4 hours ago, Ide Yoshiya said:

I stand by it, simply because this is probably the only version of her that will always be tournament-legal.

Not necessarily. FFG is fond of printing alternate versions of their uniques for Game of Thrones in the evergreen deluxe sets for their faction. That will probably continue on in L5R.

9 hours ago, JRosen9 said:

Anyone notice that Kaezin has no gender? "If IT loses send IT home" (Emphasis mine)

Common for FFF card games. Uses the singular neuter. Even something like a group of female courtesans would have "it" on the card gametext.

Kakita Kaezin stole Toshimoko's flavor text!

1 hour ago, Heimdall Ulf said:

Kakita Kaezin stole Toshimoko's flavor text!

That is actually the Kakita family motto, so it sort of doesn't matter whose card says it.

I've gotta say, I'm really loving how FFG has made this Clan feel mechanically.

Control mechanics from the lorewise (second) most politically controlling Clan is brilliant, especially with the card revealing draws, and dueling. You instantly know what this Clan wants to do but have tools to really focus any of their specialties!

Taken just on its own Crane seems really strong. We'll need to see the other Clans to be sure, but I feel like the power level of this game is going to be pretty high for there to be balance.

13 hours ago, kpsmith said:

The Crane never go on the military offensive in the stories, but the defensive.

Seriously??? We've seen exactly ONE story and Hotaru went full on offense in it.

12 hours ago, Gaffa said:

The Way of the Crane is a Conflict card with no Influence value. Which means you won't be able to splash it into non-Crane decks. Which seems extremely appropriate (Way of the Lion also lacks Influence).

How are you coming to this conclusion?? None of the Neutral cards have influence either. By your example, NONE of the neutral cards can be put in to decks. It seems like, to me, that cards with no influence value are free to include in any deck.

Just now, Sparks Duh said:

How are you coming to this conclusion?? None of the Neutral cards have influence either. By your example, NONE of the neutral cards can be put in to decks. It seems like, to me, that cards with no influence value are free to include in any deck.

By inference from how Netrunner handles its influence cards.

In Netrunner, all neutral cards can be played by any faction. Most have zero influence cost as a result (some rare neutral cards cost influence for all factions, as they're pretty potent effects).

But faction-aligned cards can either have influence, or not have an influence value at all. If it's faction-aligned with no influence, you cannot play it out of faction.

None of the neutral L5R conflict cards have an influence cost (and we already know we can include them in any clan). The only previewed conflict cards we've seen with clan alignment but without an influence cost are the Way of the Clan cards. Since the influence mechanic was imported from Netrunner, it would make sense that it would include the restrictions from Netrunner as well (faction-aligned cards without influence cannot be played out of faction). That the examples we have of this are the Way of the Clan philosophy cards, which presumably the designers want to only be played in the appropriate clan for thematic reasons, supports this pretty well.

Obviously, rules aren't out yet. It will be interesting to see if they change the way faction-aligned cards handle influence.

1 minute ago, Gaffa said:

By inference from how Netrunner handles its influence cards.

In Netrunner, all neutral cards can be played by any faction. Most have zero influence cost as a result (some rare neutral cards cost influence for all factions, as they're pretty potent effects).

But faction-aligned cards can either have influence, or not have an influence value at all. If it's faction-aligned with no influence, you cannot play it out of faction.

None of the neutral L5R conflict cards have an influence cost (and we already know we can include them in any clan). The only previewed conflict cards we've seen with clan alignment but without an influence cost are the Way of the Clan cards. Since the influence mechanic was imported from Netrunner, it would make sense that it would include the restrictions from Netrunner as well (faction-aligned cards without influence cannot be played out of faction). That the examples we have of this are the Way of the Clan philosophy cards, which presumably the designers want to only be played in the appropriate clan for thematic reasons, supports this pretty well.

Obviously, rules aren't out yet. It will be interesting to see if they change the way faction-aligned cards handle influence.

