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Rollin...rollin.rolling on the river...

Once again, really enjoyable. Love the atmosphere and the narrative.Skirmish games are the future!

@anpu: Indeed!

@graven: Coming from you graven that's a bit compliment and I certainly hope you're right! Thank you.


Here's what I did today...

Completely cleaned and reorganized my painting desk so it can accommodate my new magnifying lamp (on the left). This is the first step in a major clean up of my studio which will involve getting rid of a lot of stuff. I feel very good about this.




Realized that I'd painted the fire kami (spirit) completely backwards... which explains why it just looked "wrong". Back to the starting point! (don't feel so good about this)

You know I love me a Bushido report, lovely work space Gitz. Sorry bout the Kami.

Thanks Yorkright... I'd keep doing them even if you were the only person watching! Tried to get one in yesterday but the store closed on us so we only got to turn 2. Not enough for a video. Might have a few stills for you though.

Until then... here's the finished kami. I tried to make it look like the log and grass were burning on the kami-side.

That is excellent work, really worth the redo, although I had no issue the way it was! Like the fire effect on the surroundings.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Workspace is looking great too.

Thanks Cam, really appreciate it!


I did promise a few pics from our game on Saturday, short as it was. Unfortunately I'd filmed the beginning so I didn't get as many stills as I'd like. Just a few I'm sad to say.

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I squared off against Tyler's Temply of Ro-kan army. We've faced each other several times but this time we both had new figures to field. This was a small, 35 rice game with three idols across the center that you influenced to your favor by spending action points once you reached them. We each had 5 models. My new models were a kami of the west wind (air spirit) and the giant eagle. His were a gorilla and a little ghost girl (support figure).

The first thing we found out is that my eagle can get to objectives on the center line in one move/action, allowing him to use his second action of the first turn to influence the objective in my favor. Wow, is this a big deal! Usually you have to spend a full turn (2 move actions) to get to the center objectives and then can't influence them until the turn 2. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but in this game... getting and turning those objectives first is a very big deal as your opponent then needs to spend two actions to get them pointed in his direction rather than just one (one action to return it to neutral, a second to move it in his favor).

The other thing I did differently this game was to use my kami of the wind correctly (as opposed to it's last outing). If you get it positioned properly, it can increase one model's (in BtB) movement by 1"... that means 2" boost for the turn (1" boost x2 movements). In our game that ended up making a huge difference and leads us to the first picture.

One of the interesting tactical aspects of the game is that movement is back-and-fourth, with each unit having two activations (potentially two opportunities for movement) each full turn. So you can hold models back and wait to see what your opponent is doing before committing them. Tyler and I both did this; he with his gorilla and me with my samurai Kotenbo. Both models were making a play for the center objective and both had boosted movement. Because Tyler had gone first however... he ran out of activations before I did... giving me the advantage of the last movement of the turn. He moved his gorilla onto the middle objective but he did the smart thing and put it on the opposite side of the "impassible" objective to decrease the odds of my reaching him with Kotenbo. Luckily my 1" movement boost from the kami was *just enough* to reach the gorilla for a Turn 1 show-down.



Right off the bat we both threw everything into assault (neither of us put any of our dice into defense). As a result it was kill-or-be-killed for both of us. I did have the advantage as he was already exhausted (-1 die) and because I was attacking I had the initiative. My gamble paid off and I one-shotted the great beast.


On my right, Tyler's major baddie... Master Po, went after my giant eagle. Luckily for me one of my other figures (Torobo, who has become one of my favorite figures) was able to stun Po with a special action, lowering his attack dice from 4 to 3. This put us on an even footing, 3 dice to 3 and allowed my eagle to not only survive (by putting all three dice into defense) but tar-pit Po so he couldn't change the orientation of the objective.




Here's where things stood at the end of Turn 1. I have the center uncontested, but have not yet turned it. On the right (behind the house) I control the objective but am in a pitched battle with Tyler's best fighter. On the left (also behind the house), Tyler has two monks, at but not yet controlling the objective there. Both Torobo my archer & Ryuhobo my cleric are in good position to support action at all 3 idols.



