Avatar+Kirai


 * Kirai, Resurrectionist Avatar of Vengeance**

//"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned..." -- William Congreve, __The Mourning Bride__ (paraphrased)// toc

=Overview= Kirai is a true creature of vengeance. While she still brings forth Seishin from the spirit world with the death of each living, undead, or spirit slain in her presence, she is no longer interested in empowering them. Instead she has thrown away her shears and shrugged off her mortal coil to get into the bloodbath directly - rapidly appearing across the battlefield to repay any aggression her crew would receive with savagely vicious talons capable of shredding most mere mortals apart with a single swipe.

Put another way, when Kirai manifests, she stops being a summoner and starts acting like a melee beatstick with support powers. She teleports around a lot to support her other models, and is pretty tough in combat on her own.

=Manifesting= The requirements of upgrading Kirai play very close to her typical playstyle:

1) Ikiryo (summoned by Kirai) kills two enemy models 2) Kirai has the Spirit Characteristic on two different turns.

Given the savagry of Ikiryo, and Kirai's ability to summon it at range, there is a decent chance that if Ikiyro is placed within Melee range of two minor targets the targets will be dead quite quickly, Kirai will have likely gained some new Seishin, and also regained herself back some health.

Furthermore Kirai frequently enters the spirit world, and it's almost a given for her to do this most turns (especially to appear near Ikiyro to summon more Seishin, as well as regaining her health).

Kirai loses her summoning awesomeness when she manifests, but she gets a lot tougher personally. It's generally best to manifest Kirai only when you've turned all your Seishin into scary spirits. It's sometimes a good idea to manifest Kirai if your enemies have backed her into a corner and she needs to power up and fight back. If Lost Love is gone, that's even more reason to manifest.

=Mobility= Kirai continues to be deceptively mobile in her spiritual Avatar state due to a number of techniques:

//Spiritual Alacity// gives the Avatar of Vegence (+1) Fast if it's in base-contact with at least two friendly spirits. This can happen rather frequently as Kirai retains her ability to produce Seishin with the death of living or undead models within 8" of herself.

In addition, as suiting the Vindictive Queen, anytime a friendly model is killed within 10" of herself by a melee strike, Kirai can immediately teleport to the murderer and make one free melee strike against the fiend. And this is a nasty slash (see Offense for details on this woman's nails!). This can allow Kirai to bounce around the field, backing up whatever part of her crew is getting hammered.

Alternatively, if Kirai is within 8" of a friendly model that is engaged in melee, she can move up to that model for a (0) action. If in range of an enemy engaged with the ally she is suppporting, she can then discard one card to immediately perform a melee strike. All for a (0) action!

Alternatively (or even additional since Kirai keeps her (+1) Instinctual), for a (0) action, Kirai can push all friendly spirits within 12" of herself 4".This __does not__ include herself though. Still, she can push her entire crew swifty up field. This enables her to more carefully position her Spirits and get better use out of several of her other actions (by engaging what she wants to engage more easily).

Her third (0) action choice is a spell. Cast with a 7+ Mask, Kirai can force all non-spirit models 4" directly away from herself (note this does affect your models as well - though why you'd be taking non-spirit models with Kirai is somewhat questionable). The added kicker is all models affected also lose Ruthless and Terrifying if they have it for the turn - meaning if faced with a terrifying crew (such as one commanded by Seamus) it can suddenly allow you to charge in without needing to make any Morale Duels to engage your enemy.

The Avatar of Vengence's final tool in her movement kit is one last spell. (1) Spiritual Messengers is cast with an 8+ card and allows Kirai to potentially switch two models with each other - on the condition the targets are each touching a different Seishin. This allows her to juggle her own forces and/or the enemy around much like what Lilith is capable of.

=Offense= Kirai's nails are savagely sharp, throwing away her shears in place of them. Not only is she incredibly accurate with them (Ca 7 - that can choose to target the enemy's Df or Wp), they also ignore armor, do very decent amounts of damage, and when flipped with a crow they gain a +2 Damage card flip - significantly increasing the chances of delivering Severe damage.
 * Melee**

Though her Wail is accurate, it does little damage and has a somewhat minor range. It does produce a blast on Moderate and Severe damage, however it is predominantly an attack to be used to soften up a target for the rest of Kirai's minions to take out. Any model damaged by the wail will suddenly suffer a -1 card flip on their Df, Rst, and Wp flips against spirit for the turn. This can rapidly empower Kirai if she gets herself into conflict with the victim/s of her cry.
 * Ranged**

More notable is that any enemy that deals moderate or severe damage to a friendly spirit within 8" of Kirai (including Kirai) will immediately suffer 1 wound for it. While not significant, it is discouraging, and very dangerous against foes with expendable minions that die easily. Even durable enemies will not appreciate the sting received from doing successful amounts of damage.

