So last night seen a great demo of Bushido to the hungry gamers at Wee Gamers. A quick overview of the cards and stats and away we went. Bushido is a tabletop skirmish game set in the pseudo-fantasy Jwar Isles with a distinctly Japanese feel to it. A group of between 4 and 7 models will make up your typical warband and put you straight into the numerous battles in the Jwar Isles.
Each model or group of models will use a stat card to list their characteristics: melee and shooting ability, movement and Ki generation each turn. Ki is an important resource as it allows models to boost their attacks, defence or perform Ki feats at times in the game. Also listed is their Traits that can include Armour (1), Martial Prowess (2) or Light-footed. Each trait is explained in the rules and gives models a distinct flavour.
Combat is quite unique in that a model’s Melee Skill (MS) determines the dice pool for each combat. This pool is then secretly broken into attack and defence dice and all rolled together (2 sets of coloured dice are required). The current attacking model will compare his attack dice to the defender’s defence dice. If the defender survives he can then compare his attack to the other player’s defence. The difference between the 2 will determine the success level of each attack. A further 2D6 are rolled, added together and that will determine the number of damage sustained. Armour (1) will reduce this dice roll by 1, Armour (2) will reduce it by 2 etc.
Wee Si and I set up a quick game of 19 Rice Cost (RC) which for Si was Takeji and his 2 Jade Mamba Guard. I took Saratoshi and Kenzo Ito in response. The first 2 turns were tactically moving for a turn 3 strike. The melee was swirling around when Si with a model advantage managed to get a surprise charge which put me on the back foot. Some quick thinking and armour (3) I managed to weather most attacks but numbers proved the winner and Si eventually won the day.
Good times in Jwar!
