Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Dear Readers,

This is an unaffiliated post by a fan of Ronin, a 28mm Skirmish game based in Feudal Japan. I am writing this as I feel the game deserves a lot of attention - attention that it has not yet had as it hasn't had the media coverage or advertising that games such as 40K / Warmahordes (or is it Hormachine?) and Kings of War have.

Summary:
All faction rules are in the rule book.
There are 6 Factions.
The game is a historical based game (though there is a free PDF to include mythical Japanese monsters if desired for shenanigans)
The game is playable in an hour.
The game usually plays with between 4 and 12 models, which are 28mm Heroic and based on 25mm circular bases.
The game focuses around tactics, not building 'killer' armies with OP weapons
The game is reasonably balanced - though what makes a strong unit in one scenario is not true for other scenarios (Weather and time play a role - ie: Teppo (arquebus) can only be shot once if it's raining and has range reduced at night/dawn/dusk)
The rules are crisp, clear and well written - this is an adult skirmish game that feels well written for an adult audience.
The game rules allow for modifying the time period played and gives suggestions for allowing you to try out different game types / scenarios and units - if you want to invade China / Korea, then the game gives you rules. Want to play out 'The Last Samurai' - it also does that!

A lovely touch is on the back page - a list of suggested reading and films based on the time period - I've learned a lot from following the advice given and have enjoyed it.

The game suggests using North Star military figures found here: http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=152&page=1
Alternatively, as I have done, I've bought Perry Miniatures for the Bushi forces. For £24 I have two Bushi forces and the models are gorgeous: https://www.perry-miniatures.com/index.php?cPath=23_38&osCsid=k93rtnpd9fdgqlm97jt2859a94

For reference, I bought:
x1 Ashigaru Arquebusier firing line, kneeling
x1 Ashigaru archers, shooting and loading
x1 Samurai with swords, fighting
x1 Yari Ashigaru Attacking (sashimono)

This makes x2 Bushi Buntai as shown in the rulebook for a total of £24

Alternative models can be bought from Wargames Factory which are a lot cheaper and are next to identical in scale with Perry Miniatures. Again both these types scale well with North Stars' figures.

Below are some images of models from the game.





If it's of interest, I recommend buying the rulebook first either from Amazon or Osprey Publishing to get a good idea about the game and what forces you want to play. Personally I am very happy and hope that this post may direct a few people towards trying out a very well thought out alternative war game.

Thank you for the review.

I've been thinking about Ronin myself, as I have a bunch of old Citadel samurai figures languishing in the attic. It would be nice to put them to good use.

Ronin is a neat low miniature count skirmish game. Osprey's wargame titles have been uneven but Ronin is a better one.

Ordered it last week.

I look forward to reading the rules as the idea of a combat pool of dice is very interesting to me.

 Easy E wrote:
a combat pool of dice

So to clarify, the pool is of attack and defense tokens rather than dice.

In a nutshell -

At the start of the melee, each player secretly draws some combination of attack and defense counters equal to the Combat Pool (CP) of the figures involved. To attack, you need to spend an attack counter. You can "enhance" your attack (roll 3d6, discard one instead of 2d6) by spending an additional attach counter. The defender may spend a defense counter to enhance his defense (2d6, keep both instead of 1d6). The attacker gets to choose whether to enhance after the defender has chosen whether to enhance.

The attack score is the result on the dice plus the figure's Fight attribute plus any modifiers. The defense score is the result on the dice plus the figure's Fight attribute plus modifiers for armour, etc. The defense score is subtracted from the attack score. If the result (called the wound score) is greater than or equal to one, then the defender may be wounded. The severity depends on how high the wound score is and whether the figure was previously wounded.

To the people who have played ronin how do you feel the different buntai stack up against one another

 carlos13th wrote:
To the people who have played ronin how do you feel the different buntai stack up against one another

So far we've played bushi, ninja, and the fencing school buntai. They've all seemed to match up well together. Ninja are difficult to pin down, but lack good long range firepower and armor. Fencers are better in offense but weaker in defense and lack range. Bushi are expensive but well rounded.

I haven't yet thrown Sohei into the mix, but will once they are ready.

I've actually been looking for some 28mm Japanese figures for some WHFB conversions. Thanks for the links!

