Yoroni Battle Report 4

Wadrhun Brute Spam vs. Yoroni Double Monster

As you can see, my opponent is stress testing some brutes. When we spoke of his gameplan, he wanted to use the chant acceleration to make it so as many units as possible were chanting and getting those sweet sweet bonuses, and then roll through opponents due to the insanity of his beefcake skew.

My gameplan was pretty simple, I wanted to try out the new Geisha that I just picked up from the FLGS that day (Proxied by the Rakshasa until I get it built). I was trying to combo the Draw event from the Geisha with the ability to power up my Yokai that much faster with a Mu ideal.

Round 1

Such engaging round 1 gameplay. Much wow. Apologies for another week of proxies, I went on vacation with my wife instead of building models 😀

Talos = Genya No Yokai
Rakshasa = Geisha
Inquisitors = Domaru-Damashi

Round 2

The scenario Foresight is interesting because you can turn off zones, or potentially double scoring a zone, This round was a lot of posturing and setting up my Tengu Ayakashi to be able to sit on zones and shoot things. My opponent gets a couple warbred and I go up a few points.

Round 3

Both my opponent and I glare at each other Menacingly but the only real casualties are the Domaru-Damashi who I sacrificed to try and keep him back off the zones but then proceeded to lose the supremacy roll. I have a decent points lead and positioning lead on the zones. My Geisha is ready to charge that unit of Warbred or be charged depending on who wins the roll off next round.

Round 4

OKAY! Things started happening! Turns out when your opponent has mostly heavies and a few mediums and you have mostly mediums and one heavy, stuff takes a few rounds to get into the fray. Key moments here include the Geisha living on one (1) wound. I don’t feel too bad about this because she failed SO many of her saves and took 10 wounds from 12 attacks, so living on one wound felt like the universe saying sorry. My Yokai with Chi, Mu, and Ka is laughing at the Drum Beast. But the poor Tengu Bushi are really feeling the pain from the trample attacks (Drum Beast is facing the Bushi and Yokai is facing the Drum Beasts flank, it’s tough when they don’t rank up and we were getting creative). My left side feels pretty good, but my right side is scared of the Chosen staring them down.

Round 5

This was a bit of a wild round. Some crazy dice happened, and a Spider Lady lived another round on one wound. Because my Kitsune Oni unit is SO deadly my opponent had to kill them first or they would’ve just completely locked down and killed that flank. BUT that allows my Geisha to activate and kill the unit in front of her, and then live through the trample attacks (Only one connected) from the march charge. I march charged my Daimyo Kami unit into the chosen of war trying to get the Geisha to live a little bit longer and score a few more crucial points. Looking back, this play worked out, and i’m glad I did it even though I REALLY debated it. I was unfamiliar with Chosen of Wars game damage potential and I took SO much damage for this play, but the Daimyo is an absolute monster and was able to get value all by himself.

Round 6

And here’s the next wild round of the game. Remember that random relic I gave my Daimyo cause I had 15 points left over? Well that allowed me to move my Ayakashi up and shoot through my own unit and kill the last Chosen of War (It was an INSANE roll and my buddy and I laugh because as I rolled it I said “If there was ever a time in this game for my birds to spike, it’s now”), this forced my opponent to clash and kill my geisha, and then charge the back of my Kami. Who took 4 wounds and had 2 left. At this point I am only ahead a few points and the game is CLOSE. Middle is going great, the drum beast has a handful of wounds left and the Yokai has more than ten.

Remember the scenario and how weird it can be? At the end of the round we reveal out chosen zones and my opponent sadly gets locked out of SO MANY points. He chose the middle left zone and I chose far right zone. We each only get 2 points for this round.

Round 7

The Daimyo dies fighting and takes out most of the Chosen unit. My opponent has to march charge to tie up my Yokai and deny central zone scoring. And my Ayakashi continue to pepper things. They truly got so much value this game.

Round 8

Ahead on points (barely), but now at the end of this round ahead on attrition. My Yokai has a handful of wounds left, but they’re really painful to chew through and I have finally started to score the center Objective. My Ayakashi sadly leave the chosen of war on 2 wounds left.

We continue to mark the far left and right objectives and deny points where we can. Which I believe is the better play and the correct way to play scenarios like this. It’s too risky to try and go for the double points in this scenario, just try to deny your opponent.

Round 9

I ended up winning the supremacy roll and killing off the chosen, they died fighting but it wasn’t enough and at this point, ahead by only a few points, we call the game.

Recap

I truly don’t know the last time I’ve had a game of conquest where it went to round 9 and it was still live and could go anyone’s way. This was an absolute blast to play! And I got my first win with Yoroni! Now credit where credit is due, I never want to celebrate at the expense of my opponent, he is a fantastic player, and he played a heck of a game with a somewhat meme-y spam list. He activated in super clever ways using the flexibility from having multiple regiments of the same name and he played well from behind and a small board space which is very difficult.

In terms of my play, I need to be much more deliberate and intelligent with my Kitsune unit. I am not positive but I am pretty sure there was a way for them to abuse their speed and fluid formation, or maybe sending the Tengu Bushi in to body block or some other trick to have them be fractionally safer and not die the way they did. If they had lived a bit longer, or even gotten another round they would’ve completely controlled the right flank and been the nail in the coffin for sure. I feel like I played my bow birds really well and I am super hyped about that. My practice from last game paid off.

The standout unit for me was definitely the Geisha, not only because she killed SO many things, but because I could have my Yokai with Chi and Mu round 3, which is just….such an uphill battle for opponents to chew through.

I have no changes for my list, I am really really happy for it. I am going to buckle down and try to get it painted over the next 2 months before my next big tournament. I have to paint the Yokai, Geisha, 4 Kami, 4 birds, 2 Oni, 2 Origami, and a Daimyo. Which is quite the list but hopefully I can do it!