Kanwulf - by Steve Crow You may discard up to 3 defenses at the beginning of your turn. For each defense you discard, you must either; play an additional non-Special attack this turn, make a non- Special attack you played this turn do an additional point of damage if successful, or retrieve a Basic Attack from your discard pile. You may use the War Axe as a one- handed (1 Hand Icon) weapon. You may include up to 5 Master cards. Overview As the first of our Arms & Tactics Personas to be reviewed, Kanwulf seems by many to be the most underestimated. In some senses he is, and in some senses he isn't. For instance, he retains his Persona ability after First Blood begins, which is more than can be said for Kanus. Game mechanic questions first. Despite some dispute, Kanwulf's ability does not seem to permit him to "stack" any one of the three functions permitted. So each turn he can increase the damage of one non-Special attack, _and_ retrieve one Basic Attack, _and_ play an additional non-Special attack. However, Kanwulf cannot do any one of these multiple times in the same turn. So he cannot discard three defenses, first to gain one additional non-Special attack, then increase the damage of one of those attacks by two. Kanwulf must specify which attack he is increasing the damage by when he discards the defense. Kanwulf is forced to play an additional non-Special attack if he discards a defense and states that he is doing so. However, this will not let him override cards that prevent him from attacking. Kanwulf's ability to use a War Axe one-handed means he may make Ranged Attacks while using it, as well as wielding a Parrying Blade or a Shield. Persona-Specific Cards Among the non-Reserved, non-Signature cards, Kanwulf has the standard Back Away, Continuity, Evade, and Extra Shot. His Combination is of the Fitzcairn "Combine multiple Basic Attacks" variety, while his Trip is of the Kalas non-dodge variety. While Reserved, Flashback and Master's Advice are both standard. Flashback is the Situation version that you can discard to make an extra 3-card Exertion. This leaves only two unique cards for Kanwulf: Battle Rage and Sacrifice. Sacrifice is probably the most potent, It does target _all_ players, however, including Kanwulf himself. Typically, it won't be very hard for him to include four Allies in his deck; Alex Johnson and Elizabeth Vaughn will usually suffice. Like other Battle Rages, Kanwulf's conveys a Flashing Blade quality and costs him one Ability. However, it does not require him to make an Exertion. And in a sense it augments his Persona ability, since he can discard defenses to make multiple attacks, and still discard up to three defenses to make another non-Special attack, retrieve a Basic Attack to play, or boost the damage of one non-Special attack. Sacrifice is a so-so Event damage card. It requires that Kanwulf himself play with Allies, or take steps (i.e., Careful Planning, Chessex plus Unexpected Assistance) to avoid damage from it. The fact that the damage can be avoided by Ally-discard as well as anti-Event damage cards such as Greenfield make it far less effective than, say, Angry Mob/SE plus Careful Planning. Generic Cards Kanwulf, like Kalas (PotM #9) and to some degree Luther (#6), has the advantage that he is not necessarily tied to one or two specific strategies. We'll touch on this a bit more below. Kanwulf's power is purely combat-oriented, unlike Kalas (which can be used with Event damage) or Luther's (which is primarily preventative). So the cards that will help him most are combat-oriented. That's not to say that a Angry Mob/Careful Planning or three isn't as useful in his hands as in anyone else's. Perhaps more than any other Persona, Kanwulf makes best use of generic attacks and blocks. He can discard blocks, particularly Guards. Thus it is very difficult for them to tie up his hand. His Combination lets him cycle multiple Basic Attacks quite rapidly if need be. Kanwulf can both gain an additional non-Special attack and boost its damage, via the use of his Persona ability. This makes most non-Special attacks of greater use to him as well. Since he has Evade, Spinning Attacks are viable for him. Ripostes are rarely a poor choice for inclusion in any deck. Pistols, although Special Attacks, give Kanwulf something to do on those turns when he has to play Back Away. His Trip can be used to make them undodgeable, an advantage that few other Personas possess. Cards that enhance Basic Attacks are useful, particularly Edge cards like Lunge and Appel, since Kanwulf can almost always discard a defense to recover a Basic Attack if he is short one, and can increase its damage as well. Since Kanwulf's abilities are strongly attack-oriented, adding Trenchcoat will assure that his opponent won't be able to thwart his drive. As for Generic Specials...since Kanwulf is combat-oriented, cards that keep the opponent from escaping once the Viking has successfully landed a hit are useful. These include The Gathering and Carl. Alternately, let them escape