So, back to Disciples of the Void. It kind of amused me that the role in the Phoenix pack would be a role that only Phoenix couldn't use ever. So I started to wondering if there was ever any reason for a Phoenix deck to take that role. The only one that I can think of is for Clan Loyalty reasons - I'm so loyal that I don't even splash other Clans' cards into my deck.

Anyone think of anything else?

I don't see how stocking issues is an argument. If no one had waited, the packs would have sold out even faster and the same number of people would be frustrated by not being able to get one.

3 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

Ok, let me address this, as it is an argument that I hear too much, although it’s wrong, at least in my case.

I live in Spain. If you go to FFG Spain’s website, you’ll see that the Core and every single Imperial cycle pack is sold out and restocking. And this happened the same day that they were launched. Possibility of restocking? Probably it’ll take a year.

One of my Friends tried to buy the 2nd pack a few days ago. Our LGS was out of stock without possibility of ordering it to the distributor (Asmodee) as it is sold out. He had to move to a bigger city and had to visit 5 different game shops until he found it (the last pack they had). The other option was ordering it online, and then pay 15€ + 6 or 10€ in delivery fees, which makes it a very expensive option

Two others from my playgroup bought 3 cores and splitted by clans. Now they want another 3 cores. They had to bought them online, paying delivery fees, of course.

The guys that wanted to buy the game for Christmas? Our LGS was willing to keep 3 cores for them from launch till Christmas. But it’s not gonna held the 6 packs during 6 months so they can buy them one a month. It was all the expansions or nothing. So we’re back to the online option with the delivery fees, and if you take too long you may not find it.

Thing is, right now, if you want to play L5R in my country you have to buy everything that comes out within a month of launching or risk not being able to find it later. Waiting for reprint is out of question too. Others FFG LCG have been in “restocking” for more than a year...

And, apart from that, the objective of a LCG is having fun, and, even playing casual, if you’re losing all the time and feel underpowered also all the time, you’re probably not gonna have too much fun. The guy who’s buying the packs now was frustrated by playing against those of us who had all the cards. Specially against the magistrates he had too much of a hard time and no possibility of changing his deck to face them, as the core card pool was too limited. Long story short, he ended up caving and is now trying to buy all the packs as fast as his monthly income lets him.

Except if you buy them online, there is no delivery fee in most stores if you spend over something (Zacatrus is 45 or 50€). So, buying 2 cores gets no delivery fees in spanish online stores. Same with expansions at the same time, as each is 15€.

9 minutes ago, Sendatsu said:

Except if you buy them online, there is no delivery fee in most stores if you spend over something (Zacatrus is 45 or 50€). So, buying 2 cores gets no delivery fees in spanish online stores. Same with expansions at the same time, as each is 15€.

I think you'll find given the shortage of stock most online sales are secondary market for them so shipping is not going to be covered unless they work it out as part of the deal.

33 minutes ago, Sendatsu said:

Except if you buy them online, there is no delivery fee in most stores if you spend over something (Zacatrus is 45 or 50€). So, buying 2 cores gets no delivery fees in spanish online stores. Same with expansions at the same time, as each is 15€.

We live in the Canary Islands. There’s always delivery fees (also customs, but let’s not go there) And even without that, you have to buy all the packs at once to get free delivery. So the problem remains the same: you can’t dictate your own buying rhythm.

11 hours ago, Vlad3theImpaler said:

I believe both assertions are based on anecdotal evidence rather than actual data.

I tend towards skepticism about any claims of what "the vast majority" does that aren't actually backed by any evidence.

Hence the words "I believe". 100% opinion based on anecdotal evidence. Nothing to fret about.

7 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

Ok, let me address this, as it is an argument that I hear too much, although it’s wrong, at least in my case.

I live in Spain. If you go to FFG Spain’s website, you’ll see that the Core and every single Imperial cycle pack is sold out and restocking. And this happened the same day that they were launched. Possibility of restocking? Probably it’ll take a year.

One of my Friends tried to buy the 2nd pack a few days ago. Our LGS was out of stock without possibility of ordering it to the distributor (Asmodee) as it is sold out. He had to move to a bigger city and had to visit 5 different game shops until he found it (the last pack they had). The other option was ordering it online, and then pay 15€ + 6 or 10€ in delivery fees, which makes it a very expensive option

Two others from my playgroup bought 3 cores and splitted by clans. Now they want another 3 cores. They had to bought them online, paying delivery fees, of course.

