Daidoji Uji and the Harriers

FFG's first Daidoji Uji

In high trees, two Daidoji men raised their hands, wound willow branches around their wrists, and slid gently to the ground. Beneath them, four more crept from the low brush. It was a simple matter to stay hidden in the thick Crane woodlands, a much more difficult thing to stay silent over the dried autumn leaves that covered the ground. Daidoji Uji glanced at his lieutenant, the black Kohl on his face dimming reflection. The man's blue-grey eyes glittered in the open moonlight, watching as his daimyo flickered his fingers against his stocky chest, Smiling, the younger man nodded. The raid would come soon.

Samurai were expected to be straightforward, honourable, loyal to their lords, and servants to the code of Bushido. Crane, in particular, held themselves to high standards of honour and to Kakita's lessons, known collectively as the Sword. They were duellists, masters of defeating one opponent with one strike.

Uji scowled as a branch snapped somewhere behind him. The Kakita knew nothing of using few men to defeat ten times their number. Victory came to those men most prepared to take it. Let them call the Diadoji honourless. Let them decry their hidden ways and revile their dangerous and dishonourable methods. Because of the Daidoji, the Crane lived to speak such things.

Three of his Samurai crossed an open patch of ground, their dark blue gi covered by patches of darker brown. Uji smiled. These men, forty in all, could destroy five hundred Lion tonight, if the fortunes favoured their strike.

copyright Ree Soesbee - The Crane

So the highly probable appearance of what the Crane clan members have almost universally assumed is Daidoji Uji on the cover of the Clan Clan box HERE caused a predictable burst of pleasure from most and a more bewildered, 'Who?' from newer five rings players. I felt a long and rambling digression on everyone's favourite Crane Warrior (even if they have not realised it yet) with lots of highly biased personal opinions based on shoddy memory would be entirely appropriate.

Uji care's not for art. That appears to be more a duck than a Crane on his armour

So who is Uji?

In Old5R Uji was one of the best Daidoji students and being the son of the Daidoji Daimyo and eventual Daimyo himself this is perhaps unsurprising. Not the most cheerful of people but a very sarcastic one with a dry wit. Not that he was known for being very talkative and he spoke in whispers a lot - probably with muttered imprecations on the ancestry of the idiots surrounding him. His entire focus was to protecting the Crane clan via (any) military means. His speciality was sabotage and guerrila warfare in a way more reminiscent of the Viet cong than traditional Japanese Ninja. Basically because, due to lack of numbers, they never had the strength  of more aggressive militant clans like the Lion and Unicorn.  This is regarded as a dishonourable approach and the Harriers use of gunpowder (and guns) was also highly suspect. Uji was noted for his wearing of a mempo (thus leading to the 'Shredder' comparisons) and his common use of two weapons simultaneously.

With regard to clans he intensely disliked the Scorpion possibly because he saw a Scorpion Clan member kill his father and he was broadly favourable to the Crab clan with the notable exception of the Yasuki family who he would happily wipe out, destroy, blow up on contact.

Uji's career was epic in almost all ways and he was so popular that when players were given a choice as to a 'dead' character to return to life Uji was a popular choice. AEG did the normal thing of making the last version a more bitter and dark Uji than before. For those interested in old lore I would recommend reading up on some of the wiki sites which list his career in far more detail. This is new lore but the old explains why a lot of Crane are excited at the sight of one of their favourites.

Uji, but not as the Crane knew it

The Harriers

Uji existed in several card forms but is often linked to the Harriers. Following on from Uji's own theme the Harriers can be regarded as elite special forces who had to remain secret due to their use of 'anything' to win. Crane Harrier cards in the CCG often used a lot of force reduction, movement tricks and ranged attacks. They were very popular with a section of the fan base perhaps because they showed Crane who were more than just effeminate courtiers. This though eventually caused their fall from grace. The problem was that the story writers liked the Harriers. Up to that point all attacks on the Crane tended to end with A - a Crane courtier getting the Emperor to stop the attack or B - a lone Crane duelist challenges the opposing leader to single combat and either I - winning and stopping the attack or II - losing but due to his bravery and skill they stopped the attack anyway.

The Harriers allowed writers to explore something more interesting which is the shade to the Cranes light. Put simply it is more interesting to write about why and how an honourable clan would do something dishonourable than the opposite. This is the same reason that it is more interesting to write about a Lion military failure or an honourable Scorpion or a ronin beating a Crane duelist. This meant that several stories occurred extolling skilled devious Harriers. Beyond upsetting the Scorpion - who seemed to feel they had the sole 'right' to sneaky underhand tricks and any pyjama wearing ninjas and a lot of the military clans who felt they were now being outwitted by the Crane when they had the sole 'right' to being tactical geniuses (see Lion) this was well received.

The problem came because the cards reflected the storyline and any known military Crane in card form was likely to be a Harrier. This caused two issues. The first was with a portion of the Crane player base. At this point there were broadly three groups. The first was 'I am a courtier, I duck and hide and avoid fighting as much as possible until I honor out' (alternately known as 'not in the face' in old5r ) then there was the 'I duel you to death' and finally the Harrier military. Of the three the harrier military was probably the weakest deck type (but by God it was fun to play win or lose). Several members of the other two appeared to believe the following statement was true, 'if harrier A and B was not printed then instead they could produce Courtier C and D (already having courtier/duelist A and B) and then my deck would be dominant' It was untrue but there was some grumbling. There was also (and still is) a vocal few Crane members who hanker after what they regard as a lost golden age of the Crane fielding legions of 'Iron Warriors'. Beyond anything the 'Iron Crane massed legions' concept is boring and not interesting from a storyline point of view making the Crane 'Lion lite with added courtiers and duelling'…. Anyway then AEG joined in by deciding in one of their intermittent resets that each clan would have two primary viable deck types and for Crane this would be Courtier and Duelling. The Harriers would not be supported. This was not enough though as Harriers were popular so they decided to not only not support the archetype moving forward but destroy them in the storyline. They essentially had the at the time Crane Daimyo Doji Domotai 'find out' about the Harriers use of gunpowder and outlaw the Harriers.

