UK Masters 2019 Postscript

The UK Games Expo has concluded and thus the Bushido UK Masters tournament with it.  I managed to claw my way to the final table (there were actually 2 of them I think) but lost to Adam Cross' tiny KKZ warband.  On the other hand, Adam's victory means he is this year's Grand Master.  Also surprisingly, the first place spot was tied with 3 people having the same number of tournament points.  Jason had to work out who placed where using Strength of Schedule - the great dark art of the tournament organiser.

Having lost at the final table, I will probably end up somewhere around fifth place when the standings are finally revealed.  This seems to be the traditional way the Bushido tournament system works.

In this tournament we tested out players placing terrain following the terrain rules, and after the initial grumbling on the first round, things seemed to go really well.  I'll be interested to hear more developed feedback from the playerbase though.

I played the Hare clan again, but I think I've reached the limits of what that warband can do.  I actually think I would have had more fun using the Jung Pirates, but they're much riskier as they have some horrific match ups.  It has inspired me to get the faction fully painted though, so I'll finish up the Ashinaga-Tenaga and Hibiki over the next couple of days and then glower at the remaining unpainted miniatures.  Once the new Jung starter set is out, my warbands should be fully fleshed out, regardless of which kancho I use.

To expand my Prefecture options I picked up Matsu, Katsumoto, Oka, and... the Takashi Samurai (now Daiko) while at the Expo.  I just realised I should have picked up Bachiko, but I’m in no hurry to play Prefecture for a while.

Looking at my games I realise that the Prefecture vs KKZ match up is really cagey.  There are some traps I fell into through simple ignorance - Katsumi having Powerful Attack (0) and Kouhei no longer having the Ammo trait are the prime examples.  If I wanted to move the match more in my favour I’d certainly have to think about models with activation dictation like Katsumoto to simply burn through Tireless models.  I’m not sure if I brought Katsumoto to the table that anyone would play me again though.  My Wind Watchers tengu warband was bad enough.