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Here is my findings on the strengths and weaknesses of each clan I have encountered and or surveyed, and other stratagems Strategy Kaiu Maatan's golden rule: Do what your enemy is not expecting. Predictability is death. Assessment of the conflict: With credits given to FM 7-8, assessment of your battle plan must begin with METT-T. You must regonize what your Mission is. What did you design your army to do? What is your Enemies disposition? Avoid where he is strongest and attack with full force where he is weakest. What and where are the important Terrain features on the board? What Troops are at your disposal, what are their strengths? Finally, how much Time is alloted for this game? When is lunch anyways?
Terrain: Terrain can make or break you in any game. It is a tremendous advantage if used correctly, a death sentence if ignored. Once again I will fall back on the revered FM 7-8 and use the acronym OCOKA. When the terrain is placed on the board Observation and fields of fire must be established. Where are yours and your enemies fields of fire greatest? Cover and concealment provided by terrain is an obvious boon, especially if you possess a unit that may ignore terrain penalties. Also of note, are what Obstacles are impassible or just so undesireable that you wish to avoid them completely if possible. On the opposite angle of that arguement is what are the Key pieces of terrain? What pieces of terrain are so desireable that they will give you, or your enemy an advantage? Finally, where are the main Avenues of approach going to be? Where are you planning to approach your enemy and where do you think your enemy will approach. Master this and you will master your enemy. The Mutaku Manuever: Of particular interest to the Unicorn is a strategy used by a friend of mine Shinjo Mutaku... Aka Mike Comer. In his honour I have dubbed this the Mutaku Manuever. The Army's composition consists of 2 Morito Tokeis', 2 units of Heavy Lancers, One unit of Moto Charger lead by Iuchi Daiyu, One Unit of Ki-Rin Wardogs, and one unit of Iuchi Scouts. On the flanks are the Wardogs and the Moto Chargers with Iuchi Daiyu. The Moto chargers must stay ahead of the Wardogs and completely screen them from
enemy archers. This combo of Daiyu's Moto Chargers and the Wardogs will almost always engage an enemy on 2 sides, and will either break, rout or destroy that flank whoever it may be. On the opposite flank is the Iuchi scouts. Since they deploy further on the field, they serve to panic the enemy into reacting too soon, but they are not a powerful unit in itself. Its purpose is to get the enemy to prematurely react. The power exists in the center with the Heavy Lancers. The proper choice of personalities leading these units are imperitive. Mutaku uses Otaku Tetsuko and Shinjo Tsuburo. The Tokei's are used to cast fires of purity and biting steel on these personalities, as the tactical card "Strength of purity" is played. This effectively turns the Unicorn center into a group of German Panzers. What remains either die, or run away. This strategy, like all others, is terrain dependant and still works with little modification to the structure. (DE): With the advent of the Daimyo edition (DE), this manuever still functions, but not as well. Daiyu now only modifies the score of ranged attacks instead of making his unit invulnerable.
Unit Size: I have been experimenting whether it is more useful to have a huge unit of guys with one wound or a reasonable unit of guys with two wounds. In my experience it turns out to be neither. Actually, reasonable size, one wound units, do a capable job. Its just that you need a lot of units, so you can flank, which really messes up the opposition. Archers also seem to be the necessity, just to counter battery someone if they have archers. I tried to do without, and my crabs made lovely pin cushions. If you have manueverability though I would recommend 2 Morito Tokei's with gust of wind. (DE): The "Tokei defense" with gust of wind does not work as it used to anymore. While still handy to have, it no longer imbalances the game. One thing is sure though. In DE, ranged attack is king now, more than ever. Magic: Trying to play without magic is a serious handicap in Clan War. Although Magic still doesn't win by itself (for those of us not playing a Phoenix army) it is great to have around, mostly for defensive abilities and other nice little bonuses. Dice: If your dice hate you, then you can never win. Your stategy may be brilliant, but they still depend on X. They still depend on the whims of fate. Games of chance are never really fool proof are they?
The Clans Finesse: I like to rate each army on how much tricks and tactics that it takes to be effective, and how easy it is to wield for a beginner. A low finesse army, such as the Crab (screw finesse and pound the enemy silly) Clan, is solid and straight forward, and not very likely to spring any suprises. A high finesse army such as those sneaky Scorpions, rely on tricks, tactical cards and suprises to win the game, as their units are not innately strong.
