Subject: Morikage Ireland: CRAB win (looong) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 16:22:33 +0000 (GMT) From: Brian Peter Mulcahy To: l5rinfo@frpg.com CC: cpierson@concentric.net, andy@cowell.org hey Our tourney ran on the saturday in cork, Ireland. A fair turnout of 14 l5ers contested the glittering prize of rescuing the dodgy emperor. In reality , Toturi was far from our minds ( bar the TA player..) - Clan Honour was at stake! Once again our microcosm of rokugan proved their clan loyalty as 10 of The 12 faced off. Mantis and Monks were absent, both obviously searching in their own fashions ( "Off the throne baldy: Finders Keepers" and "Omm" respectively). The players: Crab 1 Crane 2 (1 shrine) Dragon 2 (both lost to both naga!) Lion 1 (corrupt-ish..) Naga 2 Phoenix 1 Scorpion 1 Shadowlands 1 Toturi(-less) Army 1 Unicorn 2 The deck: CRAB featuring the black crane to both buy honour and build hideous force a la Splinter-style. Yes yes in other words Rats. But they're a tool dammit, not part of the clan. (Actually i've even come to like the little buggers..) The tourney Round 1: Lion (Mark Graham) Naturally. We'd spent 6 hours the night before building and playtesting together... His early Akuma puts the smack down until I claw back some force parity. The first big battle (at night) ends in all crab defenders taking down Akuma, Okura and Motso in a draw. Even the mighty Motso is not beneath feigning death however, and Mark ( who is the spit of Motso I swear!) ignores the crab taunts is satisfied with putting me on 1 province and then running for honour as the tattered ear arrive. He goes 4 turns on 39 honour without drawing a personality from his 2 provinces before time runs out. He wins on points, deservedly. "The Lion assault was long anticipated. The dark power they wielded was not. On this branch of the Wall We fought them to a standstill, but Otosan-Uichi intervened in their favour. We face darkness on both sides of the wall and Still the 'Kimonos' favour the Yellow." (0-1) Round 2: Shadowlands (Brendan Quigley) Meanwhile, back in Hiruma castle... Another long game this one timed out again. I would win on points so the Horde mounted an all out assault on my 3 provinces. I only had one unit to defend with: 20 force of followers capped with Kaagi's journal and one Man: Hida Yakamo. (incidentally the horde ha deaten Every one else with the Hidden Heart combo - only the journal was saving our boy) The Big Yak defended province 1, and after Brendan had used fate cards to best his force, Yak tacticianed and exited stage right using his own ability to defend province number 2. Yakamo snowballed (tacticianing all the way) into the 3rd battle after the horde in province 2 had been boosted and was able -just by 2 points of force- to prevent the destruction of my last province. I win on points, and count myself lucky to do so. "The best of the last, and the last of the best died on Hiruma soil this day. The castle holds but at the cost of The Thunder." (1-1) Round 3: Naga (Brian Kidney) A band of Hiruma-led Nezumi wreak vengeance on those who trapped us in Hiruma csatle... This game was one of those No-Brainer games that unfortunately occur so ofetn. My deck worked like clockwork, and Brian's just plain didn't want to come out to play. A joyless 3 points. "They had reasons for abandoning us. Good Reasons. I have a better reason to not care: They Abandoned Us." (2-1) Round 4: Naga (Mike Brown) Their Thunder stolen, The Crab cling to Revenge as to a raft.. Enormous force totals, but my very fortunate draw of 3 rallying cries by turn 12-ish makes the difference. Which didn't stop that Wedged Naga warlord from making unwanted demands on my bowels though. "The Shinomen Forest is Red. It is not autumn." (3-1) Round 5: Crane (Tom McDonnell) Otosan-Uichi has ruled against our Kaiu band. We must teach them that Honour is not a word.. Tom and I have had some epic duels. This isn't one of them however, as the Nezumi get hideously large ludicroulsy fast. Both players are mere bystanders in this one. Hida Amoro could win the game with my draw. "They seemed to believe our report of the Lion. ... Perhaps we shouldn't have slain them all." (4-1) Thats the end of the swiss. I'm in the final 4, along with Mark's Lion, Tom's Crane and Ben Gerralds Crane. Pairings are made. The crane from one semi-final and the warrior clans the other. The kimonos proceed to negotiate terms rather than play. The Lion and Crab proceed to butcher each others women and children. SemiFinal: Lion (Mark Graham) Before the game, we shake hands. We're both Very happy to have gotten this far. Honour has been served. Duty has been served. There remains only friendly ... Hang On is that an Oni in your deck!! Very very long tense game. I can't remember details (too busy concentrating at the time to make notes), except that it ended with 1 province left each, and I once again got lucky rallying cry draws. An epic. "All our enemies now know the taste of Crab Vengeance. Now is the search: But for our Clans Thunder and Salvation or for Rokugans?" Final: Crane ( Tom McDonnell) This was more of a role-playing game than a ccg. It always is when we play. Style vs. Substance, here we go. The game played out as events, which told the tale of our times: 1. Kisadas Funeral: The crane have to take a province/play a ring to win. 2. Hidden Emperor: The crane renounce the ability to attack players with less provinces. I instead destroy a province. At this point he races past( waaay past) 60 honour. My black crane/sanctified temple honour machine boosts towards 40. I can completely neglect to build force as I can't be attacked. We both are pretty sure that Void is the only ring we're playing ( Earth not included: There will be NO attacks and we both know it.) Simply put it becomes a race to be the first to expend ALL resources(fate hand) on the search for the hidden Emperor in the aftermath of the Funeral of the Great Bear. It couldn't end in any way but by an event: Tom tosses 3 cards to his merchant caravan. Turn. Wisdom Gained allows me to fetch my Void Ring. I use both yasuki takas to simultaneously go to 41 honour and use merchant caravans to empty hand and play void ring. Turn. Crane play ring. turn. I win by Honour. The crabs gained Wisdom from the losses of the Bear and the Thunder, it seems. I can't imagine a closer or more cinematic final. It *was* the search for toturi dammit! So thats it. I don't believe I won. My deck was good, nothing spectacular. My play was fine, but what made the difference I believe was Luck. And our clan stealing the Yasuki family from the crane all those years ago. :) Good luck Brian Mulcahy "We made the right decision. Toturi, Rokugan, Duty. They are more important than any single Crab. It was the right decision to seek the Emperor, not the Thunder, lost in the Shadowlands. Lost - and may the Kami Damn me but I hope for the Empires sake that Yakamo Is dead - or might regret our decision........"