genophage from being sent up, I felt satisfied because I felt like I was stopping the next great war from occurring. Both those lows and highs stood with me for a little while and then disappeared into the backdrop of the entire Mass Effect series.

And that’s pretty much how I feel about the ending now. It just faded into the entire story. When it comes down to it, if I played 70 hours of ME2 and 3, there were probably 5 hours I disliked the game. Most of those were the driving the hovertank in the second game, the planet scanning in the second game, and the last 5-10 minutes of the third game. Other than that, I had a fantastic ride.

So that’s pretty much where I’ve come down now. The game was a blast and fell apart at the end. But the story was good enough that to me, I can deal with focusing on the journey rather than the destination.

I don't regret my time playing the game, and in fact, I just picked up the first Mass Effect so I can create a character and go through the entire story with one character. Looking forward to the play-through.

Oh, and I have seen the Indoctrination Theory of the ending. Very well-done, I think, and I like using that as my interpretation of the end to Mass Effect. I approve.

Game of the Week - 3/20/12

Our gaming store has started a new tradition every Tuesday night: the Game of the Week. Two of our regulars (or semi-regulars) are selected for whatever reason (usually one challenging another) to compete in the Game of the Week. The loser must buy the winner a beer that night, and all week beforehand, trash-talking ensues. Usually side-bets are placed on the game too as people throw their support behind one player or the other.

The first game was between Skill-less Brian and Aaron, another local henchman. Despite the bluster and high-stepping, the game ended in a tie and all the bets were left unsettled.

The second game was between eChris and Gamer’s Lounge Bill. We talked briefly about that game on the most recent episode of the Gamer’s Lounge – head over and take a listen if you haven’t already.

Last night, Second Generation Awesome Dan and I faced off against each other. The match was 35 stones, him taking Leviticus and me taking McMourning. We were each allowed to reflip our strategy once without cost since we were picking our masters before knowing the strategies.

I had just played a game with a poor showing from my deck, so I gifted my deck to another McMourning player at the store and bought a new one.

Dan’s first strategy flip was Slaughter, which he reflipped to get Treasure Hunt. Leviticus is not the best at Slaughter. My first strategy flip was Distract, which I reflipped to get Slaughter. I didn’t want Distract because I didn’t think I could kill him, and a single Waif properly placed could end my shot at keeping him away. But Slaughter was stacking things in my favor quite a bit, so I offered to reflip for a different strategy, but Dan stood firm and we went forward.

My crew: McMourning, Chihuahua, Canine Remains x3, Sebastian, Shikome, Belle x2, Crooked Man, 8 stones
Strategy: Slaughter
Schemes: Stake a Claim, Grudge (Rusty Alice)

His crew: Leviticus, Steampunk Abomination x3, Rusty Alice, Ashes & Dust, Canine Remains, 3 stones
Strategy: Treasure Hunt
Schemes: Soulless Life, Assassinate (McMourning)


TURN ONE: LEVITICUS INITIATIVE
I started out in a pretty standard fashion, as did Dan. McMourning killed off two of his canines for 7 body parts. The third dog was just out of range for Leviticus to kill with his spell. My Shikome rushed along the buildings to keep hidden from reprisal but near enough to Rusty Alice for the next turn if I won initiative. The Steampunk Abominations moved up together, one away from being able to bring out a Desolation Engine. At the end of the turn, Levi died and respawned.


TURN TWO: MCMOURNING INITIATIVE
I started off with my Shikome, figuring this was the best shot I had at hitting Rusty Alice. It Nimbled out, then Charged Rusty. I cheated in Severe damage, then attacked again due to Fast, scored a hit and cheated in Moderate damage to kill her off. Two points down for Grudge. Leviticus responded to the attack by turning around and wrecking my poor Shikome, turning it into a Steampunk Abomination. He now had four on the table ready to build a Desolation Engine.

I tried to use my Belles to Lure Steampunks out of position so that they couldn’t form together, but Dan managed to pile them all together. As a last-ditch effort, I tried to have the Crooked Man channel Cave In on the bunch to see if I could kill one, but Hard to Wound meant my attack landed at a (-) flip and I did 2 wounds to one of the models.

The Steampunks formed the Desolation Engine and charged McMourning, but a Soulstone kept me from being hit. McMourning responded by activating and killing off the Desolation Engine with some nice flips. Two Steampunks popped out as a result and I managed to kill one of them off before the end of the turn. The Ashes & Dust ended the turn by lunging into McMourning, dealing only a couple wounds to him after a prevention.


