Friday 1 June 2012

News for upcoming Nippon update!

Don't get overexcited just yet; Kislev will get its due first, and Dogs of War should be released even before that. But, I figured I would give you some insight on what to expect.
First off, the timeline will be trimmed down considerably from the current insane 18 pages that it is now to about 4-6. The rest of the book will then follow suit with trimmed down magic items (sad, I know) and general layout changes.
All bestiary entries will be expanded upon with more fluff and some new rules and will no longer have a ton of white space on them, and each unit will hopefully have its own page in the end.
As for new units, there's a lot coming:

Damned Ones
Lion's Pride
Battle Maidens
Yoritomo Marines
Legion of Flame
Scorpion Claws
Doji's Fan
Miromoto Mountaineers
Sky Rocket

I won't reveal what all of these units are yet (mainly because I haven't fully decided upon all of them and haven't begun making any rules for them), but if you are familiar with the L5R universe you might recognize some of the names ;)
In short, there will be a specialized unit for each Greater Clan as well as a war machine for the army, which should help diversify the list even more than "just another Samurai list". On top of that, Nippon will finally get their own Lore, the Lore of the Kami, which is based around the elements of fire, air, earth and water. If that wasn't enough, they will also get Clan Mon, traits and upgrades for your characters which will greatly affect their role on the battlefield and allow you to really make an army after a Greater Clan of your choice.

So stay tuned for more on Nippon this summer!

18 comments:

  1. Sounds great!
    I'm really looking forward!

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  2. kingoms of ind ideas:check out ao3 the asian dynasties indian units and mercenaries like chacram,tiger claw,sowar blah blah blah.Also a fakir unit,find a use for him a SNAKE CHARMER either for ind or araby and IMPORTANT add more elephants.Not only one elephant choise.A white royal elephant mount for nobles only,siege elephant,mahout elephants,hellephants(daemonic followers of ganesha and such things.Elephants can be equiped with many things on their howdahs(archers,crossbows,cannons,siege rams,gurus)think about it.Inds strength is elephants...

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    1. I have checked AoE3 a bit already (own the game, actually), but I might add some more units from there in the update as well. Snake Charmers will be included. There are already 2 choices of War Elephants in the list, but they will be getting upgrade options similar to what you are describing.

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  3. I will start eithan a Kingdoms of Ind army or a Nippon army this summer, depending on the new updates. :) Any new units for Ind?

    Tamrir

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    1. 3 so far, plus their own magic lore. Will have to see how much time I have first though, need to paint up my Araby army for a campaign this summer.

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  4. So no new "Lesser Deities"?

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    1. You mean as Hero choices? Not atm I'm afraid, they would just be smaller version of the greater deities anyway. Oh, and they will be renamed "Avatars" rather than deities as well.

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  5. I meant units like the Dvarapala, Hanumen, etc...

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    1. Ah, okay. Nope, nothing new on that front either so far. We'll see if I'll add anything to it later on, but they already have a unit for pretty much every role there anyway.

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  6. Actually I like the Hero choices as they are. You shouldn't rename them "Avatar of...".^^

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    1. Well, the problem about naming them deities is that deities are by default, immortal. And since you'll likely be killing a lot of them, having them called Deities would be a little weird ;)

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  7. Haha, we don't have to be too picky on that.^^ For the people of Ind, they're still their gods. ;)

    Tamrir

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  8. Maybe some kind of "cavalry" deity unit for Ind?

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    1. I don't think there's anything like that in Hindu mythology. I will check it up though.

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  9. Maybe some tiger riders? Haha, desperately trying to come up with new units^^

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    1. Well, they already have the Rakshasha and the Beastmaster who goes along the Tiger theme, so I wouldn't want to overuse it. Besides, tigers in general make for rather poor mounts ;)

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  10. One neat addition might be if you gave Nippon character that allowed three ranks of gunmen to fire, considering Nobunaga pioneered that technique two centuries before it appeared in Europe.

    That and a small BS boost could give people a new and interesting way to play the army.

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    1. This version of Nippon is more based around earlier medieval Japan, with less emphasis on gunpowder and more on honour and sword fighting, which why only the Ashigaru has it as an option. There are also no Clans that focus on gunpowder per say, so including that as a Clan Mon would also go against the fluff.

      I have considered giving them either a cannon or a rocket war machine, but that's as far as I want to go. Cathay is already rather aligned towards gunpowder, so I'd like to Nippon be a bit different.

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