Redvers and Son Get Into Bushido

I wanted to try something different and, like a lot of games, there are always different ways you can put together your faction. In this case, I wanted to really lean into the fire aspect, so selected Wanyudo and Waku the Soul Collector as they both dish out fire tokens like confetti. I also took Ibara, a low cost model that can also dish out fire tokens. Mo Ises and Mokoti provide some useful Control shenanigans and Rokuro rounds out my faction, providing some combat abilities. I’ve also given Rokuro a couple of upgrade cards to improve his combat. 

In addition to the above, I’ve taken a terrain card called refuse pile that generates a small rat swarm whenever someone wins a victory point. I also have the Pariah’s Voice event card, that allows, once per game, for one of my models to reduce an opponent’s Ki ability prior to making an opposed Ki challenge – handy for the Control Ki feats that I have. I also have the Crush the Oppressed event card that, when played, automatically doubles all of the tokens currently in play on enemy models. Given that I’m planning on dishing out a lot of fire tokens, this will get to double them when played – think of it as a big can of petrol!

My son took his Temple of Rokan force with a lot of monks, all led by Master Koju.

For this game, we have three shrines deployed along the centre line of the board at 6” internals. They all start neutral but models can expend an activation when in BtB with the shrine to influence it from unfriendly to neutral or from neutral to friendly. At the end of Turns 2, 4 and 6, whoever has the most friendly shrines will gain a Victory Point.

Below are the pre-game deployments. And as Rokuro gets a pre game scout move, I advanced him up the middle through the Tori Gate.

EDIT

There would be photos of the battle here, but for some reasons, the OTT site is blocking the uploads and giving me a ‘security breach’ web page. Apparently my photos are an attempt to derail national security by bringing down this site. This is a shame as they are very nice photos but if you’ve read this far, you’ll just have to use theatre of the mind to imagine the battle and the fun we had. If I figure out how to upload the photos without GCHQ getting involved, I’ll add them later.

Turn 1

Most of turn 1 was the usual moving into position and getting into cover. However as Rokuro was deployed forward due to his scout rule, I looked to move him up the table to threaten an objective. This unfortunately put him in range of Saruka who used her Dance of Dragons Ki feat to launch a fireball toward the erstwhile Rokuro. This hit and while I was able to use some defences, it still caused Rokuro 2 fire damage.

Apparently GCHQ and the OTT security filters are only worried about the setup photos, Turn 1 photos are not a national security issue.

Turn 2

Turn 2 is where things really start to get interesting and this was no exception. Looking to lean heavily into my fire theme, I started with Ibara using his dark fire Ki feat to give Kira 2 fire markers (so no damage now, but at the end of the turn, you apply damage based on the markers on each model). In return, Saruka again uses her Dance of Dragons and Rokuro is burnt to a crisp (being a Tengu, perhaps this is a tasty chicken like crisp?). So first blood to my son and like similar battles, Rokuro gets it early – perhaps I’m being too aggressive with him.

Wanyudo uses its Soul Fire Ki ability on Saruka who gets 2 fire markers as well as a Ki block marker (meaning Saruka cannot generate ki in the next turn, which is very handy in stopping Saruka using Dance of Dragons again. In return, Saruka uses her last activation to Wait and remove the fire markers, so a handy way to tie her down with the net result being that Saruka still has the ki block marker.

Mo Ises tries to use his Obey ki feat but Kira is able to resist this.

Once again, Wanyudo Soul Fire’s Saruka and this time gets a level 3 fire marker. At this point I use my Crush the Oppressed event card which doubles all of the markers currently in play. This means that Saruka gets another level 3 fire maker and another Ki block and Kira picks up another 2 fire markers.

A blazing Kira moves into melee with Mo Ises and using a special attack pushes Mo Ises back 2” and leaves him Prone. Koju attacks Wanydo and manages to apply a bleed marker (I’m not sure how given that Wanyudo is a flaming wooden wheel, but there you go). If Koju remains in BtB with Wanyudo, he’ll get a fire marker next turn as standing next to a flaming wheel isn’t healthy. 

Kiru now attacks Ibara. In defence, I roll 3 1s and Ibara gets slapped around taking 4 wounds. Still alive but not looking healthy.