Crab Clan:
Since this is my clan I have some strategy: Since this is primarily a defensive army, let the enemy come to you, and have loads of defensive tactical cards such as defensive position, wall of spears (If you have the Hiruma Medium elite), the waves break etc. etc. I have also found it to my advantage to bunch my troops in a wedge with the Crab heavy elite leading the vaward, with the weaker units close by on the flanks, such as the Kuni witch hunters or the beserkers. Against the Crane the obvious choice is to have as many another times in your hand. Against the Phoenix the Crab must fight in the image of the Lion, You have to charge... Load your hand with turtle shells, Banzai charges, charges, and know the terrain's... and taking Hida Amoro, or the experienced Hida Unari, is a plus... And it is very useful, and frustrating for the Phoenix, to bring Hida Kisada. If you give him Chakara and you stack your hand with Strength of purity... Thats pretty scary for kung fu big boy. (DE): The Crab did not change that much in DE. The only thing that really made me upset was that Kaiu Kenru only can make his unit go up to a max. ATN of 8. Damn!!! No more ATN 9 Heavy elites. All in all the Crab Clan has the lowest Finesse rating I can give
Crane Clan: (DE): Of all the armies, the Crane got screwed to most. Their Dam modifier went down, and now since duels only last one turn, it limits their ability. Dont get me wrong... If your Duelling Toshimoko, your probably going to die. The Crane are Mediocre in the Finesse department. Its solid enough to run it in a low finesse style, but they have the capability to be almost as bad as scorpions. Lion Clan:
They do great damage, they have a wide variety of different troops with special abilities, and you can forget about them breaking or failing troop leadership tests. The only disadvantage to playing them is that they have no archers and their choices of Shugenja are... limited. It may advantageous however to buy a unit of archers from another clan as allies. The Personalities are very powerful, and there are tons of tacticians, charges and Go masters. You tend to cycle through a tactical deck like nobody's business. A wise precaution would be to buy unaligned shugenja to speed the army up and knock down those pesky arrows. The biggest problem I have is that the Lion tactical doctrine is pretty inflexible. You dont need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what any army is designed to do.... CHAAAARGE! (DE): They did only a few things to the Lion, but in the end they did almost nothing to the Lion. I dont see how the Lion are supposed to be the right hand of the Emperor... The Lion are pretty straight forward, next to the Crab, they are the lowest finesse out there.
Unicorn Clan: The Unicorn was saved from complete suckiness with the advent of their clan book. They are now the premier blitzkrieg army. The big 2 wound units are excellent, but far too expensive to really field efficiently. They do have an excellent selection of 1 wound units, with a load of special abilities. The Unicorns mobility is bar none the best, so you can be pretty sure that you will be on the defense. The War dogs are suprisingly, a unit that can change the course of the game... Their ability to unform a unit is absolutely insane. Are you scared of being hit by archery attacks? No problem, include Iuchi "Bulletproof" Daiyu as a leader. The Strength of the Unicorn are their units and mobile Tactical Doctrine. (DE): The Unicorn army was tampered with a little. Most notable is that Daiyu can only modify ATT modifiers, and not negate them. The experienced Kamoko is about as bad ass as any Oni. The Unicorn are a medium finesse army, Their units tend to do something out if the ordinary, or have a specialty, but you do have the ability to make it sneaky Phoenix Clan: The Undoubted masters of Magic. This army can win the battle with magic alone, and the units tend to guard the Shugenja rather than go up to bat. When not being vaporized you can expect to be riddled with arrows or fireballs from the firestorm. Its very frustrating to play against the Phoenix, because your magic is next to useless, and your units are falling apart before you even get in contact. With the addition of Norikazu messing with your tactical deck, this is one of the scariest armies around. The only problem is that if any of the other armies manages to get a grip in close combat on a large scale, the Phoenix can not cope. (DE): Since magic was scaled back a little, the Phoenix where weakened a little. Unless you are playing without the historical rules, there should be little difference. If you are playing without the historical minitures, then the abscence of the Elemental masters will be keenly felt. The Phoenix is a high finesse army, they rely on ranged attacks, spells and keeping out of close combat Dragon Clan:
(DE): The Dragon has become even more esoteric than usual. In my opinion, they have merely become an auxilary to Toturi's army. A few personalities and units went the way of the Do-Do though. Over all, the Dragon still has the things I thought where neat about them. I classify the Dragon as bridging the gap between medium and high finesse, mainly for the fact that there are so many options available to them. Scorpion Clan:
(DE): Not much has changed with the Scorpion. They are still sneaky as ever. Dirty Nasty Eta!!! The Scorpion are extremely high in the finesse department. The army relies on deception and tricks to win. I would not recommend playing this army unless you have a lot of Clan War experience. The Shadowlands:
(DE): The way fear works makes Shadowlands armies a bit more fearsome now. Zombies arent as slow now, which is a big plus for the tainted Taisa. They did get rid of the Shuten Doji, which was one of my favorite things. The Shadowlands are a medium finesse unit, just because of all the options available... Once your out on the field though, it tends to be more straight forward than you would think. The Naga:
(DE): The Naga has gone from a novelty, to a horrendously powerful army. The bowmen are a definate plus, since their arrows have the fast strike ability. The Naga have definately fully awakened. The Naga are a medium finesse. I attribute this to playing an army consisting of nothing but cavalry sized bases and troop selection Toturi's Army:
(DE): Like the Naga, Toturi's army has gone from a novelty army to a viable fighting force. They now have many Dragon Army units they can buy for no price increase. I once even considered becoming a Ronin when DE came out... But nahhhhhh Toturi's Army is a low finesse army. Its all pretty straight foward. Yoritomo's Alliance:
(DE): They pretty much got a few handy units, but other than that... No real change. Gust of wind of course does not work the way it used to, so that tactic goes to hell. Yoritomo's Alliance is a Low finesse army
Others: Moshi Wakiza: I love this model, she is cheap, has a great fire and air ring... She comes along on all my crab family picnics. Morito Tokei: 45 Koku for a magic 4 non unique shugenja... thats a bargain... not as good as Moshi... but 50 Koku cheaper. Tokei also happens to be the most abuseable shugenja in the game for defensive spells. 2 Tokei's and 2 gusts of wind really takes the zest out of the enemies archery. Dragons: Not worth it. Sure they are nasty as hell, and kill a lot, but dishing out 500 odd points for a 7 wound creature with the individual trait, is not worth it. They also tend to lose in duels, which I have a hard time picturing, but I have seen it happen, since they are not geared to it. Ranged attacks eat them for breakfast. Also they are high in glory, giving your enemy lots of victory points for killing it, and trust me... the dragon will get killed in the battle. But they are really good looking miniatures aren't they? I find them more useful to keep track of the Hand of Fate. Back to
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An Excellent all
around army with a little bit of everything. If there is a specialist nature to the
army is that it has a very defensive bent. The personalities are very good and once
again has a bent toward the defensive... In fact, in the whole list, all the units
have defense, and all but one personality has defense, and that is Hida O-Ushi. The
only downfall of this army is that it is relatively weak in the magic department.
