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  #1  
Old March 13th, 2024, 02:57 AM
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The Book of Shiori (AoA)

Shiori (AoA)
Age of Annihilation, 2024 Promotional Figure

Basic Side Army Card
Spoiler Alert!

No PDF download for printing at this time.


Biography: Einar is one of Valhalla’s first Valkyrie Generals. He is known above all for his stoic enforcement of discipline. His army is more coordinated than Vydar’s Soulborgs, more loyal than Jandar’s stalwart knights, and more efficient than Aquilla’s wizards.

Shiori, by contrast, is none of these things. Einar’s summons plucked her from her home in Earth’s feudal Japan when she was barely in her teens, and she has been belligerently operating outside of his maxims ever since. Now a warrior grown, Shiori has spent her time in the mystical Valhalla honing her craft, and can blend Earth-style martial arts seamlessly with magic.

Einar may not approve of Shiori’s methods, but after her success in the Marro swamp, he knows his fate and hers are intertwined. And Shiori, though she could care less about Einar himself, will not fail those friends she does hold dear in this rising age of destruction.

Shiori is available as an organized play promo, obtained from Launch Tournaments or Gen Con 2024 events! Shiori will be available for purchase on the Renegade webstore after the promotions she is associated with have passed.


Power Text:
Quote:
NINJUTSU MASTERY SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 1. Attack 2 + Special.
If Shiori did not move normally, she may attack with Ninjutsu Mastery Special Attack up to three times. Before each attack, you must choose an opponent's figure within 2 clear sight spaces of Shiori and place Shiori on an empty space adjacent to that figure that is not more than 6 spaces higher or lower than Shiori's base. When attacking with Ninjutsu Mastery Special Attack, Shiori rolls 2 attack dice, or 3 attack dice if Shiori has exactly one unrevealed Order Marker on her Army Card.

KIERU
If Shiori is attacked with a normal or special attack and receives 1 or more wounds, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 14 or higher, you may place Shiori on an empty space within 2 spaces of Shiori that is not more than 6 spaces above or below Shiori's level. If you do, ignore all wounds just received.

PHANTOM WALK
Shiori can move through all figures and is never attacked when leaving an engagement.
_____________________________________________________________________

- Rulings and Clarifications -
  • TBA
_____________________________________________________________________

- Combinations and Synergies -

Synergy Benefits Offered:
  • OTONASHI: Tricky Speed 4
    As a Tricky figure, Shiori offers Otonashi the opportunity to move 4 additional spaces if Otonashi starts her turn adjacent to her.
Synergy Benefits Received
  • -N/A

C3V and SoV Custom Synergies
Spoiler Alert!

_____________________________________________________________________

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

Power Rankings
OEAO: C+
(Subject to change)

Matthaias Maccabeus (Melee Perspective): D+
(Subject to change)

Dok (VC Inclusive): TBA
(Subject to change)

Master Index

Unit Strategy Review
TBA.

Images

Last edited by Strack9; March 18th, 2024 at 09:12 AM. Reason: adding some VC synergies
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  #2  
Old March 13th, 2024, 11:36 AM
Tmac2200 Tmac2200 is offline
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Re: The Book of Shiori (AoA)

I wonder if having one of the three Shioris being the only one with a viable hitzone will be clunky to use for new players. You'd have to be sure that the arm you see sticking around the corner of a tree or ruin is the arm off the one actual Shiori.
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  #3  
Old March 13th, 2024, 12:19 PM
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Re: The Book of Shiori (AoA)

She forgot how to throw a shuriken. Just like how Drake forgot to pack his sidearm. I do like the Concentated Will reference in her new special attack.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.
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  #4  
Old March 14th, 2024, 01:15 PM
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Re: The Book of Shiori (AoA)

Excited to get her when she becomes available. I'd rank her C+ personally, she can cause some havoc if played correctly. Sadly a little too fragile for 110 points, but certainly a fun unit up my alley!

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  #5  
Old March 14th, 2024, 10:03 PM
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Re: The Book of Shiori (AoA)

Honestly, Shiori (AoA) barely seems better than regular Shiori. 110 points is a lot to spend on a figure with only 4 life and 3 defense who's heavily dependent on hitting a 35% Kieru chance to survive anything, and Ninjutsu Mastery doesn't seem like it has great damage output unless you have a singular unrevealed order marker on her. Beyond that, there are a few things that rather confuse me about this card:

1. Why doesn't Shiori have 4 defense? One of the neat ideas people came up with when making customs for Shiori (AoA) was to give her 4/4 attack and defense, to represent her learning to permanently maintain her Concentrated Will buff from Swarm of the Marro. It's kind of a shame to miss out on a clever little touch like that in the official release.

2. On that note, the whole "one unrevealed order marker" thing didn't work well for Shiori the first time. It wasn't even really any fun to try to make it work, since it introduces an irritating, somewhat volatile minigame with barely any payoff. Why try it again?

3. Just_A_Bill mentioned this in the "Heroscape is Coming Back!" thread, but there are a lot of things odd about Shiori's sculpt. It seems to have no mechanical relationship to the card (a Mirror Image power of some kind would have made more sense) and creates a weird situation where seeing the two "clones" doesn't enable you to shoot Shiori, but Raelin seeing the two "clones" does enable her to grant a defense buff. He nailed it on the head when he said that it seemed like something Avalon Hill - and now Renegade - went with because it looked cool, not because it makes sense with her mechanical design.

Ultimately, though, what kills me is that Shiori is a unit who really should have been cool, but was undermined by being both bad and fiddly on the board; never a fun combination. I had hoped that Shiori (AoA) would be, if not amazing, then at least good enough that I could justify putting her on the table. Unfortunately, I suspect that she's going to see just as much playtime as the OG Shiori, which is not much.

