Friday, August 14, 2009

Warhammer Ancients Character Archetypes

With school starting up just around the corner and too many would be projects on the line I some how managed to put together some character archetypes for the Warbands Campaign that I run every Wednesday. To make access easy for every one in my group, I thought I'd just post it here. Feel free to print this out and bring it to game night. It's basically a revision of the Warband Archetypes from GW, but without magic and outrageous abilities.


Warhammer Ancient: Warband & Character Rules

Upon choosing an Archetype, the only skill that the character gains is the Starting Ability. Every three (3) games that a character survives he will be able to roll a D6 and refer to the table for his archetype, adding that ability to his list. Characters that are killed in battle will roll on the character injury chart to see how badly they are wounded.

Archetypes
Upon choosing an Archetype, the only skill that the character gains is the Starting Ability. Every three (3) games that a character survives he will be able to roll a D6 and refer to the table for his archetype, adding that ability to his list. Characters that are killed in battle will roll on the character injury chart to see how badly they are wounded.


Ruthless

STARTING ABILITY
Vicious Pursuit. The character and any unit he leads must always pursue a fleeing enemy. However, they may add D3" to their pursuit move each time they do so.

1 Executioner. After Combat Resolution has been calculated but before a Break Test has been made, this character may execute a number of models in the unit with which is associated up to his number of Attacks. Do not roll to hit or wound; simply remove the models as casualties. These casualties do not count toward Combat Resolution. For each model executed as punishment for failure in combat, subtract 1 from the result of the dice when rolling the Break Test to represent the renewed sense of resolve that the Ruthless' leadership has inspired.
2 Coward. When challenged: my accept a challenge as normal, but instead of fighting for him/herself the character forces one of his regular men to mimic himself and take his place in the challenge. This model does not gain any special abilities and fights as normal. If a character with the Coward ability issues a challenge, he/she must fight in the challenge as normal.
3 Hold Fast. Once per game, the character and any unit he is with may reroll one failed Break Test.
4 Reckless Charge. Once per game, the character and any unit he is with may add D3" to its charge move.
5 Rumors of Evil. The character and any unit he joins cause fear to the first unit that they charge or are charged by. After the fear test is taken, regardless of the result, the fear effect is removed from that character for the duration of the battle.
6 Choose. Choose one of the following abilities form above.


Tactician

STARTING ABILITY
Withdraw. Any unit/model in the Warband, even one with less than 25% of its starting numbers, will automatically Rally after choosing Flee as a charge reaction. Fast Cavalry may use this ability and still move thereafter.

1 Rigorous Training. Re-roll one miss-fire dice. If no warmachines are present at the beginning of the battle, a character with this archetype my opt to re-roll misses from the first unit to fire projectiles (bow, javelins, sling, etc).
2 Spy. Your opponent must reveal his Unknown Objective, following the Little War scenario, to a player who controls a Warband that includes a character with this Archetype Ability.
3 Flanking. One unit in the Warband with a Unit Strength no greater than 10 may be nominated as a flanking unit. The flanking unit will enter the board from any spot on any table edge (controlling player’s discretion) on a D6 roll of 6 on Turn 2, of 5+ on Turn 3, of 4+ on Turn 4, of 3+ on Turn 5, and of 2+ on Turn 6.
4 Scouting. +1 to Do Not Pass in the Night rolls. Also, a player who controls a Warband that includes a character with this Archetype Ability can choose whether to use Map A, B, C, or D in the Ongoing Little War scenario and may choose to be Player A or Player B.
5 Speedy Deployment. After deployment but before the game begins, one friendly unit or model within 12" of the character with this Archetype Ability may make a bonus move up to 2D6".
6 Choose. Choose one of the following abilities form above.


Guardian

STARTING ABILITY
Hold Your Ground. Once per game, the character and any unit he leads may choose to automatically pass any failed break test.

1 Impervious Armor. Once per game, the character and any unit he leads may reroll all their failed armor saves for one round of close combat.
2 The Whites of Their Eyes. Any unit in the character’s Warband that is armed with missile weapons may opt to stand and shoot at any charging opponent regardless of circumstances (i.e., the missile units may shoot at chargers that begin the charge within half their charge range, at chargers who are charging only because they are pursuing fleeing troops into a fresh enemy, and so on). In addition, missile units may ignore the –1 penalty for shooting at charging opponents.
3 Intimidation. Once per game, the character and the unit he leads may force his opponent to reroll all to hit rolls in close combat.
4 Take Cover! Once per game, at the beginning of combat the player controlling a character of this archetype may declare that he is "Taking Cover!" The character and any unit he leads may take -1 attack and add +2 to their armor save until the end of that round of combat. This bonus is has no effect to shooting.
5 Dig in. Before the character and any unit he leads moves, they may choose to dig in, and must spend their entire turn doing so allowing for no other actions to be taken by the unit or the character. This trench counts as hard cover. Units remain entrenched until the unit moves (by choice or via failing a panic test, moral check, etc). If the unit is charged while Dug in, attacks are taken in initiative order, negating the charger strikes first rule.
6 Choose. Choose one of the following abilities form above.


