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The Book of Shiori (AoA)

Strack9

Strack9

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Shiori (AoA)
Age of Annihilation, 2024 Promotional Figure
best

Basic Side Army Card
Spoiler Alert!

No PDF download for printing at this time.​


Biography: Einar is one of Valhalla’s first Valkyrie Generals. He is known above all for his stoic enforcement of discipline. His army is more coordinated than Vydar’s Soulborgs, more loyal than Jandar’s stalwart knights, and more efficient than Aquilla’s wizards.

Shiori, by contrast, is none of these things. Einar’s summons plucked her from her home in Earth’s feudal Japan when she was barely in her teens, and she has been belligerently operating outside of his maxims ever since. Now a warrior grown, Shiori has spent her time in the mystical Valhalla honing her craft, and can blend Earth-style martial arts seamlessly with magic.

Einar may not approve of Shiori’s methods, but after her success in the Marro swamp, he knows his fate and hers are intertwined. And Shiori, though she could care less about Einar himself, will not fail those friends she does hold dear in this rising age of destruction.

Shiori is available as an organized play promo, obtained from Launch Tournaments or Gen Con 2024 events! Shiori will be available for purchase on the Renegade webstore after the promotions she is associated with have passed.

Power Text:
NINJUTSU MASTERY SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 1. Attack 2 + Special.
If Shiori did not move normally, she may attack with Ninjutsu Mastery Special Attack up to three times. Before each attack, you must choose an opponent's figure within 2 clear sight spaces of Shiori and place Shiori on an empty space adjacent to that figure that is not more than 6 spaces higher or lower than Shiori's base. When attacking with Ninjutsu Mastery Special Attack, Shiori rolls 2 attack dice, or 3 attack dice if Shiori has exactly one unrevealed Order Marker on her Army Card.

KIERU
If Shiori is attacked with a normal or special attack and receives 1 or more wounds, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 14 or higher, you may place Shiori on an empty space within 2 spaces of Shiori that is not more than 6 spaces above or below Shiori's level. If you do, ignore all wounds just received.

PHANTOM WALK
Shiori can move through all figures and is never attacked when leaving an engagement.
Click to expand...
_____________________________________________________________________​

- Rulings and Clarifications -
  • TBA
_____________________________________________________________________​

- Combinations and Synergies -

Synergy Benefits Offered:
  • OTONASHI: Tricky Speed 4
    As a Tricky figure, Shiori offers Otonashi the opportunity to move 4 additional spaces if Otonashi starts her turn adjacent to her.
Synergy Benefits Received
  • -N/A

C3V and SoV Custom Synergies
Spoiler Alert!

_____________________________________________________________________​

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

Power Rankings
OEAO: C+
(Subject to change)

Matthaias Maccabeus (Melee Perspective): D+
(Subject to change)

Dok (VC Inclusive): TBA
(Subject to change)

Master Index

Unit Strategy Review
TBA.

Images
img_0983_smaller_original.jpg
 
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I wonder if having one of the three Shioris being the only one with a viable hitzone will be clunky to use for new players. You'd have to be sure that the arm you see sticking around the corner of a tree or ruin is the arm off the one actual Shiori.
 
She forgot how to throw a shuriken. Just like how Drake forgot to pack his sidearm. I do like the Concentated Will reference in her new special attack.
 
Excited to get her when she becomes available. I'd rank her C+ personally, she can cause some havoc if played correctly. Sadly a little too fragile for 110 points, but certainly a fun unit up my alley!
 
Honestly, Shiori (AoA) barely seems better than regular Shiori. 110 points is a lot to spend on a figure with only 4 life and 3 defense who's heavily dependent on hitting a 35% Kieru chance to survive anything, and Ninjutsu Mastery doesn't seem like it has great damage output unless you have a singular unrevealed order marker on her. Beyond that, there are a few things that rather confuse me about this card:

1. Why doesn't Shiori have 4 defense? One of the neat ideas people came up with when making customs for Shiori (AoA) was to give her 4/4 attack and defense, to represent her learning to permanently maintain her Concentrated Will buff from Swarm of the Marro. It's kind of a shame to miss out on a clever little touch like that in the official release.

