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Falcone wrote:

Tiarna Fuilteach wrote:When did GW do nippon models?

In the late 80s. Here are a few.

http://www.solegends.com/citjour87a/cj87ap36doh1ninja-01.htm

http://www.solegends.com/citjour86a/cj86ap28ohsamurai-01.htm

http://www.solegends.com/citc/c22niprocket.htm

Freakin' 80's, you were terrible.

FearPeteySodes wrote:Freakin' 80's, you were terrible.

Now now, there was the really cool looking... wait, no. How about the famous... actually, that did look terrible. But you can't forget the... Jesus, did the sculptor for this model have thumbs?

Nevermind, the 80s was filled with lousy models.

I hope GW doesn't try to redo either Cathay or Nippon honestly. Both Japanses and Chinese cultures are different and it would be a real shame if GW tried to make them one army (or even 2 different ones).

In the end I don't trust GW to not up by mixing and matching them.

There are ways to do oriental armies in fantasy. Skaven, Empire and Ogres can be converted to fit. Plus you can always make it a counts as army - as long as your consistent then you should be fine regardless of the actual models.

True. Sometimes I wish GW would have done a "mythological" Ancient Battles: Basically ancient battles but with the ability to choose magic and monsters from that cultutre's mythology. However, I don't know how bad they messed up those cultures in Ancient Battles already...

Casper wrote:I hope GW doesn't try to redo either Cathay or Nippon honestly. Both Japanses and Chinese cultures are different and it would be a real shame if GW tried to make them one army (or even 2 different ones).

In the end I don't trust GW to not up by mixing and matching them.

There are ways to do oriental armies in fantasy. Skaven, Empire and Ogres can be converted to fit. Plus you can always make it a counts as army - as long as your consistent then you should be fine regardless of the actual models.

Skaven really aren't a good representation of an Oriental army. At best, some of the fluff suggests their assassins and scouts and such trained some stealthy and combat techniques from Nippon. That is hardly a really good representation to culture that is big into honor, shame, and has a lot of Buddhist influences.

Cathay and Nippon just like China and Japan have many similarities. They have a history of conflicts and a short history of truces. However, the culture, especially their methods of combat training all stem from the same roots. It is said that all Eastern martial arts stem from Shaolin. Since, Shaolin temples started practicing Kung Fu over 4,000 years ago. It eventually spread to Southern China, and then to Japan and the Koreas and so forth. Lots of Japanese combat systems are based of Fukian White Crane Kung Fu. When Buddhism spread to Japan, some Samurai put down their kitana blades for Tetsubos since blunt weapons don't always kill, it was the Zen influence.

Now, given their location, close to Chaos and Ogres, I could easily see a truce between the two. The other reason why I suggested making them the same is that making them separate would be harder than just to combine the two. Then you could have the Kung Fu Monks, the Ninja, the Samurai and the Oni. I think it makes a more complete army that way.

The Empire seems too generic for me. I know you could buy Ninja Models and use an Empire or Britonian book, but that doesn't really represent the culture or idea behind an eastern influence army, it is too western for me.

Just my opinions

Crom wrote:

Casper wrote: I know you could buy Ninja Models and use an Empire or Britonian book, but that doesn't really represent the culture or idea behind an eastern influence army, it is too western for me.

That's because you are not disassociating the fluff from the stats. If you use the Empire's unit stats, and forget about any fluff behind them, there is no western, or eastern or any other style or influence to them. Use the base stats and write your own fluff. For example, use swordsman for foot samurai, halberds for Cathay infantry, and spearmen for Nippon infantry. I realize Japanese don't use shields, so for the spearmen and swordsmen give them shields for stat purposes, but just don't give the actual models shields. When you strip away cultures, everyone is the same. You have infantry, cavalry, missile troops, and artillery. Now that I think about it the High Elves would be a better book to use, they have better proxy units.

Very well said Falcone.

I agree, high elves would be a better book to use given that I feel their in game rules reflect that of a Samurai or Monk that dedicates their life to training their arts....

However, I have had high elves for years, been playing since 4th edition, and always wanted a Nippon/Cathay army.

After all this discussion, what keeps buzzing around in my head is "O HI NINJAS!"

I know it's "OH1," but I guess I've been reading too much lolcats.

If anyone can find oriental warriors from a historical manufacturer, guild of harmony has the heroes covered.

Cathay is awesome and I love their Samurai but I would love if Norse or Albion got an army book instead. Does Araby serve order or destruction?

rockerbikie wrote:Cathay is awesome and I love their Samurai but I would love if Norse or Albion got an army book instead. Does Araby serve order or destruction?

Araby would be closer to order than anything. They trade regularly with the empire and bretonnia and fight against more evil forces often than not.

Wow those models are really cool

The minis from Guild of harmony (although cool) seems to have really tiny heads (compared to GW heroic ones).

Anybody found a pic with GW-GOH side by side?

kendoka wrote:The minis from Guild of harmony (although cool) seems to have really tiny heads (compared to GW heroic ones).

Anybody found a pic with GW-GOH side by side?

Are you saying GW has big heads?