Alright, so I'm stuck watching my store on the slowest day I can remember. To kill some time I've been pondering what mechanics and themes to expect from the clans in L5R 2.0. I know it's too early. I know there is no point. That's the point.

Here's what I think:

Crab: They've been hinted to have an emphasis on holdings, so maybe a call back to fortifications? I expect large bodies, and/or people that are tough to get rid of. Battle conflict emphasis, possibly with an edge towards winning on defense.

Crane: I expect mechanics to help them gain honor, with an edge in Political conflicts, as well as things that honor their personalities to make them more effective. I would expect a defensive playstyle to be encouraged, but wouldn't doubt that there would be enough teeth in the clan to punish anyone who overextends. I hope to see some dueling in the Political arena especially.

Dragon: Conflict deck or hand manipulation, either in looking at the top of the deck, rearranging it, putting cards on the bottom. I think they are going to be the Swiss Army Knife faction, so they'll want to have access to the options they need at the time. It's been hinted that they'll also support a Voltron playstyle, and this would support that too. I expect to see battle duels for Dragon.

Lion: We've been told to expect a lot of efficient and aggressive bodies. I would expect a minor emphasis on making their people honorable (since it's thematic and ties into the efficiency we've been told to expect), as well as ways to make their people stronger together or individually. I hope we see some sort of representation of the Lion tacticians as well. Maybe people who don't fight the battles themselves, but assist from outside of it.

Phoenix: They've said Phoenix will be focused on diffusing conflicts, so I'm imagining a fair amount of soft control from them to keep your opponents busy. We've already seen a couple examples of fiddling with the rules of a conflict and switching rings around, so that kinda supports that. Magic is a given, but I think they'll also be honor focused and in the political arena primarily.

Scorpion: I'm expecting some self honor loss mitigation. They've told us that Scorpion will be drawing lots of cards during the bidding, so they'll need a way to keep from bottoming out. They'll probably be the best at causing a dishonor loss for opponents, as they traditionally have been. I expect they'll be able to do a mix of military and political, but won't necessarily be the strongest on either without sufficient tricks. Instead, they'll dishonor opposing personalities so that they are less effective.

Unicorn: We know Unicorn will have mobility, but what does that mean when there aren't battles at multiple provinces? I expect that they'll be better than average at controlling the tempo of battles, something which I rarely felt the CCG captured. I'm really interested to see how they shake out.

Ok, that's it. Now I've got something to refresh for the next six hours and keep me occupied.

12 minutes ago, Kiseki said:

Unicorn: We know Unicorn will have mobility, but what does that mean when there aren't battles at multiple provinces? I expect that they'll be better than average at controlling the tempo of battles, something which I rarely felt the CCG captured. I'm really interested to see how they shake out.

You send Border Raider bowed home? I use her action to ready her and with this conflict card that targets Cavalry, I send her back into the battle.

You only defend with that guy? Let me reinforce with these cavalry characters using this/these conflict card(s).

The L5R site says: " brining your characters into and out of conflict to keep your opponent on edge".

Just now, Wintersong said:

You send Border Raider bowed home? I use her action to ready her and with this conflict card that targets Cavalry, I send her back into the battle.

You only defend with that guy? Let me reinforce with these cavalry characters sing this/these conflict card(s).

The L5R site says: " brining your characters into and out of conflict to keep your opponent on edge".

Great. Those seem to fit. Sorry, I'm still shedding baggage from before.

Phoenix can also be about avoiding conflict. I.e. letting your opponent break your Province undefended in exchange for some benefit, or benefits for not declaring your conflicts on a turn.

1 hour ago, Kiseki said:

Dragon: Conflict deck or hand manipulation, either in looking at the top of the deck, rearranging it, putting cards on the bottom. I think they are going to be the Swiss Army Knife faction, so they'll want to have access to the options they need at the time. It's been hinted that they'll also support a Voltron playstyle , and this would support that too. I expect to see battle duels for Dragon.

What is a Voltron playstyle? You get pieces of things that become something much greater than the individual pieces?

11 minutes ago, slowreflex said:

What is a Voltron playstyle? You get pieces of things that become something much greater than the individual pieces?

Having one main character you rely on and put every attachment on them. Just suping up one guy to be megastrong.

Just now, Network57 said:

Having one main character you rely on and put every attachment on them. Just suping up one guy to be megastrong.

Oh right. As they've said removal will be in the game, those strategies scare me a bit... unless that clan has a way to prevent removal of course.

Scorpion will have ninjas. Ninjas may have effects to look at face-down province cards?

That would be useful for a change.

Unicorn will have to be fast to make Breakthrough work, otherwise it'll just be clogging up their hands.

2 minutes ago, slowreflex said:

Oh right. As they've said removal will be in the game, those strategies scare me a bit... unless that clan has a way to prevent removal of course.

