A couple more games with the Ronin ruleset, this time a large group of Samurai attacking a shrine defended by Sohei monks.
In the first game, Andy was the attacker and James the defender.
The attackers were deployed in waves but Andy had rolled a 6 to determine how many game turns he had to achieve the objective of taking the shrine (D6+6) so realised he had plenty of time to get all his figures on the table, and then swamp the poor monks.
James held back at the top of the steps hoping to funnel the attackers into a smaller group to help balance out the numbers (the attacking faction had twice as many points as the defending one - pretty much twice as many figures, and mostly stronger ones).
We missed something in the rules that allowed Andy to pile in on the monks and defeat them pretty swiftly. We moved each players figures alternately, but it should be alternate figures on each side, which removes the opportunity to have all the figures pinned straight away.
Andy also sent a few figures around the side and back so that he could desecrate the holy shrine in various locations.
It was a bloodbath. The Sohei were all slaughtered for no Samurai losses - just a couple of wounds. Andy got 24 Victory Points (6 x 3VP for killing Sohei plus 6VP for the shrine) to James' zero.
We set up again in the evening when Adrian joined us. Andy and Adrian took a share each of the attackers and James was again the Sohei. With the correction to the rule, this time James brought out the monks to fight, but also drawing back out of range in order to prolong the game (the attack was to last only 10 turns this time).
The Sohei were also equipped with a couple of bows this time to try and even up the firepower. We quickly realised this was a waste of time against armoured Samurai although it did have some effect on the unarmoured figures.
The Sohei fought better this time, killing a couple of Samurai. Half of the six Sohei were killed in the 10 turns but the shrine remained disputed. However, the attackers still won on points: 9 VP for Andy and Adrian, 6 VP for James.
This is a good ruleset with an interesting combat mechanism but I think the factions need to be designed carefully to ensure they are balanced. For each rank of character (1 to 5) they get a corresponding number of tokens to use in each combat - so a rank 3 character can defend against a rank 1 character and then get two free attacks in. So higher ranked characters seem much more powerful for not an excessive amount of extra points cost.
Anyway, a couple of great games - and fantastic to finally start getting my Japan figures and scenery on to the table!
