Kinchо̄ + Monks vs. Arashara + Sacred Band

This is another older post of Kincho that I had made before reducing his price and life and continuing testing for his SoV submission. It is simply maintained here for posterity.

HIGHWAYS AND DIEWAYS by UranusPChicago
Glyphs: Valda, Lodin
Astro: Arashara Goshiri, Marcus Decimus Gallus, Sacred Band x3 (450)
Leo: Kinchо̄, Master Lao Xin, Yi Feng, Shaolin Monks x2 (450)

GAME SUMMARY:
Leo’s Monks lept over the moats within their hearts by the starting zone while I began using Arashara Goshiri to shift my Sacred Band without only relying on the bridge. Unfortunately, I made a critical error in forgetting that Lao Xin can do whatever he wants in regards to Monk turns, so Leo nabbed Valda with Yi Feng and then got his 11 move Shaolin Monks into striking distance on much of my forces. I luckily only lost 1 Sacred Band, but it took several turns to properly retaliate and clear out the monks. Leo had his OM3 on Kinchо̄, which stopped him from being able to fully capitalize on this downtime.

The Tanuki then tricked his way over to a Sacred Band, traveling 7 spaces and through several trees in the process, and stopping my soldier’s trip to Lodin. He then began doing his thing, rolling solid shields despite me getting some high attack rolls, and sustaining minor wounds. He did originally die to the second SB attack (3/3v0/4), but given the low probability of this roll and how it terminated him way too early, we did a mulligan and Leo rolled 2 shields to only take 1 wound. Kinchо̄ continued to roll around the map, getting 1-2 shields each roll and generally acting as a blocker on the northern highway.

Leo then decided to try and use Kinchо̄ to assassinate Marcus with OM2 in Round 2, using Valda to move 7 spaces into my starting zone. He was just 1 move short, though, since I had left several soldiers in the way. He killed the soldier from height out of spite. I then managed to attack down on him, bringing Kinchо̄ to 1 life remaining and forcing Leo to panic a little. He abandoned the assassination, teleporting Kinchо̄ 8 spaces back behind a Shaolin Monk to try and safeguard him for longer. I managed to kill the Monk and surround Kinchо̄ after, killing him the next round. By then, it was just a couple of Shaolin Monks and Lao Xin. After duking it out on the grassy hills, the Greeks had won (albeit only in spirit).

SURVIVING UNITS:
Arashara Goshiri (2 wounds), Marcus Decimus Gallus (0 wounds)
~220 Points Left

POWER USAGE:
Tanuki Trickery was used twice, once to travel forward 7 spaces and stop a SB from reaching a glyph, and once to escape my SZ when Kinchо̄ only had 1 life left by teleporting 8 spaces to safety behind a Shaolin Monk. I was still able to get around the Monk and kill him the next turn.
Phantom Walk was used frequently. Kinchо̄ would move through my figures to block their escape routes or to try and reach Marcus Decimus Gallus on an ill-fated assassination mission.

Total Damage Dealt: 12.5
Attacks Defended: Either 2 or 5, depending on the mulligan that we took

THOUGHTS:
Kinchо̄ actually seems pretty reasonable to me, although I perhaps have high attack rolls to thank for that. It’s definitely worth throwing some lower-attack melee forces against him, because I could see him being very frustrating in those scenarios (especially if Masha’s in the fray). I never attempted to engage him with more than one figure at a time because I figured that Leo would be able to move him away with Athletic Defense, so perhaps that also had something to do with it. Much like a rat, Kinchо̄ depends on being attacked for his mobility, but it’s much less reliable and harder to use. As compensation, he at least offers more life and a centralized point of defense. Plus, with Tanuki Trickery, he always has the potential to put an ace up your sleeve if you’re willing to sacrifice some offensive output.

In this game, I think that the offensive sacrifices definitely weren’t worthwhile. It’s still worth running some more tests with Monks, of course, but they definitely seem like a reasonable pairing now that Tanuki Trickery is limited to ~8 spaces. Moving him up several times to set up Tanuki Trickery (and also having to give up at least one Monk turn to activate it each time) really limits the Monks offensively, just like Masha surprisingly limited the offense of the Samurai. Kinchо̄ is a Yokai, through and through.

A big part of this test was also experimenting with Highways and Dieways, too, since Kinchо̄ can theoretically block the entire SZ by sitting on the bridge. Thankfully, this strategy seems to be very unviable now that Tanuki Trickery is limited to 8 spaces, especially since Lao Xin struggles to see Kinchо̄ when there are so many trees in the way. Even if he had a decent attack of his own, I’m not terribly concerned about Kinchо̄ assassinations anymore unless it’s on a more open map.