The user formerly known as Bloody the Marro Stinger!

Last edited by ThrasherDarkrai; March 14th, 2024 at 10:22 PM.
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  #6  
Old March 15th, 2024, 09:58 AM
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Re: The Book of Shiori (AoA)

I actually like the mechanics here, and this the sculpt works well showing her teleporting around, I think that's neat.

But yeah she suffers from the same issue like 90% of the random heroes in HS has, she dies instantly to the normal squads and therefore isn't draftable. Higher stats definitely would have helped (Or a better spider-sense number)
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Old March 17th, 2024, 10:43 AM
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Re: The Book of Shiori (AoA)

Ninjas as a category need an Ulginesh-like unit to bring them all together.
Kumiko, Shiori (both), Isamu, Moriko, and Otonoshi aren't even all Tricky.
As it is, they appear to only get synergy bonuses by accident (see Ullar's Amulet for Moriko, or some other Ninjas toggling Tricky Speed).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.

Last edited by Nukatha; March 17th, 2024 at 11:07 AM.
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  #8  
Old March 17th, 2024, 11:45 AM
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Re: The Book of Shiori (AoA)

Also we need a COMMON ninja squad. Heroes are great but common squads would be a sorely needed addition IMO

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Old March 17th, 2024, 01:39 PM
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Re: The Book of Shiori (AoA)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Owlman View Post
Also we need a COMMON ninja squad. Heroes are great but common squads would be a sorely needed addition IMO
While this is certainly true mechanically, I'm not sure there should be one, thematically. The trope of ninjas is usually one of two things: the unseen master of their craft, or an extremely isolated clan with a strict heierarchy. They are typicallyt depicted as assassin units, only really showing themselves when they have a sure kill. They aren't meant to be the main force of an army, but the specialist cleanup crew.

Perhaps rather than a common squad, a leader unit that takes a turn with some amount of ninjas with some sort of focus fire ability, to really sell the "This one specific character needs to go down" sort of playstyle.


Regarding Shiori herself, I think the sculpt is neat (i hope the base lets her climb ladders). Really sells the "clone jutsu" trope. Mechanically she'll be hard to make good use of, especially to make her worth her point value. Won't stop me from trying though.
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Old March 17th, 2024, 02:45 PM
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Re: The Book of Shiori (AoA)

Not good enough for its own thread, and I understand I'm pushing the limits of what belongs in a Books thread, but I think I'll playtest a Ninja like this:

Mimiko:
4 life, 6 move, 1 Range, 4 Atk, 4 Def.
Phantom Walk

Copy Fighting Style:
Mimiko is considered to have every 'Special Attack' ability of each Ninja Hero in your army.

Tandem Ninja Strike:
Before taking a turn with Mimiko, you may first take a turn with any Ninja Hero you control within 8 clear sight spaces of Mimiko. After that Hero's turn and before taking Mimiko's turn, if that Hero attacked an enemy figure, exchange the space locations of that Hero and Mimiko. Neither figure takes leaving-engagenr attacks if engaged.
Point value tbd.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.
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  #11  
Old March 17th, 2024, 06:29 PM
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Re: The Book of Shiori (AoA)

Confused about the complaints on the sculpt for this one. I don't think new players will have any care in the world, especially if they are younger than 40 lol.

The whole shadow clone / after image trope is very very common and easily understood with people that play video games, read comics, and are otherwise into modern ninja stuff like naruto and whatnot.

As for the concern of her not being good enough... who knows, maybe? Common ninjas would be nice, easily understood and wide enough trope to not really upset anyone I'd say (The Foot from TMNT for instance is easily known and ninja bad guys pop up all over in comics / TV shows). A ninja commander unit would be pretty awesome, VC had Katano no Daishi but to see something in the official world would be great too.

Timing on the Kieru ability is interesting. I think I understand the intent but I'm curious, if she has 1 life and takes a wound is she immediately destroyed or do I get to roll for Kieru and see if I ignore the wounds? Isamu and other ninja see if they dodge first for a reason I thought, to avoid a question like this.
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Old March 18th, 2024, 01:37 AM
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Re: The Book of Shiori (AoA)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Strack9 View Post
- Rulings and Clarifications -
  • Q: Can Shiori attack a figure whose base is exactly 6 spaces higher than her with her Ninjutsu Mastery Special attack? The text only rules out a figure that is more than 6 spaces higher.
    A: No. The text also specifies that Shiori must be placed adjacent to the opponent's figure, and since her height is 5, a figure whose base was exactly 6 spaces higher than her(or 5) would not be adjacent.
Can you help me understand this ruling? The reasoning stated in the answer is that an opponent whose base was 6 spaces higher "would not be adjacent" to Shiori.

That is true, but the power text does not require Shiori to be adjacent to the attacked figure before being placed; it only requires that she be placed on a space that is adjacent to the figure, and that the space must also meet the specified criteria (no more than 6 spaces higher, etc.). From my reading of the text, whether she is adjacent to the figure to begin with is not relevant.

Stated another way, "an empty space that is not more than 6 spaces higher or lower than Shiori's base" could well be adjacent to a figure that is not initially adjacent to Shiori. In fact, it seems the target figure could be even higher (or lower) than 6 spaces, so long as the space Shiori is placed on meets the 6-level limit and Shiori is placed adjacent to the target (not adjacent to Shiori's original location).

Am I misreading this?


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Last edited by Grison; March 18th, 2024 at 02:03 AM.
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