Development Notes: NIPPON Warring States ARMY BOOK

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With the release of Total War: Shogun 2, it's now time to kick-start this old project of mine again.

The Nippon Army Book was always confronted with three possible routes, historical, mystical or mythical (and by that I include anything over the top from anime and manga sources).

The top contenders for secondary sources to structure the book around would be have been truly historical Turnbull/Osprey, etcetera or RPG based, especially L5R. L5R was slightly more in the mystical camp, so when another Fandex based their model on that, I was relieved, since it freed the approach to a more historical army list. Studying Shogun 2 allows a more disinterested perspective in how such a list should look like, without getting caught in the mire of trying to defend your position too greatly.

Army composition should, in my view, go along these lines:

Core - Peasants, Ashigaru

Special - Samurai, Ronin, Monks

Rare - Artillery, Ninjas, Tengu, Oni

Characters - the usual suspects, selected youkai


Character mounts and monsters are actually a problem in a more historical based list. The best I came up with was the Ki-rin, who's remarkable pacifistic in nature, the Dragon, who's even rare than the Elven ones, and the flying cloud, which I nicked off Dragonball. You don't see chariots used in warfare.

Shogun 2 makes no mention of armed peasants, they're added for colour and completion, possibly also as troop types for pirates and brigands; Ashigaru are an essential part of any Nippon army.

Samurai are the raison d'etre for playing this faction, and you should be able to craft them into any form you want. Ronin is a more difficult topic, since supply usually depends on the recent demise of a clan, and the retainers finding neither need nor desire to join their masters in the after life. Supply of Monks doesn't appear to be a problem, just their representation.

Artillery tends to be confined to sieges, but in this game you have to have this option for the field. Ninjas, I've always seen this more as a character, CA makes them grenade throwers and nasty at close range in short combats. Tengu and Oni seem to be the only mythical creatures that tend to organize themselves, and easily cloned from similar troop types.

My take on this army is to remove the champion, musician and standard bearer options directly from each unit. Most of the army doesn't have great personal initiative, it needs to be inspired by it's leaders, who together with unit upgrades get added separately later.

There seems to be a trend to limit Magic Items to around eight per book, so figuring out which ones would contribute the most without going overboard is going to be interesting.

Another form of upgrade, that's based more on generalship should compensate.

I'll probably have to revise the magic system again, which is a pity, since I thought it was rather elegant.

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WAKATO

Levied from the peasants that till their fields and labour in their holds, the Wakato units are usually tasked with mundane tasks of porters and labourers, and while equipped with hand weapons, only in extremis would any commander be desperate enough to deploy them in battle.

............M Ws.Bs S T W I A Ld Points
Wakato .4 . 2 . 2 .3 3. 1 3 1 5 . 02

Unit Size:
10+

Weapons & Armour:
Hand Weapon

Special Rules:
Peasant

OPTIONS

Weapons (one choice only):
Yari ....... 1 point

Additional equipment (one choice only):
Rocks ....... default





CHUGEN

While drawn from the Peasants class, Chugen are trained as a militia to supplement the professional troops under the command of their overlords, though most due to the requirements of their local economies, rarely deployed outside their immediate provinces nor for any extended period. Most Chugen will plant their spears in the pathways between the rice fields, which permits them to be mustered almost immediately in the face of any threat or unexpected incursion.

............M Ws.Bs S T W I A Ld Points
Chugen .4 . 3 . 2 .3 3. 1 2 1 6 . 04

Unit Size:
10+

Weapons & Armour:
Hand Weapon

Special Rules:
Peasant

OPTIONS

Weapons (one choice only):
Yari ....... 1 point

Additional equipment (one choice only):
None ....... default






Peasant
A deference enforced by feudalism and reinforced by severe discipline for incurring the merest slight, peasants' incentive for showing initiative may be severely tempered. Peasants must take a leadership test in order to declare a charge against an enemy unit, unless the unit is joined by a character.

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CA lists the following as infantry:

Loan Sword Ashigaru - The Japanese can manufacture swords in industrial quantities, sufficient to even equip their huge armies, the question I have would be if these would be up to the quality we usually associate with Samurai swords, which even the most common ones require weeks of production. In the game, this unit is great for making up the numbers, since their upkeep is 50 koku, and in the long run that pays for itself, but historically, you went to battle with either a polearm or a missile weapon, anything else seems rather unhelpful.Also, for the tabletop, you want to distinguish between the equipment your common troops have access to and the Warrior elite.

Katana Hero - Character with upgrades that effect a unit.

Katana Ronin - Don't see any problem with this, though I wouldn't give them an automatic skill boost.

Katana Samurai - Default; despite the fact that they should be carrying spears.

No-Dachi Samurai - Really impressive charge; though I'd move the Banzai ability to a character upgrade; admittingly, that means that every unit can potentially do that.

Samurai Retainers - Upgraded Samurai, I think Hatamoto should cover it.

Naginata Samurai - Not a problem

Naginata warrior Monks - A weapons upgrade, since I want to leave them bare to customize as needed.

Onna Bushi - Colourful, but don't contribute anything really to the list, so will be left out.

Warrior Nuns - Heard about them, but like Onna Bushi, I doubt they contribute anything substantial to the list.

Fire Bomb Throwers - Not sure if this should be included.


Weapon Upgrades:

Matchlock - Teppo; might link this to a required character attribute.

Yari - Yari by itself is a normal spear, there would be another one available for more pike type length and effect.

