The Book of Tagawa Samurai

[STAROCEAN980]

I must say, to me these guys are absoloutly amazing! I played a battle using two 1670 point armies so my friend could use all the marro including 4 squads of each SOTM common and 1 set of drones. Along with the hive and all the marro heros. I had raelin(new) Charos, Q9, Q10, AE, Sargent D.(new) and some others along with my Tagawa Samurai.
About halfway through the battle I sent my samurai up. It wad awsome. They killed 2 squads of drudge, 2 squads of stingers, 2 squads of nagrubs, TKN, SBN, and KMS!

BEST GAME EVER!!

Edit: Oh yeah, I won with Charos and 1 Tagawa left.

[Overlord Hikash]

The Tagawa Samurai are just down right nasty. The first time I ever used them, my opponent dropped the Airborne Elite near each one, trying to take them out. None of them die. I charge, and get that bloodlust up to maximum. When powered up, these guys play possessed, killing down right anything. I was shearing through Minions of Utgar. I try and draft them every game.

[Barbell Hero]

Originally Posted by Sherman Davies

I just finished a game which came down my Deathwalker 8000 and a lone Tagawa vs. four Einar Imperium, Marcus and five Roman Legionnaires.

The birdmen managed to take out the Deathwalker, but they all died in the effort. With a fully empowered, 6-attack, 5-defense counterstriking Japanese monster, I went hunting for Romans. Ran down Marcus and the lone Roman he was leading, and killed them. Went after the remaining squad of Legionnaires and killed three of them before falling to a spear thrust from the last Roman, the last man standing.

That's why I play Heroscape.

More likely, he committed seppuku for losing a fight to a piece of crap figure. That reminds me of the time I lost Braxas to a squad of 4th mass. that wasn't using wait and fire, and I was on high ground. They just wandered up and attacked like dummies.

"2 skulls"

"no blocks."

"2 skulls"

"no blocks? on 4 dice!?"

"2 skulls"

"are you kidding me!?!?

"2 skulls"

".....EFF!"

She was so mad that the first guy shot her that she hung herself with her own tail. No way do a bunch of civil war dudes with muskets take out a dragon queen.

On topic, the TS spank hard. You really have to get them under cover to avoid ranged fire, but if you can get all 3 pounding on the enemy, you will quickly destroy many many figures.

[Dandin]

These guys remind me of the new Calvary; they look good on paper but not really all the great in a real game (at least when I play).

The first time I killed them all before they even reached my units.

The next time I killed two of them and the last got in one attack, but because of his low attack, failed to kill a marro warrior.

This is on a large map where the traveling distance is big, and, at least when I see them, they look like a good target for archers to shot at.
I can see them good on a smaller map, though, where in two turns they'll be engaged.

[Sherman Davies]

Much like any melee squad, the Tagawa have to be careful of ranged attacks, but not as careful as most. Their 6 speed and 5 defense mean that if you're careful about when you charge them out, at least two of them stand a good chance of making it to their targets. I get the feeling anyone who's having the Tagawa Samurai perform poorly may be playing on excessively uneven ground or on maps with little cover.

[GeekParallax]

I have a question about the Tagawa's Counterstrike.

See, I had a friend who sent his Sir Denrick into a crowd of his opponent's Izumi and Tagawa Samurai. Sir Denrick soloed all the Izumi Samurai singlehandedly. Then, on his next turn, Denrick attacked a Tagawa and rolled no skulls. The player who controlled the Tagawa insisted that he could still roll Counterstrike, because of the way the card was written.

We disagreed, but b/c we had no clue who was right, we let him roll any way. He rolled 5 shields-- IOW, Denrick took enough damage to kill him.

So... can the Samurai roll Counterstrike even if no skulls are rolled by the enemy?

[Browncoat]

Originally Posted by GeekParallax

So... can the Samurai roll Counterstrike even if no skulls are rolled by the enemy?

Yes.

We get in the habit of not rolling defense dice when our opponent rolls 0 skulls on the attack. Think of it this way: The amount of skulls rolled = how hard your opponent hits you. If no skulls are rolled, then he missed. You still roll for defense.

[Sherman Davies]

Somebody I played with once wanted to go with that "no defense roll is allowed if the attack roll misses" nonsense. I let it go because I didn't feel like arguing, but I can never understand where that reasoning comes from. Why would missing completely ever be a good thing for an attacker?

[Hero Hot Hatch]

I agree with both of the last two posts by Browncoat and Sherman Davies. Samurais are one of the few that a roll for defense even when the opponent did not get any skulls. That is the only logical conclusion. That's what I love about counter strike. In my limited imagination I see it this way: "If you try to kill me, I'll kill you." In other words, anybody who takes a swing at a samurai (of course on a normal and adjacent attack) should expect retaliation. That's is what counter strike is all about. I love the samurais.

As you all know range attacks is the way to go against these guys. I played against them last night and only the tagawas were left against my James Murphy. This is how it played. I risked a live by disengaging a few turns because it is better to risk a disengament roll than 5 counter strike dice. You can try Whip 12, but that is a big risk against these samurais if you fail (so I thought). I got lucky with my tactical disengagements and blasted the hell out of the tagawas with the Shotgun Blast without risking counter strike. At the end I have 5 lives left in James Murphy. Call it lucky, but I had room to spare even after risking it with tactical disengagement, which turned out to be stupid. My excuse is that I was caught in the heat of the battle. I would had done better had I rolled for Whip 12 instead of disangaging.

After I did that I remembered that you can only use counter strike against normal attacks and Shotgun Blast is a special attack so I did not need to risk tactical disengagement. I feel dumb, but it worked anyway. It will not be the last time that I forget an important detail. That time it did not cost me victory, but I can't let that happen too often.

I still like the tagawas a lot, but you have to make sure that you get easy kills early in the game. I'm sure James Murphy would not have been left alive or with all his 5 lives had the tagawas achieved full Bloodlust by the end of the game.

[LilNewbie]

The rules are quite clear about how combat works.
1. Attacking player rolls attack dice.
2. Defending player rolls defense dice.
3. Compare results.

Follwing these steps means you would always roll defense dice no matter what the results of the attacking player's roll. Comparison is after the two rolls. Most people don't roll defense if the attacker whiffs just to save time except when it's important like defending with a counterstriker.

Newb.

[tyguy94920]

I just got my Tawaga finially, but they have some dark spots on them and they look kind've battle-worn instead of new, is this a paint problem, and if it is, will it wear off with use?

[Hero Hot Hatch]

Originally Posted by tyguy94920

I just got my Tawaga finially, but they have some dark spots on them and they look kind've battle-worn instead of new, is this a paint problem, and if it is, will it wear off with use?

Literally, each piece of HS is unique. The paint jobs can be erratic at times. The few sets that I have bought at stores I look and compare the paint jobs to see which one I like more. It happens. My Tagawas were flawlessly painted, but I have some messed up units in other sets.