Redvers and Son Get Into Bushido

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.

A few posts ago I showed off my son’s completed Kinshi Temple faction (that he painted, I can’t take any credit for them). Part of the Kinshi Temple is their use of Void Rifts that they deploy on the table before the game starts and the faction can use them to move between the portals. This makes for a very mobile faction and some annoying shenanigans. But GCT Studios don’t make any models for the void rifts (at least not yet, I think something may be coming next year), so I decided to help my son out by making some for him.

Searching the various STL sites, I found a much larger portal model that had the ‘swirly portal’ bit as a separate piece and so I purchased the STL. I’ve printed out the original portal, so will put that together later but through some 3D Builder manipulation, I was able to resize and shape the STL to fit onto a 30mm round base and then print it out.

Painting wise, I went for a grey and then a speed paint black. Then a lot of grey dry brushing. I picked out the bones and skulls with a very watered down bleached bone. Nice and quick.

Within the various factions of Bushido, like many other games, there are sub factions. Within the Cult of Yurei, rats seems to be an emerging sub faction. I say emerging as there is no official ‘theme’ that can be played supporting this and the number of models that would fit into this sub faction is still quite small. However the latest teaser from the developers is for a new rat model and some hints at other rat-kin, so perhaps it will grow into a fully fledged sub faction given time.

I’ve previously painted up some plague rats and thought it time to also work on the small and large rat swarm options. For these, I’ve opted for the 3D printed route. I found some rat STLs free online, a couple of individual rats and one of a group of rats. Through using Microsoft’s 3D Builder tool (which is very easy to use) I was able to create a few variations of the STLs and then (virtually) attach these to the relevant base size. A couple of hours of work for the resin printer and we have some models.

Painting wise, as the detail was quite good, I thought I’d carry on trying out the speed paints. After a black primer and I painted the upper parts of the rats white, I slapped on some speed paint. In particular, I went for Gravelord Grey, Grim Black, Dark Wood and Hardened Leather. A quick splodge of Barbarian Flesh on the tails and feet followed by a strong tone wash and then a dot of black for the eyes, it was done and time for basing. All in all, I think I spent more time waiting for the paint to dry than actually painting. It’s not going to win any painting awards but for the speed, great stuff. These Speed Paints are quite good.

Game 10.

This game saw my son use his now fully painted Kinshi Temple as he claimed that he has figured out how to play them. As a change, I took his Temple of RoKan for a run out. I wasn’t really sure how to play this faction, but I thought it could be fun.

For my Temple of RoKan (TRK) I had Yim, Haru, Saruka, Riku, Ume and Kosuke. Kosuke is new (the others are described in previous posts in this project but they’re all monks) and an angry ape wielding a massive maul. I also took the Gorinto terrain piece to generate some extra Ki (as TRK monks are all about the Ki).

For the Kinshi temple, my son had Master Shi, Hishigata, a Kami of the Empty Mind, Kodai, Batsu, Ku and Shikaku. He also gets some Void Rifts that his models can pass through giving a lot of extra movement. I would describe what these models do, but I’m not entirely sure I fully understand the Kinshi Temple yet…..

We just went for a straight fight rather than a scenario.

Turn 1.

Kosuke is quick and I wasted no time moving him up the board and getting him in to melee with Hishigata, who had made his way forward. Using Kosuke’s ‘Flow Like Water’ Ki feat and Combo Attack, Kosuke gave Hishigata a significant slapping with that giant maul. The Combo Attack special ability allowed extra damage to be piled on and as Hishigata put no dice in defence, the damage was enough to kill him. First blood to TRK but the death of a Kinshi model does allow my son to add a counter to the Void Card. The more counters here, the more powerful the remaining Kinshi models get…..

Turn 2

As I normally play the Cult of Yurei faction, melee isn’t something that we usually want to get into but having Kosuke is a novelty and I waste no time getting him to take on Kodai. I manage to get some damage down but find out that Kodai is Durable and so this damage is reduced to 1. Kodai on the other hand deals out 6 damage. Ouch.

I use Saruka’s Fireball Ki feat to blast Kodai for 1 damage and set him on fire, giving him a fire token. 

My son then used Shikaku’s Ki feat, Look into the Void. I’m aware of this as one of my Cult models has this Ki feat but it’s not so funny when on the receiving end. It’s pretty powerful and Kosuke is killed.

