Development Notes: NIPPON Warring States ARMY BOOK

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Weapons in Nippon


Katana

For the purposes of this specific Army Book, I'd adopt the Cathayan Longsword, as it's an off the shelf solution that actually gets the results you want, though at 3-4 points it's more expensive than a Great Weapon at 2 points, but these equipped units are meant to prevail in extended melees.


No-dachi

Great Weapon; probably faster in real life.Apparently, not for commoners.


Naginata

Halberd, definitely faster in real life. If the Katana was mythologized, the origins for this weapon are rather obscure. For some reason, it's associated with monks, and the Samurai caste, especially women, which may have been retconned at a later period so that that commoners don't seem to use it, which is why it's not listed as an option for Ashigaru.


Yari

It's a spear, and like all spears, it's a multi-purpose item. Cavalry can use it as a light lance, the Samurai on foot like to use it as their primary pole-arm, as do the Ashigaru,but here you run into the difficulty if you use it as a normal spear, or a longspear/pike. By the time we get to the mid-sixteenth century, it's clear it's length has been extended for the Ashigaru, by the Oda clan to European standards for pikes, while the rest were satisfied (or more likely because they're troops couldn't handle) to a compromise between the spear and the pike, something along the lines of what we would describe as the ash spear (ash spear, get the pun?). Since we're generalizing, we'd take the High Elven variant and just add two extra ranks to combat, instead of the usual one for spear equipped troops. That would mean giving an army wide rule that any spear equipped unit gets ASF and +1 strength when charged in front by cavalry and large critters. The Yari Ashigaru would get ASF in the first turn of combat against everyone else.


Daikyu

Everyone gets a longbow, let's assume industrialization makes this easier than hammering out a variety with arrow shafts of different lengths; going by O&G 8, I'd say this costs 3 points. Ninjas are always a problematic bunch, so they'll have to forego medium range weapons.


Teppo

The rules in the BRB for Handguns should be sufficient; I'd cost them at 4 points


Ninja Weapons

Endless combinations possible; however, in Shogun it comes down to grenades, Ninja-to (presumably), , but they're not mentionedmaybe another hand weapon and climbing claws. I'd give them shuriken, caltrops and throwing knives, but they're not mentioned.

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Armour in Nippon and Protection in Shogun 2


Scaling

The scaling of protection in Shogun is closer to D&D than the rather threadbare scheme in WFB.


Ashigaru

They wouldn't have any armour greater than Light. Shogun tends to support this as a default, but as matchlock and bow wielders have armour stated as 1 out of a possible 9, it's a borderline value between little or none. This becomes a design question, and I'd say that means the missile troops should have none, to make it easier to kill them off, which is the intent of the game.


Samurai

I have a much greater feel for European or Middle Eastern armour, so precisely how effective they were in Japan isn't quite clear to me. This is actually a great deal more important for this army, since they can't use shields, which removes 16% from their protection. It's also important, because these are the units you want protected, since the Ashigaru are just fodder. For bow equipped troops, the units would tend to be more lightly armoured than those used for shock. While light cavalry comes as no surprise , the fact that the game gives the same protection for heavy spear equipped Samurai is harder to take, since they become rather vulnerable, and can only be alleviated by giving their horses barding.

OTOH, this allows a natural scaling up to heavy armour for Katana Cavalry and plate armour for Great Guard.

The no-dachi equipped troops get light armour, since they're meant to be storm troops, katana equipped Samurai get heavy armour, as do the spear equipped ones; however the naginata equipped ones have plate armour, which is more for game dynamic purposes.


Monks

Apparently they all seem to have light armour, and since the intent is that they're vulnerable to missiles, they need parry defense.


Ninja

They seem to have light armour, which in the scheme of things is alright; they're usually too expensive and vulnerable not to give them some additional protection either from parrying or wards, usually both.

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FIRE ROCKETS 15 points
Profile . . M Ws Bs S T W I A Ld Troop Type
Rocketeer 4 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 7 Infantry

Unit Size: 5-15

Equipment:
- Hand weapon
- Rocket launcher

Special Rules:
- Skirmishers

ROCKET
A rocket is a metal tube mounted on a wooden stock to allow aiming of the projectile. A fuse is lit to ignite propulsion portion of the rocket. Can be used as either anti personnel weapon or against fortifications.