The guys that wanted to buy the game for Christmas? Our LGS was willing to keep 3 cores for them from launch till Christmas. But it’s not gonna held the 6 packs during 6 months so they can buy them one a month. It was all the expansions or nothing. So we’re back to the online option with the delivery fees, and if you take too long you may not find it.

Thing is, right now, if you want to play L5R in my country you have to buy everything that comes out within a month of launching or risk not being able to find it later. Waiting for reprint is out of question too. Others FFG LCG have been in “restocking” for more than a year...

And, apart from that, the objective of a LCG is having fun, and, even playing casual, if you’re losing all the time and feel underpowered also all the time, you’re probably not gonna have too much fun. The guy who’s buying the packs now was frustrated by playing against those of us who had all the cards. Specially against the magistrates he had too much of a hard time and no possibility of changing his deck to face them, as the core card pool was too limited. Long story short, he ended up caving and is now trying to buy all the packs as fast as his monthly income lets him.

Ooo-k, that sounds really bad. Are the restocking times really that bad? The guys I got my order from are restocked already, barring For Honor and Glory.

10 hours ago, caseycheesecake said:

Hence the words "I believe". 100% opinion based on anecdotal evidence. Nothing to fret about.

Who was fretting?

Fantasy Flight France put the Disciples of the Void announcement article a couple of days ago (talk about translation speed...). Same thing, but a little different arrangement in the multiple cards image:

Not too much to notice, except for the fact that we can clearly see that the Fire Tensai Initiate, contrary to the rumors, doesn't seem to have any keyword like Courtesy or Covert. We know that she also doesn't have any ability, so I'm back to my initial guess that she is a high glory character and must be honored to be useful, apart from her Scholar trait being useful for Phoenix (supposedly).

PS: Do I look desperate for news, posting minutiae like this? Well, that's because I AM! C'mon, FFG, give me some real news!

If she is a 4 glory Scholar so she can be honored Asako Tsuki and a Shugenja to bow for Benten's Touch I think I will play her.

Yeah, 2, maaaybe 3 glory seems more likely. 1-cost conditional 2-2 seems about average, so that's what I'd expect. Do we know if she's Dynasty deck or Conflict?

2 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

Fantasy Flight France put the Disciples of the Void announcement article a couple of days ago (talk about translation speed...). Same thing, but a little different arrangement in the multiple cards image:

Not too much to notice, except for the fact that we can clearly see that the Fire Tensai Initiate, contrary to the rumors, doesn't seem to have any keyword like Courtesy or Covert. We know that she also doesn't have any ability, so I'm back to my initial guess that she is a high glory character and must be honored to be useful, apart from her Scholar trait being useful for Phoenix (supposedly).

PS: Do I look desperate for news, posting minutiae like this? Well, that's because I AM! C'mon, FFG, give me some real news!

She is also a fire card for the katana of Fire.

23 hours ago, AradonTemplar said:

Do we know if she's Dynasty deck or Conflict?

We still don’t know, but I’m expecting Conflict. Dynasty I think would be pretty useless. Conflict with high glory (3 or 4) makes more sense:

-When you know you’re gonna win a conflict with Asako Tsuki, as your last action you can drop her out of conflict and honor her, so she can defend or attack on the second conflict. With that glory and actual stronghold she can threaten province breaking by herself.

-Same while attacking with ring of Fire, or Display of Power the ring of Fire, dropping her out of conflict. Also, can work well with Shameful Display, dropping her in conflict. Oh, and maaaybe with Haughty Magistrate and some buffing? Katana of Fire puts her at +2 MIL by default, +4 if you claimed Fire ring, more if you honored her when taking the ring. But that cries Assassination...

-Panic-button Shugenja when you need one to play a spell. Although is difficult for Phoenix to not have a shugenja on board, if she’s conflict she can be a cheap splash for other clans, if only to run Cloud the Mind reliably, or some of the new Phoenix spells.

Of course she has some “drawbacks” (notice the quotation marks):

-Vulnerable to assassination. Although if you’re gonna spend your Assassination and 3 honor in a 1 cost character with no ability, good for me and the Phoenix dishonor game.

-Also, vulnerable to dishonor (when honored). But what Phoenix character isn’t? If you dishonor her when normal, she goes from 0/0 to 0/0, so waste of effort. You’ll wait for her to be honored, and get her to normal again. You’re not even gaining my 1-honor loss when she leaves the board. And then again, if you’re gonna spend one of your dishonor effects in my 1 Fate-no ability character, it means less dishonor for my important characters.

-She takes a conflict character slot. Well, that’s a real drawback. Depends on your splash.