and set them up for an Appel on your next turn. If you intend to use Sacrifice, a few Allies are worthwhile. You can use Alex Johnson (CotW #49) in practically any deck when you want to have and hold an Ancestral Blade: Kanwulf is no exception. Bedsoe is also useful, but if he proves unnecessary can be Sacrificed if required. Defensively, Kanwulf is vulnerable to Ranged Attacks. Narrow Escape (either version), with Run For Your Life, can prove useful. Rules of the Game/Ranged Attack can also thwart your opponent's strategy in this regard. Kanwulf is good on defense, but they are merely normal defenses. Use Alertness as necessary against unblockable/undodgeable attacks, or to know where to correctly play the defense. Location Cards Ring of Fire prevents the use of most escape-type cards, which Kanwulf lacks Persona-specific versions of anyway. This can hinder an opponent or tie up his Special play as you attack. Since a Kanwulf deck can afford to go a bit higher with defense, Laundry Room may be a good choice. Your odds are better of having the proper defense in that Exertion. Keep Reconnaissance or Master's Sanctuary on hand for additional safety. As an Evade and Back Away type, The Circle and Catwalk respectively can help him. He can mix some of both, or use Recon or Master's Sanctuary to ignore as necessary. The Circle will also provide him with some protection against Pistols. Since Kanwulf's Persona ability tends towards Basic and non-Special attacks, Verona can prove useful, particularly in thwarting not only those Master's Head Shots of the Kurgan's, but the various Stalks as well. If you don't use Sacrifice, Spiritual Center remains a good overall defense card since Kanwulf lacks Persona-specific protection. Otherwise, as noted above, Kanwulf is generic enough in his tactics and strategies that almost any Location could suit him with the right deck. If he pursues a Disarm strategy (using his Persona ability to bolster the Lunged attacks, and discarding unnecessary defenses at the same time!), Parking Garage and Slaughter House are useful. If Kanwulf wants to match Martin Hyde in hand-size, add Watcher Regional HQ and as many Watcher-type Situations as you can. Want to knock your opponent Prone? Railway Yard and Trip. Weapons of Choice Obviously, War Axe is the first choice to look at. Kanwulf can use a Shield or Parrying Blade with it, or play Pistols and Improvised Weapon/Attacks with his free hand. Quality Blade can expand Kanwulf's defensive options even further, and give him enhanced protection against all Slashes. Attack Weapon (with Lunge) can enhance a Disarm strategy (see Winning) below, and Throw Weapon can supplement those Pistols. An unpleasant combination that Kanwulf is in a unique position to exploit is War Axe + Parrying Blade. Block, then expand the defense by a grid square. Your opponent can't attack to any of those areas, due to Parrying Blade's special ability. You can play to an area you didn't defend against, or potentially discard a defense to retrieve a Basic Attack that will play if you lack one in your hand. War Axe + Shield is not quite as good, but Kanwulf can use Quality Blade/WA, gain some considerable coverage, and leave the block up as a standing Guard. And it does give him protection against Ranged Attacks. If Kanwulf sticks to Back Away and Catwalk, the Broad-Bladed Spear can make an interesting choice. Impale plus the extra point of damage from his Persona ability adds up to a considerable +3 damage if he can successfully hit. Rapier is not bad, although it doesn't work well with Kanwulf's Basic Attack-recycling ability. Still, he can make a second non-Special attack using that, and a third with his Persona ability, _and_ boost the damage on one of those non-Special attacks. This can't be taken away by Divine Intervention or First Blood, and can be enhanced by Flashing Blade. The Saber is not a bad choice, since it means that essentially Kanwulf is discarding a defense rather than a Basic Attack to play a non-Special attack. Assuming, of course, there is at least one Basic Attack in his discard pile to recover. Still, his War Axe (with Quality Blade) can give him better protection than the Saber's Guards. Unless he pursues a Power Blow- or Mountain Cave-related strategy, the Saber doesn't yield him huge benefits. Gladius really gives him no significant advantage, since he has Trip to make _any_ attack undodgeable. Still, Twist, when used in conjunction with his Persona ability, can do a significant amount of damage if he can hit. And Deflect, like Rapier, does give him another attack. Since Kanwulf can augment the damage on a Slash, Katana plus Lightning Strike can prove dangerous. And he can use Lightning Reflexes: play a block, recover, then discard it for his Persona ability. How to Win Kanwulf is by no stretch of the imagination a "power-type." However, he's sneaky, persistent, and his power shouldn't be underestimated. His ability permits him to cycle defenses, meaning he can afford to put some extras in his deck. If