TURN THREE: MCMOURNING INITIATIVE
This is where my newly-purchased deck showed its favor. Dan flipped a decent card for initiative but I flipped a 13, putting me well out of reach.

McMourning started by taking down the Ashes & Dust in two attacks, then killing the Ashen Core with his Fast attack, and then using the Scalpel Sling to launch himself into Leviticus and deal him some wounds (six, though he prevented a few of them). Levi activated and retaliated by dropping McMourning by a good chunk of wounds. I had to toss stones to prevent and still ended up with only a couple wounds remaining. Fortunately Dan didn’t have anything else that could really hurt McMourning. I spent the rest of the turn trying to Lure and kill the Waifs, but I wasn’t able to beat his resists and only killed one of them to force his respawn to happen farther back on the table. His Dust Swarm moved around the table to try to get a line on the Treasure Counter, I think, but my crew was now surrounding it.


TURN FOUR: MCMOURNING INITIATIVE
My deck continued its love for me giving me another 13 for initiative. McMourning started out and went full-bore into Leviticus, killing him before he could activate. The Dust Swarm moved in on the Treasure Counter, but Sebastian managed to kill it off.


TURN FIVE: LEVITICUS INITIATIVE
At this point I had wrapped up 6 VPs and was keeping the Treasure Token well-protected. It was a tough spot for Dan. He started by grabbing Assassinate as Leviticus wrecked McMourning. I moved my remaining Belles, Sebastian and Canine Remain up to the Stake a Claim point while my Crooked Man remained behind by the Treasure counter.


TURN SIX: LEVITICUS INITIATIVE
Leviticus killed off Sebastian in a couple swings, then finished off the wounded Belle. I killed the resulting Steampunk Abomination and hung tight on the Stake a Claim marker. I flipped to see if the game would go on and it would. Damn.


TURN SEVEN: MCMOURNING INITIATIVE
I charged with my Canine Remains and scored a straight flip for damage. I tossed my Red Joker and added a Weak on top leaving Leviticus with only 3 wounds left (he was out of stones by now). Leviticus killed the dog to make a Steampunk, and I killed the Steampunk. My Belle remained on the Stake a Claim, and my Crooked Man remained behind, close enough to move in if the game went on to turn 8. I flipped to see and it didn’t.


The game finished in McMourning’s favor.

McMourning: 8 (Slaughter 4, Grudge: Rusty Alice 2, Stake a Claim 2)
Leviticus: 4 (Treasure Hunt 0, Assassinate: McMourning 2, Soulless Life 2)


Nayte and Bill both earned beers on side-bets, Nayte claiming two on a 2:1 bet with eChris, and Bill taking the bet against Pierre. I earned a second beer from Dan, having also bet on eChris to win the following week.

At dinner, Skill-less Brian challenged me to the Game of the Week next week. Strategies have already been flipped and masters have been chosen. I am playing Ressers again and Dan will be giving Brian a crash course on how to beat Kirai with Lady Justice. My strategy next week is Plant Evidence and his is Deliver the Message.

Second Best Master in Malifaux

My playgroup laughs at me because I believe that Colette is the strongest master in the game. It’s an opinion I’ve held since near when she was released and I have not been swayed by that opinion. It’s not an opinion that anyone else in my playgroup holds, and when we bring up the idea of the power masters and I mention Colette as being number one, my playgroup laughs at me.

Of course, they also laugh at me when I lose a game I should have won, or when I win a game. Or when I just show up at the store for my Tuesday night gaming. Heck, I was sick last night and didn’t make it out to game and they texted me to laugh at me instead (okay, they were yelling at me since there were an odd number of players that night with my absence, but still).

Frankly, they laugh at me for just about anything. It’s all good though, I laugh at them with equal measures. It’s just the way out gaming group works.

But back on topic, I have always known what I believe to be the strongest master, but I’ve wrestled with the second place. Is it Hamelin? Pandora? Many say the Dreamer’s number one, but I don’t think he even tops out the Neverborn masters. Regardless I think I’ve finally settled on the second best master in the game: Kirai.

