In the Vegetation...

If you look ahead about 50 meters, you can see the wild Ito in his natural environment.

Been slightly busy, sorry still no reported demo game.  Typhoons take all the fun out of planning a game!  But I have been a little bit productive, here are some pics of some completed things over the past 1-2 weeks.

You can probably tell my guys have a slightly darker and grittier look to them than most Ito.  This is me trying to portray returning/embarking on a mission.  They would be dirty, so I made them dirty.  Simple as that.  Hopefully they turned out ok, we will see what my local group says!

An Objective in Sight...

So these are my 6 small objectives for scenario play.  I cut out 30mm circles out of the same plastic I mounted the rest of my terrain on, so it should be of the same make up/elevation/properties as all my other terrain; I hate mixmatching that type of stuff.  So this matches pretty well with my terrain.  How they all tie together is in the last picture at the end of this post!

Oh and the two decorations for that red and white temple that are kind of modular/can be moved to another piece of terrain's base.

Today should be a good day, the plan is to run to the local gathering center and try throw down a first real game of Bushido.  Another member of the local group has a small Yurei force, so we will be throwing down to better learn the game and to display the mechanics to others.  I will be bringing 25 rice worth of another faction(So will have two factions with 25 rice) to allow others to give it a go.

I will try to get some pics and see how it goes.  The intent is to post up a battle report later on, nothing too intense because I am still trying to figure out the format and method.  I have two rulebooks to bring with me(one the manufacturer on and the other printed and put into binders) along with all the scenarios and FAQs.

I just hope the showing of the game garners some attention and we get a couple of more people, at least 4 more together so we can run tiny little tourneys and hopefully capture the attention of more people.  I also have a hope that someone else will be interested in creating a board to run games, another 2'x2' with either fixed or modular terrain(at least partially modular).  

Anyway, here is the newest terrain pieces on the board next to the Temple.

Learning the mechanics...

Yup, no actual demo game yet, just me messing around on the board with some models to get the feel for the different aspects of the game.  I only played thru two turns, it took about 1 hour total to do it.  Plenty of reading and research while going at it but I had to call a halt to it; children, why aren't they self sufficient yet?!

So just a few pics and impressions at the end/perhaps throughout:

So here are the two lists, nothing crazy.  I figure I wouldn't be getting too far into the tactical aspect of things so much as just trying to make them run into each other and roll dice!

The board and initial deployment

A few fun shots:

So basically not much jockeying for position, mostly just a mad dash towards each other.  Something I did not realize was that on a ~24x24" board 10" is a long way for a guy to charge!  Zuba slammed into Naoko but due to shabby rolling was only able to do 4 damage.  For Naoko, she used her Ki Feat to disengage and then shoot Zuba, blinding him in the process.  

Zuba's huge movement basically distanced him from his support, so even using run I was a bit behind...  This allowed the Temple Bushi, Chiyo, and Akimoto(him first because of Impetuous) to surround and engage Zuba.  But I tell you what, all three of them were only able to do a total amount of 5 damage for that turn to the Oni.  Talk about tough and sorry rolls!!!

So a few questions...

When applying the Melee Skill Modifiers to determine dice rolled, can you ever be dropped below one dice?  Can you sit at zero and just be a sitting target?  Or did I do that wrong and the MS modifier was supposed to be applied to the actual dice roll that determines success/failure?

Anyway, hoping this weekend to get an actual demo game in with someone from the local gaming group.  Hope to throw a bat rep from it up on here and see if some interest for the LGG is generated!  Thanks!

Dear God...

So ya, back to getting into what I started nearly 5 years ago.  Sad...  Not the fact that I have been absent, it was with good reason.  But the main reason it is a bit sad is because I should of kept up with all the different things I had done over the past several years.

But all we can do is move ahead and not dwell on what we could have done, let's focus on what I am doing and what I will be doing.

So, what I have been doing...  Had a second child, moved to Alaska, then moved to now Okinawa.  The Air Force loves me and keeps me in the Pacific, not that I am really complaining.

Game-wise? I have been pretty busy with a slew of different things.  I branched off into 40k/30k, Infinity, X-Wing, Malifaux, and now I am chomping at the bit to throw some little men/women on the board in a game called Bushido.

All in all, the minis are awesome and the rules seem very well balanced.  Yes, seem.  I have yet to throw any dice on this game since I just broke out the stuff I had sitting in boxes and decided to go all in.  How did I do that?  I built terrain first.  I wanted to be able to showcase the game, and the best way to do it was to make sure I had the game shown on awesome terrain; at least awesome in my opinion right?

Anyway, here are some shots of the terrain I have built and painted over the past month or so along with a few snaps of a mini here or there(not painted, waiting for my primer to arrive).