Of course, all this only works if she has a minimum Glory of 3. Just 2 would be “meh” and probably not worth the conflict slot.

1 hour ago, Tabris2k said:

We still don’t know, but I’m expecting Conflict. Dynasty I think would be pretty useless. Conflict with high glory (3 or 4) makes more sense:

-When you know you’re gonna win a conflict with Asako Tsuki, as your last action you can drop her out of conflict and honor her, so she can defend or attack on the second conflict. With that glory and actual stronghold she can threaten province breaking by herself.

-Same while attacking with ring of Fire, or Display of Power the ring of Fire, dropping her out of conflict. Also, can work well with Shameful Display, dropping her in conflict. Oh, and maaaybe with Haughty Magistrate and some buffing? Katana of Fire puts her at +2 MIL by default, +4 if you claimed Fire ring, more if you honored her when taking the ring. But that cries Assassination...

-Panic-button Shugenja when you need one to play a spell. Although is difficult for Phoenix to not have a shugenja on board, if she’s conflict she can be a cheap splash for other clans, if only to run Cloud the Mind reliably, or some of the new Phoenix spells.

Of course she has some “drawbacks” (notice the quotation marks):

-Vulnerable to assassination. Although if you’re gonna spend your Assassination and 3 honor in a 1 cost character with no ability, good for me and the Phoenix dishonor game.

-Also, vulnerable to dishonor (when honored). But what Phoenix character isn’t? If you dishonor her when normal, she goes from 0/0 to 0/0, so waste of effort. You’ll wait for her to be honored, and get her to normal again. You’re not even gaining my 1-honor loss when she leaves the board. And then again, if you’re gonna spend one of your dishonor effects in my 1 Fate-no ability character, it means less dishonor for my important characters.

-She takes a conflict character slot. Well, that’s a real drawback. Depends on your splash.

Of course, all this only works if she has a minimum Glory of 3. Just 2 would be “meh” and probably not worth the conflict slot.

The fact that she is so dependent on being honored is what makes me think she will be dynasty character rather than conflict. As a 0/0 she has the ability to be a chump block stop me from losing honor for undefended body, plus she can potentially receive buffs by attachments. If she ends up as a conflict character even with the Shugenja keyword I don't see her ever making the cut when compared to Seeker of Knowledge, the New Archer Shrine Maiden and other 1 cost splash like Wayfinder that have useful abilities for the same or similar cost and aren't dependent on outside cards or effects to make the useful.

The archer lady gives me hope that something like her ability will be standard for how archery will be portrayed in this game. (i.e. If you have someone at the conflict, have the archer ready, and fulfill another condition and/or pay a cost, add the archer's stats to the conflict's stats). I look forward to a Tsuruchi deck with a bunch of archers who aren't individually very strong, but who can support multiple conflicts per turn, potentially.

(I am a bit curious as to how that fits with Political conflicts, thematically. "I can't be bothered to actually go to Court, but I can tie my positions on arrows and fire them in through the window!)

Another possibility is that there will be a significant number of power Spells included in the expansion and in future releases that require bowing and she is simply a cheap spell casting platform.

Went to my local game store to order something and figured I'd put a hold on a copy of Disciples of the Void. The guy there said, to my surprise, that it should hit next Thursday, which is a bit earlier than March. Not sure if it will pan out and if he was mistaken or had the wrong info, but I'm going to keep an ear to the ground.

The DotV release kit for Organized Play will be avalaible in April. I doubt they’ll release the clan pack more than a month before a kit that is supposedly to help the launch of said pack...

That being said, FFG Spain has it listed as Estimated: First trimester 2018, so I think definitely in late March.

12 hours ago, Swordbreaker said:

Went to my local game store to order something and figured I'd put a hold on a copy of Disciples of the Void. The guy there said, to my surprise, that it should hit next Thursday, which is a bit earlier than March. Not sure if it will pan out and if he was mistaken or had the wrong info, but I'm going to keep an ear to the ground.

It still shows as "In Development" on the Upcoming page.

6 hours ago, JJ48 said:

It still shows as "In Development" on the Upcoming page.

Just relaying what I was told. I found it surprising, and the guy at the store seemed pretty convinced, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

On 17/2/2018 at 6:54 PM, Tabris2k said:

The DotV release kit for Organized Play will be avalaible in April. I doubt they’ll release the clan pack more than a month before a kit that is supposedly to help the launch of said pack...

It would make sense if the kit is meant to be used when kit becomes OP legal.