Wednesday 1 June 2016

Bushido - my first AAR part 1

Hi all

please don't get too excited, rather than a full game that I have played, this AAR is based on a walk through game that I played solo recently in order to get used to the rules and get a feel for the game.  I will be using models from my Temple of Ro-Kan and Prefecture of Ryu factions.  There will be almost certainly no real tactical insight as there is no opponent and i'm doing the thinking for both sides with hopefully no bias. I hope that tactical thinking will come later in the day when I start to get used to playing the game and more confident in writing them up, the combat system is designed around secretly assigning dice to attack/defence so really requires 2 players to make it work as designed. Also this AAR will be a bit rules heavy compared to my normal write-ups, very similar in style to the eminent Bryan "Vampifan" Scotts approach to ATZ (hope you don't mind Bryan) and as I get more confident in the game that should start to become less and less.

In order to fully understand the flow of the game I think it's probably a good idea to introduce you to one of the most important concepts/mechanics of the game and that is the concept of "conditions". Each model will be in one of three conditions throughout the game, either "rested", "tired" or "exhausted".  This is really important to understand as it effects the type of actions you can take or whether the model can be used at all in a round.  Each model starts as "rested" at the beginning of each turn and then either becomes "tired" or "exhausted" depending on whether the make a simple or complex action.  If they are "tired" they can only make a simple action to become "exhausted".

Rested >>>> simple action = tired >>>> simple action = exhausted

or

Rested >>>> complex action = exhausted

Therefore models are able to make either one complex action per turn or two simple actions per turn each.  With this in mind, sit back and strap on your katana, we go to war.

"Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories."
Sun Tzu

The Game

Scenario - This game will be based around the demo scenario I saw on the Bushido UK facebook page originally and then sourced on the Bushido Forum on the GCT website and you can find it here, it's also the demo game that I played at Salute 2016.  The idea behind it being that a faction influence a control zone 4" in diameter for a simple action and score 2 Victory Points (VP).  unlike most Bushido games the board is only 12" squared rather than 24" reflecting the smaller rice (points) cost of the factions and the walk-through nature of the game.


So this is the board, the Factions will enter on opposite sides around the foot bridges, the Buddha statues mark out the boundary of the board and the control zone is marked by the circle and the surrounding double tramline box surrounding it.  The factions are running at 23 rice each (halfway between the 20-25 rice recommended) and consist of...

Temple of Ro-Kan


Riku - 8+1 = 9 rice (he carries the special card "Prayer Beads" adding +1 to his Ki generation)



Hotaru - 6 rice



Seiji - 7 rice



Prefecture of Ryu


Guardsman of Ryu - 5 rice



Genji Takashi - 9 Rice



Eiji Takashi - 9 Rice



This is how they deployed....


Temple deployed in the west with Hotaru most northern, Seiji more central and Riku more southerly. Opposing them from the east were Genji then Eiji with the guardsman at the most southern point.

How it played out....

Genji Takashi glanced across at his brother as they proceeded down the corridor.  His twin looked calm, and collected as always but his eyes, his eyes belied the nervousness that he was feeling as they probed deeper into the bowels of "Chikyū no tera" - the Temple of Earth, a sprawling structure that provided a huge tactical advantage in these troubled times. The corridor ceiling was hundreds of feet over head and footbridges spanned the steps of the indoor ziggurat. The corridor also acted like a sound tunnel and amplified the heavy steps of the guardsman father had insisted on accompanying them, Genji winced everytime the oaf clattered his cumbersome firearm against the exquisite but ancient tiles.  

Up ahead the young samurai could see the "Nexus", a vital junction that would allow the Prefecture to extend it's influence in this part of the temple. Eiji's step matched his own as he increased his stride in order to get out of this confining corridor. Just as suddenly he stopped just shy of the entrance to the Nexus, his senses screaming at him that something was amiss.

"Come no further Son of the Dragon." came a sonorous voice from the gloom up ahead, "you will find naught but trouble, should you enter the Nexus without permission."

Genji, bristling at the command stepped into the room and scanned for the source of the authorative voice, he was therefore surprised when he saw it belonged to a young monk who had in turn stepped from a corridor opposite his own. The youth, accompanied by two other young monks looked no older than himself, indeed the others looked younger still! "Begone monk!" he snapped. "we claim this temple for Ryu" he added with a swagger, stepping fully into the chamber with his powerful brother and the firepower of the arquebusier behind him.