Riku tries to attack Waku the Soul Collector but fails the Fear test leaving him Frightened and unable to complete the action. Waku uses his Dark Magic ranged attack and hits Riku handing out 2 fire markers. This forces Riku to use an activation to wait to remove the fire markers. 

Yim finally attacks Wanyudo using his Fist of Iron Ki feat and does 2 wounds but takes a fire marker in return.

At the end of the turn, Wanyudo take a wound for having a bleed marker. Yim takes a wound for having a Fire marker. Saruka takes 4 wounds from the fire markers and still has a fire marker left. Riku takes 2 wounds from fire markers and still has 2 left. So overall, a fairly destructive round for my warband.

But the end of round 2 is a scoring round and my son controls 2 shrines so he gets 1VP. My enhancement card means I get a small rat swarm generated, so an extra model and an extra irritation for my son to deal with.

Turn 3

As Yim and Koju are in BtB with Wanyudo at the start of the turn, they both win themselves a fire marker each. Wanyudo loves the hot cuddles.

Riku attacks Ibara. I gamble here as Ibara has Reach meaning that he will attack first in combat and I put all of my melee dice pool into attack with the hope of getting a killing blow. I only manage 2 wounds and Riku is able to finish Ibara off.

I use Waku to give Riku a Death Sentence marker (meaning that any of my models attacking Riku will get an extra melee dice – Ibara could have done with this). 

Waku then attacks Riku. Riku uses the Parry Ki feat and the combat ends with neither party managing to cause any wounds.

Sakura then gets into combat with Mokoti. This isn’t really a fair fight and Mokoti gets absolutely murdered. Things aren’t going well for my warband now.

At the end of the turn, Sakura and Kira both succumb to a fiery death with their remaining fire markers. Koju and Yim both take a further wound each from their fire markers.

Turn 4

At the start of the turn, Koju gets another fire marker for being in BtB with Wanyudo. I activate Wanyudo first and use his Inferno ki ability that hits all models within 2” and gives each of them 2 fire tokens. But this isn’t going to be enough to kill anyone. It’s not looking good for me now and with Wanyudo and Waku locked up in combat, they won’t have enough activation points to get free and get to a shrine to turn them back to my side. The small rat swarm has the special rule of insignificant that means it can’t perform scenario actions, so isn’t going to help me win this scenario. It’s at this point that I have to concede, my son wins.

Life often gets in the way of things we enjoy. In my case, we are looking to move house and what we thought should be a reasonably straightforward house purchase and exchange, has proven to be anything but. We were expecting such a straightforward move that we started boxing things up, especially all of my gaming stuff which has meant that all of my models are packed and stored in the garage. This has greatly reduced the painting that I’ve been able to do. But it was supposedly only for a few weeks. Six months later, we still haven’t moved and things drag on, so much so, I’ve started opening boxes up and getting models out to paint. At least this is my excuse as to why I’ve not had an update on this project for such a long time.

Enough excuses, I painted a model. 

Tadaoki is a ronin, so can fight for a number of the factions in the game. He’s a fairly simple model with very few special rules and a simple Ki feat that gives him the Brutal rule for a short period of time, greatly improving his melee combat skills (which aren’t bad normally). A handy model to add to the ranks and fairly cheap points wise as well.

To paint him, I thought he made a good subject for me to carry on using the speed paints that I have. His robes got a Burnt Moss which I then lightly dry brushed with a light green. The armour was Hardened Leather (which I’m having mixed results with at the moment) and when it dried, I was happy enough with the outcome to leave it. 

I used a Holy White for the cloth head wear with a light white dry brush. I painted the skin with a light flesh tone and then applied a wash. Once dry, I highlighted the raised areas. The blue was Royal Robes and then a light blue highlight. I think the model took a single evening to paint, so given the time investment, I’m very happy with the outcome. 

Another couple of Kami for my son’s Temple of Rokan warband. These were painted very quickly in an hour – I think the basing took longer. I didn’t see a need to put a lot of effort in as they aren’t likely to get a run out very often.

These were 3d prints from a free stl file. I think I searched up earth elemental and these came up eventually. After a quick prime, I broke out the hardened leather speed paint followed by a light brown dry brush. I’ve then given the legs a strong tone wash to blend them into the base a little more. But that was it, it’s not even 3 colours up.

