Test of Honour : Samurai skirmish AAR

Version 2 of has been out for a bit now and while I’ve been itching to play to experience the changes first hand, life had other plans.

Finally this past week Eric and I were able to get together at D6 games in Rochester MN, and play a few matches. As we’d both played the original, we none the less started out with the intro game found in the book using their force suggestions. This meant a mirror match with each of us having a Samurai character, a bowman, a musket man and a group of 3 spearmen. In game terms, 11 points a side which is a modest force.

Queue the dramatic music:

Words exchanged pedigree of each others clan called into question and perhaps a few inappropriate hand gestures thrown in for good measure.

Movement per action is 6″ for infantry and 9″ for those on horse. You can perform a cautious action that allows you to dodge an attack without burning an action to do so. Characters have three actions for the samurai and two actions for the others, while generic soldiers are but one action per turn.

In this fight, we crept up, exchanging arrows and the crack of a musket while we both stuck to cover to make it a little harder to hit.

My samurai, brash and brave, shouts follow me, boys, taking the battle to the enemy as he charges down the road. The others try their best to keep up.

The game is a you-go, I-go system, where a chit is drawn from the back. In a beginner game, the draw of a lightning chit gives you nothing, draw 3 and the “turn is over” and all chits got back in the bag. This means it’s possible that soldiers might not get activated in a given turn. Choose wisely which troops to activate.

Another chit type in the bag is a commoner, so when drawn you may activate one of your common soldiers. They get one activation per turn.

Another type of chit is for characters, which are the heroes in the game, such as your samurai, they could be activated as many as three times per turn.  Prior to set up, you tally up the total actions per side by warrior type and that makes up the chits placed into the bag.

Alas, in the first skirmish my Samurai fell to Eric’s commoners, who were able to swarm and bring him down after four turns. Despite the shame on my clan, the game was great fun.

So we set up a second game, using the new scenarios in the book. We choose the meeting engagement with 24 points per side. This maxed-out the number of figures I had. Thankfully it is also great motivation to get painting again. If you see version 1 Test of Honour figures on sale, by all means, pick them up as you can use them with version 2.

This time clan Tom-i-gotcha (ok lame name), was to be more prepared. Along with my Samurai, he brought a bowman on a horse and another lesser Samurai on horseback, along with two groups of spearmen, a couple of bowmen and a musket man. Hearing that clan Eric-o-toshi was in the neighborhood we grabbed our weapons to meet them on the field of battle.

As the initial pleasantries were exchanged such as my mother being called a ????? and something about my father smelling of ?, we moved forward. In this game, we would add the ability to use the honor/dishonor cards as well as the skill cards. 

In this advanced version of the game, a skill card is drawn when a lightning bolt is drawn from the bag. Skills are attached to a character only and they may only have as many as they have actions. Further, some skills are one use, some are for the battle, some last longer and can stick with those characters for successive battles.

Honor cards are drawn when you decide to take one less dice for things like an attack. Once less die decreases your odds of success but the reward could be something. Dishonor is when you take one additional die during an attack. Play dirty and your chance of success might go up. But with the dishonor card comes a penalty that will need to be paid at a future date. O fate, you can be so cruel. Choose wisely.

Queue dramatic music:

There they are, down the road and some behind the building. On this side, I’d try to engage with spearmen and the horseman, surely our numbers would do well. On the other side, distance weapons would hopefully keep them at bay for a bit.

Clan Eric-o-toshi, would come up on my left flank, leading with a samurai on horse. So my samurai stepped forward to oppose him. Arrows at the ready!

Meanwhile on the opposite side of town, one of Eric’s characters pressed forward likewise ready to take out my lesser samurai. The spearmen and their one action per turn doing their best to keep up, but happy to let the heroes duke it out. That paycheck wasn’t all that great last week so they’ll get there when they get there.

Camera back to the other side of town.

My samurai cuts down the clan Eric’s man on horse, but Eric’s leader runs through the building and meets my leader face to face. In the fate of the draw, he expertly swings his sword and my samurai fails his dodge, fails his test of honor and alas the wound is a bad one and he is cut down.  The bowmen seeing their boss go down let fly an arrow or but nothing is accomplished. One hapless bowman injures himself. Sigh, who hired that guy?

Back to the other side, forces are enjoined. Confidence is high, clan Tom-i-gotchi has numbers, but clan Eric-o-toshi has a better quality samurai. Clang, clang, clang! Back and forth they try to land blows.

Eric through some twist of fate pulls a skill which he puts on this samurai over here. The two samurai recognize each other that there is a blood feud between the two of them and for the rest of the game, if they are attacking each other, an extra die is added. O baby, IT IS ON.

Eric’s hero and his force in the middle contemplate their next move. My bowman on horse tries to pink away but nothing is landing.

Do you hear the Shakuhachi and the Taiko drums picking up the beat? Eric’s hero takes after my bowman to drive them from the field. They are no match for his sword. Action focuses on my right flank, blood is drawn. The blood feud gets messy literally but thankfully my samurai holds on (barely). My spearmen take down one of Eric’s spearmen. The next turn will be pivotal.

Eric gets the drop on my bowman on horse, he almost goes down but passes his test of honor and find the will to keep going with his arm injured.

Eric’s hero summoning all his strength takes a mighty swing, and my samurai goes down. The blood feud settled. My spearmen, consider their options, their last paycheck and decide that a ding on their next performance review isn’t a bad idea, and flee the field.

Test of Honour version 2 really plays well. The updates to the skill, honor and dishonor cards work really well. The time period is a great one and best of all, you don’t need hundreds and hundreds of figures to get into the game.  has lots of great options (and you can but it via Grey for Now Games too), as well as Gale Force 9 terrain. (Trees and shrubs) The mat interestedly enough is a 3’x3′ by Fantasy Flight games.