Monday 23 May 2016

Multi-faction fighters

hi all  (apologies for the longish post)

In Bushido like all other Wargames, miniatures fall into certain factions. As gamers we choose a faction based on the look of the models, the style of play and/or the history and mysticism that surrounds it.  For Bushido I love the idea of high kicking, mystic monks fighting for balance and harmony AND samurai and high Japanese society, hence my choice of factions - Temple of Ro-Kan and Prefecture of Ryu. I also love ninjas so I guess at some point I'll be looking at Kage Kaze at some point in the future (probably the end of this year), oh and pirates so Jung as well.....ooh demons and zombies - Savage Wave and Yurei.....erm 

But there are some models that cross the faction lines and can actually fight for several different factions (the rascals!) although by doing so their rules change ever so slightly.  I like this as it allows the gamer to dip their toe into another faction and see how it plays, it offers a player different options and tactics not normally associated with their chosen faction and it presents different painting challenges for those who like that part of the hobby (there's only so many orange robes a guy can paint ya know!)

For me I went out and splashed the cash at Salute on these guys...

First up we have "The Grey Pilgrim" there is no blurb for her from the GCT studios so my thoughts are that she is a messenger of Raijin - the God of Thunder, with her lightning bolt ranged attack and "electrify" Ki feat. She is classed as a "Seshin no goei" who were a group of highly skilled warrior women and her stat line and traits reflect that.  Pilgrim can fight for either my Temple faction or my Prefecture faction so was a total must have.



Next we have "Bikou", She was a special character bought at Salute and produced for the show. She is my first ninja and looks bloody awesome!! Armed with her Kasari she trips and slows her opponents while striking from the shadows. There are two versions of her and as I said I have the 2016 version which is great, I might at some point find the other version too as I like it so much.  This is her blurb from the Prefecture faction entry.

 Bikou is a highly trained ninja. Skilled in the arts of stealth and distraction she strives to strike where her enemies least expect her.

but over Salute, GCT revealed Bikou to be a double agent see the revised blurb.

Her true affiliation is now revealed, an agent of the Kage Kaze Zoku right in the heart of the Prefecture, her true mission unclear, but it only goes to show the ninja can infiltrate anywhere. A ghost and skilled assassin, almost impossible to pin down in melee she is as elusive as the morning fog, as deadly as the Takifugi, her enemies can never know when or where she will strike. The danger only increased further as part of a Shadow Wind death squad.

so there we have it Bikou can be played as part of the Prefecture and as Kage Kaze operative which will probably be my next faction.



Next up is "the Golden Sentinel".  This guy just looks the business, tough and competent - which he most certainly is.  He will act as bodyguard to some of my weaker but important characters that influence the game without getting into combat, acting as their sword and shield. He is very useful as he can fight for Temple, Prefecture as well as Ito which I don't have or plan to have...... just yet :-)

The Golden Sentinels are the bodyguards of the Emperor’s clan, guarding the family on their travels, in their homes and in court. They also serve as escorts to his Teishin as they journey his Empire spreading his holy word. If the Teishin of the Imperial court are the Emperors voice in distant more barbaric lands, then the Golden Sentinels serve as his shield, all proven warriors, sworn to protect their charges with their lives if needed.





Lastly we have "the Kappa"  Again GCT haven't put out any blurb regarding this fellow but he looks to be based on the Japanese Yokai bearing the same name.  Kappa translates as "River Child" and is a Suijin or water deity. In folklore there are several conflicting ideas about the level of malevolence that the Kappa possess, ranging from the trickster to rapist and murderer.  Because of this GCT have opened Kappa up and he is available to all factions in the game and therefore ideal for me! There are more than eighty other names associated with the Kappa  in different regions, including kawappagawappakōgomizushimizuchi, enkōkawasosuitengu and dangame. Along with the oni and the tengu, the kappa is among the best-known yōkai in Japan. Important to note is that the name "kappa" is not the official name for the creature or even the most commonly used name so much as its the name most well known outside of Japan.



