Carnevale as a Beginner Part 3- Terrain

 I've recently started to get into Carnevale after owning models for the last 4 years, getting my gaming group in with the recent MyMiniFactory Tribe. Although I already had models, and the rest of the group are printing things up, we still had terrain as the biggest obstacle as Carnevale needs pretty distinct board setups to represent the sinking city of Venice. 

With the MyMiniFactory STL files came a bunch of files for terrain as well as the minis themselves, and this is where I started my collection of terrain. I've gotten all of the buildings so far released printed, with a bunch of tiles to make up the floor level of the board. These tiles I've come to realise are the most important thing, and to fill out a table you need a lot of tiles. To flesh these out without having to paint more and more of the same tiles I picked up a set of jetties while I was at Arcfest in Melbourne to make some scaffolding and docks around the brick-based tiles, while also adding a little bit of verticality to add another dimension to the table. 

In the future I'm planning to add some larger ships to add to a dock table, and split my terrain collection from 1 table into 2. One will be a dock table with the more intact buildings and a ship or 2, the other will be a ruined district sinking beneath the waves. A sunken board is something I find really cool as a concept for the board, and it goes perfectly with my Rashaar to represent the ruins of San Canciano as described in the Carnevale lore. I also have the Garbino Kickstarter from Multiverse Gaming that I plan on getting printed at some stage as well, as that will add quite a few more buildings so I can play some denser table setups and have a lot more rooftop space to play with, which should make the Guild players in my group happy!

Bushido- Shadow Wind Clan Updates Part 1- House North Star

 It's now been 5 years since my last piece on the Shadow Wind Clan and there's been quite a few updates since then. With Theme Cards for all 3 of the main Houses and a bunch of new profiles, I figured now is as good a time as any to add to what I previously wrote to update my thoughts on the faction. I'm starting with what's my favourite of all the Houses to play in North Star, I really love the playstyle and they're what I enjoy most out of ninjas 

Models

Fuma- My new absolute favourite North Star ninja and someone that always makes it into my lists, for the new cost of 20 rice Fuma is awesome. He brings a great package between Indomitable, Kata, Split Attack and Ranged Defence on top of the usual ninja traits, so he can avoid taking damage a bit and works especially well with reliable Smoke access, which North Star have in spades. With access to either Parry, Sidestep Defence and Combo Attack or Reach, Chain Weapon 2 and Sidestep and Stun Attack his weapon profiles are both good, but I tend to find myself leaning towards the Parry and Combo myself as you can put dice into attack and force your opponent to do something about it, or simply use it as a means to get around the many Durable models that exist nowadays. It also means Axiam gets access to Fuma's pretty great range of special attacks, and that alone is a reason to consider him. As for his Ki Feats he has pass generation for 1 ki which is quite nice (and don't forget Axiam can use this too) and Nerve Strike as a once per turn ability is quite nice to have, as removing activations is always very good, although it is at the expense of damage and you can replicate this effect with the North Star theme bonus. His unique effects are fairly simple, with one being enemies can't use Bodyguard if Fuma gets Assassin, and the other being a Blind Bomb attack that is quite good in North Star as it's a pulse that gives out Blind Markers. In combination with another model using Noshinto Bomb you can do a pretty brutal one/two punch of Stun and Blind so your opponents are immediately down 2 dice on their rolls, and with 3" range on them you can stay in Camo while doing it. Bonus points for adding Prone on top from access to Kusari and you have a pretty oppressive combo that lets you punch up to almost anything. 