Ok... If that IS how it works, why is it so unintuitive? Couldn't they just put a - in the influence slot if it can't be influenced on clan cards? That, to me, would make way more sense than having the influence cost look EXACTLY the same as neutral cards in every way. If there are neutral cards later on that have an influence cost, I know I have to pay for it, but don't have to pay for any that don't because they are free. When I look at clan cards, I can see what their influence cost is and if there is none, it should be free... Not 'oh except if they are clan cards, blah, blah, blah...'

If one card's cost looks identical to another, they should both cost the same, imo.

Just now, Sparks Duh said:

Ok... If that IS how it works, why is it so unintuitive?

Unintuitive is in the mind of the beholder. Obviously it made sense to them when they were making Netrunner, and it hasn't confused any of Netrunner's considerable number of players so far.

But we'll have to wait for the rules to see how much was ported over to L5R. I'm just really feeling that if you can't play any of the factional dynasty cards, not gaining access to the fundamental Way of the Clan card would seem to make sense. But then that's what's intuitive to me, so there you go.

Just now, Gaffa said:

Unintuitive is in the mind of the beholder. Obviously it made sense to them when they were making Netrunner, and it hasn't confused any of Netrunner's considerable number of players so far.

But we'll have to wait for the rules to see how much was ported over to L5R. I'm just really feeling that if you can't play any of the factional dynasty cards, not gaining access to the fundamental Way of the Clan card would seem to make sense. But then that's what's intuitive to me, so there you go.

Oh I get what you're saying and I actually believe that's how it's gonna be, but it still seems better to have costs all mean the same thing on all the cards. Not cost mean one thing for one card and the same exact value mean something different on another card.

There are some really great defensive and offensive options for the political side of Crane. But I'm still not sold on dueling. Maybe I'm just used to it being too powerful in the old game but so far I want to avoid building a dueling deck with Crane.

Both cards that allow you to do duels are military actions, which is the Clan's weak point. Seems like Kazezin will be one of the better Crane Duelists since they are showing him off and gave him a name. 3 Military seems good but we see that natural values can be as high as 6 so it is safe to say we will probably see cards with military values higher than this, especially with the Lion and Crab.

Add to it that your opponent gets to choose who he uses, that you will probably have to sacrifice honor to win, and the biggest problem is if you lose you are out what will probably be one of your best Crane military guys. My initial thought is that he is pretty bad. But this is still just speculation and other cards could change my mind.

3 hours ago, Sparks Duh said:

Seriously??? We've seen exactly ONE story and Hotaru went full on offense in it.

Not really. The rice caravan was attacked by bandits, and the Crane guards didn't just stand by and let it happen.

Does this mean we're almost out of the miserably dreary Crane-infested woods? Maybe we'll hear about someone else now? Maybe?

I will say though, that if Hotaru is an indicator, Clan Champs could be Emperor/Lotus-grade day-ruiners in the LCG...

5 minutes ago, Shiba Gunichi said:

Does this mean we're almost out of the miserably dreary Crane-infested woods? Maybe we'll hear about someone else now? Maybe?

I will say though, that if Hotaru is an indicator, Clan Champs could be Emperor/Lotus-grade day-ruiners in the LCG...

FFG wanted to make it clear from the get go, that other Clans do not matter.

You would be tactless barbarians, if it weren't for the glory and wisdom of the Crane.

1 minute ago, Daner0023 said:

FFG wanted to make it clear from the get go, that other Clans do not matter.

You would be tactless barbarians, if it weren't for the glory and wisdom of the Crane.

In fact, the 2nd edition of the LCG will get rid of any other clan and we will play as families of the Crane competing with each other for being the most fabulous family of the Clan. Once it has been settled that FFG can get rid of Mantis and Spider, why not Great Clans? Legend of the Five Cranes*.

* Yasuki does count

16 minutes ago, Wintersong said:

In fact, the 2nd edition of the LCG will get rid of any other clan and we will play as families of the Crane competing with each other for being the most fabulous family of the Clan. Once it has been settled that FFG can get rid of Mantis and Spider, why not Great Clans? Legend of the Five Cranes*.

* Yasuki does count

Can we get the Suzume in a deluxe expansion?

For those tracking the core set:

How many unspoiled Crane cards are there now? I've seen lists that say every Crane card is spoiled. Is that true?

