Lost Hemisphere

Good morning, all. Continuing my exploration into the world of chibi miniatures, I have decided that I’m going to focus on Ninja All Stars for a little while, because garsh darn it, I want to win the Ninja All Stars trophy. It’s so gloriously enormous and shiny and… What is that?  You guys havent seen it?  Well feast your eyes on this baby to the right here.

There are actually three of them to be won in the up and coming league at my LGS, and one of them shall be mine… oh, yes, it shall.  Now I know I talked about the league starting soon, but by soon I mean Janurary. That’s mere weeks away! The LGS wants to wait until after the holidays for us to play, and I am alright with this. Not because it gives me more time to paint, nooo…

Speaking of the LGS, maybe I should get to point, albeit in a round about way. The LGS managed to get some Ninja All Stars Ronin models since I last wrote to you all, and I am in love with their adorable deadliness. When I talked to Gdaybloke (my evil overlord, long may he reign) I was searching through the Ronin models available in Ninja All stars and I ran into Kappa (I told you I would get there eventually!) and I squeed, for lo and behold, Soda Pop Miniatures have included terrapin (albeit an evil spirit hybrid of sorts) in their game about little chibi assassins, and my mind just boggled – it was a Mutant Ninja Turtle, possibly an adolescent!

Gdaybloke being wise told me he was a kappa. I tried not to let my disappointment get the better of me, and I researched… Deep in Japanese mythology is the river child (or at least the translation of the name Kappa). Per the lore, Kappa tales have been used to warn children of the dangers lurking in rivers and lakes, as kappa have been often said to try to lure people into water and pull them in.

Honestly I love the model and picked him up, painted him up and am after the fact learning that he is a sneaky git.

A Movement of 4 isn’t all that special, but I mean heck, he is a turtle. 2 attack is deceiving, because he is capable of so much more. We’ll get to that in a second. 4 defense is solid.

He is full of surprising abilities, most notably his signature ability, From the Deep. If he is stealthed and attacks he gets +2 attack, and with the Sneaky ability he even starts the game in the shadows. Stack it up with his sneaky git like ability Backstab and he has 6 attack dice. 6. Six. The number after 5.  Let that sink in. He is even Resilient so he will stick around a long time.

Entangle pushes his influence zone out one square further, and if you’re into taking advantage of shrines, he affinity with Earth, Void _and_ Water. So there.

I plan to use kappa quite a bit honestly, I find him very very useful, especially since my clan – the Tanchyo – seems rather low on defense dice.  I need a good bricky model or two to absorb damage and keep enemy chunin away from my squishy archers.

The Kappa is available from Soda Pop’s online store here. Kick some shell.

 

 

Imagine you were a solitary ronin. You liked it that way. Accountable to no-one, just doing your ronin thing. Kind of a lone wolf, if you will. Now, imagine you suddenly became responsible for another life. Not just any life, but that of an infant child, a babe in the woods, a mewling cub. Good thing you’re a master swordsman…

Howl & Yip! It’s two ronin in one, though one’s a teeny babe strapped to the back of a kickass duelist with no time for your shenanigans. With both Earth and Fire affinities, Howl is set to take advantage of shrines and trigger his abilities. An Attack of 3 is solid, a defense of 4 is even moreso, but let’s stack on his fancy sword tricks…

Master Swordsman – Opponents neverget assists or back strike bonuses against Howl & Yip. Is it Yip warning Howl of threats from behind? Is it Howl’s own ability to counter a seemingly endless number of opponents simultaneously? Maybe that impressive cranium conceals a complicated sonar system…

Close Combat Master– Rerolling one of your dice whenever you make a combat roll seems like a handy ability to me.

Precision Strike – You know how to really ruin your friend’s day? Choose a Fire result in melee and stun not only yourself and your opponent, but also any friendlies also in your influence zone. Precision Strike means only opposing models get stunned, effectively duplicating the Earth result. Heck yes.

Resilient – Okay, so he’s already rocking 4 Defense, but now whenever he’d be injured, on a successful affinity test – and I’ll remind you, he has two affinities, so it’s a 1:3 chance instead of 1:6 – an Injury is reduced to a Stun, and a Stun is negated entirely.

Tough – Oh, and at the beginning of his activation, if Howl passes an affinity test he gets a Protect token, which he can pitch for the same effects as Resilient.

So not only is he an incredible swordsman, you can’t sneak up on him, you can’t gang up on him, there’s a good chance he’ll have generated a Protect token before you can get to him and even if you manage to get through that high Defense stat and force him to ditch the token, he’s just plain naturally resilient. I personally play Yamazaru – the Monkey clan – and we’re known for being above the curve when it comes to taking a punch, yet Howl & Yip are even harder to get off the board than one of my damn Oni! If you’re looking for a kickass stabby guy who can go the distance while still showing a caring and responsible paternal side, you don’t need to look any further.

This one was fun to paint, but he won’t be staying at the Gdaycave. He’ll be finding his new home as part of the most recent Chibi Swap! You can play along, if chibis are your thing, by joining the group and putting your hand up when the next round of signups commences! https://www.facebook.com/groups/chibipaintswap/