The Mind Killer

A great deal has been written about the paths to victory in Clan War. Each author has laid out his thoughts on what method works best, whether that be maneuver, bonus stacking or whatever. To be sure, each of those methods have their strengths and can be effective tools to achieve victory. Still they are only part of the real true path to victory.

To win in Clan War you must get your opponent’s forces to surrender the field of battle to your troops. You can do this by killing them all or by breaking their spirit and making them run away. Killing the entire opposing army can take a long time and your troops will be dying as well. It is much faster and more effective to get them to run away. The way to do this is to make your opponent fail more morale tests than you. That’s it. Everything else is just a means to an end. While it is possible to have a battle the ends without either side having suffered a morale failure, these are rare. Far more often, the winner is the army whose resolve held out the best.

If the surest path to victory is in causing your opponent’s army to break and run, then Fear is the most powerful way to walk that path. The proper use of Fear can win the day without some much as a single soldier being killed. Fear will force your opponent to make more morale tests and make those test at greater disadvantage than man other method. maneuver and martial skills are still of use but in the hands of the Fear causing army they are just assistants to the master.

No other Clan is better at the use of Fear than the Shadowlands. Fu Leng’s gifts to his children are many and great and of these the greatest is Fear. The Shadowlands have more Fear causing units than any other army and they are available for very few koku when compared to Fear causing units of the other clans. Add to this that many of the Shadowlands' personalities can add to the Fear of their units and the true power of Fear becomes apparent.

Army Construction

The undead forces of the Shadowlands should be a staple in every Shadowlands army. While they do not have to combat skills possessed by many living bushi, they do have several advantages. First, they cause Fear. Most of the units are just Fear 0 but they lay the foundation for follow up attacks. The second advantage from undead units is that they do not Break. This makes them excellent anvil units. Even a moderate sized units of zombie troops can be expected to hold for 2 or more turns against all but the most powerful assaults. This allows the SL player to make a follow up attack with a strong Fear causing unit to break the enemy unit engaged with the zombies. This tactic can even be used against Fearless units with the help of the Price of Caution tactical card.

An anvil would be just a hunk of metal without the hammer and the Shadowlands have plenty of excellent hammer units to choose from. Oni no Mizu, Oni no Sanru Lord, and the Ogre Bushi are some of my favorites. Oni no Akuma is also an excellent choice but his larger base size require more space to maneuver. The others can often exploit a gap small enough that the opponent cannot maneuver a supporting unit in to help with the engagement. These hammer units are what I call "Obsidian Hammers". Like all glass they can be fragile if not handled correctly. As with all individuals they are at risk from ranged attacks and traps.

The Overlord packages available to the Shadowlands leaders can both increase the combat strength and Fear value of the personality they are attached to. They also can make a unit led by the personality much stronger and more fearful as well. My own personal favorite is the Invincible Overlord package on Oni no Mizu. This gives an already highly mobile unit the defense skill for reactionary movement, the tactician skill and an awesome Fear 4. The IO Mizu is perhaps the greatest flanking unit in the game.

Tactical Cards

The Shadowlands army has available to it many tactical cards to supplement the power and effectiveness of their Fear.

• Arcane Fury: This card is excellent for increasing the Fear value of a unit led by the Necromancer. It should be noted that this card has no upper limit to its fear rating so the sky’s the limit. Used along with the Strength of Darkness spell a relative weak unit of undead can quickly become a unit morale smasher.
• Bad Kharma: This can prevent to opponent from using his Void to improve his tests or even better from getting to re-roll a failed test.
• Dangerous Misjudgment: This may immediately seem like a Shadowlands card as it make no mention of Taint or Fear but it can be quite nasty in the hands of a Fear causing army. When an enemy unit attempts to engage a unit with Fear it must make a morale test. If it fails that test then it may not move. By playing DM at this point you can at least unform and quite possibly spend the enemy unit.
• Dark Lords Favor: This may allow an engaged unit and extra turn of life by preventing their opponent from making attacks for a turn. The stated effect of the card is to me just a side effect. The real value is that is causes the unit to make a morale test and that test will result in a -1 modifier for all further tests that turn. A Shadowlands' army doesn’t have to worry about having a dishonored leader or losing 5 more honor.
• Face of Fear: This card can quickly increase the Fear value of a unit. The jump between a test caused by a Fear 0 unit and a Fear 1 unit can be game altering. While you cannot play more than one FoF on a unit during a turn you can play different copies of it on several units that will all be engaged with the unit you are hoping to break. The Fear values will stack quite nicely.
• Kharmic Betrayal: Like Bad Kharma, this card is used to prevent the enemy from using his Void to pass or re-roll tests.
• Loss of Face: This card should flat out be in just about every deck ever made. It can be especially nice for a Fear army as it can help boost a test caused by a Fear 0 unit into the same as a Fear 2 unit. Never be without this card. Choose wisely when to use it. You don’t want to play it on a test that is already 9+ since a 10 will still pass.
• The Price of Caution: Recent ruling by Tetsu-domo has made this card a bit harder to employ but it is still a great card in any Fear army. The Fear army’s biggest weakness is against Fearless units as they ignore our greatest weapon. You must have the Fearless unit engaged with one of your Fear causing units to play it and you must have your general spend a point of Void. Assuming all that happens, the unit is now ripe to be smashed by multiple Fear causing units to get it to break and rout thus ending that units threat.
• Strike at the Tail: This is a flankers best friend. It will add a morale test in some cases or a -2 modifier in others. These can mean the difference between breaking a unit and causing it to rout. In addition it gives +1/+1 which will make the flanking unit much more effective should you actually need to engage in close combat.
• Tactical Demands: Another card that seems out of place in a Fear army but it can be helpful in preventing the other side from using tactical cards to thwart your Fear attacks.
• Superior Tactics: This requires you spend a point of void to play and has some LOS restrictions. Its main use in a Fear army is to prevent the use of Grim Determination by your opponent. The card can of course be used to stop any enemy tactical card.