Aggressive

STARTING ABILITY
Raider. After randomly determining the Warband’s Unknown Objective, a player controlling a character with this Archetype Ability may replace the objective with 'Capture the Colors' instead.

1 Crazed. Once per game, the character and any unit he leads may burst into a Frenzy for the rest of the turn.
2 Mighty Blow. Once per game, the character may make give up all of his usual (base) Attacks to make a single Attack at +3S (no other Strength bonuses, such as the bonus bestowed by a halberd or great weapon, apply to this Attack).
3 Furious Assault. Once per game, the character and any unit he leads may reroll all to hit rolls for that turn.
4 Messenger. Once per game, after all break tests are taken, the character may send a messenger to request reinforcements. Remove one model from the unit to attempt to retrieve reinforcements. Roll 1D6, on a roll of 1 or 2 = the messenger looses his way and is permanently removed from the game, 3 = the messenger returns but found no reinforcements, 4 = the messenger returns with 1 extra troop, 5 = the messenger returns with 2 extra troops, 6 = the messenger returns with 3 extra troops.
Reinforcements for the unit can not exceed the initial unit strength. (eg, A unit started the game with a unit strength of 15 (15 models). They loose 2 men in combat, pass their break test, and send a messenger, leaving them with 3 missing men. The player rolls a 6 on his roll for reinforcements, giving him 4 additional men. But this would put him at a new unit strength of 16, hence he will only receive 3 replacements, returning his unit strength to 15).
5 Deadly Duelist. In every challenge that the character participates in he will be allowed to reroll one to Hit roll each round.
6 Choose. Choose one of the following abilities form above.


Charismatic

STARTING ABILITY
Iron Nerves. The character and any unit he leads automatically pass the first Panic test they are called upon to make.

1 Charm. Once per game, during the shooting phase of the characters turn, if not in close combat, the character may charm an enemy unit with in 10" of the Charismatic one, forcing them to loose their ability to move and shoot next turn.
2 Vocal Leader. The character with this Archetype Ability permanently gains +1 Leadership, but never exceeding a leadership of 10.
3 Hold Your Ground. Any fleeing friendly unit, even units with less than 25% of their original numbers, within 12" of a non-fleeing Charismatic character will automatically Rally.
4 Traitors. Once per game, the character and any unit he is with gain Hatred towards the first unit they encounter in close combat.
5 Rally Point. The Army Battle Standard costs 25% less points to field and has an increased range of 18".
6 Choose. Choose one of the following abilities form above.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Tokugawa and the Beginings of a Tradional Japanese Village

I have spent much time in debate over how to prepare my samurai army for an epic battle. Originally, I planned to build my army based on Uesugi Kenshin in the fourth battle of Kawanakajima where he fought against Takeda Shingen. Kawanakajima was a very bloody battle, filled with masterful maneuvering, brilliant generals going head to head and ending with both sides taking over 60% casualties. Pretty epic I'd say. But then I stumbled across a biography on Tokugawa Ieyasu. It just happened to be one of the six books based on Japanese history that I found in Barns and Noble, and only one of the two based on samurai. Needless
to say, they had a very limited selection. I took a fancy to this Tokugawa character. Raised in captivity of an enemy waring state, he lives a life of day to day survival and makes his way to the top of Japanese society. Yep, I was hooked. This is the man I want to command my army in to battle! And what better a campaign to do then the Battle of Osaka Castle. I took plenty of pictures of the castle while I was there in Osaka and can't wait to begin constructing Osaka-jo (jo = castle). I currently own a Osaka-jo in 1/300 scale. A bit small for 15mm battles, and yet this model is still pretty large. Glad I'm not doing 25mm. \\(^v^)//

Before I chose the Osaka campaign and Tokugawa as my general, I had started on a small Japanese village. To be more specific, I began construction of a gassho-zukuri village. I started with a paper model and googled gassho to see what I could find for pictures. I had recently seen a show called Being Japan that showed the gassho-zukuri construction process and functions. I found it fascinating and thought it would work great for the Uesugi Kenshin battles. Here are a few pictures of the hoses and the one's that I began construction on.

I have a template made out so I can easily make more. I'm not sure if the scale is correct, it was supposed to be a two story house when I started (with the 3rd window being for the attic), but I'm not so sure now. It's constructed out of cereal box cardboard and the roof has yet to be done (the roof being the most important part and key element of the gassho-zukuri house). Still trying to figure out if I want to use putty to make the thatched roof or find some straw like material and glue it on or perhaps a mix of the two. At the moment I can't find any straw type material at my local Hobie shop. Next stop, Michale's. The windows and doors are just cuts from the cereal box and yes, I know, the door opens on the wrong side (as my wife so enjoys to point out to me). I based the door off of the Japanese sliding door and I'm thinking of placing a noren (a cloth that hangs down in front of a door way) to help hide my "glaring" error or perhaps just to appease my wife.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Obama the Samurai

Although these figures have been out for a while now, they still manage to intrigue me. I really wish I had bought a few while I was in Japan, but it seems that they sold out pretty fast. Definitely one of the most amazing action figure that I've seen in a long time. It's our president wielding various weapons like the katana, light saber, pistol and more. He even faces up against Darth Vader and takes a nap in a kotatsu (a short table with a heater built into the bottom and a blanket layed over the top to keep the warmth in). He can be your hero too!

