Aristeia! - Aristo Analysis - Shona Carano

"There can only be one left."

Shona Carano is a living legend of Aristeia! who has returned to claim what belongs to her in her own right: the Bahadur title.

SHONA CARANO: Weapon teacher and living legend

The audience ratings of the primal show Yajurveda dramatically dropped at the start of the fourth season. Vissiorama gathered all their brilliant minds to seek a solution. After some deliberation, the executive management of programming approved Jake Wilson plan, an ambitious young man who was the deputy director of Maya’s marketing department. Wilson offered himself as the executor of the operation and straw man, so that Vissiorama’s reputation wouldn’t be affected in case something went wrong.

Wilson gathered and studied the profile of several candidates whose common traits were youth, good physical condition, combat experience, and the mastery of some exotic weapon. He also valued the existence of moral principles that were easily manipulated. After an exhaustive screening process and a subsequent rejection of the first candidates, it was the turn of a neoterran fencing champion, Shona Carano, who didn’t hide her involvement with a pro-human movement that denounced the labor invasion of synthetics in various areas of the society, as well as in several Maya shows.

Jake Wilson, pretending to be an activist from another anti-synthetic group, contacted Shona to help them disrupt a Yajurveda battle. The plan was to sneak her in one of the shows, where she would defeat the synthetics before the cameras, and this way, demonstrate the superiority of humanity. To achieve such a feat, Shona needed an exceptional weapon. In addition to access to the show, Wilson gave her detailed information about the whereabouts of a sword, an almost mythical object, placed in the Caledonian mountains of Ariadna.

Shona managed to get a sword comprised of Teseum, and with Wilson’s help, stormed in during a Yajurveda broadcast - confronting all the synthetic fighters in a legendary epic melee that ended with Shona raising her victorious sword over a mountain of lifeless synthetic bodies. She was immediately arrested, and released after a short negotiation with Vissiorama. Jake Wilson incriminated himself, following his own script and disappearing from the scene. This had been Yajurveda’s touch of death. The audience cheered Shona’s performance, that was being reproduced over and again in the spectator comlogs all over the Human Sphere. No one wanted synthetic fighters anymore, and so Yajurveda would become Aristeia! and Shona, its first great addition. However, Shona was an consummate fighter who didn’t know how to cope with being a star in the world of entertainment. She decided to abandon the show after several seasons, tired of always being in the first position, but never champion because she didn’t stick to the rules of show business. However, leaving the competition didn’t mean leaving the sword aside. After her departure from Aristeia!, Carano focused on her career as a weapons teacher and became a trainer of the Aquila Guard, the elite of PanOceania’s NeoTerran troops.

Recently, Wally Tortollini, the scourge of Maya stars, has been pouring proven and very compromising information on Carano - evidence of her involvement of Vissiorama and its interruption in Yajurveda. That includes the telemetric data that shows that the parameters of the synthetics would have been reduced to magnify her most lauded feat.

Twenty years later and angrier than ever, Shona Carano has reappeared in the surprise presentation of a new team named after the five-times-Bahadur, Final Boss. As he explained, Carano showed up at the damn door of his mansion, with her old Tesseum blade with a new and modern PanOceanian grip. With her chin pointing at him defiantly, she said, “I’m on your team. Like it or not, I’m in”.

She went straight to training after the visit. She seeks now triumph without tricks. She’s motivated to claim what she lacks and belongs to her by right: the Bahadur title.

Shona Carano is an Aristo from the Legendary Bahadurs expansion for Aristeia! This makes her part of the second wave of Corvus Belli plastic models. These all feature deeper, crisper detail and more complexity in the design and textures than the original "core 8" plastics.

In the case of the Shona model the face, costume and detail tooling are all very good, with the only issue being her sword. Although the detail on the sword is good, the plastic material suffers from being too soft for these kinds of elements and it bends easily.

If the sword is replaced, or drilled and reinforced with a metal rod, then this miniature becomes an excellent piece, which will suit simple techniques for modestly skilled hobbyists but still reward the talent and effort of truly skilled painters.

At first glance Shona's attributes are not particularly impressive. Her Initiative, Speed, Energy, Brawn and Agility are all average. While her Hit Points are above average, her Defense is low for a Melee character.

Her universal Switch is useful, being able to Flip State tokens on her own card, but expensive at one Block and one Special. Her secondary Attack is relatively likely to fire it however, especially if you have a "Block" Tactic to add into the mix.

As a melee oriented Striker it's Shona's Attacks which are critical, and "Broadsword" is a cracking attack. With a Red, Orange and two automatic Successes it is the most reliable unmodified Attack in the game. The unusual range is usually helped by Shona's Automatic Ability, or liberal use of her secondary Attack. Note the Switch, which introduces solid control over all but Tanks, if you can get more Special results into your roll.

"Hit the Blade" has better flexibility in range, which helps keep Shona operating even if she gets Dazzled, noting also that it has a decent chance of allowing her to Flip that or any other inconvenient State. While low damage it will regularly fire its first action Switch, allowing Shona to Displace herself, and it can be worthwhile to trade two Successes to Displace your Target (especially if you won't deal Damage due to Blocks anyway).

