My Jung Pirates have arrived! They are physically here, on my desk! I've been building the miniatures and sorting out their bases. Some of the miniatures I'm not able to remove the tab as the connection is too fragile, so I have to fix the miniature to the base and then build the base around their feet. Luckily it's only for a few miniatures, but it's still something of a pain.
I was briefly glancing through some early combinations, and I think all tournament warbands for the Jung Pirates will include at least 1 rice for the Kamikaze card so that you can have a turn's reprieve from shooting. Shooting has become a very common way to maximize killing power, so getting a turn without having your models smote is rather handy. The other stand-out card that I can see is Blow the Man Down to move an enemy model and then make them prone. It's not foolproof (they need to make a size test) but the possibilities for its use are nigh endless. The other special cards are all pretty situational (asides from the Peg Leg, which 99.9% of people will include just for the extra rice).
There are a few fairly gimmicky strategies you can utilize straight away such as the Black Sails forward deployment warband - your opponent cannot use their Scout, Forward Deployment, or Flank, so you can bring your own models these traits to simply get to the objectives/zones first. I'm going to test out a few possible combinations of the Queen of the Waves theme, as it's the craftier theme and there's still a playtest profile I need to provide feedback for. I'm sorely tempted by the Ashinaga-tenaga at the moment too, but I can't really say why that is - I just like it I guess. I also just realised that I did not add Lua or the Ashinaga-tenaga to the undercoating tray. Ah well, there's plenty of other models to get done meanwhile.
Wednesday 10 August 2016
Saturday 16 July 2016
Style Over Function
My writing on this blog has been sorely lax lately, though I will admit I've simply been waiting for the release of the Jung Pirates next month. Minato and Yuji have been added to the model and profile previews, so it's just the korusea and kohanin profiles and the entire Rise of the Kage range of Jung models will be there at the faction release.
I've been drawing up various warbands for the Jung Pirates - they have the luxurious position of having a better (or more varied) set of early releases than the Tengu Decension. I think it's at the low end of rice costs that warband variation really starts. The faction also has a slightly more balanced mid-high cost profiles - Minato is 11 rice, Mari is 10. I don't quite know what cross-faction profiles the Jung Pirates have access to either, but I expect the water kami in some form will be available (hopefully the Kami of the Suiden variation or something similar).
The main difference in Jung Pirate warbands is whether you want any of the weird stuff or you just want to punch people in the face with normal humans. Minato likes normal people, Mari likes weird things. You don't need to take either member of the Jung family, but they're the best you can get with the release profiles. I feel that the Jung Pirates function in a similar fashion to the Silvermoon Trade Syndicate: higher model count and using a number of special cards in ideal circumstances.
I'm of the opinion that high model count warbands are simply easier to play than smaller, more aggressive warbands that don't have access to a lot of tireless. All you have to do it wear down the enemy models while you roll full defence dice. Once they're all exhausted, then you can start swapping in attack dice. I can play this style, but I find it shockingly tedious when it's possible to do something more aggressive and flashier. You don't want to just win, you want to win with style!
I've been drawing up various warbands for the Jung Pirates - they have the luxurious position of having a better (or more varied) set of early releases than the Tengu Decension. I think it's at the low end of rice costs that warband variation really starts. The faction also has a slightly more balanced mid-high cost profiles - Minato is 11 rice, Mari is 10. I don't quite know what cross-faction profiles the Jung Pirates have access to either, but I expect the water kami in some form will be available (hopefully the Kami of the Suiden variation or something similar).
The main difference in Jung Pirate warbands is whether you want any of the weird stuff or you just want to punch people in the face with normal humans. Minato likes normal people, Mari likes weird things. You don't need to take either member of the Jung family, but they're the best you can get with the release profiles. I feel that the Jung Pirates function in a similar fashion to the Silvermoon Trade Syndicate: higher model count and using a number of special cards in ideal circumstances.
I'm of the opinion that high model count warbands are simply easier to play than smaller, more aggressive warbands that don't have access to a lot of tireless. All you have to do it wear down the enemy models while you roll full defence dice. Once they're all exhausted, then you can start swapping in attack dice. I can play this style, but I find it shockingly tedious when it's possible to do something more aggressive and flashier. You don't want to just win, you want to win with style!
Saturday 18 June 2016
Peg Legs & Hook Hands
I appear to be in some form of minor hellhole this week. We're working on a bathroom in a small coastal town outside Edinburgh, where the Internet is a thing of myth and legend. I'm sure this would be pleasant if the weather was nice, but it isn't so once we're done working there's not a lot to do but freeze slowly.
During one of the sporadic bursts of active wifi reception, I saw that the starter pack for the Jung Pirates has been unveiled. I'm really looking forward to getting my withered grasp on them, and hopefully the kohanin and korusea will be released at the same time as I would be much happier with the metal miniatures than the plastic ones I appropriated from Rise of the Kage.
Along with the Jung Pirates starter I saw the rankings for the Masters. I'm one of the people tied for 3rd but ended up 5th due to strength of schedule. I'm slightly mystified how the SoS was worked out, I've worked with it before and my results were different. Bit of a head-scratcher that one, but I'm happy enough to have made to the final table this year, and in all honesty I think Johan was seriously unlucky not to simply win the whole thing this year with his Silvermoon warband.
