How to create a Bushido warband

Hi all

despite the grandiose nature of the title, I haven't really got a great deal of insight to impart.  An average player at best, I still struggle to come up with winning combos but it did strike me that every time I showcase a new addition to my factions no matter which one, I do so in a kind of isolation and not really how that model would fight alongside his/her mates.

So I thought why not talk through my thoughts on how I've put together a 50 Rice (points) warband that I would happily take to a competition and my reasons for including them.  For this I thought I would take my most favoured of factions - The Temple of Ro-Kan.

I think the best place to start is to try to understand the nature of the faction.  What are the defining characteristics that create the unique nature of your chosen faction.

This is the official line from GCT Studios....

The serene martial artist masters of the Ro-Kan have long viewed themselves as above all mortal and mundane conflicts. Now, following the Han civil war, the rise of the Cult of Yurei, and the incursion of the Savage Wave, the monks of Ro-Kan are being dragged into the clandestine wars of universal balance – a war in which they will reluctantly turn out to be key players. The monks follow an age-old path and know the secrets of Ki better than any others, but they are few and divided – will they be able to unite and join forces before it is too late?

so what we have are a bunch of spiritual warrior monks with access to a boat load of Ki.  It sounds like you're never going to outnumber your foe but you should be able to outfight them.  They should be able to perform Ki feats every turn and stretch an opponent's resources while maximising their own.  There isn't going to be a lot of armoured samurai (or any in fact....) but there will be a certain "Airbender" type monkish action going on.

So onto the selection criteria and I've kinda broken it down into the following categories.

• Themes
• Master Monks
• Monks
• Support
• Kami
• Peasants
• Yokai
• Special Cards

I suppose the important thing to decide is what you're looking for in your warband? what appeals to you most?  do you want a shooty warband (in which case pick another faction as the Temple like to be hands on!) do you want a heavy fighter based warband, do you want a special Ki feat heavy warband?  do you want a mix of these things?  which models appeal to you the most? does this matter much to you?  this leads us very much to my first selection - Themes

The type of warband you want will often determine whether you choose a certain theme over another or whether you want a balanced theme.  Themes are found in the special card packs that you buy for your faction and give bonuses to your warband based on your chosen theme, this comes however with restrictions on the type of models you can select. With the Temple for example, they have two faction specific themes and a generic theme available to all factions and used in tournament gaming (which I will get into at another time), of course you can always go "themeless" which allows you access to all types of characters with no restrictions only rice (points) cost. The first faction specific one is called "Bastions of the Mountains" and gives extra special cards to the warband as well as other effects but you are restricted in your model selection and cannot take "Monk" types.  As I love the idea of a monk based warband I'm going to go with the second theme "Righteous Warriors".  The restrictions for this theme are models chosen from -

• Monks
• Kami
• Animals
• constructs

this means no Peasants and no Yokai, which is a real pity as I lose access to the Kitsune!  But I do get some of my favourite miniatures.  The bonus elements of the theme more than compensate me for the loss of the Yokai and the Ki boosting effects of the peasant models. These are:

Nominate one model in the warband, they gain "Channel/Leech (3)" this means they can distribute Ki from one model (Leech) to another (Channel) within 3" of the named mini. This ability enables you to boost the abilities of the monks who really need it!

Choose a Kami worth 4 rice and add it to your warband at no cost. SCORE! - free Kami, I was going to pick one anyway and now I don't have to pay for it!

All monks that are within 3" of another gain "Iron Mind (1) or +1"

So Theme chosen now to move onto our Master Monks - These are the deFacto leaders of the Temple order and some of the most powerful monks in the faction, arguably some of the most powerful in the game!  They also come with a corresponding high points cost and each of them offer something a bit different from the others.  Due to the cost I can only justify putting one in the band although you can technically take the lot and they will fit into the 50 rice maximum with a little to spare.....

Master Po is a melee monster, Enos is an elemental manipulator, Ekusa is a Ki battery but by far my favourite is Master Akari.  His speed, vitality and defensive expertise is absolutely essential to my warband.  I use him to frustrate my opponents, running rings around them in melee before disengaging and dashing for objectives.  He is an ideal ViM, evading the enemy with ease before breaking for their deployment zone and scoring VPs.  I'm not expecting him to damage many people but that's not what he's for.

That brings me onto the next bit really,  I'm going to need a couple of heavy hitters in order to cause that damage, to reduce the enemy model count or just to distract my opponent while my other guys score VPs and generally get on with the scenario.  I also need some people to hold control zones, create a nuisance and protect my support element.  Bring on the bulk of my warband - the Monks.

These are gonna form the core of the warband, the guys that get stuff done.  First up I need some guys that are gonna hit folk and make sure they stay hit! I've got just the fellas for the job.  To this end I will call upon Kuma, I recently showcased Kuma on this blog and went through his profile card, suffice to say that this Kung Fu Panda is gonna be shouldering a lot of the melee burden.  Not quite as skilled as some of the others, he more than makes up for it with his brutality, power and animal nature.  I expect him to be in combat for the majority of the game, particularly against those opponents who have already been exhausted from other fights.  His "Fear (4)", stun marker combined with the exhausted status of the enemy could mean them rolling single dice in melee and Kuma rolling a handful!  He also can use his animal token to become "Aware", handy for smoking out those pesky ninjas!