Unlike many other Strikers Shona doesn't have an Ability to lean into, she's basically all about the Attacks. This makes her a particularly focused Striker, and more dependent on support than others. However the range of Attacks, and their Switches, give her solid Control.

As part of firing her primary Attack, Shona has an Automatic Skill which triggers at the beginning of the Actions Step of her Activation. This allows her to Displace, if she is Adjacent to an opposing Aristo and if she immediately afterwards declares "Broadsword". This has been FAQ'd to clarify that Shona can use another Action if the Displacement is somehow cancelled or reversed, leaving her unable to execute the Broadsword Attack.

Like most of the Legendary Bahadurs, Shona Carano is a purely "selfish" Aristo in terms of her Tactics. All of them fire only for her and most only during her Activation.

The first option which Shona offers for your Tactics deck is the excellent "Amputate". This is a Tactic which has the potential to be match shaping, so you should ensure that you have either drawn out your opponents "NO!", or any other Tactics which negate Successes or reduce the Dice pool, before play. Or, simply hold your own "NO!" in reserve.

This Tactic allows you to perform the "Amputate" Attack for no Action Points during Shona's Actions Step at Range 1-2 and throwing 3 Orange. If it inflicts a single Hit Point of Damage it immediately adds Damage tokens equal to the Targets Hit Points Attribute. In other words it immediately sends them to the Infirmary, regardless of their current health (barrng timely Tactics play).

Obviously adding extra Dice is useful, but particularly in terms of mitigating the cost, Imposing the -2 Energy State, as triggering Shona's universal Switch can mean the State is entirely cleared by the end of her Activation.

Our next potential pick is "Vigour", which also plays during the Actions Step of Shona's Activation. The value of this Tactic is entirely dependent on the other Aristos in your team, making it an interesting "team work" Tactic, regardless of it's "selfishness".

If you have a couple of opponents who are Stunned or Dazzled then Shona can really go to town on them, with "Broadsword" dropping to a cost of 2 Action Points, but ESPECIALLY "Hit the Blade" which now only costs 1 Action Point. Throw in Hannibal to up the damage output and you can MACHINE through opposition.

Don't overlook the advantage of ignoring Smoke either, as this can make all the difference against an opponent relying on Smoke to slow down your damage output, especially with "Broadsword".

The third option Shona affords her manager is excellent for handling opposing Melee Strikers. "Riposte" takes Shona's Defense and both improves and enhances it.

One of the best aspects of this tactic is the fact that you only have to drop it when your opponent declares an Attack on Shona. Note that it works at Range 2 as well as against Adjacent targets, so it can sometimes help against ranged attacks too.

With an extra Blue and two Orange Shona becomes both hard to hurt, very likely to trigger her universal Switch AND very likely to deal damage to the opposing Aristo. In fact there's a strong likelihood, against most other Melee Aristos, that she will take them down in their own Attack.

Best of all the protection runs 'till the end of the Round, making it even harder for opponents to put Shona down, and making it even more likely she'll put one of theirs down in return.

The last choice which Shona presents is a free Action, the only one available to her (other than the default "Move"). It only plays during the Actions Step of her Activation.

"Whirlwind" allows the "Whirlwind" Action, which throws a Blue and Yellow dice. Note that it doesn't have any triggered Effects, but only an automatic Effect, so you don't need to fish for Success results, just Blocks and Specials for the action Switch.

With an automatic Hit Point being dropped on every opposition Aristo at Range 1-2, and an extra one for every Block plus Special you can Switch out, this can be devastating against a concentrated group of opponents. Really only Smoke shuts it down well.

In terms of her selection, Shona is stronger in Scenarios where she doesn't have to be as mobile, as mobility isn't her strongest asset. This makes her a weaker pick for the moving Scoring Zone missions like Assault, but still solid in the Ziggurat Scenarios. Her damage output is both reliable and high, making her a strong pick for the likes of Carnage.

Shona is a good example of a highly focused Aristo, similar to Maximus, who is very strong in one aspect of the game but also commensurately weaker in others. This makes it important to be confident that her selection suits the needs you have for the Scenario.

This same consideration also feeds into team selection with Shona. She benefits a lot from defensive enhancement, making an effective Tank, or an Aristo who can help prevent opponents targeting her with Hidden or Smoke before she Activates, very valuable. And while her Defense isn't excellent, she does have enough Hit Points to benefit from good healing support.

Further driving up her damage and Switch output with the right Support Aristos, offering additional Orange or Yellow dice helps bump the already strong aspect of her game into the truly unstoppable. Few opponents will stand up to Shona backed by Hannibal or Laxmee.

Enhancing her mobility with Gaia or hEXx3r also adds a lot, and can help overcome that shortcoming and help her contribute more in a wider range of situations in the Hexadome.

So, that's the first Aristo, the woman who took down Yajurveda and ushered in the current age of Hexadome sporting combat.

If you are interested in more on Shona, check out the official write up here:

https://aristeiathegame.com/blog/item/630-in-depth-shona-carano

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 Shona?
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.