Yokai vs. Honor Guard

This was another early game of the initial Yokai faction that I had run. This was closer to where I started learning just how weird and game-warping Shapeshift could be, and the amazing ways to mess with your opponent through it.

VOLCARREN PARADISE by Robber
No glyphs or special scenario rules.
Astro: Masha Shingai, Abe no Seimei (130), Kincho (60, 3L/4D), Nure Onna (70) (370)
Dawn: Honor Guard of the Blasted Lands x4, Akumaken (370)

Versions of Yokai Used

SURVIVING UNITS:
3x Honor Guard
~65 Points

GAME SUMMARY:
Dawn won initiative and led Akumaken into the fight. Meanwhile, I decided to overextend with Nure Onna, nabbing height through the central water to attack down on him with four attacks of 4, dealing 4 wounds and taking no Counter Strike damage. Dawn then engaged Nure Onna with the Honor Guards, but failed to deal any damage. My next turn, I had a fully-charged Nure Onna engaged to two Guards and Akumaken. Rather than risking the LEA to run back to within Kincho’s range, I decided to go for broke and attack down on all of them with height. Both Honor Guards died, but Nure Onna took 2 wounds from CS.

I became nervous about saving Nure Onna and switched in Masha Shingai with his Terror active. He swiftly finished off Akumaken’s last life, but then took 3 wounds despite the Honor Guard only having 1 attack and him having height. He managed to kill 1 more guard, but then fell the next turn. For my OM3, I moved in Seimei and took a potshot that killed one more Honor Guard.

Nure Onna then began to move in and look for targets. She spotted some bunched up Honor Guards and traveled through water on the way with 3 revealed OMs on her card. Unfortunately, she only killed 1 guard, bringing herself back down to 1 wound. Dawn then moved over to lava field with height, killing her with the next two attacks. I lost my OM3 as a result, and Kincho could not trick his way over to block some terrain.

The next round featured me trying to snipe guards with Seimei. He succeeded once, but the other two attacks were blocked. Kincho did absorb an attack and moved two spaces up to get to lava height (and away from the other attacking guard). Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that that was Dawn’s final OM, or else I would have moved him down into the water since he was going to teleport anyway. We messed up the rules a bit here, and I ended up taking one wound from lava field as a result.

At the end of my kiting spree (switching between Kincho and Seimei’s positions regularly to try and get the best position for an attack and later defense, separating Honor Guards where I could), which lasted for a full three rounds, Seimei had managed to kill 2 more Honor Guards. He eventually fell from their combined attacks, though, after they had cornered him, and Kincho fell just two turns later.

FIGURE USAGE:
Masha died in R2. Dealt 1 wound to Akumaken and killed 1 Honor Guard.

Nure Onna died in R3. Dealt 4 wounds to Akumaken and killed 3 Honor Guards for a total of ~150 damage dealt.

Seimei died in the second-to-last round. He killed 5 Honor Guards for a total of ~100 damage dealt.

Kincho died in the last round. He did not kill any figures, but absorbed multiple attacks, dodged away from melee to deny attacks, and was a general nuisance. He was regularly shifted with Seimei in the final three rounds of the game to help Seimei avoid as many engagements as possible.

DAWN’S THOUGHTS:
Seimei and Kincho were frustrating, but I feel like they wouldn’t have been as bad if I had some ranged figures. It kind of reminded me of the rats, but it wasn’t nearly on the same level as them—I think that it’s disappointing that I recognized Kincho moving away from moved squad figures to deny attacks, but I thought that it was fine overall. I still had fun trying to pin them down, and they weren’t able to run forever.