Bow - Little ambivalent on this, if all three should be available, the classic one would just be the longbow.

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Cavalry is rather scarce, both in reality and in the game; in the original concept, cavalry is an upgrade for a Samurai unit:

Katana Cavalry - That would be the default, though they're more likely to be equipped with yari.

Bow Cavalry - Longbow upgrade.

Light Cavalry - Basically, light armour, no barding.

Yari Cavalry - Not sure if they should be allowed lances; barding permitted.

Great Guard - Originally, I had them down as Samurai upgraded to Hatamoto, unique; in a large game, one per warrior lord.

Monk Cavalry - I don't feel this works out with the aesthetic, so no.

Non-samurai Cavalry - Ronin are too poor to afford horses, and peasants would not be tolerated on them; this doesn't count for characters.


Weapon Upgrades:

Naginata - Not really sure how effective they are from horseback, but usually equipped the Hatamoto with them during test matches last year to even the odds.

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And finally, we get to war machines:

Cannons - Historically, the Japanese got theirs from three sources, China, Europe and home grown. Apparently, against the stone fortifications built by Japanese engineers, it didn't have much effect in the medium term, more of a demoralizer, and if they did use them on the battle field, it was from a fixed position. The most effective ones were "liberated" or bought from European traders, and would be the standard game cannons. The Chinese ones were probably useless, which is why they seem to have disappeared from the scene, though the secret of gun powder remained. The local brass ones fired a two pound ball, which I can't believe had any effect against the Japanese stone castles, and probably not worth bringing to the battlefield. The other variant is cast from iron with breech loading, though beyond that fact, I haven't been able to track down any information as to how effective it was. This could be represented as a cheaper alternative with a higher rate of malfunction. One interesting type that turns up later in their history but is "viable" in terms of their current technology, are wooden cannons, which probably had a greater rate of failure than iron cast ones, but would be cheaper and faster to manufacture.

Fire Projecting Mangonels - Until I saw them in Shogun 2, I never heard of them in the Japanese context; basically, I'd say they were a Halfling Hotpot with splash effect. I'm not sure I would include them. There was an exchange of knowledge with the mainland, so siege engines and techniques can't have been unknown in Japan, but you never really get to hear of them using the ones you'd logically expect to be effective.

Fire Rockets - At the time we tested the original list, the players were insistent on some form of artillery, so we basically adopted the Nenelwerfer from the Empire book, though I felt that had a more Korean flavour. While I did know the Japanese had and used rockets, this was the first time I saw them deployed as grenade launchers, which I feel can bring more or less the same effect as the Nebelwerfer, while keeping it unique to this Army Book. Something to work out in the course of writing the list.

Traction Trebuchet - Probably use this to substitute for the Fire Projecting Mangonel. It's not mentioned in Shogun 2, but it does pop up when you research siege weapons in Japan. Actually, so does a form of a very heavy crossbow, but that seems to disappear in a generation or two after it's introduction, so the Japanese must have found it impractical.

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General - There are two types of Generals, those from the family of the ruling Daimyo, and others that have managed promotion through the ranks of the Clan and associated minor clans. Inspiration and Stand & Fight are interesting capabilities; default leadership of non-family generals might be a point lower. Specializing in various arms also differentiates Nippon generals from others.

Geisha - I would really like to see a Geisha on the battlefield, but she's a sitting target without even a forcefield to deflect damage, though conceivably she'd have a short range poisoned missile weapon and disorientation at close quarters.More of a strategic asset.

Metsuke - Wrong game, but Commissar material. Being of Samurai caste, they'd know how to fight, and might even be able to spot infiltrators and shore up morale.

Missionary - Imported Empire Warrior priest? Doesn't fit in, in any case.

Monk - Morale booster and advanced scout; my concept was more along the lines of Warrior Priest and Arch Lector, which is not terribly original.

Ninja - The obvious use is as an assassin, though advance scout is just as likely. The only character that should be allowed to join a unit of Ninja.

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These are unit abilities, and how I'd think they would be used on the tabletop; whether they would be a viable addition to the army book in whole, part of modified form is open to question:

Stealth - Hard to say; no LoS to unit; can neither be purposefully targeted nor units moved to intercept? This one is difficult to pull off, beyond pre-deploying before battle begins.

Bamboo Wall - Fixed, impassable terrain?

Banzai! - Unit frenzied; WS and movement increased by 1; one turn only, every three turns.

Blinding Grenades - Ninjas only; lowers movement, WS, BS, AC. Initiative and leadership by 2; once every three turns.

Burning Buildings - Bloody pyromaniacs.

Fire Arrows - Bow equipped units only, not in wet weather, once per three turns.

Increased Range - Unit increases range of their missile weapon for one turn, every three turns.

Inspire - One unit within 6" range of the general; increase by 1 WS, BS, ROF, Attacks, Initiative, Strength and Leadership for one tunr, available evry three turns per game.

Mines - I'm wondering if you can use this on land; probably only for sieges.

Ranked Fire - Default; maybe fire and movement otherwise.

Regroup Position - Rallied troops gain an immediate free movement towards a point indicated within the command range of the general; one turn only, usable every three turns.

Rapid Volley - Matchlocks only; no movement; can't be used on the first turn; one turn only, usable every three turns.

Screens - Fixed; +2 to AC.

Second Wind - Cavalry units only; 6" range, no negative leadership modifiers, no negative movement modifiers, one turn, once every three turns per game.

