Nippon:
- Samurai Warriors GW's 2 pts/model.
- All samurai characters -10 pts, Hatamoto -5 pts.
- Kitsune only ethereal outside combat. Enemies must test to pursue it. 60 pts.
- Ashigaru Spearmen no longer fight in extra ranks in addition to their spears.
- Mizuchi 145 pts.
- Mikoshi Shrine 125 pts, 4+ ward save. No longer have the Blessing of Courage.
- Oni GW's 4 pts.
- Sumo Warriors now cause impact hits on infantry.
- Kabuki Dolls no longer have LA, 11 pts.
- Wako Pirates now have katanas, no longer swap for bows.
- Samurai Cavalry and Red Devils are now Fast Cavalry, +1 pt.
- Daimatzu Mon now allow re-rolling failed Parrys as well.
- A couple of bug fixes and clarifictaions.
Cathay:
- Stance of the Dragon renamed Iron Discipline, only effects combat resolution, not steadfast.
- Stormhurler Ballistas now work like Elven Bolt Throwers, 50 pts.
- Imperial Infantry 4 pts basic.
- Imperial Infantry must now choose between spears or halberds, not both.
- Revised options for Hill Tribesmen.
- Sky Rockets Move or Fire instead of Slow to Fire.
- Fire Bombs Armour Piercing, no longer flaming or ignoring armour saves. Causes D3 multiple hits.
- Dragon's Breath fires in a straight line rather than as a breath weapon, Strength 4. You may take 1 Dragon's Breath for each Field Engineer in the unit.
- Hand Mortar range increased to 36".
- Fire Lances now Flaming, 2 pts each.
- Foo Statues S4, 50 pts.
- Steppe Archers no longer have LA, shields 1,5 pts.
- Field Engineers now have heavy armour.
Hobgoblins:
- Wolf Raiders and Tarkans may take shields without losing Fast Cavalry.
Correct the dragon breath engineers stats. They dont need T5 and W2.
ReplyDeleteI bet they would disagree! You are of course correct though, will fix it pronto!
DeleteHey Mathias, fix de mess on pages 74, 75, 76 and 77 on Nippon book!
ReplyDeleteLooks to have been a layout screw up, will fix it as soon as I get home from work!
DeleteAshigaru spearmen has Fight in Extra Ranks on page 57. Why a model with Way of the Warrior can join a unit without this rule? That generates a problem with the rule Death before Dishonour.
ReplyDeleteAnd i think mon Daimatzu is too weak. Can you re-roll your 1 when you hit with two hand weapons? However, i still thinking it's too expensive for a characters, who didn't use it with a magic weapon, no?
Sorry my bad english XD
Wow, 3rd time I have to rewrite this comment now!
ReplyDeleteFixed the two issues mentioned above, and buffed the Mon to allow Parry re-rolls as well :)
Hi,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I love your work, it's magnificent !
I really want to start a Nippon army, but I'have seen some mistake in your army book :
As mentioned above, Ashigaru spearmen has Fight in Extra Ranks on page 57.
Yoritomo Ieyasu and Hitomi Gozen are Infantry (Special Character) on their descriptive pages, but they are Cavalery (Special Character) on their army list entries.
The lore of the kami is not mentioned in Empress Jungi army list entry.
Have a good day Sir.
(I'm sorry if I'm not clear, english is not my mothertongues)
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI've taken care of all mentioned bugs, new version is uploaded now. So now there's nothing stopping you from collecting a Nippon army ;)
Sure been a long time since something new was on here, hope you are working on a new book.
ReplyDeleteI am almost finished with the Mordheim special characters, but in general, I have a lot less free time on my hands at the moment than I used too. It's not like a few years ago when I only had 2-3 classes a week, I need to work for a living as well ;)
DeleteWe want print the nippon book but still no update Daimatzu mon... fix it plz :)
ReplyDeleteTurns out Google Drive wasn't syncing up properly, it's fixed now.
DeleteWell still no Mordheim characters, and still no Bretonnia army from Games Workshop.
ReplyDelete:(
Still working on them, can try and finish them by tomorrow night, have the day off then. Haven't heard any new rumours of Bretonnia either, if they are not out by the end of August, I'll update my version again.