Bushido as a whole appears to be undergoing rapid expansion in the UK, though I don't have the sales data to prove this, but the social media side of it has certainly exploded. I expect the UK Masters next year to be packed, and in possible need to additional places. If it does get packed, I think I'll participate as a Retainer rather than a player. I did notice that my games lost a lot of time as people were constantly asking me rules queries, and a dedicated rules person would improve a larger tournament.
During one of the sporadic bursts of active wifi reception, I saw that the starter pack for the Jung Pirates has been unveiled. I'm really looking forward to getting my withered grasp on them, and hopefully the kohanin and korusea will be released at the same time as I would be much happier with the metal miniatures than the plastic ones I appropriated from Rise of the Kage.
Along with the Jung Pirates starter I saw the rankings for the Masters. I'm one of the people tied for 3rd but ended up 5th due to strength of schedule. I'm slightly mystified how the SoS was worked out, I've worked with it before and my results were different. Bit of a head-scratcher that one, but I'm happy enough to have made to the final table this year, and in all honesty I think Johan was seriously unlucky not to simply win the whole thing this year with his Silvermoon warband.
Bushido as a whole appears to be undergoing rapid expansion in the UK, though I don't have the sales data to prove this, but the social media side of it has certainly exploded. I expect the UK Masters next year to be packed, and in possible need to additional places. If it does get packed, I think I'll participate as a Retainer rather than a player. I did notice that my games lost a lot of time as people were constantly asking me rules queries, and a dedicated rules person would improve a larger tournament.
Monday 6 June 2016
UK Masters Journal - Part Two: Games!
My miniatures arrived just before 9am, so I was in time for the Bushido tournament. There was some damage across a good number of miniatures in the top tray of the case - Sojobo seems to have born the brunt of it, with his staff bending and one of his wings needing a fix - but that's a small price to pay for having my miniatures there for the tournament.
Game One: Prefecture of Ryu - the Idols (1-0 victory)
Strangely enough I ended up playing against Robert (Dr Kaos) again, my first opponent last year. He'd changed up his warband a bit since last time: both Hiro and Genji made an appearance along with Matsu the Thunder and Bikou.
I managed to get the early scenario rush but I was quickly suffering attrition. Bikou simply deleted my Zephyr Guard, and my Kami of the Strong West Wind aren't models that last a long time in close combat. On the other hand I did manage to pull off a complete hogwash critical strike attack on Hiro to get my game back in the eleventh hour. Eventually dice was called, but I'm absolutely certain that Rob would have turned the game into a 1-1 draw if we'd managed to get to round 6.
Game Two: Temple of Ro-Kan - the Envoy (3-0 victory)
I played against IrishJohn and his non-themed Temple of Ro-Kan. Unfortunately John's a Bushido newcomer so wasn't prepared for something like my warband. He made some good decisions with what he had, and I can see him developing into a really good player with more experience. I'd peg John as a player to watch out for next year.
Game Three: Silvermoon Trade Syndicate (Jade Rose Gumi) - Ryodo (2-0 victory)
My hardest game of the tournament by far. If I hadn't won this game through sheer grit I'm 100% certain Johan would have won the tournament. His warband was brutal to play against, it had so many special cards and nine models, so he could get a ludicrously activation advantage. I realised that I was going to have to burn through all the special cards as quickly as possibly, so just threw all my biggest threats at him as fast as I could so he would spend the cards. It *sort of* worked in that he spent them, but it was still horrific to have to deal with them regardless. It's really a case of choosing the biggest frog to eat first.
I managed to get into the middle zone very quickly with the Wind Watchers placement effect and threaten his zone constantly by throwing models at it. If Johan had been less keen to defend his zone and put pressure on mine, I'm fairly confident I'd have lost the game. As it was, the Dominate spam from Hokibo kept me in the running so that Hokibo wasn't turned into a pincushion by Wasupu and the Kyoaku-Han Crossbowman.
Game Four: Tengu Decension (White Mesa) - Keii (1-2 loss)
Apparently this was the final table to determine the tournament winner, so I was pretty happy regardless. I was matched up against James Hasker's White Mesa warband with a higher model count. After the game against Johan's Silvermoon, I was really mentally out of it. This wasn't a long game as I simply got out-attritioned early and didn't have the activations spare to get scenario actions done. My cunning plan to execute Sanjakubo very quickly didn't pan out as he survived a really stupid number of activations in melee against Hokibo, but oh well, these things happen. I did manage to pull off a sneaky last turn score to get the final victory point just to prevent a 3-0 stomp by James. With this loss, my tournament ranking takes a tanking (a weakness of the tournament point scoring system) so I'll be interested to see just how much a loss in the final round can effect someone's final placement in the standings.
Game One: Prefecture of Ryu - the Idols (1-0 victory)
Strangely enough I ended up playing against Robert (Dr Kaos) again, my first opponent last year. He'd changed up his warband a bit since last time: both Hiro and Genji made an appearance along with Matsu the Thunder and Bikou.
I managed to get the early scenario rush but I was quickly suffering attrition. Bikou simply deleted my Zephyr Guard, and my Kami of the Strong West Wind aren't models that last a long time in close combat. On the other hand I did manage to pull off a complete hogwash critical strike attack on Hiro to get my game back in the eleventh hour. Eventually dice was called, but I'm absolutely certain that Rob would have turned the game into a 1-1 draw if we'd managed to get to round 6.
Game Two: Temple of Ro-Kan - the Envoy (3-0 victory)
I played against IrishJohn and his non-themed Temple of Ro-Kan. Unfortunately John's a Bushido newcomer so wasn't prepared for something like my warband. He made some good decisions with what he had, and I can see him developing into a really good player with more experience. I'd peg John as a player to watch out for next year.