Name Range Strength
Rocket 6"-36" 4

Special Rules
- Move or Fire
- Critical hit
- Firing Indirectly
- Misfire

Critical hit - On a dice roll of 6, strength 5 wound inflicted.

Misfire - On a dice roll of 1, consult the misfire chart; in woods or building, misfires occur on dice rolls of 1-2.

Firing Indirectly - LoS not necessary; ballistic skill penalized at -1; no critical hits possible, they wound as normal.


FIRE ROCKET MISFIRE CHART
D6 Result
1 Destroyed! Remove miniature.
2-6 Fuse went out; can shoot again as normal in the controlling player's next turn.

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Update


Actually, I'm having too much fun playing the game, to actually write about the fandex; still trying to figure out how to survive the Realm Divide.


Ronin

I think the Ikko Ikki can recruit them. Makes sense, since they are the equivalent of landless knights, Samurai either directly had a leasehold or were guaranteed a stipend by their overlord(s), which in most cases, ironically resembled the condition the peasants were placed in, just sufficient for a frugal lifestyle (though without the direct existential presence of starvation).

That seems to me an equivalent to a Samurai unit getting a downgrade, making it cheaper but also providing for a more expensive cost to upgrading equipment. Also, a character has to be assigned to lead them, being the equivalent of a commissioned officer specializing in leading Ronin.

Besides having a cheaper basic cost, the only other advantage I'd say they'd get would be a specific rule, Nothing To Lose: basically, if they pass their first leadership test, for the rest of the battle they either have a moral boost, or Stubborn, or something that would make them tougher to break. If they lose the first test, they get a leadership penalty for the rest of the game.


Fire Rockets

Really fun to watch; unfortunately, I see that their effect is closer to a template. Possibly a large template, whose central strength is unit strength, and the periphery half of that, rounded down. What good is a single survivor? In the campaign, he gets the chance to regenerate the unit.


Clan Traits

Since I was wondering about how to fit the Ronin in, a clan would basically be Outcast or embroyic to deploy them instead of regular Samurai (and wouldn't need a dedicated character to lead a unit).

Possibly, a way getting around their weak protection is to have Clan Traits based on the upgrades portrayed in the game, which may be universal or confined to specific units, like Way of the Sword would give +1 bonus to melee attacks by Sword or hand weapon armed units.


BTW, normal diplomacy isn't getting me anywhere, vassals may be loyal, but their ambitious expansion keeps causing me trouble, and never have more than twenty one provinces, unless you have three large armies near Kyoto. I'm trying to complete the game with the Shimazu, but the only way you get the military power you need in the beginning is to spam Ashigaru, as the specialist Katana Samurai for the clan are too costly at the beginning and take to long to build. In this case, power comes at the point of a spear, though four Katana Samurai do a fairly decent job of clearing the field in close combat, and surprisingly, three matchlocks in a siege I thought I was going to lose at three to one odds pretty much devastated the assaulting units. Upgrade one Samurai unit to Retainer status with points drawn from Core if deployed near one of your strongholds.

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One question is what I'm trying to target for:


WS/BS Troop Quality
2 ...... Recruit - In theory, peasants
3 ...... Trained - Ashigaru
4 ...... Veteran - Samurai, Monks
5 ...... Elite - Kisho Ninja, Great Guard, Samurai Retainers

Armour
7 ...... Matchlock Ashigaru, Bow Ashigaru
6 ...... Spear Ashigaru, Loan Sword Ashigaru, No-dachi Samurai, Kisho Ninja, Fire Bomb Throwers, Bow Monk, Naginata Monk
5 ...... Light Cavalry, Spear Samurai, Katana Samurai, Bow Samurai, Bow Cavalry
4 ...... Katana Cavalry, Yari Cavalry, Naginata Samurai
3 ......
2 ...... Great Guard

Armour Buffs (Units recruited in provinces with)
+1 ... Master Armourer

Weapons Buffs (Melee units recruited in provinces with)
AP ... Master Weaponsmith
+1 ... (Specific weapon) Master Dojo

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Characters


Field Commanders

The way I see it, you have basically three types:

1. Lord - Daimyo
The Clan ruler

2. Hero - Taisho
A Samurai entrusted to lead anything from a brigade to a corps level grouping of troops.

3. Champion - Kashira
When you run out of available field commanders, a Senior Centurion type gets chosen, representing a possibly anything from a promising or well connected junior (in age) officer, or a grizzled veteran who knows which end of a spear is lethal and is respected by the rest of thr troops (not to get them massacred).