DeleteHi, why the cathayan Fire arrow don't do flaming shots? It's a bit confusing.
ReplyDeleteIt's only fired using fire to ignite the rockets, the arrows themselves are not flaming.
DeleteAham, ok! Too many fire/dragon stuff in the book XD
DeleteWell, they are Cathayans, what did you expect? ;)
DeleteOh well i written a long comment but i think google just deleted it or didn't sent it.
ReplyDeleteI found your book while surfing and i must tell, it's great! Thanks Mathias, you're doing an awesome job. I have some questions about Nippon.
1st: Where can i find base size refrences, i couldn't find them. What should i use for Mikoshi Shrine? It's listed as a infantry but 6 wounds, 4 attacks plus it's a shrine! i don't know what to use?
2nd: Rare is soooo crowded! Apart from that river dragon, all choices are great and needed. Maybe Flaming Arrow can be a Special choice?
3rd: What happens if you cast a spell that effects units within a specific range, with Candle of the Void?
Thanks! Regarding your questions:
Delete1. There are currently no base size references, since it will vary a lot depending on the models you use. Just use whatever seems most suitable and is in line with the other armies. So 20mm for all human troops (except possible Sumos) and so on. For the Mikoshi, I would go with either 60x80 or 40x60. I use the former myself. A 60x100 like Cauldron or Screaming Bell would work too.
2. I think the special section would be even more crowded then (12 units)! The rare section has 6, which is on par with several other armies. I don't really want Nippon to be a gunline army, hence their war machines are rare, especially cannons.
3. You measure from the Candle as if that was the Wizard.
What should i use for punching people in the face? :D I think both Core and special are full of anvil and chaff units but they're no hammers...
Delete2500 points list i'm going to try next week, i tried cheesiest army i could get for our meta. I'm asking this because of playtesting purposes :D
Lords
High Shugenja
Level 4 Lore of Kami
Mon of Horumi
Talisman of 4+, Candle of Void
Heroes
Hatomoto
BSB, 2+ Magical Armor, Ironcurse Icon
Shinobi
Other Trickter's Shard, Nightmilk
Caltrops
Shugenja
Level 2 Shadow
Mon of Harumi
Dispel Scroll
Core
10 Bowmen
10 Bowmen
5 Samurai Cavalry
5 Samurai Cavalry
67 Spearmen w/ Sashimono (Shrine)
20 Spearmen w/ Champion (For Characters)
Special
6 Tengu
6 Tengu
5 Ninja
5 Ninja
8 Oni
Rare
2 Mangonel
2 Flaming Arrow
2 Kitsune
1 Mikoshi Shrine
2500
Well, the onis, red revils and a pair of drakes are a good hammers I think.
ReplyDeleteFor me, Mikoshi is like the bretonnian relicary, same size, same carriers number, same concept... then same base. 40x60mm.
Don't forget the Sumos, they can really put down some hurt on the charge!
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI'm using the Bretonnian AB, and for that I did a translated (to Spanish) and shorter (only the rules, just 22 pages on word) version. I would like to post it in some Spanish forum so most people can use it, of curse giving all the credit to you. Would be any problem? Would you like to see it before or post it here too?
I also made a BattleScribe (a bit shorter) that I will upload with it.
Thank you very much for your grate work!
No problem at all, post it anywhere you like! :)
DeleteThanks, I hope more people will use it now.
DeleteSome questions I have:
-Does the Green Knigth have lost the teleportation between nature elements on purpose or is it a mistake?
-Does the 6th magic spell afect the mounts of the Knigths as well?
Maybe I'll add more questions later.
Thank you!
- At the moment, he can no longer teleport between terrain features. This was done in order to streamline his rules a little. Might change it in the future though.
Delete- No, only the Knights themselves, just like the Lance Formation.
I was just reading Tamurkhan: throne of chaos, and noticed the battle of ashshair is in there with mentions of actual Cathay units. The banner men, foo dogs and dragon blooded sorcerers i see were added in this rule book, but what of the strange onyx crow men, or the stone creatures that swam through the ground? will there be rules and information for them?
