The ashigaru in the Okyo garrisons are massing in preparation for the battles to come. Whether armed with the Okyo naginata, as slightly smaller version of the standard weapon due to the confines of the terrain or the Ito short bow they are ready to combat the enemies of the snake. The versatile archers make excellent skirmishers, lightly passing through the densest undergrowth before raining death upon the enemy with cold Izu steel.
So valuable lesson learned last night: Leaving your flank open to an enemy model in Bushido really hurts!
So the details? Takeji my Ito Ashigaru commander was on a mission to put some hurt on Ilyro after cleaving Nezumi in 2. In the process he ran straight towards her, lurking at the back of the field. In the process he bypassed an Armoured kairai who was pushing forward. Without thinking I left the enemy model unengaged and that is where disaster struck.
Reading up on Surprise we discovered:
Surprised models may not declare Ki Feats or Ki Boosts, are always the Attacker second in Melee Exchanges and may not benefit from traits or effects that affect Initiative, and suffer a 1 MS modifier. Models are only Surprised until the action in which they became Surprised is resolved.
So as long as you say out of LOS you prevent the enemy spending Ki to boost, perform feat actions and suffer -1MS. Ouch.
The melee swirled and eventually Takeji fell but not before a Bushi charged in and killed the Kairai who failed his Rise(4) test to come back from the dead.
This just left the Bushi facing down the horror that is Ikyro. Declaring the charge he ran into BtB and had to pass a Fear(6) test on 1D6. Rolling a boxcar he promptly struck Ikyro who deflected 3 damage back onto him but suffered 5 wounds and dropping dead!
Great game!