So there it is, the activity for Bushido the past month.  I will do my damned best to update this more and try to keep it alive.  Hopefully it will get more visitors and people interested in the game!  Enjoy, next stop should be the first game showcased with unpainted minis, but once they are painted I will definitely be a busy one.

Plan is to start out with 20-25 Rice(their version of points) lists.  This can be between 5(Bakemono) to 2 models in size for the opposing forces.  I hope to just use models who are pretty basic and none too complicated mostly to try and learn the basic mechanics and get that down pat.  Hope you enjoyed the long overdue update...  Till next time!

Here are a few images of a game I had between myself and the Lizardmen player! Oh the fun that was had!

Part 2 of being absent...

We had a 1500 point game between myself and the Lizzie player on the same day that we had the 2 vs 2. My list was as follows:

Squigmar, Grand Masta of the Order of the Arctic Squig(Warrior Priest)
-Heavy Armor
-Shield
-mounted/barding
-Sword of Might

Maulgrim da Caretaker of da Arctic Squig
-Pegasus
-Armor of Meteoric Armor
-Trinket(let's me reroll one armor save)
-Biting Blade

Arum da Alch'y(Wizard)
-lvl 2
-Magic ring that casts fireball(bound level 3)
-Lore of Fire

6 x Squig Knights of da Order of da Arctic Squig(Knightly Order)
-Full Command
-Warbanner

6 x Gobbo Powda Mastas(Outriders)-musician

30 x Armor of da Arctic Squig(swordsmen)
-Full Command
-detachment of 10 x Gobbo Quarrellers(crossbows)

10 x Squig Spotters(Archers)

20 x Great Gobbos(Greatswords)
-Full Command

1 x Gobbo Mortar(Mortar)

1 x Squig Cannon(Cannon)

------------------

Lizard player had:

1 x Scar Vet

2 x lvl 1 skink priests
-one dispel scroll each and 1 power stone each

2 units of 10 skinks with blowpipes

1 unit of 20 Saurus Warriors w/full command

1 unit of 5 Cold One Riders

2 units of 1 Salamander

2 units of 2 Jungle Swarms

5 x Kroxigors

Notes:
We played a regular pitched battle with deployments out to 12" from the board edges on all sides. Terrain was kept to a manageable amount, utilizing 6 total pieces. We had 2 woods, 2 hills, 1 arcane ruin, and 1 building with walls. But it made for a very tough game, with little magic users trying to stay within 6" of the ruins to get the 4 dice to channel for dispel and power dice!

Needless to say the balanced list gave me all the tools I needed to handle most situations. My deployment was pretty standard. Taking center stage was the Sword-Gobbos w/the quarrellers on the left of them. On the right of them were the Great Gobbos which I felt could handle slowing down most units due to being stubborn. In between them I placed the Knights. This would allow a little flexibility in the direction they could charge allowing them to support either infantry block. The artillery was placed on my far left, to give me a good angle to shoot from, and they were within a few inches of the detachment. The Powda Mastas were placed on the far right and took a vanguard move forward to allow me to fire on the first turn. Maulgrim took the left side to do some naughty things to anyone trying to go for an easy kill against my artillery.

The first turn proved to be rather bad for magic, as I got am irrisistible force and rolled a nasty miscast roll. The one with the small template that does something like a S6 to anything underneath it? Or was it S10? Anyway, the ziward took a wound! But he did 2d6 S4 to a skink unit, dropping about 6 of them! Shooting proved to be fruitful, and I took a nice chunk out of the Saurus Warriors, reducing them to 1 less rank. The cannon was rather anticlimatic, but still wounded a salamander, killed a handler, and did a measly 1 wound to a Kroxi. Xbows and outriders did some wounds to the swarms on either side of the deployments.

I have to say that having the first round to shoot and magic someone down is a hugh help for a balanced Empire list. It makes enemy units more manageable, although far from harmless!

My opponent was unlucky, and basically was about 2 inches too far to do any shooting against my army on his first turn, seeing as I deployed about 2-3 inches from the deployment line. He moved forward to close the gap!

In the end, my second turn was another huge deal. I had a pretty nice magic phase(no miscast rolls) and a decent shooting phase. Once again I whittled down the Saurus Warriors, and pretty much brought them down so they had no rank bonus whatsoever. Killed a salamander and tried to knock out the swarms. I did knock out the rest of a unit of skinks, killing them all in the shooting phase, I believe it was the Xbows who did it. I actually was able to charge the Cold Ones in the flank with my Sguigasus, and he ended up holding them up for 2 full turns! I couldn't kill them, their armor save was decent even after the minor minuses I gave them. Note to self, beef up the character's Strength if possible!