Rapid Advance - Yari unit increases speed by 1 for one turn, available once every three turns.

Stand & Fight - Unit with general only; no movement, no flanks or rear, non-warmachine and non-monsters friendly units within 6" range increase WS by one and double ROF; leadership radius increases by 25%.

Hold Firm - 6" range, no negative modifications to leadership, one turn, once per game.

Swooping Crane - Horse archers, two shots, lowers speed by two, for one turn, once very two turns.

War Cry - Lowers leadership, AC and speed of opposing units by one within 8", for one turn, once every two turns.

Whistling Arrows - Lowers leadership by 1 of all units over which the arrow(s) fly, for one turn; does not stack with other whistling arrows fired by other eligible units, once every two turns.

Yari Square - No movement, no flanks or rear, two ranks on all sides.

Yari Wall - Maybe the equivalent to Pikes: First strike, three ranks, front only, no movement.

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As an interesting character, you could have the Fukkan - nothing really exceptional in fighting capability, but his continued presence on the table allows spectators to make solicited or unsolicited comments and advice on the owning player's current and future tactics, deployments, movements, as well as possible opposing player's units, intent, tactics, equipment and so on, as long as it's dramatically expressed in an exaggerated Japanese accent.


Clan Traits

Oda - Ashigaru units and upgrades cost twenty percent less; Ashigaru leadership tests are conducted with a +1 bonus.

Shimazu - Infantry samurai units cost ten percent less; infantry samurai units have +1 bonus to WS; difficult to corrupt General if samurai caste.

Mori - Amphibious assault bonus?

Tokugawa - Tricky; above normal character equipment allowance.

Takeda - Cavalry units cost ten percent less; cavalry unit leadership +1 bonus; cavalry units +1 bonus to WS.

Uesugi - Above normal monk equipment allowance; warrior monk units cost twenty percent less; warrior monk units have +1 bonus to WS.

Date - All units can Banzai charge; infantry samurai units equipped with no-dachi have +1 bonus to WS; nodachi upgrade costs 50% less.

Chosokabe - All bow equipped units cost ten percent less; player may field an extra ten percent larger army than normal point restriction.

Hattori - Units can be upgraded to scout.

Hojo - More effective artillery units (I'm thinking Dwarven efficiency).

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Actually, I was going to post the last for the basis for the Army Book, unfortunately, it was lost yesterday during the re-login; I'll redo it by the weekend, though it's on the rather frivolous combat traits, less frivolous than the civilian ones.

Basically, there are two versions planned for this faction - the core of the first one can be still seen in my old Warseer thread, and the nominal project name is NIPPON Rising Son, based on the system I was developing for the generic DOGS OF WAR Soldiers of Fortune. The second one, which came about because of some advice from an old GW hand (who's gone on to better things), is the whose genesis you're witnessing; it's basically simpler and more compatible to the current Army Books that GW is producing, with a couple of tweaks that make it unique enough to differentiate from it's compatriots, easy enough to use and interesting enough to continue to use.

NIPPON Rising Sun ARMY BOOK is more of a self indulgent intellectual exercise, railing against the current dumbification of the system.

One problem that can't be ignored is the general ignorance of the history and conditions in Warhammer's Nippon. The culture is fairly easy to extract from our universe's version. Balancing the clan traits against each other seems pointless without relentless play testing, so a better system might just be a generic one - the clans remain nameless and you pay for what you want.

In this period, the Imperial family is purely a figurehead, special characters would be limited to the Shogun, a magic user, and some of the more colourful warriors that had the temerity to appear.

I had two magic systems for the original one prepared, but for Warring States it would be reasonable to see if you can just use the generic one already available, that doesn't sound very interesting, and seems implausible, unless the Elves decided to teach it as well in the Far East, rather than the Eastern civilizations developing it independently themselves.

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The Arts of Bushido

Bushido - Units that follow the Code of Bushido cannot use non-Bushido characters' leadership for tests.

Strategy of Defense - All units within command range gain bonus +1 to AC when attacked.

Strategy of Attack - All units within command range gain bonus +1 to WS when attacking.

Way of the Sword - Unit specific; bonus +1 to WS for katana and hand weapons identified as blades.

Sword Expertise - Unit specific; Banzai charge for katana units.

Kenjutsu Mastery - Unit specific; bonus +2 to WS for katana and hand weapons identified as blades.

Way of the Spear - Unit specific; bonus +1 to WS for yari.

Spear Expertise - Unit specific; can form spear square.

Sojutsu Mastery - Unit specific; bonus +2 to WS for yari.

Way of the Bow - Unit specific; can use fire arrows (must have brought along their own brazier).

Bow Mastery - Unit specific; bonus +1 to BS for bows.

Kyujutsu Mastery - Unit specific; can fire bonus volley for every two rounds of continuous fire.

Heaven and Earth - Bonus baggage train? A chicken in every pot?

The Five Elements - Command radius increase bonus +25%.

Form - Unit specific; cavalry unit can execute Swooping Crane.

Horse Mastery - Unit specific; cavalry unit bonus +1 to movement.

Shih - This one looks a little over-powered; army point allowance increased by 5%; bonus +1 to WS for all army specific charging units; bonus +1 to general's leadership; bonus +1 to AC for all army specific units.


Well, that's it. The trick is to convert all these troops, characters, capabilities and traits into a Warhammer compatible army.