 Maniac_nmt wrote:

 carlos13th wrote:
To the people who have played ronin how do you feel the different buntai stack up against one another

So far we've played bushi, ninja, and the fencing school buntai. They've all seemed to match up well together. Ninja are difficult to pin down, but lack good long range firepower and armor. Fencers are better in offense but weaker in defense and lack range. Bushi are expensive but well rounded.

I haven't yet thrown Sohei into the mix, but will once they are ready.

I have heard the lack of Armour in Koryu makes them very squishy.

Armor is a pretty big deal considering the default defense roll is 1d6.

 carlos13th wrote:

 Maniac_nmt wrote:

 carlos13th wrote:
To the people who have played ronin how do you feel the different buntai stack up against one another

So far we've played bushi, ninja, and the fencing school buntai. They've all seemed to match up well together. Ninja are difficult to pin down, but lack good long range firepower and armor. Fencers are better in offense but weaker in defense and lack range. Bushi are expensive but well rounded.

I haven't yet thrown Sohei into the mix, but will once they are ready.

I have heard the lack of Armour in Koryu makes them very squishy.

It can, but if enemies are not alive then it may not matter. Since combat is a pool and they get their chosen weapon as jutsu they can be more creative in combat. Gain initiative and strike hard and you don't need armor.

So they cannot hangout in combat like Samuari, but they are killier than Samuari.

Each list requires certain shifts in thought.

Bandits are swarm, bushi are elite with a soften/support idea (plink enemies then use ashigaru as combat pool for Samurai, very combined arms), Koryu are precision bombs (one on one they are killer, but against numbers and there can be trouble, stack up the skills on them when you can, such as yadome), ninja are run and gun then mop up. I almost think Sohei are the carnage army. They won't run so throw down as much as possible to break foes, but we'll see in playing them.

Teppos are okay. Low rate of fire and weaker accuracy balances out high firepower. I actually think bows are overall the better weapon, but I will take teppos just because.

Played it, enjoyed it. Dirt cheap too.

My club are getting into it and we're all busy building our buntai. Has anyone played multiplayer games and if so how much points did you use and how long did it take?

I went with the Perry miniatures for my buntai as well.

Looks good Durecell

Here is mine



More photos of equally poor quality in the link in my sig if anyone is interested.

Thanks Maniac

Anyone played Ikko Ikki yet. They seem the faction with the most sheer options available.

Anyone know how Koreans or Ming buntais play like?

Love this game, my Sohei Monks are undefeated in many battles!

 Wansui wrote:
Anyone know how Koreans or Ming buntais play like?

Should be able to comment on how the koreans play in a week or two.

4-12 models? How does that work for a fun battle? I know it's a skirmish game but why would it make sense for 12 guys to simulate a battle in feudal japan? Not to sound negative but the game board would have to be really small in order to have a max of 24 soldiers to be going at it. Is there something in the rules that makes sense? Is it meant to represent many different soldiers in one unit? I'm not saying it's a bad game I'm just wondering how a miniatures game would work with such a little amount of men.

-50KDP!!! wrote:
4-12 models? How does that work for a fun battle? I know it's a skirmish game but why would it make sense for 12 guys to simulate a battle in feudal japan? Not to sound negative but the game board would have to be really small in order to have a max of 24 soldiers to be going at it. Is there something in the rules that makes sense? Is it meant to represent many different soldiers in one unit? I'm not saying it's a bad game I'm just wondering how a miniatures game would work with such a little amount of men.

It works for a fun battle the same way any low model count miniatures game does, mainly by not trying to achieve the same things a mass battle game would. Its a skirmish game rather than a mass battle game, its meant to simulate smaller fights between small war bands or scouting parties not huge battles. In terms of movies its more meant to simulate the fighting from something like Seven Samurai or Yojimbo than Ran or Kagemusha .

Recommended board is 3x3 I believe. Guys represent themselves with different skills in place. The game would not scale up to mass battle size as the combat is relatively in depth with you deciding without the other guy seeing how much of your combat pool should be focuses on offense and defense.

Some of the battles during the Senkou Jidai were huge you are looking for something to simulate actually battles such as Sekigahara or the various battles of Kawanakajima this wouldn't at all be the game to do that. For that try looking at Killer Katana's 2, Impetus, Clash of Empires or War and Conquest. Which all will allow you to do mass battles with Samurai. Killer Katana's is the only one of those made just for Samurai games though.