2. On that note, the whole "one unrevealed order marker" thing didn't work well for Shiori the first time. It wasn't even really any fun to try to make it work, since it introduces an irritating, somewhat volatile minigame with barely any payoff. Why try it again?

3. Just_A_Bill mentioned this in the "Heroscape is Coming Back!" thread, but there are a lot of things odd about Shiori's sculpt. It seems to have no mechanical relationship to the card (a Mirror Image power of some kind would have made more sense) and creates a weird situation where seeing the two "clones" doesn't enable you to shoot Shiori, but Raelin seeing the two "clones" does enable her to grant a defense buff. He nailed it on the head when he said that it seemed like something Avalon Hill - and now Renegade - went with because it looked cool, not because it makes sense with her mechanical design.

Ultimately, though, what kills me is that Shiori is a unit who really should have been cool, but was undermined by being both bad and fiddly on the board; never a fun combination. I had hoped that Shiori (AoA) would be, if not amazing, then at least good enough that I could justify putting her on the table. Unfortunately, I suspect that she's going to see just as much playtime as the OG Shiori, which is not much.
 
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I actually like the mechanics here, and this the sculpt works well showing her teleporting around, I think that's neat.

But yeah she suffers from the same issue like 90% of the random heroes in HS has, she dies instantly to the normal squads and therefore isn't draftable. Higher stats definitely would have helped (Or a better spider-sense number)
 
Ninjas as a category need an Ulginesh-like unit to bring them all together.
Kumiko, Shiori (both), Isamu, Moriko, and Otonoshi aren't even all Tricky.
As it is, they appear to only get synergy bonuses by accident (see Ullar's Amulet for Moriko, or some other Ninjas toggling Tricky Speed).
 
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Also we need a COMMON ninja squad. Heroes are great but common squads would be a sorely needed addition IMO :)
 
Owlman said:
Also we need a COMMON ninja squad. Heroes are great but common squads would be a sorely needed addition IMO :)
Click to expand...

While this is certainly true mechanically, I'm not sure there should be one, thematically. The trope of ninjas is usually one of two things: the unseen master of their craft, or an extremely isolated clan with a strict heierarchy. They are typicallyt depicted as assassin units, only really showing themselves when they have a sure kill. They aren't meant to be the main force of an army, but the specialist cleanup crew.

Perhaps rather than a common squad, a leader unit that takes a turn with some amount of ninjas with some sort of focus fire ability, to really sell the "This one specific character needs to go down" sort of playstyle.

Regarding Shiori herself, I think the sculpt is neat (i hope the base lets her climb ladders). Really sells the "clone jutsu" trope. Mechanically she'll be hard to make good use of, especially to make her worth her point value. Won't stop me from trying though.
 
Not good enough for its own thread, and I understand I'm pushing the limits of what belongs in a Books thread, but I think I'll playtest a Ninja like this:

Mimiko:
4 life, 6 move, 1 Range, 4 Atk, 4 Def.
Phantom Walk

Copy Fighting Style:
Mimiko is considered to have every 'Special Attack' ability of each Ninja Hero you control.

Tandem Ninja Strike:
When you reveal an order marker on Mimiko, you may first take a turn with any Ninja Hero you control within 8 clear sight spaces of Mimiko. After that Hero's turn and before taking Mimiko's turn, if that Hero attacked an enemy figure, exchange the space locations of that Hero and Mimiko. Neither figure takes leaving-engagement attacks if engaged.
Point value tbd.
 
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Confused about the complaints on the sculpt for this one. I don't think new players will have any care in the world, especially if they are younger than 40 lol.

The whole shadow clone / after image trope is very very common and easily understood with people that play video games, read comics, and are otherwise into modern ninja stuff like naruto and whatnot.

As for the concern of her not being good enough... who knows, maybe? Common ninjas would be nice, easily understood and wide enough trope to not really upset anyone I'd say (The Foot from TMNT for instance is easily known and ninja bad guys pop up all over in comics / TV shows). A ninja commander unit would be pretty awesome, VC had Katano no Daishi but to see something in the official world would be great too.

Timing on the Kieru ability is interesting. I think I understand the intent but I'm curious, if she has 1 life and takes a wound is she immediately destroyed or do I get to roll for Kieru and see if I ignore the wounds? Isamu and other ninja see if they dodge first for a reason I thought, to avoid a question like this.
 