Now I’m only three games into my experiment with Kirai, the last Resser to see playtime, and already she’s rocketed up to be one of the best masters in my eyes. After and 8-8 tie against Colette in the first game, Kirai’s won two games fairly handily, and in neither of them did I feel threatened. Kirai has so many ways to throw out new models, so many ways to bypass defenses, so many ways to achieve her objectives, and so many ways to keep herself alive it makes my jaw hit the floor.



She can summon a host of new models, from Gaki up to Shikome, giving you everything you need at a moment’s notice. Need a new Significant model? Just swap your Seishin for a Gaki or Onryo. Need some hitting power? Grab a Shikome. These new models are destroying your Seishin (but you can make new ones pretty easily), and they give you wounds (but you have several ways to heal). Plus she’s got a melee beast in Ikiryo that pops up exactly when you want her (with your Seishin you can essentially delay the turn until your opponent is all activated-out). Worried about all the extra points in Slaughter? Don’t summon too many spirits other than Ikiryo – she’s not going to give your opponent any points when she dies. And if she doesn’t get killed… all the better. Ignore her at your peril.

She’s generally got exactly what you need for the crew your facing. Bunch of fast folks? Don’t worry – you can summon 12” away and your movement tricks are insane with Into the Spirit World and Swirling Spirits. You have a couple of models that can bypass armor, and a lot of your models can target the worst of DF or WP. Facing some heavy armored guys? Drop Datsu-be and Ikiryo on them. Who cares if they kill Ikiryo, and if Datsu-be is getting hurt, Swirling Spirit her back, heal her up, and get her back to the front lines.

Objectives that require her to reach certain points are simple for her. Your opponent should never take Holdout if they know you have Kirai coming up. A 12” summon on the last turn will generally stop that quick. Or if that’s not enough, move a model twice towards the deployment zone, then swap it with another one with Swirling Spirits and move twice more. Or heck, just have your Insidious Madness (don’t leave home without one) double move and cover near half the board. She can summon models onto objectives pretty easily, and when she needs 2 actions to trigger a point on the board, just have one spirit move where you need to be and swap her with another unactivated spirit.

And forget about trying to kill her (though I still think as an opponent you have to try). She’s usually farther back, so that’s a problem. If you can reach her, you’re facing a WP duel with Pitiful (if she’s already activated, she can put Pitiful back up during her activation). If you pass that, and manage to hit her, she can shunt it off to one of five possible Seishin near her. If she’s already activated, she’s also likely a Spirit from Into the Spirit World, which means you want to hit her with magic. But she can shunt that off onto a Seishin too. And if she sacrifices a Seishin at the beginning of the turn, she and all the Seishin she owns ignore Blasts, Auras and Pulses. Plus she’s got her stones too, which she doesn’t tend to use for much else since she’s not slinging spells at opposing models much. If get through all those defenses, hopefully you’ve already killed the Lost Love or she stays on the table and permanently becomes a Spirit. If you manage not to kill her, she won’t be where you want her the next turn, and will probably be healed back up with the plethora of spirit-healing her crew has.

I have yet to score fewer than 8 points with her, and each game relies on me preventing my opponent from achieving their goals. I still don’t put her above Colette, but she’s easily slid to the top of the other masters out there. Next step: figure out how to beat her.

GeoCaching: Congrats to the Wife!

I'm already about a week late on this, but my wife just found her 100th GeoCache last weekend as she and I trooped about in the cold mud. She's already found another 20 or so. I'm quite a bit behind having only 8 to my name, but I've been enjoying the adventures.

For those unitiated, head over to this site to find out more. Basically there are small caches hidden all over the world, and using a GPS or your smartphone, you can track them down. Some are tiny caches that are hidden, others are large caches that hold a bunch of goodies you can swap stuff for. But all in all, it's a great way to go around outdoors and enjoy nature.

Thanks to Skill-less Brian and his family for introducing us to this.

Kirai vs. Hoffman, 35 Stones

Now that Kirai's crew is all painted up, I got to put her out for the first game (I did borrow Dan's crew once before to try her out, but this is the first time I used my own models). Brian and I stopped by Huzzah with his son, Ben, in tow. Ben spent the afternoon building his own towns out of terrain while we fought against each other for supremacy.

We had time for only one game, so we went with 35 stones. I flipped Turf War and Brian flipped Destroy Evidence. Our terrain was Diagonal.

