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Hi Everyone,

I like many have come from the realms of GW by playing 40k, fantasy etc. Whilst doing some googling for ideas for a new small skirmish board for Kill Team, I came across various awesome 2' X 2' Oriental themed boards which I really liked. Clicking on some links and videos, I found out they were for a game called Bushido; a semi Japo-Samurai-fantasy game. Now don't shout me down if everyone's in the 'know' but I have never heard of it!

I would like to know if anyone has played it and if you are a fan, sell me on it! I really like the theme and the smaller board scale. Miniatures are reasonably priced and is character based. If anyone can convince me to jump board and invest in it I will, as I would really like a break from anything GW! I really enjoy small scale skirmish games and am lacking space badly! I think this Bushido might fill a niche in my shrinking space. I may shelve a heavy investment in all things Kill Team to give this a go. Your thoughts?

I've played it and enjoy it but I'm not very good at selling things. I'll have a go though.

It's a very fun skirmish game. I'd say on average 5-8 models is normal although faction and game size exceptions apply. The different factions have distinctive looks and playstyles. Characters all have their own skills and abilities which should be taken into account when list building for synergy and counter enemies.

You can get the rules free on the Bushido website. The rulebook is nice to get if you do get into the game but you don't need it. Character cards can be found on the website as well. The only cards you can't see are the ones sold in packs. They're mostly alternative profile, items and theme lists. None of which are need when starting out but if you get very competitive or want to try a theme lists for something different might be useful.

Game mechanics are based around alternative activation. Most models can get two activations a turn but some abilities count as two. Fighting in combat if you're attacked also counts as an activation and some strategies can be made around using up opponents activations this way. Many game mechanics involve opposing dice rolls. Combat also involves allocating dice between attack, defence and special moves. This adds a element of guessing and bluffing into the game.

It doesn't require much terrain but have a few bits and pieces makes the game a lot nicer. It's easy to get suitable Japanese themed terrain from places like 4ground.

The Facebook group Bushido The Game (Membership in the 500s, there are a few smaller groups with similar names) is probably the biggest Bushido community if you want more people to talk to about the game.

Just a word of warning. If you're from GW you might not have had much contact with metal models. They can be quite tricky to work with and I highly recommend getting superglue, files, greenstuff, a pin vice with drill bits and paper clips or something else suitable for pinning if you don't already own them.

Thank you for replying You have done very well at selling it to me, I didn't know I could get the rules and bits free - that's a big bonus. I think I might test the rules out before buying any miniatures, by just using bases as character proxies to begin with. Thank you again for being helpful, I wasn't sure if anyone on here had played the game. If I may ask two more questions:

1) What are the two best/easiest factions to start with in Bushido (if there are any) ?

2) How long would you say a game of Bushido lasts?

 Sentinel1 wrote:
Thank you for replying You have done very well at selling it to me, I didn't know I could get the rules and bits free - that's a big bonus. I think I might test the rules out before buying any miniatures, by just using bases as character proxies to begin with. Thank you again for being helpful, I wasn't sure if anyone on here had played the game. If I may ask two more questions:

1) What are the two best/easiest factions to start with in Bushido (if there are any) ?

2) How long would you say a game of Bushido lasts?

1) Honestly I'm a big fan of picking the factions you like the look of the best. As with most games you'll probably lose a lot as you learn the game or if choosing two starters whoever gets the easiest of the two to learn/picks the game up faster will win more often regardless of who you pick.

I've not played against all the factions especially the newer ones but of the ones I know about I'd say Ryu is the easiest. They're a Samurai faction that has good all around characters. The two most common playstyles for them are "good stuff" lists with good characters and Ashigaru lists based around buffing Ashigaru. I'm not sure about who is second though. I think Temple and Ito are fun to play. Savage Wave too but they're slightly trickier to play. Although I've not played against Cult yet, Ikiryo in the starter set is supposed to be one of those models that is not fun to play against. They did change her rules slightly recently in the errata, I don't know if that helped.

I'm also a casual player in a rather isolated area so I'm not sure what the latest competitive things are.

The starter sets are a good choice for beginners and many of the models in them are still useful in others lists. The models are in most of the starters (Ryu, Temple, Savage Wave, Cult and Ito) are among the oldest in the range so some of them are also not the easiest to assemble. Of the two I did Ito was especially painful but Temple wasn't so bad. Most of my games are still starter vs starter games.

2) I'd say 1-2 hours depending on how well you know the rules and what size the games is. Starters are 35 rice and is a good beginner/quick game value. 42 and 50 rice are the popular full game sizes.

Personally, id stay away.

We played it near the earlier days. 3-4 years ago at this point.

It was fun, but balance is horrible. Cool models, but wasn't worth putting in the time for it, and we played tons of games of it.

str00dles1 wrote:
Personally, id stay away.

We played it near the earlier days. 3-4 years ago at this point.

It was fun, but balance is horrible. Cool models, but wasn't worth putting in the time for it, and we played tons of games of it.

I take your point into consideration. I think I will get a copy of the free rules and stuff and then play a few games with some proxy models to see if I like it. As I have said I know nothing of it, but was drawn by the examples of beautiful 2 foot Oriental Skirmish Boards. Bushido looks to me to be more of a casual player game rather than a tournament winner game, and I am no winner in anything! I am a casual player so as long as the balance isn't dreadful I will be alright.

That is what drew us also. 2x2 boards can look amazing and needing so little space is wonderful.

We are also very casual players. Id suggest trying it out with proxies before buying.

The big issue seemed that I played Ito, so I was all about speed, very glass cannon. Friend played the undead. Which not only had really good abilities, but were hard to kill, could be resummoned, and didn't care about speed as they always attacked last. So it negated my ability to strike first doing anything special really. The other played the monks with animals, forget the name. They were meh. Very combo intensive.

It was a cool idea, but the undead were unbeatable 90% of the time

If you like the oriental feel perhaps you should also look at the game Ronin.

I believe GMG also has some video battles of the game which helped me get a good feel for it.