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This is a neater way of storing my playtests for my customs that I want other people to be able to see. I mostly intend on posting about units that I'd like to submit to the SoV.
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Yokai Team Battle

Posted January 23rd, 2021 at 07:33 PM by Astroking112
Don't look away from the walls of text just yet! Here's an appealing picture to show how cool the Yokai can look on the battlefield (you can even see Ibaraki in the distance doing Ibaraki things!):



...Just pretend that Arkmer is Seimei, okay? I had to get free shipping from MiniatureMarket somehow, even if it meant that it took several months to get the Seimei sculpt.

In all seriousness, there was a small handful of people that were in my social bubble last semester. One weekend, we decided to have a great HeroScape team battle, even if it took us all night. Throwing in the regenerating Wildwoods and the Yokai that struggle to kill stuff probably didn't help.

VOLCARREN PARADISE by Robber
No glyphs. Expanded starting zones to hold everyone's armies.

Team 1:
Astro: Abe no Seimei, Kincho, Masha Shingai, Nure Onna, Ibaraki-doji (500)
Guest L1: Krug, Mimring, Swog Rider x4, Arrow Gruts x3, Otonashi (500)

Team 2:
Guest N: Su-Bak-Na, Marrden Nagrubs x2, Marrden Hounds x3, Isamu (500)
Guest L2: Wildwood Monarch, Wildwood Sentinel x2, Wildwood Runners x4 (500)

GAME SUMMARY:
Where do I even begin? This was one of the most epic battles that I've had in a long time. It started off with the Hounds poisoning a few Runners to death, the Wildwoods lumbering out, the Hounds rolling poorly and moving even fewer spaces, and Mimring swooping in with a line of flame to great effect. Su-Bak-Na soon found himself at a very low life remaining, struggling to eat enough Nagrubs to heal himself back up.

Next round, the Yokai began darting through the forest with Kincho transforming into Nure Onna from a central point of height to tie down most of L2's Wildwoods (full From the Deep bonus and max attacks from Paralyzing Trap). She did minimal damage (only killing a Runner and dealing 1 wound to a Sentinel), so I swapped her out with Masha and repeated the process while L2's Monarch was busy in the central waters. Meanwhile, Mimring was swiftly finished off by a Nagrub of all things, having already been damaged by the Hounds who were finally rolling decently enough to move.

L1 and I knew that the Wildwood Monarch was a significant threat, and it was pretty far along the battlefield now. We managed to wipe it out as the archers took to the field, and Ibaraki-doji Shapeshifted to the other side of the board via Kincho to slow down the advancing Hounds. He took a wound from lava field and, while he fought valiantly, ultimately died early after having only taken out two hounds. That 5 defense is tough. Nure Onna was also swiftly finished off after failing to kill enough creatures to heal back up to full health, putting me down to a single attack per turn for the rest of the game.

I still managed to support L1 where possible with Masha, decreasing the Hounds' offensive potential to mostly plagues. He also managed to grab height and kill the Wildwood Monarch in one hit, taking L2 down to just a single Wildwood Runner left. Via some Shapeshifting shenanigans, I made it to his starting zone (initially I assumed that it was impossible, but the Yokai often prove that to be untrue ), took a swipe at the final Wildwood... and missed. As Masha is wont to do.

The Runner then turned into a Sentinel, who would later turn back into the Monarch (carrying over just 1 wound) after Masha was killed the next turn. Yikes.

Things were looking very dire now. Amidst the panicked throes of the archers and hounds, Krug emerged from the wreckage to duel the Monarch. He whiffed his early attacks, but it was okay. He had trained for this.

The Monarch then dealt 6 wounds. But hey, that's fine, this was Krug's moment to shine.

Krug then whiffed his next two attacks. But that's alright, because he still had 3 defense.

The Monarch killed him next turn.

He had trained for this.

L1 and N's armies were now in shambles, leaving Seimei and Kincho against a Wildwood Monarch and Isamu. I swapped in Seimei and one-shotted Isamu to avoid getting tied down. The Monarch then one-shotted Kincho, just 2 spaces away from grabbing Seimei next turn and only 1 turn away from being able to spawn another Runner and very likely win the game. Seimei desperately grabbed height and shot down at the Monarch, rolling 4 skulls. The Monarch rolled no shields, dying instantly.

The room exploded at that moment. L2's Wildwoods were completely out of the game, and it was a bloodied Seimei and one Orc Archer versus one remaining Marrden Hound. After hilariously rolling a 1 three times in a row, the Hound was miraculously still alive despite Seimei blasting away at it from height. I suppose that he had used up all of his strength to kill the Monarch.

The Hound ultimately reached Seimei, killing him. It was then down to the Arrow Grut and the Hound, and they danced around the board for a few minutes before L1 lured the Hound onto lava field on OM3 (she was safe herself thanks to careful placement). The Hound managed to get the kill, though, ending the game in our opponent's favor.

This was an extremely wild game. Team games are by far one of my favorite parts of HeroScape, especially when they lend themselves to epic stories like this.

THOUGHTS:
Oh, yeah, the reason why you're here is the Yokai. Of course. Unfortunately, it was like 3:00am by that point, so I didn't take very detailed notes and reconstructed this post by memory. What I do remember:

Ibaraki-doji died very early, having only killed 2 Hounds for a total of 60 points. He suffered some bad defense rolls with his 3D, and the 7 life just didn't hold out.

Nure Onna was able to deal a respectable amount of damage against the Wildwoods, albeit much of it was regenerated later. She ended up perishing as a result of me repeating the same tactic of Shapeshifting her out of water to a height advantage on three figures, overextending her a fair amount.

Seimei definitely earned his points back several times over. The price is very weirdly distributed amongst the Yokai, but they generally fare okay overall even if they aren't super competitive. Having a squad-based army on each team really helped balance the game, I think, since once Ibaraki and Nure Onna died, I was a smaller threat than the Arrow Gruts and Krug.

Kincho, as always, was useful. He sometimes dies early on, but generally he's a very good inclusion for the Yokai at just 60 points.

Overall, the Yokai and the Wildwoods are very fun armies, and the Hounds are hilarious for how often they just forget how to move.
Total Comments 2

Comments

Old
Shiftrex's Avatar
Awesome!

Too bad we didn't get detailed notes for ability performance and stuff but they seem to be passing the big test... they made for a fun and epic game that you said you haven't had in a while. Looking at the units and how they faired, I think this is about what I expected for the faction. Look forward to hearing more about them!
Posted January 24th, 2021 at 02:26 PM by Shiftrex Shiftrex is online now
Old
Astroking112's Avatar
Yeah, this was definitely more of a "for fun" game where I was mostly wanting to feel how they play outside of the tournament-style format. I like to run games like this with units whenever I get a chance, since I find that these are often the times where HeroScape shines the brightest.

The general course of this game did match up very well with my more traditional tests--the Yokai are very unpredictable and tricky to fight against, but like the Elven Wizards, each loss hurts them greatly. This is hopefully going to be eased over a little bit with the new Kirin and Nure Onna, but it's an interesting playstyle where they can reach their full strength fairly early thanks to great mobility and not having to develop many squads, but then can quickly lose a vital part of their army since each figure is so individually powerful and complements each other well.
Posted January 24th, 2021 at 05:08 PM by Astroking112 Astroking112 is offline
 
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