A quick game of Ronin

As we gorged ourselves over the weekend on a WSS all-day game, this weeks club-night was a quick game of Ronin from Osprey's gaming series. The game is based on semi-legendary heroic combat in medieval Japan, with players typically fielding forces of 6-12 figures. The factions available include Samurai, Bandits, Iki-Iki rebels, Koreans, and fighting schools. Games usually last about an hour.

The heart of the system is the combat which features a fun system. Players make opposed attack vs defence die roles with high scores in the attackers favour resulting in wounds. Each figure fighting has a Combat Pool of counters that can be used to enhance attack or defence rolls in that round of combat. Pool sizes vary by quality and you can choose freely between attack and defence counters each round. So the tactical sophistication comes in choosing an appropriate  pool for that round. It gets even more subtle when you have one model against several as the larger side can combine their pools but loose counters if people die. Pretty initiative after a few minutes and the game flows well.

We fought a quick attack verses defence game over about an hour.

Archers defending a gate

The defenders

Half the attackers - my favourite red devils

The other attackers

The town

Defenders move into action

Battle is joined - not going well for the reds

Review of the other attackers

The red devils leader gets stuck in