I'm thinking I just might have to make a samurai Obama figure for my army, just for the fun of it. Though, its 15mm so it's not like anyone will notice. I'd have to come up with a cleaver sashimono (war flag worn on the backs of samurai warriors, sometimes conveying messages but usually used for army identification).

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Samurai Commander w/ Naginata

I've spent way too much time painting my last two mounted samurai. I coverted this one to wield a naginata薙刀 as the naginata is basically a katana type blade with an elongated spear like shaft. Seems to me that BAW doesn't have rules for a naginata so I'll just have to use it as a spear or as a normal samurai katana, or make up some house rules for it. I converted 2 of my mounted samurai to wield the naginata. Not sure if I'll convert more or not.

Also, I play tested the game a little with my friend the other day. We had a good time running though the basic combat system and my friend really enjoyed the AP (action point) system for units. We only played a small game, around 4 units per side, not even enough to really get the feel for a large battle, but it did give us a feel for the rules. This system only has me worry in one respective... will it be too random in larger battles? With the pre-battle re-arrangement, the AP system (rolling a D6 for each unit to see how many AP they get) and Generals issuing motivation checks per unit (basically a moral check from Warhammer) per turn, I wonder if it will get too random. On the same token, I really think that this game plays smoothly and was a blast to play with our little skirmishing troops. The AP system really keeps you on your toes and gives you a reason to plan your motivation checks in order not to leave the rest of your army in the dust. I can't wait to play another game! In the mean time, paint paint paint!
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Monday, June 29, 2009

Mounted Samurai w/ yari by Peter Pig


I started painting late last night. I spent a few hours thinking as to how I wanted to paint the entire army and then I remembered that I'm painting samurai and, for the most part, they didn't all wear armor of the same color. For this mounted samurai with Yari (spear) I went with enchanted blue with a purple wash. It didn't come out as I wanted. The next one I try will be with Iced Blue (sky blue) with the purple wash followed by a quick highlight and a gloss varnish. I hope this will work better for making blue armor.

I think I will base my army off of Uesugi Kenshin. Ultimately, I still need to do some research on Kenshin's troop's and banners. I'm currently having trouble getting a hold of the Samurai books that I want and I've been going off a lot of unreliable sources. It's becoming noticeable as they often contradict one another.

Bought BAW today. Still have yet to read it through, but it looks like my 40x30mm bases will work out great for this rule set. More on that rule set later. Off for some more reading I go!
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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Samurai Miniture Games

Along with a lot of hard core studying of Kanji in preparation for my up coming Japanese proficiency test, I decided that it would be fun to create my own Japanese army - something I've been wanting to do for quite some time - form the 15th -16th century. That means samurai (or bushi)! All my friends play model with 25-30mm models for their games so I looked into getting some figs and the cheapest ones I could find were going to cost me a pretty penny just to get 3-4 units... Needless to say I found that I could buy enough models for 2 armies by using the 15mm scale. Hence, 15mm it is! But this site is what really tied me in to doing a smaller scale.
Samurai in 10mm
Pretty huh!

So here I am, trying to find a rules set that my friends and I can try. I really like the free Bushi rules that are available online, but they seem to lack depth... or... I just can't figure out the deployment system and I'm not a fan of the giving orders. But I love the "oneness" even if it is way too multiplier heavy. That's the good and the bad of it.

Battles in the Age of War (BAW) by Peter Pig, available at my local hobby shop for about $39. This rules set looks promising. Found some semi reviews here. But have yet to talk to anyone who owns it and plays it. Guess I need to do some more web browsing. Don't want to shovel out $40 for a game that is too complex for my friends to ever want to jump into. Then again, I could always mix and match. (^@^)

Tiko! rule set runs about $25. Seems that a few people like it but I have yet to see it in action.

Looks like I'm just going to have to go out and splurge. I know there are some people who play the BAW rules set at my local hobby shop, so perhaps I'll start their. Until then, I need to figure out how to paint my army.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Japanese TV

After returning from Japan I thought to myself, "Being able to watch Japanese TV on a regular basis would really help me to understand more." When I got home the first thing I did was google 'Japanese TV.' By doing that I found the greatest tool and it just so happens to be free.
It's called KeyHoleTV3.13. The video quality is a little bit better than youtube. Its good enough that you can make the screen larger and not feel like your looking at a bunch of talking squares. The frame rate can be slow at times and other times its not too bad.

Because KeyHoleTV streems live from Japan, there is no time time change. This means that when its night time here you're watching morning news/shows. Luckly for me, I enjoy the Japanese morning channels. Though, if you wanted to watch the night time shows get ready to pull an all nighter or wake up at the butt crack of dawn.

Also, KeyHoleTV has both TV and Raido stations and not all of them are consistantly avalible.

Find out more here: http://xorsyst.com/japan/watch-japanese-tv-online/