Redvers and Son Get Into Bushido

The Temple of Rokan can run some characters that are effectively temple statues. They come in two flavours, the smaller, less powerful Shisa and the more powerful Oki Shisa. Some time back, I 3d printed the Shisa and painted these up with a simple bronze effect. My son quite liked these and then wanted the bigger, ‘better’ version.

I searched the various stl file locations for a suitable file and found a free one that had been uploaded of a scan of a real world temple lion with a baby lion. Once downloaded, it was a simple job to scale it to the correct size and then virtually attach it to the correct base size (40mm round in case you were wondering). This then got printed out.

I wanted to keep the paint job simple here and given that they are statues, this should be possible. As the smaller Shisa were painted up as bronze statues, I want these to be jade in appearance.

I’ve started off with a zenithal highlight. I’ve then taken a bit of sponge and stippled the model with white and black. My thinking being that jade is not always a uniform green and the stippling will look like natural colour variation.

I’ve then given this a couple of coats of green ink. Firstly applied all over and then the second and third layers from top down. Once dry, I’ve varnished and flocked the base and job done.

It’s not the greatest paint job and could have done with a lighter touch with the stippling and perhaps a satin varnish rather than matt (I might correct this). But for a simple paint job, it works and didn’t take long.

We both want to expand our force but I did put a rule in place that we should have painted, or nearly painted, our starter sets before we add to the collection. Maybe a little draconian and my son wasn’t happy with this but it does help focus the attention onto what you have and getting that ready before new shiny toys arrive.

But as we are almost there on our starter sets, we decided it was time to add a few more models and this turned up earlier today.

We opted for a couple of Ronin, which can fight for different factions. In this case we added 2 kami models, which are spirit models that often provide either a boost to your side or hinder your opponent. We also added Eldest Brother who is an Oni that will fight for just about anyone. This was for no other reason than we both wanted an Oni.

My son added Master Po, who looking at his stat card, looks an absolute monster and at complete odds to model who depicts a chubby fella balancing on tip toes. I’m not looking forward to facing Master Po on the table and I’m not sure I have an answer to him either. My son also added Tsutsumi who is handy in combat but also provides ranged attack in the form of Sonic Blast. Finally, he got an angry ape called Kosuke who’s wielding and enormous maul – I don’t think there will be much subtlety in how Kosuke plays.

For the Cult, I’ve added Rokuro, who is a Tengu that has fallen in with the Cult of Yurei. He’s lost the ability to fly but does come with a couple of axes than provides a bit of fighting edge that the Cult lacks. I’ve also added Fuwa Kaidan, who is a ghost and can re-spawn but also turns opponents against their own side, so handy for getting the enemy to fight for you, albeit for an activation only. Finally I’ve added Ikyiro who is a diminutive spirit lady but packs a real punch from distance with a damage dealing spell – something that I currently lack in my arsenal.

So, more shiny new models to add to the painting queue!

We’ve been busy painting recently and there are quite a few models and terrain pieces on the painting bench that are almost complete. So with any luck, the pile of potential should reduce this month….

One such model that has rolled off the painting bench in Yama Uba. In Japanese folklore, there are many different tales of Yama Uba, seemingly with each prefecture having a different story. Some portray her as a young woman who wanders the hills, other stories talk of an unkempt old crone. Yet more stories talk of a woman that attacks travellers and eats those she kills through a mouth hidden in her hairline. This being the Cult of Yurei, the latter tales are likely the truest in Bushido’s manifestation of Yama Uba.

In game, Yama Uba is quite powerful, being one of the more expensive characters that can be taken by the Cult. Her stats are reasonable and her bonus skills give her fear as well as disguise meaning that if she doesn’t attack, she can close on enemy models who cannot attack her. Her Ki feats are why you take her though. Her first allows her to move 2″, even if locked in combat, so excellent for positioning and even moving behind an enemy model ready for a sneak attack into the back. The second Ki feat allows her to mimic any stat, ability or Ki feat of an enemy model that she is in base to base contact with. So simply pick an enemy model with a useful stat or ability and move Yama Uba in to copy it. Very handy!

Painting wise, I wanted a rich red. I’ve always been told that for a good red, you really need to darken the shadow areas. Normally, I shade red with a straight purple but here I’ve opted for a cavalry brown/purple mix to try to create a richer tone.

For the skin I’ve used Scale 75 Flesh Paint set and opted for a very light skin tone except around the face where I’ve gone for a more brownish hue. I usually paint my skin with a base of Golden Skin and then glaze the tone up/down from there using mixes of GS and the other colours in the skin paint set.

The sash/ribbon is the Cult purple, my theme colour to tie all of the models in the warband together. The hair is dark rubber given a black wash and then gently highlighted with a dark rubber and luftwaffe grey mix.

The basing is the same as for my other Cult models, again to create a degree of uniformity to the warband.

As my son has a couple of terrain pieces he can buy into his warband that provide him with a boost, I thought it was time that I added some options to my force. The Cult of Yurei have a few options that they can use, two of which look fairly easy to put together. Firstly there is a rubbish pile, which in game generates a small rat swarm for free every time a victory point is scored. The other terrain piece is a cursed honden. In game, this allows me to drain 1 Ki from any enemy model within 4″, which should come in quite handy against the Temple of Rokan who just love their Ki feats.

For the rubbish pile, I’ve searched the 3d printing sites for a small pile of rubble which I’ve digitally attached to a 30mm base and then printed out. I’ve picked out the various rocks with differing shades to provide a bit of contrast and then just given everything a heavy wash. It took less than half an hour to complete.

A honden is the centre of a shrine and the most holy place within it. It is usually represented by a mirror or often a statue. In this case, I’ve chosen to go with a stupa that has been digitally captured from a shrine and then turned into an stl file. I’ve not opted for a statue as there are other terrain pieces that are represented by statues and I wanted this to look a little different. Again, I’ve opted for a simple painting approach. A dark grey for the stone which I’ve given a wash of black and then a dry brush. The top is shining bronze which I’ve then gently dry brushed a grey over to take the shine off a litte.

To make it cursed, I’ve stippled a reddish brown over the model using a sponge to represent dried blood followed by a lighter stippling of red as the ‘fresh’ blood. The banner is cut from the metal foil found around the top of wine bottles. This did of course mean that I had to drink the bottle of wine first, but I was prepared to make that sacrifice. After cutting the foil to the correct shape, I’ve broken up the uniformity of the edges to make it look more battered and ripped/torn. I used Google translate for the lettering, it’s supposed to say ‘join the cult’ but I’ll settle for not insulting any Japanese who read it.

Game 4

Time for another game. My son wanted to play a bigger game and suggested 150 points. While Bushido will stretch to that limit, it will take some time to complete. I’m also not sure I have enough Cult of Yurei models to get to 150 points, so I talked him down to 120. This should allow another couple of models per warband and/or a few more enhancement cards to be added. My son also suggested that the game should be first to destroy 50 points of enemy models, to which I agreed.

For my warband, I went with the following,

• Mo Ises (an assassin that likes stabbing people in the back)
• Mokoti (dreadful in combat but can control enemy models)
• Umeka (another assassin armed with a pair of scissors – I guess she also likes hobby crafting)
• Yama Uba
• Risu (A pitch fork wielding nutter who can poison people from afar) who I’ve also given an enhancement card Violence Fetish to provide a bigger punch in combat
• Ibara (Can handle himself in combat and can throw some fire around at range)
• Tenbatsu (another ronin who’s a combat monster)

Drain Spirit Event. This allows me to steal a couple of ki tokens from an enemy model

Feed on Fear. Every time an enemy fails a Fear test, this card gains a Ki token. When it gets to 4 ki, I lose the card and can distribute the ki across my models

Crush the oppressed. When I play this card, all of the state markers on the enemy get doubled

Cursed Honden. This is a terrain piece. At the start of each turn, any enemy model within 4” loses a Ki token

My son opted for the following,

• Master Ekusa (who’s a monk riding a tortoise and can heal, remove activation tokens and stops attacks due to his zen like demeanour)
• Taiyo (a ronin from the starter set who has a low points cost and is able to resupply friendly models. He’s also a Villager, allowing my son to take the two pit trap cards below)
• The Grey Pilgrim (a lightening wielding ronin)
• Kuma (an angry, bo staff wielding panda who can root opponents to the spot while slapping them around a lot)
• 2 Kami of the evening flame (a flame spirit that provides a boost to nearby monks with the flame speciality)
• Riku (a water monk with a massively powerful tsunami Ki feat and also quite handy in combat)

My son also took a lot of enhancement cards including his favourite trap cards and a couple of cards that allow him to generate extra Ki. The Temple of Rokan really excel when they have Ki, their Ki feats and abilities are very powerful. He also took two terrain pieces, the Gorinto which allows 1 model within 6” to generate an extra ki token. And a Roadside Idol that allows a model in base to base contact to generate Ki for an activation. 

Turn 1.

My son clearly didn’t like the fact that I had bought some terrain that drains Ki from his models and went full tilt to destroy it. In hind sight, I probably deployed it too far forward as he was able to run the Grey Pilgrim forward into base contact with it and then spend an activation to destroy it. So much for my Cursed Honden, with the only small crumb of comfort being that it cost the Grey Pilgrim an activation to deal with it, so at least they weren’t going to be using their ranged weapon on my warband this turn. Otherwise turn 1 was the usual moving forward and getting in to position. Kuma was able to spend his Virtue token to generate an extra Ki ready for his next round shenanigans

Turn 2.

My son launched his fire kami attack this round. He’s clearly been doing his research and had read these cards in detail. I hadn’t. His first fire kami entered base contact with Tenbatsu and then promptly exploded. This applies a level 2 fire marker to Tenbatsu and all models within 2”. Unfortunately, I had grouped Yama Uba and Risu close to Tenbatsu as support and they also picked up a level 2 fire marker.

As retribution, Risu launched her special Ki ability of Mortal Corruption on Kuma and succeeded in giving the big panda 3 level 1 poison markers. My son then launched his second fire kami attack exploding it on Mo Ises and Umeka, who both pick up a level 3 fire marker. With most of my warband now on fire, my son moved the Grey Pilgrim forward and uses her special abilities Raijin Rage and Electrify which boosts her call lightening attack to ‘leap’ to another model within 3” of the first target and gives all attacks stun. The Grey Pilgrim then calls lightening against Tenbatsu which hits but fails to do any damage, but Tenbatsu does pick up a stunned marker to add to his fire marker. And then Raijins Rage allows my son to make a second attack against Risu which hits and does 2 damage as well as adding a stunned marker. (Stunned markers effectively require an activation to remove them or you act at reduced capacity when you do activate).

Kuma spends his virtue token which unlocks Master Ekusa’s ability to lift all tokens from a model and so Kuma loses all of his poison markers. Kuma also gains 2 Ki as well. Kuma then charges Tenbatsu and in the ensuing melee is able to inflict 2 damage on Tenbatsu. It’s clear over the games that we have played that my son has a particular dislike of Tenbatsu….

Mokoti, so far lurking around behind cover, attempts to control Kuma and succeeds in the Ki test. Kuma now picks up a control marker and, for his next activation at least, is part of my warband. I try to activate Umeka but my son plays one of his pit trap cards. Umeka is unable to pass the test to avoid it and my son rolls very well on his damage roll, killing Umeka outright. First blood (again) to my son.

Finally, I activate Mo Ises who is able to control Taiyo and give him a control marker. I then play my crush the oppressed card and double all of the markers that I have handed out this turn, meaning both Taiyo and Kuma pick up an extra control marker.

At the end of the turn, the fire markers are removed meaning that Tenbatsu, Yama Uba, Risu and Mo Ises all take 2 damage each.

Turn 3

I immediately activate Kuma and spend both control markers to have him charge the grey pilgrim but unfortunately he’s not as effective when fighting for me and does no damage. The Grey Pilgrim calls lightening again on Tenbatsu doing 2 damage and, thanks to Raijins Rage, this leaps to Risu who is hit and killed. My son has already scored 21 points (Risu at 11 and Umeka at 10).

Riku triggers his Ki feat Tsunami which pushes all models within 3” of Riku back until they hit either terrain or the edge of the board. This pushes Ibara back and way out of the fight.

Tenbatsu is now able to do his thing and attacks Master Ekusa. I pour a lot of Ki into getting extra dice and also use the Combo Attack special ability, which if my attack is successful, I get to make additional damage rolls. I’m able to break through Ekusa’s defence and deal 3 damage to the tortoise riding monk. Ekusa deals 1 damage back in return.

I activate Yama Uba and have her enter melee against a now exhausted Kuma (I spent both of his activation tokens charging the Grey Pilgrim). Yama Uba activated her Ki feat ‘morph’ which allows her to copy one of Kuma’s abilities until the end of the game. In this case she take Brutal which gives her a +1 to melee attacks. She then attacks Kuma and uses her Critical Strike attack. Yama Uba is rolling a lot of dice in this attack and succeeds in successfully hitting Kuma. With Critical Strike, a roll of a double on the damage roll automatically kills the target, regardless of how many wounds they have. And yes, a double 4 on the damage roll had me laughing and my son deeply upset with me. Kuma is dead and, at 22 points, I take the lead!

Turn 4

My son really needs (and wants) to kill Tenbatsu. He’s badly damaged and, at 27 points, he’ll be 2 points short of winning the game. With this in mind, he attacks with Riku but Tenbatsu is able to hold him off doing no damage, partly because I put a lot of dice into defence to protect Tenbatsu. Yama Uba then attacks Riku, who being on contact with two enemy models, will lose melee dice. Yama Uba is able to inflict 1 damage.

My son attacks Tenbatsu with Taiyo, creating a scrum of models in the middle. Taiyo is somehow (he’s not very good in combat) able to hand out another 1 damage to Tenbatsu. Yama Uba uses her second activation to attack Riku again. As Riku is now exhausted and outnumbered, he loses 2 melee dice giving Yama Uba (who still has Brutal) and significant advantage. It pays off as Yama Uba hits and deals out 6 damage to Riku, killing the water monk. That gives me another 17 points taking me to 39.

