No Tortoise, Just Hare

I was looking at my all-time most popular posts on this blog in its various incarnations, and I was somewhat surprised to see the old tactical advice I wrote a long time ago concerning things like threat range and board control for Warmahordes.  So I loaded up the old articles, and I'm still quite proud of how they were written.  I'm disappointed in myself for using actual people, especially to illustrate negative points.  Still, there was a lot of good information in those articles despite my person skew on a few things like netdecking.  Once the new edition hits, I'll have to rewrite the articles to keep them current.  I'll probably also write a few on specific factions while I'm at it.

Jason and I spent the better part of a day going through special cards in the next edition and tweaking a few other things while we were at it.  My favourite work of the evening was coming up with the Hare clan mechanics.  The Hare clan profiles - Kioshi, Iiju, and Atsushi - were very diverse, but we came up with a way to link them all, and it does so in a way that is highly complementary to the existing Prefecture identity.  Satou Kioshi may actually be my favourite profile at the moment.  The clan's surname also got fixed while we were at it.

I've ordered a fair number of Prefecture miniatures, so expect to see some reports on how they play in Risen Sun over the next few months.  My first warband test will probably be the Hare warband, and then I think I'll move onto the more traditional warbands for the Prefecture.  There's some interesting things I'd like to try out with Bikou too since she pulls in some tricks from the Kage Kaze Zoku, but those can wait.

A Narrative of Cats and Spades

Aloha again amigos!  Good alliteration there.  Clearly this is going to be an amazing article about Bushido.

If you have access to a Retainer, then the cat is long since out of the bag: testing for the next edition of Bushido has begun.  I've done a bit of testing with the Ito Clan and the Jung Pirates, as those are my core factions.  Lately I've been thinking of picking up the Prefecture of Ryu since there have previously been some complaints that the faction isn't all that, it’s a bit late for me to prove them wrong but I do like how the faction is shaping up for the next edition.

For those without access to a Retainer, please consult the cat previously mentioned.  I don't think we'll see the release this year though as there needs to be a lot of testing done.  The factions have their identities more clearly defined; the Ito Clan for instance are all incredibly fast, but have less health.  Yatsumata is... well, she threatens the halfway mark of the board simply by walking.  The Jung Pirates are better defined by which captain you bring - you can already see how the captains will work with Hikibi.

Other important testing is for the Minimoto Clan - the Bear Clan.  The Minimoto have always been a big draw for a lot of people, though I'm not entirely sure why.  I was really impressed with the concept art of a Minimoto samurai in the rulebook, but I guess I've always preferred fast and cunning over brute force.  Though the Minimoto do bring brute force out in spades.  Such enormous spades...

I was asked to help with some of the storyline, so I went a bit mental and did pretty much everything.  Then found out none of it was needed, so it's just been gathering dust on my hard drive for a few months.  I decided that it seems a bit of a waste simply throwing it all in the bin, so I'll leave the first part here and see if anyone wants more.  The story contains no spoilers, new characters mentioned are simply there for narrative purposes.