Test of Honour Report - Testing a few new rules!

For this game we played a basic 24 point match and play tested a few new rules for the upcoming version 2 of Test Of Honour!   The game was whoever kills the Hero wins.
In particular we are using the new honour/dishonour system and character traits.

William & Dan

• Samurai Hero
• Loyal Samurai
• Bandit Bruiser
• Bandit group X 2  (With drunkards trait that gives +1 damage to roll)
• Bowman
• Loyal Spearmen

Paul & Kevin

• Samurai Hero
• Loyal Samurai
• Wise Samurai
• Loyal Spearmen
• Bandit group
• Ronin Group
• Bowman X 2  (With expert shot trait that gives you no penalty to shoot through light cover)

We started off the game by building the battlefield. We were not going by any rules in particular so just made it look awesome, which I have found is really easy! Just plonk down a few cherry blossom trees and Japanese themed buildings.. done! :D


Our forces were placed in an alternating manner and ended up facing each other with a roughly similar setup. I had a bandit group, Samurai and archer on the left.


Spearmen group, archer, Hero and Samurai in the middle.



Game on!    Paul and Kevin immediately started off the round by firing arrows at my samurai on the left flank. No damage but I was down an activation by having to roll to dodge.



Samurai/Heroes have 2 to 3 actions per turn while common units just have the one. Because of this I had a difficult decision. Do I rush my samurai ahead to find cover or get into combat or do I stay back with the troops but waste my samurai activations.  (It can be very easy to leave your samurai out in the open without support)


The sky continued to rain sharp pointy things as my troops on the right flank took a wound and lost their action from a long range shot from Kevin's archer. As he took a shot at a group he gets +1 to hit.


For my last move of this turn I charged my main samurai hero forward . Perhaps foolishly as the game was "kill the hero" but this old man had to put the young samurai kidos in their place with a good old fashioned beating.  With that done the 3rd fate token was pulled and it was turn over! I ended up with two wounded troops and everybody having inched forward a little.

Turn two started with my 2nd in command inching forward and taking a "cautious move" token to give himself a free evade as he knew he would soon be a human hedgehog.



Not that it mattered as the Paul's archer shot off a cracking shot and instantly killed my samurai who was already wounded with a blood drop and due to being within (12 inch) range the archer rolled 4 dice to damage....  That's no way for a proud samurai to die!   THE SHAME!!!



This immediately prompted a morale test, which my worthless bowmen failed and sprinted back to the edge of the board .. what a coward and a crap shot to boot!   If he survives the battle he will no doubt have to answer to the Shogun.  Sadly as you will read this was not the end of his incompetence.



I slowly edge up the board with my troops and hid my main hero behind a clump of spearmen as to try and avoid the fate of my arrow-filled samurai who WAS on the left flank.. sniff I miss him already


Eager for battle and with an amazing feat of agility Kevin's Hero leaps over the steam (passed the test of agility) to do battle with my troops. I suspect he wanted to try and kill off my nearby Bandit Bruiser (2nd in command). Kevin took a shot with his nearby archer at my Bandit Bruiser to soften him up for his hero to have an easier kill, but he MISSED his shot and as his own Samurai Hero was in between he suffered from friendly fire and received an arrow in the back and taking a blood drop.  HAHAHAHA.. I mean bad luck sir.



Throughout the entire game Paul and Kevin had pulled every single fate token from the bag. This meant that they were overflowing with skills but their troops were lagging behind.     I eventually pulled my first fate token but got this awesome card "Vault", which was going to get much use throughout the game.



The next round started off with Paul and Kevin's archers continue their reign of terror by shooting at  my Ashigaru spearmen, which caused a casualty and killed on unfortunate soul.  I thought they were safe but unfortunately the "expert trait" shot went through the cover I was trying to hide them in.

My hero was less than impressed with their lack of resilience!

Next up my archer tried to trade shots with Paul's archer (who was not the closest target) but failed his test of wits (no surprise there) and was forced to shoot Paul's samurai who was hiding behind a fence. My archer continued with his reign of incompetence and rolled three blanks. Where did he learn to shoot I wonder.. certainly not the same place as the crack shot enemy. Oh well never mind, if he survives he will certainly get a lesson in archery.. by dodging all the arrows from his instructor!




Battle at long last was joined at the muddy banks of the river. My Bandit Bruiser charged into the enemy Hero and CUT HIM DOWN with an expert hit. The Hero however couldn't let this stand and did a "test of honour" roll as a last ditch effort to come back from the dead... much MUCH to my annoyance he easily passed. He then leaped up from the muddy banks and stabbed my Bandit Bruiser in the face for an instant death.  Even worse Paul used one of the new Dishonour cards to roll an additional attack dice, which worked perfectly without any consequence! aggghhhhhh.. where is the justice?




With this most dishonourable kill (Kevin's Hero should had stayed dead) all my troops within 6 inches of the kill promptly failed their morale tests and ran away at full speed!!   This was quite the set back as commoners with their 1 action can take quite a while to get into the action.



With two blood drops and an injury Kevin's Hero ran back over the bridge like a coward. My noble hero hiding behind all his troops spat in disgust at this blatant break of the Bushido code.

The game started to ramp up to a climatic conclusion with everybody trying to kill each others Leaders.  Paul's second in command Samurai with a yari charged over the bridge to do combat but fell short with not quite enough distance.  My Hero smirked with malice and fear just feet away from him...



Quick top-shot of the battlefield with everybody converging on the bridge.


I started my turn by pulling my second fate card! Kevin and Paul had been constantly pulling fate cards throughout the game and losing out on valuable actions, which meant that I had most of my forces by the bridge first.  The fate card I drew was one of my favourites from my old friend Tadashi...


Combat was joined with my Hero vs Pauls Samurai. Despite his old age my hero vaulted over his troops and took a Dishonour card for that additional dice BUT my dirty deeds were noticed and I gained the following negative card, which really not what I wanted as I was trying to consolidate everybody together.





Exhibit A, Hero preparing to jump over his troops to deliver death.


 
Exhibit B, leader dispenses sweet justice with an instant kill. (used dirty trick to deprive Paul of his defensive reroll)


Exhibit C, With the Hero having dispensed said justice proudly vaulted back over his shield/esteemed colleagues to write his autobiography and definitely was not running away from Kevin's Hero.

Kevin re positioned his hero on the bridge for some one on one combat to regain some honour. A foreign concept to me I must admit...

With my hero now spent, it was time for the troops to shine.  Weary from their long march back from the edge of the board and a man down from being subject to target practice my two man bandit squad bravely charged into Kevin's hero on the bridge.


The combat did not go well for Kevin with a critical fail on the "dodge" which meant he slipped over and fell flat on his back! With his Hero on the floor and with two blood drops my troops rolled an additional 3 dice to damage (8 in total due to their native 5 with the drunkard trait). This sealed his fate and secured a victory for me with his Hero dead the game was over!



So thoughts on the game...

• The new honour/dishonour cards are fantastic with lots of banter but did not see as much play as I would have liked.
• A good proportion of our troops never saw combat with Paul/Kevin wisely giving the archers the trait card "Expert-shot". Their archers constantly harassed my troops, which was very effective vs groups as you now get a +1 bonus to hit.  My troops as a result were forced to use their action for avoid rolls and so made very slow progress across the board.
• The "Drunkard" trait was excellent when paired up with my bandits as it pumped them up to a deadly 5 dice to roll for damage.
• Looking forward to playing the next game when we will use the full new ruleset!

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