Game Three: Silvermoon Trade Syndicate (Jade Rose Gumi) - Ryodo (2-0 victory)
My hardest game of the tournament by far. If I hadn't won this game through sheer grit I'm 100% certain Johan would have won the tournament. His warband was brutal to play against, it had so many special cards and nine models, so he could get a ludicrously activation advantage. I realised that I was going to have to burn through all the special cards as quickly as possibly, so just threw all my biggest threats at him as fast as I could so he would spend the cards. It *sort of* worked in that he spent them, but it was still horrific to have to deal with them regardless. It's really a case of choosing the biggest frog to eat first.
I managed to get into the middle zone very quickly with the Wind Watchers placement effect and threaten his zone constantly by throwing models at it. If Johan had been less keen to defend his zone and put pressure on mine, I'm fairly confident I'd have lost the game. As it was, the Dominate spam from Hokibo kept me in the running so that Hokibo wasn't turned into a pincushion by Wasupu and the Kyoaku-Han Crossbowman.
Game Four: Tengu Decension (White Mesa) - Keii (1-2 loss)
Apparently this was the final table to determine the tournament winner, so I was pretty happy regardless. I was matched up against James Hasker's White Mesa warband with a higher model count. After the game against Johan's Silvermoon, I was really mentally out of it. This wasn't a long game as I simply got out-attritioned early and didn't have the activations spare to get scenario actions done. My cunning plan to execute Sanjakubo very quickly didn't pan out as he survived a really stupid number of activations in melee against Hokibo, but oh well, these things happen. I did manage to pull off a sneaky last turn score to get the final victory point just to prevent a 3-0 stomp by James. With this loss, my tournament ranking takes a tanking (a weakness of the tournament point scoring system) so I'll be interested to see just how much a loss in the final round can effect someone's final placement in the standings.
UK Masters Journal - Part One: Disaster!
The trip down south did not start off well. Being an idiot I managed to leave my miniatures case up in Glasgow and only found out when we unpacked Jim's pickup at the hotel in Birmingham. There's a slight story around this, though it's 100% my own bloody fault. Initially my lift was going to pick me up at 1:30pm, so at 1:30 I moved everything I was bringing down to the UK Games Expo outside my flat. At 2:30 my lift hadn't arrived. Phone calls and text messages were unanswered, I was initially concerned that Jim had died on us and I'd have to find alternative transport (i.e. drive down myself). Eventually I get a message back saying "leaving now" just before 3pm. It takes a minimum of 40 minutes between my house and Jim's, so his ETA was right in the middle of the school rush.
Being the incredibly smart person that I am, and it was stupendously hot outside, I decided that I would move everything back indoors and do something more productive with my time, so I played some Total War: Warhammer. For the next part, it is important to know that I live in a one way street and that the entire staff of Scottish Hydroelectric use it to go home. When Jim turned up and pulled up outside my flat, there was a *lot* of traffic looking irate behind him, so it was a case of throwing my stuff at him, chucking it into the flat bed of the truck and speeding off into distance. This is how the miniatures case ended up being forgotten.
Luckily I have an awesome sister who lives not far from me and she has my spare keys, so she went to my flat on Friday morning, let me know I needed to clean it, and then posted my miniatures case by courier. As of right now, it hasn't arrived but it should do shortly. I have been manically spamming the refresh button on the package tracking website to follow my miniatures as they travel south. It's currently sitting at the delivery office about 5 mins drive away, so the urge to simply go there and pick it up is overwhelming, but I know as soon as I do that, it will arrive at the hotel while I'm away. That's just how the universe works.
Being the incredibly smart person that I am, and it was stupendously hot outside, I decided that I would move everything back indoors and do something more productive with my time, so I played some Total War: Warhammer. For the next part, it is important to know that I live in a one way street and that the entire staff of Scottish Hydroelectric use it to go home. When Jim turned up and pulled up outside my flat, there was a *lot* of traffic looking irate behind him, so it was a case of throwing my stuff at him, chucking it into the flat bed of the truck and speeding off into distance. This is how the miniatures case ended up being forgotten.
Luckily I have an awesome sister who lives not far from me and she has my spare keys, so she went to my flat on Friday morning, let me know I needed to clean it, and then posted my miniatures case by courier. As of right now, it hasn't arrived but it should do shortly. I have been manically spamming the refresh button on the package tracking website to follow my miniatures as they travel south. It's currently sitting at the delivery office about 5 mins drive away, so the urge to simply go there and pick it up is overwhelming, but I know as soon as I do that, it will arrive at the hotel while I'm away. That's just how the universe works.
UK Masters Wind Watchers Rundown
Bushido UK Masters Warband:
Hokibo - 14 rice
Kotenbo - 9 rice
Tarobo - 7 rice
Zephyr Guard - 5 rice
Zephyr Guard - 5 rice
Kami of the Strong Western Wind - 4 rice
Kami of the Strong Western Wind - 4 rice
Special Cards:
Wind Watchers (theme)
Deflection (event) - 1 rice
Spiritual Harmony (event) - 1 rice
This is the warband I'm taking with me to the Bushido UK Masters tournament at the UK Games Expo. I've previously written a little about it in a previous blog post but I did leave a few things out as I'd like to surprise a few people at the tournament.
