8th - Yan Lo vs Kirai

So this will be my first battle report and I hope you will enjoy reading it.

This game I faced Markus and his Resurrectionists. I know him for quite a while and we play very regularly. He is one of our best players and I often struggle against him and his ways to adapt to difficult situations.

Deployment:      Standard

Strategy:             Extraction

Schemes:           Claim Jump

                              Dig their Graves

                              Frame for Murder

                              Tail’em

                              Recover Evidence

Crews:

Ten Thunders (Frame for Murder (Yin the Penangalan), Dig their Graves):

1. Yan Lo (Fortify the Spirit, Misdirection) 5 SS
2. Soul Porter
3. Izamu the Armor (Equality)
4. Yin the Penangalan (Smoke Grenades)
5. Chiaki the Niece (Pull of the Grave)
6. The Lone Swordsman (Recalled Training) (Proxy: Katanaka Sniper)
7. Goryo (Proxy: Onryo on green 50 mm Base)

Resurrectionists (Frame for Murder (Night Terror), Dig their Graves):

1. Kirai (Spirit Beacon, Wronged Spirits) 5 SS
2. Lost Love
3. Nurse
4. Night Terror
5. Chiaki the Niece
6. Carrion Effigy
7. Jaakuna Ubume
8. Genbu the Tortoise/Izamu the Armor (My little Helper)
9. Philip and the Nanny (Haunting Cries)

Deployment:

I won the deployment flip and decided to deploy second.

Turn 1:

I lost the Initiative flip and had to go first.

• 1^st Activation (TT): The Soul Porter pushed Yan Lo and Izamu.
• 1^st Activation (RE): The Effigy dropped a Scheme Marker and walked once and gave the condition to Kirai.
• 2^nd Activation (TT): The Goryo summoned a Seishin and walked towards the Extraction Marker.
• 2^nd Activation (RE): The Nurse dropped a Scheme Marker and took a Walk Action.
• 3^rd Activation (TT): The Seishin activated and walked a bit.
• 3^rd Activation (RE): Philip and the Nanny used her Lost Knowledge to discard the dropped Scheme Markers to draw 4 Cards and discard 2.
• 4^th Activation (TT):  Chiaki double walked.
• 4^th Activation (RE): The Night Terror walked towards the centre of the table and activated his aura to limit my casting ranges.
• 5^th Activation (TT): Yin activated to walk twice.
• 5^th Activation (RE): Kirai summoned a Seishin with her (0) Action and summoned a second Night Terror in base contact with the first one. After that she summoned a Goryo (Proxy: Student of Viscera) next to the new Night Terror which killed him and let her summon another Seishin. After that she sacrified the new Seishin and summoned a Shikome on the last Seishin.
• 6^th Activation (TT): Yan Lo activated and discarded one card for one Chi. After that he killed the Seishin to gain another Chi, he used Ascendance to get Incorporeal and walked once and tried to shoot the Shikome but missed her.
• 6^th Activation (RE): Lost Love tried to heal twice but failed both attempts.
• 7^th Activation (TT): The Lone Swordsman used his push and took a Walk Action and dropped a Scheme Marker.
• 7^th Activation (RE): Jaakuna walked and tried to lure Izamu but failed.
• 8^th Activation (TT): Izamu walked towards the centre and dropped a Scheme Marker.
• 8^th Activation (RE): Chiaki walked once and dispelled the Slow Condition of the Goryo.
• 9^th, 10^th and 11^th Activation (RE): Izamu, Goryo and Shikome walked.

Turn 2:

Markus won the Initiative and let me go first.

• 1^st Activation (TT): I decided to start again with the Soul Porter, so he walked once and pushed Yin 4”.
• 1^st Activation (RE): Effigy dropped again a Scheme Marker, gave the condition to Kirai and walked once.
• 2^nd Activation (TT): Chiaki walked and uses her (0) Cast against the Shikome and hit her for 3 damage.
• 2^nd Activation (RE): The Night Terror walked up to Chiaki and activates his aura again.
• 3^rd Activation (TT): Goryo walked twice and engaged the Night Terror.
• 3^rd Activation (RE): Nurse placed a Scheme Marker and walked towards the Extraction zone.
• 4^th Activation (TT): Yin took a Walk Action and tried to apply her condition to the Shikome which failed, after that I decided to attack the Nurse and hit her for 2 damage, she used her Df-Trigger to push into the Extraction-Zone and Markus also dropped a card to summon Ikiryo next to Chiaki and Yin.
• 4^th Activation (RE): Ikiryo hit Chiaki once for 2 damage and sacked herself again, because the Lone Swordsman could have killed her next to a scheme Marker.
• 5^th Activation (TT): Izamu walked up to Yan Lo.
• 5^th Activation (RE): Philip discarded again the two Scheme Marker to draw cards.
• 6^th Activation (TT): Yan Lo focuses and tried to hit the Shikome, but failed and dropped a Scheme Marker with his last AP.
• 6^th Activation (RE): The Shikome placed herself next to Chiaki and hit her for 4 damage and poison which would kill her at the end of this round.
• 7^th Activation (TT): The Lone Swordsman used his push and a walk to place himself next to the Shikome, but didn’t engage her. So he dropped a Scheme Marker for the next round.
• 7^th Activation (RE): Kirai activated and walked, after that she summoned a Seishin and a Hanged on the Seishin. Her last AP was Swirling Spirits to reposition Izamu and Jaakuna.
• 8^th Activation (RE): Chiaki dropped a Scheme Marker and removed the Slow-Condition of the Hanged.
• 9^th Activation (RE): Jaakuna lured the Goryo into her aura dealing 1 damage and hit him once for another damage and slow.
• 10^th Activation (RE): Goryo dropped a Scheme Marker.
• 11^th Activation (RE): Lost Love healed 3 damage on the Hanged.
• 12^th Activation (RE): Izamu killed the Goryo which resulted in 1 VP for Markus.
• 13^th Activation (RE): The Hanged dealt 4 damage to Yin and tried to hit Yan Lo too, but Yan Lo dodged the Attack.

