Tales of a winner! part 2

Hi all

here is the concluding write ups of Rulez' winning run through our recent tournament..

Game 3

Scenario: Ichi No Riten

Opponent: Tengu

Another faction I haven't played against before. I chose Sanjakubo to spirit block but decided to do this in turn 2, this was also Luke's ViM. My ViM was Shizuki despite her being killed in the first two scenario's.

Turn 1

Again being outnumbered by 2 models I used my pass token's up before I started to activate. I made Shizuki my soulless model and kept her soulless the entire game so that her Ki feat mirage would work when needed. Katsumi was made slow, this is an awesome ability from a theme card. Literally turning katsumi from a killing machine to a lumbering lumux. Being only 4 models I decided to head straight for my own zone, as you score scenario points in this one if you outnumber and out rice your opponent every turn. Luke places his terrain piece which allows him to give an extra ki to a chosen model.

Katsumi moves forward just 8” this turn with both of his activations. Puts him in the bottom part of my zone. Shizuki does the same moves forward into my zone but I keep her to the left of it away from the Tengu. Bikou and Kouhui take out one the scouts of the Gale with their 'Hail of Steel' Ki feat. Wounding the other scout too. Bikou is in the middle of the table behind a tree not in either zone using her camoflage trait to good effect. Kouhui is using a tree for cover that is in the left part of my zone.

The Zephyr guard moves into the Tengu's Zone. The air kami uses its first move to get into the Tengu's zone. The other Scout of the blue gale is in my zone. Sanjakabu moves forward but is out of my zone. Tarobo is also in my zone.

At this point I have one activation left with Shizuki and he has two. One with the air kami and one with Kotenbo. His Air Kami moves over to Katsumi and does a ranged attack which is successful and allows him to move katsumi 2”. So he moves him closer to Kotenbo and turns Katsumi's back to him. So I use one of my smoke bomb's and place it in front of Katsumi, wull behind him as he's facing me. This gives him instant cover and his camoflage trait stopping him melee Katsumi. So Kotenbu moves a bit closer.

The smoke bomb disapears in the end phase and we both score a single scenario point each this turn.

Turn 2

I spirit block Sanjakubo at the start and katsumi is made slow again and recieves a stun marker. With the smoke bomb gone I really need to win this tactical roll and I don't.

No surprise that Luke's first activation is to melee Katsumi with Kotenbo. So being surprised and stunned I am down to 2 dice. I roll a 4 in defence and he gets a 10!! and causes 6 wounds. Katsumi is dead. Unknowingly this puts Kotenbo behind Bikou. Only just we got the tape measure's out and Bikou was about 2mm behind his line of sight line. So it has to be Bikou Hail of Steel ki feat, with being surprised I only need to hit on 3's and I get to roll 3 dice to wound and choose the highest two. 2 shots kill him and the third shuriken flys at Sanjakubo wounding him, I then move Bikou behind the tree in the middle of my zone.

My 3 models are in cover and more than 2” away from the Tengu but Tarobo has a 6^th sense and shoots Bikou causing 1 wound. Kouhui using Hail of Steel kills the other scout in 2 shots and wounds the ViM again with her third shot.

Having moved the Zephyr guard out of his own zone towards mine, not expecting the losses he suffered I actually had 3 models in my zone and Luke had only his air kami and Tarobo. So I scored a scenario point. 2 scenario points to 1.

Turn 3

Kouhui kills the VIM (Sanjakubo), who hasn't done much this game as this was the model I spirit blocked, with Hail of steel and wounds Tarobo. The Zephyr guard melee's Kouhui and wounds him. Bikou wounds Tarabo and Tarabo wounds Bikou. The air Kami does attack and survives and takes an activation away from me.

No scenario points scored as we both have 3 models each in my zone. Sceanrio points still at 2-1 and I win the first VP.

Turn 4

I lose the tactical roll again. That's four times in a row. Shizuki gets a stunned marker and slow but she mirages away when entered into melee by the Zephyr guard.

Tarobo kills Kouhui. Bikou kills Tarobo.

The turn ends with Bikou on one wound and Shizuki on full health and the Air Kami and Zephyr guard on full health.

No scenario points scored so scenario points still stand at 2-1

Turn 5

I actually win the tactical roll and I move Bikou away from the Zephyr guard and score the first wounds on him. The air Kami and Zephyr guard attack Shizuki and score no wounds despite being exhausted and stunned.

No scenario points scored so scenario points still stand at 2-1 and I score the second Victory point.

Turn 6

I lose the tactical roll again and Shizuki is slow and stunned again.

