Howdy! Seems like every two or three years I delve back into Battle Companies and it's about time to do so now. This time I'm going to get at least one of my nephews into it and teach him how to paint (my son's only three and not ready yet) so I'll have a real opponent to get beaten by. The last two times I've run battle companies it was dwarves but I think this time I'm going to switch things up and try something new.
I've sat down and tried to make a feudal Japanese faction from the far East for this round. Basic guys are essentially Haradriem with pikes and no special rules. Four of them, two with bows, and one with a sword. The leader is a Minor Nobel who has fight/shoot 4/4+, Str 3, Def 6, 1 attack and wound, and courage 4. Essentially, this is a low ranking samurai. Special rules include Bushido (must charge enemy hero if able and can't be supported by buddies when in this kind of fight) Chop! (cheese maybe? sure, but wanted something to give some distinction to the forces and represent the fighting style) and then Will of the Daimyo (chose between Bodyguard, Commander (can issue stand fast orders to Ashigaru) or Linebreaker (gain an extra attack on a charge of five or more inches) which is chosen at the start of each game and can't be changed for the duration.) War gear is a katana (elven blade that on a six to wound will inflict two wounds instead of one) and wakizashi (hand weapon which means they can fight with two weapons) I priced them at 12 points and know that it's probably too low and need to be revisited, but I was not going to have many other "elite" infantry in the army and I can't tell you how many times I've seen Def 6 stuff get slaughtered without much effort. Some test games are in order! I'm hoping strength 3 is also a break and for the Battle companies, the hero HAS to take Commander for the Will of the Daimyo.
I think for my nephew i'm going to start him out with Gondor for the ease of painting. Silver, black, washes, move on. I have a fully painted Isenguard Scout Uruk-hai force I can use as well. We'll be using the older LotR rules as I don' the Hobbit books. I'm sure some of the weapon special rules would be better for the weapons I've fleshed out (No-dachi, naginatas, teppos, ect)
We'll see how it goes!
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