This comes from the Scorpion Expansion Set booklet: a personality (Shahadet) and a unit (Shahadet's Legion).
Bayushi Goshiu
Goshiu was once the Scorpion's strongest voice in the Imperial Court, and even after the apocalyptic purge which was called upon his house, he still holds favors, reins of power, over many of the most prominent courtiers in the Empire.
His web is vast, filled with intrigue and blackmail, and no member of the Imperial Court is safe from his machinations.
He draws the strings in tighter, remembering each
face, each command and each death. When his web is
finished, it will be time for the Scorpion to strike once more...
and this time, their poisoned stab will not be deflected.
Scorpion Clan Treatise on Warfare
The greatest strengths of the Scorpion Clan have always been subterfuge, espionage, and their legendary loyalty to their families and clan. Despite the fact that the Scorpions had incredible military might at the time of the Scorpion Clan Coup, it was never their force at arms that blew a shadow of fear over the hearts of their enemies - it was their ability to gather secrets and their ability to use those secrets against opponents.
The Shosuro family uses every trick and deception at their disposal to gather the dark secrets hidden in the hearts of other clans, passing those secrets to their Bayushi brethren. For their part, the Bayushi gather political ammunition against the other clans, but if that fails, they wield the secrets gathered by the Shosuro to devastating effect.
The Scorpion have always sought to conceal their own strength. This allows them to appear weak, and no one fears a weak clan. The Scorpion are at their strongest when the other clans ignore them, for they may more easily work in the shadows while the other clans posture and point at one another.
The same thought processes hold true for a Scorpion army on the battlefield. The Scorpion army, especially during the Clan War, is an army of deception and of subtlety. They do have some very effective combat units, but not enough to stand toe-to-toe with the Crab or Lion Clans. Such an army depends on subtlety and misdirection to make those unit more effective.
By using deception, you can fool your opponent into committing an inappropriate amount of force to deal with smaller units, such as the Shosuro Actors. When your opponent over-commits, ignore those units and use the bulk of your forces to engage and defeat the weaker flanks while the over-committed units struggle to re-enter the battle.
The Scorpion army's greatest strength lies in the special abilities of its leaders, units, and its Tactical Deck. Some abilities can be combined for powerful effects, such as Kachiko's ability to look at enemy Tactical Cards and Aramoro's ability to discard them. Combine that with the Blackmail cards, which can seriously restrict an enemy's ability to retain cards (by attaching them to their leadership) and you can effectively cripple your opponent's Tactical deck.
Shosuro Spies allow the Scorpion to capitalize on enemy Morale tests by applying a penalty to the test, but they are particularly effective when there is already a negative modifer to the test. With the additional penalty, the Scorpion player increases the chance that the enemy unit will break or rout.
When purchasing Bayushi Ambushers, the Scorpion Clan may also make use of the Trap! card to gain an advantage by damaging the enemy's heavy units early in the game. Also, Poisoned Weapons can do additional damage during a turn when the odds favor the attacking Scorpion unit.
Shadow Assassins are extremely effective for limiting the impact of enemy Ranged Attacks by destroying line-of-sight to your most effective combat units as they move forward and prepare to engage. Straw Targets are also useful for limiting the effectiveness of enemy Ranged Attacks, giving the bulk of the Scorpion force to advance with fewer casualties.
Ninja bowmen provide the rare ability to sneak up on the enemy, untouchable by enemy Ranged Attacks, until they have a great shot. Once they've made their attack, then they become a valid target, but not before. Putting Tangen in the unit buys additional time for the bowmen to retreat when enemy units attempt to engage.
It is also difficult to overstate the importance of the Bayushi Elite Spearmen's ability to do make reactionary fire with a total of +2 ATT and +3 DAM when being engaged. When attacked by a small to medium unit it's conceivable that the unit could become broken as a result of the reactionary fire, costing the attacker any advantage in the combat and possibly giving the Spearmen a free attack if/when the unit attempts to leave combat.
Generally a last resort the Ninja Assassin Tactical Card gives the Scorpion army an attempt to remove a member of the enemy leadership. Combined with Aramoro, the odds favor the removal of a Glory 6 or less personality, which could easily send the enemy unit possibly the army, into disarray.
A Scorpion army runs unlike armies of the other Clans there are numerous interdependencies and it's important to design your army in a way that units, personalities, or the entire army benefit from the inclusions of other models or cards. The Scorpion have a hat full of tricks, but an army that tries to make use of all of these possibilities will fail. Choose a few and concentrate on doing them well.
Review: Clan War: Scorpion Army Expansion
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