M2E+Fermented+River+Monk


 * Fermented River Monk, Ten Thunders Minion**

=__Overview__= toc The Fermented River Monks are jolly fellows high on life (and copious amounts of alcohol) that also happen to be members of the **Tri-Chi** clan, where the Brewmaster happens to be a VIG (Very Important Gremlin) in. They pretty much run on the **Poison** condition, without it they are pretty mediocre minions, with it they can become very mean spirited fellows that can dodge more attacks than any drunken man should be allowed to and can hit back with a vengeance.

=__Mobility__=

The Fermented River Monks have pretty much bog standard mobility with a **Wk** of 5 and a **Cg** of 6. No movement tricks outside of that, though their potential to get **Reactivate** with the **Ready for Another Round** (explained in Offense) action can allow them to cover an unexpected amount of ground.

=__Offense__=

Fermented Fist
This is the Fermented Monk's only attack action, but it's a very solid one. At a first glance it's only a **Ml** 5 attack action with a meager **Melee Range** of 1" and an ok damage spread of 2/3/4, but with a more thorough look it can be seen that the Fermented Fist can decide whether to target **Df** or **Wp.** This is huge since it means it can always target the weak stat and can try to avoid defensive triggers that are based on one stat but not the other.

The other important part of the attack are it's triggers, both can be activated without any additional suits. The first one is **A Drink Together**, which gives **Poison +1** to the target and to the Fermented Monk, so aside from pilling more damage on the enemy in the form of **Poison**, it also lets you feed the Fermented Monk's own **Poison** based abilities.

The other trigger is **Drunken Strength** and it's a doozy, it adds the **Poison** on the Fermented Monk up to a maximum of +2 to the damage his attack causes and removes all of the **Poison** condition from the monk. This means that with a bit of setup, the Fermented Monk can become a 4/5/6 damage spread which is VERY scary for a 5 SS minion. Do keep in mind you lose all your **Poison** after activating the trigger, so it's not possible to just pile on a ton of poison on him and open a can of huge uncontrollable pain on the other guy, but when used in short bursts it really amps up the monks damage potential.

Following the River's Path
This is one of the two 0 actions the Fermented Monk has. If he has **Poison +4** or more, he can discard all of the **Poison** condition to get the **Reactivate** condition. This is huge since a second activation opens a plethora of potential options to you. It does also mean that he resets his poison tally again, so unless you manage to get Poison on him during the rest of his activation or before he activates again, you will have to operate without any gas on that second activation.

=__Resilience__=

Initially, the monk is pretty pathetic defensively, a **Df** of 4 being the really sore point here, then an average **Wp** of 5 and a **Wd** stat of 6. This sad sight can be corrected though thanks to the **Sway** ability which adds +1 **Df** to the Fermented Monk equal to his **Poison** value up to a maximum of +2. This means that with 2 or more **Poison**, the humble monk goes from a bad **Df** 4 to a high **Df** 6 which can make them a lot harder to shift.

The Monk also has the nice perk of not suffering damage from **Poison** thanks to the **In His Cups** ability, this is mostly important because of how much they need poison to work to stop them from drinking themselves to death. It can also be a life saver if Sebastian is on the table, but remember that it only protects from **Poison** damage, not from actions that cause damage based on how much poison your have like McMourning's **Expunge** action.

=__Poison__=

How they obtain and how they maintain **Poison** is crucial to how a Fermented Monk works, so it warrants it's own dedicated section. We have already covered one of the main ways to get **Poison** on the Monk which is the **A Drink Together** trigger on his Fermented Fist action, but aside from that there are 2 abilities and a 0 action which are very important to keep the Poison flow.

In His Cups
This ability lets the Fermented Monk not take damage from **Poison**, but more important than that is that it stops him from lowering the condition in the upkeep phase. This means you can accumulate **Poison** from one turn to the other and not worry about loosing momentum because you take too long to use it.

Following the River's Path
This is probably the biggest source of **Poison** for the **Fermented Monk**, it basically gives him **Poison +1** every time he fails an opposed duel against an enemy model. Misses an attack? Get **Poison**! Hit by an enemy action? **Poison**!. Combined with **Sway** it gives him a crescendo effect to his defenses where the first attack should hit with ease if caught without **Poison**, but the next one is a bit harder and the next one already gets him at his cap of **Df** 6. Monks still only have their stats to keep them alive though, so don't lose every duel you see just to feed him **Poison**.

