Monday 29 September 2014

Wave 20 Pre-Order Available

It is that wonderful time again where the next wave of models are up for pre-order.  It's been interesting to see what each faction has gotten this wave, as it includes profiles that didn't appear in playtesting - which is oddly something I would like in future, it's much more exciting as a Retainer this way.

Prefecture of Ryu: Shuichi, Michi Shisai
Shuichi is a pretty simple profile.  There's nothing especially snazzy about him, but he brings a way to remove harmful conditions from friendly models and Warding Shomyo, one of the more powerful aura Ki feats in the game.  I really like the Michi theme Prefecture have started to focus on.

Temple of Ro-Kan: Master Akari
I would be amazed if a model actually hit Master Akari with a ranged attack.  He's got a good selection of melee based Ki feats, a good Ki stat, and well, he's a master monk.  Akari is pretty much the best VIM I can think of in the game, but he does seem to be a model of extremes: huge defensive stats, but almost no health, so if you hit him, he's just plain old dead a lot of the time.  Especially as Ito, I would poison the crap out of him every time.

Cult of Yurei: Yugio
The burakumin is much like Shuichi for Prefecture: the profile is very simple and straightforward for the most part.  He comes with a little Conspiracy of the Cult so he can help mitigate his low Ki stat, but he brings the ability to help out friendly shugenja.  He also comes with Warding Shomyo (shomyos for everyone!), which makes me a little sad inside.  Since I view Ikiryo as the least fun model to play against in the game, I don't approve of any model that gives her a buff of any sort.  He's pretty good for the other shugenja though, especially Waku.  The idea of a really big Marionette though is rather horrific (5 Ki with Kimiko's Whistle and Blasphemous Conviction going).

Savage Wave: Kaihei (lots of kaihei)
Rather decent hounds for the Savage Wave.  I suspect they're going to be a hidden gem.  They come with 2 profile cards, so you can bring 4 kaihei - this leads to some interesting variation if you just want to bring 2 kaihei: do you bring both on one profile card, or one of each profile?  I like that they're very into their slams.  For 40 rice you could bring the full kaihei pack (4 kaihei, the Alpha, and Yusha) which has a lot of internal synergy, but would most likely need to focus on very specific objectives each turn - personally I think it would work really well.

Ito Clan: Ito Mizuki
Yep, the Ito Clan won this wave.  In your face suckers!  Mizuki is an amazing control and support model.  Poor Ayako is probably going to be sitting in the foam tray for a while now because of this lovely lady (unfortunately).  The Blessings of Orochi are incredibly powerful and useful on just about every model in the faction.  They either save lots of Ki, or cover the weaknesses certain models have (such as Itsunagi's complete lack of Armour).

Silvermoon Trade Syndicate: Sukoshi Kani & Nomi
The oddballs of this wave.  They bring some models with Scout to the Silvermoon and they both have very specific focuses: Kani sneaks around and then throws out her Makibishi, Nomi tries to stalk models with good Camouflage stats so that other models can target them.  I think their main value is Scout and Flank however.  If Kani can get into an enemy zone/idol and throw down her Makibishi on top of it, she's paying her points back as soon as a single enemy model fails a test.  Nomi is a bit of a trickier one as he must be within the enemy's Camouflage range to be able to reveal them, it sounds very tricky to pull off, but I'm sure the rewards are worth it if you skewer a model like Tra-peng with a repeating crossbow.

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