Hi folks, I was wondering about it while painting my characters:

Star Wars Legion is a solid system that could be adjusted.

And L5R definite is a great background for any miniature wargame.

What do you think?

I'd love it, because I like Legion, but I'm also pretty sure FFG would die. They're having a **** of a time keeping releases up to flesh out and appease customers with four factions, I dunno if their production line is yet up to 7+.

16 hours ago, UnitOmega said:

I'd love it, because I like Legion, but I'm also pretty sure FFG would die. They're having a **** of a time keeping releases up to flesh out and appease customers with four factions, I dunno if their production line is yet up to 7+.

In Clan War a notable section of the army lists were generic, which isn't possible with Star Wars. Even if the stats are different, each Clan's regular infantry could look quite similar while unpainted.

Personally, I like the idea of using Hordes of the Things for L5R wargaming.

My thoughts exactly, generic Samurai, infantry and cavalry and faction specific heroes.

38 minutes ago, Agis said:

My thoughts exactly, generic Samurai, infantry and cavalry and faction specific heroes.

I have some hope/wish for a l5r version of either Rex or Twilight Imperium. But I concur, their current plans are probably more for a product they can sell figurines, cards, addons over a long period of time instead of a one shot all in the box game.

I too was thinking of more generic base units (after all, is each clan's Ashigaru really that different at a base level which couldn't be covered with some clan specific upgrades) but that would still make differentiating them all the more important, so you still need to make sure that each faction has their own distinct play style and releases which could be trouble to keep up with. Clan loyalty is a big deal in L5R, players won't be happy if they're waiting forever to get their new units, or if the feel like their clan's strengths are not adequately represented on the field.

Like I said, I'd love it, I think FFG can really bring the gameplay here, I just dunno if they'd be doing it any time soon with their current production capabilities. Or that people wouldn't constantly kvetch about the schedule and rate of release because all they understand is wanting more product, not how much work it is to put it in stores.

There is a great looking L5R-based ruleset/conversion available for Test of Honour. Test of Honour is a samurai era skirmish game ( https://testofhonour.com/ ) that looks good in an of itself and is now in it's second edition. Test of Honour: Emerald Empire is a set of rules changes and character cards that converts base ToH to an L5R setting ( https://www.dojotabletop.com/emeraldempire ). The author's website seems to have trouble loading sometime so be patient. When it loads, scroll to the bottom to see the materials available for download and the Test of Honour miniatures painted in Rokugani clan colors.

23 hours ago, DanGers said:

There is a great looking L5R-based ruleset/conversion available for Test of Honour. Test of Honour is a samurai era skirmish game ( https://testofhonour.com/ ) that looks good in an of itself and is now in it's second edition. Test of Honour: Emerald Empire is a set of rules changes and character cards that converts base ToH to an L5R setting ( https://www.dojotabletop.com/emeraldempire ). The author's website seems to have trouble loading sometime so be patient. When it loads, scroll to the bottom to see the materials available for download and the Test of Honour miniatures painted in Rokugani clan colors.

Very interesting, I always stayed away from ToH because of the very high price, maybe I should now look into it...

I would love to see a Mass Battle game, but those tend to work better with 6/10mm.

I would even be satisfied with a Runewars or Battlelore/CC take on it.

20 hours ago, Suzume Chikahisa said:

I would love to see a Mass Battle game, but those tend to work better with 6/10mm.

I would even be satisfied with a Runewars or Battlelore/CC take on it.

A mass battle system in a small scale is indeed tempting (I played a lot of Warmaster back in the day), but IMO it would not suit Clan War very well.

The individual heroics deeds would be too little IMO.

On ‎11‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 4:39 PM, Agis said:

A mass battle system in a small scale is indeed tempting (I played a lot of Warmaster back in the day), but IMO it would not suit Clan War very well.

The individual heroics deeds would be too little IMO.

I dunno. Done right, it can work rather well. Warmaster and its descendents (Warmaster Ancients/Warmaster Revolution/Black Powder/Hail Caesar/Pike and Shotte) draw a lot of distinction between 'units' and 'heroes' but always just treated heroes as " the point on the map your orders came from " or very occasionally " a +1 attack for a unit if you're feeling suicidal enough to let your hero join the fighting ".

That's not inherently a bad thing; L5R isn't a warhammer-esque setting where a hero is going to solo a 250-man ashigaru battalion. But they should - as you say - have room for heroics.

I'd say that giving heroes the ability to attack each other instantly takes the basic principles of warmaster and changes it dramatically; you have your iconic L5R battlefield duels, the potential to lose commanders (and hence 'control' over one wing of your army) far more easily than in 'normal' warmaster means you're encouraged to have 'surplus' commanders to the normal "1 general + 1 per battalion" (more commanders needed means a more 'hero-led' army), and you then have an extra facet to 'score' a commander in:

• Invocations (Ability to use Magic)
• Duelling (Attacking other heroes)
• Leadership (bonus given to units in combat)
• Command (Issuing orders)

I'd suggest it would want to be driven very much by 'generic units and named generals'. A bit more detail for the generals - a small special rule each - and a judicious use of keyword mechanics (like current L5R) and universal rules (like Hail Caesar), and you could make quite an interesting game.

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

That's not inherently a bad thing; L5R isn't a warhammer-esque setting where a hero is going to solo a 250-man ashigaru battalion.

Didn't we just have a story where the heroine did exactly that?

I would like some kind of Warhammer Fantasy-like game where you have your blobs of cannon fodder, small units of elites and specialists, and then your Big **** Heroes.

29 minutes ago, AtoMaki said:

Didn't we just have a story where the heroine did exactly that?