Have a Sip
This is the most reliable way of getting **Poison** on a Fermented Monk. It is his other 0 action and it basically lets you discard a card to get **Poison +1** on him. Pretty straightforward in effect, but not so much on deciding when to use it during his activation.

=__Tactics and Tips__=

The most important part of using the Fermented River Monk is balancing your **Poison**. Right of the bat, getting more than 4 is a waste of resources since all the **Poison** fed effects require to remove the whole **Poison** condition, but on the other side of the equation, a Monk with no Poison is incredibly tame and very easy to kill with only **Df** 4. The sweet spot tends to be **Poison +2**, this lets them get the full benefit from **Sway** and can be used in a single burst with the **Drunken Strength** trigger to get the +2 damage. You also have to be careful with when you use **Have a Sip**, you really should never use it if it would put your **Poison on +3** when you want to use **Drunken Strength** for example.

If you want to accumulate **Poison** to trigger **Following the River's Path**, try to avoid getting more than necessary and be very mindful that if you can't replenish some **Poison**, he will be very fragile until he gets a chance to **Reactivate**, so basically don't bother **Reactivating** if it means you have no **Sway** bonus and something is very capable of killing you before you can activate again, better to blow it on **Drunken Strength** and go in a blaze of glory or maybe even going into **Defensive Stance** waiting for a better **Reactivate** chance.

An example of a good run with them is to accumulate **Poison +2 f**rom whatever source you manage, charge with a **Fermented Fist** triggering **Drunken Strength**, then hitting with the second attack for **A Drink Together** and then finish it up with using **Have a Sip** to end your activation with **Poison +2** again. With that sequence you have the monk sitting on **Df** 6 after planting a minimum damage of 6 plus **Poison +1** supposing both attacks hit, though the max damage can be an insane 10 plus Poison +1 and even if you miss both attacks, that should net you **Poison +4** and the option to **Reactivate**.

Brewmaster and Tri-Chi
Using Fermented River Monks with the Brewmaster deserves it's own section simply because he is the only model readily accessible to the Ten Thunders that can load them up with **Poison** that doesn't require damaging them. Aside from the Brewmaster himself, he can also open up hiring other **Tri-Chi** models which can spread huge amounts of **Poison** like Fingers or the Apprentice Wesley as well as Moon Shinobi who have great interactions with Fermented Monks.

The biggest thing the Brewmaster brings with him is the **One for the Road** 0 action which gives **Poison +2** 12" away, this means you can easily set up a Monk without actually having to have the Brewmaster near. But aside from that there is also the Brewmaster's **Ml** action which also gives **Poison +2** and the Apprentice Wesley can do it too. Fingers also gives them quick and fast **Poison** with his own **Ml** action which spreads **Poison +3**, meaning just 1 more pip of **Poison** and you have a **Reactivating** Monk in your hands. A good plan for the first turn supposing you don't have anything better to do is to just charge the Monks in the back and fill them up with **Poison**, 2 attacks from any one of these models shall have a Monk **Reactivating** without any effort.

Though Moon Shinobi don't really help the Fermented Monks in any way, the Monks penchant to be full of **Poison** greatly increases the Shinobi's mobility thanks to their **Where'd you Get That?** 0 action. Stack **That's the Stuff** and you suddenly have Moon Shinobi moving all over the place at breakneck speed and with plenty of angles of pushing to choose from.

With all this tools at their disposal, the **Reactivate** from the Fermented Monks goes from something that may happen once per game to something you can bank on pretty much every turn with a bit of effort though as always, consider if the Monk can actually survive to **Reactivate** and if the **AP** used by the **Tri-Chi** models is justified in having them buff up the Monks instead of doing other things.

=__Playing Against Fermented River Monk__=

As long as they don't have **Poison**, they are very easy to take down and not much of a threat, so a single strong hit or two should make quick work of them. When they do start accumulating **Poison** they become a lot hardier and more dangerous, so it's best to not let them get to that point or at least try to wait for them to blow their steam before going for the kill to make it as easy as possible. Condition removal is their bane since it limits their ability to accumulate **Poison** at a given moment and use it in another. Also, any damaging or debuffing effects based on **Poison** (but that doesn't count as Poison damage) will cause them fits, be it damage (McMourning, Performer), debuffs (Brewmaster), buffs against models with Poison (Rafking) or the ability to charge for 1 AP (Shikome, Canine Remains).

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