Waku is one of the more expensive (points wise) models that the Cult of Yurei can field. Fluff wise, he wanders the Jwar Isles reaping the souls of living, so he fits well into the Cult’s evil theme. 

In game, he has some reasonable stats and a very good Ki stat. He can also boost all of his other stats using Ki, which is handy. He is immune to states like Prone, Fire and Poison and carries the Fear trait. Unusually for a Cult figure, he has a ranged attack which does no immediate damage but does give the target a fire marker equal to how successful the ranged attack was.

His two Ki feats allow him to create an area of difficult ground, so great for hindering enemy models moving around whereas his other Ki feat allows him to place a Death Sentence marker on the victim. This gives anyone attacking that victim a +1 attack pool advantage while they have the death sentence, which is very handy. 

The real big ticket for Waku is that he gains an Activation marker if anyone (friend or foe) is killed within 6” of him. Gaining Activation markers is a massive boost in Bushido, so a real plus here.

The model

The model has a number of small metal parts that need to be attached. This includes some scroll paper that attaches to the hat but I’ve decided to leave this off and keep it a little bit simpler. Looking at the model, I also felt that Waku should ‘float’ on a plume of cloud rather than walk around (I was thinking Monkey Magic here), so I need to make this first. 

To make the cloud, I measured out two pieces of plasticard, the lower piece had to fit into/onto the standard 30mm base and the upper piece needed to align with the base of the model. This done, I took some foam clump foliage and tore this into small pieces and began glueing this to the larger base. I used small amounts of super glue initially to hold this in place. Once I had a reasonable arrangement, I glued the top piece of plasticard on. Once dry, I then soaked the whole thing in PVA glue. This has the effect of properly holding everything in place while also hardening the foam, making it easier to paint. I cleverly took photos of these steps (see below) and then forgot to take photos of the remaining steps, so cleverness in my case is severely limited.

While the PVA soaked foam dried, I drilled two long metal pins into the base of Wake. These will run down inside the cloud and through the base to hold everything in place.

To paint the cloud, it received a heavy grey primer before then using the airbrush to spray everything a dark purple. I sprayed progressively lighter layers over the top but from higher angles to build up the shadow. While I appreciate that cloud is actually darker where it is denser, using the top down highlight was much easier. 

Waku was base coated with Vallejo’s Periscopes and given a dark blue ink wash to really pick out the recesses. I’ve then built up the highlights with dry brushing lighter blues over the top before finally applying a couple of glazes of periscopes to smooth the transition. 

The skin was a golden skin base and then built up using a light skin tone. The hair was Luftwaffe grey given a black wash and then a light dry brush. I’ve also picked out the chains in a viking gold followed by a soft tone to create a slight shadow.

The scroll was a bleached bone base with soft tone applied as a shade. I’ve attempted to write Japanese text onto the scroll but this was a challenge given the angles. To create a point of focus on the scroll, I picked out a single character in white to imply that this ‘magical’ scroll was releasing its magic. I’ve then used a luminous green glaze to begin building up the ‘glow’ on the scroll, both the front with the text and the rear. With each glaze, I’ve extended the area covered to fade the glow out. 

To then get the glow on the rest of the model, cloud and base, I put everything together and completed the basing. I’ve then used the air brush to gently spray a green ink over the parts of the model that would likely be getting some light from the scroll and gradually built this up. 

Bushido has factions and when you play a game, your warband has to represent one of these factions. In addition to these factions are the Ronin. These are a collection of characters who can fight for one or more of the factions but are otherwise unaligned. If you include them in your warband, you often have to forego the special benefits of taking a themed faction list however ronin often give you access to skills or abilities that you don’t normally find in your own faction’s characters, so there is a trade off. It’s also possible to build a list of all Ronin as long as they can all fight for one common faction or there is a command card allowing it. This is what I did for this game and went for a combat heavy list with the models that I had available.

I took,

Tenbatsu – one of the highest point models in the game with massive attacks

Kiyozumi Haiboku – a samurai who’s quite handy in a fight and has a big bow for some long range attack options

Tadaoki – has a ‘brutal’ melee Ki upgrade that allows him to push a combat

The Two Lone Swordsmen (TLS) – Individually average in a fight but together can be very hard hitting. You also need to kill both of them in one turn to remove them otherwise they re-spawn

The Grey Pilgrim – a very useful long range lightening attack and I’ve taken an enhancement card that provides extra ranged defence

I’ve also taken a card that allowed me to roll two dice at the start of the game and then substitute these dice into any roll during the game – I rolled a 6 and a 2, so the 6 useful for offensive attacks and the 2 useful to reduce damage rolls!