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Cavalry


There are four types of cavalry, five, if you count Mounted Infantry:

Ultra Heavy Cavalry - Basically, Renaissance Men at Arms in Gothic armour on top of a very large warhorse.

Heavy Cavalry - The rather more romantic version which hovers between plate mail and plate armour, and a happier looking steed.

Medium Cavalry - Usually the preserve of Sergeants, Squires and the more poorly equipped Knights; since the destriers are geldings, they don't care.

Light Cavalry - Minimum to no armour, and friskier horses.


With the best will in the world, Japanese Cavalry will never be described as Ultra Heavy, and charitably can be placed somewhere between Medium and Heavy. They use spears, not lances. What I'd like would be the equivalent of Dragon Princes, what we'll end up with is slightly below Silver Helms.

Whereas Bow Cavalry and Light Cavalry can be easily catered to, since both would go under the Fast Cavalry rule; however, YAri Cavalry and Katana Cavalry would expect to make a greater impact, especially if they were charging their opponents. This means that they'd need some form of upgrade from a special rule to provide for that impact, since a spear is not the equivalent of a lance (that's assuming the unit in question no longer qualifies for Fast Cavalry). Then you have to take account for the Oban unit.

The Naginata was added as a compromise, to compensate for the lack of a lance, and makes the unit more dangerous in prolonged combats; this weapon might be confined to the Hatamoto/Oban unit. Is this historically accurate? When you consider the halberd as options for mounted units in other factions, I'd have to say yes in this context.

Barding will be permitted for Heavy Cavalry.

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Army Structure


Going by the last two books, we're looking at a ratio of around 5-7 Core, 8-10 Specials and around 8 Rares. Might be an attempt to compensate for the lack of shiny stuff.

Currently, that would mean the army list should look like:

Core

Ashigaru - Spear
Ashigaru - Longbow
Ashigaru - Matchlock
Ashigaru - Loan Sword

Tomb Kings and O&G list Light Cavalry in this section, but since we want to confine cavalry to the Samurai caste, it's not possible to include them here by default, excepting by finessing some attribute that can be purchased by a character.


Specials

Samurai - Katana Infantry
Samurai - Spear Infantry
Samurai - Longbow Infantry
Samurai - Matchlock Infantry
Samurai - Naginata Infantry
Samurai - Nodachi Infantry
Warrior Monks - Matchlock Infantry
Warrior Monks - Longbow Infantry
Warrior Monks - Naginata Infantry
Samurai - Longbow Cavalry
Samurai - Spear Light Cavalry
Samurai - Spear Heavy Cavalry
Samurai - Katana Heavy Cavalry

Ronin are members of that rare group which socially don't quite fit in, too good for one caste, too despised by the other, like governesses. Also, going by the above list, I've run out of slots to place them


Rares

Ninja - Infantry with bad *****
Fire Rockets - Infantry with Rocket Launchers
Fire Bomb Throwers - Infantry with Grenades
Dragon - Monster with attitude
Traction Trebuchet - Warmachine
Cannon - Warmachine
Oni - Monstrous Infantry, either Ogres or their larger cousins, Dragon Ogres
Tengu - Flyers, Yoda or Old Ben Kenobi, which would be funnier?

I find Monsters a problem here, since you don't really find them taking such an active part in warfare, even in folklore. Dragons are rather an over-used trope, and I don't really see Nagas as filling an intermediate role.

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Army Structure


I think I'll drop peasants, they're actually not listed in Shogun 2, and would therefore be a needless complication in this variant; that does seem to leave some slots open in Core, but honestly, what can you fill them with that wouldn't unbalance the Faction? Loan Sword Ashigaru will just have to take over their perceived role as cheap cannon fodder,l though Ashigaru in general perform well there anyway.

Some modifications are trying to add in Pirates, and presumably brigands, but I don't see a need to do that here. In a way, this list is starting to look suspiciously vanilla.


Characters


I'm changing one rule of army composition - Characters can make up to 50% of points available; this will be balanced by There Can Be Only One, in which an army can only have one Lord character. I don't see having only one Lord a real problem until you start up a four thousand point list.

That brings up the difficulty of filling up the Heroes roster; the Lord one is actually now simplified, since there is only one Lord generic character, the Daimyo. Your army does not need the Daimyo to lead it, as any Hero can be the general, but no other class will have a generic Lord character.

Which brings us to the other mainstay of a Fantasy army, the Wizard. I never envisioned this Faction to have make overt Magic displays a major function, so lack of a Lord Wizard or an Arch Lector doesn't bother me, that doesn't mean that their Hero counterparts aren't almost as capable, the problem is pruning out candidates and systems.

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Magic in Nippon


So what could you expect to find in magic systems in the Land of the Rising Sun?

High Elven derived - The High Elves have one or two very large garrisons and naval stations stationed there (shades of Okinawa), though how remote they were from the primary centres of Nippon culture or population is difficult to say. There's no indication that they came as conquerors, nor that relations were strained with either the clergy, the Imperial court, the aristocracy or the peasantry.

This could be due to several factors, the most important one is that no one felt threatened by them. In fact, they may even have viewed them as benign supernatural guardians, that protected their shores against other supernatural forces, which could include sea monsters and their Kin, the Dark Elves.