All of the above I painted more or less in line with how the Studio had them depicted (although not to that standard obviously) with only a few little deviations to tie them into my factions, hence the Grey Pilgrim has an orange sash as well as a blue stripe to her robe, also encouraged by some of the messages I received regarding kanji on Genji's yari, i replicated it on hers albeit with the kanji for lightning!  Bikou was a fairly neutral black combo as befits a ninja, there was an issue with a missing part - the ribbon sash flowing at the back of the miniature but a quick email to GCT and with some excellent customer service, quickly dispatched it out to me.  With the Golden Sentinel and Kappa I left the deviations out as they had to cover the most factions....

Another little side project that I've been working on is a safe place to roll some dice, i've been getting fed up with losing dice off the table, cocked dice and all the other misfortunes you can have and after seeing Bryan's (of Vampifan fame) excellent Goki Wooden dice plate earlier on this year, which you can see here, i decided to do something about it.  The project got sidelined with other priorities coming to the fore including my obsession with Bushido, but with another uni deadline coming up my procrastination skills rose to the fore and the dice plate became a distraction....

So with that in mind I cast about for a suitable vessel when I found the perfect thing.  A large (empty) coffee container i found lurking in my loft that I had chucked up there thinking one day it might come in useful (i don't even drink coffee, i think i'm part womble....lol). Now in Bushido both opponents roll dice at the same time, so as the container is so big, i thought why not do two!


I used gaffer tape to mark a straight edge around the circumference at the top and the bottom of the container and to provide an extra level of strength to the cardboard body.


Obviously one end had a bottom already but for the other I had to cut a bottom out of a piece of cereal box. Which I then gaffer taped in place using the lip of the top of the container to hold the card in place.  I also cut a circle of my favourite foam which is nice and soft and will absorb some of the energy of the rolling dice and prevent them from bouncing out ready to line the bottom of the trays.


Ok, so I can't just leave it all rough and ready like that, although it will certainly do the job I do prefer to have things a little neater.


Using a stone effect spray I had over from a different project, I gave the trays a coat inside and out and sealed it with a sealing spray I had over from my Temple project.


So we have the tray, I could just add the foam to line the bottom and it being black it would look neat and tidy but i took it a step further...


and added a grass mat that I've had lying around for years and have been chopping up for various projects including my terrain boards for ATZ and Bolt Action.  This looks aesthetically pleasing and has the added benefit of adding that extra energy absorbing power!


The finished pair...


and with my Bushido dice in play. So there we have it a pair of dice trays ready for my first games. Thats all for now....

hope you enjoy
dGG

61:56 (-5)


figs bought:painted (difference)



30 comments:

  1. Lovely figs... love the ninja!

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  2. I do like figures with many uses. nice dice thrower

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    1. Multi purpose figures appeal to the frugal side of me as does my cost neutral trays ;-)

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  3. Fabulous additions. Love the Kappa mini lots of nice detail. Love the dice rolling trays very clever.

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    1. He is nice isn't he, I like the way he can look either menacing or downright comical depending on your faction and the way you look at him.

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  4. Staggeringly beautiful and wow, so interesting. The more I read you talking about Bushido the more I get interested in it. The miniatures are simply divine and you paint them soooooo well.. But please, please, pleaaase.... some battle reports using them, and showcasing the rules in operation would be so nice. I would simply love too see that. You write so lengthily, I just know that if you wrote a Bushido batrep you would do it in intense depth.

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    1. Hi Stephen, thank you again for your kind words, it's easy to keep writing about the miniatures, the folklore and the game as they're all excellent! I will be writing up some batreps in the very near future and I'm going to try and emulate my blogging buddy Bryan's ATZ style to begin with i.e with rules explanation mixed in with commentary. Unfortunately as B will tell you (and as I'm sure you know yourself having read your excellent blog posts!) these things are v time intensive to do well and I've got some pressing uni deadlines to hit before end of term, they are coming though :-)

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  5. You are truly a master of your art. I see this clearly now.

    I also bagsie one of those dice trays, they`re wicked and utterly awesome.

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  6. Awesome stuff, although I'm sure I would have managed to snap something on the Ninja model! Cracking dice tray too.

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    1. Yes sir Michael, lots of wavy ribbons and weak chain links mean extra care in handling! Lovely model though ;-)

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  7. Great looking additions to your Bushido collection, though I've reservations about your dice tray (nice though it is)solving the 'cocked dice' problem!

