Monday 15 February 2016

Fast Dragon, Slow Grow Week Three - Cabaret Beatdown

Game the third for First Lieutenant of the Oyabun, this week she faces down the glamorous, seductive and deadly Collette Du Bois and her showgirls.

The femme fatales faced off against each other in the following:
45ss
Standard Deployment
Reckoning
A Line in the Sand
Assassinate
Murder Protege
Protect Territory
Power Ritual

Knowing that Colette, outside of a board wipe, is pretty much untouchable, Assassinate was out of the question. Misaki can kill masters more than some masters can but it would be an uphill struggle for little to no gain. I decided to go with the more suitable Murder Protege and near-auto take Protect Territory. Knowing that the showgirls will no doubt take the scheme marker schemes and win them with or without my interference meant I had one job this game: Score full on Reckoning without letting my opponent. List time, baby!

Misaki alongside mainstay Stalking Bisento now has Servant of the 5 Dragons to ensure I have the best chance of not being lured to my paralyzed/poisoned doom. Wp8 is a tough hurdle even for a Rotten Belle so the Performer's Ca6 lure shouldn't be a problem. Shang tags along because I really like choosing 6 cards out of seven at the start of my turns.

Yamaziko enters also with Servant of the 5 Dragons ensuring she never ever loses a willpower duel, she is also carrying the sole Torakage's Bamf bombs.

Dawn Serpent re-enters the fray as the aforementioned Regen Ca (Name changed due to Foreshadowing) it has against the high number of Ca means it should take a lot more Ap to take out. Equal Wp to lure Ca means I have to play my control hand tight in order to have the dragon be where he wants rather than what the opponents want.

Joining the crew are a pair of Katanaka Snipers to take long range soft cover ignoring pot shots at whomever is in range, with showgirls not known for their high amount of wounds, not needing to travel any further than the center line means a ranged threat that can shoot outside of Colette's influence is helpful to say the least.

My opponent played Colette with Cabaret Choreography and Nothing up my Sleeve. Alongside her was the ever faithful Cassandra, two Coryphee and a Performer. Joss was also there as he was in the Star Theater at the time and tagged himself along for the fun.

Geez.... My whole battle plan was so narrowly focused on being slapped around by Performers that I had wholesomely discounted that Arcanists have any heavy hitters whatsoever. Willpower 8 didn't help me in the slightest this game. With so much Armor +2 on Joss and the future Coryphee Duet, my min damage 2 hitters weren't doing anything.

Theoryfaux can once again take a running leap.

Turn one started out well with a Sniper taking out a Performer with a severe critical headshot. Torakage failed to bamf and everyone else moved up, including Misaki...

I must point out at this juncture that, at this point in time, I thought Misaki was untouchable (Not the upgrade) and that Stalking and then running 15" into Joss and Cassandra at the time felt like a good move. Tank some damage and then Assassinate the pair of them next turn, job jobbed. Turns out...

Turn 2 my opponent gains the initiative and Joss clocks Misaki in the chin with a Pneumatic Fist dealing moderate damage and Choke Slamming Misaki paralyzing her. Shang bounded up and healed Misaki for 2 wounds which then Cassandra knocked down to a single digit off an auto-Defensive but lacking in life saving soulstones Lady Dragon.
Dawn Serpent activated and not wanting to give away Reckoning Points, killed it's master... Handing Colette an easy Assassinate. Well this game is going well. A Coryphee Duet tangled with Yamaziko and a Sniper with the Torakage who couldn't find his Tele-bamf cards, wading in. Surely three models can deal with a duet?

Turn 3 and Dawn Serpent thinks he can tangle with Joss, assuming Regen Ca can tank the hits; turns out a single heal flip doesn't help against 4ap + 3 Prompts of attacks, thus dropping the Serpent. The duet finishes off Yamaziko with ease and puts the Sniper to his final wound from Hard to Kill scoring Reckoning, leaving me with a poultry Sniper, a soon-dead Torakage and Shang. I called the game the turn after with no way to murder Joss or to safely drop scheme markers.

I hoped for a beating and got my monkey paw wish from the Star Theater's number one act. I had a feeling it would come at my most cocksure and sure enough, this
Reckoning game proved just how paper-in-the-wind Misaki is against another melee combatant. Had Joss not paralyzed Misaki, having a 12 wound model knocked down to 4 in one attack is hard to survive for much longer on anyway. With so much to lose being that darn close to Joss and Cass, I didn't allow myself the time to get my opponent to use up his control hand in order for Assassinate to be an actual threat. It's the same mistake I made a hellova lot of the time with Yan Lo's Misdirection. Discarding 2 cards is only a tough choice when the opponent has 2 cards left, otherwise it's a high cost to otherwise severely damage a master who has it as their only defense. Assassinate is a killer, and has been, only if the opponent is out of cards, otherwise , it's an almost non-trigger.
A first turn activation Misaki might be necessary for Stalk but she is best left to an opponent with a depleted hand (obviously) on all turns subsequent. Otherwise Misaki is a Ml7 auto-focus Melee expert with an above average damage track. Still deadly but with no soulstones and only auto-defensive to save her from wound taking I need to ensure the target is already bloodied before Misaki wades in, finishes them off and then pushes to the next target or to the safety of cover.
Torakage I need to position better, they are superb when they first charge or bamf into an enemies face and auto-focus attack but in this game I found that another model was always in the way or needed assisting and turned a potentially threatening model into "Weak for 1 damage" fodder. 6Def 6Wds is respectable but they need to get in, kill, get out. I learned how to pilot Rasputina with a fundamentally weak crew and I need to do the same with Ten Thunders models.

Another day and another defeat. Lessons are learned, now it's time to ready myself for the final event: 50ss.
Discard ya hand so I can Misdirect and Assassinate ya and have fun out there. 

No comments:

Post a Comment