Vicious Jubaku can mess up a lot of triggers. Cast with a 7+ card, it removes all suits from the enemy's Cb - meaning a notable number of their Triggers will not function the next time they activate. This can be a very useful spell to disrupt more "hands-on" models that take pleasure in using their Triggers.
 * Spells**

Spiritual Messengers is a very useful disruption spell. Keep a pair of Seshin back from Kirai but within 12" of her. She can then use one of the Seishin to be a target of this spell, while targeting an enemy as the other target. The result will be Kirai could move an enemy almost across the board and away from their crew (disrupting potential synergy effects) and forcing them to waste time to move back into the fight. Used on powerful enemies with low Wp, this can severely disrupt an enemy's plans.

=Resilience= Kirai is permanently a spirit now, meaning all damage dealt to her from non-magic sources is halved. She does also have Terrifying -> 13. But Kirai does require healing even in her Avatar state - if not more so given her now "hands-on" approach.

On the aggressive defense, any fool who attacks Kirai at range will automatically suffer 2 wounds if they damage her (like before in her non-Avatar state). On the chance the enemy fires at Kirai within 8", and deals Moderate or Severe damage to her, the enemy will suffer another 1 wound - for a total of 3 wounds!

Should someone decide against this and take her on in melee, even that has a deterrent. If anyone attempts to attack her in melee, and inflicts damage on her while she flips a ram, she gets to immediately make a melee counter-strike. And just like above, if the attack that hit Kirai dealt Moderate or Severe damage, the subject will immediately take 1 wound for doing so - regardless of if Kirai's attack works or not (chances are more likely it will though).

On the other hand, Kirai loses a lot of her resilience in the form of her main healer and bullet-taker, Lost Love.

=Soulstones= Kirai may find herself needing soulstones more often in Avatar form, because she'll be up in the front lines (and the flanks, and that stray combat over there by that objective) more often.

=Tricks and Tips= Kirai wants to remain in the battle. Specifically she wants to remain in melee where she can put her talons to work and she can offer the best synergy to her crew as possible. She's not as tough straight-up as melee masters like Lady Justice or McMourning, but she can jump from place to place to go where she's needed.

Spirit surge can effectively grant Kirai five attacks in one round provided she starts in melee and has 2+ friendly spirits in base contact with herself. Just use the (0) action on yourself, discarding a card, and make a free melee attack.

Kirai mixes beatstick action with crew support. To be successful with Kirai, you need to pay attention to the rest of your crew's success. She can tip the scales on each individual match between your troops and your opponent's, but her abilities rely heavily on her working with her crew.

If you can manage it, activate Kirai last. That way, you can move her to where she's needed.

=Avatar and their Crew=

Avatar Kirai relies heavily on her crew, and supports them. Your Ikiryo will be gone, but you should hopefully still have a lot of other units on the board. How you use your crew depends on your strategy and schemes, of course, but be aware of the best ways to use each minion for your overall purpose.


 * Night Terrors provide objective-grabbing support.
 * Onryo are great for ranged combat, and Datsue-Ba are even better if you can afford them.
 * Gaki make decent foot soldiers and objective-defenders. They're hard to hurt and mobile.
 * Shikome are terrifying assassins, seeking out a single target with solitary purpose.

Avatar Kirai should let the minions do most of the footwork, and jump into position wherever the enemy seems to be at an advantage.

=Playing Against the Avatar of Vegence=

Avatar Kirai is pretty strong in melee, and incredibly mobile. Ranged attacks will help, but you'll take damage when you shoot her, so there's a price.

It's better to send non-Living units after her, since she has Terrifying. It's difficult to swarm her, though, because she has several ways to jump around the field.

Be aware when attacking her crew -- if you kill one, she may appear and make a melee attack. It's probably still worth it to kill the enemy minion, unless you'd be losing one of your own.

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