Yoroni Battle Report 5

A Truly Epic Yoroni Mirror Match

I had the chance to play against my friend Mike after work this week and he brought his Yoroni to bear against my much cooler, nobler Yoroni force.

A few key differences between our lists, the caster spider against my melee spider, an Oyabun against my Daimyo, some different disciplines, and I have the Yokai (Insert we have a hulk meme here)

I will do some super subtle foreshadowing here, but I have to say, this was one of the most technically intense, fun, and epic games of conquest I’ve played. Period. I think Mike and I both played extremely well and it was a great night. Yoroni vs Yoroni is a really wild game to play because everyone can activate any unit.

Round 1

Hey look a Yokai! Everything will be built by next battle report but we still have a few proxies. Inquisitors are Domaru, Rakshasa is the Geisha. Classic round one gameplay.

Round 2

Some of the list differences on display here. Forward force is SUCH a good rule on the Oyabun. There is just about 500 more points on the board for my opponent now. Knowing my Geisha I am fairly confident she wins the left flank though. I am absolutely terrified of the Kami block with Trial of Hakari-Ishi staring me down the middle and at this point am frantically trying to figure out how to deal with it.

Round 3

My plan for the Unkillable Demon King (Kami block) includes….being faster than it. My kitsune and Yokai are set up to just be counter punches and keep my opponent honest. I am outside of his ranges, but he is inside of my ranges. Looking back and trying to learn from this report I think it would’ve been much smarter, especially on this scenario where the big zones are worth more points to play a “horns of the bull” style instead of such an even deployment. Especially seeing how he had 500 points committed to the center with no cheap units to hold the zone when it’s done marching forward.

The right flank is some of the most intense conquest I’ve played in a LONG time. The discipline flow is something I threw on my Daimyo because I had a random 15 points available. But I have come to LOVE it. The ability for my birds to shoot and charge through that unit is SO cool. Also, it really messes with opponents. So much muscle memory and practice is negated when a bushi unit you cannot see charges you from behind a big ole fat blob of kami. There were really really clever positioning moves from my opponent and I so that charges would be denied and reform actions would be denied.

Round 4

Some key moments went down this round. It is important to note that I lost the supremacy roll for key rounds 4-6. But thankfully I am playing Yoroni and able to negate the major downsides of that. As expected the Geisha is saying “Can you handle this?!” on the left side and winning. Sadly she has been blocked off the zone and I was blocked off the middle left zone by an epic long march charge, so the points are starting to climb into my opponents favor. To this point it has been quite even scenario speaking. Right flank continues to be a tie thanks to the powerful presence rule.

Round 5

Pain! Agony! Attrition went wildly off the rails here. I bounced off the Kami unit horrifically and the Geisha finally went down. The thing with E3 is that sometimes that evasion stat will let you down and the damage will spike. Dice be dice sometimes and that’s okay. This is a key round my opponent and I talked about when we recapped the game and learned from it. More on that later! My Daimyo unit somehow only takes 1 single damage from the Mahotsu and I actually steal the right zones. My opponent is ahead on scenario but I have many rounds left to pull this back.

Round 6

The Yokai at this point has all 4 ideals I have in my list and is just the apocalypse. I give him Fluid with a fu card and march charge after that kami block has activated. The Mahotsu is down to 5 wounds remaining and while my opponent will score 3 zones this round I have a good feeling that I can bring back the attrition game. I’m down 20 points at this point but if my plan works out I will gain 8 points of kill points and have plenty of rounds of scoring three zones to pull out a slight victory.

Round 7

Here is another one of my major misplays. I activate my Yokai first. And boy does it SURE do 6 wounds to the unit. BUT, he dies to the character fighting on death. Hindsight is 20/20 but a simple analysis says “Hey Ben, the Mahotsu can heal, probably a good idea to swing with the Bushi first and start scoring the zone that’s worth a lot more points and leave the last few wounds on that Kami unit to a round or two of shooting from your ayakashi” The Yokai was dead either way, but the Mahostu was ONLY dead if I swung on it first. Healing is VERY powerful in an elite faction like Yoroni.

Now a key callout here, small rules infraction as my opponent was healing his spider twice per round where that is not allowed. “A regiment or character stand cannot be targeted by the same spell more then once per round” is the relevant rule and we both were unaware of it. No hard feelings or bad blood at all. But it did happen.

At this point behind on scenario and with the Mahotsu healing beyond my damage we call it and shake hands!

Recap

Okay. What an absolutely amazing game. Key moments for me to learn from

1 – Always play with the scenario in mind. Kill things on the zones that are worth more points.
2 – Remember your rules. Remember my Geisha on the left flank that killed like 440 points or something over the course of 5 rounds? Turns out she has tenacious 1. I somehow just glossed over that. She died with a perfect amount of damage. Meaning if I had remembered it. She would’ve had another 6 ish wounds to live and potentially completely change the game on that side.
3 – If your opponent has an unkillable demon king unit the game is going to warp around it. I postured with my Kitsune to bait the march charge, but that’s exactly what a unit like that wants. Take a zone and be unkillable. Much better to have ignored it, let it score a small zone every round. And take the rest of the board. Tenacious 2 might be too powerful to really exist in Yoroni but I don’t know. I probably should put that combo in my list.
4 – I misplayed my Geisha. The Yokai should be the lone wolf on the left flank and the Geisha should be in the middle of my army giving the aura of plus one evasion. This was a key discussion point from my opponent on how I could improve and I completely agree.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed the report and improving at conquest with me. I have a large tournament at the end of August and I’ll be taking Yoroni. I am furiously painting the list and have the big goal of being fully painted. I may change the list to include the Oyabun Kami Trials blob. I need to tinker with it. You’ll see the updated list next battle report! Feel free to reach out to me and chat Conquest, Painting, or anything else! I am Arrest on the Discord IAmArrest7 on Reddit and arrest_paints on instagram.