Snakes and Dragons

Two models of the starter box down, three to go.  I have been side-tracked by Kenzo however, but I'm going to sideline him until the rest of the starter box is finished.  Kenzo is a really simple miniature to paint; he's just snake belly, scales, and some armour.  There's some skin but there's no delicate kimono folds or really ornate sword scabbards.  I reckon I could probably finish him in a full day of painting.  First though, finish the starter box, no distractions!

Here's a WIP photo I took on the iPhone in some terrible light, I have since finished Akimoto.  As you might be able to tell, Itsunagi is not my greatest work.  Very pleased with how Akimoto's skin turned out:

Had my first real game against Dave's Prefecture as planned; I did lose horribly on scenario.  I also discovered that Akimoto is totally garbage on the table (as expected) and Itsunagi is an unholy terror (as expected.)  The other models in the starter box performed pretty much as expected.  Temple Bushi are very solid models for their cost, I feel they get outshone slightly by the Ryu Yarimen, but I'm okay with that; my samurai are awesome and boost for less Ki - also, giant snakemen!  Sakura merely functions as a Ki battery for everyone else in the box, which is unfortunate, and her Ki feats seem pretty awful.  I get the feeling "Venomous Gaze" is there to finish off nearly-dead models, rather than deal out initial damage.  It's something I'll have to test over a couple more games.

If I could change some of the rules for the models that I used, I'd remove the restrictions on Akimoto's "Orochi's Visage" so it can be used in melee or as part of a Walk action.  This turns him into a weird reactive character into an okay proactive one.  At some point I'll give him another test run just to be sure, but that's my feedback on him at the moment.  Perhaps I should try running him as a more aggressive figure and utilize the Terror to burn through enemy activations?

Of the special attacks and defences, Side-step Defence works as I expected, it makes your models very difficult to take down quickly or they can complete their melee exchange, do a little damage, and then dance out of combat to prevent getting outnumbered.  I forgot normal Temple Bushi don't have it, but my lone Bushi managed to survive both Hiro and Jin poking him just by going all-out defensive.  Chiyo was not so lucky and got shot by Minuro's arquebus.  Sad times my friends, sad times.  I only got to use Combo Attack on Itsunagi and it did let me pile up some poison tokens on Hiro, but it was too late by that point, Dave had already gained more scenario points than I could score in the time remaining.

The combat system is a bit deceptive (in a good way!) as it is difficult to take down an opponent who is going all out on defence, so stacking debuffs is rather high priority.  This is where I feel the Shisai come in for the Ito Clan.  My planned 50 rice list basically involves me blinding as many models as I can with Naoko and then using Ayako to stun another or stack debuffs on a single model so that Kenzo or my Temple Bushi can kill them through sheer number of dice.  If you only roll a single die in defence, there's a good chance you're about to get gibbed.