My son took his (fully painted!) Kinshi Temple faction. I’m not to up on the individual model capabilities but they were Batsu, Hishigata, Maru, Kodai, Nagashikaku and Shikaku. He also took two Kami of the Empty Mind

The game: We opted for a zone control game (again!) with three zones of 4” placed across the board. The central zone being placed in the centre and then the left hand zone (for each player) being closer to their deployment zone creating a  diagonal line of zones. To control a zone, you need more models with a total combined point score than your opponent. At the end of turn 2, 4 and 6 players will receive 1 scenario point for each zone they control and the player with the most scenario points at that point will gain a victory point. So 3 VPs on offer.

The game starts with my son deploying his void rifts. These are unique to the Kinshi Temple and allow his models to teleport between them as well as draw line of sight and range from a portal as well. Place well, they provide a lot of movement for the Kinshi Temple as well as creating no place to hide on the table.

Turn 1

This was fairly uneventful (no alpha striking here!) with both sides moving up into position. I took control of the zone of control nearest to me (on my left flank) with Tadaoki. My son was able to take control of the central zone with the two faster moving Kami models and he also took the zone nearest to him.

In the below pictures we see,

• The position of my models at the end of the turn
• Position of the Kinshi temple
• Tenbatsu leading the way around the bamboo while Kiyozumi Haiboku and the Grey Pilgrim use the cover, ready to launch their ranged attacks
• TLS moving up together on the right flank

Turn 2

My son started with launching Hishigata through a void rift at the Grey Pilgrim. Fortunately, the Grey Pilgrim managed to resist but it was a close run thing!

Conscious of the threat and having Hishigata at close range, Kiyozumi Haiboku (KH) decided that this was an opportunity and fired an arrow at Hishigata. I got very lucky here and Hishigata was killed with a single shot. First blood to me!

I’m used to facing the Grey Pilgrim in some of my son’s other lists, so having her on my side was a bonus. I used her Lightening Attack boosted with her Raijin Rage Ki feat on Maru who took 3 damage. And then the Raijin Rage allowed the attack to leap to Kodai who took 1 damage. I was very pleased with this!

My son tried the dreaded Look Into the Void Ki feat that Shikaku has on the Grey Pilgrim. He can use the void rifts to draw line of sight, so no one was immune to this. I like this attack as one of my Cult of Yurei models has it but I’m less keen when used against me. If the Ki test is successful, it provides a straight up Level 4 damage roll (which can be quite damaging!). It proved to be so as the Grey Pilgrim failed her Ki test and took 5 wounds. Ouch!

My son used Kodai to attack the Two Lone Swordsmen (TLS). Kodai is Durable, which means he can only ever take a maximum of 1 wound per attack. This provides a lot of comfort when attacking and my son used it, piling all of his melee dice into attack. As my model had Reach, I got to attack first and did the maximum of 1 wound but the resulting attack from Kodai was enough to kill one of the TLS.

In his next activation, my son uses Kodai to go for the other TLS model. Without making excuses, I roll very badly and fail with everything, so Kodai is able to kill the other TLS and with both dead in one turn, removes them from the game as they can only respawn if there is a remaining TLS model on the table.

Time form me to bring Tenbatsu into the game. I move him in to BtB with Shikaku, if nothing else to eliminate the Look Into the Void Ki feat. I use Ki to buy attack dice to really hammer this and get lucky with my rolls and cause 9 damage. There isn’t much in the game that can withstand this and Shikaku is removed.

My son uses one of the Kami of the empty mind to attack Tadaoki but this was probably a little desperate and Tadaoki strikes the Kami down, killing it outright.

At the end of Turn 2, we both control 1 zone each resulting in a draw and no one receiving a VP.

The Pictures below

• The state of play at the end of the turn
• Kodai owning my right flank where the TLS were and a new Void Portal in place

Turn 3

My son wins the initiative roll and gets stuck in with Batsu’s Ki feat Forbidden Censure which places 3 death sentences on Tenbatsu. A death Sentence marker gives any attacker a +1 Melee pool dice which is very powerful however Tenbatsu is pretty formidable anyway, so I’m not too concerned.

