BNY The Yamabushi with no name. Locals vs mounted bandits.

This started - and played as a simple villagers attacked by bandits.

We've mastered magic, so I thought I'd try a mounted force.

The holy grail of Japanese skirmish is to be able to reproduce the Seven Samurai.

With that in mind, read on, of my droogs.

I feel our first campaign coming on---.

Using our usual 1-tile setup with cavalry made for a very "claustrophobic" game.  The mounted could dash anywhere fast, but the peasant swarm was never far behind.  You've seen this board before, with a building in the lower left corner and more fencing.

Figures- as before, but 1 pack of mounted bandits, 1 foot bandits.  I'd started painting them the day before and they are at the "ink wash is just about dry" stage. 

As well as dismounts, I need horses and dead/wounded models.  A dead or wounded horse on the deck takes up a lot of room.

Ronin/Bandits

Z Shuryou – Kyu Grade 2+ Bu3 Daisho Full Armour, Mounted = 14 Koku

Shuryou (Leader)

Yuuki – immune to the effects of gory deaths and test for morale at 1.

V Youjinbou – Kyu 2+ Bu3 Daisho, Partial armour, Mounted =20 Koku

Gunshin – the character is a Hero, automatically pass one D per activation, task & morale.

May cause a reroll of any one set of dice for their force or the opponents per game.

Yuuki – fearless, morale at -1.

Juukan – May strike at any point of their movement action. Wins complete move.

Iai jutsu – Drawing and cutting while moving. Strike at the end of a movement at -1.

Sakki – sense danger and can not be surprised or ambushed.

Menkyo Kaidan – use an action to make each attack.

X Follower – Hanchou – Kyu 3+ Bu3, Daisho, Partial armour, Mounted =11Koku

Yuuki – fearless, test morale at -1.

Hanchou – ‘right hand man, Command Distance of a Short Length. +1 activation and Morale.

T Follower – Kyu 4+ Bu2 Daisho & Yari, Mounted 7 Koku

Y Follower – Kyu 4+ Bu2 Daisho & Kyu Mounted 7 Koku

Locals.

Village Leader Kyu3 Bu2. Tetsubo Total 7

Shuryou * (Leader) – has a Command Distance of a Long Length.

‘Group Order’ and enhance a character’s Kyu Grade (-1) if the character is activated within the Command Distance and Line of Sight of the Leader. Also effects Morale.

The Wife Kyu3 Bu2 Naginata Total 7

Hanchou  has a Command Distance of a Short Length. Within this Command Distance a character will act as one better Kyu Grade during activation and Morale.

Wandering Yombimbo Kyu3 Bu3 Katana Partial armour Total 15

Gunshin * – the character is a Hero. They automatically pass one die roll on a 6 for activation, task and morale purposes. In addition to this they may cause a reroll of any one set of dice for their force or the opponents per game.

Iai jutsu – the character is skilled at drawing and cutting with their weapon while they are moving. The character can strike with their weapon at the end of a movement action. However, this attack is at -1 to the Combat Total.

Juukan – the character is adept at striking while moving past an opponent. They may strike at any point of their movement action. So long as the character does not lose the combat the character may continue moving.

Menkyo Kaidan * – the character has attained the highest ability in their particular ryuha (martial arts school). They may make more than one attack per activation, using an action to make each attack.

Locals Kyu5 Bu3 Tool doing impact or cutting. Total 6x3=18

Priest Kyu2 Bu2 Total 12

Amatsu Tatara Goshinjutsu * – the character has a knowledge of traditional medicine and can increase the likelihood of an injured character recovering when making their wound roll. If the character is next to the character who is making the wound roll the character will test against a 3. Neither character must be in combat or within a base width of an enemy character.

Mukon no Jutsu – the character is stealthy and is very skilled at using the environment to their advantage. As long as the character stays within a base width of concealing terrain they count as being ‘hidden’. Moving between objects and keeping the hidden status is possible. It is a normal Task Roll.

Muto-dori * – the character is skilled at unarmed defences against bladed weapons. The bladed weapon is not counted as a superior weapon. On a winning roll of a 5 or 6 the character has disarmed their opponent.

Mahoutsuka * – the character is a magic user.

Hi no Tama –a ball of fire erupts towards the target. Causes a B+3 hit on the target and any character within a base width of the target. Any character within a base width of the path of the fireball suffers a B+2 attack. Range – Long.

Tenjiru/Saminjutsu (G) – basically a hypnotic attack, the target is fixed in place in place unless they roll 3 passes on a 3d6 Kyu Grade Test. It takes two actions to shake of the effects. Range – Short.

Protection spell (G) - the target receives +2 on any losing combat roll for the players activation phase.

