Aristeia! - Aristo Analysis - Koorie Queen

"I'm over being a pop star. I want to be iconic. Koorie Queen is back."

Koorie Queen is a shining music star that has the honor of being the first Bahadur in the history of Aristeia!

KOORIE QUEEN: The first Bahadur

Kylie Cosmen was born in PanOceania, on planet Earth, with the gift of the song inherited from her maternal grandmother. Since her childhood, her parents invested in the future of her extraordinary voice, so when she turned seventeen the young Cosmen appeared at one of many talent shows in Maya, winning the competition and thus making an awesome entry to the professional world of stardom.

The hand that guided her to stardom belonged to a family friend, only a few years older than her: Sophia Kreuziger. She was an efficient, thoughtful, and very intelligent agent who devised a plan to put Kylie at the center of the entire Human Sphere. The first step of the plan was to hire a personal combat trainer in various disciplines. For four years, he had Kylie getting in shape, and improving her marksmanship by throwing light weapons.

At the age of twenty-two, Kylie entered the contest Exposed Celebrities as the second step of Sophia’s ambitious plan. The program aimed to test the survival skills of a group of celebrities in the wild jungles of planet Paradiso, which was actually a set-up located in Varuna - the idyllic PanOceanian planet. During the filming, a fan spontaneous jumped from the thicket, and began attacking the singer Liliana Vitsin. Kylie responded immediately, pouncing and reducing him to a crumpled heap with only two jujitsu strikes. This is how Kylie earned herself first place on the show.

With the martial prowess of the young Cosmen being without question, it wasn’t much of a problem for Sophia to introduce her to Aristeia! She dressed her with trappings inspired by the Australian aboriginal culture, armed her with a holographic boomerang, covered her with Maori tattoos, and named her Koorie Queen - in reference to the indigenous people of the southeastern region of Australia, an ancient country that ended up making up most of the current region of PanOceania. Kylie added to her costume a piece from the front of her father’s Croc-men armor - a veteran of the Polynesian Division during the Neocolonial Wars.

Koorie Queen was the first aristo to receive the recently released title of Bahadur, and defended it for the entirety of the following season. Her ancient native image showing her PanOceanian roots and her precious voice made the public fall for her. After her second season, she retired to pursue her musical career on an interplanetary scale.

Twelve years later, Koorie Queen has returned from the hand of her successor in the title, Final Boss, to commemorate her deeds on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the show, as well as to promote her latest work on Maya: Boomerang Queen.

Koorie Queen is part of the Legendary Bahadurs expansion for Aristeia! and, as such, is one of the second generation of Corvus Belli plastics. These models are all more detailed, and in many cases better designed with the medium in mind, than the original "Core 8" Aristo sculpts.

In the case of Koorie Queen in particular there are elements which have been drawn in from Infinity, the Corvus Belli wargame, which comprise parts of her costume. This makes for a piece which is instantly attractive to players who collect PanOceania in that context.

The only truly disappointing element of the sculpt is the overly large boomerang, however that is likely easily fixed with a smaller metal piece (for greater strength) instead of what was surely a compromise for structural reasons.

It is obvious from the first glance at her card that Koorie Queen is an interesting and engaging addition to any Team. She has such a wealth of different abilities and options, which begin almost immediately in her most basic attributes.

The top line of Initiative, Speed, Energy and Hit Points are all very standard, with only Initiative being on the high end of average. Before considering any of the rest of her basic attributes however we need to check out her universal Switch.

Koorie Queen can trade two Special results in any roll she makes in return for the Hidden State AND a one-hex Displacement. Best of all the Displacement is NOT contingent on the Hidden (which is optional) meaning that you can certainly fire it multiple times, or keep Displacing after you are already Hidden.

With that ability firmly in mind Koorie Queen's Defense, which is weak at first glance, is suddenly much stronger as she will seldom be exposed to attacks for more than one swing.

She has weak Brawn, with the Orange unlikely to prevent other Aristos from moving away from her or firing her Switch. But her Agility is strong, with an auto-Success which needs to be cancelled and two Yellow dice which are very likely to fire her Switch at least once.

Keeping that universal Switch in mind, we should next consider her Automatic Ability "Feral Spirit". This allows Koorie Queen to go into the Hidden State if she has no opponents in Line of Sight and within three hexes of her at the beginning of her Activation. Keep in mind you can always block her with another earlier activating Aristo too if she gets in closer than she should, but this should seldom fail to fire.

Although two separate Actions, "Boomerang" and "Bounce" need to be read together because the former has a Switch which fires the latter without Line of Sight within 3 of the initial target, and a dice setup nearly certain to fire it (and quite likely to fire her generic Switch as well at the same time).