I again use the Grey Pilgrim’s lightening attack, this time on Maru. And that’s one dead Maru! That’s my son down three models to the loss of my TLS.

Batsu uses his other Ki Feat which is Scorched Earth. This allows Batsu to place a card shaped template in BtB with him and any model in the zone or moving through it picks up a level 3 fire marker. Unfortunately, Tadaoki is under the template so he’s now on fire (with wounds taken at the end of the turn). You can expend an activation token to remove a fire marker and this is what I do to stop Tadaoki taking damage.

KH moves into BtB with the remaining Kami of the Empty Mind and they trade a single wound each.

As a final move for the round, Koda attacks Tenbatsu and, thanks to the Death Sentence markers, is able to cause 4 wounds. Maybe I should be more concerned!

Turn 4

Batsu again uses Scorched Earth and again gives Tadaoki a fire token. Before the end of the turn though, Batsu triggers his enhancement card that is now unlocked called Time Stutter. This removes all of the activation counters from Tadaoki (so that’s all 2 of them) which is a major blow in this game! Tadaoki has now been rendered useless this turn and will take damage from the fire marker at the end of the turn!

My son has set up a really good combo here as he again activates Batsu and uses his Push Attack on Tadaoki. This just succeeds and moving through the scorched earth template gives you another fire marker – so Tadaoki now has 2 level 3 fire markers to contend with and no activations. Ouch.

I use Tenbatsu to batter Kodai to death. It’s a somewhat one sided fight but the main work in overkill is kill.

The Grey Pilgrim launches another lightening attack and is able to zap the remaining Kami to remove it from the game.

My son has moved Nagashikaku into the scoring zone which will stop me scoring some points at the end of the turn, so I use SH to engage in combat and use his Push Defence to move Nagashikaku back out of the zone. This means that at the end of the turn, I’m controlling two zones vs my son who controls just 1, so that’s a victory point to me.

Sadly Tadaoki burns to death with all of the fire markers he has.

Pictures below are

• State of play at the end of turn 3
• Tadaoki burning to death
• A surrounded Tenbatsu
• End of turn 4

Turn 5

The thing about the Kinshi Temple is that as bad things happen, they accumulate tokens that unlock ever more powerful abilities. So as the warband gets weaker with models being removed, the remaining models get more powerful. My son only has Batsu and Nagashikaku left whereas I have KH, The Grey Pilgrim and the mighty Tenbatsu. To get a victory point in turn 6, my son needs to control two zones, which is going to be tough with only two models to do it with. So I’m feeling pretty confident at this point.

Pleased with himself over the previous rounds events with Tadoaki, my son launches Batsu through a void rift and appears on the other side of the board. He again places his scorched earth template, this time over Tenbatsu (that’s a fire marker!) and then hits him with his time shutter Ki feat before attacking a now exhausted Tenbatsu. Batsu uses his Push Attack which again just works and Tenbatsu is pushed back through the scorched earth template and collects another fire marker.

My son activates Batsu a second time who uses his Look Into the Void Ki Feat via a Void Rift to attack the Grey Pilgrim. The attack is successful and the Grey Pilgrim perishes.

Tenbatsu burns to death at the end of the turn, leaving me with just KH. That was a brutal turn.

Turn 6

In one turn, I’ve gone from winning the game to trying to hold off a draw. With just KH left, I need to control the same number of zones as my son. With just one model, my son should be able to automatically control one zone, so I need to kill or move the other model from the second zone before the end of the turn. 

I start by using KH to attack Nagashikaku and use my Push Defence. I’m able to cause a wound and to push Nagashikaku back and out of the scoring zone. So far so good.

My son activates Nagashikaku and has him run through a void portal to another scoring zone, so I’m back to square one.

I have one chance left and that’s to either kill or push Batsu out of the zone. I try to do both by selecting a balanced melee pool and I roll well but I’m not able to cause any wounds. My son has also selected Push Attack and does land a hit which is enough to push me from the scoring zone leaving my son with 2 zones and therefore the last victory point resulting in the game being a well fought draw.

