Two-Player Set and Void Gameplay

“In the Isles of Jwar, the hatred between two long-feuding families erupts into unbridled violence, threatening to destroy them all. Secretly in love, the children of these two warring houses are pitted against one another. Are they doomed to die in a wave of chaos and bloodshed? Or will they survive and bring peace between them? Their destiny lies in your hands.”

It’s day two of Adepticon, and to make sure no one misses out on the fun, the new Two-Player Starter Set and The Void are available on the GCT Webstore. The starter set is simply gorgeous and is packed full of Bushido goodies. There are ten models, yup, ten, all Ronin, so you can add them to your other factions as and when you see fit. The box also contains 30 cards, all requisite tokens, and a rulebook. Jason has some exciting articles about the starter set coming up in the next few weeks, so keep them peeled not to miss out. It is the perfect set to get you or someone you know into playing Bushido the Game. They come in at 100 Rice, so they are immediately ready to paint and play. Following yesterday’s article about the Void, I’ll hand you over to the ever-competent Master Enos to tell you what the Void can do on the table! He is, after all, also a Master Profiler.

The brief that came down from Alasdair, the creative mind behind the Void, had quite a few things to grab on to, to make mechanics.
1:  They should be different from other factions.
2:  Their beliefs should shape their fighting style.
3:  They exist out of time, which needs representation somehow.
4:  They should be a dark mirror to the Ro-Kan Temple. (Also, they should be monks for people who don’t ordinarily play monks.)
5:  Teleporting!

They are monks, so expect some competent fighters, good Special Attacks and Defences and utilising boosts to gain an advantage in combat. The monk's ability to destroy Ki allows for some Ki Block and similar capabilities (Look at the one Satsui Monk already in the game for clues!). The original fight against time idea is represented by abilities that can remove actions from enemies or even allow a monk to activate twice in a row.

One of the unique mechanics we developed for this faction is the Void Rifts. These are “Special Terrain” that can be placed in several ways to allow teleporting around the table. But when these Rifts open, because they come from the Void, the earth cracks open and retreats, not wanting to be in contact with them, and in some cases, columns of rock rise from the ground and push the monks away from the sacred earth. It shows how the land reviles these abominations who give themselves to the Void. In our playtesting, they became key to the faction’s playstyle, but it can also be dangerous if you allow your opponent to either control or destroy them. A few models and unique cards may permit you to place or move the rifts, allowing more flexibility.

The most significant difference when taking The Void to the battlefield in Bushido is that they all have a zero for their maximum Ki stat.  None of them can have any Ki tokens, ever.
(A few ronin and Kami can be included with the Void monks, but none of the new models has Ki themselves.)

The Void box includes a Communal Card, like the Bakemono Horde card, with all the rules needed to play using their new resource mechanic. Rather than accumulating Ki, specific actions will add Void Counters to the communal card. As the counters accumulate, new abilities are unlocked for the warband, including Feats, Boosts, Teleporting, destruction of terrain and accelerating the Void Counter gains.

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A warband of this faction gets more potent as the game goes on, as the world around them is opened more to the Void. In the closing turns of the game, every Void monk will be using mighty feats every time they are able, and multiple boosts will be available to all of them.
Well, we’ve seen an overview, let's take a look at one of the monks.

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Shikaku has formidable mental strength, Resistance and Steadfast and will always find a place in any list. The Void Monks' maximum Ki statistic is zero, but they have 2 Ki for rolling Ki Tests. 3 Melee Pool is good, mainly as these models boost a lot and Combo, Sidestep and Throw (All on attack) make for an aggressive combatant. 

Shikaku’s Feats are a good representation of the faction. The Void Stares Back may seem familiar to Cult Players (and anyone who has lost models to some kind of psychic laser from the dead lady with the brolly). We have drawn parallels purposely with the feats and given them thematic names to link them. This feat functions almost precisely like Look into the Void on Ikiryo’s card.

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However, The Void Stares Back has four differences. First, it’s a Rank 1 Feat as denoted by the blue R1 symbol in the Cost column. You can only use this Feat if this model gains the ability to use R1 Feats for free (Usually from the Communal Card). The range may be measured from a Void Rift. This does allow for greater threat ranges but remember, Shikaku still needs LoS to target the enemy model. Note also that this feat's enemy model must not be a Satsui model. 

Finally, successfully damaging an enemy gets you more Counters on the Communal Card. It's easier to get more counters once you have a few. The tricky part is to get enough to use the Rank 1 Feats, but after that, Feats like this one allow you to generate more and more as the game continues.

Shikaku’s second Feat is a combat feat. It gives them multiple benefits, but the eye-catching one is the premier melee combat Trait Unblockable (1). While a few models can get Unblockable, remember that once you get to the point where R2 Feats are free, Shikaku can use this every turn! Other models would pay maybe 4 Ki for such a feat, but that doesn’t matter to those from the Void.

Shikaku also has a unique effect.  Just read it.  So good. That’s it for today. Tomorrow we peel back the Void and examine a new Master…

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