Not really. Utaku Kamoko's attack on the formed soldiers was at the head of a formation of other Utaku Shiotome. She counts killing ten or so, which is a 'hero adds +1 attack to a unit' scale.

Equally the ambush in the village is only a dozen ashigaru; in warmaster terms that's well within the scale of what can be represented by a 'hero' piece; it's Lion plus "ambush" card versus Kamoko.

In neither case is she fighting solo against a full regiment.

I swear I'm not working for the person who wrote ToH:Emerald Empire, but it has some of things a few of you have mentioned. There are both groups and individuals, often with special powers like kata or invocations. I'm thinking of printing it all out and trying it with circular cut-out pictures for the units before buying up a bunch of plastic. Take a look at the cards for the Crane units here: https://e38fba34-edd7-44ec-a3a5-c6f39916b7e8.filesusr.com/ugd/09bcee_f149193a62d647f4af33678a7d57e257.pdf?index=true . Shugenja and invocation cards are here: https://e38fba34-edd7-44ec-a3a5-c6f39916b7e8.filesusr.com/ugd/09bcee_1b99d7f82d06486294b142fce8b87e0f.pdf?index=true

Remember that in the old Clan War game "Heroes" unless they had the individual trait couldn't be deployed alone either and challenges required either specific traits or tactical cards.

The Warmaster lineage of games can easily reproduce challenges since the attack bonus is decoupled from the command rating and it's not like other element based games aren't including battlefield duels in their rules. I think the old GW War of the Ring rules provides another good model of what most of us would like to see in a L5R mass battle wargame.

10 hours ago, Suzume Chikahisa said:

I think the old GW War of the Ring rules provides another good model of what most of us would like to see in a L5R mass battle wargame.

I have to admit I rather liked that game. A shame it never did very well.

On 11/26/2019 at 11:43 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

She counts killing ten or so

In my experience, this is exactly what a Hero does in Warhammer Fantasy. But unless Kamoko my Captain killed his ten or so Chaos Marauders then promptly died on me .

I think it would be simple to differentiate basic troops with upgrades and the unique character abilites to influence them. Maybe small difference in base stats.

Honestly the number of figures required to start up a Clan War style game would make it prohibitive to get all 7 clans out as soon as most fans would likely want given how important clan loyalty is to players.

I've discussed this a lot with others on various forums and I really think the better route to go would be to start with a Descent style "dungeon" crawler that features a selection of generic opponent models (Ronin with Katana, Yari and Bow, Goblins, Skeletons, Zombies and Oni) and 8 PC/Mastermind models for the 7 clans and 1 Ronin that can then double as encounter models for the RPG. Include a skirmish game option similar to what they did with Imperial Assault and then over the next year or so you release a series of Clan focused "encounter" sets that feature 2 additional PC/Masterminds for each clan and a clan specific unit that can be used for additional encounters.

Once you have a pack for all seven clans you can then scale up to a larger game with the release of booster packs to supplement the number of generic models available in the game and then move to a unit movement tray like they use in the Song of Ice and Fire Minatures game for larger units.

1 hour ago, Schmoozies said:

Honestly the number of figures required to start up a Clan War style game would make it prohibitive to get all 7 clans out as soon as most fans would likely want given how important clan loyalty is to players.

I've discussed this a lot with others on various forums and I really think the better route to go would be to start with a Descent style "dungeon" crawler that features a selection of generic opponent models (Ronin with Katana, Yari and Bow, Goblins, Skeletons, Zombies and Oni) and 8 PC/Mastermind models for the 7 clans and 1 Ronin that can then double as encounter models for the RPG. Include a skirmish game option similar to what they did with Imperial Assault and then over the next year or so you release a series of Clan focused "encounter" sets that feature 2 additional PC/Masterminds for each clan and a clan specific unit that can be used for additional encounters.

Once you have a pack for all seven clans you can then scale up to a larger game with the release of booster packs to supplement the number of generic models available in the game and then move to a unit movement tray like they use in the Song of Ice and Fire Minatures game for larger units.

I really like that idea! Coop crawler game !

I am very surprised they never did an equivalent of Imperial Assault or Legion for L5R. Especially an Imperial Assault analogue since L5R would fit well in modular story driven scenario game. With Imperial Assault's support ending and Mansions of Madness already reaching mid life maybe we'll get a window in the near future where they'll launch another game in that genre. Seems like an easy thematic fit to structure one of those games around Rokugani versus the Shadowlands or the Shadow or something similar. That said the LOTR game seems like it kinda stalled. So maybe that didn't sell as well as they would like, which could affect their opinion on starting a new game in that genre.

Also I wouldn't mind a more boardgame-y miniature experience like Runebound for L5R. I guess in short I'm more interesting in a smaller scale narrative game compared to a grand war game. If they go with this route I'd would kinda prefer they start with an Imperial Assault style game and then eventually ramp that into a war game where you can reuse those mini's from the other game as hero units in your larger scale war game. That's what people wanted FFG to do with Imperial Assault and Legion and they didn't. A real missed opportunity to give both games a cross appeal and added value.

An IA style game would be much appreciated!

+1 to the Test of Honour Emerald Empire ruleset!

Very thematic, and for those that also support the L5R mini-crate series, it really brings the setting and characters to life! 😊

I'm hoping that FFG also start considering plastic scale minis of samurai/ashigaru/shugenja/courtier and lesser/support characters, as the clan war minis (while nice) need some updated sculpts.

I've printed the ToH EE cards and am in the process of painting the miniatures. Hopefully over the holidays I can complete my first batch!

OMG! Did FFG just drop a clue for L5R minis in their Christmas message? 🤩

Really? I do not see it...