Jinichi- This is in a bit of a weird spot as Bikou is almost always a better ranged piece, and would probably work much better with Bleeding Moon models overall with the access to Bleed, but Jinichi can be quite good in the right situation. Insight as a Ki Feat is better used by Axiam as you then have one source of quite high Tactician, and having a ranged attack that does Poison, Bleed and Immobilised is definitely good albeit not as outright murderous as Bikou. He is also one of the only ninjas to not have Sidestep Defence which puts him in a weird place, as Push Defence isn't as good in its applications with ninjas. In general despite Jinichi being quite cool as a model, he just doesn't bring enough to the table to justify over some of the other options North Star have to offer IMO

Ronin

Shiho Kizo- Although Kizo is a Ronin and very much a Shiho model at that, he is also a North Star ninja and works quite well in a Karapan focused list. Order and Command both give you some activation control utilising your Karapan, and being able to take Ronin Birds gives you access to Eagles as dirt cheap throwaway activations. Flanking with an Eagle just to auto surprise and turn something around has gotten me quite a lot of value, while Kizo himself is a cheap activation that can be quite annoying himself. While not in my main North Star lists I've played a lot of, Kizo makes it into my backup 2nd North Star list with 2 Karapan and an Eagle as a very different sub-theme of North Star. Axiam also really loves the combo of Corvine Intel and Karapan raising Tactician, you can roll a silly amount of dice for Tactical Tests with it

Events

Long Term Planning- For 1 Rice you can place all your North Star models within 2" of their current location on turn 5. Ninja games tend to want to score earlier and make as much of an impact on the start of the game, so a card that only applies on the last or 2nd last turn of the game isn't really that great IMO despite place effects being really strong.

Nothing Wasted- If a friendly non-Insignificant model dies to an enemy melee or ranged attack you can allocate their Ki amongst your North Star models which can be good, but I am really not a fan of taking cards that rely on your models being killed and in an already elite faction it makes things a lot harder. 

Opposition Preparation- A Consequences Cycle card, this card isn't strictly North Star exclusive but does only work with North Star models. For 1 Rice you can give out a number of tokens equal to the number of opposing enemies with Sixth Sense (punishing an opponent that deliberately takes Sixth Sense to get around Camouflage) and while enemies have these tokens they lose Ranged Defence, Prowess, Kata, Dodge, Parry, Impenetrable Defence, Lightning Reflexes and Reach while facing North Star models so you get a ton of ways to benefit yourself and seriously nerf your opponent. The downside is they lose these tokens the moment you target them with a Ranged Attack or fight in a melee exchange so it's hard to figure out how reliable this card will be at any given time. It's probably worth taking in a tournament list just in case, but it's also likely not something that will give you a ton of value every game.

Theme

House North Star- There's a few benefits of the House theme, which allows all North Star models and all Ronin for the faction which gives them a pretty open roster compared to the other 2 House themes. Ronin is a feature of the theme as you can also buy them Equipment as if they were friendly Ninja models which is really nice, but all the other benefits of the theme are for North Star exclusively so it is likely you'll stack up on a few ninjas before you take any Ronin. Choosing 2 start-of-activation abilities on odd numbered turns is really great and especially helps a turn 1 unpack as you get more value out of your models. The other benefit is that if a North Star ninja benefits from Assassin in melee the target loses another activation counter, so you can really cripple things if you play it right and punish your opponent for their placement. I love this theme and play it most of the time I play Bushido

Equipment

Ninjato- An interesting card for the North Star Theme, it gives you an ok melee weapon (basically the only thing you want on it is Pierce compared to most North Star ninjas) but it has the benefit of being able to be swapped for any other Equipment of X cost that you didn't start the game with, with X+2 being the card cost. This will make it cost 3 effectively, as every other Equipment you could take is 1 cost apart from Signaling Flare (and 5 cost for this Equipment just to get a 3 cost Equipment is not worth it at all). I think there are much better takes for Equipment in North Star, and to be honest I also don't even really take Equipment to begin with.

Noshinto Bomb- A favourite of mine simply as a free take from Axiam, the Noshinto Bomb is basically a pulse Stun weapon that North Star ninjas can keep using. It's a great way to spread debuffs out even after the Dark Pilgrim nerfs, and when you can stack a few other negatives (namely Surprised, Exhausted or even Blind via Fuma) you can really make sure combats end up in your favour late in the turn. 