ReplyDeleteI made some edits to the story to better fit with my version of Cathay. This because GW lumped China and Japan together with no regard to either culture. The "crow men" are Tengu from Nippon and the other stone creatures isn't really something that I recognize from either culture's mythology, so I don't have any plans of adding them to Cathay.
DeleteThanks for clearing that up, though i think GW did it because Cathay is Cathay, not a literal translation of strictly Chinese culture into the warhammer setting.
DeleteIf Cathay would have been GW's only "oriental" army (much like Araby is their only middle-eastern army) I would have kept it the same. However, GW decided to make Cathay and Nippon separate nations a long time ago (and the fluff reflects this) so when most of the units described in Tamurkhan are made in the vein of Japanese samurai ("Bannermen" obviously pointing towards the Sashimono that they wear) and Shugenja (which are wholly Japanese) I felt it better to rewrite that part for consistency with the older lore. I consider myself a bit of a purist in that regard, in that I generally don't like new fluff that goes against the older fluff (though in some cases they have been improvements).
DeleteHello
DeleteI think that the bannermen mentioned in Tamurkhan are actually a reference to the Eight Banners military system that existed under the Qing Dynasty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Banners).
Interesting theory, but I still think they are reference to Sashimonos. A direct quote from the original text: "...their emerald green back-banners flickering..."
DeleteThe "back-banner" in particular should be rather telling. They also seem to make use of Japanese Fire Arrows in the battle ("Cannons spat forth clusters of bronze javelins").
Yeah, seems like they took a Japanese concept and tacked a Chinese name on to it. Feels like GW got China and Japan mighty confused, which is a pain in the arse fluff wise I guess because they previously established their China and Japan analogies as separate countries as you said. As someone studying for a masters in Chinese studies, confusing China/Japan/Korea is a pet peeve of mine. I really like your Cathay book, and I wish GW would do an official book for Cathay, but I have the horrible feeling it would be a terrible China/Japan mangling, which would be a travesty in my eyes.
DeleteThat's the feeling I have gotten from most other fan-made army books as well. For some reason, people keep confusing "Samurai" with China...
DeleteOn the kislev book, Urskin's WS is a 5 in the profile (which it should be) and a 4 in the army list. Also, the Urgan Cannon has a M of 4 in their profile, but a M of 6 in the army list.
ReplyDeleteI would really like to see some new stuff Mathais. Hope you can get to it when you can.
Thanks, I'll fix those ASAP.
DeleteI'll try finish up some new stuff soon. At the moment I'm working 5-6 days a week full time, so I cannot say when that is though.
I was thinking about the terracota warriors. I'll played all units in the book, including all special characters (Xen Huong op) except warlod on pixiu, the gong and the terracota. I dont have enought reasons for include them in the army. I think they need a buff for being interesting. Light armour, different weapon options, May be command group. And more leadership. Khemri skeletons are more smart than their vampire counterparts and they've L5. And Terracota has L3... They dont need general for march, but if they need march with enemies near they cant... What is their function in the army? I can't do the same with imperial infantry?
ReplyDeleteI could add command groups to them. LA would not fit since it's just sculpted on, and not something that would actually protect the model. As for different weapon options, those would just be the same as the Imperial Infantry, since that's what they are based on. Halberds (or rather pole-axes) would be their most common weapon. Not sure why you feel they need more Leadership when they are being unbreakable (other than redirecting and such), but I could probably increase it be +1 or 2 to be on par with TK.
DeleteI thing they need more leadership because they're like the brass titan, made with terracotta and smaller, but esentially the same.
Delete"Still, as long as they are moving, they
are a welcome unit if the Cathayan army, being the
most disciplined warriors the world will ever see."
L3 doesn't fit... Now I'm playing Cathay a lot (probably more than 10 games, 20 with skirmishes) but i've vampire counts and tomb kings and i know how valuable is a high leadership even being an undead (construct in this case).
As Unbreakable units, they cannot really be that much more disciplined ;)
DeleteAs an aside, when do you find that you need to use Ld for the undead? I face them rather often, and except crumbling tests, the number of leadership tests they are required to take are pretty close to none.
Who is the main character/ruler of the Zombie Pirates? Do they hold allegiance to Nagash?