Crew: Kirai, Lost Love, 3x Seishin, Jack Daw, Insidious Madness, Datsu-ba, Desperate Merc, Canine Remain, 6 stones
Strategy: Turf War
Schemes: Breakthrough, Assassinate

Crew: Hoffman, Mechanical Attendant, Peacekeeper, Guardian, Large Steampunk Arachnid, 2x Watcher, 8 stones
Strategy: Destroy the Evidence
Schemes: Breakthrough, Stake a Claim

Brian put his eggs in one basket tossing the Stake a Claim terrain piece in my deployment zone. Getting it would likely mean getting both that and Breakthrough.

I took Breakthrough because I figured I could summon a model close enough to his deployment zone late in the game if I needed to, and I was likely to outnumber him anyway. I also took Assassinate because I figured I wanted to see how much damage this crew could do and how better to do that than try to kill his master. Especially with Hoffman, since that usually meant I had to plow through several other models first.

We had a couple of unfortunate matchups. My Jack Daw was not going to do much to his Immune to Influence models, but on the flip side, Datsu-ba and Ikiryo would be better as they cut through his armor.

Our table was littered with small houses, walls, etc. There were very little long avenues with LOS. Against a normal Guild crew, that might be a bit more of an issue, but Brian's crew didn't rely as heavily on ranged attacks. This also let him hide the Evidence Markers and essentially leapfrog his Watchers behind cover to them.



TURN ONE - HOFFMAN INITIATIVE
This turn was pretty funny for me as I did just about everything possible to kill my Canine and Desperate Merc. I had the Merc activate, Defensive Stance, and then attack the Dog. The dog returned the favor. Then a Seishin gave the Lost Love a bonus to attack and it dropped the Desperate Merc by another wound. The Insidious Madness did some attacking and finally both were left at one wound remaining.

Meanwhile, Hoffman didn't do much. He moved out towards the center of the board with his crew sans the Watchers. Those two started flying the flanks to get to the Evidence markers.

Finally, Kirai activated, summoned an Ikiryo out about 5" from the Peacekeeper (I took the extra wound for that), then cast Into the Spirit World. She gave herself a healing flip and inched forward, staying near the two living models. Datsu-ba Weighed the Sins of both models, killing the Desperate Merc (which healed Kirai) and the Canine Remains. Weigh Sins brought out a Gaki with a Corpse token for each, and Kirai summoned two Seishin to bring her to full. Finally, Ikiryo moved up to the Peacekeeper and hit it for 2 Armor-ignoring wounds. He ended by bringing all my spirits 4" closer to the fight, and the Gaki each moved up behind him to get ready for the next turn.


TURN TWO - KIRAI INITIATIVE
Brian originally won with a 7 but I spent a stone and flipped a 7. We reflipped and I got the Red Joker, going first. Ikiryo started off and swung three times, hitting all three and killing off the Peacekeeper. I had to cheat my only Severe card in hand, but it was worth it. Unfortunately, I was left with a mitt-ful of cards 7 or under. Killing the Peacekeeper healed Kirai her last wounds so she was back to full.

The Large Steampunk Arachnid charged Ikiryo, but some good flips on my part kept Ikiryo at 1 wound left. I had my Insidious Madness double-move up to block one of the Evidence markers, but I was out by about 1/2". Brian activated Hoffman who Machine Puppet-ed the Large SPA to kill Ikiryo, then had the Guardian activate next. It moved up after one of the Gaki but couldn't attack it yet.

The Gaki both activated and swung ineffectively, but that was okay. Jack Daw zapped the Machine Puppet, making it ditch two cards for Heart Stopper. He was left with one card, and I had a bunch but nothing good. Jack Daw ended by putting up his no-cheating/no-stoning bubble, catching both the Guardian and Large SPA. Kirai stayed where she was and cast Into the Spirit World again. Luck had it that I flipped the Mask I needed. She summoned Ikiryo by using a Soulstone and a low Crow between the Large SPA and Guardian, then used a healing flip on herself and swapped the places of Datsu-ba and the Gaki in the front lines. No one up there could cheat anymore, but Datsu-ba and Ikiryo killed off the Guardian.

Brian's Watchers both moved after objectives. One was set to flip it the following turn, and the other one, near the Insidious Madness, was just out from destroying it this turn.


TURN THREE - KIRAI INITIATIVE
I had an 8 on my card, and Brian tried to stone into an initiative, but failed. I started with Ikiryo and killed off the Large Steampunk Arachnid leaving Brian without any more heavy-hitters. Brian activated his Watcher near the Insidious Madness and destroyed the objective, then moved around the building slightly. Datsu-ba walked through the house and attacked the Watcher but didn't do much. The Mechanical Attendant moved up to Hoffman, then moved on to the Watcher and brought Hoffman with him.