Unless your willing to dish it out for Kuni Yori, who is not the wonderful unless your
expecting an army with lots of special orders. My advice would be to get Moshi
Wakiza, or the abuseable Morito Tokei.
They are a fairly solid army, with some pretty scary duelists (did you expect any
less?). The Daidoji are an
excellent 2 wound unit... and armed
with Yaris'... This is one of the most solid 2 wound units in Clan War. Their archers are
great too. The Kenshinzen are in my opinion one of the best one wound units
around. Their shugenja's are too pacifistic for my nature, and tend to do better in
the non offensive arena. They tend to shoot you to pieces, and then kill off your
leaders, while the Kenshinzen and Daidoji mop up the rest. The Cranes are sneakier
than ever... Mizu-do initiates, Daidoji harriers, trap cards... One would think that they
are actually Scorpians. Booo Hisssss....
I really dont have that much
experience with the Dragon, as I have only seen them fielded very rarely. One
of my friend described the Dragon the best... They are not the best at any one
thing, but they are the second best in everything. You definitely have to have a
plan on how you want this army to run, as you can field any sort of theme you want. The
Ise Zumi are the most flexible though... Since their abilities depend on their
tattoos. If your fighting against the Dragon... Expect anything.
I have little experience with the Scorpion clan, but I do know this. They can
not go toe to toe with units of any other clan efficiently, nor are their ranged attacks
particularly fearsome. The bulk of scorpion tactics is being sneaky (go figure).
The scorpion have some dirty tricks and some "dirty nasty eta" units to
go along with them. To play an effective Scorpion game it seems you need to use all
these elements. The Scorpion require a lot of tactical know how to play, and they
give a good reason to start putting those "superior tactics" cards back in your
tactical deck. Just remember that there are strength in numbers. The wise
scorpain Taisa always balances numerical superiority with a few high quality units.
The Shadowlands army does not fight at all like any of the other armies, and relies
on overwhelming
their opponent. Fear is the big
Shadowlands bonus... almost everything has it, and there are many ways to increase
it. So its nice to have some fearless units or units with just plain old, good morale.
The one thing available to them is the ability to pump up their general by giving
them an overlord package, which can be horrific. Maho to me seems to damage the
Shadowlands army more than it helps it, but it can do some wacky things.
The Naga are a challenge to put together, (in army and actual model assembly),
because they are all high-end troops. All of them are 2 wound units with the
exception of one unit. Pearl Magic rocks though, since unless it says its an
elemental spell ability, can not be negated by "beyond your mastery" and the
pearl magic itself is unbelievable. The Temple Guards will shut down any big units
since no unit can get past +2att +2dam. Shahadets legion is an awesome unit too, but
for 32 koku a model, is too expensive for my taste. They have the same problem
facing any army that uses cavalry bases.... They make big targets and have trouble
squeezing through obstacles regular infantry have no problem with.
Toturi's Army is a fairly rock solid army. Although it doesnt possess the best
troops, it has the most cost efficient troops. The personalities in the list are
spectacular, and they have good leadership. The only thing that sucks is there isnt
much of a selection of troop types. The only shugenja they have however is the
experience Morito Tokei... Why experience Tokei? My opinion is to start
oathing cheap unaligned people. Lets not actually forget Toturi either.... He
is amazing.
Yoritomo's Alliance is as straight foward as it gets, and the units are pretty solid
unto unto themselves. They also have Ryosei....
Another cheap shugenja... 2 of her and 2 Tokei's and your just about impervious to
ranged attacks. The army itself is about as straight foward as Toturi's Army.
Actually the wasp skirmishers are a real pain in the arse.