ReplyDeleteAlso, what is the Army of Cairns? We already have Khemmler with the Vampire Counts.
Lastly, Gnoblars, allied to Ogre Kingdoms?
Thanks for the replies Mathias. You should get some photos of my armies soon!
Luthor Harkon is the ruler of the Zombie pirates.
DeleteTha gnoblars has an army in one withe dwarf, without ogres :)
Like Eric said, Luthor Harkon is their leader, they have no real affiliation to Nagash.
DeleteThe Army of the Cairns is the army of Heinrich Kemmler, from White Dwarf.
Gnoblars are a stand-alone force similar to Halflings and their relationship with the Empire.
Thanks Mathias, but why are you doing an army by Heinrich Kemmler? I mean I know it is from a White Dwarf, but he is already included in the vampire counts.
DeleteWouldn't you prefer to do a Nagash army?
It's essentially an update to the White Dwarf list. There have already been several Nagash lists in the past, but those tend to be mostly just a mix of VC and TK with liches (which makes sense, seeing as Nagash was the leader of both). Nagash doesn't really need a whole army list imo, and will he getting new official rules anyway.
DeleteI came back here after some months of being busy at work to be pleasantly surprised by your multiple updates to Nippon. Here are some of my comments and criticisms.
DeleteI love the new Kenjutsu rule. It is less powerful but oh so much more fluffy and appropriate than the last iteration. Excellent. However in your fluff is says that it is the study of swordsmanship. It feels perhaps odd that all weapons then get this parry save rule, however I will touch on that later.
I see you took my suggestion (or maybe just changed it, who knows) to lower Samurai in cost by 1 point but make great weapons more expensive. This is good as 9 points feels appropriate for them now and the weapon options all make sense.
There's a few errors/typos that I saw. Specifically on pages page 50 (Sashimono's "counts as having one more rank than normal for purposes and steadfast." and page 90 (Old costs for samurai/equipment).
Finally, I feel like the katana is not doing enough in this army. Rerolling 1's to wound is a decent ability, but not nearly as potent as +1 strength that also affects armor. For this reason, I feel that regular samurai warriors are not competative, although halberd and great weapon varieties are good choices. There's a lot of redudancy in the list that can get your re-rolls to wound. Warrior monks get it (only better) as a base ability. Call of the War God gives the unit the ability (only better). There are units that can use Katanas, but have access to cheap weapon upgrades (Samurai warriors). There are also units that have multiple weapon types but are always better off using their non-Katana weapon (Onna Bushi). Then there is the plethora of mounted options that the Katana does literally nothing because its rules only work for unmounted models.
I would give the Katana universal armor piercing. Not as good as a Halberd or spear's +1 strength, but still decent nonetheless. On foot, have the Katana give the model +1 to their parry save. This gives Samurai some needed defense while also making them more offensive at the same time. Still probably not as good as +1 strength unless against low armor/touhness troops (which samurai should mince anyway) it gives you a tactical option instead of always just choosing the superior halberd/great weapon option. The Daimatzu mon will likely need re-balancing with this chance. Think this change is important to give the different samurai different roles. Katana is to fight weak infantry and be defensive in close combat, halberd is for bonus strength when initiative is important, and great weapon is for when high strength and armor penetration is more important than survival, or you don't mind the unit being expensive with the Uruchi mon.
Speaking of Mons, I think the Ashiwara Mon needs some help. There are far better shooting bonuses than no long range penalty. no movement penalty, quick to fire, heck even +1 balistic skill with the Mon costing 2 points. Because you're only going to have targets to shoot at from long range for 1 or maybe 2 turns tops, it just doesn't seem like a great option if it means I can't take any of the great close combat mons.
I love the change to the Kitsune and I think this balances it out nicely. It was too strong to be ethereal before.
Void of Emptyness also seems far too powerful for an 11+ spell. Rendering an enemy unit completely helpless, preventing charges, moving, fighting, potentially spell casting, or use of special abilities, is REALLY powerful. It's the kind of spell I would have to save all my dice to stop because the other spells are nothing in comparison.
Also, I just bought 137 Samurai/ashigaru models from the Wargames Factory. Inspired by your beautiful armybook, I plan to start my own Nippon army. Thank you for all of your hard work!