Question would be, if they were willing to protect them against more mundane opponents, like the Mongols, Imperial China, the Portuguese, or the Americans? Perhaps indirectly, as a deterrence, military advisers and "technology transfer" in the form of the Eight Colleges of Magic, which should have been easier, since unlike with the Empire, they would have had a continuous garrison presence for thousands of years, which guarded both against incursions by forces of Chaos and havens for their naval forces stationed on the other side of the world. And in the meantime, sea control for the benefit of their merchant fleet.

The Nipponese could have come to regard them as a form of Youkai or even Kami, nature supernatural beings that seem linked to natural phenomenon or topography; after all, tales told by their ancestors probably identified Elves still very much living and youthful. Which begs the question, how much actual contact occurred between the Elves and the various strata of society. They may even understand the difference between the Dark Elves and High Elves, based on their folklore. There might even be colonies of Wood Elves in the more remote mountainous areas.

The Chinese never bothered to invade, quite content to accept vaguely worded "oaths" of allegiance on occasion they remembered there were a bunch of large islands to the west and sent an envoy. The Mongols took a closer interest, and isn't it interesting, their invasion fleets tended to get destroyed by forces of nature, over which the High Elves could be described as masters of indirect control?

The Portuguese would be viewed as direct military and commercial competitors; not taking a direct hand, they might have encouraged a more isolationist policy and as a consequence, more religious intolerance. Since Elven religion isn't evangelical in nature, Nipponese clergy nor aristocracy would have regarded them as a source of destabilization.The Dutch, or Marienburgers, could be afforded limited commercial access (it would give them an added incentive to ensure the safety of their Elven burghers back home). The Portuguese? The Imperials, of course.

It doesn't take a Teclis to teach humans the basics underlying the magic system the Elves are using, though it might have taken one to figure out how to convey these universal laws in a way that his his human students can understand it in a systematic way. Despite this, and due to thousands of years of contact, it's quite likely that some or all of the Eight Lores would be known in their magic circles.

The question would be, in what form(s) would this take? While Elven religions wouldn't be regarded as destabilizing, their magic system probably would be, mostly due to it's military applications. It would then go two ways, either all the clans have some sort of access to Magicians, or a central authority controls them, rather like in Riftwars. Since that would be boring, I'd say that each clan has access to Magicians in some form or other.

High Elves are going to concerned to remove any possible taint of corruption from the recipients of the Eight Lores, so it's likely there is a centralized college that would teach that, if only to control the candidates. In the end, it might be a combination of college and master-apprentice relationships, with hedge wizards rooted out early by the rather close communities that the Nipponese have.

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Magic in Nippon


Chaos

They're like cockroaches, so Chaos is everywhere; however, you tie this up with a really tight social system, and Nippon may not have been the ideal place to really incubate. If we include an active recruitment system that tries to identify those most receptive to becoming wizards, and communities policing themselves out of self-interest, Chaos would find succour only in remote rural areas or under the sponsorship of powerful organizations, such as the Yakuza or ambitious Clans, away from prying eyes.

Personally, I think it would have been too much of a risk to use Chaos sorcerers in the open field, since it might have been one of the issues that unites rival Clans, who're only too happy to find a reason to wipe out one of their rivals, with the blessing of the Imperial Court.


Geomancy

Doesn't really matter what you call it, whether Dragon Lines or Feng Shui, or any other variant; the question is if any magic system would make it's way across from the mainland, like any other number of philosophies or religions. That the knowledge of such systems would be imported, I'm quite sure, but that it would remain in it's original form, I rather doubt it.

I think for Nippon, you actually have to have a physical presence of foreign advocates to keep anything in more or less in it's original form, otherwise it becomes integrated with indigenous systems, rather than remaining recognizably independent. Missionaries have their zeal to evangelize and sustain themselves in heathen lands, magic users tend to be rather self centred and rather secretive as regards to their arts.


Onmyōdō

Onmyōdō (陰陽道?, also In'yōdō), (lit. "The Way of Yin and Yang,) is a traditional Japanese esoteric cosmology, a mixture of natural science and occultism. It is based on the Chinese philosophies of Wu Xing and Yin and yang, introduced into Japan at the turn of the 6th century, and accepted as a practical system of divination. These practices were influenced further by Taoism, Buddhism and Shintoism, and evolved into present-day onmyōdō around the late 7th century.

Onmyōdō was under the control of the imperial government, and later its courtiers, the Tsuchimikado family until the middle of the 19th century, at which point it became prohibited as superstition.

That's an adaption, under control of the Imperial Court, and about the only magic system that I found that could be described as really Japanese in flavour.



Witches

It's been hard to really identify any unique pattern here, though a recent anime series tried.


Mahoujin

In popular culture, a lot of magic systems look like they were adopted wholesale from Western sources, which leads back to High Elven derived.

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Provisional Timeline


-15'000 IC
Old Ones arrive after fire-sale by by local galactic real estate agency; discovered they have bought swampland.

-10'000 IC
Finally approve architect's plans; start cultivating cheap labour for maintenance and interesting pets. The islands of Nippon start taking shape.

-5'600 IC
Homeowner's Insurance lapses.

-5'000 IC
Fecal matter strikes the ventilator.

-4'000 IC
Ulthuan begins colonization move; enclaves established on Nippon; indigenous tribes resolutely ignore arriving Youkai.

-1'000 IC
Culturally advanced tribes immigrate from mainland onto the islands of Nippon, establishing themselves around the central portion and driving aboriginal hunter-gatherer tribes North and South, if not destroying or absorbing them. Rice cultivation is established. Skaven begin to arrive in significant numbers in the Far east.

