Welcome back to my mini-series on the smaller skirmish form of Conquest: First Blood. Through this, I’m going over how the game plays and each faction that you can place on the table, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to field them. In today’s episode we will be discussing about the latest faction the Yoroni! Parabellum has kept the news away from us and truly surprised us with an army that (by lore and by the news) – was kept well and truly hidden.
Do you hate assembling 30 fiddly models before you can play your new army? Does the command stack annoy you because it gives you analysis paralysis? Do you like meaty men? If the answers to these questions are yes, the Yoroni might be your cup of protein shake infused tea.
In the entire army, there is only one infantry regiment, and even then according to the rumor mill and the picture that Stavros shows in the stream they look like a swarm (so closer to a hunting pack from W’adrhŭn). The rest of the faction are Brutes or Monsters, making them a very easy army to assemble (and rank up, if you’re using them for The Last Argument of Kings). This is not always a good thing, however. In fact, for quite a while, Brutes existed in an awkward spot in First Blood due to their point-for-point low health pool, and only counting as two models for often the same price as four infantry.
The Yoroni were made with all the above points in mind and come with answers to the usual problems brutes face. This is still, a very straightforward army that solves most things with brute force; it doesn’t have complex army mechanics, but what it does have is a bit of extra abilities which you can sacrifice for flexibility of activation in case things go wrong.
At the time of this article, the Yoroni have no access to light or heavy units. Depending on the scenarios you play, this might make things a bit harder, but other than that, they have a very good spread of units that cover every role (Though admittedly, they excel in some roles better than others)
So what are the best ways to utilize these demon samurai?
Ideal Cards
Pre-planning your order of activation is one of the fundamental skills of playing Conquest. The Yoroni can ignore this entirely if they choose, because when you’re an eight foot tall supernatural entity, you can do whatever you want. Instead of unit cards, each Yoroni regiment comes with an ideal card. Ideal cards can activate any unit, but if it used on units with the same battlefield role as the ideal card, that unit receives a special temporary buff.
There are five ideal cards, corresponding to the Japanese principle of Godai or the Five Great Elements. Each of the elements are tied to certain traits in life and in extension, combat.
Ka: Fire, Power, Aggression. This Ideal card provides considerable attack bonuses, but can also harm your units because when you trigger the Ka card, enemies also get attack bonuses when attacking the unit using the ideal card. Be careful about using this card when you have many enemy units around you.
Chi: Earth, Stability Resisting Movements. Unlike the old people practicing Tai Chi in the park, Chi units are very good at taking punches.(For legal reasons, I cannot explain how I came to this conclusion). Enemy units cannot gain inspire bonuses against this unit. Defensive buffs are often tricky, but the in a game of d6s, that is a 15% drop in enemy accuracy and that is amazing.
Fu: Wind, Change, Dynamic Motion. This ideal card allows the user to move 3 inches while ignoring enemy engagement ranges. Remember when your friend locked down your ranged unit with his unpainted cavalry which doesn’t even have the riders fully assembled? Fear not! The Yoroni Fu units can just teleport ranged out of engagement and continue shooting, or move towards objectives.Even if not engaged, that’s still an extra 3 inches of movement, and that’s a lot.
Mu: Void, Nothingness, Tranquility. This card gives your unit evasion three, which is, strangely enough, far from nothing. A 50% chance to ignore the hardest hits in the game is an amazing defensive buff, activate it early and your unit should be safe.
Sui: Water, Adaptability, Flexibility. This card allows you to use the effect of any other ideal cards, making this by far the most powerful ideal cards, letting you play your unit any way you want.
Character
Yoroni character regiments are powerful combatants, but they also buff a specific battlefield role, giving each unit with that role additional abilities that is always active. This can affect your list building, because ho boy, some of these abilities are really good.
Daimyo
In the lore released so far, Daimyos are career oriented Onis. They are disciplined, honourable and very good at not giving into their bestial instinct. Somehow, this translates to them being really good at going crazy and beating people to death in the game. They have 8 wounds and six attacks before any bonuses, and cleave 2, putting them on par with the best beatsticks characters, but read on and you’ll see that it gets better.
Defiance: The Daimyo is already quite tanky, but if they die, they get to make one last attack.Ideally, you never trigger this ability, but when you do, it’s quite good considering how hard they hit.
Kassatsu: The Daimyo gives relentless blow to all your Ka units. Relentless blow is a chance-based abilities, but Yoroni has easy ways to push up attack numbers, making this ability better. Remember, your own Daimyo also gets this ability, making him quite the terror…and we’re not even done.
Kensensei (Command): The first of the Daimyo’s two commands, Kensensei gives the Daimyo Quicksilver Strike and Deadly blades. Give him the Heron Marked Blade and watch your opponent get really nervous.
