Sudden Conflict – Tactics Guide: Ukyo

Welcome once again, to another Sudden Conflict Tactics Guide. We’ve talked about Sudden Conflict before. It’s a cool 3v3 skirmish game that is being released on Gamefound in less than a month from now. Goonhammer has been lucky enough to receive review copies of each of the release boxes and after some tinkering and experimentation we’ve come up with some guides for how to build teams and play with the various characters in each set.

The set we’re looking at today is Ukyo, set in an empire ruled by the dreaming Imperator, Kaori. While she sleeps, the Emerald Masters 'interpret' her will (which is a generous way to describe their particular brand of tyranny). Rising in opposition to this, is the Rebellion (Heaven's Liberators), led by the peasant hero, Kotai...

Heaven's Liberators

Sudden Conflict - Heaven's Liberators (Photo courtesy of Musterkrux)

Kotai

Kotai, once a beggar, rewarded the kindness of a stranger by...taking all of their stuff, killing them, and then wielding the stolen blade, Kiro-Kinzoku, as he sparks a rebellion against the Emerald Masters.

Strengths

Kotai is an absolute beast for generating Momentum, he can gain a token just by moving or by using Sustained Disorder to reposition allies. He’s also got a strong suite of status manipulation between your opponent giving Poise (Mythic Blade) or tossing Hexes out with a 3-dice attack. Swish. Also, massive respect for an ability called Arc of the Rising Dawn, you can just imagine that Black-Blade sweeping up, like the suiō-ryū style from Lone" frameborder="0"> Wolf and Cub. Bad. Ass.

Weaknesses

Kotai is a very solid all-rounder: he’s a Momentum-farmer with decent offensive output, status manipulation, and great mobility game for him, his team as well as the enemy. The closest things to weaknesses for Kotai would be that despite having a named, God-tier weapon, he doesn’t have an insane, over-the-top attack to go with it. Kotai also doesn’t have a Defeated ability, so once he’s out of the game he’s not going to have a huge influence on it moving forwards. Additionally, his lack of an auto-plink attack, like a Push or other ability that circumvents Defence to cause damage might be considered a failing (but that’s stretching it, really).

Good Partners

Kotai does some good work supporting someone else with a really heavy hitting attack, otherwise he also likes feeding people Momentum, so Governor Temu really respects Kotai’s vibe.

Rating: B. Kotai is an excellent foundation to a team but he's not an outstanding contributor, either.

Yugo

Sudden Conflict - Yugo

This game is based on alternating activations, and not 'I go Yugo', so it’s important to remember that this Badger is really good at reacting to your opponent’s movements (sorry, I needed a setup for the Yugo pun).

Strengths

Yugo’s optimal gameplan is to build up some Momentum and then absolutely monster someone with Assassin’s Eye, as it’s a 3-dice (Spirit) Ranged attack with a Momentum Recycler mechanic. If things go wrong, you can then use Desperate Crawl to haul his dying ass around the table and firing off one last spiteful shot at your opponent: “Take this damage and off to Hell….Yugo.” Yugo is a good Momentum farmer, between recycling Momentum dice via Assassin’s Eye, but he can also gain some with cheeky use of Concealed Weapon. The ability to move through Barriers means you can keep Yugo safe before launching an Alpha Strike (especially useful if you need to wait out an enemy activation before jumping in).

Weaknesses

Yugo’s biggest weakness is his inability to self-manage status effects, particularly Hexes. If you opponent Hexes Assassin’s Eye, that can throw a cheeky wrench in your plans.

Good Partners

Yugo doesn’t mind a little bit of Status Effect management and he certainly loves going all in on Momentum farming, so we recommend that a team that includes Yugo also signs up Kotai.

Rating: B. He’s got a monster of a swing in that Assassin’s Eye but if you don’t spend enough Momentum to get a good hit out of it, Yugo’nna have a bad time (I apologise for nothing).

Rynola

Sudden Conflict - Rynola

Once a villain and a crook, Rynola the Rabbit renounced her roguish ways as soon as her eyes fell upon the black-blade, Kiro Kinzoku. Rynola is always angry and her solution to many problems is murder.