The Zephyr Guard moves into combat with Shizuki again who mirages away. I then decide to shoot the air kami and remove it with Hail of Steel. My Thinking was that if I didn't I would probably lose Bikou who has managed to survive on just one wound for 2 turns. The Zephyr Guard melee'd Shizuki again and she side stepped away.

The turn is over and I score the third VP by having my ViM closer to the oppents table edge.

I was totally shocked to win this game 3-0. It is something I have never achieved before. In fact I was so shocked that I had to take my asthma inhaler. This game although was won 3-0 was the closest and nail biting game of the 4 I played at the tournament.

Game 4

This was how the final game of the tournament went;

Scenario: The messenger

Opponent: Jack using Temple of Rokan with a peasant list using Bastions of the Mountain theme.

Turn 1. Traps aargh!!

At the end of this turn, I truly felt I was on the back foot. Katsumi gained 2 wounds from a trap and moved 3 inches away from my deployment zone. Shizuka and Kouhui both failed their size tests and got held and I decided to spend an activation removing the held marker. Bikou managed to move just one inch thanks to her 1” starting phase move, she too failed her size test for the trap and spent her second activation removing her held marker.

The Rokan moved across the table towards my deployment zone as a whole group except Kitsune in her fox form, she headed down the left flank on her own. Having looked at my opponents cards before we started and noticing that he had given Kitsune the Elixor of Vigour, I gave her the 2 spirit block tokens that my Theme of the North Star gives me guessing she would be the VIM model and thus keeping her in Fox form. I was hoping to get the fox in melee before turn 3, but after not moving at all in my 1st turn I now knew that wouldn't happen.

Turn 2.

I use my pass tokens again first and having won the tactical roll The Rokan activate 4 times before I decide what to do. He moves his main guy Tenaga forward along with both his rock Kami's and the peasant with the 2 Axes. I try to move Kouhui again and fail the move test for the trap and suffer 2 wounds. Kitsune moves to my bottom left corner.

I move Shizuka twice towards the Rokan but to my left. Whilst the two blow pipe models move forward. I have made Shizuka soulless this turn (and she is my ViM) so that if I get charged I can mirage away and if in trouble I can use a smoke bomb and then shadow walk another 3” away if needed, but it wasn't as she wasn't melee'd.

I next make a ranged attack with Kouhui, I move him forward to the tree and in cover and using “hail of Steel” I rapid fire Ashinaga Tenaga leaving him with just 1 wound but 3 poison(1) counters so he'll die in the end phase.

The Rokan player then moves the peasant with 2 axes within 2” of Kouhui. I'm guessing ready for the next Turn. I move Katsumi up behind Kouhui and he runs a Kami further forward. I enter melee with the peasant with 2 axes with Katsumi and kill him in his exhausted state.

He then moves his other Kami forward towards Shizuka. I make a ranged attack against Kitsune with Bikou but I am out of range by about 4 inches I guess. The poisoned Tenaga goes into melee with Katsumi and even though I roll all defence I am beaten and he causes 4 wounds. Enough to kill Katsumi.

Then the winning moment of the game, as I make another ranged attack against Kitsune with Bikou. I move her forward and use the ki-feat “Hail of Steel” and shoot 3 times at her with shuriken at medium range and even though I need a six to hit on 3 dice, I manage 2 success level's 3 and a level 1 success and score enough wounds to kill her. The expression on my opponent's face confirms my suspicions that she is his ViM.

Turn 3

By the end of this turn, the Rokan player is down to just his 2 blow pipe people after Bikou and Kouhui take out the rock Kami's. I run Shizuki away from them to the left of the board and slightly towards the opponents deployment zone. Kouhui has taken a further 2 wounds from one of the blow pipes and the other has moved after Shizuka and tried to shoot her but she was out of range. He activates Last Stand with his theme card and try's to melee Shizuki but she mirages away as she is my soulless model.

Turn 4

I go to move Shizuka and he plays his trap card and for the first time in the game, I pass a trap card. Run her into the opponents deployment zone and reveal her as my VIM. My opponent concedes as admits I've won all 3 VP's.

This game was over so quickly and I think it was all due to Jack not having played the KKZ before. We spoke after the game a little and he said he'd never had such success with his traps before and he had left Kitsune out in the open because he wanted to get into my zone on turn 2 to get the victory point as I had said using cover would have prevented her death, but then she couldn't have run into my deployment zone.

If I hadn't killed Kitsune in turn 2 and Jack scored the first VP in Turn 3 and I went on to win the game 2-1, we would've have been on the same points for the tournament standings, but going back to our previous results he would've won the tournament.

Bikou kills Kitsune in fox form and Kills the game and Jack's chance of winning the tournament

and that's Rulez reports on his games, my thanks to him for writing these up for you to read.  Next time I'll post up a series of narratives that will attempt to describe my games.  

hope you enjoy

dGG