Batsu then uses his Scorched Earth Ki feat to create a burning terrain feature over Ume, so Ume gets a fire token.

Master Shi uses his ranged attack on Saruka and rolls well. It’s a Combo Attack and the extra damage kills Saruka.

It’s not a good turn for me and to make matters worse, Ume takes damage from the fire token at the end of the turn.

Turn 3

Ume gets into combat with the Kami and kills it but this adds more tokens to the Void card and the Kinshi get more powerful. It unlocks new and better shared Ki feats for them.

Master Shi is able to range attack Yim for some damage (again with the pesky Combo Attack being the difference)

Haru then comes in for some attention, firstly from Ku who is able to do some damage and then from Batsu who fails. But Haru is up to the task and causes wounds against Ku and Batsu with some nifty bujutsu.

Batsu is now exhausted, having spent 2 Activation tokens, so I use this opportunity to have Riku attack. This gives me extra attack dice and Batsu gets a firm kicking.

Shikaku again uses Look into the Void, this time at Yim. Yim takes a lot of damage and promptly dies.

Ku now gets in on the Look into the Void act and attacks Riku. This also succeeds and Riku takes damage. 

During the end phase, both Haru and Riku have picked up fire markers during the turn and the wounds now take effect. Sadly, they both burn to death.

This leaves me with just Ume. At this point, I’m well and truly beaten and so concede a very one side match.

Seems that my son has figured out how to play the Kinshi Temple…..

I put these two models together in 3D Builder based upon some free STL files that I downloaded. They’re both scans of real world statues, in the case of the lone figure, this was from a temple in Bali (and no, I’ve not been to Bali).

First up is just a generic temple statue. I’ve painted in exactly the same way as the previous statues, namely luftwaffe grey, nightshade wash and a light grey drybrush for the stone. The bronze was shiny bronze and then just a nihilakh oxide wash which then gets quickly wiped off.

Next is a Cult of Yurei piece of terrain that can be purchased as part of your warband. In game, at the start of each turn, any enemy model with a couple of inches has to give up 1 Ki point and when you have collected 5, the statue is destroyed and you can give these 5 Ki to any friendly model. Handy.

Painting wise, this is just another bronze and painted in the same way as all the others. It’s quick and easy to knock several of these out in a night.

As Terrainfest is running at the moment, I thought I would get some of the extra terrain that I have lying around finished and off of the painting desk. With that in mind, I’ve completed a few pieces that I picked up from Master Crafted https://mastercrafted.co.uk/

First up we have three rice bale stacks. These can be purchased as part of your war band and are very common in competitive games as they can provide cover as well as blocking off lines of movement.

Painting wise, I took the line of least resistance here and went with a khaki basecoat followed by a heavy brown wash. From there, I painted the ropes with a light brown and then just dry brushed everything, first with Khaki and then Iraqi Sand. A quick flock and job done.

Next up we have a prayer rock. This comes in two pieces and required some careful pinning and then I shoved a lot of polyfilla inside it to give it some weight (the sphere is hollow). The base rock was painted luftwaffe grey and, with a break from tradition, rather than a black wash, I applied a nightshade blue wash, which I think I prefer to the black and this might be my new rock wash. A light grey dry brush followed.

The sphere was given a Halfords yellow primer spray followed by a light brown wash. I’ve then dry brushed it with middlestone and Iraqi sand to try to create a sandstone look. The rope was scruffulous brown, with a wash and then highlighted. A light green for the tassels, then a dark green ink and then a very light green dry brush. Flock and scatter added to cover the joins between the two pieces.

You can never have too much terrain, particularly ‘dressing’ terrain to help set the scene. To this end, I thought we needed some more temple themed statues. I’d also stumbled across some free scans of real statues that had been converted to STL files. These files needed some resizing and merging as neither the Buddha nor the dragon came on a plinth. Fortunately, this is very easy to do in Microsoft’s 3D Builder tool.

Both statues were painted in the same way. A Luftwaffe grey for the plinth which then gets a black wash followed by a light grey dry brush. The metal is a base of bronze followed by a grey dry brush. I’ve then added GW’s oxide paint which then gets quickly wiped off before it can dry. Finally, a shining gold dry brush.

The jade (which was painted first) was stippled with a sponge with black, grey and white (separately) and then a light green ink is applied over the top via an airbrush.

