I see where you guys are coming from being worried about all of the honor meta out there, but Zembu just won a 40+ player event with an LSC honor deck while beating some top-notch military players. So it seems to me that if your playgroup is meta-ing so hard against honor, then surprise them with a fast Monk military deck! If they have 2 events and 5-6 Fate cards that predominantly stop honor gains then they are most likely auto-losing to fast military decks. Yes the new honor meta cards also have Battle actions, but it's not like they are game-breaking actions.

If you are gonna stick with LSC then you have to change your mentality from 'gain as much honor as possible on my turn' to 'gain 7 honor on my turn and 7 honor on his/her turn'. Try Wakari/Zembu's deck out and play it that way, then make tweaks accordingly for your playgroup.

+1 good catch.

Have been testing Wakari's deck actually.  Not having a great deal of success, to be honest.  Most military I fight walk right over the 11-14 province strength I can average, even without Determined Force, and the economy doesn't accomodate the use of the acrobat troupes to the point where i can use it's ability every turn.

I end up having to bow my acrobat troupes to buy people, which costs me another 6-10 honor across the game (maybe more because I can't afford to adjudicate someone).

Took out some people, added more gold, ditched adjudication for reinforce, and things are working much better now.

It's not really difficult to send 11F at a province by turn 4.  They may not take it, but they'd regularly take out your army before you get too much honor from the battle.  It's hard for LSC to have 4 defenders straightened to stand up against it though by turn 4 though, I find.  You need a couple of those key boxables in the early turns, but I was being flooded by Magistrates a lot.  I would usually have only two people available, and not always because one person was also bowed for the stronghold; the lack of gold was forcing me to buy one person on turn 3.

Stuff like Unwavering Assault and opposed movement actions easily take care of defensive nature or a refused Adjudication. They would wait until I used a couple of open control actions, THEN bolt on attachments and stuff and walk at me.  It was an issue also of being outnumbered in bodies during critical battles.   I wasn't gaining enough honor in time dynasty wise, so military could quite afford to just take it steady.

My version is still very, very much along the same idea of design, but with some touches to accomodate my environment a bit more.   It still duels, dices and slices, but I think it withstands the way we play down here.

With all due respect, this may be the thing you're doing wrong. If I may give you, or anyone interested some piece of advice, I would say that :

Think about open phase just like battle phase : timing is of the essence, but this is not about force against force, but PS vs force. If you feel your opponent is gonna attach many cards, your first open action WILL be your SH (if possible, ... I do not mean to bow Hanbei before he done his action  ).

At this point, if your opponent pass, you may pass too if you feel you can protect your province during the battle phase. If he stalls (straightening something, creating tokens, ...), pass until he finally attaches his cards. At this point, you may use Defensive nature or imperial adjud.

About non opposed movement, you may try to save at least 1 Harmstrung for this matter. I know Harmstrung can give you 4 honor, but this is nothing compared to save a province. During end game, if you did not use your Hamstrung for its reaction, then you may focus it