-500 IC
Central island tribes are now strong enough to exert military force; early clashes with elusive High Elves demonstrably show that this causes famine and other misfortunes. High Elves recognized as a form of Kami, to be placated. Five Kingdoms emerge.

0
After centuries of diplomacy and military build-up, a single kingdom manages to unite all feuding states under a legendary Empress/High Priestess; amongst her achievements, a trade relationship and non-interference pact with Ulthuan. In the chaos of war, idspossessed aristocracy and other social outcasts retreat to inaccessible mountain regions, creating secret villages and starting the practice and philosophy that some later group under the term Ninjitsu.

500 IC
The first signs that the Imperisl system is breaking down; the Emperor tries to resolve this by aggressive expansion into the remaining aboriginal areas by restive warriors; he appoints the first Shogun. A new religion from the mainland arrives, which somehow manages to learn to co-exist with the established animist one. In the meantime, a major part of Clan Eshin decides to return home.

1000 IC
The entire island chain of Nippon has by now long since been conquered; successive Imperial Courtiers intrigued to diminish the Imperial Family into mere figureheads.The new religions discovers internal schisms as doctrinal disputes turn violent.

1500 IC
Decadence in the Imperial Court results in massive power struggle between rival factions of courtiers, who call in the military administrators of distance provinces to their cause. These administrators rapidly recognize the power their position gives them and revolt, establishing their fiefdoms. A series of military dictatorships are established as one clan after another seeks military dominance over the Empire.

1676 IC
Wu becomes Dragon Emperor of Cathay.

1690 IC
Dragon Emperor Wu sends a large invasion force to conquer the Southlands. Only Yin-Tuan manages to return.

2000 IC
A single Clan manages military domination over the entire Empire. A golden age is established that's shattered shortly afterwards as two invasion attempts are made from the mainland; High Elven weather wizards destroy the invasion fleets. Loss of confidence in the ruling clan triggers off the next round of internecine warfare.

2305 IC
Teclis founds the Colleges of Magic in Altdorf.

2377 IC
The Monkey King ascends to the throne of Cathay. He installs Warlord Kishkik of Clan Eshin as an adviser and begins to trade with the Underempire.

2500 IC
They're still at it. However, Old Wolrd trading ships have managed to evade High Elven patrols and other unspeakable dangers, they bring both a new religion and advanced gunpowder technology.

[condottiere]

Magic In Nippon


Shinto

Or whatever you want to name to name what is a mixture of ancestor and nature worship; while you might not think that having one of their priests waving paper fans over a battlefield as very impressive, having watched any number of animes, you realize that the shrine maidens can really kick ***.

They're really interested in keeping a balance between material and spiritual worlds, so their magic is likely to be effective against undead and Chaos; more of an inspiration pre-battle, rather than during it. This would seem to be divination and augmentation spells, anything with a more indirect effect. On the other hand, if you deploy Miko, you want to see some direct damage spells; looks like it's hard to balance their Lore(s).


Buddhism

Another case of a Lore that would be strong against Chaos and undead, but it's perceived non-violent nature seems in contradiction with it's inspired orders of Warrior Monks. Their spells would concentrate on non-violent means to effect the outcome of battle

While it is easier to combine both Shinto and Buddhism into a single religion for game purposes, it's rather like combining Druidism and Christianity, each has it's distinct flavour. At this period of time, they both manage to co-exist.

I also see Buddhism has directly maintaining morale on the battlefield, and direct damage sp0ells only weakly effecting normal troops, but having a greater effect on monsters.


Christianity

Or Sigmarism, or whatever. Some disruptive religion from the Old World arrives, which is attractive to those in the lower social scale, as well as some in the aristocracy who see it as potential counterweight against the oppression by the central government (or, more likely, as a useful political tool).

Basically, it would be a copy paste from the Empire book. While Estalia seems a more historically correct source for it, you'd have to invent another Army Book, and the Empire sounds more interesting as an existential threat for the Shogun, or an attractive ally for the rebellious Daimyo.


Other Sects

Obvious candidates would be based on Chaos worshippers. Confucianism would be integrated as a philosophy, Taosim either never set foot or got absorbed, Any worship of the High Elves would get mystified and co-opted into whatever version of Shintoism that will be practiced. One interesting variant would be a worship of some giant monster.

[condottiere]

Characters


Daimyo

The only Lord level character in this faction, with the exception of legendary Special Characters. There is a specific prohibition of more than one Lord level character in a Nippon army list. A Daimyo would be the equivalent of the generic Dogs of War general in profile. In addition, he gets an upgrade allowance of 200 points.

The 200 points covers everything, from weapons to mounts to magic items. You'd also need those points in order to partially pay for alliances and affiliations that allow the use of Rare units. Basically, for a monster like a Dragon to turn up on your side, he'd have to be summoned. That summoning is going to cost the Daimyo in his upgrade allowance. I'm also moving Warrior Monks to Rare, this will make the Rare selection bulge, but the Daimyo can pay to either directly move some Rare units to Specials through a religious affiliation, or if not, he'll just have to pay for them directly from the rare points allocation, so a very secular and somewhat honourable Daimyo will find that his artillery, Warrior Monks and Ninja are competing for the same points.

Let's put in a word for the Shogun here; most Shoguns are going to rather clever and/or lucky clan leaders, whose family may be temporarily occupying the pinnacle of political power, paranoiacally looking around for the next challenger. He's not going to be a figure like the Emperor, who has his own dragon as a mount. A Special Character for one of the legendary ones should be included.