Healing spell (G) – the target recovers from being wounded to just being ‘prone’. The target must not be in combat at the time of healing. At any time if a magic user rolls a ‘1’ on the attack die the energy has been deflected back to them … they become ‘fazed’.

The rules cover mounted characters, a quick summary:

Mounting or dismounting one action they are not fully armoured.

Unencumbered ridden horse moves a long distance on firm (default) surfaces. 

If ‘hard’, I.E. road, or ‘soft’ moves a medium plus one long move per activation.

Crossing a linear obstacle decreases the movement Length by one category. 

Jumping is a difficult task with the Kyu Grade of the rider. Failing will be the horse refusing the jump, stopping at the obstacle and the rider having to take a Kyu Grade check to avoid falling off.

Jumping over ‘gaps’ Kyu Grade test. Failure sees the horse refusing to jump and the rider having to make a Kyu Grade Test Roll on 1d6 to avoid being dismounted.

Charge into Close Combat gives the attacker B+2 on the initial contact. 

If a mounted character is forced to ‘recoil’ they must roll 1d6. On a roll of a 1 the horse rears and throws the rider who is placed prone next to the horse.

If a mounted character is wounded but not from combat, randomly determine if it is the horse or rider that is wounded. If it is the horse it is removed from play, deemed too injured to carry on or to have bolted, the rider is laid prone and suffers a B+2 attack immediately.

Firing at or fighting a horse and rider is done as normal. However, the following hit resolution outcomes are used:

If the horse and rider is ‘trebled’ the rider is killed in action and falls off the horse.

If ‘doubled’ the horse is out of action and either rears or falls to the ground. The rider finds themselves prone on the ground and immediately takes a B+2 attack.

If beaten the horse is deemed to have shied away, the horse moves a short and the rider must make a Kyu Grade Test (at +1) to choose the direction of the movement. If they fail the horse will move a short stick in a random direction. This may well result in a collision.

The Game.

I took the Bandits and won the initiative.  The simplest scenario, there are resources in the buildings that the bandits can grab then ride off.  Tony put the wife & priest in one building, with the leader and the rest off board.

On comes my leader.  He calls (group activation) the bandits forward and they ride up, dismount (blue markers = dismount horse) and move towards the barn.

On comes my Hanchou, my idea being that he would stay mounted and encourage the rank & file.  But- he rolls one activation & 2 fails.  Initiative swap.

In comes the Yombimbo who beats my leader off his horse, wounded!  The only think missing from the mounted rules are some for dismounted horses.

The wife dashes out.  I get a reaction, but fail the roll.  As a result of an events card, my Hanchou becomes fazed for a turn.

On come the village leader, driving the peasants forward (group move)  They only get one, so it's back to me.  That leaves my hero & his priest still out of play.

My archer takes a quick shot, misses, then runs to his horse & remounts.  The spear runs back to his, but cannot remount.

Archer moves away from the hero, tries another shot, misses again.

My hero comes on, but only 1 action! Over to the locals.  That ends the turn & the fazed fades.

Here they come!

Spearman moves back on reaction - thus missing being hit by the Yombimbo.

The hero is charged on reaction by my Hanchou after I play an extra action card.

My Hanchou is pushed back, in comes the hero (1 activation), slashes ineffectively at the Yombimbo (second activation) then moves onto the local leader.  He fails again, but controls horse and back off.  He moves in hits again for his 3rd activation.

This time its the leader pushed back.

Meanstwhile, the peasants gang up on the archer, who tried to disengage and he gets shoved off his horse.  He scrambles to his feet and tries to open the range.

The spearman and Hanchou gang up on the Yombimbo, but it's the Hanchou who loses, and losing control of his horse shoves the spearman aside and ends surrounded by peasants- not good!

Over to Tony- the peasants smack my Hanchou's pony who retreats.  The rest start mobbing my hero.

The leader starts, but get pushed back.

Now it's the peasants turn, my hero's suffering -3 for each extra in contact and gets shoved forward.

He gets a reaction and tries the leader again, but shoved back.

My Hanchou gets hit by the Yombimbo, loses control and falls off.

The spearman remounts, the archer takes a snap shot and badly wounds a peasant.

My Hanchou gets up.  The Yombimbo charges my spearman, knocking him off his horse.  He's getting the hang of that.

My Hanchou manages to remount and the priest finally makes an appearance.

On a group activation the peasants mob the hero again.

My Hanchou rides up to take control of the bandits.

The wife attacks the Hanchou and drives him back.  The spearman gets up and heads for the horse.

My hero is getting the worst of it, is pushed back.

After being shot at, the Yombimbo rushes the archer and kills him.

My Hanchou and hero retire off-table on morale, leaving one poor spearman eyeing the last horse-.

That was very cinematic!  I had expected it to be shorter.  My hero failing to get on earlier was probably the clincher - but that was balanced by the priest's absence.