Ikiryo wasn't dead. Kirai couldn't resummon her. I know I could have had her swap places with a nearby minion, then eaten her and resummoned her, but that's a lot of actions. Plus I don't think I had the crow in hand to make sure it would work. Instead I had Jack Daw fly over near the scrum but did not put up his no-cheating bubble. I was afraid I'd catch Kirai in it. Kirai didn't really succeed in doing much this turn, but got herself positioned and healed up.

My Insidious Madness tried to get away from melee but couldn't, and the Watcher destroyed one of the objectives and moved on to the last one.


TURN FOUR - HOFFMAN INITIATIVE
The Watcher next to Hoffman took off and got away from my models trying to block him, carrying Hoffman out near Kirai. Kirai looked at the stack of 7 or 8 scrap tokens worriedly. I wasn't sure what Hoffman could do to me, and I wasn't sure what I could withstand, so I took no chances. Kirai went, sacrificed two of her Seishin to create a Shikome a bit farther away with Hoffman as its prey. Then I jumped into the Spirit World snapped to a Gaki farther away from Hoffman. Finally, I healed myself up and moved away from the Gaki, getting myself some separation.

The Mechanical Attendant tried to get away unsuccessfully and the Shikome moved towards Hoffman with Nimble, then charged him. With the extra action from gaining Fast near her prey, the Shikome dealt a good 2 wounds a two poison to Hoffman, and drained him of two stones. Hoffman had the Watcher Machine Puppet into the Shikome, but only dealt four wounds total thanks to Spirit.

My Insidious Madness ran onto the last objective point and the Watcher there tried to bash him a couple times, but was mostly ineffective. Only got one wound in the trade. Of course, my Insidious Madness didn't even get one wound against the Watcher with a couple of Bashes.

I moved Jack Daw towards Brian's Deployment Zone for Breakthrough, and brought the other models back. Except Datsu-ba. She managed to Weigh Sins on the Mechanical Attendant and make a third Gaki.


TURN FIVE - HOFFMAN INITIATIVE
Brian sent his Watcher near Hoffman over to Kirai, carrying Hoffman with him. I looked over the board and knew I could probably get Kirai away, but might risk leaving my Seishin behind to do it. Besides, with my Lost Love still alive, I felt in good shape. I had the Lost Love double-move out of sight of Hoffman in case Brian had some crazy plans that could kill both Kirai and the Lost Love.

Hoffman activated and I sacrificed one of my Seishin to make sure Kirai and my last Seishin were immune to blasts, pulses and auras. Hoffman Machine Puppeted himself and whacked the Seishin. He turned attention to Kirai and whacked her, failing the Pitiful check and taking two wounds for it. He gained Fast at the cost of his Watcher gaining Slow, and then attacked again. The last hit pasted Kirai, leaving her dead, but she remained courtesy of the Lost Love.

My Shikome moved in and charged Hoffman, leaking more stones and putting up more wounds. My Gaki tried to attack and another one double-moved to get close to Kirai. The last Gaki moved up to get near the Watcher on the objective marker. Kirai dropped both Gaki near her to summon a second Shikome, also hating Hoffman. That Shikome killed Hoffman leaving Brian with two Watchers to face down my spirits. We called the game here.


FINAL SCORE: 8-2, Kirai wins



Kirai is difficult to kill. Very difficult. She has so many layers of defense it's ridiculous. She's got her Pitiful, her Seshin, the fact she's usually a Spirit, and then the Lost Love. I got lucky with a few heal flips and becoming a Spirit with Into the Spirit World, but she is quite a pain to pull down all her defenses. Even without getting more spirits from killing living models, I was still doing fine with Seishin.

Ikiryo was on fire. She only really did anything the first three turns, but in that time, she killed the Peacekeeper, part of the Guardian and part of the Large Steampunk Arachnid. Being able to teleport Datsu-ba up to the front lines and add some more hurting and potential summoning really helped too. I have a hard time seeing the dislike for Datsu-ba that I seem to read about on the forums.

Overall, a good debut for Kirai. Though I did end up having to proxy a third Gaki and a second Shikome during the game. That meant only one thing - on the way out I bought my 3rd and 4th Gaki and my 2nd Shikome.