Taicho

The equivalent to a Dogs of War Captain, except no Pegasus and a 100 point upgrade allowance. This sounds like it has a great potential for abuse, and I agree; however, the fact that you're going to need them to lead blocks of troops (amongst other duties) should keep that within boundaries. Besides, they'll want to show off all that magic armour and ancestral weapons that they have lying around at home.

Special Characters from this lot could any number of famous warriors, even from the ranks of the Onna Bushi. A Ronin upgrade (or downgrade), could allow a Ronin unit to be fielded as a Special unit.


Mahoujin

Generic Empire wizard, at least for the moment. Seems the sensible solution, unless a more nifty one can be successfully introduced. Also, 100 points of upgrades are allocated, not including level increase to second, which would be paid for separately.

Might be able to pay the cost for summoning a monster from his equipment allocation.


Priest

The obvious solution is to use the Empire Warrior Priest, though that may be a tad too fanatical for me. The only way out would be to invent a new Lore. In this fandex, the pragmatic way would really be to combine Shinto and Buddhism into a single path; for the converted Daimyo, they'll have to use actual Empire Warrior Priests.

Of course, they get 100 points as well for upgrades. Considering the lack of a Lord equivalent, they might be upgradeable to second level. Also, for every Priest character, you can field a single Warrior Monk unit as a Special unit.


Ninja

Basically a Skaven or Dark Elven Assassin. No exotic poisons, at this level that's asking for trouble. A master Ninja would be a Special Character. 100 points equipment allocation. You can field a Ninja unit in Specials.


Metsuke

Needed an Engineer type, but I'll settle for him. He's there to frustrate the enemy or augment some capability. With this character, I do wonder if he should be allowed 100 points as equipment allocation. Hard to say if any unit can be identified with him.

Since we're on the topic of Engineers, I don't really see a place for them here.

[condottiere]

<font face="Comic Sans MS"><b><font size="4">NIPPON ARMY LIST</font></b><br>
<br>
The following army list enables you to turn your miniature collection
into an army ready for a tabletop battle. As described in the Warhammer
rule book, the army list is divided into four sections: Characters
(including Lords, Heroes and Champions), Core Units, Special Units and
Rare Units.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Choosing an Army</b><br>
<br>
Every miniature has a points cost that reflects how effective it is on the battlefield.<br>
<br>
Both players choose armies based upon an agreed upon point cost; it may
be impossible to use every single point allocated, and in some cases,
opponents can agree in advance to permit a certain tolerance in the
total number of points utilized.<br>
<br>
The following pages contain point values for each unit and/or miniature that is available for selection for your army.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Army List Entries</b><br>
<br>
As normal.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Choosing Characters</b><br>
<br>
Characters represent the most able, ruthless, noble, and/or successful<br>
individuals in your army, basically beings that have risen to prominence
either by their own efforts, fate and/or by family connections: they
may have extraordinary capabilities in the fields of war or arcane
matters, or they have been promoted to their current positions. These
form a vital and potent part of your forces.<br>
<br>
Characters are divided into three broad categories: Lords (the most<br>
powerful characters), Heroes and Champions. The maximum number of<br>
characters and their distribution that an army can include is shown on the chart below.<br>
<br>
The army must always include a character that is designated the General,
or overall commander of the forces represented on the tabletop. If you
include more than one character, then the one with the highest
Leadership value is the general. When one or more characters have the
same (and highest) Leadership, choose one to be the general at the start
of the battle. Make sure that your opponent knows which character is
your general when you deploy your units.<br>
<br>

<br>
The army does not have to include the maximum number of characters allowed, and can always include fewer than indicated down to a minimum of one (the General). Similarly, an army does not have to<br>
include Lords, it can include all of its characters as Heroes, if you prefer.<br>
<br>
At the beginning of the battle choose one of the characters in your army to be the General and tell your opponent which one it is. Your General will always be the character with the highest Leadership value in your army.

However, as there can obviously only be one General in each army, you will have to choose who to nominate if two or more of your characters tie for highest Leadership.<br>
<br>
<i>Chariots &amp; ridden monsters</i><br>
Characters are sometimes allowed to ride on the backs of monsters or in chariots. Every character you want to field mounted in the army must be given their own chariot or mount. They will not all cram into one! For purposes of this book, no ridden monsters nor chariots are available for selection.<br>
<br>
<i>Magic items</i><br>
Nipponese characters may only choose magic items from the ones listed in
this army book. Note that you cannot take magic items from other army
lists. Lords may have up to 200 points worth of magic items; Heroes may
have upto 100 points worth of magic items. Special characters come with their own
set of magic items and cannot be given any extra normal or magic
equipment. Their items cannot be taken by other characters either. Units
that can take magic banner equivalents, which are listed at the end of
the army list.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Choosing Troops</b><br>
<br>
The number of each type of unit allowed depends on the army's points value and their respective categories. However, a minimum of three non-character units must be included.<br>

While up to 50% of the points available can be spent on character choices, there is only one Lord level character permitted per each Nippon army list. Any number of Heroes may be recruited to fill in the remaining points allocated to this category.


