Thundersbeard is go!

Anything can happen in the next 30 minutes!

Standby for action!

So the 10 in row blogging challenge I’m doing with some fellow muppets.

Firstly, my tournament at the weekend was a simply lovely affair that I thoroughly enjoyed. My thanks to everyone that came and flipped cards. Congrats to all, our burgeoning scene continues to grow apace.  I had 3 lovely games and went 2-1 for the day which was good enough for 5th. First game was with Seamus into Lucius2 which was an incredibly bloody affair. Game 2 I got an absolute spanking at the hands of Lady Justice2 which with hindsight I should’ve seen coming but I lost Reva2 turn 1 and did well to score the VP I did (I look forward to the rematch Captain Steele!), and final game was a win with my Reva2 going into Linh Ly2 which is a beautifully timed segue if ever there was one.

So I alluded in my previous blog some of the reasons for choosing Red Library/Story but to expand on it a little bit.

I like two things above all else (I think), survivability and a consistent aesthetic and in coupling this with some wonderful feedback I received from the Bad fish one of our manga streams that was something along the lines of: 

“you get very caught up and are very proficient in doing a crews thing, some times to your detriment. One of the reasons your Elite/Mimic crew was so scary to face was the crews thing was scoring so many VP”

And I’ve thought about this a lot and it’s good constructive feedback, which we should all be giving each other where possible, and something I’m looking to build on.

He’s right of course, I do get very preoccupied with making a keywords engine work. This is in part my being a content creator and wanting to showcase a keyword for the period of time I’m playing it and also because I love Rube Goldberg crews that durdle around and make ridiculous things happen. I am not an alpha strike player. This is why I love Cadmus and Plague and of course Revenant. I’m going to do lots of little things and get as much value as possible and do the thing, whatever the thing might be. Now that might be “lol I’ve summoned 8 models this turn” or “lol I’ve made a dozen pyre markers in 3 activations” or “ha! I’ve handed out 100 poison to my own crew and we’re not halfway through turn 1” but perhaps what it should be more of is “I’ve scored 8vp”.

So I wanted to focus on scoring, and scoring quickly. This means mobility (or at least it does to me) and bullshit.

Through many conversations with many patient Kiwis I’ve settled on Red Library/Story. This is partly down to aesthetic (they’re gorgeous models. Absolutely gorgeous and I’m very much looking forward to doing them no justice whatsoever) and then also down to 2 models: The Story of Sūn Wùkōng and the Bookeeper.

Now it must be noted that I have not played one single game with these keywords or even faced them more than a couple of times but I wanted this blog to describe *why* I’m drawn to these models and my process for choosing them. And I have done my research, not only chats with patient Kiwis (Hi Brodie!) but also content put out by others. Most noticeably this fantastic video by Drayson which goes over the keyword in great detail from a competitive angle.

This very comprehensive video watched there were two things on both Bookeepers and The Story of Sūn Wùkōng’s card I was drawn to.

Bookkeeper:

What?! It’s like incorporeal without the dmg reduction. In fact from a mobility perspective it’s even better due to ignoring vertical distance. No being lured off cliffs to take falling damage, no getting stuck behind impassible buildings, also it’s while moving so will count whilst being moved by others! Fantastic, I love a board agnostic scheme runner. Whatever terrain starts or is created during the game I can pretty accurately determine my ranges and where I can get to. A beautiful piece of consistency.

An interact? For a fast action? For a 5. Stop! I shouldn’t have to explain why this is good. Nothing is more overpowered than VP. If I have more VP than you I win, every time. VP are so broken. So having an ability that allows for more range or mobility or opportunities to score VP is something I value.

This coupled with the card nonsense and the having 6hp and Shielded making them a 2ap kill means I am very excited about Bookkeepers. Which is not a sentence people normally say.

 The Story of Sūn Wùkōng’s then:

I’m sorry what? It’s like Louisa Fido’s claim the land, but it’s a fast action, and it ignores models, and it ignores terrain, and you have a front of card ability to help with the TN and it only needed a 7 to start with. This is cracked! Glorious.  Given what the crew does with scheme markers this looks incredibly useful. Also the GG needs schemes markers! And you don’t even have to do the push, you could interact and then do this and blam that’s Ensnare sorted. Very much looking forward to some absolute bullshit with this.

Then there’s this thing:

8ss models are in a bit of a weird place at the moment. Yes they’re impactful, but they’re also a prime target for In Your Face and I don’t know if it’s just me but In Your Face turns up a lot.

Just me?

No didn’t think so, so to have a demise that not only protects an 8ss model, but also provides mobility is a prospect I find very interesting. The subtle art of list tailoring to a scheme pool from a denial perspective is a new and dark art for me, I ran a Witch Hunter crew not long back where no model was higher than 7ss so my opponent couldn’t score the first VP of In Your Face and it was an interesting exercise. Yes there are other scenes for them to choose between but it was limiting his choices and applying pressure before we’d even deployed, fascinating approach. 

So there we are, sometimes that’s all it takes to spark interest in a keyword. Just a couple of abilities that provide a new perspective and these are the ones that have drawn me to Red Library/Story and they’re not even on the Master!

Thunder

THUNDER

(Blame Tarquin)