There are two very useful cards I did not include in the list above because they are not actually part of the Fear battle plan but they are must have cards for a Shadowlands or even just heavily tainted army. Both of the cards can be used to great effect in the Fear army to either toughen your anvil units or strengthen your hammers.

• Evil Portents: This gives +1/+1 and add +1 to your ATN (Max ATN8)
• Night Fighting: This card can remove the modifiers from you opponent attack or damage dice.

Deck construction is a complicated matter on which volumes could and have been written. If you know the Clan that you will be facing, then there is value in perhaps adding some special cards for that opponent. In most cases you will not know the nature of your foe so just focus on your own strengths and weaknesses and take the enemy as they come. To effectively employ Fear you must be able to draw and use your cards well. When ever possible, try to have 2 Tacticians because you will likely never have highest honor. You should try to time your card draws in such a way that you enter the engagements with a full hand and the maximum number of cards attached to your personalities. Once the engagements begin you will burn through your cards quickly. If you don’t have at least one Tactician you’ll find your assault blunted by the lack of cards. There is nothing worse than having an empty hand and only drawing one card a turn.

Magic

While a Shadowlands army can perform quite well without any magic support, a bit of timely assistance from your Shugenja can give you a real advantage. I prefer to use my Shugenja to support and augment my main combat force rather than to directly engage the enemy with magical attacks. It is not that the Shadowlands Shugenja are not capable of inflicting damage, they can. In fact, spells such as Draining the Life can be quite effective especially against LP led units. When compared to the advantage that can be gained by boosting the strength of a powerhouse unit like the Ogre bushi, the effect of three wounds seems slight. I do like Draining the Life for close defense for a Shugenja or as a softening attack prior to engagement by a Necromancer-led unit. It is also a great spell in that you can attach it to a Dragon and poof, instant tainted Dragon. For use in a Fear causing army there are many good spells to choose from.

• Abomination: This can be a great spell for getting and enemy unit to move out of the main battle line and to force it to show you its flanks.
• Illusionary Terrain: While the Shadowlands does not have many shugenja that can cast this spell, it can provide a Fear causing army much needed cover while it moves towards the enemy.
• Stagnant Air: This spell can be used to help keep a unit in place to either set it up for an attack or to keep it from being able to support other units against an attack.
• Strength of Darkness: This is one of the Fear causing army’s best spells. It can ramp up the Fear rating of a unit and multiple castings are permitted for added effect.
• Wind Borne Speed: One of the primary attack plans for the Fear army is to flank and engaged enemy unit for multiple morale tests. WBS can really help in this by doubling a units movement for a turn. This can be especially useful on the Ogre Bushi.
• Biting Steel: Sometimes an enemy will past the tests made during the engaging moves. Biting Steel can give the combat edge needed to make sure the enemy unit will be taking more test soon do to casualties.
• Draining the Life: Useful for protecting a shugenja unit or to prepare an enemy unit for engagement.
• Stifling Wind: If successful, this will leave your target unit spent making a morale test during engagement certain. The enemy unit will also be unable to move or make attacks. The personality will still be able to make attacks so don’t enter base to base contact with him if you can avoid it.
• Heart of Battle: Timing is vital in the Fear army and being able to manipulate MIS makes it much easier.
• Ebb and Flow: This spell is great for suddenly moving a unit to a place you enemy did not count on it being. It can get a unit past some unpleasant terrain or just four inches closer for that Charge you want to make.
• Moments Hesitation: This is another great spell for keeping a unit where you want it to be. It prevents any retreating maneuvers, defensive reaction tactical cards that might have helped with morale tests, and best of all keeps archer units from shooting at your Oni while they are charging I for the kill.
• Path to Inner Peace: Despite your best efforts, your Hammer units will get damaged. This spell allows you to heal some of the damage done to them to be ready for the next assault.

