M2E+Yamaziko


 * Yamaziko, Ten Thunders Henchman**



=__Overview__=

Yamaziko is one of the two **Last Blossom** henchman currently in the game. She is a surprisingly quick model thanks to **Nimble** that has low physical defenses but sky high mental ones. Her weak damage is high as well as her **Melee range**, though her moderate and severe damage are a lot more humble. She also has a couple of control options with her **Brace Yari** action making it a bad idea to charge anything near her and her **Master Tactician** action that can strip the enemy of his hand quickly if played at the right time.toc

=__Mobility__=

Her low **Wk** stat of 4 can be misleading, but since she has the **Nimble** ability, she always has an additional **AP** for walking. This means she can cover more ground than one would initially expect and when combined with her **Cg** of 6 and her very high **Melee range** of 3, she can charge a model up to 13" away. **Nimble** also means that the always has a chance to reposition before attacking and makes her surprisingly good at scheme marker placement.

=__Offense__=

Yamaziko's offense is defined by her **Yari** action. This is a **Ml** 5 action with a **Melee range** of 3" with a damage spread of 3/3/4. As can be seen, it's weak damage and **Melee range** are very high for a model of the cost of Yamaziko, but her **Ml** stat and her moderate and severe damage are on the lower end. She somewhat compensates for this with her **Sweep** trigger which she can use automatically and changes her damage spread to 3/3B/4B, adding some high damage blasts into her arsenal.

Yamaziko has a very good threat between her **Nimble** move and charging. Usually, she is pretty much always better off attacking twice, but never discount using **Focus** and then attacking if what you really want is to plant a blast marker.

She also has the **Relentless** ability which makes her immune to horror duels, though she already has high **Wp**, not having to worry about failing a test when low on cards is always nice. Her other relevant ability for offense is **Honorable** which gives her a - flip against peons but gives her a + against masters. This makes her **Ml** 5 not seem so low against a master though it does make her useless when forced to deal with peons.

Her other offensive ability is the **Master Tactician** action, though it's use is to destroy your opponents hand instead of causing any form of direct harm. It's a 2 **AP** action with a range of 6" which targets **Wp**, it has a **Ca** of 6 which is nice but it can only target the enemy leader. If it goes in, it causes your opponent to discard 2 cards for each unrevealed scheme he has. The power of this ability can vary greatly, from useless when all his schemes are already revealed, to outright crippling when both his schemes are secret and he has to discard 4 cards. Also, remember that thanks to **Nimble**, the action's threat is closer to 10".

=__Resilience__=

The resilience of Yamaziko varies widely depending on which of her stats is targeted. If her **Wp** is targeted, she has a sky high **Wp** of 7 and the Stubborn ability which gives any attack action that targets **Wp** against Yamaziko a - flip. This means she is incredibly resilient to any form of **Wp** based attack. If her **Df** is targetted on the other hand, she only really has a Df stat of 4 and no more rules that help her stay alive. This means she is incredibly frail to any form of physical attack. In any case, she also has a good **Wd** stat of 8 and the ability to use Soulstones to prevent damage.

Her other defensive ability is her **Brace Yari** 0 action. This gives her the **Braced Yari** condition which causes all enemy models that charge a model within 3" from Yamaziko to suffer 4 damage. Since it isn't an aura, she doesn't need line of sight to protect a given model and it specifies that it affects her too. The condition lasts as long as Yamaziko isn't moved, pushed or does another action, so it can be active for long periods of time, though she does have to be careful of being pushed or moved out of her activation and losing the condition.

=__Soulstones__=

Yamaziko only really uses soulstones to stay alive, mostly for damage prevention. You do have to make a mental evaluation every time she takes damage and consider if the stone is worth spending or not. She is very hardy when attacked at **Wp** so it's probably a good idea to prevent in those scenarios, but is very easily dealt with when targeted on **Df**, making it a lot more costly to keep her alive using stones.

=__Upgrades__=

Yamaziko is played in the grand majority of situations as a Ten Thunders master, though with Misaki playing as an Outcast, she can be hired thanks to her **Last Blossom** characteristic. Lets have a look at her upgrades from both factions.