By the end of Turn 2 (and game's end), Kotenbo had influenced the center idol, the eagle was still stalemating Master Po on the right thanks to good rolling and the continuing "stun" effect from Torobo. My wind kami (not powerful but with good defensive abilities) had moved forward to cover Kotenbo's back as the monks were moving in from my left. At the end of turn 2 we add up the score & since I had 2 objectives to his 1... I earned 1 victory point. Had we continued there would have been another victory point available at the end of turn 4 and 6 (total of 3 for the game). I think I was in a pretty strong position as Kotenbo would now be free to join the fray. My thought was to go after the monks and the leftward objective in the hopes that the eagle could hold on vs. Po for a turn or so. I suppose I could even have the eagle disengage from combat (he can do that) and let Po spend an entire turn influencing that objective while I took control of the other two, then it would just be a game of keep-away as I bounced around, influencing whatever objectives Po wasn't at.



In any case it was a very fun game and far from certain in spite of my strong start. You never know when the dice are going to stab you in the back!

Thanks for reading!

I agree with Cam, I didn't think the fire kami needed a redo, but it does look even better than before, now. That magnifying lap for painting is sweet. I can't ever image getting my hobby desk that clean.

I love that eagle! looks so good.

Fantastic batrep (birdrep?), as always, and I love your kami, they're really evocative. Great stuff.

 Syro_ wrote:
I agree with Cam, I didn't think the fire kami needed a redo, but it does look even better than before, now. That magnifying lap for painting is sweet. I can't ever image getting my hobby desk that clean.

Funny you should mention the lamp. I was asked to do a review of it by the people that make it. First time that's opportunity's come along. I've been using it for 3 weeks now and am working on the review (photos, text, etc.). Should have it posted shortly.

@nerdy & graven: Thanks guys. I'm rather enjoying this change of pace.

The models look great....but mostly I’m jealous of that work area!

New Bushido video is up on my YouTube channel. Short form, Tengu Descension vs. Temple of Ro-kan, "Botoku" mission, 50 rice.

Fun game with Adam at one of our local stores. Only his second game but boy... does he have a good grasp on the rules! Very fine painter too so you're in for a visual treat.

The air kami looks amazing in action. Love the wee fox btw, and looks like a great piece in game. How long did the game take in real terms?

Oh, couple hours I suppose... but we're playing casually & includes set up time (which can take a while if you're not sure what you want to do), still learning the rules and pausing for filming. If Thing 1 and I really focus on what we're doing (and I've got the camera set up on a tripod so I'm not worried about filming breaks), we can do a 50 rice game in slightly less than 1 hour.

The better we get at remembering the rules, the faster the games tend to go.

What's the top points/rice allotment per side, again? 50 rice?

35, 42 and 50 rice (points).

I would like to see more of the lower point battles. You've been playing mostly 50 rice. That's my 2 masu worth.

I would like to oblige you, but people like to play with all of their toys, you know? I'll see what I can do though.

I do understand. But if you're trying to get folks into playing Bushido...

Point well taken. Next video is rendering. Sorry Brian, 50 rice again.

I wouldn't mind a few lower point games, would allow me to run all the bakemonos or Oni using the themed rules.

I'll be sure to get some smaller games up, NP.

Unfortunately the one I just posted is 50 rice. Sorry all. Tengu vs. Savage Wave (gremlins & ogres), "The Emissary" mission, short form.

Sorry Gitz I did not mean I dont like the 50 rice games, just that I would be willing to run some lower points if need be.

You're really knocking these vids out, Gits'.
It's really helping to make my "watch later" list longer.

@Yorkright: NP... like in 40k I actually like smaller games

@DrH: You need to watch them NOOOOWWWW!

Had a very nice father's day. Thing 2 made me breakfast, wife made a wonderful supper, did a bit of console gaming (Destiny & Fallout 4), got some prezzies (cloths for an upcoming back-country canoe trip) and did a bit of painting for a change. This is one of my two big fighters and arguably one of the best archers in the game... Buzenbo. Just getting started on him but I thought I'd post my progress. This will be by far the most expensive figure in my army so far... he tops out at 13 rice... the closest I have is Kotenbo at 9 rice... everything else is 8 or less.



His inner garments are done and the armor is painted with a black wash. The armor will get more attention & perhaps the inner garments too... but it's a decent start.

Sounds like a good day, and certainly a cracking model. How big is it to the tips?

Guessing near 3" (he's standing on a 40mm base).

Sounds like a great fathers day Gitz, Buzenbo is looking good. Is he close in height with his wings to Rashka the Destroyer?