he is using his favored War Axe, uses Quality Blade/Axe, and puts in lots of basic blocks, he has excellent coverage: probably the best of any Persona lacking Master's Block. Another Kanwulf strength is that once he finds a weak spot, he can keep hammering it. Ever played a ULA and watched your opponent squirm for a defense? And then wish you had another ULA in your hand for next turn? Thanks to his Persona's ability, Kanwulf can dump a defense, recover the successful attack, and play it again. If you can find such a weak spot and keep hammering it, your opponent may quickly wind down to 0 Ability. The ability to almost always be able to have a Basic Attack when necessary can be useful under other circumstances as well. If Kanwulf is playing a head-hunting deck (particularly with a disarm strategy), he has several advantages. Once his opponent is disarmed, they can't attack so Kanwulf can dump defenses he doesn't need to gain extra non-Special attacks and increase the damage of any one Basic Attack he plays. He can also recycle an Upper Attack if necessary to keep trying for those Head Shots. As an aside, Kanwulf's Persona ability makes him nearly immune to Fitzcairn's Charm. Although Kanwulf has no great strength with Plots, he can readily assure that he has as many Upper Attacks as he needs once he has completed a Destruction/ME1 sequence. Overall, Kanwulf's strengths are as a fighter, both on offense and defense. There are other options to explore, particularly with Darius (Seduce/Amanda comes to mind). Weapons of Choice open up a whole new field of strategies and tactics where gimmicky "cheese"-type attacks aren't necessary. How to Defeat Kanwulf is almost entirely attack-oriented, except for Sacrifice. Event damage, Ability loss, unblockable/undodgeable attacks...all the usual "cheese" will either take him down, or force him to employ a larger deck. Other than that, he has no real weaknesses. If he goes heavy on defense, he'll have more blocks to deal with multi-attack types. War Axe/Quality Blade gives him good defense against slashes. He's fairly versatile, good with all the WoCs, and thus hard to predict. Kanwulf's Nemesis, Legend is pretty much typical: it not only negates his Persona ability on an ongoing basis. Good if you're expecting to go up against him (what Nemesis isn't?). However, the fact that Kanwulf appears to be underestimated will probably mean that if you're using him in any competitive environment, you're not going to see it much. Overall Overall, Steve gives Kanwulf a _6_. I think he's somewhat underestimated, perhaps because of the kneejerk reaction to finding out his Persona ability doesn't stack. He's no Methos or Duncan (who is?), but his Persona ability permits him to go heavily defensive, while avoiding hand-lock. In this post-Arms & Tactics age of multi-attacking, that's not a particular bad thing. I'd give him a 5, but have to rate him a point higher for general sneakiness. There's more to him than first appears. I'm also a sucker for Disarm-oriented Persona, and Kanwulf comes in close behind Fasil. What Our Other Raters Say: Hank - Definitely not the most powerful of the Series 3 Personas. Ceirdwyn (thanks to the pre-game Ally ruling) starts at 3-4 attacks/round, Kanwulf can go to 2 attacks/round at the expense of ditching defenses. The extra damage power is okay, but not too exciting, it's hard to ever guarantee an attack will be successful. His cards aren't interesting at all... his best power is the ability to use the War Axe one-handed. The War Axe (with Attack Weapon) makes for fun Disarm strategies, especially with the broken Slaughter House Location... and War Axe/Parrying Blade are fun together. Still, Kanwulf is my least favorite of the new immortals, Alan - Abstain Jeff - Kanwulf is the Slan of A&T: great inherent ability, few cards of his own to speak of. Works nice with War Axe, but he gets screwed over by Master's Advantage. The weakest of the A&T personas, though he's still slightly above average. Prodipto - In the aftermath of Arms and Tactics, I think Kanwulf has been overlooked for his capabilities. People see the innate threat of the powerful Kanis, or Hyde, and the potential of Ceirdwyn and Kinman, However, Kanwulf hasn't been given the credit he deserves. To date, he is the only Persona with a Weapon of Choice power (and the most Persona Text yet seen). Using War Axe one-handed suddenly adds to his potential. What does this mean for him? He can use War Axe and Shield, or War Axe and Parrying Blade to good effect. Alternatively, he can use just the War Axe, and add Ranged Attacks to his arsenal. Using War Axe's Quality Blade with Prime Block will allow him to block virtually any attack. Add to that an innate card cycling ability nearly equivalent to Methos. He can discard up to three defenses each round, regardless of whether his opponent attacked. He can then throw off and retrieve an attack, throw off an extra attack or make an attack do more damage (or all three). As long as he has a defense in his