Strengths

Rynola loves Momentum, between Murderous Intent (which can clear 1-2 Momentum without too much effort) and the insane 3-dice worth of farming you can get out of Bring the World to its Knees you’ll be drowning in the good stuff. Oh, and let's not forget that Cunning Manoeuvre triggers Poise...which is another way to get Momentum... However, Rynola also loves to spend Momentum, Manriki-Kusari might only be a 2-dice (Body) attack but it comes with a free Push, which might give you a free hit ignoring Defence. You really want to land this move whenever you throw it out there. Rynola has a fair bit of mobility in her kit, between a 5-square Movement skill, a Push effect, as well as Cunning Manoeuvre giving her the ability to move through other characters. However, this looks like it’s more of a Desperate than Cunning play, as moving through a character means needing to roll 2 or more successes on the check (which has a native 25% chance to happen), so you’re going to have to spend Momentum if you want to pull this off reliably. However, if spending Momentum on a character keeps them alive and in play, was it really a waste?

Weaknesses

No baked-in status clearing can make Rynola sad but on the other hand, she's got so many good abilities that Hex doesn't ruin her day, at least. However, if she gets Staggered (can't spend momentum), she's gonna have a real bad time.

Good Partners

Rynola might love spending Momentun but she's also good at farming it for people that need it, such as Yugo or Ophella. She doesn't have much in the way of Status clearing, so giving her a friend that can do that is always a wining combo, such as Governor Temu. You can also look at folding Belle Thrushwood from Valrona into your team, as well.

Rating: A. The momentum gain is real. Rynola also brings some great mobility and damage capabilities. She's a strong pick for any team.

The Emerald Masters

Sudden Conflict - The Emerald Masters (and a friend) clash with the Heaven's Liberators

Ophella

Sudden Conflict - Ophella

Every now and then I want to spell or pronounce her name Ophelia but that’s not just slightly wrong. It’s completely wrong. It may also speak to some sort of long hidden undiagnosed complex lurking in my skull but let’s not worry about that right now.

Strengths

Ophella is kind of secretly rad when it comes to Mobility shenanigans. Being able to move any character on the table every activation for free (no LOS required either) is great for setting up your big plays or, alternatively, defusing your opponent’s. Unfamiliar Speed giving you the option to Move 8 instead of 3 spaces (at the cost of a Hex, which kinda feels like you’re borrowing against your future Movement budget…but getting more than double your normal move? Sure, why not?). Maul of Ages is brutal. 3-Dice swinging against Body is sweet but throwing in a Push for extra damage is an absolute Chef’s Kiss play. She has a really cute combo of activating, triggering Mastery of Strategy to drag her intended victim closer, then hopping 8 squares forward, followed by Mauling them into a Barrier for a hit followed by additional damage. No-one is safe from The Turtle.

Ophella has a great suite of abilities for knocking off the last few HP of a character your opponent is desperately trying to keep away from you. Judgement of the Divine does OK damage but you can’t use characters to block LOS (this goes two-ways. Your opponent can’t hide….but Ophella can!) Spiritual Enslavement is a 4-dice Push, which is going to be a really good tool for plinking a single point of damage on someone you just want to polish off.

Weaknesses

Ophella has no special Momentum farming abilities, no healing and no status effect cleansing abilities, so she’s relying on a lot of support from her allies to make an impact on the game and resist your opponent’s efforts to lock her down.

Good Partners

As noted above, Ophella really wants a Buff-Buddy to keep her topped up on Momentum, as well safe from any crippling status effects. Naturally, this means she’s best buddies with:

Rating: A. Between her mobility, strategic play and that sweet Maul-Combo, Ophella ensures that there is no safe place on the board. She’s a Turtle, so while you can Run, you cannot Hide.

General Oshi

Sudden Conflict - General Oshi

Oshi followed the Imperator, Kaori, prior to her ascension and remains loyal to the empire while she slumbers. He is also an Otter with tusks and I love him.