Undying Flames (Command): A strange command that can keep your non-monster regiments around one last turn by delaying their death until the next supremacy phase. Situational, but can win you the game by securing or contesting an objective by making your last model unkillable.
Oyabun
The complete opposite of the Daimyo, Oyabuns are Onis who embraces all their darkest, most feral desires, like your baby cousin after two kit-kats.They allow you to play an all brute army in a way you’re normally not able to. The Oyabun is a respectable hitter, but with their high Wound Pool (tied with the Daimyo) and Tenacious, they are VERY hard to kill.
Hissatsu: A speed boosting aura. Hisatsu makes the Oyabun speed 6. This ability is not tied to specific battlefield roles, and +1 march is significant in first blood after the changes to charging. Bring some Tengu Bushis and you will see some ridiculous charge range.
Kaiten: Depending on your opponent’s list, Kaiten is either an oppressive defensive ability, or it does nothing. It negates any dice rerolling against your Chi units. Flurry and Fiend hunters are very powerful abilities, denying them is huge, but again..It does nothing against armies that don’t already have them.
Brotherhood (Command): Brotherhood doubles your model count for the purpose of seizing an objective the Oyabun is contesting. This means, each brute model after the Oyabun counts as four models: Even if they only have 1 wound left! A very powerful command
Mountain’s Endurance (Command): Mountain’s Endurance gives your unit hardened+1. That may sound like a bad slogan for some shady pill you buy in a gas station, but considering the highest Defense in Yoroni is only 3, you will be glad when you use this (Unlike the aforementioned pill, which is likely not legal to begin with.
Kitsune Bakasu
The embodiment of the wind and their capricious nature. The Kitsune in Yoroni is very similar to the mimetic assassin of the Spire, a model that only wants to do one thing and they do it well. Get up close and personal and unleash plenty of attacks to whoever unfortunate enough to be within its charge range.
Stride: The signature buff ability turns all your Fu unit into speedsters. Boasting an already very high movement speed of 8 plus stride making them effectively movement 9 – the Bakasu can reach anywhere they want to deliver their deadly payload.
Shadow Strike: Challenge! is a niche ability in First Blood, easily avoided by simply declining the challenge and suffering a small penalty. This ability seemed to be designed with one of the relic that are available to the Yoroni – that ensures that Challenge! action must be resolved. A good tool to eliminate the opponent’s key character if you are willing to pay the extra points
Kitsunebi (Command): Essentially a reposition at 3”, enabling the kitsune to move to getting charge with weird angles. Or to get out of sticky situation. This command alongside the Fu ideal can make the Bakasu move an additional 6” per turn.
Higanbana (Command): This model can reach to 11 attacks with deadly blades, opponent failing on a defense roll of 6 to suffer 2 wounds instead of just 1. Even without equipping any relics, the Bakasu can potentially deal 44 damage in one attack! Of course, if you have that kind of luck playing Conquest maybe you should consider yourself flying off to Vegas and making a killing.
Straightforward but fragile, considering that it sits on a brute size base so it cannot hide as easily from ranged attacks. Give some screening to this unit and watch it take on the strongest monster in the game in one hit.
Kitsune Onmyoji
Onmyoji refers to the ones that does divination and prayers. A different flavor of the Kitsune, this one is more of a spellcaster. Though in a pinch, the Onmyoji is also fairly durable in a fight with their above average offensive stats and defensive abilities. Not to mention the Sui battlefield role – which enables the Onmyoji to pick up any of the other buffs present to them.
Where the rest of the character options focuses more on a single ideal, Onmyoji supports a more diverse selection of ideals with their signature ability
Re-draw Fortune: This ability can treat an ideal card as if matching their battlefield role. Giving you that much more of a flexibility in both army construction and when you are playing the game. At the time of writing, this is the most flexible character in the Yoroni arsenal. They can support plenty of other archetype without committing to a certain ideal.
Kitsunebi (Command): The same ability from the Bakasu, except you will most likely use it to get out of engagement and or hide behind screening units to utilize the Onmyoji’s powerful spells.
Higanbana (Command): More of a ‘just in case’ ability if your Onmyoji will see melee combat. In most ideal circumstances, the answer is no. Considering the already small amount of combat units that the Yoroni have, even their spellcasters needs to contribute to the damage against another regiment.
The main strength of the Onmyoji is in the spellcasting option that they have. Though all of the spells are more geared towards support and disruption rather than dealing straight up damage.
Jade Shell of Perseverance is a simple spell that gives +1 Defense. Nothing too fancy, but it turns your ayakashi into a defense 4 monster with hardened! Veil of the Gibbous Moon gives Oblivious, making them suffer 1 wound for every 2 failed morale tests. Good tool against army with plenty of terrifying. Mists of the Weeping Depths is an interesting spell, shutting off an enemy regiment from receiving the effect of a friendly command. Web of Sinner’s Hair is the most interesting spell in the Onmyoji’s arsenal. If you are lucky, you can potentially shut off another model’s offensive capabilities. Keep in mind that this targets model not regiment, so you can’t turn off an entire block of infantry unit.