Yes, one famous example of a Voltron deck was the Phoenix stronghold that allowed you to bow a shugenja to negate effects of an action targeting a samurai. The typical build was several powerful samurai and loads of cheap shugenja. Then they would do things that let them blow two people up and cancel their own samurai's destruction. There have been other examples though. Unicorn and Crab with some of their champions have basically been in that vein.

3 minutes ago, slowreflex said:

Oh right. As they've said removal will be in the game, those strategies scare me a bit... unless that clan has a way to prevent removal of course.

There's probably a way to add Fate to attachments. But yes, Voltron personalities depend upon cards staying in play once they're there.

1 minute ago, Network57 said:

There's probably a way to add Fate to attachments. But yes, Voltron personalities depend upon cards staying in play once they're there.

There is an off chance that the design team ported over the attachment system from GoT where when a character leaves play with an attachment, the attachment returns to your hand unless it had a specific keyword on it.

4 minutes ago, Danwarr said:

There is an off chance that the design team ported over the attachment system from GoT where when a character leaves play with an attachment, the attachment returns to your hand unless it had a specific keyword on it.

Yeah, we haven't seen the full rules on those, so that's a real possibility. Or even a stronghold/holding that lets you save them to another personality.

I'm interested to see if/how ranged attacks are portrayed in this version, and which clan will focus on them...

1 minute ago, JJ48 said:

I'm interested to see if/how ranged attacks are portrayed in this version, and which clan will focus on them...

I actually came close to wondering if it would be a Unicorn thing, since they have had horse archer themes before. Traditionally, Crane has had some archers, but I don't know which other clans would have more than a splash. (Exempting Mantis of course, since they'd be the logical choice).

11 minutes ago, slowreflex said:

Oh right. As they've said removal will be in the game, those strategies scare me a bit... unless that clan has a way to prevent removal of course.

Your Mirumoto Voltron will have some fate tokens on it so will be protected of many stuff that affect fateless characters, while lasting enough turns to be a pain. About stuff that affects fated guys, in one Team Covenant video they explained how one beefy bushi was stuck about 3 turns without attacking based on conflict tricks outside of battle played by the opponent. And you could always get it blackmailed by your friendly neighborhood Scorpion during battle.

Tau in Conquest had the attachments thing and it was quite neat because of searching and moving.

3 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

I'm interested to see if/how ranged attacks are portrayed in this version, and which clan will focus on them...

Based on what we know about the combat system right now, I wonder if this is going to be a keyword at all. It could be something like "bow a character with less military power" or something, but I'm almost more inclined to think it might not be anything as the combat system is just a straight number check.

3 minutes ago, Danwarr said:

Based on what we know about the combat system right now, I wonder if this is going to be a keyword at all. It could be something like "bow a character with less military power" or something, but I'm almost more inclined to think it might not be anything as the combat system is just a straight number check.

A full fledged kill action printed on a character does seem out of line with what we know, but it could be represented by a mechanic like that.

I would not be surprised for some stuff like with Cavalry, triggering effects from some cards. Certainly there must be something if archers are to be a thing, Wasp or not.

32 minutes ago, Kakita Shijin said:

Scorpion will have ninjas. Ninjas may have effects to look at face-down province cards?

Don't be silly Ninjas don't exist...

I still have somewhere my Scorpion Ninja deck sleeved (Bayushi Muhito, Shosuro Aroru, Shosuro Toson, Yogo Rieko, Takaharu) . In Old5R that ability was usefull cause it helped you choose what province to attack in order to deprive your opponent his personalities, now since provinces don't go away when they break I don't think that effect will do much...

Library. Shrine. Sounds like a holding to me. But why is there no name at the top? Well, attachments have a name on the left border of the card. My theory: Holdings are attachments for provinces.

1 minute ago, C3gorach said:

Don't be silly Ninjas don't exist...

Did I say ninja? Oh no I meant Miyas. Scorpion clan will have Miyas.

2 minutes ago, Yandia said:

Library. Shrine. Sounds like a holding to me. But why is there no name at the top? Well, attachments have a name on the left border of the card. My theory: Holdings are attachments for provinces.

Broken province = bye bye holdings on the province? As they do not provide Fate, no economy harm per se.

2 minutes ago, Wintersong said:

Broken province = bye bye holdings on the province? As they do not provide Fate, no economy harm per se.

That seems sensible. An extra card to draw every turn seems extremely powerful, so it'd make sense for it to be easily destructible too.

6 minutes ago, C3gorach said:

Don't be silly Ninjas don't exist...

I still have somewhere my Scorpion Ninja deck sleeved (Bayushi Muhito, Shosuro Aroru, Shosuro Toson, Yogo Rieko, Takaharu) . In Old5R that ability was usefull cause it helped you choose what province to attack in order to deprive your opponent his personalities, now since provinces don't go away when they break I don't think that effect will do much...

The ability to peek at the province card itself before assignment could be useful though. That way you don't walk into that Unicorn province face first with only one loaded down guy.

I don't think "Kill" effects will be anything like we were used to (Ranged / Melee / Destroy). They will probably do some sort of Fate Manipulation, like the "Jade Testubo" on the preview article.