Chapter 1: In the beginning

So today I got my first game in with the Red Library/Story keyword and aside from a somewhat critical failure of just forgetting to score a scheme end of turn 3 I’m reasonably pleased with my first run out with them. Time to figure out what they dooooooo.

The game was  Stuff the Ballots - Corner with Hold Up Their Forces, Information Overload, Protected Territory, Take Prisoner & Outflank in the pool, I was the attacker on a reasonably favourable map. 

Lots of terrain I can ignore, lots of terrain my opponent can't ignore.  Time to be a dick make a tactically sound decision and put him in the bottom right behind a giant rock.

My opponent the Badfish took Brew2, Wesley, Whiskey Golem, Fingers, a Fermented River monk, 2 Whiskey Gamin each with the Ghillie Suit upgrade, a Tanuki and a cash of 6 Stones.  I in turn took Linh Ly1 (Orange Molly), Rabbit with Silent Protector, Mâp Map, Story of Sūn Wùkōng, Story of Thánh Gióng, Paper Tiger, and 2 Bookeepers. 

Initial thoughts mainly centred around in my pre-game decisions was a) I'm terrified of 12 Cups of Coffee due to the sheer amount of very important bonus actions my keyword has and b) I wanted to try the Bibliothecary variant of Linh mainly due to activation control in Double Shift and early interacts with Split Focus.  My vague plan was to try and to control/slow the middle with Mâp Map's boring conversation aura to eat cards, and Thánh Gióng to stop my opponent being able to hit who he wants.  Linh was largely there to fuel this with card draw as I knew I would be able to just shed scheme markers at will with a lot of my crew and push markers around in to good places. I wanted as many things to be slow as possible (including my own models tbh) to keep Maps healed up but this only really worked once sadly.  More practice needed. The ping and poison of Brewy in the middle killed both Maps and Thánh Gióng before either of them had activated in turn 4 which was an absolute gut punch, but in fairness to both them and to me it took an awful lot of time an ap to do it so in many ways I guess the tarpit did it's job and I need to not be so grumpy about when models die.  The Jade Rabbit was there to try and keep the Whiskey Golem challenged and to partner with boring conversation to limit it's combat effectiveness as much as possible.  Which aside from my complete inability to remember how concealing works it kind of did? Eventually getting pancaked by the Whiskey Golem late game.  So although initially down on everything above in my post game thoughts, I guess it did what I wanted?

Take the hit, challenge, boring conversation etc as control methods I feel no need to dwell on other than to say they layered nicely.  As ever with these kind of things it's not one single control ability that wins the day, rather the layering of them to tax your opponent resources that gets results.   

What I would like to comment on however is Well-Versed.  Oh your various gods, this ability is good.  immediately absolutely love it, from soul stone prevention interactions (that's rare!) to quality filtering to just making damn sure you're in the best position possible to succeed at that key tactical action this activation. Super good ability.  I will probably write a blog soley on it's uses at a later point but needless to say I am immediately in love with it. 

I forgot Booklight glow on Ling Ly all game long.  Literally I've only just noticed it and I've been stating at her card all week.   That's to be expected game 1 to be fair as you're never going to remember everything on a new Master and also a crew with drunken kung fu isn't the worse place to forget it.  No bonus pos flips for you, Brewy!  That said I probably could've used it to dole out some distracted to the Whiskey Golem which may well have kept it at bay a little more, which maybe could've kept my Rabbit alive longer?probably not.  Good one to remember going forward. 

Control of the Red Library was an incredibly useful ability that allowed me to control a ballot marker for most of the game but also keep Linh safe and outside of Fingers' Chatty aura.  This was a key ability in deciding between Masters going in and also one of the reasons I was very glad not to see 12 cups on the board. 

All in all, very pleased with Linh Ly 1 on her first outing.  There is some definite finesse required and not I'm not sure I piloted her well but I am very pleased to have given her a run and importantly she will get more time on the board.  I will not be just reaching for the title straight away which I take to be a good sign.

Now I want to only touch on just two more models for the sake of brevity, one good and one I need to readdress (I’m not talking about the Monkey King yet, he’s amazing):

I love these scheme runners! Which I am so relieved about as they were a major factor in choosing the keyword. They did everything I asked of them. Filtered cards, scored points, killed a model at one point.  I love the fluff of them just wandering around the battle field doing stuff, not noticing when they've fallen off a cliff or stepped in lava.  They we're 100% everything I wanted which was amazing. 

Less so the Paper Tiger. 

Three swings into a Whiskey Gamin and not even 1 point of damage says everything. Eugh stat 5.  Intimidating Roar on my own models (Maps, Tháng Gióng and Linh seem the most likely candidates) for an unpack followed by being reactivated by Linh is probably a better use of him moving forward I think.  That said he did put early pressure into the corners. He’s not a beater, I am the problem.  I am the schemedown, act accordingly.

All in all, this is an excellent keyword but it is going to take some time for me to adjust to a completely different playstyle.  I am however very pleased with choice for this challenge.

All words by a Beard, all memes by a Tarquin.