Jorogumo Geisha
The first of the two monster characters available to Yoroni. Para Bellum have mentioned that this will be a dual kit, so you don’t need to make a choice right away on who to make!
The Geisha, looking at the stats line simply reads to me as a giant beat stick. Nothing fancy outside of its attack stats and offensive capabilities, although cheaper than the other monster option available to the Yoroni. Though the combination of terrifying, fearless and tenacious means that it will wreak havoc on armies with low morale – while having the defensive capabilities to withstand attacks themselves.
So far, quite a bland character – maybe we can expect a buff or two coming into April. Now for the more interesting monster character we have…
Jorogumo Mahotsu
A very similar stats line, although curiously the Mahotsu having 2 more points in movement compared to the Geisha. Lower in attack numbers, considering their role is more of a support character rather than an actual beatstick.
Now for the actual fun part, the spells. Stream of Vitality is a heal 2 on any regiment. On an already elite stats-line army, this spell is such a huge deal. Making sure each of your brute remains that one more turn longer on the battlefield ensures that they can quickly turn back their numerical advantage. Mire of Instrospection is a mean spell, giving a regiment the debuff so that they can only perform a single action. That unit of Crimson Tower that wants to move + charge? Nope. That unit of Agema in position to inspire and clash? Nope. The application of this spell is stellar, and it has both offensive and defensive capabilities.
Field of Burning Reeds is also a very interesting spell. Making objective zone dangerous terrain (regiment can take wound if they move towards it) and also taking automatic hits at the end of the turn can setup a situation where it will punish an opponent for just capping the objective zone. The last spell is also very objective oriented: Fan of Twin Winds. While seemingly innocent at dealing or healing 1 damage to an objective marker, the way that objective marker works in First Blood is that it has 3 wounds and each action can only do a maximum of 1 wound. Mahotsu is the rare model in the game that can charge, clash and then perform a spell to remove the last wound from the marker. If there are no more markers on your side? You can also make the enemy’s life harder by healing 1 from their.
Brute
Oni Ayakashi
NOW we’re getting to the meaty men part of the army. The Oni Ayakashi are like the gym bros who take fancy imported pre-workout supplements and listen to alpha male podcasters while lifting. Despite being the dedicated beatstick of the faction, their obsession with training glamor muscles instead of functional muscles leaves them with only cleave 1, which is not the greatest. They make up for it by having good clash value and high attack numbers (Especially when triggering Ka), along with terrifying 1. They might have trouble against the most armored units but everything else will melt under them.
The Oni Ayakashi has a low defense value, but they have a good wound pool of 6, and a good recovery due to steroids Drain Essence, which lets them eat casualty token to regain health and deny enemy abilities that require casualty tokens.
Finally, between their speed of 6 and unstoppable, the Oni Ayakashi is surprisingly fast and can blitz an enemy unit for a lot of damage.
Kami Ayakashi
The Kami Ayakashi may not have the six pack like their Oni counterparts, and sure they may have a bit of an off-season dad bod, but don’t be fooled. This is what peak performance looks like. The Kami Ayakashi is a ridiculous tank and a workhorse unit for any Yoroni warband. Eight wounds is the highest wound pool of *any* brute in the game, and the Kami comes with many defensive abilities on top of that. It has bravery and hardened, alongside the amazing Stone’s Bulwark, making it and allies near it obscured to ranged attacks.
Their offensive output is nothing to write home about, unlike most brutes, it can control objective very well for its point cost. Weight of the land doubles their model count for seizing objectives, which means for each 140 points (and 90 per additional Kami) a Kami is the equal of four infantry model, and unlike infantry, it can take 7 damage and still count as 4.
Kappa Bushi
Traditional Japanese folklore depicts the Kappa as cucumber-obsessed river beings who hunt people to devour their soul through the backside. The Yoroni Kappa, on the other hand, are spiritual warriors who try to understand the nature of other realms and in turn makes them a very adaptive presence on the battlefield.
They have an underwhelming statblock, but having the rare Sui battlefield role, they are able to pick their buffs as they please. They also have two support command abilities, one which gives a reroll for failed hit rolls of 6 and another one that gives a minor heal of 1 wound. Keep in mind that these command abilities work the same whether you have one or three Kappa in the regiment, so bringing just one is not a bad idea, especially considering they’re relatively cheap for a Yoroni brute at 100 points for the first model.
Domaru-Damashi
Floating, ghostly armors of vanquished Yoroni. The Domaru-Damashi is a fast, cheap Brute with the Mu Battlefield role, which makes them capable of holding their ground a bit when dealing with hard hitters. Speed 7, unstoppable and clash 3 makes it a decent enough hitter to deal with enemy light troops. They function almost like light cavalry, able to put pressure on the enemy by zoning out objectives early, and chasing down back enemy objectives, but they won’t last against elite troops.