Heretic Naval Raiders- Update

 With Carcass Front and the new plastics we have some rules updates for Heretic Naval Raiders, expanding them into their own fully fledged faction with some new unique options. I'll go through them all in this post, including the sub-factions, and what I'm most excited about and why

Battlekit

Hull Drill- Ignore Armour on a Death Commando is super gnarly, although you lose out on the extra attacks from Tartarus Claws you get a really good melee weapon. CRITICAL and HELD together very much offset RISKY and add together with the native defenses of the Death Commando

Boarding Axe- An Axe with Armour Piercing and Risky is quite good for a little bit extra cost, and add on the cost of what is basically a Mountaineer's Kit for the extra Dice to Climb. My Legionaries already were modeled with them, so I'm definitely running these going forward

Wrecker's Torch- Effectively an Armour Piercing Polearm with Fire for 15 Ducats and only on ELITE, it's quite a good weapon and I already love Polearms. Definitely something I'm considering for my own lists on a Captain

Shark Tooth Talisman- Limit 2 for NEGATE FEAR, and a once per game +1 in melee provided they are near models with Blood on them. Pretty solid for 10 Ducats, but Naval Raiders do stack up really quick in terms of gear so it probably is something to leave out before others

Abyssal Armour- A Death Commando upgrade to Reinforced Armour, for 5 Ducats extra they can Fade in water and treat any water as open terrain. Super thematic and cool, and I'll probably be using it on my own Death Commando

Drowned Choir

The first of the 2 variant warbands for Naval Raiders, this one is focused around a core of Choristers with Wretched as shock troops being flung into melee. 

A Song Within the Deep- You get to take up to 3 Choristers and have to take at least 1, with that one being 20 Ducats more to gain LEADER and TOUGH, getting bumped to a 40mm base and getting Dread Harmony instead of their usual Unholy Hymns. This makes every roll for enemies within 8" of the Leviathal Chorus a Risky roll which on top of the -1 dice from your other Choristers can be crippling for an opponent. Adding extra ways to make things negative dice (Polearms in particular) can make things even more oppressive and will work to make the faction really interesting mechanically

A Wretched Chorus- Wretched are 30 Ducats but with no melee penalty, which increases to +1 as long as they're near a Chorister. Taking a ton of cheap Wretched with nothing but 2 melee weapons and flinging them forward I feel is where the fun of this faction will come from, as you have the ultimate disposable troops and can fill out a ton of numbers really easily to swarm the table. They still get the +1 to Dash from being Naval Raiders too, so can potentially missile up the board really quickly. I'd take a single Trooper with Musical Instrument as well to really amp up the speed for everyone else. 

Mounting Madness- Your Unholy Hymns increase range by 4" if Choristers are near each other, giving you a huge amount of board presence with your debuffs and making things a lot harder for your opponents. The 8" range is quite significant too as it's fairly easy to have Choristers close enough to trigger on the average TC board. 

To No Purpose Save Their Own- No Captain, Commando, Hag or Anointed. You're playing Choristers, Troopers and Wretched and that's it, although that's a feature not a downside

Leviathan Shoal

The other variant is far more blunt than the Drowned Choir, being built around a bunch of beefy Anointed with melee weapons to hit as hard as possible and kill things quickly. 

Only the Strong Survive- Captain gets STRONG and you can take up to 4 Anointed, but you don't get Choristers, Wretched or Hags so it really leans towards taking a bunch of big guys with Reinforced Armour and big weapons. 

Feeding Frenzy- Every model gets extra dice in melee as long as they're within 1" of models that have blood on them, stacking to a total of +3. This makes grenades really good value as they'll put blood out pretty easily, and provided things are somewhat close to each other you can ping a couple of models and charge in the middle to get +2 or even 3 quite easily. 

Charge and Rend- You must have more melee weapons than ranged weapons, and can't take HEAVY ranged weapons (this part is massive because it stops you taking Heavy Flamethrowers and AMRs). You get 4 Sacrificial Blades and can give them to Anointed, which is quite nice but I'm leaning towards you wanting Sacrificial Blades as a sidearm rather than the main weapon, as you want HEAVY melee weapons more to make the most out of STRONG