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    1. Thanks Joe, I've given them some extensive testing in "the lab trials" so far and so far so good, but we shall see when I take them out for a spin in a game ;-)

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  8. Dammit, Andy, stop posting so many beautifully painted figures that scream out, "BUY ME NOW!" I loved old style Bushido and I'm sure I'll love new style Bushido just as much but I really can't afford to take on another big project right now. These four figures are to die for and once again, outstanding work on the Kanji you painted on the Grey Pilgrim's Yari staff.

    Your dice tray looks really neat but I do wonder if it is wide enough to get a good roll of your dice? My Goki dice tray is about 10" in diameter.

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    1. Sorry Bryan, they really are lovely though aren't they. Also apologies in advance but another order is arriving today at da Grotto, so no respite just yet.....lol

      The trays are 6" in diameter so are smaller, but I've not managed to miss the mark yet ;-) I guess the proof is in the pudding and I'll see if they fulfill the role in the heat of battle and dice are flying!!

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    2. Ha Ha Hah! Keep it up Andy, its about time Bryan had a taste of his own medicine with a constant stream of tip-top painted minis; all of whom scream buy me now!!! I don't see how he'll be able to resist for much longer, so keep posting. Of course you;re costing me pennies too, But it's worth it to see Bryan squirm ;-)

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    3. Bwahaha! Your wish is my command, as I type this the delivery man has literally just been with another selection of lovelies! I think he'll crack soon...... (",)

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    4. You despicable cads! I shall persevere and I shall not bend to your persuasive posts!

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    5. Resistance is futile.....

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  9. Excellence in motion. Great write up. Since I have met my paint/build goals for Strange Aeons I am moving back into my heaving Ito paint pile. See you on the other side!

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    1. Thanks Yeti, I love your recent Aeons posts, glad to see you blogging again and really look forward to seeing more of your fabulous Ito and perhaps another of your inspiring terrain boards.... **cheeky grin**

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  10. Yet more lovely Oriental goodness, Andy. As you seem pretty enthused about the game and I believe you said the rules are free, I may take a look and see whether I can use my "cost effective" oriental figures with these rules. Is there an option to build your own characters or do you have to use the statted ones? If the latter, how easy do you think it would be to 'tweak' existing characters? I suppose I could just choose the character that best matches my ideal, then rename them and create my own factions...
    Yay! Cheapass Bushido! I likes it...

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    1. The rules are free Jez, go on the GCT website, there is also an App called My Warbands (for both iPad and android, I think) that gives you the profile cards of a lot of the characters of the main factions, I'm pretty sure you could find a tweak there although GCT are bringing out new models in successive waves so the app prob needs an update. Still should be plenty of profiles for you to look at and start a pseudo faction. Would love to see you unique take on things buddy! :-)

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    2. Printer friendly rules downloaded and I reckon that by copying the images of the profile cards from the site then fiddling with them (changing pictures, names and faction bits) I could create my 'own' characters. I will take a look at that app as well.

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    3. Cool, really looking forward to this dude!

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    4. Having given the free rules a once over, it seems to be quite complex - I am a simple soul, after all. However, whilst you may not see 'Cheapass Bushido' from me, I think it may be time to unveil my own ruleset on the unsuspecting masses and a bit of Oriental fantasy skirmish seems like a good test. Samurai! Ashigaru! Onmyoji! Oni! Nezumi! And giant fire-breathing chickens! Will have to wait until after 'Forgotten Heroes' of course... ;-)

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    5. haha, no worries Jez. They are not as complicated in the game as they look and tbh i will be working up to the harder stuff after a few walkthroughs (i'll also blog those walkthroughs too) so it should be a gradual intro rather than a headlong rush of information - i'm also a simple soul :-)

      that said I look forward to your ruleset and all that goes with it!

      さようならと幸運
      Sayōnara to kōun
      ;-P

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  11. Interesting idea - I'm now wondering if I can find a circular picture frame or similar in a charity shop to turn into a dice plate of my own :-) .

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    1. I'd never really thought about them until Bryan's post but all those years of cocked dice and scrabbling under the table for lost dice - usually when the roll is absolutely crucial! Get searching Hugh I'm sure your building/painting skills will outshine my efforts and will be well worth the effort!

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