Embedded - The game embeds Daimyo and Taisho in Hatamoto type katana equipped heavy cavalry units. Kashira into whichever unit happens to be first in the stack. The question is whether they can have freedom of movement and reassign themselves to another or wander around by their lonesome.

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Characters


Agents

Agents are characters that cannot command armies, though they can be embedded in troop units. While Shogun 2 puts a maximum number of three per stack, this probably is an inadequate solution. While the rules state no capacity limits for characters beyond that of the General and BSB, I'd say it should be one plus one per thousand in the case of agents.

1. Metsuke
Embedded, the Metsuke's role would stretch between a leadership boost, and possibly increasing the movement rate of the unit he's with. Operationally, makes infitrating harder for the enemy, and easier for the army he's with, in whatever form this takes place on the tabletop, such as if it were possible to insert an assassin in the ranks.

2. Monk
A> Inspire troops - increase movement rate
B> Convert characters - defined as agents, which would exclude Warriors, but include Priests, Wizards and Assassins.
C> Demoralize the enemy - one specified unit or units within a certain radius take a leadership penalty.
D> Should have some offensive capability, especially harmful to Undead and Chaos.
These seem non spell-like abilities, except for D.

3. Ninja
You don't see them popping out of units, so infiltration seems an option, and leading Kisho Ninja; seems hard to define a balanced set of capabilities.

4. Mahoujin
Wizards; though I'd like to give them their own set of five lores based on the elements.

All agents are limited to Hero status, they have no Lord equivalents in their generic form.


Retinue

Retainers that add to the capabilities of their respective employer characters, but unlikely to be realized in physical form; where would you place your Foxy Mistress?

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Magic


Elemental Lores

Ideally, for a native Nippon based system, you want to incorporate divination and exorcism, buffs and protection, with a sort of hard/soft yin/yang tension.

Void - Psychological

Water - Health

Fire - Destruction

Earth - Buff

Air - Movement, illusion

Is how I'd imagine it.


Ninjitsu

Is a sort of minor variant, specialized to support the acitivities of practitioners, which would be bufffing and senses deception.

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Magic


Elemental Lore Air

I mentioned movement and illusion, but you also have weather. Personally, I'd rather take a leaf out of Mage: The Ascension, make spells depend on a mixture of elements to get certain effects, like Air plus Fire equals Sun, to turn night into day or cause damage to the Undead, but that's too complex for this.

Weather effects are:

Storm
Rain
Lightning
Thunder
Sun
Fog

Half of them require Water, so again mixing would be nice.

1. Lightning

Lightning could take a number of forms, depending on how you'd like a spell to effect the game. If we look to D&D, there are three forms that come to mind, Shock. Lightning Bolt and Call Lightning.

Shock is close combat electrical discharge, something that no wizard in his right mind would want to be in.

Lightning Bolt is just a variant of Fireball, though in this instance, it could work similar to cannonball, taking out a line of troops.

Call lightning requires line of sight, but range could be tablewide; it could be either template, or what I'd prefer, model specifc (God disapproves of your actions).

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Actually, I've been having second thoughts on the Magic aspect.


1. Mahoujin

Sixty points; second level ninety five points; third level one hundred thirty points. Then one hundred points of magic items.


2. Indigenous Magic System

As I pointed out, I thought a tension between yin and yang would be appropriate, so I charted it out, and I thought that Fire-Water and Earth-Air opposition seems to provide that; at this point you wonder where Void comes in, and I thought at the centre, being neutral.

An elemental specialist could only draw from his elemental lore and that of Void; a non-specialist could pick and choose from all five. This won't be included, it's just a thought for the upgraded version.