All of the statues get mounted on a plasticard base that then has some Vallejo acrylic mud smeared over. It’s then flocked and flowers added where appropriate.

Time for another battle report. We played this using tournament rules and we both had a couple of new models that we hadn’t used before and wanted to give a try.

Scenario. In this game, there are two offset 4” scoring zones that you control if you have more models inside the zone compared to your opponent. Scoring takes place at the end of turn 2, 4 and 6. In addition, we both secretly nominate one of our warband to be our Very Important Model (VIM). At the end of the game, whoever’s VIM is closest to the opponent’s board edge will win a further victory point. 

Warbands. 

My Cult of Yurei is made up of,

Mokoti, Fuwa Kaidan, Yama Uba, Ibara and the Kami of Blighted Earth (see previous battle reports for details). I’ve also included Rokuro (a tengu with a vicious axe, who’s reasonable in a fight) and the Wanyudo (a fiery wheel who dishes out fire tokens like confetti).

My son has taken Master Po, Kuma, Tsutsumi, Riku (see previous battle reports) and Ashinaga Tenaga (who has a lot of weapon options, including a ranged harpoon that can be used to pull targets around the board).

The initial deployment and table layout is below, including the scout moves that some models are allowed to take.

Turn 1 was quiet and just advancing but we both made sure that we advanced at least one of our models into the scoring zones nearest to our deployment.

Turn 2

I won the strategy test and activated Fuwa Kaidan immediately. I used her Ire Ki feat which is unusual in that it is not an opposed dice roll but rather an automatic success. The Ire feat on an opposing model causes them to become Beserk, which means that they activate next (hence throwing your opponent’s plans out the window) and the have to attack an opposing model if they can. In this case, Ire also causes the targeted model to treat all models as opposing models! So good positiong from Fuwa Kaidan can make your opponents best model attack another of their models – amusing Cult schenanigans! The downside is that this costs FK 2 of her 4 life points, but she can regain these and if she loses all of them, she respawns anyway, so no big deal! 

In this case, I managed to get into position to get Fuwa Kaidan to give Kuma Ire. That was the end of my turn but my son had to activate Kuma next and attack the nearest opposing model which just happened to be Tsutsumi. In this instance, kuma failed to cause any wounds but both Kuma and Tsutsumi both lost an activation counter, so very useful from my perspective!

My son then activated Kuma again and used him to attack my Blighted Earth Kami. He spent some of Kuma’s Ki to buy another attack dice and also activated Kuma’s Combo Attack special ablity. Most Kami’s have Durable, which means they can only ever take 1 wound in any attack but Combo Attack gives the possibility to cause multiple 1 wound damage against a Durable model. Smart thinking and it worked as Kuma used his ability to kill my Blighted Earth Kami.

With Kuma now exhausted (and therefore automatically losing 1 dice from his melee pool) I wasted no time in getting The Wanyudo to charge into Kuma. Kuma is so good in combat that my initial attack does no damage and Kuma is able to hand out 1 damage to The Wanyudo but Kuma does pick up a Fire marker, which if not dealt with by the end of the turn, will cause Kuma 2 points of damage.

My son passes and I’m then able to use Ibara’s Dark Fire ability to add a Fire marker to Tsutsumi.

Master Po leaps into action and attacks Rokuro. My son uses a lot of Ki to boost Po and use some special attacks. These are no match for Rokuro as Master Po is much better in combat, but time for schenanigans! Before any damage roll, Rokuro can use upto 3 Ki to negate the same amount of damage and pass that damage back to the attacker. This is exactly what I do, and Po deals out 4 damage in total but I’m able to deflect 2 back on Po, so effectively honours even! I laughed, my son made comments about this being over powered.

Po attacked again and used his Counter Strike Defence in conjunction with his attacks to overwhelm Rokuro and kill him. So I guess my son had the last laugh here!

In the final stages of the turn, Riku used his Tsunami Ki feat to push Yama Uba back 8” and well out of combat range. The Wanyudo used it’s Inferno Ki Feat to put down another Fire marker on Kuma and Ibara again used Dark Fire to add a Fire marker to Kiku (although Kiku was able to remove this by using an activation on a Wait action).

At the end of the turn, Kuma, Tsutsumi and Riku all took damage from their fire markers!

Turn 3.