I'm gonna pair Kuma up with another bruiser - the Guardian.  This giant gorilla can only be taken with Aiko, who I'm very happy to include and will explain why later on.  The Guardian is also not a monk (but he is an animal and therefore allowed in the theme) but I had to have him, he is one of my favourite models in the range and finds his way into most of my lists.  Not only is he cool looking, he ain't too shabby in a scrap either - average MS of 3 but he has "Brutal (1)" meaning he adds +1 to his highest attack dice.  He has +2 damage which means when he hits you, you damn well know about it!  He's also very decent at throwing his opponents around, meaning they end up in a heap far away from where they want to be....

I always upgrade him using the Special Card - "Silverback" meaning that he causes "Fear (5)" and often causes enemies to lose dice in melee, if they pluck up the courage to charge him at all!

So those are my big, scary beasts, designed just to get in and tear it up a little (well alright then, a lot!!)  Who else needs to make the roster,  well that would be Yuuki.  Yuuki is a little like a cheaper version of Akari so you may wonder why I need another? Well why have one, when you can have two....  but actually she has a few differences that make her an include.  I recently showcased Yuuki as well so I won't go through the profile card but the highlights are her "Vitality", like Akari, this gives her an extra activation, although she doesn't have as much Ki as the little Tanuki Master so doesn't fire it off as often.  However she is also a bit tougher than Akari and can actually deal a little bit of damage too so she can cover quite a few spots in the roster - she can run and she can fight!  She can even take on the ViM role if I want to release Master Akari back into the mix.


A couple of monk choices to go then, next up is a bit of a quandry, there are a couple of choices for the spot of auxillary monk, one that I need to fulfill those tasks that need to get done, to compliment my fighters or fend off the enemy, exhaust them and waste their activations.  Both choice that I have in mind cost the same  but work in totally different ways, the first is Riku.

Riku is a great utility monk, one that hasn't featured regularly in my lists for some reason.  He has a high melee score which is obviously useful, he can trade a dice in for "Counter Attack Defence" and go all defensive and still cause damage.  Talking of damage he adds +1 to his damage rolls.  He can push people out of control zones or off scenario objectives but by far his best attributes has to be his manipulation of water.  His Ki feat "Wall of Water" is useful to cover the advance of my monks from ranged attacks and "tsunami" has the chance of pushing weaker models away and proning them.

Alternatively I could take Koji and his Pack.  Individually much weaker than Riku but their strength comes in their unity.  Group attacks wear down the opponent before the coup de grace from a more powerful fighter - Kuma or Gorilla.  Alternatively you can use their animal senses to bodyguard another character from the sneakiness of ninjas or bakemono who use camouflage to hide from my monks.  They are also useful as "ablative monkeys" at 1 rice each you can afford to let them take a hit instead of your more expensive monks.....hmm something to ponder then....

Their group activation is a bit of a drag, meaning they all have to act at  the same time but this can be an advantage when they all pile in on a hapless minor character!  As for Koji himself, his Ki feat is good, "Order" will give your exhausted monkeys another activation, but what I use him for is a Ki battery for my next choice - Aiko.

Aiko is my last monk and also my only real Support model.  She will also be my main "Leech/Channel" model (taking Ki from Koji primarily) and either supplying Ki to my other monks or buffing them using her amazing Ki feat "Blessing of the Kami".  This, apart from granting use of the Guardian, is why I pick her because in every other sense she is useless.  She's slow, cowardly, weak and she can't fight....but what she can do is -

Heal 2 wounds - herself or another mini within 12"
Speed up - she can add +1 to a move and "light footed" (ignores terrain) to a mini within 12"
Armour- she can add +2 armour to a mini within 12"
Flame on - she can add +1 dam to a melee attack and cause fire damage to a friendly in melee within 12"

for the princely sum of 4 rice, this stuff is priceless and she gets included everytime.

Lastly I get to add my free Kami and this is the really tough pick because Kamis can buff your monks and fight in their own way and the type of Kami defines the kinds of buffs you can get.  The Temple has access to all types of Kami, unlike other factions so I umm and ahh and never make a decision.  Here's the choices:

Water - can heal your warriors in base to base (btb) contact at the beginning of the turn
Fire - can grant +1 melee strength and cause fire damage for one of your warriors in btb.
Earth - grants armour to one of your warriors in btb
Air - can grant +1 move and "lightfooted" to a warrior in btb
Reflection (void?) - can protect your warriors from psychic intrusion within 6"


Personally I'm torn so I'll give all of them a go at some point, although I have used Fire and Earth to good effect all of them have merit!


So thats it then.  the provisional line up and the reasons why I chose them (initially).  All of them subject to change but I thought you might appreciate the reasoning behind certain choices and how their expected to link up with the rest of the team and fulfill certain roles.  So all that remains is a team pic of the first incarnation with a couple of guys waiting in the wings to see if they can't claim a spot.  Of course I haven't even considered the reserve, reserve chaps, yoou know the chaps who are awesome but haven't had their moment to shine like Shisha, Master Po, other themes etc - its a long time till next years Masters and only time will tell.

initial line up from left to right - Riku, Kami of reflection, Kuma, Master Akari, The Guardian, Aiko and Yuuki

hope you enjoy

dGG