Battle Report - Kaeris v Kirai

As part of our Winter Achievement league, I grabbed a game against Dan the other night. Dan and I do not end up playing each other too much in casual play, which is a shame. Dan is not only a great player, but also fun to play against. Well, fun until he decides something is broken and starts swimming for the deep end of the pool. For this game, I pulled out Kaeris vs his Kirai.

Set-up

Below is a picture of the board we were playing on. I had flipped Supply Wagon for my strategy, Dan flipped Escape and Survive. I was considering throwing down Colette, but was not sure she had what it took for Supply Wagon. Looking back, she may have been a better choice. This was my 3rd or 4th game with Kaeris, so I am still learning how she and her crew work.

I had a couple schemes left to get for achievments in the league, so I grabbed a couple of those. I decided on Stake a claim (placing my claim on the far side statue), and bodyguard. We flipped for deployment, with Dan setting up first, and deployed our crews. I announced both schemes, and Dan announced Betrayed by Spirits (Kill Kaeris with Ikiryo) and another scheme (I forget which). Away we went. We had corners deployment.

 
Our crews were:

30SS Scrap
Bill - Kaeris, 2x Gunsmith, SS Miner, 3x Fire Gamin, 5 stones
       - Supply Wagon, Bodyguard, Stake Claim
Dan - Kirai, Lost Love, 2x Seishin, Datsu-ba, Shikome, Desperate Merc, Canine Remains, Insidious madness, 5 stones
       - Escape and Survive, Betrayed by Spirits, ???

Dan's Crew & Deployment

Turn 1

Shikome started with prey on the female gunsmith. I started with the SS Miner digging up a SS. I wanted to play somewhat conservatively and burn some activations, even knowing he would be able to out-activate me. I know Kirai can move fairly quickly, so I was worried about moving too far forward and giving him a first turn strike.Dan began shifting forward slowly, with the Shikome swinging to my left and a bit forward, lining up for a run on the female gunsmith. I activated and moved my crew forward, taking positions where they could support each other in later turn or against a charge. Dan shifted forward as well, staying out of range of my guns and staying safe. He did kill off the merc and dog to grab some additional Seishin, a Gaki, and an Onroyo.

Turn 2

Things heated up quick on turn 2. This is where my unfamiliarity with Kaeris really started to show, as it was taking me excessively long to make decisions on my next activations and what to do. The Shikome moved forward to attack the female gunsmith, leaving her with poison and at 1 wound remaining. My male gunsmith moved forward and I looked to choose ammo. At that point I realized the gunsmiths have ammo to use against living, neverborn, and armored, and undead models. Unfortunately, none of those are spirits. With that in mind, I realized my gunsmiths would become marginalized through the game. I snapped off some shots, but didn't do anything significant. Datsu-ba and Kirai tossed out some spells that resulted (by the end of the turn) in turning both gunsmiths into Gaki. A fire gamin on the left charged the shikome, hurting it, and then Kirai swapped it with a Gaki to keep it safe. Ikiryo and the madness both moved up to engage Kaeris. I did learn some tricks with Kaeris to use vs Kirai. I was able to toss out a fair amount of burning counters, including a counter on one of the Seshin. I then used Immolate to kill of that Seshin and drop the resulting pillar of flame on Kirai. We ruled at the time that the resulting marker was not magical, although after revisiting the question on the rules forum, it appears that is a nastier attack than thought (the pillar is magical). Lots of models mobbed Kaeris, I lost both Gunsmiths and one fire gamin, and my miner grabbed melee master and buried. On Dan's side a whole host of spirits died, but Kirai and Datsu were able to keep him supplied with replacements.

Turn 3

The game was certainly turning against me, but judicious use of smoldering heart was keeping me in the game. During turn 3 Dan moved into full attack mode on Kaeris, bring a load of spirits forward to engage her. She in turn opened up with several stringed together ignites (turn it up!) and shared a bunch of burning counters with the spirits around her. Kaeris then finished with immolating the insidious madness and dropping the resulting pillar on Ikiryo and a Gaki. A new Onroyo moved forward, my fire Gamin ran up to kill the remaining Gaki, Kirai did some shifting around. The turn ended with Kaeris once again surrounded with 2 Shikome (1 with prey on her and 1 without) and an onroyo in range. Datsu was hanging out in the wings to clean up. I moved the Miner marker forward, positioned for popping him out next turn to engage the shikome with Kaeris as prey.

Turn 4

This turn became a bit of a blur. The Miner popped up and killed off a shikome. The other Shikome did some marginal damage to Kaeris. Kaeris once again tossed around burning counters and then burned down a fair number of spirits around her. Datsu moved forward and turned one of my gamin into a Gaki, the other gamin attacked the shikome but failed to kill it. The turn ended with Kirai positioned close enough to pull out Ikriryo for his attack to accomplish the scheme, Kaeris with 1 wound remaining, and a load of spirits still surrounding her. I had done an amazing job of pushing out damage and killing off spirits, but I was not getting Datsu or Kirai, so there were always more to come back.

Turn 5

Turn 5 saw initiative go to Dan, Ikiryo come out and kill off Kaeris. The rest of turn 5 and 6 was an assault on the wagon until it was smashed apart. The picture below is the end of turn 6, just after the last damage was put on the wagon (I only placed 2 markers, the third destroyed it).

The game ended as a loss, Dan 8 to my 0. I found myself at a real disadvantage with Kaeris being the only model in my crew who could fully engage Kirai's crew. To be fair, I only knew Dan was bringing Resser's prior to the start of the game, so it could have been very different. I really need to work on learning Kaeris with a fair number more games with her. I think she will be a load of fun to play, although I am wondering if she makes a good Henchman as Master. I am tempted to modify a list for this strategy to be as follows:

30ss Scrap
Rasputina & 8 stone pool, Kaeris, Essence of Power, Silent One, Gunsmith, Fire Gamin

I will have to try it out.