Mark's List:
Ikiryo
Wraith
Armoured Kairai (x2)
Nezumi
Large Rat Swarm
Small Rat Swarm (x3)
My List:
Ayako Ito
Kenzo Ito
Naoko
Sakura
Chiyo
Temple Bushi
Kazuhiko
Deployment:
I opted to put my two big hitters with Light Footed behind the forest. This meant they had the option for going for either the mid or right objective depending on how hard Mark was going to contest the objectives. The shisai went into the middle so that they would be able to channel to models on either side of the board - it wasn't until after the game started when I figured out how to kill those stupid rat swarms. Finally the two bushi went on the left just so I'd have models to contest the objective.
Turn One:
Turn one consisted mainly of running straight for the objectives. I had two Pass Tokens to use since Mark's army brought the extra Small Rat Swarms. I used both tokens to delay the shisai activations until the two Small Rat Swarms on the left were in range for some 1 Ki Psychic Venom attacks. So both Small Rat Swarms died to the poison at the end of the turn, greatly limiting Nezumi's manoeuvrability. Mark spent the turn doing quite a bit of focusing too - both Nezumi and Ikiryo focused for more Ki.
Turn Two:
I spent most of my early activations doing scenario actions as mark moves his Armoured Kairai up and getting his models into position to attack me. Naoko moved up to blind the Wraith and was attacked in turn by the Wraith. Luckily I managed to successfully defend with a Side Step Defence, allowing room for Kenzo to come in and absolutely murder the Wraith in a single hit.
Nezumi swaps in to position to attack Ayako - she was very far forward trying to steal some Ki from Ikiryo - but didn't roll enough damage for the first attack and then she managed a desperate defence and Side Step Defence her way out of further trouble. Kenzo decided that the annoying rat person trying to kill Ayako was an insult to my honour and stabs the yokai, putting a handy poison 2 token down. Unfortunately Nezumi lives through the turn on a single health and all my efforts to put a Psychic Poison on him fail miserably.
However, all three idols are friendly to me, and I got rid of the Wraith, easily the most directly threatening model in Mark's army. Naoko is in a position to deal with the rat swarms on the right idol, Kenzo is murdering everything under the sun in the middle of the board, and by some miracle Chiyo and the Temple Bushi are surviving against the Armoured Kairai.
I earn a Victory Point at the end of the turn.
Turn Three:
At this point I forgot to take pictures.
Naoko uses Slither to move away from the Large Rat Swarm to Blind Ikiryo again. So far, so good, then I attack the Large Rat Swarm with her and forget they're durable... whoops. So I went all out attack and Mark just annihilates my precious snake-lady. Taking advantage of the vulnerability on my right flank with her sudden death Nezumi teleports to the last Small Rat Swarm and manages to rotate the objective back to neutral. The Large Rat Swarm moves into Sakura, and I have to sacrifice Kazuhiko to prevent her death.
Ikiryo experiences the wonders of being blind (again) and so just moved up to use the left objective, eventually making it friendly to Mark. The shisai both try to hit Nezumi with a 1 Ki Psychic Venom in an effort to finish him off and fail miserably. Kenzo murders the Armoured Kairai in the middle of the board and finishes off the Large Rat Swarm. The hebi-samurai is reaching for his rampage announcement.
Turn Four:
I win the initiative (again) and manage to get Kenzo into melee with Nezumi before he can turn the idol in Mark's favour. Unfortunately the bloody yokai defends successfully (TWICE) and avoids all the Ki feats from Ayako. He finally succumbs to a single poison token to my last Psychic Venom from Sakura. Sakura rotates the idol back into my favour. On the left the Armoured Kairai gets mangled three times by the Temple Bushi and Chiyo combining their efforts before it finally fails a Rise check. Mark only has Ikiryo left and it's getting late so we call it quits.
Synopsis:
I have finally found a use for Psychic Venom: killing monkeys and rats. It's also good for finishing off enemy models, but if I'm honest the two shisai do seem horrendously expensive for what they do. Ayako definitely doesn't feel like a 10 rice model. She probably just needs 1 more in her Ki stat. With 3 Ki she'd be a very powerful offensive utility piece.
