Warlord TaKtiX

Here.

Also, Chris and Laurence have written a bit since our last frontpage update, Todd, in his new role as Legend of the Five Rings brand manager, has given us some new artwork, and Jeremiah has written his GenCon report.

Laura has now taken on the role of Story LEad for Warlord, so, given that I’m busy, I’ll need a new assistant editor. Knowledge of Warlord, AEG generally a must, PHP useful, styling Wordpress themes would be very very cool. (Yes, I’ll be switching CMS to make running the site easier at some point this autumn).

Also? I manged to get to a tournament last weekend. I borrowed a deck made by Chris. 12 players, which is a great turnout for Barnstable (small town on the coast of North Devon), Chris took first, as usual, Laurence 4th, and I took 3rd. Very impressed with the Epic environment, and loving the tricks the Dwarves can play with items.

Why do the Devs always get the cool flavour text?

So, in the end I went with playing the Bloody Countess at Barnstaple’s tournament on Sunday. Made Top 4 (read: fourth :P) out of eleven participants.

Dwarves were no obstacle. They fell before my blade and my indomitable Dev speak. Took a while to hack through Priam’s funky rank structure; at one point I had him reduced to sheltering behind a solitary Wall and failed to stun him forward with a deluge of attacks…

Trevaine Cartwright was a mild annoyance. When it comes down to it, just ignoring the Jiyacin Frets and running the peasant lord himself through as soon as he shows his hidden face is a solid tactic. Having cousin Lestan, shifter Caleb, keepers of d’Ilchant and Ghed Nuri around to throw off all those potential backstabs helps as well.

By the time I came to facing Trevaine’s better - Black Tom - my devotion to Dev-speak was starting to falter, and I was punished with a draw for my lack of persistence. The minor complication of a slew of astral and ethereal rogues led to poor Elsabet fearing for her life every time she took a swing - even with the aid of Acolyte Dorra. I lost track of how many high level miscreants I dispatched to the afterlife over the course of the game, but there were always more hard on their heels. Called for time, we played on after to see what would have happened, and found that victory would have been mine after due time. Oh well, c’est la guerre. Unprecedented use from Shadow of Murder was nice, though.

Finally, I was facing off against Dyer himself and his Magson deck. Elsabet likes not being shot in the face, and even less having her second rank shot out from under her. Losing initiative even with bonuses several times, and drawing in a Title Contestation (after having won one the action before, no less!) contributed also. Still, I continued my tradition of at least taking a game from Chris even if I lose - the only person in the tournament to do so. Stunned Magson to the front first turn, only to have all the Militia-summoned Spencers inflict two wounds on Elsabet before turn’s end…

The deck I used follows. It ain’t the best (much 2x of cards…), but it’s fun. Elsabet dashes to the front and delivers long overdue death to those who would dare face her.

Characters:
The Bloody Countess
Caleb the Shifter
Acolyte Dorra x3
Bascia Tremayne x2
Deverenian Courtier x3
Cardinal Bromin x3
D’Ilchant Keeper x3
Ghed Nuri x3
Lestan Drac x3
Xaros the Mist x3

Actions:
Ar’tek’s Rampage
Bear’s Soul x3
Bloodthirsty x2
Bull Rush x3
Contest Thy Title x2
Gahid’s Stand
No Prisoners! x2

Items:
Battle Rhino x2
Black Sun Helm x2
Gloves of Mercy x2
Noble Steed x2
Shadow of Murder
Token of Favor x2

About to head overseas to the L5R World Championships. We had over 250 people pre-register, and we expect the total number of players who show up to top 400. Should be a great event. Of course we’re running this one all ourselves, so it should be an interesting experience. You’d be surprised just how much work the infrastructure of a major event like this. Food, tables, power, etc. all takes a lot of work. GenCon and Origins take of most of that for us at the other shows. Flying solo on this one! Still it’s gonna be great. I demand that if you are there you come and say hi. Can’t promise I’ll remember your name five minutes later, but I do want to meet you!

