I am Happy happy Crane player. Though they did not say specifically that Harriers will be back the insinuation is that they are. Swwwwwweeeeeettttttt

I loved the Harriers. Don't know if you guessed...

Even though I liked Dojo Domotai, the decision to dissonlve the Harriers always bothered me, so I am glad if I can see them back in action.

I always utterly loathed them, but that was as much about execution as concept- if they can include the Crane's scuzzy ninja while not having them overshadow the conventional Crane military in all ways, then I'll only hate them as much as the rest of their miserable Clan...

I liked the concept of the Harriers but they, indeed, should never be the main military arm of the Crane.

6 hours ago, Shiba Gunichi said:

overshadow the conventional Crane military in all ways

Let's be completely honest here: this isn't a big feat or something that should be too hard to accomplish.

Having a preference for a more peaceful, civilized way of life doesn't mean the Crane are weak. They managed to survive against the Lion and Crab for a 1000 years after all. They have the 3 biggest army, it's the only Clan that activly supported the Crab on the Wall. After all, the Daidoji are known as the Iron Crane for a reason.

The Harriers were a small, very specific elite unit. It would be like having a Cold War card game and all the soviet soldiers are Spetsnaz/KGB. It would give a distorted vision that creates conflicts with how the world is portrayed.

I agree, the main force of the Crane should be the Daidoji Iron Warriors, while the Harriers should be more like a secretive commando unit, which are send into very difficult situations but are highly trained special forces. I always saw them as the Green Barrets or something like that of the Crane Clan.

Anyone else got the hint that the Harriers will be able to discard from the opponent's deck? As a fan of Anarch in A:NR, I love this.

17 minutes ago, Oliveira said:

Anyone else got the hint that the Harriers will be able to discard from the opponent's deck? As a fan of Anarch in A:NR, I love this.

I didn't pick up on that but if true then Crane truly is straight up MTG blue

Counter, mill, sorta scrying, and a few highly effective characters.

6 hours ago, AtoMaki said:

Let's be completely honest here: this isn't a big feat or something that should be too hard to accomplish.

Heh.

While you have a point, I'd rather have the Iron Crane type guys be known as the core of the more 'badass' Crane military, and let the Harriers just be skilled scouts that excel at certain types of sabotage and, well...harrying their foes.

15 hours ago, Shiba Gunichi said:

I always utterly loathed them, but that was as much about execution as concept- if they can include the Crane's scuzzy ninja while not having them overshadow the conventional Crane military in all ways, then I'll only hate them as much as the rest of their miserable Clan...

The Harriers, like their cousins the Scorpion ninja, were the kind of thing that always struck me as pointlessly divisive because the setting made them pointlessly divisive, and then everyone acted like the pointlessly divisive parts were integral to their existence instead of totally stapled on.

Like, do the Harriers need to be "scuzzy ninja"? Why not just... they're good at recon and focused on making it too costly to advance into Crane territory rather than defeating invading armies, and they're secretive because of the covert nature of their missions? That's basically the whole premise of the Harriers, we don't need to add "and they're super dishonorable and have to be kept totally secret because everyone should hate them even though, aside from gunpowder which is incredibly inconsistently portrayed, we never really show why they should be so detested!"

We'll see how they portray them as all the stuff the others did may not apply. Personally I hope they go for the elite warriors who are willing to use less honourable (as in poisoning water wells) etc actions.

The problem with the ccg was that every crane daidoji card became harriers which put pressure on the story team. As long as they mix and match I dont see any problem.

7 hours ago, Matrim said:

We'll see how they portray them as all the stuff the others did may not apply. Personally I hope they go for the elite warriors who are willing to use less honourable (as in poisoning water wells) etc actions.

The problem with the ccg was that every crane daidoji card became harriers which put pressure on the story team. As long as they mix and match I dont see any problem.

This. It's one thing to have an exception. When the exception grows to eclipse everything else, you get the uber-sneaky Scorpion who blackmail, assassinate, manipulate, and then send a bunch of lucky idiots who win battles despite an utter lack of tactics.

4 minutes ago, SirEuain said:

This. It's one thing to have an exception. When the exception grows to eclipse everything else, you get the uber-sneaky Scorpion who blackmail, assassinate, manipulate, and then send a bunch of lucky idiots who win battles despite an utter lack of tactics.

"Dark Sword Of Bitter Lies" has a place in Rokugan.

That place is in the Mantis Clan.

Though at least with that, it came from player involvement in the story, so it was an organic growth of something that didn't match the overall plan, instead of a part of the plan that didn't make sense.

1 minute ago, Huitzil37 said:

"Dark Sword Of Bitter Lies" has a place in Rokugan.

That place is in the Mantis Clan.

Though at least with that, it came from player involvement in the story, so it was an organic growth of something that didn't match the overall plan, instead of a part of the plan that didn't make sense.

Oh, it belonged in the Scorpion to represent the one-off card that players did use to somehow win on occasion, it just shouldn't have been the bloated mess it became.

Here's hoping FFG avoids the pitfall of selling off major clan themes in minor tournaments, though.