Sunday 19 May 2013

Way of the Samurai

It's finally happened, I've totally lost interest in Warmachine and Hordes.  My interest in the game fluctuated up and down for a bit over the past few months, but the introduction of colossals and gargantuans really killed the game for me.  So, after months and months of DotA 2, I tried out Bushido earlier in the week and found it to be great fun.  I've already ordered my starter pack of choice - the Ito Clan - and started making my own playing board.

The game area is a tiny 2ft x 2ft, so making my own board is pretty easy.  I also had a couple of sheets of  foam board lying around that just happened to be 2 feet wide - turned out to be quite handy.  Work is still in progress, I found that most of my paints have dried up since I haven't touched a miniature in months, and I'm still undecided on what sort of terrain I want the board to be.  I could make it grass, jungle, desert, dirt, or snow.  At the moment I'm thinking just plain old grass, but do I have enough flock?  Each board is supposed to have around 6 pieces of terrain, which, in total, should cover 25%-50% of the board; so quite dense.  Unfortunately I'm running very short on materials now, and I'm only at 4 (small) pieces of terrain.  I'm looking to have more vegetation and some places that allow models to abuse elevation, but I'm not sure how to build these with the materials I have on hand.

As for gameplay, the game is very small - most lists I see have 5 to 7 models.  There's quite a surprising amount of tactical depth to the game however, it feels quite Warmachine-esque in that regard.  Knowing when to activate which models, and which tactics to use are key.  My main gripes with the system are that there are certain clunky elements to it: the damage system uses a table; the poison and fire systems are just a confusing mess; certain actions don't really tell you what they allow you to do.  However, the finished rulebook will be available soon and perhaps many of my gripes will vanish in the final product (the current rules are a beta document by the way.)  The easiest way to get around the damage table problem is simply to have the damage table printed out and on hand so you don't have to go leafing through the rulebook every time you activate a model.  The rest of the system is solid though, I particularly like how the combat system works.

Overall, I'm quite excited about the game, and look forward to getting more games in.  There are quite a few players at G3 who have Bushido stuff, and it looks like the game is certainly on the popularity upswing.  Now where are the art assets for websites and blogs to use?

1 comment:

  1. Nice one Andy, personally I've been hooked by the DeadZone Kickstarter... ummm kickstarter (in best Homer voice).

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