So the other big deal about going overseas like this is all the things you have to wrap up before you go. We’ve got a lot in the pipeline right now, including layout of new RPG books, development on the CCG expansions, cool new stuff like special Clan binders (watch the online store in a few months), and tons of other surprises you’ll have coming in 2007.

Oh, and one last thing, if you’re going to be at Worlds, bring some extra Euros. Drew Baker and Steve Argyle will be there selling prints and art, House Atreides from the UK will be there selling singles, and we’ll have tons of product, including Rise of the Shogun and a lot of honor counters and ivory strongholds courtesy of Flying Tricycle. And the all new Clan shirts will be there but featuring a special World Championships logo just for those who are lucky enough to buy them there!

See you in Brussels!

It’s been a while.

Still, Epic has now truly arrived, and random ‘pack wars’ using the Battle Packs have turned out to be really fun. Sure, a few of the warlords are a little stronger in this format than others (Go go Cairbre Netheryn!), but not overwhelmingly so.

This coming Sunday shall be the first constructed Epic tournament that I’ll be taking part in, down Barnstaple way. The current thoughts shredding their way through my brain are ‘which warlord to use?’.

Sure, FreeKs are powerful right now, but everyone will be playing them. I’ve never been one to follow the crowd, and this is one area where I’ll be standing my ground. Same reason why I won’t be trying Tavis.

An old stand-by that I always used (besides re-iterating Lord Netheryn, which ain’t possible anymore) was to go with the latest Elf warlord to be released. Faction loyalty, and all that. But that would mean giving in to Etra Bloodvine, who isn’t nearly as interesting as her mafioso Spycraft namesakes. It has to be something fun.

The Bloody Countess is one warlord whose deck I’ve been enjoying immensely. It would also provide an opportunity to speak unto my opponents and Dev-style throughout the tournament, which would be great.

Then again, I was fortunate enough to pull a foil Black Tom from a booster, and the temptation to play the assassin just to have the card sitting on the table before me is strong. I have no idea what I’d do with him at the moment, but such details can always be hammered out later. Probably something revolving around Ssithiss, given how reliable ol’ SS-SAURTH!!! has now left the building. For that reason, I may just go with Allisara and centre the entire deck around the lizard king.

There’s always the possibility of going back to the NoThRoG, just to prove to everyone that they’re not as bad as all that. Choosing between Brikta and Syvonne will be a matter of whether I feel like smashing or burning stuff closer ot the time.

One certainty: not dwarves. Not while I live.

Well, there’s always Friday card evening to try out some ideas, see what Dyer is plannin’ on playin’ and then meta against it. If in doubt…

***

What do I stick all this excess XP, koku and Ghost Rock to? I don’t want to have the package weighing too much when tI send it off to the US.

***

SS-SAURTH!!! is gone from Epic. But he shall not be forgotten. I shall back a deck in him. I have enough copies, but they’re from vastly differing printings of the dude, leaving me at a loss. Guess I’ll have to persuade people to hand over their Campaign printings to me, but how?

Yarr!

Cyberpunk will be interesting tonight…

I so rarely get to post here anymore, I thought I’d post up some Khan’s Defiance preview art and see if the L5R players even find it. And yes, it’s Benika from the Origins storyline event.

Anyway, just got back from the ACD and Alliance East distributor open houses. Samurai Edition, the board game, and the graphic novel all got a lot of excitement, and several stores are planning on picking up L5R and Warlord, so some of you who haven’t had a store in a while might find one soon. Both shows were really enjoyable, and I’d like to thank all the people at ACD and Alliance for being great hosts. Special kudos to Mike Webb on his great cookout. I’ll have to tell you all sometimes about the days when we played Star Wars RPG (West End d6 system) together. I could go on about that for pages though, so I probably shouldn’t start. I will recommend however if you are at Origins to check out Mike’s awesome Star Wars scenarios in the miniatures room.