Personally the model count of Ronin works well for me. While I do really want to play mass battles in Sengoku japan that is a long term project. Ronin and Daisho allow me to take the models I have done so far and start playing with them right away while still having those models to add towards the model count of an eventual longer game.

-50KDP!!! wrote:
4-12 models? How does that work for a fun battle? I know it's a skirmish game but why would it make sense for 12 guys to simulate a battle in feudal japan? Not to sound negative but the game board would have to be really small in order to have a max of 24 soldiers to be going at it. Is there something in the rules that makes sense? Is it meant to represent many different soldiers in one unit? I'm not saying it's a bad game I'm just wondering how a miniatures game would work with such a little amount of men.

It works fantastically. High model count =/= good gaming by any stretch. Ronin is able to explore a more nuanced combat system thanks to smaller combat scale. If you want mass Samurai combat, no, it won't work well. However, if you want a ninja raid, or a grudge fight at a tea house, Ronin works very well (which Warmaster/FoG/FoW/similar would do very poorly at).

Myself, I would like to get my group to adapt it a little and play Dark Ages with the rules. A small Norman conroi attacking a village or harassing fleeing Saxons, Viking raids along the coast, etc would do very well with the system.

I see, I didn't know that small skirmishes were common in that time period. But how quickly do the guys die then and how long is a typical skirmish?

Myself, I would like to get my group to adapt it a little and play Dark Ages with the rules. A small Norman conroi attacking a village or harassing fleeing Saxons, Viking raids along the coast, etc would do very well with the system.

Sounds fun, do it man.

-50KDP!!! wrote:
I see, I didn't know that small skirmishes were common in that time period. But how quickly do the guys die then and how long is a typical skirmish?

Small skirmishes are common in every time period, from today back to when the first caveman realized he could smack his neighbor with a rock and make off with his food!

How long they take depends on the size of the game and the complexity of the rules, like any other wargame. A 6 point game of SAGA might take up to an hour and half. Ronin with 20 miniatures on each side might take up to 2.5 hours.

Ronin is pretty fast if you don't use too many models. Soldiers can last a while or die in a single blow. It creates great moments like a Samurai cutting his way through the enemy warband only to be shot by a lowly bandit.

A problem with the game is that they didn't really try that hard to balance things in terms of point values.

A big example is that the spear sword, forget the exact name, was the most common and effective weapon in actual combat, and in game it's pretty much the best weapon, period. However, it has the exact same point value as other weapons that aren't as useful.

This may be a way to get players to make historical armies, but I don't think skewing the points is a good way to go.

Lack of balance is a more than fair criticism of the game. It's certainly a game to play at the local game store and boy something you would want to do regular tournaments of in all fairness to the writer he does mention this repeatedly and say not all factions are balanced against one another.

Are you talking about the naginata? Which is a pole arm? Or the yari? Which is. Spear

None of the weapons are really game breaking. Teppos could be the closest to that, but they fire very slow and are not terribly accurate. Yumi fire faster, but the penalties can add up quickly. Naginatas grant less initiative than Yaris, but buff attack where Yaris do not. Given the way combat plays out, neither is dominating. Most Yari models have low natural iniatuve and weak combat pools while most naginata models tend to be expensive to begin with. Thus meaning you can further mitigate effect through numbers.

I suppose using a massive teppo or yumi group could break the game. However there are numerous cautions against this and rules to set caps on taking them that you would have to ignore.

Is it a tourney making game? Probably not, and Carlos is right that it may not be perfectly balanced. However, I have yet to see one weapon type rule the game.

Either way it's still fun. Which us the important part.

Play Ronin!

Ok man, easy! Easy! I will play, you don't have to threaten!

On a side note has anyone tried introducing a 'fantasy' element into the game?

I've been painting up some Bushido miniatures and thought it might be fun to include them in a game of Ronin. I wonder how it might be possible to introduce some rules for it?

For example, this dude



Give the rules of a Samurai perhaps, along with 'fearless' and 'tough' - when he receives a greivous or critical wound, reduce combat pool by 1. When it reduces to 0, he is incapacitated (kind of like the Knight from the Monty Python film, in the end he has no arms and legs and can't really do much!)

What do people think?

There is a small Mythical creatures add on on the osprey website for Ronin.

https://ospreypublishing.com/gaming-resources

Though I would probably straight up use the Bushido or Daisho rules if I wanted a more fantasy focused game.