Thanks for your feedback! Regarding the katanas, I do agree that they are a bit of a hassle with all the re-rolls, and AP would certainly be the easiest solution for them. I just worry that it will just enter into fanboy territory doing so. Then again, I already kind of do that with Estalian Steel and Cathayan Longswords, so having tempered steel katanas wouldn't be too far off... I'll think about it.
DeleteAs for the Kenjutsu effecting all weapons, this is to give Nippon a universal special rule, as well as being the encompassing rule for their weapon training. In reality they would all use different techniques for all weapons, but that would be quite a hassle gameplay wise. For many units, the Katana is just meant to be a backup weapon like a hand weapon, thus several units are not really meant to use it at all. Kenjutsu also currently works if you are mounted in order to not make mounts a detriment to characters. I worry that if the Katana will be the only weapon that can use Kenjutsu, it will severely limit its use in the entire army (including characters with magical weapons).
As for the Ashiwara Clan Mon (or the Mons in general), they are not supposed to be gamechangers, merely add a bit of flavour to the army. I think the Ashiwara mon is fine as is for people who want to use lots of bows in their army, seeing as it's essentially +1 To Hit during those rounds that it counts, and it can still be used on horseback.
Regarding the Void of Emptyness, I think you might be right. I will nerf the spell to only allow negating one action during the turn (moving, shooting or magic), and also only make the enemy ItP instead of unbreakable. This means it won't have any effect in combat.
Good luck your Nippon army. Let me know if you need more Ashigaru, I got 50 from Wargames factory I'm looking to sell myself ;)
Hi, just recently coming back to WHFB and I'm very glad to see all these updates since last time :).
DeleteI agree the katanas are still a problem. The reroll 1's is fine in essence due to superior cutting edge, but perhaps a +1 to wound is better, it would avoid the reroll redundancies . More powerful yes, but still inferior to the naginata, although actually better against very high toughness, no armor, monsters or warmachines. With the nre Kenjutsu rules, which I like, I feel its pretty balanced. As you said yourself, AP is too fanboy-mode, that was never the katanas deal. All elven weapons should have AP then, they are clearly well-made.
The real deal with the katana is the singular skill samurai had in using them; they would train their school's katas until they could perform them without thinking. There are even numorous stories about samurai striking a final killing blow after being decapitated! As such I feel that any bonus should be more about skill than quality. +1 WS and/or In while using a katana two-handed seems like an obvious and simple solution. Maybe +1 A in the first round of combat as they explode into action. The raw ST of heavier weapons is still more useful in many sitiuations, but it gives the katana its due, especially against skilled opponents (leaning on the dueling-aspect). I know that makes the yari pretty useless but what do you want from me?!
I take such interest in this because I absolutely HAVE TO have a unit of katana-wielding samurai in my army! How can I not?! It just looks too awesome, and fluffier than a pit filled with with fluffy things.
A thousand thanks for all your hard work, it is, as always, very much appreciated :) May you live long and prosper.
Hi, I've tried the +1 to Wound, but the problem then is that they can wound extremly high-toughness enemies on at least a 5+, which doesn't fit either.
DeleteRegarding the AP though, that actually applies to WE weapons now (but not DE or HE for some reason...).
+1A kind of goes against the point of using 2HW:s though, so I don't think that's a good idea.
+1 WS does not really fit either, because no weapons in warhammer actually work that way. I don't see any weapon really making you a better fighter, though bigger weapons can certainly hurt more!
I think that re-roll 1's to Wound, the same as DE have, currently works best to keep them balanced and sets them apart from the other weapon options. While naginatas are certainly better, they are also more expensive. I'm considering bumping the cost of them by maybe 0,5 pts to make them less of a no-brainer. But basic samurai with katanas shouldn't really be better in combat compared to an Old World knight with sword and shield, and they currently have both the kenjutsu rule and re-roll 1's to offset their lack of shield.
Hi Mathias ! First of all, thanks for your work, I love the way you're mixing warhammer and medieval History to expand warhammer world !