How It Works
The warband completely revolves around Hokibo and the use of the "Dominate" Ki feat.
I use Dominate to dictate my opponent's activation order so that I can accomplish my objectives unimpeded. Normally Hokibo could only use Dominate once a turn - twice on turn two - but with Spiritual Harmony I can flood him with Ki on turn two from the Zephyr Guards. This, in turn, gives me enough Ki to use Dominate four times on turn two if I feel I need to use it that much. Imagine your four worst models having Impetuous, that's what it feels like.
The main scenarios that give me pause are zone scenarios that use models that are either faster or tougher than mine to seizure the zones early, which is why nearly every model in the warband brings a Push special.
Another defining trait of the warband is the sheer number of placement effects it brings. Both Zephyr Guards have their own, the Kami of the Strong Western Wind both have ranged attack placements, and the Wind Watchers theme brings an incredible 2" placement effect. I can effectively move a Zephyr Guard about 17" every turn if I wanted to. These placement effects really come into their own during VIM scenarios as I can often just zip across the board to score near the end of a turn.
Overall, basic scenario play is covered but there are vulnerable points in the warband. If Hokibo dies, the warband falls to pieces in a hurry. Certain special cards can disrupt me for a turn or two, as can profiles with large distances on Disturb Flow. I'm also concerned about how the warband performs against a warband with no specific points of weakness. Righteous Warriors warbands from the Temple of Ro-kan gives me pause, and it is certainly an incredibly popular theme. We'll just have to see what I end up against on the day.
Hokibo - 14 rice
Kotenbo - 9 rice
Tarobo - 7 rice
Zephyr Guard - 5 rice
Zephyr Guard - 5 rice
Kami of the Strong Western Wind - 4 rice
Kami of the Strong Western Wind - 4 rice
Special Cards:
Wind Watchers (theme)
Deflection (event) - 1 rice
Spiritual Harmony (event) - 1 rice
This is the warband I'm taking with me to the Bushido UK Masters tournament at the UK Games Expo. I've previously written a little about it in a previous blog post but I did leave a few things out as I'd like to surprise a few people at the tournament.
How It Works
The warband completely revolves around Hokibo and the use of the "Dominate" Ki feat.
I use Dominate to dictate my opponent's activation order so that I can accomplish my objectives unimpeded. Normally Hokibo could only use Dominate once a turn - twice on turn two - but with Spiritual Harmony I can flood him with Ki on turn two from the Zephyr Guards. This, in turn, gives me enough Ki to use Dominate four times on turn two if I feel I need to use it that much. Imagine your four worst models having Impetuous, that's what it feels like.
The main scenarios that give me pause are zone scenarios that use models that are either faster or tougher than mine to seizure the zones early, which is why nearly every model in the warband brings a Push special.
Another defining trait of the warband is the sheer number of placement effects it brings. Both Zephyr Guards have their own, the Kami of the Strong Western Wind both have ranged attack placements, and the Wind Watchers theme brings an incredible 2" placement effect. I can effectively move a Zephyr Guard about 17" every turn if I wanted to. These placement effects really come into their own during VIM scenarios as I can often just zip across the board to score near the end of a turn.
Overall, basic scenario play is covered but there are vulnerable points in the warband. If Hokibo dies, the warband falls to pieces in a hurry. Certain special cards can disrupt me for a turn or two, as can profiles with large distances on Disturb Flow. I'm also concerned about how the warband performs against a warband with no specific points of weakness. Righteous Warriors warbands from the Temple of Ro-kan gives me pause, and it is certainly an incredibly popular theme. We'll just have to see what I end up against on the day.
Friday 13 May 2016
Flying Fish
I've come into the ownership of a new iPad and so I'm testing it to see how well it works for writing a blog post, please bear with me on any weird sentences and unusual grammar. I'm also hoping that I can record more pictures on the spot and be able to write such things as battle reports quicker as I don't have to wait until I'm at home on my PC any longer.
Some of us journeyed to Common Ground Games in Stirling last Sunday and had a couple of games of Bushido. I sat out the first round of games, but tried out a pirate spam warband against John Sinclair's Tengu Decension. It was a bit of a whitewash, mostly due to John's low model count (6) against my larger than normal warband (8). I could simply out-activate him and pile onto the tengu and tribesmen to burn through their activations. It's probably how Jim feels when he plays uses his chaff warbands.
Of the two themes available to the Jung Pirates, I definitely like the trickier one over the fighting one - no surprise to anyone at my choice, let's be honest. On the other hand, I do love the miniature for Minato, so I expect I'm going to break out of the themes quite often. I would happily switch to the Jung Pirates for the UK Games Expo if they were available, though I suspect my ranking would take a tanking.
Jim's current incarnation of his Nightmares of Jigoku warband is pretty damn nightmarish. There are tokens. So very many tokens. I'm pretty such I can exploit the single point of vulnerability if Jim plays it like he's been doing and I win the tactical roll on turn 2, or I get lucky and can walk off some Held tokens. Failing that, it's one long, horrible slog. So I'm willing to bet Jim's loving it.
Some of us journeyed to Common Ground Games in Stirling last Sunday and had a couple of games of Bushido. I sat out the first round of games, but tried out a pirate spam warband against John Sinclair's Tengu Decension. It was a bit of a whitewash, mostly due to John's low model count (6) against my larger than normal warband (8). I could simply out-activate him and pile onto the tengu and tribesmen to burn through their activations. It's probably how Jim feels when he plays uses his chaff warbands.