Strengths

Do you know what never dies? Duty. Also, General Oshi. Having a mechanic to return to the game (not just prolong your suffering but actually bounce back) is very unique in Sudden Conflict. This is a very strong ability. Stagger sucks as a consequence but better Staggered than Dead, I guess? Oshi has some great mobility, with the ability to Move 5, move through friends and shift them at the end of that movement. If you’ve seen Otters running and swimming you can readily imagine why they call this Winding Path.

Master of Security is a solid Momentum farmer, downside is that it triggers at the start of turn, so the only way you can orchestrate it is by using other Allies to move Oshi (or enemies) into his LOS before his turn starts.

Weaknesses

Oshi doesn’t have a lot of defensive tech, as well as limited status effect management (all he can do is Hex enemies at range).

Good Partners

You want someone who can strip status effects off Oshi and, if you’re really keen to make your opponent miserable, take a Healer so that when Oshi gets Defeated, he can pick himself back up and then get juiced up afterwards. Ula (from Galactic Throne) is a great option here.

Rating: B-. To recap: He’s an Otter with tusks. I’ve" frameborder="0"> only had General Oshi for a day and a half but if anything happened to him I would kill everyone in this room and then myself. To be fair, he’s solid but not amazing but his resurrection ability carries him a long distance when it comes to evaluating him as a character.

Governor Temu

Sudden Conflict- Governor Temu

There’s only so many times we can make the joke, so we’ll resist the urge this time but just know that it’s coming…

Strengths

He’s a Bear with a Gun, what else do you need? I love a cheeky bit of Action-Economy, so being able to trade a Momentum for an additional Action Point is pretty cool (Thanks, Mastery of Efficiency!). The real question is what do you even do with three action points? I assume it’ll most likely default to: Move, Primal Rage and then your choice of Blast of Dragonfire using the Poise you might have just gained (for the damage!) or Glimpse of Serenity (for managing Status Effects if you’re hurting). Primal Rage is pretty sweet, 3-dice (Spirit) with a Poise reward is quite nice. Especially useful if you’ve triggered Master of Efficiency and you’re about to fire off another ability or attack requiring a dice roll. Temu is also a Caring Bear, Glimpse of Serenity gives you a very solid Status Effect management tool. 87.5% chance to wipe a single token off everyone he can see (noting that this is not limited to Allies, so you can wipe positive statuses off enemies) and a not terrible chance to drop multiple tokens if you roll well.

Weaknesses

The downside to having so many awesome abilities is that Governor Temu wants to be spending Momentum but not only does he have no special means of farming it, he’s quite likely to have burned a Momentum point at the start of his activation. So, you really need to plan to have one more Momentum each turn than other teams might be able to manage.

Good Partners

As above, Temu hungers for Momentum like a Bear hungers for Salmon. Your team composition is going to need a pretty serious Momentum farmer if you’re going to keep the big guy fed. So, Kotai maybe? Tiger and Bear seems like a pretty good combo on the face of things.

Rating: A+. Temu breaks the action economy at a more than fair price, has a decent offensive kit and has really good Status Effect manipulation. Only for the lack of Momentum management that he doesn’t quite make S-tier.

Sudden Conflict - Heaven's Liberators face off against a Galactic Tyrant and her retinue

Wrap Up

And that’s another Sudden Conflict tactics guide done, folks. Next week we’ll look at the characters from the Valrona setting, including but not limited to: Nikola Marcellus (definitely not a vampire. Don't ask about the blood drinking, ability to turn into a swam of vampire moths* and apparent immortality), the oh-so charming Ginger (don't stare at her extra hand growing out of her elbow), and Dame Sapphire (who has no living enemies).

*His ability Calyptra refers to the scientific name for a genus of vampire moths. Fun fact!

Sudden Conflict will be available on Gamefound in early 2026, with three core sets (Ukyo, Valrona, and the Galactic Throne) as well as two Character Expansion packs (Solaris and the Exiled).

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website, and subscriber-only content covering competitive Warhammer 40K!

Tags: sudden conflict | ukyo