Some thoughts for Expanding Test of Honour

Hey Game Fans, today we’re going to take a bit of a different look at Test of Honour.  We’ve done a lot of unboxing articles and shown you what you can find in most of the boxes (and the units and cards that come with), but today we’re going to take a look at what we would like to see for Test of Honour going forward, and things that we like about the game.  Without dithering much, let’s dig into the Wish List.

Wish List

Grand Rulebook

A unified rulebook that has all of the rules from the Battle Guide, the little rulebook that comes with the starter box, and the rulebook with Bandits and Brigands.  I think a lot of folks would be happy to have a single resource with all of the rules for the game.  It wouldn’t have to be a very  thick book, and the current size is perfect for Test of Honour.  The tricky part of this would be anytime new rules are released and how to get them to update automatically so that we’re not dealing with the same issue.

Setting Book

A historical era book for the 1467-1603 period would be extremely helpful.  A rundown of the major clans of the era, color guide, and some of the major historical battles could easily be used by enterprising players to create their own scenarios and devise their own campaigns

Campaign/Scenario Book

Test of Honour feels like it wants to be used for campaigns pretty hard.  A guide for putting together campaigns, (either branching narratives, escalation, map based, honestly, take your pick) would be superbly handy.  Additional scenarios (or guidelines for putting your own scenarios together) would be equally handy.  I would love to see some guidelines for building your deck of skills and quests.  

Options and Upgrades Sprue

An additional Sprue that covers the other weapon options listed in the Battle Guide would let people get a little more creative with their choices of modelling their Samurai.  Add in a couple of different Leg and Torso designs and additional crests and decorative elements and you have a Sprue that you can use to personalize and customize your Samurai heroes.  

Terrain

I am a huge fan of the 2 dimensional terrain pieces that come in the Test of Honour Starter Set, and i would love to see more options like this.  What i’d particularly be interested in seeing are more wall sections to lay out a part of a castle or a gatehouse, a bridge (and probably water segments) and some other small buildings so i could put together a village. 3D terrain is awesome and eye poppingly cool, but you fit a lot of 2D terrain the Starter Set Box and still fit a warband in it (with some storage containers).

Playmat/Battlemat

There are a lot of options for battlemats/playmats out there, but i haven’t found one in my search that says “This is a perfect fit for Test of Honour.”  Believe me, I’ve looked a lot of places, but nothing quite seems to fit.  I would love to see a 3 by 3 Battlemat that features a little bit of roads, a little bit of fields and some space for buildings.  Even better would be a flipside that could be used for the interior of a larger structure like a temple or even a samurai castle.  

New Dice

So far we’ve seen red dice and white dice, and i doubt that’s the limit of the color wheel available to Warlord Games.  I’d like to see more choices in dice color (and i think these would sell reasonably well).  

Card Packs (Recruitment and Skills/Quests)

I think that it would be possible to create variants of all of the standard Ashigaru (and to an extent the Samurai) cards that tinkered with the Abilities.  For Example, an Ashigaru Spearman with -1 Strike and +1 Strength.  This would allow players to further tailor their warbands and create mechanical differences in the game that could encourage new combinations and play styles. I’d like to see additional Skills and Quests added to the game as well, because they can drive some interesting choices in Warband design.  

Upgrade Packs

I really enjoy the metal head components for the specialty boxes, but if they were potentially available on their own, i think it might spur me to create a larger warband with that aesthetic.  I personally kind of want a bunch of those demon masks from the Daimyo’s Retinue set for all of my Samurai.  

Additional Warband Boxes

Now i am not well versed enough in Japanese history to make a suggestion about neat units and historical figures that could be their own warband, but i am sure that there are folks who can make some suggestions.  I would be curious to see a set for Korean warbands so that people could play in the historical invasion of Korea era.  

Conclusions/Ideas

So those are the things that i think would be interesting concepts (and products) to put together for Test of Honour going forward.  I like this game a lot and i want to see it grow and blossom into a widely accessible game in the market.