3 hours ago, Sparks Duh said:

Oh I get what you're saying and I actually believe that's how it's gonna be, but it still seems better to have costs all mean the same thing on all the cards. Not cost mean one thing for one card and the same exact value mean something different on another card.

In thrones, cards that couldn't be included in other decks had a little banner under their faction icon, to indicate loyalty.

It would have been nice to throw that into the card template somehow.

But, considering it's only conflict cards that can be splashed anyway, the absence of a price seems pretty clear. Especially in the context of the only cards that are that way are the clans' signature card. It would certainly be odd if the Lion clan were practicing the Way of the Crane.

1 minute ago, Joe From Cincinnati said:

For those tracking the core set:

How many unspoiled Crane cards are there now? I've seen lists that say every Crane card is spoiled. Is that true?

There are some assumptions required to say that we've now seen every Crane card. Even then, there are some that we have only seem glimpses of, rather than full details:

Assumptions, in order of decreasing likelihood (although I'd say even the last assumption is odds-on):

• There's only 1 Province card per faction.
• Steward of Law is the first Crane Conflict card.
• Asahina Artisan is the first Crane Dynasty card.
• Noble Sacrifice is the last Crane Conflict card.

Partially-spoiled cards

• Doji Whisperer needs accurate text.
• Something (Daidoji??) Scout needs accurate text.
• The 3-cost Conflict character needs accurate text and influence cost.

- Doji Whisper has a blank text box.

- The scout is unfortunatly obscured by fate counters

- the 3 cost Politcal Rival? seem to have the keyword Courtesy and the text This/your characters gain 1+ Politcal while defending. Are you sure it's a conflict card?

18 minutes ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

There are some assumptions required to say that we've now seen every Crane card. Even then, there are some that we have only seem glimpses of, rather than full details:

Assumptions, in order of decreasing likelihood (although I'd say even the last assumption is odds-on):

• There's only 1 Province card per faction.
• Steward of Law is the first Crane Conflict card.
• Asahina Artisan is the first Crane Dynasty card.
• Noble Sacrifice is the last Crane Conflict card.

Partially-spoiled cards

• Doji Whisperer needs accurate text.
• Something (Daidoji??) Scout needs accurate text.
• The 3-cost Conflict character needs accurate text and influence cost.

Wow, so that's almost complete. After the next preview article, it could be possible for us to cobble together complete decks and test :D.

5 minutes ago, Mig el Pig said:

- Doji Whisper has a blank text box.

- The scout is unfortunatly obscured by fate counters

- the 3 cost Politcal Rival? seem to have the keyword Courtesy and the text This/your characters gain 1+ Politcal while defending. Are you sure it's a conflict card?

Has someone collected the card fans and other images from the articles together on one website? Or are you guys just going back through the articles to see the images?

13 minutes ago, Mig el Pig said:

- Doji Whisper has a blank text box.

- The scout is unfortunatly obscured by fate counters

- the 3 cost Politcal Rival? seem to have the keyword Courtesy and the text This/your characters gain 1+ Politcal while defending. Are you sure it's a conflict card?

Thanks for the first. My spreadsheet just had it empty. I've added <> to distinguish.

I'm pretty sure that ?Political Rival? can't be a dynasty card - it would have to fit between Doji Challenger (47) and Kakita Asami (48) if it was. OTOH, it perfectly fits in the gap between Steward of Law (139) and Above Question (141).

5 minutes ago, Joe From Cincinnati said:

Wow, so that's almost complete. After the next preview article, it could be possible for us to cobble together complete decks and test :D.

Has someone collected the card fans and other images from the articles together on one website? Or are you guys just going back through the articles to see the images?

Personally, I have a google sheet that I refer to, but am also aware that there's an imgur album somewhere.

5 hours ago, shineyorkboy said:

Taken just on its own Crane seems really strong. We'll need to see the other Clans to be sure, but I feel like the power level of this game is going to be pretty high for there to be balance.

Got to admit, I was thinking the same thing. However, the counter to that is the fading, mono no aware, concept. You can't keep building up a board state, so maybe the individual cards need to be more powerful. At least, that's my current thinking, but we'll have to see if that's how it works out in play.