Kenzo was a One Man Army, killing the Wraith, the Large Rat Swarm (eventually), and an Armoured Kairai. He was unlucky not to get Nezumi, despite attacking the yokai no less than 3 times in a row. However, Mark was just letting Kenzo run around doing his thing, letting such a mobile samurai model complete freedom is probably a bad idea, especially the Ito samurai with their cheap melee Ki boosts.
Naoko is just a great utility piece, the ranged attack that blinds was pretty much key to keeping Ikiryo from laser-gazing my models constantly. I'll just have to remember to put dice in defence against durable models. I love using Side Step Defence on her, it allows her to get out of combat and gob blind on key enemy models.
Chiyo and the Temple Bushi have always been solid performers, doing their job and tying up the objectives early. One of the two usually end up as MVP in my games so far, though I think Naoko earned it this game.
I'm quite happy with the performance of the list, though the models I could target with my shisai were rather limited, but I did find I was constantly trying to use their Ki feats - mainly Psychic Venom in an effort to clear the board of Small Rat Swarms. It does bode well for playing against other factions though, I'll be able to target a wider variety of models.
Mark list had a good mix of hitting power, durability, and mobility, but I think focusing on turn one with both Ikiryo and Nezumi was a mistake. This left both of them out of position for the early game, it was probably a good idea if there were more models that want to leech, but with only the two Armoured Kairai, it felt like a bit of a waste from my end. I did a good job with Naoko getting blind off on the Wraith and Ikiryo throughout the game (it's really hard to miss the Wraith) and Kenzo got very lucky murdering the Wraith in a single hit. Finally, I killed most of the Small Rat Swarms very early in the game with 1 Ki Psychic Venom attacks, this limited Nezumi's ability to teleport around the idols quite drastically.
I feel like I'm getting a better handle on the Ito Clan models and how they work now, especially the shisai. My painting goals for this week are to finish up Naoko (who has been 40% done for almost a fortnight now) and get one of the shisai completely done from start to finish.
nice battle report its a shame you forgot to take pictures, i usually do that about turn 2 or 3 aswell glad to see i am not the only one lol
ReplyDeleteNice battle report it was a good read :)
ReplyDeleteI only have a few things to add:
"but if I'm honest the two shisai do seem horrendously expensive for what they do. Ayako definitely doesn't feel like a 10 rice model. She probably just needs 1 more in her Ki stat."
While I do agree about Ayako being a bit overpriced (1-2 rice could be cut off her cost) i do not think she needs more Ki.
You do realize that her Ki stat is +1 when she is with Sakura AND she gets a +1 to her highest rolled dice. It means that basically anyone who has a 1-2Ki stat WILL get poisoned unless you roll a bunch of 1's.
Also you should not forget that poision IS still usefull against models that have Toughness(1) because even though it will make lvl 1 poison useless the posion still upgrades when you have 3 or more lvl 1 poisions after the dmg (so you basically need 4 or more poision 1 tokens) and even AFTER the Kairai Rises the poison and other tokens are still left on him. (In one game i had like 8+ poision tokens on a Kairai becuse of a sucessful combo attack and a Sakura's feat).
Also you shouldn't forget about Ayako's other ability that basically costs the enemy 1 move AND puts a stun marker on it. (Sadly only once per turn)
Also you can kill Ikiryo without always blinding her there are only 2 things you need to know:
1.She can only "laser" you if your model can see her and she can see you too, so basically "moonwalking" aka finishing your move with your back to her with your units can pretty mutch force her to move to even try killing units.
2.When she is surprised she cannot use ANY of her Ki feats, so you can just stab her in the back without her reflecting damage, or you can Poision her on the back with Sakura or Ayako (its still a surprise to hit a modell on the back with a Ki feat but they wont turn into your direction even after getting hit unlike in Melee)
I hope it wasn't too boring to read all this stuff. Keep up the good work and keep posting Ito battle reports because its always good to read a fellow Ito player's stuff :)
Her Ki stat does not get +1 I'm afraid, I'm not sure where you are getting that from. She gets a +1 bonus to the highest die in opposed Ki tests when near another shisai - since she gets it from Force of Will when she is the active model and from Iron Mind when she isn't the active model. Did you think she got Strong Mind instead when near another shisai?
