Bushido as a Beginner Part 1- First Steps

Hi all! As you may have seen I've recently gotten started with Bushido and have painted up some of the ninjas of the Shadow Wind Clan and am now looking into playing the game with a few friends. This post I'm sure will be the first of many as we go through and learn the game together and have new experiences.

To start off with, the story of how I first got into Bushido. Honestly I haven't really delved into Japanese history all that much and as such I don't know that much about it, but I do love ninjas and already played them across Batman and Malifaux. A friend managed to get an insanely cheap deal on the Rise of the Kage board game which included a few ninjas in it for the Shadow Wind Clan, and I bought these 6 off him to use as proxies in Malifaux and Batman. By the time I got around to painting them though there was a bit of a spark for Bushido in my local area, so I decided to grab the card pack and download the rulebook and see how it went. As you can see above, I started with 6 ninja models (Kerasu, Katsumi, Ghost, Shizuka, Yuto and Kouhei in order). With all of these models costing over 20 rice each it meant I can currently only really play 4 model lists so I need to work out the best way to do this and keep things functional for scenario play while still just using models I like the look and rules of.

To start my lists I looked at the themes I could play with the ninjas, and how I wanted to theme my lists with specific models. Ghost goes in every list because I love his model and rules, but otherwise there are minor variations tailored towards what different scenarios will like more. These are likely not the most powerful lists available because I still haven't played a game and am very new to the rules, but I've tried to put some practice from other games into it to try and achieve something that is decently strong while still being something I like. I am also aware Kage Kaze Zoku is considered a more difficult starter faction and isn't really recommended, but it's what I have and I'm keen to play it so I'm willing to be damned to lose for a while until I get the hang of their tricks.

With what I own, I'm leaning towards the Skirmish Mission primarily because it is the theme that I like the abilities of the most (and the theme of in general). This list uses Ghost, Katsumi, Kouhei and Shizuka so it is a bit of a rounded fighting and scenario list but I really have specific uses for each model and have thought a lot about combos here. The first thing I've added is Hotai's Coin on Katsumi because a model that's over half of my list has to be consistent and rerolls is an easy way to do that. The chance of him rerolling back into 1s is also quite low so it's not like he'll be losing it very often. After this I added Poisoned Weapons on Kouhei because adding it to Rapid Fire on his ranged attack can put out a lot of Poison tokens and hurt the opponent quite a bit so it helps boost up the output of the list. In terms of Event cards I've chosen Dawn Raid, Lockdown and Smoke Field so I can control the battlefield and get where I want to be safely and sooner, but also so I can use Lockdown to stop my opponents from scoring where it is easy for them and let myself compete far easier between that and the double pass tokens from ninja themes. For Terrain I'm looking at starting with either Rice Bail Barricades or a Smoke Field, both of which will block line of sight in certain areas but with the Barricades also blocking movement and having extra bonuses in terms of placement. Lastly, Skirmish Mission gives me 2 Enhancement or Terrain cards for free, and there are a few things I'm looking at here depending on the situation. The Shadow Wind terrain to add a Hidden Tunnel Entrance is both something I want to make from a hobby perspective and also to add a bit of versatility to the list in terms of movement angles and being able to flank the opponent to get into tough positions. Otherwise it's Cat-Like Agility to protect whoever it goes on, Signaling Flare for a way to combo my models and pressure the opponent, or Vial of Raijin's Breath on Shizuka to make her an even more effective objective runner and ensure I can score as much as possible.

Having looked through the cards I've also marked down my first 3 expansions to the faction and have some things planned. Hiretsuna and a Karapan are fairly simple choices because they're cheap and seem decent for their cost, but also because they are more fantastical and a bit silly so I want them just for a laugh as well as opening up 5 model lists. The other option I'm very seriously considering is Dudioko because she brings an excellent ranged attack with her bow, options to block off angles of the table with her terrain and in general just seems quite good. For the moment I plan on testing her out using a model I already own, the old Nyssa al Ghul model from the Batman Miniatures Game who fits aesthetically quite well in the faction. Should I also want to try out some other profiles I intend to proxy as well, using the Arkham City Talia al Ghul as either Rin or Makoto, the female Torakage from Malifaux as Bikou and either of the bow ninjas from Batman as Ujimushi. These are less of a priority to me though and will likely end up in my just buying the regular minis anyway should I like how they play.

The biggest step for me now after these planned first additions is in the Shadow Wind terrain, because it's really great and thematic so I want to make things up to use. I have plans for how to create a smoke field (and I will be making 3 of these between the terrain, Dudioko and the event card) but am still working out how I want to make the secret passage. At least one of these cards will be making an appearance in my Skirmish Mission lists because the option is there to get them for free, why not have that extra bit of versatility?

In general I’m having a lot of fun with Bushido and I’m excited to start playing it once lockdowns ease up, and I’m doing a lot of research in the mean time so I have the hang of the rules.