End of turn 5 below

Bushido has a faction that is made up of oni and smaller bakemono (like goblins) called Savage Wave but within the Ronin group, there is a mercenary oni called Eldest Brother. He can fight for just about any faction, including my Cult of Yurei and he provides some much needed combat effectiveness.

In game, being an oni, he’s a bit of a combat monster, gaining bonuses on his melee dice pool and to his damage rolls. He can further buff this by ‘raging’ which makes him more powerful in combat at the expense of being more predictable. And like all oni, he can regain wounds by harvesting the souls of those that die around him.

Painting wise, I wanted a red skinned oni. I could have been imaginative, but red just looks right. I started with a dark based of nocturnal red. In the darker shadowed areas, I applied a cavalry brown glaze to really deepen the colour. From there, I layered up the highlights using Aldebaran Red (mixed with nocturnal red) and then just aldebaran red before finally using pink as the top highlight. This then got several glazes of nocturnal red on the shadows and aldebaran red on the highlights to smooth the transition.

The green was a base of elf green, goblin green and light green mixed and layered. And then a series of glazes to try to tie it together. This wasn’t quite as successful as the red skin.

I’ve used scruffulous brown for the cord, red leather for the leather and a flat earth for the tetsubo. These were given various washes and a gentle highlight. I’ve used a bright bronze to pick out the studs on the tetsubo.

The hat was a base of Iraqi sand, washed and then dry brushed with Iraqi sand and then light deck tan dry brush. The bottles were a khaki given a yellow wash and then highlighted back up again.

The leather bottle on the back was a base of red leather, washed to pick out the shadows and the stippled with a thin red leather and scruffulous brown to create a patterned look.

It’s been a very slow start to the year hobby wise, a lot of work and other stuff whirling around that has taken up time. But I managed to grab a few hours to finish off Minarai. This model is from the Yuta of Yurei boxed set that I got for Christmas (that’s Christmas 2023!) and this is the first model that I’ve been able to complete (the others are all started but in various stages).

Minarai is a zombie (or Kairai, which translates as puppet) and the first one I’m adding to my Cult faction. In game, this model is very cheap and really should be played as part of a zombie horde. The model provides Fear, albeit at a low level, so it won’t impact a lot of enemies much but being a zombie, does come with the Rise ability (once killed, on a 4+ it’ll get back up again with full health). Being a zombie, it is slow and has some poor stats, so another reason to take it as part of a horde, where weight of numbers can make up for the poor stats.

Being a zombie, I wanted to give the model a dirty look – something I will apply to future zombies that I will add to my cult. I also wanted the skin to have a greyish look so I painted this with a light skin tone and then highlighted this with the light skin tone mixed with a light grey. To get the grey look, I glazed this a couple of times with a mid grey.

Trousers were Elf Green and then layered up or down the colour scale to create the highlight/shadow. I’ve just used dark grey and white to mix with Elf Green here as I want a de-saturated look. The torn shirt is a khaki, again layered to get the shading/highlights.

The mask (all zombies in Bushido have a cult death mask attached) I wanted to look more pristine, so this was painted off white and given a sky grey shading. I’ve then highlighted with white. The sickle was a mid brown with a wash and then highlighted with a light brown, gunmetal for the blade with a nuln oil wash.

Once painted, I’ve varnished this with a matt acrylic and then picked up my enamel washes. I’ve first applied a wet earth wash to the lower trousers and used thinners to make this a little splotchy and draw the dirt up the legs. Once dry, I’ve then used a dust wash. I’ve applied this more liberally over the model in several thin layers but each layer was applied increasingly to the lower half of the model.

Basing wise, again just some acrylic dry earth given a wash and some dead grass flock.

This was a game we played just before Christmas between my Cult of Yurei and my son’s Temple of RoKan where he used the Kitsune sub faction. The game was a 6 turn affair with zone control. VPs are score at the end of turns 2, 4 and 6 with 1VP available if you control the most scoring zones. To control a zone, you need more models with a higher points cost than your opponent.

Below is the starting line up.

Turn 1.

This was the usual moving forward into position. I was able to really push Rokuro up the field as he has the scout 4” ability (giving him a 4” move before the game starts) and a standard 5” move. My aim here was to get up the left flank and into a scoring zone and take ownership. My son spotted this aggressive move and used his White Faced Fox (WFF) to shoot Rokuro with a bow, doing 3 wounds.