The Shadowlands Shugenja have a good range of choices for units to escort them into battle. The goblin spell casters can lead any goblin unit. Yogo Junzo and the Necromancer have the combat trait and so can lead any unit. If you are going to use them in a Shugenja unit I would use the minor oni servants in place of regular yojimbo. The Bloodspeakers are a fearsome unit. While they don’t cause Fear they are ATN 7 with 2 wounds and ML 5. Since they will be led by a shugenja you can make them Fear 0 with Strength of Darkness whenever you need to. My personal favorite units are Magic Mud Goblins for use with the goblin spell casters. They are cheap, have excellent morale and you can set them on fire when you need that added punch. Units are also sometime reluctant to try and move closer to them for fear that you will sent a couple screaming torches at them.  I like Zombie Troops or Skeletal Archers for the Necromancer.

Items

There are many items available to augment the Fear causing army. They can be used to increase your abilities or to make up for your weaknesses. I am only including those items that directly relate to the Fear causing army. There are of course many more items that can be used very effectively in a Fear army or any other.

• Banner of Fear: This converts any unit into a Fear 0 unit.
• Deafening Drums of Fu Leng: This somewhat expensive item not only will increase a units Fear rating by 1 it can also be destroyed to gain an additional +2. In addition, the drums force all enemy units within 12” to take a -1 on all maneuver tests.
• Fan of Command: This will make a personality a tactician. Spend the 30 koku and get this every time you can unless you already have 2 tacticians. The extra card draw will enable you to get the maximum value from your Tactical Deck.
• Mempo of the Void: In the Fear army the main use for this is to be able to prevent the use of one tactical card by your opponent once during the game. If you pick the right card to prevent it can be well worth the koku.
• Mempo of Fear: Once per battle this can make a unit Fear 1. For me the main use for the Mempo of Fear is to taint a personality so I can do evil things later on.
• Prophecies of Asako Yurito: Like the Mempo of Void, this will let you stop one effect one time during the battle. If the effect is a card the enemy will get the card back at the end of the turn. Once again, if timed correctly this can be well worth the koku spent.

Tactics

In general, I like to lead with my undead units followed with Ogres and Oni close behind to strike the flanks once the main battle line units are engaged. Since the Ogres and Oni are taller than the undead you can draw line of sight over then for purposes of Charging.

When lining up your front line units for engagement, take care to make enough room for the large based flankers. Ideally, have the enemy overlap your unit on the side that the flanker will be striking. If the flanker has to move past your own troops to reach the enemy that adds over and inch and a half to the distance he must travel. Terrain can be used to help shield the flanker from counter attacks. Many opponents will gladly engage along side a piece of wooded terrain as they feel the terrain provides some protection for their units flank. This is true from rank and file units but since individuals don’t have to worry about rank and overlap dice the woods are offer false security. While they may slow down some unit’s a little they also provide your flanking unit cover from ranged attacks while it moves in and now Enemy units have to move through the woods in order to provide a supporting counter attack.

LOS works both ways and so undead units don’t shield large based figures from possible ranged attacks via coordinated fire or reactionary fire. Ogre warriors and Marsh trolls can be used for this. Both units cost only 10 koku a wound but they are not undead and have poor ML and TL so be careful. You can still manage to have LOS to a unit around the side of these larger units and if you position yourself correctly you will be able to see the edge of the enemy unit but less than 25% of the enemy unit can see you so they may not fire other than from Indirect Fire. You must also be willing to lose 90+% of an anvil unit in order to get that one perfect hammer blow. That is why undead make the best anvils, they will take that kind of casualties and stay put. When making the flanking attacks, you want to try and have as many units as possible make attacks during the same turn. This will stack both the Fear and the morale tests caused by each new attack will be additional modifiers for later tests. Lastly, you must swing the hammer quickly and at the right moment. Too soon and it is exposed to RA fire to late and the anvil is gone.

My personal favorite Fear army is included below. I have played it in several tournaments and it has done quite well for me. The version given below has a unit of Skeletal Archers but originally there were two units of Zombie Troops. I am testing out using the archers as a unit to hold the extreme flank. I am hoping that the couple extra turns of ranged attack damage they can do will weaken the opponent enough for them to hold my exposed flank while I perform the main assault with the other units. The Marsh Trolls have one main job and that is to get 'Mizu in range to do his thing. If 'Mizu is able to engage and break the enemy units then you can really afford to lose the rest of this army to casualties. This army routinely earns double digit VP’s which can be helpful in a tournament setting where more than one army might be undefeated going into the final rounds. If the choice of who moves on to the final game comes down to most VP earned or highest margin of victory this roster will sail past many other qualified rosters that earned their victories the hard way.

Wave of Fear

Tactical Deck:

Bad Kharma x3, Charge x3, Dark Lord’s Favor x2, Evil Portents x3, Focus x2, Grim Determination x3, Loss of Face x3, Night Fighting x3, Price of Caution x3, Strike at the Tail x3, Test of Might x2

Jason Snell