hand, he'll be able to play a card by retrieving attacks. With the War Axe's innate ability, Kanwulf's power blows do as much damage as the Kurgan's. Now add a Kurgan Quickening, and you have the most devastating power blows in the game. While his support cards are fairly standard, Sacrifice is a good way to get rid of pesky Allies, or kick in a little extra damage. Better yet, it doesn't kick off Ceirdwyn's Retribution (editor's note: it does if Ceirdwyn chooses not to discard an Ally, but she only comes out ahead by one). I think Kanwulf has the potential to be a serious threat, though he shines the most with his Weapon of Choice. Allen - Kanwulf is an Immortal I find to be deceptively powerful. His ability to freely cycle three or more defenses from his hand per turn allows you the freedom to make your deck well over 50% defenses. This many defenses makes Kanwulf very hard to hit, especially with the War Axe QB that makes any Basic corner Block able to cover any square. What to leave out of your deck in order to make room for all of those defenses? Attacks! Kanwulf only needs one attack in his opening hand. On turn one, play a Lower Center Attack and make it do extra damage. On turn two, retrieve and do it again. Tell your opponent to get used to it. He's going to see that same attack _every_ turn. If your opponent attacks you at your favorite spot, then block, gain an extra attack, forego an attack, and keep up the pressure on the same spot. Not many decks can defend themselves at the same square in perpetuity. Those that can are usually of the dodge/cheese variety, so prepare your deck with Specials and Edges to deal with these strategies. After that, pick a spot and make it hurt. Bruce - Using a War Axe one-handed and being able to discard defenses at will to conform to an opponent's combat strategy create a versatility that cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, this is curtailed somewhat by being forced to take actions that, while generally advantageous, may not advance your strategy when making large adjustments. Add in Kanwulf's weak selection of Persona-Specific cards (he has no Dodge capable of avoiding Ranged Center attacks and the only Specials affording him any real individuality are Battle Rage, Combination, and Sacrifice) and you end up with a Persona that will probably only marginally impact the tournament environment. Stealth Dave - Kanwulf's ability is rather unique. The uses for an additional point of damage and extra attack are obvious, but when you realize that he can do a 7-point Thrust Power Blow with the War Axe (WITHOUT the Kurgan Q), his ability to retrieve a Basic Attack becomes rather useful. However, his lackluster assortment of cards and the fact that it is difficult to build a balanced deck for him (you have to add Defenses to discard, which makes it harder to get other cards you need for your game) almost overbalance his pros. Oddly enough, his best card is Trip, which is the undodgeable variety. But if you include War Axe and its cards into his Persona, Kanwulf can be a force to be reckoned with. Just have some way to deal with the eventual hand jam that may occur. Jonathan - Kanwulf the Viking isn't much of a legend to me. In fact, he appears to be the weakest of the A&T Personas by far. His Persona ability is decent, as he has some options for you to build a deck around. Want to use his damage increasing ability? Go for a Sedarius deck, using the War Axe for that extra bit of power blowing damage. Others might wish to stick to a straightforward multi-attack strategy. This is fine, but other Personas can do it better. Perhaps using the War Axe one-handed is his best ability, as its Weapon- specific cards far exceed his own Persona-specific cards in usability. Kanwulf would've received a much higher rating if his Persona ability functioned as it read, but I guess that it, and Valhalla, are lost to him. Kanwulf has some intriguing possibilities (using Evade in the Circle, using his Trip with Appel) but most of his best strategies require Qs to work effectively. He can make excellent use of the Nefertiri Discard Q as well as the Slan Q. Hopefully Kanwulf will receive some card support, as his current enhancement cards do quite little. He does have some potential for the future, as he has a versatile ability, and a nice WoC. Once we see some cards that meld thematically with his ability, we ll see a better Viking. Charles - Kanwulf is fun as a multi-attack Persona since he is able to cycle quickly and play multiple attacks every round. His Persona ability does leave a danger to any player that isn't careful; it is easy to become over enthusiastic and overcycle defenses only to end up having to exert against incoming attacks. Ratings Overall: Steve 6 Hank 4 Alan N/A Jeff 5 Prodipto 6 Allen 8 Bruce 4 Sdave 6 Jonathan 4 Charles 4 Average: 5.22 Highlander is a protected trademark of Gaumont Television, used under license by Thunder Castle Games. The card text is copyright 1998 by Thunder Castle Games. All rights reserved.