"Boomerang" doesn't have amazing damage, but it can quickly become deadly when buffed, and (note the miss-print) it will regularly fire the Stunned State
on other opponents thanks to the Switch into "Bounce".

"Bounce" it'self, as an Action, is very unlikely to do damage, but has a high chance of firing its core Effect and putting out that delicious Stun, making it a great response if an opponent has gotten too close. Don't forget that an opponent with the Stunned State next to any Team mate with decent Brawn is VERY unlikely to get away. It also makes most Actions tough to succeed in, offering a solid debuff to many Support Aristos.

When considering Koorie Queen for your Tactics deck on thing to keep in mind is that she is entirely "Selfish". Although a couple of her Tactics do support other Team members indirectly, even those have restricted timing and are primarily built around Koorie Queen first and foremost.

First up is "Special Spin", which is done at the end of a Resolution Step when the Attack "Boomerang" is about to be resolved. It hits every enemy Team member within 3 of the target of "Boomerang" (ignoring Line of sight) with a Stunned State and a single Hit Point of damage.

This is similar to firing a series of "Bounce" Actions, all with good success and thus makes for a solid Tactic overall. Especially if one of the Aristos you can hit is whoever manages States on the opponents Team, as they will struggle to shift States off anyone while wearing their own Stunned.

Next up is "Hidden in the Sand", which fires in the Actions Step of Koorie Queen, when you are applying the Hidden State to yourself (by Automatic Action or Switch from the Queen, or a Tactic from another Aristo). This is particularly restrictive timing, but it is worth it for the power of the Tactic.

Note that the effective range is farther than it appears. You need to have Line of Sight to a Blocked Space, which can be up to 4 hexes away. But you get to Place yourself on a Free Space Adjacent to that Blocked Space. That's up to 6 hexes away from your starting position, and can allow you to jump to a hex which is out of your Line of Sight.

Coming back on the timing, given how likely Koorie Queen is to fire her Switch, even if she misses out on the activation of her Automatic Skill at the beginning of her Activation, she is not going to have a lot of turns where she won't get this off, and it's a significant distance to move.

"Huntress Queen" is another Tactic with very restricted timing. Not just during Koorie Queen's Activation, but specifically during the Declaration of her "Boomerang" Attack. This limits the options for dropping it in a Turn where you are getting Koorie Queen to simply move a significant distance rather than going for a target herself.

At the same time, while this is technically "Selfish" as a Tactic, it certainly does play very well with others! By adding an extra Hit Point of damage to every Effect from Actions or Tactics which causes at least one Hit Point you can turn even very minor damaging Tactics into deadly options.

If you drop this in the first Activation in a Turn then it nearly doesn't matter who your target is, or even if you have a lot of damage output in the rest of your Team, your target is nearly certain to be in the Infirmary by the time that Turn is done. Heck you can probably plink an Aristo down with Contender shots while this is running.

The last option which Koorie Queen affords a Manager who selects her for their team is "Whispers From the Desert". This takes an Aristo who is already part Controller and pushes that aspect up to 11 for a Round.

You don't even need Line of Sight, every time an opponent within 3 hexes attacks an Ally you get a free Bounce on them after resolution. This offers some very cheap control, especially against any Aristo who is using multiple Attack Actions.

With careful positioning you can get shots off on an entire Team. Just keep in mind that the Stun effects you get off will be flipped at the end of the Activation. This point, unfortunately, limits the overall Effect of the Tactic and holds it back from really offering truly game shaping impact.

Koorie Queen likely can't hold down the entire damage output for a Team, so she's not who you want to look to if you need a solo Striker. You likely want to back her up with another, likely melee Striker with a different range of capabilities. On the other hand she offers a lot of Control so you may be able to run her Support light, but a Team mate who gives her extra damage is going to help her put targets down a lot more easily.

In terms of suitability to different Scenarios, her stealth, mobility and Control make her an excellent option for zone control focused mobile matches. On the other hand she doesn't have the speed for the likes of Capture the Flag, nor the stickability for King of the Hill. Oddly she might not be the best pick for Carnage, 'though her ability to limit damage output from the opposition may pull her up into contention.

So, that's the Aboriginal girl with the deadly swing, the iconic Queen of the Hexadome, back from her foray into music to bring the pain once again: "Koorie Queen is BACK!"

If you are looking for more on Koorie Queen then you should check out the official writeup here:

https://aristeiathegame.com/blog/item/588-in-depth-koorie-queen

As always, we'd appreciate your thoughts. Not just on this article but on the series as a whole as well. Are these articles suiting what you want from Aristeia! content?  Is there something more you'd like to see from them?

But, also, do you use Koorie Queen?
What kind of Team do you like to run her in?
Have there been any Scenarios where you felt she was really strong?
Has she been effective for you?
What limitations have you run into?

Let us know your thoughts.