Back with part 2 of my look into the Shadow Wind Clan, this time I'm going into what really make the ninjas tick- their special cards. These allow all sorts of nasty tricks that let the ninja player play dirty and choose how and when to engage with the enemy, and in ways that will benefit them and only them which I really love because it matches their theme perfectly.
Themes
All 3 themes give double pass tokens, which is great to keep activation parity at all times, and a bonus when models can trigger Assassin. They all allow all Ninja and Karapan, even Ronin, so the reasons for choosing different themes are entirely based on which bonus you want otherwise.
Assassination Mission is probably the weakest benefit from all the themes, giving a Death Sentence marker to one model at the start of the game (but there is no other way outside of this theme for ninjas to synergise with Death Sentence). Fearless and the ability to swap Event cards is really nice, but again isn't really as big as the other 2 theme benefits so even for lists where you want to be outright killing the opponent you probably want one of the other ones.
Scouting Mission and Skirmish Mission I have been going back and forth between which one is my favourite, but I tend to lean towards Skirmish now after a bit more practice. The 2 free Enhancement or Terrain cards lets you play a bit looser with list building and be a bit more versatile, while Scout 1/4" is really good and lets you put pressure on early so its really a pretty close decision there IMO. A more situational once per game Disguise 7 isn't really as great as every turn Disguise 5 which you can stack with other modifiers to make your key pieces really hard to target when you need them to be. Ki Block vs Bravery when you benefit from Assassin I think is a really obvious decision as to what is better, mainly because your key pieces are all already 2 ki and a lot also have bonuses to Fear tests so you don't have to worry about them as much (or Ghost auto-passing all Fear tests)
Terrain
Hidden Tunnel Entrance I really love using because it lets
you as a player redeploy and jump around the table in unexpected ways, which is
one of my favourite playstyles in any game. I tend to take it for free from
Skirmish Mission, but in Scouting Mission I definitely find the 2 rice to pay
for it as well, because the redeploy from Flank is something I really like to
use to put myself in better positions and threaten Assassin runs.
Smoke Field is a decent way of making sure you have more blocking terrain on the table to hide in and enable Camouflage on your own stuff, but I don't tend to buy any for my lists because Smoke Bomb and certain models (Axiam, Dudiko) are more versatile ways of getting the same effect when you need them on the table.
Events
Blind Bomb, Hidden Kusari and Hidden Shuriken all give
one-use weapons (although you can buy 2 Blind Bombs and unlimited Shurikens)
that have pretty great uses. Kusari and Blind Bomb are both Lightweight with
only range 3 in Medium Range so they’re somewhat short ranged but still very
useful, while their effects are both amazing. Blind Bomb gives a 1” pulse
around the target where everyone gets Blind (friend or foe which you should be
careful of) so you can get around things with Aware and Surprise them, or just
guarantee Surprised against something facing you to keep you safe or set
someone else up for later. Kusari is the same attack as a few ninja models
already have, and being able to get more options for Prone is really great to
have because it wastes your opponent’s time a lot. The Shuriken is also a great
ranged weapon (if lower damage output than most options in KKZ at -1) and the
range bands are good for short ranged attacks, but it’s the possible Pierce you
want the most in certain matchups. I think all 3 are useful events, but the Kusari
and Shuriken are what I like the most.
Co-ordinated Strike I feel is just really restrictive in
when you can play it and although I trust there is a reason for it being
explicitly working only on turn 3 I think the bonus isn’t big enough (Tactician
can be found in a lot of other places in KKZ) to justify the purchase
Dawn Raid only has a use in 2/3 themes (Scouting Mission
gives the same benefit and more) but it can be worthwhile in the other themes
to get you up the board quicker (and deploying last so you can react to the
opponent). It’ll usually be cost 3-4 which is probably worth the cost but not
super efficient and I tend to spring for other things first
Decoy has a bit of timing restrictions to stop it being
really oppressively stupid, but even only in the starting phase it is a great
way to redeploy and put models into different positions where they can threaten
the board better. I love Flank a lot so this is something I like, but it’s not
at the top of my priority list when it comes to events
Espionage is pretty simple but it works really great in the
right matchups. Any time the opponent is making decent use of Flank you can force
them into telling you which side of the board one model is coming from and plan
accordingly, which is great against Queen of the Waves Jung and potentially
useful against Shiho (although there it is a bit iffy because of how many ways
they have to appear on the table)
Herbal Remedy works really well when it matters (vs Control especially but any condition-heavy enemy warband) but also can be a bit useless. For 1 rice it's not a bad option to tag in most of the time though.
