Redvers and Son Get Into Bushido

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. 

Rokuro is a tengu who has fallen in with the cult. He (I’m assuming Rokuro is he) comes with two axes which can be used as ranged weapons (just two shots obviously) or in melee where he gets the brutal and bleed special rules while he still has the axes. He’s not bad in combat and the brutal rule definitely adds to his ability. He’s also a bigger model and based on a 40mm base rather than the standard 30mm.

Painting wise, the skin was based upon the darker tones in my skin paint set, using the ‘Indian shade’ extensively to darken it down. This was applied as a glaze to try and smooth over the transition. I’ve used a khaki on the trousers, using an off white khaki mix for the highlights and a shade of khaki and dark brown mix applied as a glaze. The purple sash was imperial purple mixed with black/off white for the highlights and shades.

The armour and axe blades is gunmetal and I’ve then applied a couple of black washes over the shaded parts, building this up into the darker areas. I’ve then used gunmetal to highlight back up and finished off the edges with a polished metal.

The axe handles are bleached bone with a wash applied whereas the hair is Luftwaffe grey with a black wash and then a light grey dry brush.

The wings were a combination of browns, including cavalry brown as the base and a highlight of light brown. Similar for the feet.

For the basing, I’ve used the usual approach as I have for my other cult models. I’ve also stuck some brush bristles on for some height in the vegetation.

Job done, and ready for the gaming table.

My son and I made our inaugural visit to Salute earlier this year where we made a direct line to the GCT Studio stand. My son wanted the Kinshi Temple faction which is a fairly new addition to the game. It’s a small faction where all but two of the models are within the faction starter set, so my son picked up all of them. He also picked up two of the Kami of the Empty Mind which can also be added to a Kinshi Temple warband.

He’s now managed to paint them all, so below is the complete Kinshi Temple faction painted and ready for battle. Painting is not something he really enjoys and he has quite a shaky hand, so he finds the finer details quite challenging and frustrating. He used the Army Painter speed paints and because they are very easy to use, he was able to complete the models quickly and, as a consequence, gain some motivation in getting them completed. By the end, he was quite enjoying the painting process and pleased with his results.

Having completed the above, he also tackled Ashinaga Tenaga. This model was a feature of a previous update here as it is a real pain in the backside to put together. It’s a metal model and the contact points are very small and therefore some very careful pinning was in order. It took several hours just to get it ready for painting.

My son again used mostly speed paints for this except for the skin, which was an acrylic from my skin paint set. I think he painted this in an hour or so and then left it to me to base it up. He’s a lot quicker at painting than I am.

At Salute this year, while wandering past the TT Combat stand, the Eastern Empires mdf terrain called out and when I got home, I found that I had purchased a dohyō ring. Not sure how that happened.

The model took some time to build but went together fairly easily. The one area that I did want to change was the actual ring. The model has some small mdf plugs to mark it out but real sumo rings have rice straw bales, so I will replace the plugs with string instead.

Once built, I sealed the whole lot with two coats of mdf sealer before applying a primer.

The stones making up the base were flat and required some texture. I blobbed on some artist gesso for this which is fine enough to not look silly but has enough texture that it will dry brush well.

Painting wise, as terrain, you want to make it look good, but not spend ages on it. The stones round the base were Luftwaffe grey and then dry brushed with a light grey. The mortar was painted Iraqi sand (as was the actual sumo ring) and then given a brown wash. Given the large expanse of the roof and pillars, I used cheap acrylic paints on these to save some money.

The roof is flat but I wanted to create a ridged tile effect. The tiles had been engraved onto the roof but without any profile, it looked a bit off. To create the profile, I’ve painted what would be the ridge with a lighter green and where the ‘valley’ of the tile meets the ridge, a darker green. I’ve varnished the roof with a gloss to further try and recreate the glazed tiles found in Japan and China. The last step was to airbrush some sun yellow around the lantern to try and create a glow effect.

A bit of flock to recreate moss around the base helps set the terrain onto the table.

The fences were very quick, no shading and I couldn’t be bothered with dry brushing – life it too short.

Taking the Two Lone Swordsmen (TLS) in the game gives you two models. Points wise, they aren’t cheap, potentially being a quarter of your warband but they are very annoying for your opponent. In game, they are fairly average at combat and movement but do get to activate as a pair but are treated as two separate models. You need to be a little careful as you have to assign the same activation to both of them but this just encourages you to keep them together. In combat, they gain an advantage with their Coordinated Attack which gives them an extra attack dice, this in itself ups them from being average, to being good. They also have the Prowess special rule, which allows them to re-roll a melee dice each combat should you not be happy with the result. Their armour of 2 also reduces the damage coming back in return.

But the real bonus is their special rule of Linked. If a Lone Swordsman is killed, at the start of the next turn, you may place them back on the board in btb with another Lone Swordsman and with full wounds. Therefore, the only way to kill TLS is to kill both models in the same turn. This is quite hard to do and results in the delightful effect of having them respawn.

The small downside to all of the above is that they are Ronin and to recruit them into the Cult of Yurei I need to give up a Themed list option and the benefits that this would have given me. Still, it will be worth it to see my son’s reaction when they keep coming back after being killed!

Painting wise, I’ve gone simple and quick. After the standard zenith highlight base, I’ve used a black speedpaint for the robes. The armour is a gunmetal given a nuln oil wash and then a gentle chrome dry brush. Skin was a light skin tone with a wash applied and then highlighted back up. I applied a blue sash to provide some colour and was a mid blue followed by a blue wash. I’ve then highlighted back up. The cord was scruffulous brown with a wash applied.

