Redvers and Son Get Into Bushido

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.