"Foolish samurai" the monk said in a doleful tone, shaking his head with a sadness that was surprisingly sincere. "you cannot claim this temple, it is here to serve the balance, as are we" he said indicating his fellow monks "and we cannot allow you to desecrate that balance" he said in a stronger tone, raising his hand and drawing on his Ki, the monk formed a spray of water from the air, with a twist of his hand the spray grew into a spout then a towering wall as he grimly advanced, beside him the female focused on her empty palms until they burst into flame that ran up her arms to cover her entire body.  The last of the trio stalked forward with a serene smile that was somehow more worrying than the fiery girl....

next time - the battle
hope you enjoy
dGG



27 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. It was, although a bit of a hard slog having to play both sides and write it up! ;-)

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  2. Great to see your fabulous miniatures on the board.

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    1. Thank you sir, it made for a nice atmospheric game.

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  3. That is a beautiful looking board

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  4. Terrific posting Andy, you really are making "Bushido" look extremely attractive. Wonderfully painted minis, great-looking board and a nice write-up at the end. Many thanks :-)

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    1. No probs Simon, the actual battle will be posted on Friday

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  5. This is what we've all been waiting for and we're certainly off to a great start. As a total newbie to this, I very much appreciate having the rules explained as you progress. You can go in various directions with batreps, like purely narrative or all rules-based but I like your combination of the two.

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    1. I think so too Bryan, it helps me focus on the rules and my understanding of them as well. Plus if anyone sees an a misreading of the rules they can let me know and I can correct where I'm going wrong. I managed to catch a couple myself but always worth someone else having a look over it...

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  6. Great looking minis and setup!

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    1. Thanks dude, stay tuned for tomorrow's actual game

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  7. A nice introduction, Andy. I shall look forward to reading the batrep later today.
    And you have inspired me - July will definitely see a return to Oriental Fantasy for me and WILL include my second ever batrep, in which a samurai and his troops will attempt to cross a river...

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    1. I'm glad to hear it Jez, I look forward to seeing oriental July then and the batrep!

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  8. Nice report, a great looking game with splendid minis!

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  9. I`m loving this Andy. I`m loving this so much. I missed this until now, which is good really, as it means I get to read this and part 2 all in one sitting: so yeeey.. go me.

    I`m loving your eye for detail and the intricate nature of the story itself. This is fascinating stuff. And most conducive to making me want to play too. Tarot is going to LOVE this when she gets back from her show.

    Hil x

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    1. Thank you Hil, I love when I get to binge read these things. I remember doing that with Bryan's ATZ campaigns, I had the whole lot to read and it was like a novel, just brilliant :-)

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  10. Don`t stop. This is just incredible and proves a point I`ve long believed `should` hold true for most of us (I`ve said so to Bryan more than once in fact), that while we (as gamers) `flit about` like honey bees, forever looking for the most succulent flowers (i.e. from subject to subject as each new thing comes on the market) we miss out on the pure unadulterated DEPTH of sticking to just one or two subjects and getting to explore these in intricate detail. The results of doing what you have done here, is obvious and I reinforce my conviction that less subjects are better than many... or said another way, quality over quantity rules.

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    1. I think you're right Stephen, it's been amazing to immerse myself in this game and create all of the terrain from scratch, build my forces purely on aesthetic and the fluff backgrounds rather than spam power lists.

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  11. WoW WOW.. oh WOW, this is incredible. I jut got to read it all. This was so intense and I enjoyed every last word of it. THANK YOU for much an enjoyable game, made even more intense by your obvious passion for the subject.

    Tarot x

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  12. What a ride. woow-weeee""" I think Steve is right. Focussing on just a few game subjects (something ost peole find hard to do) speaks dividends. Intensity of research, powerful intensity of interest: and passionate delivery due to solid grounding in a firm knowledge of the chosen subject.

    Very nice Andy. I`m so seriously impressed.

    T x

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    1. Thanks Tarot, agree 100% with Steve and your goodself! I've been the gaming butterfly flitting from project to project hence my many unpainted armies for WFB and WH40K (not quite as bad as my gaming bud Rich) but I like this way of throwing myself into the game, I find I produce more painted minis, more terrain and more detail in my gaming. I must admit though that this game has really grabbed me good and proper.

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  13. nods* I can tell. Please don't stop. You are really doing something wonderful here. *hugs*

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    1. Thanks T, no chance of stopping that's for sure ;-)

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