New Snakes

Well, my latest Bushido order arrived incredulously fast straight from GCT.  I am now the proud owner of Kaihime (extra 'i' appeared from somewhere it seems) and Takeji.  Both are great models and I'm very happy with their rules.  Both are pretty solid choices that are self-sufficient, though of course Takeji benefits from having Satoshi in the list, but it's not vital.  Kaihime appears to have a typo on her card, stating she has Marital Prowess (1).  So... yep.

I tried both of them out in a quick game against Martin's Savage Wave (just one more game this coming week against Martin and then I have a wider range of opponents booked in for rotation) and found Kaihime isn't amazing, though she's nowhere near bad and I think she may really shine in lists with plenty of Blood of Orochi to go around as it's pretty easy to get damage through with ranged attacks and her ranged brackets are quite big - with 4 Blood on her, she should quite easily kill a 6 health model through the poison damage on the following turn.  Takeji just chops things, and he's good at it thanks to Cleave.  Combined with Satoshi, Takeji and the other bushi become very dangerous, especially if they're in close proximity.  Unfortunately the game was a match where I rolled phenomenal dice and Martin rolled abysmally - though I do feel that I engineer situations that highlight this sort of thing - so I didn't get to see the two of them at their finest as the game was over pretty quickly.

On the painting front I'm finding that the Dark Flesh from Vallejo behaves very strangely when I try to mix it with a highlight colour, leaving my model's skin looking like they're suffering gangrene.  I think I've solved it by mixing a tiny amount of red in, and it's certainly worked for Sakura anyway.  She's now finished, so I'm at 8 out of 12 models painted for the Ito Clan.  The remaining 4 are: Satoshi, Takeji, Ayako, and Kaihime.  Right now Satoshi is on the painting table and then Ayako will be next.  I'm just happy to have both starter box options painted now.

Jim is also picking up Bushido, and I've ordered him a good deal of Cult of Yurei models.  I think he's only really missing extra kairai and Mo Ises once his order arrives.  I was hoping the order would have arrived on Friday or Saturday but no news so far.  The models I ordered should provide Jim with a number of different playstyles, from fast and fragile to slow and never, ever dying.  Of course, he can mix and match as he chooses once he's played the game a bit and knows what he's after.  Now I just need to influence a few more of the old Warmachine players into picking up a gateway drug starter box each.

Bushido: Ito Clan Update

Well, it's been quite some time since I last updated the blog, I've been getting fortnightly games against Martin Casey and his Savage Wave at 50 rice.  Having had quite a bit of practice with the shisai now, I'm very happy with how they perform during the game: Ayoko debuffs things and steals Ki when she can, Sakura drops the odd poison and makes sure anyone who needs Ki has it.

I've very happy with the shisai/debuff list I use for the Ito, the only downside I've experienced with it so far is the Impetuous on Naoko, which is a real pain in the arse for things like scenarios.  However, considering her general utility, it's completely worth it.  Just blinding two targets a turn or seriously hurting something with an assault fire and melee puts a real cramp in the enemy's game.

Takeji and Kahime have been ordered, which will complete my Ito Clan catalogue other than another basic Temple Bushi.  I have just finished Naoko, despite having her mostly done for almost a month now.  Next up I think I'll get Sakura done as she's in most of my lists for the Ki channeling.  I may alternate between armoured figures and the non-armoured ones just to keep the variety.  It will be nice to experiment with a more beatstick style list too.  I should be able to get hold of my sister's stupendously powerful digital camera next week and get some pictures up.

In non-Ito Clan news though, more information about the Silvermoon Syndicate has come out, and it's looking like a very interesting faction.  I think they're going to be monsters at scenario play, but compared to the Prefecture or Ito, I don't think they're going to be overly amazing at a straight up fight.  The faction 'schtick' is utilizing an optional coin toss and gambling on whether you gain double Ki that turn or none at all.  I'd probably avoid gambling in such a manner with the high Ki models like the oyabun but getting extra Ki on normal troops is pretty good, and them having no Ki at all isn't the end of the world.