With that in mind, and with the caveat that these impressions are based off of a whopping one game's experience, join me after the break for my thoughts about various Noh Empire models.
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| High Priestess Zineda, Spite, Render, and Kyojin Berserkers |
High Priestess Zineda
She ended up doing the lion's share of the work during this game, including anchoring it and picking up the last few VPs. Come to think of it, she was responsible for 7 of the 8 VPs I scored that game, albeit with plenty of assists here and there.
I liked having access to two full suites of Esper abilities, and both Corruption and Entropy have nice abilities in them. Entropy is probably my more favorite of the two with her. Both of the Master level actions are great; Entropic Field specifically allowed me to finish off Suspect 7 without having to try and hit the damn nimble things. Corruption feels a touch redundant but it also provides access to some really nice AOEs so I'm not complaining.
Zineda's core abilities seem pretty solid:
- Due to the oddball nature of the endgame, I actually used Bloodletting; it's not a "Plan A" ability, but it is also a very cheap, potent melee attack. It actually sort of clutched out the situation because my hand was junk, but I had just enough Esper to initiate the attack, and I picked up enough for one of the presses. Considering Bloodletting does as damage comparable to Entropy Snare at a much lower initial cost, it seems like a nice fallback attack.
- Calamity's Curse is weak but crazy flexible as it ignores LOS (and thus Cover from terrain) and can be pressed to deny Recover and Redirects, which can make it very effective against models relying on those for protection. It's relatively cheap to get out but expensive to press up to any real potency, though that's offset by Knight's easier access to Esper as well as Zineda's high Psychic Attack stat.
- Entropy Snare seems like a solid Overcharge attack. It's pretty expensive to use, but that seems to be the case with a lot of Overcharge attacks, and it comes with a built-in AOE debuff that is pretty great. With Zineda's high Psychic Attack stat it's also likely that you'll be able to afford the press, so it's seems like a very good way to get 7 damage onto anything that doesn't have an Overcharge attack prevention ability (i.e. many Minion models.) The fact that it reduces damage prevention abilities by 2 makes that 7 damage go even further.
- Nozuki's Hate is an interesting attack prevention abilitiy. At first it seems redundant, considering that she has access to Armor, Recover, and another Redirect thanks to her Mastery abilities. Nozuki's Hate has the the benefit of being more flexible since you can redirect the attack to any friendly unit in LOS (and it can be pressed to ignore LOS,) and it makes use of more colors of Esper. If you have other models in your cadre that make use of Chaos esper, it's even more incentive to keep some around, and it seems to make Nozuki's Hate easier to use more consistently. During my game it was easier to hold or draw the esper necessary for Nozuki's Hate than it was to have the Esper for any of the other attack prevention abiltiies. If nothing else, it's another good option to have, and Redirects can be very effective when you can afford to dump attacks into your objectives.
Overall, Zineda was interesting and fun to use. She has a ton of options available to her at any time, she has some solid offensive and defensive abilities, and her primary attack stat is fantastic. The lamest thing about her is that her Cadre Abilitiy is pretty niche (though I did get it to come up during this past game, so I guess I can't call it useless.)
Spite
Cyphers are pretty straightforward in terms of what they're capable of, so there isn't a ton to say about Spite. However, the few unique traits that Spite does have are quite nice.
Spite is fast (8-4!) with Surefoot, so it can get places pretty quickly to toss around Esper or cleanse AOEs. Spite can also be used to lock down enemy Cyphers, which may come in handy if the Esper is in a spot that their Knight can't draw LOS to (or you could combine it with a Void AOE) to throttle their ability to gain Esper.
Finally, Spite has a nice buff AOE. Armor 2 is a notable durability increase and several of Noh's units can really benefit from havig some Armor.
Render
The Render has two great things going for it:
1) Line ranged attacks have very useful applications. They can tag multiple units if you can set them up right, and if the initial target can't prevent the action everyone else along the line is going to take the damage. That can be a great way to backdoor in some damage on models that don't have good damage prevention abilities. As I learned by digging around on the forums, enemy objectives make fantastic targets for Line attacks because they're an automatic success, so long as you can pay for the attack.
2) Armor 3. If you're buying the Noh Starter Set, the Render is going to be the most out and out durable model you have access to. That can count for a lot, especially if you can layer on any extra defensive buffs to help him out (such as a Darkfield, Dampening Field, etc.)