Below we have the end of round 1 position

Turn 2.

I pushed my kami up the field to act as a blocking piece. Juko moved to attack but fortunately failed to cause any damage. In retaliation, I used the Penangalan to hypno gaze Juko, which worked and Juko lost its remaining activation.

I was able to move Rokuro into position to attack the WFF but failed to hit. WFF was able to get off a defensive move that allowed it to move back 1” out of BtB and therefore out of combat.

My son then activated Hofoku to attack the Kami. This was successful but as the Kami has Durable, only one wound was caused. It didn’t matter, as Hofoku got activated again on my son’s next turn and this caused the final wound to kill the Kami. First blood to my son.

With Juko exhausted, I was able to move the Two Lone Swordsmen (TLS) in tandem into attack. I used their Ki ability to boost their combat support and this, coupled with Juko’s exhaustion meant that I got to roll 5 melee dice vs Juko’s 1. This massive attack hit home, doing 6 wounds and killing Juko. It’s great how you can set these big attacks up in Bushido to really hammer home an attack.

My son uses the Nine Tailed Fox (NTF) to attack the TLS. I have reach, so the TLS goes first in melee and I’m able to deliver 6 wounds. It’s not enough to kill NTF who is able to attack TLS back and kills one. I’m not worried about this due to another of the TLS special abilities (see the end of the turn).

I move Yama Uba in to attack Tengoko. I’m not able to wound but I use my special Ki feat to steal Tengoko’s Impenetrable Defence special ability. This ability will now allow Yama Uba to remove an enemy’s highest attack melee dice, which makes her a lot more survivable in combat. I then use Yama Uba’s other Ki ability, apparition, that allows her to move 2” away and therefore out of combat and as this happens before Tengoko’s attack, the attack fails.

At the end of the turn, my son has control over one of the scoring zones, and so gains 1 VP. I also place the removed Lone Swordsman back on the table in BtB with the other one. My son hasn’t read the card for the TLS and howls in complaint but to completely remove the TLS, you need to kill both in the same turn, otherwise the removed one returns, with full wounds, in BtB with the remaining one. He’s not happy!

Turn 3.

I immediately use Rokuro to attack Juko. I roll big and Juko is removed from play. 

Kuto uses its Ki feat, Final Verdict, on Yama Uba, who fails the Ki challenge roll and consequently I have to choose between a Death Sentence marker (giving anyone attacking Yama Uba a bonus to hit) or a control marker (giving my son control of Yama Uba for one activation). I chose the Controlled marker.

I use TLS to attack Hofoku. The first attack hits but Hofoku is saved by its armour. The second TLS attack does get through, doing 4 damage. 

Tengoko attacks the Penangalan and I use asp strike (a Ki feat) to try to get in first but Tengoko’s impenetrable defence means I lose my best attack dice and I’m not able to get past the defence roll. Tengoko delivers a successful strike causing 4 wounds.

I use Mo Ises’ Ki Feat to walk Rokuro into position. This doesn’t use an activation on Rokuro, so a great way of repositioning your models. I’m now able to move Rokuro into attack Tengoko but I’m not able to get an attack through and there is no damage. 

Turn 4.

My son uses his controlled marker on Yama Uba and runs the model back, away from the action. This means it is going to be turn 5 before Yama Uba is back in a useful position, so effectively out of the fight for a few activations. Clever move.

I use the TLS to continue to batter NTF. Clearly the TLS are into fox hunting as they batter NTF and remove it from the board.

Back to the Rokuro vs Tengoko fight. The annoying Impenetrable Defence that Tengoko has removes Rokuro’s best attack dice but it’s not enough for Rokuro’s brutal ability to cause some wounds. Tengoko is able to disengage from the combat but I move the TLS into combat and they are able to kill Tengoko. 

It’s at this stage, with little left on the board, my son realises that he can’t win. I can control enough scenario objectives this turn to pick up 1VP and will do the same again on turn 6, so he shakes my hand and concedes.

Wrap up.

This was a brutal game and the TLS really shone through being able to hand out some serious damage. Once again, the Kitsune proved a difficult faction to play. They have the Ki feats to be very challenging but lack a bit in the combat area, so weren’t able to compete against TLS and Rokuro. I definitely think that the Kitsune are a faction that requires practice but have the potential to be really good once mastered.