Chiaki died by Poison. We both scored from Extraction and Markus scored Dig their Graves. VP: 1-2

Attentive Readers may mention, why I didn’t use the Equality Upgrade from Izamu. Yeah, that’s true I simply forgot over the whole game. :D

Turn 3:

I won Initiative this time and activated my first model.

• 1^st Activation (TT): The Lone Swordsman used his push to engage the almost dead Shikome and killed her with his first attack. 1 VP for me for Dig their Graves. His last AP was to place a Scheme Marker again.
• 1^st Activation (RE): The Night Terror tried to disengage, Yin hit for 1 damage because of Hard to Kill, I forgot that I can’t trigger poison on the disengaging strike, so I decided to never hit him again, because I expected him to be the sucker (which was correct 😃)
• 2^nd Activation (TT): Yin walked to cast her (0) against Kirai, Markus used a soulstone and Izamu suffered the effect of the cast. After that she attacked the Nurse once with her Ca-Attack, but missed her.
• 2^nd Activation (RE): Effigy dropped a Scheme Marker, gave the Condition to Kirai and walked a bit.
• 3^rd Activation (TT): Yan Lo shot on the Hanged two times one time benefitting from focus, dealing enough damage to reduce him to 1 wound. Markus dropped a card and summoned Ikiryo.
• 3^rd Activation (RE): Ikiryo hit Izamu two times dealing 6 damage.
• 4^th Activation (TT): Izamu tried to heal, but managed only 1 wound. And hit Ikiryo with the Melee-Expert for 4 damage.
• 4^th Activation (RE): Kirai summoned a seishin next to her, summoned a Shikome next to Ikiryo killing her. After that she shot Yin with a focused Ca, but Yin dodged the attack.
• 5^th Activation (TT): Soul Porter charged the Shikome but missed with both attacks.
• 5^th Activation (RE): Nurse focused and tried to medicate Yin but missed her.
• 6^th Activation (RE): Shikome killed Izamu. Izamu hit back and dealt 3 damage.
• 7^th Activation (RE): Goryo charged and killed Yin with a moderate damage, rewarding me 2 VPs for Frame for Murder, but Markus scored Dig their Graves.
• 8^th Activation (RE): Jaakuna lured to Swordsman two times dealing 1 damage with her hazardous aura.
• 9^th Activation (RE): Izamu hit the Swordsman for another 4 damage.

The remaining Activations consisted of walks and missing attacks 😊 So the score was 5-4 after scoring Extraction.

Turn 4:

I won Initiative again (luckily :P) and decided to go first.

• 1^st Activation (TT): The Lone Swordsman activated and suffered 1 damage from the aura of Jaakuna. After that he killed the Hanged and scored 1 VP for Dig their Graves. After that he hit Chiaki for 2 damage.
• 1^st Activation (RE): Philip and the Nanny discarded a Scheme Marker and killed the Lone Swordsman for Markus last VP from Dig their Graves.
• 2^nd Activation (TT): Yan Lo used his Lightning Dance against the Night Terror and placed him next to the Soul Porter, after that he walked once, getting 4 damage from the hazardous aura of Jaakuna and trying to hit Chiaki, but missed.
• 2^nd Activation (RE): Nurse medicated Izamu for more damage.
• 3^rd Activation (TT): Soul Porter did not do anything of importance.
• 3^rd Activation (RE): Goryo walked once and killed the Shikome with one wound left.

The remaining Activations killed Yan Lo despite using 4 Soulstones and we called the game done at this point. So Markus scored 2 Points for Extraction for the remaining 2 rounds.

The final Score was 6:7 for Markus.

What a close game, despite that he out-activated me for the whole game. I was very lucky that I knew Markus that well, that I expected the Night Terror to be the sucker. It showed that letting Markus to choose the side was possibly a wrong decision, because hiding everything behind the house was a very good way to make things very hard for me.