It's line attack is relatively expensive and doesn't hit super hard, but if you have the right targets for it (and can leverage the Push press,) it seems like a useful attack.
Kyojin Berserkers
These models are regarded very divisively on the forums, and I understand why: the Hatriya Warriors are much more effective at being line infantry, and they're probably easier to use overall. The Berserkers have some solid things going for them - they're fast (at least faster than the Hatriya,) they have an Overpower attack (which seems very rare among Minion models and squads,) and I think their damage is slightly higher - and the recent errata to Recover helped (if you have it as a built-in ability you get it when you attack and when you defend,) but the Hatriya are still extremely compelling.
For what it's worth, however, I liked having the Berserkers. Their Overpower attack ended up being a clutch factor in finishing off the Black Dragon squad, and Recover helped keep them in the game (though I really needed an Armor buff of some kind near them to help out.) I feel like the Berserkers have some nice things to offer, but the biggest downside is that (similar to the Hounds) they desperately need some form of help to keep your opponent from just blowing them off the table. They're fast enough to close the gap and they'll do alright damage once they get there (plus Recover will help when they can attack and heal,) but getting them there can be tricky.
Beastmaster
Mainly a facilitator for Beast model activations. I didn't get much use out of him this game due to having kind of crappy hands whenever his activation came up, but I can see how he'd be very useful. His ability to give your Beast models extra movement (followed by an immediate activation) is a big deal, and having access to a potentially high distance Pull effect can also be good. If you're bringing Beasts, he seems like a great inclusion.
Hounds of Nozuki
These guys have a few great things going for them:
1) They're very cheap. 6 points for a full unit is a nice price. The Hounds are paper thin, but at least they don't cost a lot to put on the table.
2) The Hounds are very fast. Combine that with how effective units are at recovering markers for VPs and the Hounds can be a very useful unit for locking down some VPs. Failing that, between their initial move, their Charge 6, and possible extra Beastmaster movvement, the Hounds can cross the table very quickly.
3) They do pretty decent damage for their cost. If you can get enough of the Hounds into melee to add to the attack's damage, they can kick out a very respectable Damage 9 attack for a relatively low cost. Combine that with some of the buffs and debuffs Noh can toss around and the Hounds can do alright for themselves in terms of output.
4) Demonic Howl can be a very potent attack. The ability to bounce enemy units out of the ready queue is awesome, and it also has a Push effect which may let you get some damage out of it.
The biggest downside to the Hounds is that they crumple to absolutely anything. Squads tend to not be the most durable things (especially the cheap "line" ones) but the Hounds come across as extremely squishy due to their lack of any inherent damage prevention abilities, a lack of any usable attack or damage prevention abilities, and low health values per model. Giving them any kind of buff helps, but once attacks start connecting with the Hounds they're going to drop very quickly.
Darkfield
I'm adding the Darkfield boost in here because I think it was as instrumental to this game going well as anything else I brought. Maybe more.
As noted in the other write ups, Noh have a number of units that are (I'll be generous here) lacking defensively. This is less of an issue in melee, because that's where you want to be and the squishy Noh models are pretty well equipped to get into melee on their terms. The much, much bigger issue are ranged and psychic attacks; with no ability to prevent those attacks Noh models are just going to have to take it on the chin, which is very bad considering how potent many ranged and psychic attacks are.
I feel like a Darkfield is nigh mandatory if you're fielding Hounds or Berserkers to prevent them from evaportating. Without it, Magnus would have absolutely destroyed the Hounds on his first activation (which I wanted to delay with Demonic Howl, but he can Redirect that and the cards failed me anyways,) and whatever he didn't kill the Black Dragons and Sofia would have torn apart shortly thereafter.
Having a Darkfield to hide in allowed me to at least survive long enough to make attacks, and it did a lot to curb how powerful ranged and psychic attacks can be in Relic Knights. I feel like having at least one is an extremely good idea for a dedicated melee force like Noh to level the playing field. Combine that with some Dampening Fields for extra Armor and at least you'll get a chance to actually activate and make attacks, versus just getting shot off the table.
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That's about it for my impressions after my first game with the Noh Empire. It'll be interesting to see how well these impressions hold up across future games, and how these thoughts may change as the last few Noh releases trickle out.
As always, thanks very much for reading!
As always, thanks very much for reading!
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