I wanted to make them look a little road weary and so once the paint and varnish had dried, I applied a couple of thin coats of enamel dust over the lower parts of the robes, with each coat being applied over less of the robe to try to fade it down to the bottom. It wasn’t overly successful but I’m fairly new to the enamel washes, so you lie and learn. To round out the model, I based it in pretty much the same way as my other models to try and create some uniformity across the warband.

All in all, a quickish job.

Kaidan in Japanese is two words, kanji, that means mysterious apparition and dan, which means a narrative. But generally, it relates to horror and ghost stories and the creatures in those stories. In this case, Fuwa Kaidan is a ghost and the model comes with a terrain piece, the Tsuridourou or pot. You get to deploy both in game.

FK has some drawbacks, notably speed which is only 3″ but this can be boosted by spending 1 Ki for each extra 1″. FK also only gets to roll 1 melee dice, which is frankly dire, so you don’t really want to be getting into combat. The model is also a Kami which means that FK doesn’t have a wound track but instead it’s Ki is effectively its wounds. It always deploys with full Ki (in this case 4) but of course any Ki feats it uses burns up this Ki (and therefore its health!).

So why take FK? Well there are plenty of upsides here. Firstly, when FK reaches zero Ki, she re-deploys in BtB with the pot or any friendly scenarion objective. Only if the pot is destroyed, can FK be destroyed. So she is a gift that just keeps on giving. She also has a 4″ ranged attack that, if successful, removes a Ki from the target and FK gets it. She;s Durable, meaning that she can only ever take 1 wound per damage roll and is intangible, allowing her to move through terrain and leave BtB without penalty.

But you really want her for her Ki feats. Firstly, if she does get engaged in melee, she can spend 2Ki to cast Mirage that, if successful on the die roll, she gets to deploy 2″ away and the attacking model finishes its turn. She can cast Blind – normally, such Ki feats require an opposed roll but not here, it’s automatic. The enemy model gets a Blind marker which means that it should be surprised by any incoming melee attacks and will therefore lose 1 melee dice. So a great way of debuffing an enemy model before you bring in your heaver hitter.

I’ve saved the best to last though. For 1 Ki, you can cast Ire on an enemy model within 4″. Like Blind, this is automatic, with no dice rolls! The enemy model gains the Impetuous and Berserk traits. Impetuous requires the model be activated before any other model on the enemy warband. Berserk requires the model to attack the nearest enemy model, but here’s the good bit, Ire makes all models on the table enemy! Assuming you get your positioning right, the berserk model will attack one of its ‘friends’, so both models will lose an activation and you have the possibility of one causing damage to the other. And the fun doesn’t stop there, any damage caused, FK gets to restore 1 Ki! FK is rapidly turning into my favourite model.

Painting wise, the pot was fairly straightforward. I’ve used a silver grey as the base and then applied some light brown glazes under each rim to create shadow. The smoke was painted a very light purple (to tie into the faction theme colour) and then I’ve layered increasingly darker purple over the ‘thicker’ parts of the smoke. Smoke should be highlighted in reverse. The rim is brassy brass.

For FK herself, I wanted to try to create a translucent, ghost like look by trying to have the robes fade into the purple smoke. For this, I painted the smoke as above and then used off white and grey to paint the robes, with the grey creating the shadows. This was applied as thin glazes that I reduced in frequency as it got closer to the smoke or where the robes were thinnest, to try to create a fade.

The hair was a simple dark grey given a nuln oil wash and then dry brushed. The skin is a pale skin tone mixed with a light grey and then shaded with grey – I don’t want it looking too lifelike! I’ve finally added a red glaze around one of the hands and some purple glaze around the eyes.

Overall, a fairly quick (for me, it still took a couple of evenings) paint job. I’m a little annoyed that the purple of the pot is not the same purple of FK, but that’s what happens when you paint them separately. The fade looks OK but something that I definitely need to work on.

The Grey Pilgrim is a ronin in Bushido and therefore not part of any specific faction but available for selection by a number of factions. My son has selected her for his Temple of RoKan faction a number of times, to great effect. In game, she’s handy with her spear and is quick around the battlefield, having a 5″ move rather than the more standard 4″ (trust me, on a 2ft x 2ft battlefield, in a game where placement is key, that extra 1″ is a huge boost). She also has a very handy ranges attack, Call Lightening, which, coupled with her 3 ranged dice, makes this quite a dangerous attack. She also has a Ki feat, Raijin’s Rage, that when activated, on any successful ranged attack she is allowed to make a second ranged attack on any model with 3″ of the first. This second attack ignores cover which makes this quite powerful. She’s certainly been a pain in my side every time I’ve faced her.

Painting wise, I wanted to do this quickly and try out the speed paints. So after the zenithal highlight, I set to work. The robes were painted Gravelord Grey, which I later gave a very light dry brush of a light grey over the top. The sword handle was highlord blue, the hair Dark Wood and the spear shaft Bony Matter. The metal was painted using normal acrylics. I don’t have a skin tone in speed paint, so this was painted using my Scale75 skin tone set but done very quickly with a light skin tone/golden skin tone highlight/base and with a thin wash after. I think that was it and completed in an evening.

Basing was a simple acrylic mud and then given some static grass. Job done.