Pretty important update here, which changes Nippon's Kenjutsu rule. While I like the current version just fine, it doesn't really fit with the way Kenjutsu would work in reality with a series of parries and counter-attacks. Instead, it now works the following way:
- Kenjutsu now gives models the Parry rule. For each successful Parry save, you get to make an additional attack. All in all, this will mean that Nippon loses a little bit of damage output in combat, but earns some survivability, and makes them more of duellists as opposed to just cutting through the opposition like Chaos Warriors.
- Way of the Warrior restriction of not being allowed to join Ashigaru lifted.
- Mempo of Honour 40 pts.
- Shogun 325 pts
- Daimyo 115 pts.
- Taisho 70 pts.
- Hatamoto 45 pts.
- Shinobi 80 pts, no longer have basic ward save. Can take magic items as well as poisons.
- Red Ronin 225 pts.
- Red Ronin's katana now gives him the equivalent of Red Fury.
- Hitomi Gozen 100 pts.
- Sarutori Hanzo 215 pts. Was way overpriced before.
- Ninja 10 pts, no longer have ward saves.
- Removed Redemption rule from Ronin. At 9 pts each, they just make too effective speedbumps against characters.
- Red Devils 21 pts.
- Mizuchi -1T, 135 pts. Did some comparisons to the new DE monsters, at 200 pts, the Mizuchi would never be worth taking. At its new cost, it makes for a weaker support monster akin to a chariot as opposed to wreaking havoc on its own.
Both the Ninjas and Shinobis both have ward saves. Look at Summary and their individual pgs.
ReplyDeleteTurns out Google Drive wasn't running, the new PDF didn't get synced up. Fixed now.
DeleteHanzo still have his ward save?
ReplyDeleteForgot to remove it in the army list, it's fixed now.
DeleteCombination katana with additional hand weapon. How does it work?
ReplyDeleteLike 2 normal hand weapons, i.e. +1 attack.
DeleteGot a typo in the Hobgoblin army list, Deathclaws are listed as Infantry instead of Monstrous Infantry.
ReplyDeletePlayed a game last night of 4,000 points of Kislev vs 2000 points of Nippon and 2,000 points of Ind. The only way to describe it is a horrific massacre. Kislev did NOTHING which was really disapointing. The royal elephant smashed through the right flank, the normal elephants tore apart the middle, samurai butchered the gryphon legion despite being outnumbered 2 to 1, and the kitsune just left me pissed off (although thats because i disagree with the ethereal rule in general).
ReplyDeletePossible solutions: remove ethereal from the kitsune and just give them a ward save eg 4+ ward
Samurai: increase points cost or make them special units. samurai striking at initiative with great weapons basically butchered everything that got close.
Elephants: no idea, don't really know the full rules for them
I need to do some playtesting myself with Kislev to see how they fare, though they are probably one of the weaker armies due to not having any fantastic special rules.
DeleteYou might be right about the Kitsune, due to not being unstable like other ethereal units. I'll have a look at it.
As for the Samurai, I just noticed that GW's were only 1pt each. They really should be 2 pts/model, thus making samurai 13 pts each with the Uruchi clan mon, which is also the same as Swordmasters (who have better WS and 2A). That should sort them out. I'll fix this along with the Kitsune. In general though, GW armed troops will be really effective against cavalry, so that result was not very surprising TBH.
Elephants should be fine since they are based on the Araby Elephant, but they will also need more playtesting to make sure they are balanced.
I counted number of cavalry vs number of samurai: 54 including a lord- vs 20 samurai including a hero
Deletebut upping the samurai to 13 points would probably fix it but i would still say they shouldnt really be a core unit (although the way games workshops going with army lists- that probably wont matter in 9th ed :( )
54 Cavalry in one unit?! Seems a bit...excessive.
DeleteAs for Samurai being core, that's because they are the main warriors of Nippon, just like Chaos Warriors, Knights of the Realm or what have you. Making all samurai special would simply mean that there would be little point in taking normal samurai because you could just take better versions of them in the same section. It would also force the army to rely on Ashigaru rather than having them as support units, and let's face it; no one plays Nippon for the Ashigaru ;)
it was a 4k game: and they werent all in 1 unit. many had flank and rear charged (didnt help). I think my entire army added up to about 260 soldiers. Who got utterly destroyed by an army that only committed half its soldiers to the fight.
DeleteAs for the samurai - they are nobles - so theres gonna be far less of them then there are ashigaru. But ah well, i guess reflecting this in game would ruin the half fun of playing nippon.
Ah, I see. That would make more sense then! Balance-wise though, Nippon have worked very well in the games I've had with them. They are good in combat, but just as brittle as elves, and almost as expensive to boot. They really don't like missile attacks!
DeleteConsidering a Samurai costs at least twice as much as an ashigaru spearman, you are likely to see fewer of them anyway ;)
But considering that Knights are core in most armies and the Samurai were a lot more common than them, moving all Samurai to Special would be rather unfitting with the rest of the meta. Plus, that would leave Nippon with only 3 core units, which is less than any other army. Makes army building rather dull ;)