Strangely enough, for sentient armor they have pretty low resolve score of 2, which can add up those wounds quickly in melee.
Tengu Bushi
The Tengu Bushi have quite a bit of Overlap with the Domaru-Damashi, but they’re two very different things. For one, the Bushi is a bird, which at least gives it an excuse for its low Resolve score, because birds are notoriously undisciplined creatures.
The Tengu Bushi trades a little of the Domaru-Damashi’s offensive output for the kind of mobility you normally only see in movies with plenty of CGI. They have flank, flies, ignores terrain due to fluid formation, and if this isn’t enough, they also have the Fu battlefield role, which means their first march move can take them 11 inches, ignoring everything in their path!
They’re also dirt cheap; just don’t let them take hits. Birds have hollow bones, you know.
Tengu Ayakashi
The lone ranged attack regiment in the faction, the Tengu Ayakashi brings a mediocre volley stat of 2. They have the Fu Battlefield role, which allows them to move around a bit, which is useful, whether to get them out of combat, or into shooting range. They also have Vanguard, making it easier to set up a good shooting position.
Once they’re able to aim, the birds deal respectable damages with Barrage 4 and torrential fire, but the problem is that they have a rather short range of 10 inches on their giant bow. They’re still birds, however, and their flight allows you to reach places other units can’t get to.
Monsters
Dai Yokai
One of the unique things that the Dai Yokai has is their ability to use any ideal cards. While you only get to pick one at the start of the game, this means that the Yokai has plenty of flexibility in their profile – they can be activated and gain the benefit of the ideal card you give them.
While being slightly low on the defensive stats with only having 3 defense but 2 evasion. Swift Strike is the unique ability that comes with the Yokai, having the ability to attack 16 times during a single activation is nothing to scoff at. Not to mention, thanks to the combination of Heavy Impact and Unstoppable – this monster can move and charge something 16” away while still doing 12 impact hits.
The downside of this powerful demon is of course the significant drop in their offensive profile once they reach a wounded stats (a new feature of First Blood!). But until they reach that point, you can throw them into the toughest of enemy block and expect them to do plenty of work.
Genya no Yokai
There is a small but key difference between the Dai Yokai and the Genya no Yokai. Their unique action, the Tsubame Gaeshi, is both a movement tool and an attack tool – slicing a regiment in front of them while moving through it.
Building a First Blood Yoroni List
At the moment, there are two pathways you can take when you are creating a Yoroni list. One method of building is to focus on a single ideal card. Daimyo with plenty of regiments with Ka allows you to basically play without a command stack. Plus gaining the benefit of the Kassatsu ability. The other way of building is to have a bit more flexibility and having multiple ideals to have less focus but have more adaptability.
The First Blood Cohort Box (A new product line designed to be an out-of-the box experience) is a very good starting point for building your Yoroni collection. Though it is lacking the focus of the ‘mono’ ideal build such as the mono Ka Daimyo or mono Chi Oyabun.
Consider the following as a ‘guideline’ for an Yoroni:
- 2-3 ‘Signature Units’ – This consists of regiment with the same Ideal as your character. Purely to gain the benefit of the army-wide buff.
- 0-1 Objective Holder – Due to the expensive nature of the Yoroni, units that are specifically only designed to hold objective are in short supply. Consider bringing Shikami
- 0-1 Missile Troops: Tengu Ayakashi
- 2-3 Heavy Hitters: Genya no Yokai, Oni Ayakashi
Sample Yoroni list:
=== First Blood ===
Mono Ka [1000/1000]
Yoroni
* Daimyo [80]: Shinigami Tachi
* Dai Yokai (1) [450]:
* Oni Ayakashi (2) [220]:
* Tengu Ayakashi (1) [120]:
* Oni Ayakashi (1) [130]:
A painfully straightforward army. You can even substitute the single Tengu Ayakashi to another Oni Ayakashi. There is a very glaring weakness to this list: you only have 5 activations and only 6 models.
Conclusion
The Yoroni delight in two things that will help have an advantage over the other armies. Firstly, the capability to remove one of the most important tactical decision in playing a game of First Blood: to pre-determine which unit will go first. This ‘pick as you like’ is the core strength of the Yoroni. Secondly, for a comparable brute unit of the same point cost – pound-per-pound, Yoroni brutes win the stats comparison.
However, due to the inflexibility of the army build they have to operate in a low model count. While this is an advantage to those looking for faster assembly and painting, this could lead to a situation where a Yoroni army simply spread too thin in several scenarios. When fielding a Yoroni army, you need to ask yourself a question at the start of the game: Can you win the game by objective, or is killing the goal here?
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