Daimyo by Osprey Games has freely dumped the rule set on the net. It was out on the samurai wargaming facebook page. Of course I downloaded it and never took a look. I never dreamed it would be a complete proof. They dropped 111 pages of rules.
If I can download them for free, why would I buy it?
If there is no tourney scene, why would I buy the book?
As a ceiler dweller gamer, what do I care about official rules?
I am confused. I cannot wrap my head around producing books for profit and then giving it away. WTF? Who is going to buy it now? Why would you buy the fuckin thing? Osprey spammed the market share with a free copy. Someone's ass has to be getting fired over this shit!
Rules
Dice determine quality
The rules steal Force on Force's concept of troop quality rolling different sided dice. Delta operators roll a D20 with success on 4+. While muck racking dirty faced shit eaters roll a D6, success on 4+. No matter what weapon platform you toss around your proficiency is the same.
Where in Daimyo a +5 is good.
Basing
It doesn't matter. As long as everything you have is based the same. Like me my Sammies are based for Warmaster. No rebasing or trays or sabots are required. If we are being true, you are hosting Samurai. No mate is going to paint Hojo or Oda just to play only you and your Takeda. It don't matter!
Osprey states Cavalry as lees wide and deeper. So if you based your Warmaster Sammy Cav properly as a kool aid drinker your mint.
Armies of the time
Daimyo has a double organization to reflect how Samurai fought. There are units. In which everyone is the same or the majority is the same. The other being Sonao reflecting all the different combined armies of an individual reporting to duty with his men.
They do tell a fractured lie. A daimyo would call up his mates. Those mates would bring their boys. Those mates were not interested in giving away their mates. Especially the lower rung mates. As they needed these clown to do labor. If you allowed said dudes to go off and fight with another leader dude. That leader dude would use them as collectors of flying arrows. As he would not waste his labor force.
Osprey is this regard does a good job of handling this concept out side of a skirmish rule set.
Page 11
Here the rotational volley fire of Teppo armed Ashigaru appears again. This is never happened. You will see it mentioned all the time. It is a lie that has become impossible to stamp out. No academic scholar will tell you such a thing is true. Even in Japan!
Orders
You pull orders or activations like Bolt Action. But the orders are placed like 2nd edition Epic or modern by Fire and Sword. The issuing of orders to Sonae is different. This section will take a little study.
You get 3 tokens per Sonae. You must take one of each. Then it doesn't matter what you take. This forms your order pool.
You pull tokens until a token for a Sonae comes up. Then those tokens are applied to that Sonae. Everything is resolved. Then you draw for the next and next until the Daimyo token is pulled and your done. This creates a fog of war and limitation on your ability to order elements on the field.
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