[Lyrgard]

Here is yet another battle report concerning Dashi Tokainto !

I played against a Friend, Thörsit. He choose to take the Jandar's army, and let me take the Ninja's army

Jandar's army :

Sir Gilbert (105pts)
2x Knights of Weston (2x 70pts)
2x 4th Mass (2x 70pts)
1x Templar Cavalery (120pts)
= 505pts, 23hex

Ninja's army :

Dashi Tokainto (120pts)
Ninjas of the Northern Wind (110pts)
Moriko (110pts)
Kumiko (80pts, don't have her yer, Elaria will be used as proxy)
Shiori (60pts)
Otonashi (10pts)
Isamu (10pts)
= 500pts, 9hex

The map :

Glyphs was : Mov+2 and Def+1


Thörist's army of good :


My assassination army : :


Let's go !

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1

Initiative Jandar

Round 1, Turn 1, Jandar's army
One 4th mass advance forward to the mov+2 glyph, the others take height


Round 1, Turn 1, Ninja's army
Dashi, Moriko and Kumiko move up to the road


Round 1, Turn 2, Jandar's army
The first 4th mass take the mov+2 glyph, allowing a second one to take the def+1. The others scatters in the ruins, to not let me use my ninjas multi attacks, and to bait me in.


Round 1, Turn 2, Ninja's army
Dashi stay behind, whereas Moriko and Kumiko slowly advance in the shadow.


Round 1, Turn 3, Jandar's army
Thanks to the mov+2 glyph and sir Gilbert, the knight quickly move up.


Round 1, Turn 2, Ninja's army
Dashi move to have the two others ninja in sight. Moriko closes the gap to the 4th mass defending the def+1 glyph, and slay him easilly. Kumiko exploits this defense's drop to make a very effective Ninjutsu's barrage : a knight and a 4th mass are killed.
First blood, 3 death Jandar's soldiers


End of Round 1

Round 2

Initiative Jandar

Round 2, Turn 1, Jandar's army
A thundering charge from the templar strikes Dashi hard (2 wounds)


Round 2, Turn 1, Ninja's army
Dashi retreats from the assault.
Kumiko, still under the shock, doesn't achieve to wound any templar (1 skull rolled on 9 dice, and when it happened, the templar achieved 4 shield on 4 dice !). By loyalty, she try to hinder any move the templar could do, to protect her master, Dashi.
To further protect Dashi, Otonashi dashes to the def+1 glyph, using her tricky speed. (I waited for the templar charge to take this glyph with Otonashi, to not see her fall just after to a charge)


Round 2, Turn 2, Jandar's army
Courageous Kumiko protect her master, but earns 2 wounds doing it.


Round 2, Turn 2, Ninja's army
Feeling that her time has come, Kumiko give her all to protect her comrades. A templar fall from his horse, and she stays rigth there to make a wall of her body. Trying to make her not dying in vain, Dashi asks Moriko to use the time given by Kumiko to storm the ennemy's base.


Round 2, Turn 3, Jandar's army
Seeing Moriko running to his camp, sir Gilbert rush to the fortification to order the units there to scatter, whereas the knight attack Kumiko. Kumiko dodge every strike but the last...


Round 2, Turn 3, Ninja's army
Dashi move down to the grass to see both side of the battlefield. 4th mass scattered, but not enough to prevent Moriko to attack them, killing one. Dashi orders Isamu to move forward.


End of Round 2

Round 3

Initiative Ninjas

Round 3, Turn 1, Ninja's army
Dashi move very precisly to see both Moriko and Isamu. Letting the ennemy's camp alone, Moriko make a move from behind the knights, killing one. Isamu strike another knight, who blocks it.


Round 3, Turn 1, Jandar's army
Seeing as the heart of his troops is blocked into engagement with Moriko and Isamu, sir Gilbert try another tactics : cutting the thinking head, Dashi. 4 westons surround the ninjas' master, and 3 attack him. Dashi show his martial prowess, deflecting all the blows, and returning 2 of them. The 4th knight attacks Isamu, who disapears and reappear 4 hex further, right on Dashi line of sight.


Round 3, Turn 2, Ninja's army
Dashi lets his armored adversary to take height. Moriko dig further into the heart of the units troops, without managing to kill any. For Isamu, he has another mission : assassinate sir Gilbert, that took a dangerous position. Mission that Isamu manage well, putting 4 wounds on the knights standard bearer.


At this time, I was thinking : great, victory will be mine !

Round 3, Turn 2, Jandar's army
Mais the knight are not easy preys. sir Gilbert leave Isamu's side (taking another wound) and exhort his knight to act with bravor ! Otonashi falls, Dashi lose another life point, and Moriko... die. What a turn about ! Now the central force of the knight are free again, I don't have the defense glyph anymore, Dashi is on the verge of dying, and I lost my last multi-attacker !


Round 3, Turn 3, Ninja's army
Dashi retreats, Isamu protects his retreat and kill a knight. Shiori move to protect the ninjas of the northern wind.


Round 3, Turn 3, Jandar's army
Sir Gilbert slays Isamu, whereas two knight regroups around him, and another attacks Shiori, without success.


End of Round 3

Round 4

Initiative Jandar

Round 4, Turn 1, Jandar's army
Seeing their is a good chance that I put order marker 1 and X on Shiori (playing Dashi was too risky, at 1 life, and without any screen to protect him anymore), the knights go after her in mass and kill her... Their goes my first order marker.


Round 4, Turn 1, Ninja's army
I pass my turn, at the worst possible moment...

Round 4, Turn 1, Jandar's army
Like a well orchestred strategy, just after the knight freed the way, the templar take flight and storm the ninjas of the northern wind. I'm lucky they have their defensive power ! or not... Two of them fall...


I drop. With only Dashi at 1 life and the female ninja of the northern wind, their is no way I can kill all the remaining Jandar's units. I still don't believe what happened. I was leading, and suddently, all the ninjas die one after another !

Thörist win the game ! Bien joué !

It was a very entertaining game, a lot more complicated that the previous for Dashi, having to keep an eye on two ninjas on two fronts, with all the walls. Very interesting and strategic, I often had to plan 2 moves ahead to be sure to not send a ninja somewhere I could not see him/her anymore.
At the end of the game, the weakness of the ninja shows clearly : they are quite brittle. At the begining of the game, Thörsit did not attack a ninja with full force, allowing them to stay alive. If you are playing against them, my advice is : concentrate. Concentrate on killing the ninjas, one after the other. Do not disperse your attack if possible. Stay together, because ninjas are evasive and will try to attack units that can not retaliate, and their good move can sometime allow them to outrun you. If I were to play the Jandar's army against the Ninjas on this map, I'll simply slow roll all my army. Thörist try to take the 2 glyphs (and the move glyph helped him a lot), and try to race to the center of the map, separating his forces, allowing Ninjas to go from one group to another, depending of the situation. If he let his units stay together, he would kill on the spot any ninja fool enough to attack such a mass.

A good game, with fun moment (I loved when Moriko stormed the opponent's camp just to fall on the knight back), and turning tide !

Some people, seing my first two games with Dashi wondered if he was not overpowered, to be able to kill a knight army. He clearly is not overpowered. His army have great weakness, but on the other way, the excellent mobility of the Ninja allow them to strike hard at any mistake of the opponent. Clearly, you need some experience to play against them, because they behave in an unique way, and it make them very interesting.
I really enjoyed playing Dashi Tokainto, and I hope we will see him soon being released by the SoV ! I give him my