Of the two themes available to the Jung Pirates, I definitely like the trickier one over the fighting one - no surprise to anyone at my choice, let's be honest. On the other hand, I do love the miniature for Minato, so I expect I'm going to break out of the themes quite often. I would happily switch to the Jung Pirates for the UK Games Expo if they were available, though I suspect my ranking would take a tanking.
Jim's current incarnation of his Nightmares of Jigoku warband is pretty damn nightmarish. There are tokens. So very many tokens. I'm pretty such I can exploit the single point of vulnerability if Jim plays it like he's been doing and I win the tactical roll on turn 2, or I get lucky and can walk off some Held tokens. Failing that, it's one long, horrible slog. So I'm willing to bet Jim's loving it.
Monday 2 May 2016
DAN UN. DAN UN. DAN UN. DANUNDANUNDANUNDANUN
 |
| Jung Pirates - Angry Shark Man |
Given the impending release of the Jung Pirates - supposedly in August - it's no surprise that I've been playtesting the crap out of them. So far I've found them to be incredibly fun and different from what I'm used to. Ever since we saw the Jung Pirate models from Rise of the Kage, I've really been itching to get them - Minato really sold them to me. With the Rise of the Kage profiles along with those for playtesting, there's a lot of variation in warband construction. The theme special cards are quite unusual in that they only include exclusions rather than restrictions.
While testing out the Jung Pirates, I've been trying out the Kappa, a model I have long neglected. I've always though it was an amazing 6 rice profile, it just didn't fit into my warbands. It works *really* well with the Light Footed kaizoku, though you have to be careful not to screw yourself with those kaizoku who can't deal with the difficult terrain. There are warbands who can ignore all this difficult terrain shenanigans of course (snake Ito and the Tengu Decension) but it's brutal for those who can't. It's probably my best painted miniature too.
My experiments with the camera have ground to a halt, we tried it out over the weekend and came to realize we need a few things: a better camera, microphones, and a fixed camera position for the board. So instead I'm getting back to making (slow) progress on the Jumo Ring wikia. Right now it's simply adding all the existing profiles to the wiki, eventually I'll include basic tactics and some mechanic explanations.
Friday 22 April 2016
Hoot Hoot
Woot woot, hoot hoot, it's time to get some playtesting done.
I'm planning on going to Common Ground Games in Stirling on the 8th of May - the day after Carronade. If any of you want to come along and play some Bushido, let me know either here or on Facebook. I shall bring some profiles for testing - minor spoilers, most factions do not have any profiles under testing at the moment.
I'm trying to find out if I can get hold of the Jung Pirates at the UK Games Expo. It's fairly unlikely, but there's just enough of a chance that I'm planning on bringing my modelling tools with me in case I have to do some emergency miniature building. Currently I can field 43 rice worth of Jung Pirates with the profiles from Rise of the Kage and the Kappa. So that's 7 models with plenty of rice to spare...
Failing getting hold the Jung Pirates, it's Tengu Decension all the way, though I'm worried that the warband I'm thinking of bringing along is weak against warbands without a single specific point of weakness to exploit: Prefecture of Ryu ashigaru swarm, Temple of Ro-Kan Righteous Warriors, and Savage Wave Alphas are all warbands I'm uncertain against. I'm going to play around with some alternatives, or not and end up doing some playtesting...
Harping on about the Tengu Decension though, my Kanut arrived! Which was both good and bad... Bad in that his card was misprinted (the back of it actually belongs to Bikou) and for some reason he was missing the axe blade. Good in that GCT immediately sent me out a replacement for the missing axe blade, and they'll send me the re-printed card when it's available. My Shepherds of White Mesa is now complete! Or I have all the models, but I actually need to paint it.
Failing getting hold the Jung Pirates, it's Tengu Decension all the way, though I'm worried that the warband I'm thinking of bringing along is weak against warbands without a single specific point of weakness to exploit: Prefecture of Ryu ashigaru swarm, Temple of Ro-Kan Righteous Warriors, and Savage Wave Alphas are all warbands I'm uncertain against. I'm going to play around with some alternatives, or not and end up doing some playtesting...
Harping on about the Tengu Decension though, my Kanut arrived! Which was both good and bad... Bad in that his card was misprinted (the back of it actually belongs to Bikou) and for some reason he was missing the axe blade. Good in that GCT immediately sent me out a replacement for the missing axe blade, and they'll send me the re-printed card when it's available. My Shepherds of White Mesa is now complete! Or I have all the models, but I actually need to paint it.
Monday 28 March 2016
Ka-Caw!
Experiments with Wind Watchers are finally concluded unless GCT release another tengu profile I didn't know about. I'm pretty happy with how the warband now functions and how it performs. I do suffer from being out-activated however, but then again I can completely ruin someone's day: we're talking serious Negative Play Experience here. So I'm loving it from my side of the table of course. I expect some form of errata will hit it eventually.
Theme: Wind Watchers
Hokibo
Kotenbo
Tarobo
Zephyr Guard x2
Air Kami x2 (maybe swap one for an Earth Kami)
Deflection
Spiritual Harmony
Basically I run around killing stuff with Hokibo and Kotenbo with little or no consequences. It's glorious. I'd like to test out the warband against a few other factions, namely the Ito Clan is the one that concerns me. Mark Bonatti surprised me when he brought along the Shadow Wind Clan last time we played, but that was in the previous iteration of the Wind Watchers warband, which didn't bring Kotenbo for the extra hitting and staying power. I have a vague concern about ranged attacks, but it's nothing I don't think I can handle.
