3 minutes ago, TechnoGolem said:

Sigh, looks like I am in the minority here. This is one of the few things they've announced that I really dislike. The idea that I would have to lose honor to win duels is something I really hate as a Crane player. It looks like this is something that will happen nearly every duel. Thematically, I can see Scorpion and Crab players losing honor to win a duel but it doesn't work for Lion or Crane, especially the Crane. Why would a clan known for honor and skill in dueling need to "cheat" every duel to win when they are among the best duelists?

I'd prefer to see Fate used as a resource and duels with some conflict cards allowing you a bigger bonus at winning a duel by sacrificing honor do to cheats. Fate still uses a valuable resource and I think it works better thematically.

I really hope we learn more about dueling that will change my mind but it doesn't look good.

Nothing we know so far implies that the Crane won't have cards that will let them win honourably. the honour dial isn't the be all and end all of duelling, it's one portion of it.

For example, there could be an event that lets you set your Honour dial to be equal to that of your opponent during a duel. Or one that says give a +2 bonus to the Skill of a Duellist during a duel.

8 minutes ago, TechnoGolem said:

Sigh, looks like I am in the minority here. This is one of the few things they've announced that I really dislike. The idea that I would have to lose honor to win duels is something I really hate as a Crane player. It looks like this is something that will happen nearly every duel. Thematically, I can see Scorpion and Crab players losing honor to win a duel but it doesn't work for Lion or Crane, especially the Crane. Why would a clan known for honor and skill in dueling need to "cheat" every duel to win when they are among the best duelists?

I'd prefer to see Fate used as a resource and duels with some conflict cards allowing you a bigger bonus at winning a duel by sacrificing honor do to cheats. Fate still uses a valuable resource and I think it works better thematically.

I really hope we learn more about dueling that will change my mind but it doesn't look good.

I really don't think this is going to happen. I'd imagine a duellist deck would only realistically lose duels if the opponent was ready to completely tank their honour, which would most likely ruin them in a lot of other ways. I think it's a fairly safe assumption that as a Crane duellist, you can set your dial to 1 and still win the vast majority of times, because nobody's dumb enough to keep losing 3-4 honour every time you challenge them.

I also expect a Kakita Manipulator to reduce their dial by 1, allowing them to bid min 2 on duels and then reduce if they're overbidding.

Well, pick your adversaries, then. If you have to bid 5 on the dial to be sure to win the duel, you picked the wrong adversary.

If the Crane, and to a some point the Dragon, do not get lots of tricks for duels, I would be pleasantly surprised. But Crane basing their duels on just Political + Dial? No way.

21 minutes ago, TechnoGolem said:

Sigh, looks like I am in the minority here. This is one of the few things they've announced that I really dislike. The idea that I would have to lose honor to win duels is something I really hate as a Crane player. It looks like this is something that will happen nearly every duel. Thematically, I can see Scorpion and Crab players losing honor to win a duel but it doesn't work for Lion or Crane, especially the Crane. Why would a clan known for honor and skill in dueling need to "cheat" every duel to win when they are among the best duelists?

I'd prefer to see Fate used as a resource and duels with some conflict cards allowing you a bigger bonus at winning a duel by sacrificing honor do to cheats. Fate still uses a valuable resource and I think it works better thematically.

I really hope we learn more about dueling that will change my mind but it doesn't look good.

Well, you also have the character's own stat to take into consideration. Also, I would expect that there will be some kind of action window between a duel starting and a duel resolving, and would be very surprised if dueling clans don't get some kind of cards to help them out a bit.

Personally, I like that there's a trade-off here. In old L5R, most of the cards that caused duels or had good focus effects also had focus values of 3 or 4, making building a deck that could duel effectively laughably trivial! (Though, ensuring it could do other things as well could be a bit more difficult). Additionally, the opponent likely had few if any focus effects on his cards, meaning the dueling player wanted to focus more cards, whereas the opponent would just be trashing cards that could have been used for something else. Combine that with the fact that you probably have lots of high-Chi duelists while your opponent probably has relatively few, and there was little reason any dueling deck would ever lose a duel!

In new L5R, there's a cost for going with a higher focus value, and this goes both ways. Both players have to consider how badly they want to win and how badly the opponent wants to win. If I'm starting with the higher stat and I don't think my opponent can bump his up, I have two options: I can bid high enough that he can't possibly reach me, but risk that he'll realize this and bid low, causing a large honor loss; or I can bid low, expecting him to do the same and risk him bidding high and costing me the duel. Personally, I like that duels will no longer be a guaranteed win for the one side (though I do still expect duelists and cards that interact with them to at least give them a slight advantage).