ReplyDeleteMy experience with Psychic Venom is that it works best when you just cast it using 1-2 Ki and spreading the poison across weak or vulnerable targets. That way you often have a Ki or two left over available for channeling.
Moving Ayako up to Ki 3 would allow her to cast more of her Ki feats with greater success, and channel - which isn't wholly unreasonable at 10 rice and with no direct damage. However, a less disruptive modification would be to drop the cost of both the shisai by 1 rice. There's a few ways to boost their productivity to rice cost ratio.
Yea i was quite sleepy when i wrote the last comment so i missed things like most Kairais being Souless so basically being immune to ki feats that target them.
ReplyDeleteAnd yea im always so confused about all the stuff with iron mind , strong mind and force of will :S thouse traits should be named a bit more clearly, but it may just be me who cant ever remember them.
Giving it a thought all Shisai should just gain Strong Mind (1) when near each other and that would be a MUTCH better Unique to them. I think Ayako's cost is mainly because of her Stun and Ki stealing abilities but making her cost 1-2 rice would be pretty neat.
I'm kinda hoping that the new archer girl will also be a Shisai and between the cost of Ayako and Sakura.
On a side note im surprised how many Ito players think that Itsunagi is "bad". He IS expensive but he can be the most deadly asset against any armored or non-armored unit, while he is quite beefy against Ki feats too. But then again I'm biased because i just love that mini.
Btw sorry for the wall of text in my first comment.
No worries, more Bushido discussion is good discussion!
ReplyDeleteI'd agree with giving the shisai Strong Mind (1) as their unique. Don't worry, I have problems with the Ki modifying traits too.
Itsunagi isn't bad, I just like how self-sufficient and durable Kenzo is. They're both melee powerhouses, and Itsunagi usually performs better once in melee. The main issue I find with Itsunagi is that the lists you make either lacks Blood of Orochi or have a lower model count. I'm also a huge fan of Kenzo's higher base move stat. Having said that, my only games with Itsunagi have been in starter set games, and the newer Ito Clan starter set really sucks compared to the old one. Akimoto is the huge, glaring weakness of the newer box.
For my next 50+ rice game I'm planning to try out an ashigaru style force with Itsunagi and Satoshi. It has a lower model count and lacks Blood of Orochi, but I think it has better up-front durability and raw power over the convoluted trickiness the shisai/debuff list. No doubt I'll try to take photos and do another write-up of that.
thats the set up i go for itsunagi and satoshi leave satoshi out front to receive the melee and charge ttacks and love it then itsunagi runs in and commits wholsale murder on the unfortunate enemies
ReplyDelete(as you may have guessed i am also a massive itsunagi fan)
I still lack some modells for the Ito but i will fix that in like a month (hard earned money out the window hehe) the 50+ rice Ito I would play is basically every "big" model inculding Ayako, Sakura, Itsunagi and Kenzo.
ReplyDeleteThe only ones i would leave out are Naoko (because i dont like her general design, i think its the face... and when i dont like the looks of a mini I just cant play it right)
And I'm also not that mutch of a fan of the massive ashigaru forces so i would actually leave Satoshi out too. (Though strangely I like how Chiyo looks and plays).
The only problem that could be present that i would use only like 7 modells with 55 rice cost. Though Itsunagi can take on a 2 v 1 and Kenzo is pretty durable too.
The modell im going to try in my 35 rice setup is Kazuhiko and I wonder how mutch can I actually use his neat but pretty specific Feat.
And yea im not a fan of Akimoto too, he is pretty good with his Fear (given that you use it as an Instant before you even move with him, so in the turn of your enemy) but 2 blood of orochi for being Impetus is harsh.
The hole Impetus feat hinders half of my quick 'run in, run out' strategies and its strange because that whole modell goes a little against the mindset of the Ito.
Maybe if he would be just a bit more mobile and less fragile. I mean he is a damn snake but he sure doesnt feel like one.