I again won the tactical roll off and went first and yet again used Fuma Kaidan’s Ire Ki feat but this time on Tsutsumi. This didn’t really have any effect as Tsutsumi didn’t cause any damage on their attack but at least it wasted an activation. FK though was out of Ki and effectively ‘dead’ but respawned back at her pot terrain marker, so no major issue for me. 

The Wanyudo was still in BtB with Kuma and was able to use Push Defence in combat to push Kuma out of the scoring ring. This doesn’t cause any damage but does enable you to place the enemy model further away – useful for controlling zones in a game where this is important.

Master Po manages to get round to Mokoti, who I have left open on the flank. This is really not a fair fight and Mokoti gets heavily slapped, taking 4 wounds.

Ibara again uses their Dark Fire Ki feat to add a Fire marker to Riku.

Po again attacks Mokoti and it’s all over for the pipe playing monk as he is kicked to death by the chubby Master Po. I’m now down to three models, which is worrying.

I’m now getting a little desperate, so I use Ibara to attack Tsutsumi but this results in s stalemate.

Riku, still on fire with the fire marker, is able to then attack Ibara and with some phenomenal dice rolls, kills Ibara. I’m now down to four models. Ouch.

I’ve moved Yama Uba back after she was pushed away and she is now back in the fight. I move her into combat with Riku and use her morph ability to copy Riku’s four attack dice. She then uses her newly morphed 4 melee dice to attack Riku which goes abysmally and Riku slaps Yama Uba for 4 wounds. 

But, despite losing 4 models, I currently control all of the scoring zones and collect 1 victory point, so I’m winning!

Oh, and Riku takes some fire damage.

Turn 4

After winning the strategy roll again, I charge the Wanyudo into Kuma using his special slam attack. This is successful and while Kuma doesn’t take any damage, he is shoved further back and also picks up a fire marker.

Kuma is having none of this and attacks the Wanyudo back but fails to cause any damage.

Master Po attacks Yama Uba and, being the combat monster he is, is able to hand out two slaps. Ashinaga Tenaga, who’s been remarkably quiet so far, joins Po (and Riku, who is still in BtB with Yama Uba) to hand out yet more damage. Finally, Riku (still on fire!) deals the final blow to Yama Uba and kills her. 

I use Fuwa Kaidan to use Ire on Kuma who then attacks Tsutsumi and deals out some useful damage. The cost of Ire causes Fuwa Kaidan to die again and she respawns back at her pot.

Annoyed with the constant respawning, my son uses Ashinaga Tenaga to destroy the pot, which will remove my ability to respawn Fuwa Kaidan should she die again.

Ashinaga Tenaga then attacks Fuwa Kaidan, doing a solitary damage to her (but as she only has 4 to start with, that’s not good!)

The Wanyudo, sensing an opportunity, uses its Inferno Ki feat, which sends out a fiery blast zone, giving everyone in the zone more fire markers! In this case, Kuma, Tsutsumi and Riku (again) all get a lovely fire marker (a level 2 fire marker in this case!)

Riku, the human bonfire, attacks Wanyudo. Sadly I manage to roll double ones and Riku is able to slap Wanyudo for a wound. 

To really turn the pain on, Kuma attacks Wanyudo and is able to hand out some serious damage and destroys the fiery demon.

As my son’s final action, he uses Ashinaga Tenaga to attack Fuwa Kaidan to kill her and as her pot is now gone, she can’t respawn and permanently dies. This means I’m now out of models and wiped from the board.

But, we still have to close out the turn and first up is handling the fire markers. Kuma, Riku and Tsutsumi are all on fire and have plenty of fire markers each, enough to kill all three of them, which leaves my son with Master Po and Ashinaga Tenaga.

Next we see who is controlling the scoring zones. It’s not going to be me, as I have no models left and fortunately for my son, he has Po in one zone and so scores 1 victory point, so the scores are level.

Interestingly, in Bushido, you don’t automatically win if you table your opponent. When this happens, you finish the turn and then stop the game. Whoever is ahead on Victory Points, wins. In this case, we’re tied on 1 each, so we then looked at who’s VIM was closest to the opponent’s table edge. But, both our VIMs lay dead on the field and so, much to my son’s bitter complaints, the game was a draw. He didn’t like this, I did and I’m the adult, so the result stood – an honourable draw.