The Guild of Fantasy Role Players (GFR) organizes the FeenCon and for the first time it was Heme, pearl of the Ruhrgebiet, (some people do like their hometown) where hundreds of gamers would come together to have a good time. I am not a member of the GFR but a know quite a few of them, and so it was no surprise for me, when Robert Gaida, Tabletop expert of the GFR. came to me and asked ifi could judge a Clan War tournament there.
I had ever the opinion that too less was done for our dearest tabletop and so I said, sure, no problem. And after that we agreed on format, 2500 Koku, eleven hours of Saturday of gaming time, four tables and prizes. The eventual winner would get a small but beautiful piece of scenery with a Hantei, a Torii arch and two Cherry Blossom trees.
So I read up the rules and errata and new rules, and I thought myself a bit daft, to spent so much time with rules that will be replaced in just three weeks. Our phone company made a few Deutschmarks, when I called every CW player in our general vicinity, but I had to say, when the day of decision came, I was a bit disappointed. Only the the four most true and stalwart Samurai appeared to do battle.
Would there have been an uneven number of players, I would have fielded my own army, because a bye can be a boring thing. I proposed a three hour round instead the usual two and a half, but all fout preferred the old time limit despite of the slightly bigger armies. And who am I to decide against all players, because the main part is to have fun. With four players I decided that each player should play against each other player. I laid out the terrrain, dark green (forest) and brown (hill) cloth parts cut out to resemble terrain on a light green tablecloth and the first battles started.
Markus fought Benjamin (his younger brother). The Shadowlands Army advanced, Tsukuro and Kappuksu built the center and on each flank was an Ogre unit. The Dragon Flames were unable to halt this unholy advance and Yokuni and the Ise Zumi tried to meet the center. But the Dragons flanks hung back, he had no adequate unit to face the Ogres there. And when the Ise Zumi came into close combat with Tsukuro they broke. They could not stand against his Fear 3 power. Their attempt to break away failed, and when a unit of Skeletal Archers flanked them. they routed. And this decided the battle for the Shadowlands Horde.
On the other table Naga and Lion fought. The Lions advanced quickly, and the Naga let a rain of death fall upon the Lion units. But three Shugenja with Gust of Wind can turn a rainstorm into a sunny day, and Gerald was unable to inflict heavy losses with his ranged attacks, and then the Lion charged. Take the Matsu Tsuko Force Card and calculate her new values with Strength of Purity, Fires of Purity and the Hammer of Earth, when she charges. Gerald did, and the Nagas paled to a lighter shade of green. Then Thorsten played a Test of Might, countered by Another Time, but his second Test of Might worked, and in the second round of the engagement Matsu Tsuko broke, if I remember right, a Naga Warlord into very small pieces. And so the Lions triumphed.
The second round began. The Lions had to face the Shadowlands Horde, and Nagas and Dragons fought. And the Shadowlands used their Ogres at the flanks tactic again. But Thorsten managed to engage the center unts and he had no problems with his morale checks. (Lions, do I have to say more ?) But Markus had. Only a one will fail me, he said. And he rolled exact this one. But I will spend a point of Void from my general and can try again. And he rolled the one again. His Kappuksu broke, and with him his center was severely weakened. His Ogres came too late to turn the battle, and though Thorsten's Duel cards were canceled and he didn't win a single duel, he won this battle.
The Naga and the Dragon shot a few salvoes of arrows against each other, but it soon became obvious, there were too many Gusts of Wind on both sides to decide the battle in this way, and they both had no real dedicated ranged attack armies. So they clashed in the middle of the table Benjamin boosted his Togashi Yokuni two times with Fires of Purity until I noticed it. Shame on me!
The battle results were impossible to set back, so I penalized him by awarding two Victory point to his long tailed opponent. But after the dust settled and casualties were counted, the Nagas would have won anyway.
Now the tournament could have been over. Thorsten won against Markus and Gerald, and even if he lost against the Dragon he would have two wins against the Naga and the Shadowland. And one of them would have two wins, too but he had lost the direct contest.
But they all came to play, and no such considerations were necessary. The Lions charged and the Dragons died, oh would they have stayed in their safe mountains.
After two and a half hours Nagas and Shadowlands were locked in a tie. A fitting point to end this Tournament, but they disagreed, they diced it out and the Ogres took Shahadets Legion apart, with heavy losses of their own. The Shadow fell over Shinomen Forest.
Interesting to see an offensive Crab army as well: most of the Crab armies I've seen or designed to date seem to have either or both of the Hiruma Archers and Defenders of the Wall for ranged attacks.
Dieter himself adds on his own army:
"This army combines the Shadowlands element with the Honour 3 element and takes the best cards and spells of both to be deadly in close combat. And it shows a weakness of the 1st edition of Clan war rules, because personalities are much easier to boost than normal troops, I've seen Hiruma Yoshi with the hammer of Earth, Fires of Purity and Strength of Purity inflicting 88 points of damage on his own in a single turn.
"The Another Time card and Gust of Wind are stamdard in our gaming community since my brother defeated us all repeatedly with his Crane Army. Kakita Toshimoko with the Katana of Fire leading his centre unit of Daidoji Iron warrors, the other points went into ranged attacks, (Crane Elite Archers, can you say, "Ouch!"?) and Shugenja with a variety of spells, but first of all the Stagnant Air. I once tried to find a tactic to defeat this duelling monster Toshimoko but no, it was rules, that it did not work. (Hida Yakomo with a Katana of Fire of his own and a Kharmic strike, his claw should negate weapon boni and I tried to argument that surviving a duel though you should have died, due to the Katana of Fire, is a weapon bonus, but sadly only combat boni are negated. And Yakomo would have survived because of his own Katana of Fire)."
~~Chris
Tactical Deck:
Deter says he missed the need for the Naga Shugenja to have pearl to cast Counterspell. I don't feel so bad now, about my illegal Toku leading ratlings last tourney I played in!
Quote Dieter: "He didn't give me his card list but I can remember the following..."
Tactical Deck:
Tactical Deck:
Tactical Deck: