Grey For Now Games have some pre-orders up for Test of Honour. The Sohei are fierce warrior monks who stand ready to defend their temples and oppose the oppressive samurai clans. For a while now they have had a set of figures that many people would imagine when thinking of Buddhist monks in saffron robes but this new bundle adds armoured temple guards, a far more imposing force for your Feudal fighting.

Sohei Temple Guard

Led by Superior Saburo, the fierce Sohei warrior monks defend their sacred temple-fortresses to the last. These zealous believers do not fear death and fight even harder if their brethren are slain. The devout Temple Guards themselves are the toughest fighters, hand-picked from among the warrior monks and able to shrug off minor injuries and carry on the battle unaffected. This set of six sculpts are simply stunning as we've come to expect from Grey for now Games and their collaboration with Footsore. The mix of weaponry gives you options in how you plan to field and use them in your games.

Sohei Musketmen

The Sohei warrior monks armed with muskets battle against the foes of their temple. The Sohei Musketmen have some interesting abilities, you can use the sergeant from the Temple Guard set to unleash a sudden blast of gunfire if used as a gunnery sergeant or use their own cards to allow a nearby character to grab a musket and fire, they can even rapid-fire at the nearest target if you need to bring down someone quickly before they get within striking range.

Sohei Fanatics

While you can field these miniatures as regular Sohei Monks they are better pressed into service as Sohei Fanatics these are elite warrior monks, highly skilled with the naginata and filled with divine fervour. These are extraordinary fighters ordinarily and if you give them the Unstoppable Frenzy trait to make them even more devastating during follow up attacks.

It's great to see this expansion to the current set of Monks, the Temple Guards now look like a faction more akin to the Samurai that they may face on the field. I think this is a great move while I'm all for the robed "Shaolin" look I would expect them to wear armour to protect themselves rather than attempt to dodge every incoming attack, and while the original monks did have a small amount of armour on show this group look like they won't just defend the monastery but push back hard against anyone who comes against them.  They're available to pre-order now with a release in mid-July.

What's your favourite Akira Kurosawa film?