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.
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