Strack9 said:
- Rulings and Clarifications -
  • Q: Can Shiori attack a figure whose base is exactly 6 spaces higher than her with her Ninjutsu Mastery Special attack? The text only rules out a figure that is more than 6 spaces higher.
    A: No. The text also specifies that Shiori must be placed adjacent to the opponent's figure, and since her height is 5, a figure whose base was exactly 6 spaces higher than her(or 5) would not be adjacent.
Click to expand...

Can you help me understand this ruling? The reasoning stated in the answer is that an opponent whose base was 6 spaces higher "would not be adjacent" to Shiori.

That is true, but the power text does not require Shiori to be adjacent to the attacked figure before being placed; it only requires that she be placed on a space that is adjacent to the figure, and that the space must also meet the specified criteria (no more than 6 spaces higher, etc.). From my reading of the text, whether she is adjacent to the figure to begin with is not relevant.

Stated another way, "an empty space that is not more than 6 spaces higher or lower than Shiori's base" could well be adjacent to a figure that is not initially adjacent to Shiori. In fact, it seems the target figure could be even higher (or lower) than 6 spaces, so long as the space Shiori is placed on meets the 6-level limit and Shiori is placed adjacent to the target (not adjacent to Shiori's original location).

Am I misreading this?
 
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Grison said:
Strack9 said:
- Rulings and Clarifications -
  • Q: Can Shiori attack a figure whose base is exactly 6 spaces higher than her with her Ninjutsu Mastery Special attack? The text only rules out a figure that is more than 6 spaces higher.
    A: No. The text also specifies that Shiori must be placed adjacent to the opponent's figure, and since her height is 5, a figure whose base was exactly 6 spaces higher than her(or 5) would not be adjacent.
Click to expand...

Can you help me understand this ruling? The reasoning stated in the answer is that an opponent whose base was 6 spaces higher "would not be adjacent" to Shiori.

That is true, but the power text does not require Shiori to be adjacent to the attacked figure before being placed; it only requires that she be placed on a space that is adjacent to the figure, and that the space must also meet the specified criteria (no more than 6 spaces higher, etc.). From my reading of the text, whether she is adjacent to the figure to begin with is not relevant.

Stated another way, "an empty space that is not more than 6 spaces higher or lower than Shiori's base" could well be adjacent to a figure that is not initially adjacent to Shiori. In fact, it seems the target figure could be even higher (or lower) than 6 spaces, so long as the space Shiori is placed on meets the 6-level limit and Shiori is placed adjacent to the target (not adjacent to Shiori's original location).

Am I misreading this?
Click to expand...
I came up with that clarification while I was writing the Book. I tried to anticipate questions that may come up, and their answers. I hope I didn't make a mistake.

My understanding is that in terms of rules language, "spaces" are not defined as "adjacent", only figures can be "adjacent". Therefore when the Special Attack reads "choose an opponent's figure within 2 clear sight spaces of Shiori and place Shiori on an empty space adjacent to that figure that is not more than 6 spaces higher or lower than Shiori's base.", "adjacent" is referring to Shiori.

In other words Shiori should be adjacent, not the empty space.

If she does choose a space where she would be adjacent, it would be by necessity no more than 4 spaces below the base of her opponent. If she chooses a space where her base would be 5 or 6 spaces lower than her target's, she wouldn't be adjacent once placed there (since her height is 5) and thus wouldn't meet the requirement of the SA to be placed there.

Maybe I'm the one who's reading it wrong and she could be placed there. But even if I am, once she was placed she wouldn't be able to make an attack, because the range of the SA is 1 and can only be used against a figure with which she is engaged.
 
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Here's the scenario I'm picturing:

  1. Let's say that Shiori's base is on level zero (for easy math).
  2. She is 2 clear sight spaces from a target whose base is on level 10.
  3. At this point, she is definitely not adjacent to the target.
  4. Per her Special Attack, she places herself on an intervening space - one that is adjacent to the target and on level 6 (no more than 6 levels above her own base).
  5. Once Shiori is placed in this new position, the target is adjacent to and engaged with Shiori, as the target's base is only 4 levels higher than her new position (and thus within her height).
  6. She then attacks the target with her Special Attack.

I think this works with the card text as written, but I welcome feedback if I'm incorrect.