The warband does want to get an advantage early and try to keep it before it runs out of steam, but that's more of a reflection on myself as a player. It's how I like to play most games. It's very different to my White Mesa theme warband which likes to grind its way through the enemy warband, but uses the odd sneaky trick to appear in strange places. There's a couple more iterations of the White Mesa I'd like to try out before the UK Masters regardless.
Jim's going through various iterations of Cult of Yurei stuff, though he's not enjoying how the Tengu Decension *will* get to your support models, and very quick too. I really wish I'd brought the camcorder with me for our last game, that would have been an amazing soundbite to have on hand. So instead I get heaps of chaff to wade through most of the time, not something I particularly relish, but it does help me identify the weaknesses of the warband.
Going back to the Shadow Wind clan though, it was very educational seeing them in action with the full special card treatment. I think House of the North Star (is that right? The one that gives out free enhancement and soulless) is going to be the default theme, but not owning the cards myself, I can't say that with utter certainty. Soulless and disguise is pretty bloody potent though, especially in VIM scenarios just now, but I'm still waiting on the errata concerning VIM animals, disguises, and flank to be released. That would solve that particular thorn. Katsumi and Kerasu are both pretty scary to fight against, as they're MS 4 profiles with Brutal (1), but I didn't find the rest of the ninjas worth worrying about as the tengu have plenty of Sixth Sense to go around.
Theme: Wind Watchers
Hokibo
Kotenbo
Tarobo
Zephyr Guard x2
Air Kami x2 (maybe swap one for an Earth Kami)
Deflection
Spiritual Harmony
Basically I run around killing stuff with Hokibo and Kotenbo with little or no consequences. It's glorious. I'd like to test out the warband against a few other factions, namely the Ito Clan is the one that concerns me. Mark Bonatti surprised me when he brought along the Shadow Wind Clan last time we played, but that was in the previous iteration of the Wind Watchers warband, which didn't bring Kotenbo for the extra hitting and staying power. I have a vague concern about ranged attacks, but it's nothing I don't think I can handle.
The warband does want to get an advantage early and try to keep it before it runs out of steam, but that's more of a reflection on myself as a player. It's how I like to play most games. It's very different to my White Mesa theme warband which likes to grind its way through the enemy warband, but uses the odd sneaky trick to appear in strange places. There's a couple more iterations of the White Mesa I'd like to try out before the UK Masters regardless.
Jim's going through various iterations of Cult of Yurei stuff, though he's not enjoying how the Tengu Decension *will* get to your support models, and very quick too. I really wish I'd brought the camcorder with me for our last game, that would have been an amazing soundbite to have on hand. So instead I get heaps of chaff to wade through most of the time, not something I particularly relish, but it does help me identify the weaknesses of the warband.
Going back to the Shadow Wind clan though, it was very educational seeing them in action with the full special card treatment. I think House of the North Star (is that right? The one that gives out free enhancement and soulless) is going to be the default theme, but not owning the cards myself, I can't say that with utter certainty. Soulless and disguise is pretty bloody potent though, especially in VIM scenarios just now, but I'm still waiting on the errata concerning VIM animals, disguises, and flank to be released. That would solve that particular thorn. Katsumi and Kerasu are both pretty scary to fight against, as they're MS 4 profiles with Brutal (1), but I didn't find the rest of the ninjas worth worrying about as the tengu have plenty of Sixth Sense to go around.
Monday 14 March 2016
UK Masters Announced!
Finally, the Bushido Grand Masters tournament has been announced for the UK Games Expo! This year I'm heading down with a few more friends, and the Expo looks like it'll be a lot of fun - I assume the tournament will be fun too. A little part of me is really hoping I can get hold of the Jung Pirates quickly enough to use them in the tournament, but it's not likely. I'm going to decide between the White Mesa warband using Sojobo, Kanut, and Taliriktug, or the Wind Watchers warband that makes people ragequit. Personally I like the ragequit Wind Watchers warband more, but it may depend on model releases before the tournament and my painting schedule.
In non-Bushido related news I've been on a crazy D&D bender and put some serious work into the campaign I'm running. I was rather inspired by watching a few episodes of Critical Role, a D&D game run and played by voice actors. It has ups, it has downs, there are emotional rollercoasters, and really, I wish my game was this good but I'd like to think my game will improve dramatically over the next few sessions (I only run it about once a month, so looking for instant results is difficult).
Enough of that non-Bushido pish though! Tomorrow I'll try out the Wind Watchers warband against Mark Bonatti's Ito Clan. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Wind Watchers performs versus poison, it's not a match up I've tried before.
In non-Bushido related news I've been on a crazy D&D bender and put some serious work into the campaign I'm running. I was rather inspired by watching a few episodes of Critical Role, a D&D game run and played by voice actors. It has ups, it has downs, there are emotional rollercoasters, and really, I wish my game was this good but I'd like to think my game will improve dramatically over the next few sessions (I only run it about once a month, so looking for instant results is difficult).
Enough of that non-Bushido pish though! Tomorrow I'll try out the Wind Watchers warband against Mark Bonatti's Ito Clan. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Wind Watchers performs versus poison, it's not a match up I've tried before.