Jigoku Berry is one of my favourite things to take in my warbands, because when paired with ways to put out more than one Poison an activation (Rin, Kouhei and Kerasu) you have a massive damage spike that will put dents in any opponent. On Kouhei if you can manage to get 2 Hail of Steels off you're tearing through any weaker models the opponent has and doing massive damage, and that's why I love it so much on him every time.
Lockdown is a really great way to force your opponent to
adapt to your plans, or just to deny them as many points as possible. It costs
5 rice and as such is very expensive, but at the same time being able to just
negate a zone or objective from working at all that turn is huge when you leave
ones you’re more likely to score from and shut down opponents
Perfect Impersonation for 7 rice is insanely expensive, but
it gives you some really funny options that are also pretty powerful. Gaining
Flank is good but not really 7 rice good, although being able to shove enemy
models (with a few restrictions) off the table for a turn and replace it with
one of your own ninjas gives you a massive advantage. There are a ton of great
targets for this, and also using it to pick out support pieces and kill it/remove
them for the table for a turn is a great way to shift the game in your favour.
It’s important to consider what the benefit of it is though vs taking 7 rice of
anything else and whether it will do enough to win games for you
Poison Vial gives the entire warband Poison 1/1 for a turn, and that is definitely worth the 1 rice it costs. Paired with the right model it creates tons of carnage and lets you kill a lot.
Shadow Moves has tons of use, and I love it a lot. Being
able to swap around 2 ninjas at any point is a huge amount of versatility whether
you put shooting models out of combat (and combat ones in) or simply use it to
deliver models up the table before you activate them (on Katsumi or Rin this is
absolutely nasty when done at the right time). 5 rice is expensive, but I
always try and slot it in because of how much it potentially opens up.
Smoke Bomb is cheap, versatile and lets you really annoy opponents by putting your ninjas into terrain that hides them. One of them is almost always a safe take, but 2 or even 3 are justifiable
Terminate is helpful for when opponent Bodyguards stop you
from picking out annoying support pieces, but it still means you need to set up
Assassin to benefit from it, and although that is very doable it still counts
as an opportunity cost for using an event you’re already paying for.
Terror Tactics I don't rate very highly, but it can be quite nice in the right situation. Fear (6) is great to have but being forced to Charge to get it isn't great when you have to make every activation have a purpose, which is why I don't really find myself using it at all
Enhancements
Cat-Like Agility is simple and good, but matchup dependent.
Against things that are going to be throwing and proning you it’s amazing (like
Buto) but when it doesn’t work it’s a bit of a feels bad moment
Disguise is great to have on your own stuff, and it lets you
dictate the terms of engagement a little bit more which is the best part of
ninjas and a major part of how they play. Stack it with Disguise from Skirmish
Mission and you can really put pressure on an opponent and force them into
rolling dice to do things they would otherwise guaranteed be doing.
First Strike for 2 cost is pretty steep, especially because
it only applies to one melee exchange, but at the same time if you can
guarantee it (which you can with Shadow Moves, but it hikes the cost up even
more) it allows your killer models to be even more murderous on the first
swing, and Katsumi especially can make a big hit to start off the game
Equipment
Grappling Hook is a great way to put some of your pieces into a position that benefits them greatly (I really love Flank in general) and this card I find really helpful in a lot of cases. Kouhei or Dudiko being able to pop up and get right into shooting range mid-game is awesome and does a lot of work when you need it to
Hallucinogen Bomb is, like most Fear effects, very swingy
depending on what your opponent is playing. Against things with a lot of 1 Ki
models it will be great as you can potentially cripple them, especially helpful
because in these cases you’re almost guaranteed to be heavily outnumbered and
anything to waste their activations comes in handy. If they don’t have 1 Ki
models though, you’re not doing much with it reliably to make it worth it,
which is why I think most of the time it’s something that you slot in with
Skirmish Mission if you want to take it in a given matchup (but it is cheap enough
to justify chucking in anyway)
Makibishi I can see value in, especially on boards where you can funnel things into chokepoints and dictate movement, but I find it hard to find a place for it in my lists (even with free equipment via Skirmish Mission). Being able to waste models activations, especially in low model count lists, is great value if it works but Makibishi being a random thing makes it unreliable when you might really want it
Poisoned Weapons I really like for the same reasons as Poison Vial as an event, but this works all game on one model. The things it pairs best with (Kerasu and Kouhei) should always have it attached unless there are 2 of them in a list because only one of them can have it
Signalling Flare is a bit expensive, but for a double-tap punch it probably should be. If you can use it to trigger Assassin in multiple places and kill off key pieces before they can respond you're in a really good position to keep threatening the game, so I do rate it (especially for free with Skirmish Mission)
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