Smoke and Shadows
This is the only upgrade Yamaziko can always use. It doesn't help her, but it does make other Last Blossom minion models be better (currently Torakage and Oiran). This lets them be able to put some smoke cover with the **Smoke Grenades** action and to be able to quickly redeploy between turns with **Shadow Stride**. Yamaziko is probably the best bearer of **Smoke and Shadows** since she really doesn't need to fill up both her upgrade slots and is the cheapest **Last Blossom** model that can use it.

Broken Promises
This lets Yamaziko discard at the start of her activation the upgrade to gain the **Betrayal** condition. This gives a - flip to all attack actions that target Yamaziko for the rest of the turn. This does greatly compensate her weak **Df** for a turn (while making her almost untouchable against her **Wp**), but it demands that she activates early to set it up. It is a worthy consideration, but makes a 7 SS model become a 9 SS model, so you really have to have a clear plan when choosing it, like having Yamaziko be your chosen model in the Bodyguard scheme.

Recalled Training
This allows Yamaziko to discard the upgrade at the start of her activation to get + flips on all duels and flips for the rest of the turn. Though always worth considering, this has a pretty tame effect with Yamaziko, since her moderate and severe damage are pretty low. It does greatly increase her odds to get blasts on the table, but you do have to remember she will initially only be getting 2 attacks at most. It's still worth looking into as long as you have a spare stone and like the odds of some extra blasts.

Servant of 5 Dragons
Utility upgrade that gives +1 **Wp** and you can discard at the start of Yamaziko's activation to discard all scheme markers in a 3" pulse from her. It's important to keep in mind that it's at the start of the activation, so you have to get her into position to where you want to use the scheme pulse the previous turn. The +1 **Wp** makes Yamaziko pretty much untouchable by **Wp** crews at a crazy **Wp** of 8 with **Stubborn**, though some may consider it overkill. Her Nimble lets her get a much better use of the scheme marker discard since she can charge, do whatever she can and then nimble into position for next turn to explode all the scheme markers in the area. Worth considering though make sure it's a scheme marker heavy match.

Oath Keeper
This gives Yamaziko **Finish the Job** (place a scheme marker when this model is killed before removing it) or can be discarded for **Fast**. Most times you will use it for the **Fast**, which can be a godsend to get some extra mobility or an additional **Yari** strike or simply be able to make her **Master Tactician** action cover more ground. Always useful though never discount the Finish the Job aspect of the upgrade, specially if you really need it at a given position.

Scramble
This gives Yamaziko +1 **Wk** and +1 **Cg** and **Unimpeded**. It's an expensive upgrade at 2 SS but between **Nimble** and **Walk** 5, Yamaziko becomes lightning fast being able to be where needed with ease and making her a 1 woman army of scheme placement. Never discount this upgrade, specially if the table has a lot of rough terrain which really hampers Yamaziko's mobility.

Tally Sheet
This upgrade allows Yamaziko to draw a card every time she kills a model. Not really worth considering much on Yamaziko, she isn't really a killer so getting use out of **Tally Sheet** is hard for her and will probably get you a card or two at most all game.

=__Playing Against Yamaziko__=

When playing against Yamaziko, the best way to deal with her is anything that targets her **Df**, actions that are ranged so you don't feel the need to charge for maximum effect and not have to suffer the **Braced Yari** damage. Any ranged action that damages and hits her **Df** will be her bane. If you can only count with **Wp** based actions, then always try to **Focus**, you will compensate the - from **Stubborn** but still get the + to damage flips which should prove useful.

Be wary of her **Master Tactician** ability, specially if you have a master that likes to be on the front and that doesn't have the highest of **Wp** stats. this can do a very big number on your turn plans.

If you have any movement or push effects in your crew and Yamaziko has **Braced Yari** up, consider using it on her, even if it requires using **Focus** or a soulstone to compensate the - from **Stubborn**, since breaking the effect can give you a lot more breathing room to engage. If this isn't possible and you are mostly melee, don't discount just gritting your teeth and taking the damage, anything with **Armor** should be able to take it well enough and she should still fall quickly with enough pressure on her.

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