Sunday 14 February 2016
Cameratastic Fun
Having had a good, long think about what Bushido needs to expand and improve the player base I turned to my recent introduction to Infinity by Corvus Belli. Personally I feel that Infinity has less depth, but a much denser ruleset than Bushido, so the incredible surge in popularity from 2014 onwards of Infinity is really interesting to me - from what I understand there was a mass conversion from WH40K.
So the rules of Infinity are clearly not a barrier to picking up the game. The most frequent request of GCT is a how-to-play video. I haven't touched a how-to-play of Infinity, but I watched enough video battle reports to understand the basics pretty well, I just haven't had the actual experience of seeing what works and what doesn't. It's a bit like Warmachine/Hordes in that way I guess, if you haven't experienced it on the table, you're not likely to know what it really does. Sounds like most wargames really.
That moves us neatly into... I bought myself a terrible camcorder! Tada! It's time to start recording and putting together some video battle reports. I reckon at least 20 of them should do, so that's my project for this year. I'm still figuring out how to work with the camera, it was super-cheap and appears to have a minimum focus range of about half a meter or thereabouts and there are some issues with light I need to look at. There's quite a lot of testing to be done, then I have to teach myself how to edit all the footage. I suspect I may need to find myself a graphic designer shortly. Now all I need to do is get an opponent over the weekends.
I've painted up a plastic Yuji for my Jung Pirates now, but I'm not happy with him at all. There's just something about the plastic I don't like. I couldn't get rid of the mold lines as the plastic doesn't 'shave' like resin or metal and his sword is more of a tube than a blade. I'm pretty sure I'll get a metal version of him at release and repaint him. It doesn't give me high hopes for the kohanin and the korusea, but they are miniatures with less going on. At least I can drop him from a great height with no concern, Yuji's pretty much indestructible.
So the rules of Infinity are clearly not a barrier to picking up the game. The most frequent request of GCT is a how-to-play video. I haven't touched a how-to-play of Infinity, but I watched enough video battle reports to understand the basics pretty well, I just haven't had the actual experience of seeing what works and what doesn't. It's a bit like Warmachine/Hordes in that way I guess, if you haven't experienced it on the table, you're not likely to know what it really does. Sounds like most wargames really.
That moves us neatly into... I bought myself a terrible camcorder! Tada! It's time to start recording and putting together some video battle reports. I reckon at least 20 of them should do, so that's my project for this year. I'm still figuring out how to work with the camera, it was super-cheap and appears to have a minimum focus range of about half a meter or thereabouts and there are some issues with light I need to look at. There's quite a lot of testing to be done, then I have to teach myself how to edit all the footage. I suspect I may need to find myself a graphic designer shortly. Now all I need to do is get an opponent over the weekends.
I've painted up a plastic Yuji for my Jung Pirates now, but I'm not happy with him at all. There's just something about the plastic I don't like. I couldn't get rid of the mold lines as the plastic doesn't 'shave' like resin or metal and his sword is more of a tube than a blade. I'm pretty sure I'll get a metal version of him at release and repaint him. It doesn't give me high hopes for the kohanin and the korusea, but they are miniatures with less going on. At least I can drop him from a great height with no concern, Yuji's pretty much indestructible.
Friday 5 February 2016
Boiling Oil
The planned Tengu Decension warband works pretty well, it will need some more practice but all the moving parts are there. Now it's the waiting game for the April releases. So far the warband is functional and can do a lot of cool tricky things, just not as tricky as my Ito Clan type of warband. It plays a lot like a Temple of Ro-Kan warband, only with more movement related craziness and lessbuffing. I arrived home to find Qimmiq had arrived, even more 'huzzah!'
Preparation for my Jung Pirates have begun in earnest! Bases have been built, plastic miniatures have been dunked in boiling water, my desk has been covered in lots of tiny red plastic debris. I'm going to keep the miniatures separated from the bases for now and attach them once both are finished. Now to begin painting. Yuji is up first, as what is a captain without a first mate? Also he's pretty much the linchpin figure of the faction with his unique effects and Inspiration. I've just come up with a cool way to distinguish between profiles A and B for the pirates too: one figure will be on the wooden docks bases, the other will be on stonework from the town part of the board.
I've hit a little bit of a brick wall with the docks board, as I now have to level out a good 60% of the board so that the stonework can be cut out and glued on properly. I was thinking of just investing in a lot of lightweight polyfiller and then using a grouting float to smooth it flat; or maybe using a spirit level as that would be wider than the board... Or just have an area in the middle lower than the rest. I'll try some experiments with having to do the least work, and if it doesn't work out, the small-scale plastering will commence.
I was really sure I posted this yesterday, but apparently not, oh well.
Preparation for my Jung Pirates have begun in earnest! Bases have been built, plastic miniatures have been dunked in boiling water, my desk has been covered in lots of tiny red plastic debris. I'm going to keep the miniatures separated from the bases for now and attach them once both are finished. Now to begin painting. Yuji is up first, as what is a captain without a first mate? Also he's pretty much the linchpin figure of the faction with his unique effects and Inspiration. I've just come up with a cool way to distinguish between profiles A and B for the pirates too: one figure will be on the wooden docks bases, the other will be on stonework from the town part of the board.
I've hit a little bit of a brick wall with the docks board, as I now have to level out a good 60% of the board so that the stonework can be cut out and glued on properly. I was thinking of just investing in a lot of lightweight polyfiller and then using a grouting float to smooth it flat; or maybe using a spirit level as that would be wider than the board... Or just have an area in the middle lower than the rest. I'll try some experiments with having to do the least work, and if it doesn't work out, the small-scale plastering will commence.
