With the release of Total War: Shogun 2, it's now time to kick-start this old project of mine again.

The Nippon Army Book was always confronted with three possible routes, historical, mystical or mythical (and by that I include anything over the top from anime and manga sources).

The top contenders for secondary sources to structure the book around would be have been truly historical Turnbull/Osprey, etcetera or RPG based, especially L5R. L5R was slightly more in the mystical camp, so when another Fandex based their model on that, I was relieved, since it freed the approach to a more historical army list. Studying Shogun 2 allows a more disinterested perspective in how such a list should look like, without getting caught in the mire of trying to defend your position too greatly.

Army composition should, in my view, go along these lines:

Core - Peasants, Ashigaru

Special - Samurai, Ronin, Monks

Rare - Artillery, Ninjas, Tengu, Oni

Characters - the usual suspects, selected youkai


Character mounts and monsters are actually a problem in a more historical based list. The best I came up with was the Ki-rin, who's remarkable pacifistic in nature, the Dragon, who's even rare than the Elven ones, and the flying cloud, which I nicked off Dragonball. You don't see chariots used in warfare.

Shogun 2 makes no mention of armed peasants, they're added for colour and completion, possibly also as troop types for pirates and brigands; Ashigaru are an essential part of any Nippon army.

Samurai are the raison d'etre for playing this faction, and you should be able to craft them into any form you want. Ronin is a more difficult topic, since supply usually depends on the recent demise of a clan, and the retainers finding neither need nor desire to join their masters in the after life. Supply of Monks doesn't appear to be a problem, just their representation.

Artillery tends to be confined to sieges, but in this game you have to have this option for the field. Ninjas, I've always seen this more as a character, CA makes them grenade throwers and nasty at close range in short combats. Tengu and Oni seem to be the only mythical creatures that tend to organize themselves, and easily cloned from similar troop types.

My take on this army is to remove the champion, musician and standard bearer options directly from each unit. Most of the army doesn't have great personal initiative, it needs to be inspired by it's leaders, who together with unit upgrades get added separately later.

There seems to be a trend to limit Magic Items to around eight per book, so figuring out which ones would contribute the most without going overboard is going to be interesting.

Another form of upgrade, that's based more on generalship should compensate.

I'll probably have to revise the magic system again, which is a pity, since I thought it was rather elegant.