Anchor Aweigh

Thinking about the future of Bushido, on a metagame perspective, not a design one, I think we’re going to see a change in the way people play.  Offensive Ki feats will probably start to eke back in, especially with the Ito Clan starter box.  Kinu offers a quick solution to large, 1 Ki model swarm warbands.  The main barrier to this at the moment is Death & Decay, and that is countered by good terrain placement.

People are starting to appreciate sideboards more and more.  I really like them and while the power of theme bonuses are incredibly alluring, the flexibility of sideboards allows you to compensate for any weaknesses in the warband much better than a theme bonus.  I guess it's more of a preference on whether you want to counter your opponent or simply enact your own playstyle.

I did a small demo game for Maria at G3, and I'd forgotten how much fun Minato is.  He's just... fun to use.  He's a simple profile, there's no bells or whistles going on there, but holy-moly he's great fun to thrown on the table.  I didn't use any of the advanced tactics I would normally - applying Held or Immobilised to Maria's models at this point would be counter-productive: I want her to learn how to play the game, not drown her with complexities.

Looking at Yuji and Minato, they have the tools needed to fight against ninjas, especially with Docks of Ryu.  Yuji can give me much needed Sixth Sense every turn, and Minato can simply throw his anchor at things I don't want to melee.  Hmmm...  I think I have the beginnings of my next warband here.  Using my super-awesome spreadsheet:

Docks of Ryu

• During the Starting Phase choose 1 model to gain Tireless until the End Phase.
• If your Opponent has more Victory Points than you, you may distribute an additional 2 Ki Tokens amongst Friendly Jung models in the Ki Generation Step.

Minato

+ Taunt

Yuji

Miyakomo Asami

Taru

Korusea

Korusea

Kami of Morning Dew

Blow the Man Down (x2)

Kamikaze (2 rice)

Squall

How would the warband function?

Putting Tireless on Yuji is actually quite important a lot of the time if you want to get to use Order, but I think using Battle Stations is more about dictating a turn's tempo than actually getting the extra activations.  I think Asami is also a good candidate for the Tireless, provided I have the means to get her out of melee.  Of course, Minato is amazing with Tireless.

Taru is one of the most stable profiles in the Jung Pirates roster, with access to Grapple Attack (0), Bravery, and built-in Ranged Defence.  The double Korusea are there to ensure I can get the most out of Minato.  They can keep enemy models still through the use of Dirty Fighting, then I can swing in with a massive punch from Minato if all goes well.

Kamikaze can either get models out of combat or allow them to get past a lot of obstacles.  Blow the Man Down is probably my main means of setting up a target or nullifying enemy positioning.  Finally Squall is there to protect my models against any warband that comes in with good ranged attacks.

There's just enough ranged attacks in there to give me options against the likes of oni, and more than enough Held and Immobilise to deal with the more tricky foes.  I discovered a soft counter to Master Akari was to hit him with Immobilise.

I'll test out the warband and see how things go.  It could be amazing, it could be terrible.  I do know though, that I will have a lot of Powerful Attack to go around.