I was really sure I posted this yesterday, but apparently not, oh well.
Saturday 23 January 2016
He's Not a Bike, He a Chopper
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| Jung Pirates - The Woodcutter? |
The first of the non-RotK Jung Pirates have started to appear! Awesomesauce time. Let's assume normal buto stats: 10 health, +2 melee strength, 9-11 rice depending on stats/Ki feats. He actually brings an anchor point for the Jung battle line as until now the Jung Pirate profiles have all been very squishy. Now all I need are some profiles with Leap so I can exploit having a tanky model like this.
Good things happening with the Tengu Decension though, my planned warband is a White Mesa themed one, but I'm interested in how a Wind Watchers theme works out with some of the other test profiles. Granted I have almost all the White Mesa stuff painted, but I really like the idea of using all those place effects to really catch people off guard. I only need to paint... Hokibo, both Zephyr Guards, and Kotenbo... then wait for another Tengu Decension model to get released and I'll be fine! Weirdly I couldn't get Tarobo into the warband. You can't see it but I'm putting on my 'squinty face' as I type this. Unfortunately he can't really fight, and the warband needs models that can do that, so Tarobo got cut despite his awesome stun/sixth sense unique effect.
Sunday 17 January 2016
Wave 27 Profiles
Here's the current list of Wave 27 profiles. I don't think there are going to be any other profiles, it's a larger wave than normal 6 models. There's no concept art, but GCT appears to be releasing the profile cards along with the model announcements.
Bachiko Takashi
Bakemono Boomers
Iiju Makoto
Misao, the Grey Rose
Okyo Archer
Qimmiq
Takashi Retainer
Yuuki
Of these profiles, Qimmiq is probably the biggest game changer, he adds a lot to the Tengu Decension through the ability to move things around or hold enemy models in place. I think Misao is next, but I'm not entirely sure, she occupies a similar spot to Harukichi, but she may allow for greater flexibility in Jade Rose theme warbands. She's a profile I'll have to see in action before I can tell just how good she is. The Okyo Archers pose an interesting possible skew for Ito Clan warbands where you could go massively ranged attack heavy.
The overall faction winner though is Prefecture, where they get a samurai with both Cleave and Inspiration, and a raft of cheap samurai with bodyguard, that opens up the Blood of the Dragon theme quite significantly.
Bachiko Takashi
Bakemono Boomers
Iiju Makoto
Misao, the Grey Rose
Okyo Archer
Qimmiq
Takashi Retainer
Yuuki
Of these profiles, Qimmiq is probably the biggest game changer, he adds a lot to the Tengu Decension through the ability to move things around or hold enemy models in place. I think Misao is next, but I'm not entirely sure, she occupies a similar spot to Harukichi, but she may allow for greater flexibility in Jade Rose theme warbands. She's a profile I'll have to see in action before I can tell just how good she is. The Okyo Archers pose an interesting possible skew for Ito Clan warbands where you could go massively ranged attack heavy.
The overall faction winner though is Prefecture, where they get a samurai with both Cleave and Inspiration, and a raft of cheap samurai with bodyguard, that opens up the Blood of the Dragon theme quite significantly.
Friday 15 January 2016
Birdman Returns
Hwoar! Back in the swing of things again after a few months of thumb-twiddling. It's taken a while, but I'm once again back into warband theorycrafting and getting games in on a semi-regular basis. At this moment I'm quite focused on my first iteration of what will probably be my next UK Masters warband using the Tengu Decension. I also have this strange idea to bring a different faction every year... So next year, Jung Pirates. Honest.
Back to the Tengu Decension however, I'm only missing 2 models from my upcoming warband: Qimmiq who is released in Wave 27 some time in early February; and another unreleased profile that should be out in the following wave. While I still have a lot of Tengu Decension models to paint, all the models currently available in my warband are finished and ready to go. Quite chuffed with that really. I'll get working on the models I'm most likely to use in other warbands next, such as the Zephyr Guard(s).
The dock board is on hold at the moment, there are some art supplies I need to pick up so that the wooden docks don't fall apart over time. The plan is to get some really thin plasticard and glue the dock planks to that rather than trying to glue them to a frame of some sort. This will make the planks really solid and you'll have to do some serious work to pry them off.
After that I'll need to level out the rest of the board and 'pave' it with textured plasticard. I don't have enough plasticard for the full thing but I think I can cut it into small pieces and have rough terrain sections poking through - the docks are supposed to be run down after all.
Back to the Tengu Decension however, I'm only missing 2 models from my upcoming warband: Qimmiq who is released in Wave 27 some time in early February; and another unreleased profile that should be out in the following wave. While I still have a lot of Tengu Decension models to paint, all the models currently available in my warband are finished and ready to go. Quite chuffed with that really. I'll get working on the models I'm most likely to use in other warbands next, such as the Zephyr Guard(s).
The dock board is on hold at the moment, there are some art supplies I need to pick up so that the wooden docks don't fall apart over time. The plan is to get some really thin plasticard and glue the dock planks to that rather than trying to glue them to a frame of some sort. This will make the planks really solid and you'll have to do some serious work to pry them off.
After that I'll need to level out the rest of the board and 'pave' it with textured plasticard. I don't have enough plasticard for the full thing but I think I can cut it into small pieces and have rough terrain sections poking through - the docks are supposed to be run down after all.
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