With Tenbatsu nearly dead, Ekusa attacks him and successfully hits. It’s enough to cause the 1 wound required to kill him and my son moves to within 2 points of victory.

My son then makes a mistake as he attacks Yama Uba, who while she has damage is a much more formidable combat opponent than other models on the table. Yama Uba also has Reach, which means that she will attack first in combat, which, coupled with Brutal, gives me a significant edge. We roll our dice and I get a significant success in the attack and the damage roll is the 2 damage required to kill Ekusa. This gives me enough points to win a very close and well fought game.

Umeka is a lovely lady who’s preferred weapon of choice is a pair of scissors. I assume that she likes to deliver these to the kidneys from behind. In game, she’s cheap and has the Assassin skill which gives her a boost to damage when attacking from outside of an enemy’s line of site. She also has a Ki feat that allows her to debuff enemy models making attacks against them deliver more damage. So handy to have loitering around on the sides waiting for the chance to sneak in and shank someone.

For the painting, I wanted to give her a colourful feel and opted for a deep sea blue for the coat. I opted for purple for the inner lining as this is my choice of faction colour to tie all of the models together. Both of these colours I’ve applied the base colour and then mixed up lighter and darker versions using an off-white and dark brown. This was then applied in glazes. The blue undercloth was a mix of different shades of blue, glazed on to create the highlights.

The white sash is luftwaffe grey and off white mixed together in differing amounts to create the shadow. Same for the stockings.

The hat is Iraqi sand given a wash and then a very careful picking out of the higher areas. Off white completed the ribbon in the hat.

Leg bindings are flat earth and then highlighted with light brown.

I wanted to give Umeka a sinister look, so decided to only paint the lower half of her face. The top half and the underside of the hat got painted black. I picked out the lips in a blood red to really emphasise the look.

The metal work was either viking gold or a polished metal.

In addition to the purple colour, all of my Cult figures will get the same base of a dry earth acrylic paste. This is given a brown wash and then I’ve applied some dead grass in patches.

And that’s my second model of the starter set finished.

In all my gaming history, I’ve never made a tree for the tabletop. I’ve bought trees and added a bit of extra flock, but I’ve never started with an armature and built upwards. Now that I want some Japanese cherry blossom trees, I need to address this gap in my hobby cv.

I’ll keep this brief as this is not a new approach to tree making, just a tried and tested method you can find on the internet or, in my case, in Mel’s terrain book.

To start with, I need armatures. I’ve bought some plastic ones from eBay and I’ve 3d printed a couple as well, just for good measure. These were primed and painted a Flat Earth before I dry brushed them a light brown.

Once dry, I mounted the plastic armatures on a small mdf off cut and then glued this to a plasticard disk. The 3d printed armatures I cleverly printed out already on a base. I’ve covered the base in my acrylic mud and applied a static grass to the base.

I decided at this point to take two approaches. The plastic armatures have their branches close enough together to just flock these directly. I did this by spraying with mounting glue and then sprinkling the coarse flock over the top. This was then sealed with a spray of scenic cement.

For the 3d printed armatures, I took a trip to the garden centre and bought some hanging basket liner and teased this apart. Once thinned out, I’ve glued it to the armature. A spray of mounting glue and a finer flock was then applied. Once dry, I sprayed again and applied a lighter green flock over the top. I’ve then added a pink coarse foam flock for the blossom. And then finally sprayed it all with a scenic cement.

Unfortunately, some of the colour has leached out of the blossom so it is not as vivid a pink that I was hoping for but it still looks very spring time Japan.

As part of your warband, Bushido allows you to purchase upgrade cards, event cards and terrain to refine your approach. My son likes to use both the Road Side Idol and the Gorinto cards as part of his Temple of Ro Kan force so rather than deploying 30mm bases, I decided to 3d print some terrain for him.

On the left in the picture, we have the roadside idol that allows a monk in btb with it to use an activation to generate their full Ki for the turn. Very handy for the Ki hungry monks.

The idol was a 3d scanned image of a real Buddhist statue (I forget which one) that I’ve downloaded and reduce in size to fit the game scale. I’ve then virtually attached it to a 30mm base in a 3d building tool and printed it out. It’s been painted with a bronze, given a light dry brush of dark rubber grey, a heavy dose of nihilakh oxide which I’ve then wiped most of it off. Finally, a dry brush of shining gold to pick out the detail. All quick and easy.

The Gorinto (on the right in the picture) allows one model each turn within 6″ to gain 1 extra Ki (Ki being the in game currency for models to perform their special actions and boost their abilities). Out of game, a Gorinto is a Buddhist pagoda, often used in funeral services.

To create this, I’ve searched thingiverse and found a free gorinto which I’ve then attached to a 30mm base in a 3d builder program. Once printed, it got a grey primer, black wash and then a grey dry brush. It was painted in about 30 minutes including drying time.