It was a stupid decision. They could have just had the harriers exist but without story/card representation but instead pissed off a loyal section of their own players. Unsurprisingly this did not cause the sudden re-appearance of numerous Iron Cranes either.

FFG new5R

So now FFG are in control. The Harriers are back (but a lot less prominent) and the new game is more forgiving of structural differences for deck types. Plus Uji is back. First appearance in this story here and now it looks like a card in the deck box.

The excellent art was carried out by AmélieHutt though the FFG and her work is the first piece here with all other artworks being some of the old5r versions of Uji...

Rheumatism proved a bugger to Crane who had fought in marshes

The Emerald Empire source book has also referenced the Harriers here 'Although the clan proper approaches the battlefield with unimpeachable honor, its bannerless scouts are infamous for employing questionable tactics, such as sabotaging weapons, laying traps for marching columns, and poisoning supplies in advance of the opposing armies main force'

FFG is doing something interesting here. They have ignored AEG's massed Crane Iron Warrior legions' (thank heavans for that, though they do reference the 'impeccable training of their heavy infantry) and have also ignored AEG's 'secret elite ninjas who were retconned into the Daimyo being unaware of them' into something entirely different and one which equates very well to their view of Rokugan society (and to a certain extent Japanese Samurai society). Basically hearing information or seeing information does not mean you can act on the information. So in FFG L5R the Crane due to lack of military strength have to defend themselves in other ways. The courts and duelists are prominent but when a war (skirmish) does break out they posses a force of scouts (Harriers) who will possibly carry out dishonourable actions to protect the Crane. These Scouts are unflagged when they do this so you do not see 'Crane Samurai' carrying out dishonourable actions. Everyone knows the Crane do this and no-one can prove it therefore nothing is, or can be, said. The Daimyo has complete deniability which fits totally with how Rokugan society works in FFG world. Anyone who tries would come up against Crane's formidable Courtiers and at worse Crane's duelists challenging anyone who dares insult Crane Honour with a useful duel to the death.

This provides ample opportunity for interesting story lines resolving almost a Clan Ninjo/Giri . It explains Crane's ability to stand up to some strong very strong  military clans and provides a reason for their courtiers/duellists to be needed.

Well done FFG colour me impressed. I can't wait to see what stats/abilities Uji has….

"Damn him!" he shouted with frustration. "I'll have his head for this!" Horses screamed as they charged through the encampment. Firecrackers whirled and hissed, tied to their stubby tails. Hooves tore through tents and shattered posts. "I'll have his head!" the commander repeated. 

Another group of Samurai fell, clutching their throats as if to remove the Daidoji arrows that had sprouted beneath their chins. "As you wish, Matsu," a voice shouted from the safety of a high tree branch. "We've pulled it from the pit for you." Something flew from the saboteur's outstretched hand and rolled accross the blazing clearing. Mosu's head. 

At the moment, grass fires reached the strings of powder buried just beneath the ground. The entire plain exploded into flame. 

copyright Ree Soesbee - The Crane

Addenduam! n a FFG cast Uji was actually revealed much to the excitement of the eagle eyed Crane observers.

 So let's give a little LCG preview

So lets run through the basics. For a Crane card he has excellent stats. 6-2 default is amazing and when honoured he becomes an 8-4 beatstick. Dishonoured? 4-0 so still decent.  Those stats alone make him playable but his biggest strength is his ability.

IF he can remain unclouded and honoured (and preventing your opponent getting the fire ring suddenly becomes much more important) then he makes every dynasty crane a conflict character and saves money when buying them. In an ideal world you could buy Uji with two-three fate and then you could save two-three fate a turn which could either buy more characters or ensure those bought are loaded with fate. The fact they can play direct into conflicts means that he sidesteps covert and means any attack by a crane weenie has to be responded to as Uji essentially runs as a free charge into military/political and multiple times a phase. He combos very well with Nerishima as his card turn ability provides more (or better targets) for Uji and less so with the Young Harrier if only because the harrier prevents Uji dishonouring (though if already honoured then the harrier would not prevent him losing the status token).

His weaknesses are that he can be dishonoured (or just have the status token removed) so that you can suddenly be faced with lots of fate and nothing to spend it on (Scorpion will be particularly good at this). He can be clouded and if you do not possess any let gos/other attachment hate then the same circumstance would occur but as a counter weight this means opponents are less likely to randomly cloud other strong Crane characters like the Challenger etc.

A weakness that I have not seen people mention is that strong clans can subvert his ability by mass attacks against Crane provinces with useful characters. As an example say the Crane player flips two holdings and two characters and is going second. The opponent could deliberately attack on of the characters provinces to ensure Uji has to buy (as otherwise the character gets lost when the province breaks) if it is (say) a strong political character and the attack is military then that means the extra defender will be of less use. Naturally this cuts in many directions but will occur reducing his effectiveness.  There will be mind games going on as to whether Uji buys after the bids are done and before the conflicts  or waits for the conflicts.

He also does not combo well with lots of holdings. If you flip three of them (or have a palace in play and flip another couple) then the fate potentially saved drops drastically. Therefore the new duelling deck that likes lots of dojos will have some bad use out of him.

So end verdict - Great job FFG. Thematic with great art and with a strong ability that can win games but can equally be handled or has his impact reduced. He also gives the Crane military/political decks a big boost whilst  at the same time not quite working as well with the new duelling stuff.