His second turn saw him fail two charges. One from the Saurus Warriors and one from the Swarms closest to my artillery. Yay! 1 more turn of shooting! His magic caused my Sguigasus to have a -1 to hit and -1 to leadership, great... Just great... hahaha. So I whiffed and basically he did 1 wound, but we ended up tying for combat res due to my flank attack.

I basically spent the next turn shooting a little more, and whittling down the swarm on the right to nothing, and killing all the skinks in the other unit! So now I have to just deal with kroxis and Saurus!

The rest of the game was a little maneuvering, and some HtH. In the end I prevailed, and had only totally lost my Squigasus and Sword-Gobbos!

A fun game and a great guy to play against! Will post pics later!

Being absent in body not mind...

Which is exactly what I have been. I have been unable to find the time to throw up another post in quite some time and have now run across a bit of some spare time!

In the past 3-4 weeks that have passed since my last post, I have been hard at work... Literally hard at work, no fun and games like I want to be doing, but actually working.

But in that time, I have found some chances to work on a few things here and there, and to be able to play a game or two as well!

First off, I have actually assembled 30xSword gobbos! I have also thrown some paint on 20 x Great Gobbos and 10 x Gobbo Quarrellers. They are only in their first stages, but they are on bases and can be fielded as needed. The Sword Gobbos are missing their shields(I want to paint them separately then assemble them) but are based and primed.

Second, I have worked on another artillery piece for my army, a Squig Cannon! Nothing special, it acts as a Great Cannon, but is modelled so that it looks to be firing Squigs. Story is, when the Squig Spotters(huntsmen) go hunting and find runt squigs, they snatch them up as ammo for the cannon! Very fun for me! I have also modelled up an alchemist which plays as a wizard of either the fire or the metal lore. His name is Arum da Alch'y! By day he is an everyday alchemist/wizard of the gobbo variety and at night he is a bar hopping fiend! On the battlefield he is a little bit of both, and is known to take sips of some type of 'magical potion' while flinging spells at the foes of the Order!

Third, games and games. I was able to get together with 3 other fellows for a nice 2 vs 2 using the new alliance rules. My partner was a Lizardmen player and had a very nice and friendly 1000 points! Here is my list as I recall:

Squigmar, Grand Masta of the Order of the Arctic Squig(Warrior Priest)
-mounted/barding
-Biting Blade
-Armor of Meteoric Armor

Arum da Alch'y(Wizard)
-lvl 2
-Lore of Fire

5 x Squig Knights of da Order of da Arctic Squig(Knightly Order)
-Full Command

6 x Gobbo Powda Mastas(Outriders)
-musician

30 x Armor of da Arctic Squig(swordsmen)
-Full Command
-detachment of 10xGobbo Quarrellers(crossbows)

1 x Gobbo Mortar(Mortar)

1 x Squig Cannon(Cannon)
---------------

My partner had something like the following:

1 Saurus Scar vet
20 Saurus Warriors(hand weapon and shield)
2 units of 1 Salamanders
2 units of 10 skinks with blowpipes
3 Kroxigors
5 Chameleon Skinks
5 Cold Ones

We were playing against Ogres and Dark Elves! Here is what I remember:

Dark Elves:
1 Dark Elf Lord
2 units of 10 Repeater Xbows
15 Blackguard w/full command
Hydra

Ogres:
Bruiser
Scrap Launcher
2 units of 5 Bulls w/Ogre Clubs and Full Command?
40 x Gnoblars


The battle itself took several hours, and when I say several I mean close to 6. I think it had to do with not being totally familiar with 8th edition and we were BBQing at the same time!

Highlights of the battle/notes:
Hydras are nasty! I shot as much as I could into it, and it just wouldn't die!
Mortars are nice against T3! Die Dark Elves!
Cannons are fun, they scare the bejeezus out of people hahaha!
Deploying first sucks(our scenario required my teams entire army be deployed first, so I lost usefulness of half my army for the first half of the game)
Going first if you have nice artillery and shooting is awesome!
Black Guard when accompanied by the DE Lord is a nasty unit(especially with -1 AS banner!)
Aquatics were nice, especially in dealing with the rivers, go Lizardmen!
Outriders are just plain worth it for me... With Vanguard, first turn shooting is possible!

Overall, the game was fun and it was a very good time had by all! The opposite team won, but it was a game which had the battle swaying from side to side at all times! So a loss, but a good loss!

Myself and the Lizard player had a 1500 point game a bit later, which dragged until about midnight(although it went relatively fast, we started around 930 pm or so! But we were both tired and our brains were semi-fried, so it could have probably gone faster if we wanted it to! But it was also fun, and I had fun proving that a balanced force can win the battle in 8th edition!

Anyway, that is all for now, and I will get some pictures up once I get the time to upload them!