Basically, my read is that the "no more than 6 levels higher" phrase refers to the relative position of the space she is placed on, rather than referring to the relative position of the target. I agree that once placed she must be adjacent to the target, but that is achievable even if the target is more than 6 levels higher than her starting point -- so long as an appropriate intervening space exists.
 
I see what you're saying, basically that 6 spaces above or below is comparing Shiori's starting and landing positions rather than her landing position compared with her target's position.

I did read the text as comparing the latter rather than the former.

Does anyone else read it that way? if so I'll remove the ruling. or perhaps modify it to clarify what it does mean.
 
I agree emphatically with Grison's interpretation. The notion that the phrase "not more than 6 spaces above or below Shiori's base" refers to the targeted figure rather than the space Shiori moves to simply doesn't make any grammatical sense; placed in context, the phrase pretty clearly refers to the space Shiori is moving to, and is pretty clearly comparing her initial and landing positions (because of the "Shiori's base" clause). As such, the card does seem to read that the opposing figure itself could be 6 spaces higher or lower than Shiori so long as she can engage them on an intervening space. To be somewhat churlish, I think it's also somewhat offputting that the ruling in the Book isn't actually an official ruling; but that might just be me.
 
I apologize for my presumption. The offending clarification has been removed.
 
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The power text in this case does require a fairly careful reading, so I appreciate the opportunity for discussion. I wish they would have reordered the phrase or broken it up a bit as follows:

Official Text
...Before each attack, you must choose an opponent's figure within 2 clear sight spaces of Shiori and place Shiori on an empty space adjacent to that figure that is not more than 6 spaces higher or lower than Shiori's base...
Click to expand...
Suggested Text
(changes underlined)

Reordered version:
...Before each attack, you must choose an opponent's figure within 2 clear sight spaces of Shiori and place Shiori adjacent to that figure on an empty space that is not more than 6 spaces higher or lower than Shiori's base...
Click to expand...

Broken up version:
...Before each attack, you must choose an opponent's figure within 2 clear sight spaces of Shiori and place Shiori on an empty space adjacent to that figure. This space must be no more than 6 spaces higher or lower than Shiori's base...
Click to expand...

Other Thoughts
There's definitely a lot going on with this power. I'm just now realizing that Shiori could even be placed on a space up to 3 spaces away from her starting position (on the opposite side of a figure within 2 clear sight spaces). Over the course of three attacks, she can potentially cover a lot of ground during this attack sequence.
 
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ThrasherDarkrai said:
I think it's also somewhat offputting that the ruling in the Book isn't actually an official ruling; but that might just be me.
Click to expand...
It's not just you. I was also puzzled to see that R&C given that I knew it couldn't be from an official source, not to mention it provided the correct answer through incorrect reasoning.

ThrasherDarkrai said:
Just_A_Bill mentioned this in the "Heroscape is Coming Back!" thread, but there are a lot of things odd about Shiori's sculpt. It seems to have no mechanical relationship to the card (a Mirror Image power of some kind would have made more sense) and creates a weird situation where seeing the two "clones" doesn't enable you to shoot Shiori, but Raelin seeing the two "clones" does enable her to grant a defense buff. He nailed it on the head when he said that it seemed like something Avalon Hill - and now Renegade - went with because it looked cool, not because it makes sense with her mechanical design.
Click to expand...
Yup, it makes for a kewl and dynamic sculpt, but it's problematic thematically and gameplay-wise. She's not meant to actually be in three places at once, but when it comes to being targeted by Braxas' Acid Breath, Atlaga's Bolt of Witherwood, or any other offensive power that targets using clear sight, she may as well be. She's basically more vulnerable to such powers for no other reason than to be an aberration from all other Heroscape sculpts.
 
Stupid question, can Shiori make a ninjutsu mastery special attack after a successful Kieru 14? It says "If Shiori did not move normally, she may attack with Ninjutsu Mastery Special Attack up to three times." I understand under an order token that if she does not make a normal move, she can pull off her big move, but can she do so after being attacked and rolling a successful Kieru 14 and she moves within striking distance of an enemy figure?
 
I got a game in with Shiori tonight. Her special attack is quite satisfying to pull off. It does give her pretty solid map movement against any kind of squad rabble. That said, I don't think she's worth 110 points.
 
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