Hey Game Fans, I’m back with another article on our Favorite Miniature Game of 2017, Test of Honour. I tossed out the Hand grenade question of “What if the historical samurai clans were upgrade cards you could put on your Samurai Heroes?” on the facebook page last week and boy did it spawn a bunch of questions and answers. The essence of that discussion boils down to “how would the abilities work and which clans would get which ability?” As i have stated numerous times, i do not know enough about the history of Japan to be able to answer the second question. This article is an approach to answering the first one. Let’s dig in and see what this looks like.
Warfare and Skirmish
Test of Honour does a wonderful job of translating the traditional elements of historical warfare into a skirmish level game for the feudal period of Japan’s history. I’m going to make some sweeping generalizations for the sake of creating a rules expansion, and we can pare it back down to some historical nuance in a minute. In broad terms, there are four primary aspects of warfare in this period, and by taking each one as a theme, we can try to build mechanics for that aspect. The four primary aspects that stand out to me from this era are Ashigaru Yari, Ashigaru archers, Muskets, and Cavalry. Now i know that there are some historians who are getting ready to scream at me about the things that i am missing, and to those folks i say, you’re probably right, but we need to start somewhere with an idea. This is a very rough draft stage for these rules, and we’ll playtest from here.
Now I’m looking at this from an idea of creating a two stage option for these rules. I personally want to give options for players who are using either of the options for the Samurai Hero (either the 2 activation ones or the 3 activation boss). To that end, there are two abilities presented for each ability, a 1 point version, and a 3 point version. Mechanically, a 2 activation Samurai can only take a 1 point ability, while the 3 activation samurai can take either the 1 or the 3 point version. (So far, no one can take abilities from multiple clan abilities).
Yari
The Ashigaru are the backbone of the armies of the Samurai. Easily trainable and plentiful, the Yari is the default weapon of most of the Samurai armies.
1 Point (Peasant Levy)
Reduce the price of up to 3 Multibase units of Ashigaru Spearmen by 1.
3 Point (Hold the Line)
Once per game, you can declare “Hold the Line!” For the remainder of the turn, your Ashigaru Spearmen gain a +1 bonus to hit, and a +1 bonus to damage tests against units they charge.
Cavalry
Horses are a precious resource in this era, and highly trained cavalry are in short supply. The clans that do favor cavalry units have the best trained horsemen in the country.
1 Point (Veteran Riders)
Reduce the cost of up to 4 peasant cavalry models by 1.
3 Point (Thunderous Charge)
Once per game, you can declare a Cavalry Charge. For the remainder of the turn, your cavalry models deny the benefit that Yaris or Naginatas have against cavalry units.
Archers
Bows have been a staple resource for the warriors of Japan for generations. Mastery of the bow is a hallmark of their devotion to the craft of war.
1 Point (The Way of the Bow)
Your Samurai units can select the bow as a free upgrade
3 Point (Volley Fire)
Once per game, you can declare “Volley Fire!” After declaring a ranged attack with one of your units, you can pull up to 4 more activation tokens of your choice from the bag and perform ranged attacks with units of the selected type.
Muskets
Muskets are a recent addition to the arsenal of the Samurai, but represent a game changing advance in warfare. Ostensibly a weapon unworthy of a samurai, these weapons are becoming a common sight on the battlefield.
1 Point (Fire and Thunder)
Your Samurai units can take a Musket as a weapon choice. They follow all the standard rules for equipping a different weapon.
3 Point (Firing Drill)
Once per game, you can declare a Firing Drill. For the rest of your turn, your musket equipped units can ignore the reloading special rule.
Conclusions
Again, these are rough cut ideas for rules to further customize your samurai warbands for Test of Honour. They feel thematically appropriate and the 3 point abilities are powerful. The idea is to share the flavor of the game and if you want to build a warband around the idea of a specific theme, then you can select a clan ability (and hopefully soon an appropriate Clan) that fits that theme. As i said, this is a rough draft of these abilities and I’m probably going to tone them down at one point or another, and some may get changed completely. If you have any comments, questions, or ideas, you can reply to this article or comment on the post it’s going to generate in the Test of Honour Facebook page, or just tweet it at me, (My twitter is listed on the right side of the page over here ----------------------------------------------->) Game On, Game Fans
No comments:
Post a Comment