ReplyDeleteI've a question about the Ravagers from Hobgoblin book : the background mentions that Ravagers use big weapons or two scimitars, and they have the special rule "dual blades wielding". But in the army list there is no weapons option, only "Two handed weapons". Is this a mistake ? or Ravagers can only have this kind of armament ?
Thanks in advance for your reply, I hope building an Hobgoblin army when money will be enough, and when I'll find how make lamellar armor in figs
Cheurl
Thanks! I had the idea to give them GW's after the artwork, but it doesn't really fit with the Mongolian style. So, I intend for them to only use 2 HW's.
DeleteGreat book, looking at models to use for te last week I have a query, does buying the samurai on foot a longbow replace their katana?
ReplyDeleteNope, they still use the Katana as a hand weapon. Unless it actively says that they exchange a weapon for another, they always keep the equipment they already have.
DeleteA friend of mine referred me to your website and I am pleasantly surprised to see a Nippon army book. I've been wanting to get into WFB and also start a Japanese themed army but thought I would have to proxy as Bretonnia or Empire to do so. Thank you very much for all your hard work. I sincerely appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteI have a question though. Another friend of mine has serious reservations about using homebrew rules. I think his concerns are mostly related to balance. How balanced is the Nippon book (and all your books in general)?
Hi, the Nippon book is of the books I have playtested the most, and it has proven to be very balanced in all games, both against other fan-made books and official books. I would suggest you get your friend to at least try it out using proxies so he can make his own opinion, but overall, I've only heard good things from the people who have played it :)
DeleteSounds good. Thanks for the speedy reply. We'll certainly try it out, as soon as I get my army together.
DeleteHey me and friend were wondering what the rules exactly are for sashimono. To me it looks like you meant to say for all purposes and steadfast. So even 1 model would count as a full rank. Also was wondering if it would give a +4 rank for outranking an enemy instead of tje normally capped +3?
ReplyDeleteIt should be "for the purposes of Steadfast". So there is no extra rank bonus, that would make it too good.
DeleteHey with Sarutori Hanzo, his poison attacks dont work RAW. Because under poisoned attacks it says that they can't be used with magic weapons. so If you change his Biting wind to say a talisman so his attacks can be used. Or need to change out how Ninja poisons are used.
ReplyDeleteI will look into it, thanks for bringing it up!
DeleteA few questions about Nippon.
ReplyDeleteI think Daimatzu mon used to work only with katanas in previous iterations. It applies to all weapons now? If that is so, I don't see anyone using samurai with just katanas. Well, in any case, with current rules for katanas and samurai (which are tons of fun, don't get me wrong) i don't see reason for using katana samurai other than fluff. I've done some playtesting and nodachi and naginata were better in all situations, even against lightly armoured T3 troops. And there are just way too many stuff with T4 or better and 2+Asv or better to make S3 with reroll 1s to wound better choice. Rerolling 1s is not going to help much when you need 5s or 6s to wound. Changing cost of naginata to 2pts and
nodachi to 3pts, while making daimatzu mon work only with katanas and giving katanas AP would probably balance it out. Players would have choice between defensively strong unit which can outperform against light units and hold it's ground against elites, a middle -ground performing unit which plows through light infantry and wins consistently against other medium non-elite infantry (the problem is that there aren't many of those around) or heavy handed specialists that deal with monsters, characters and heavy cavalry (the problem here is that you already have Sumo fighters for that).
Throw in mon that works only with infantry wielding naginata, for example mon that enables them to fight in extra rank and you probably have it all covered. I guess the idea is variety, to give players multiple choices when creating army and playing.
Shinobi is the only character that can take clan mon outside magic points allowance. Mistake?
Are effects of Dripping Poison cumulative? Can i take 3 shinobis, each with dripping poison and kill that blender vampire lord at the start of the game? I think it's quite overpowered if it is cumulative...
I have liked these army lists for a while and I thought you guys would appreciate this kickstarter project for warring states if you haven't already:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2104924145/28mm-ancient-chinese-warring-states-qin-dynasty-mi
Darn that didn't work too well. look up Watchful I Studio's on the net if you are thinking about Cathy or would even just like to see it on the table some day as an opponent.
DeleteI'm already a pledger for that one, want more models for my own Cathay army :)
Delete