<br>
Core units represent the most common types of warriors in the army. They usually form the bulk of the army and will often bear the brunt of the fighting. As such, you must spend a minimum of 25% of your points on units in this category.<br>
<br>
Special units are the best of your warriors and could include some of the more common engines of war. They are available to your army in limited numbers. For most Nippon warhosts, these tend to be exclusively units drawn from the Samurai caste. There can never be more than 50% of the available points spent on units selected from this category.<br>
<br>
Rare units are so called because they are scarce compared to your ordinary troops. They represent unique units, uncommon creatures, unusual machines and ancient alliances between the mortal and spiritual world. Units in this category may never exceed 25% of the available points<br>
<br>
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Troop Slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . Character Slots<br>
Army Points Value . . . . . Core . . Special . . Rare . . . . . Lord . . Hero . . Champion<br>
Characters Up to 50% No limit
Core Minimum 25% No limit
Special Up to50% Up to 3
Rare Up to 25% Up to 2</font><br>
<br>
<div style="margin:20px; margin-top:5px;">
<fieldset class="fieldset"><legend>

[condottiere]

Loan Sword Ashigaru - The Japanese can manufacture swords in industrial quantities, sufficient to even equip their huge armies, the question I have would be if these would be up to the quality we usually associate with Samurai swords, which even the most common ones require weeks of production. In the game, this unit is great for making up the numbers, since their upkeep is 50 koku, and in the long run that pays for itself, but historically, you went to battle with either a polearm or a missile weapon, anything else seems rather unhelpful.Also, for the tabletop, you want to distinguish between the equipment your common troops have access to and the Warrior elite.


Katana

Well, I've had a change of heart.

After reflecting the lengthy (Warhammer) existence of this blade (which I've decided someone came up with around 500 IC), two millenia are sufficient to stock up the arsenals of even the most parsimonious clans with any number of rejects and apprentice efforts.

One problem with it's existence is, that it would be inevitable that the High Elves would have adopted it, if you give it characteristics that make it superior to a normal hand weapon, assuming it didn't stem from their smiths in the first place. The Cathayan Longsword in the OK book has always been assumed to to be the Warhammer equivalent. It's rated at WS +1, I +1 and AP and probably worth around 4 points to a human.

This issue came up because of the Loan Sword Ashigaru; if it was restricted to the Samurai, you could just fiddle around with the unit profile. My original take on this weapon was:


Katana
If used two handed, +1 strength; if used one handed, treat like hand weapon; treat as additional hand weapon if model already possesses hand weapon.

I'm reluctant to dismiss the Loan Sword Ashigaru from the list, seeing as Core already looks rather meager. Also, because these units would be the more trusted amongst the foot soldiers, allowed to carry the ancient symbol (if borrowed) of both warrior-hood and authority, and probably sent in as the first wave.

So either I alter the profile of the Loan Sword Ashigaru for WS from 3 to 4, or having possession of the Katana gives you an automatic bonus to WS.

[condottiere]

Weapons in Nippon


Katana

For the purposes of this specific Army Book, I'd adopt the Cathayan Longsword, as it's an off the shelf solution that actually gets the results you want, though at 3-4 points it's more expensive than a Great Weapon at 2 points, but these equipped units are meant to prevail in extended melees.


No-dachi

Great Weapon; probably faster in real life.Apparently, not for commoners.


Naginata

Halberd, definitely faster in real life. If the Katana was mythologized, the origins for this weapon are rather obscure. For some reason, it's associated with monks, and the Samurai caste, especially women, which may have been retconned at a later period so that that commoners don't seem to use it, which is why it's not listed as an option for Ashigaru.


Yari

It's a spear, and like all spears, it's a multi-purpose item. Cavalry can use it as a light lance, the Samurai on foot like to use it as their primary pole-arm, as do the Ashigaru,but here you run into the difficulty if you use it as a normal spear, or a longspear/pike. By the time we get to the mid-sixteenth century, it's clear it's length has been extended for the Ashigaru, by the Oda clan to European standards for pikes, while the rest were satisfied (or more likely because they're troops couldn't handle) to a compromise between the spear and the pike, something along the lines of what we would describe as the ash spear (ash spear, get the pun?). Since we're generalizing, we'd take the High Elven variant and just add two extra ranks to combat, instead of the usual one for spear equipped troops. That would mean giving an army wide rule that any spear equipped unit gets ASF and +1 strength when charged in front by cavalry and large critters. The Yari Ashigaru would get ASF in the first turn of combat against everyone else.


Daikyu

Everyone gets a longbow, let's assume industrialization makes this easier than hammering out a variety with arrow shafts of different lengths; going by O&G 8, I'd say this costs 3 points. Ninjas are always a problematic bunch, so they'll have to forego medium range weapons.


Teppo

The rules in the BRB for Handguns should be sufficient; I'd cost them at 4 points


Ninja Weapons

Endless combinations possible; however, in Shogun it comes down to grenades, Ninja-to (presumably), , but they're not mentionedmaybe another hand weapon and climbing claws. I'd give them shuriken, caltrops and throwing knives, but they're not mentioned.

[condottiere]

Armour in Nippon and Protection in Shogun 2


Scaling

The scaling of protection in Shogun is closer to D&D than the rather threadbare scheme in WFB.


Ashigaru

They wouldn't have any armour greater than Light. Shogun tends to support this as a default, but as matchlock and bow wielders have armour stated as 1 out of a possible 9, it's a borderline value between little or none. This becomes a design question, and I'd say that means the missile troops should have none, to make it easier to kill them off, which is the intent of the game.


Samurai

I have a much greater feel for European or Middle Eastern armour, so precisely how effective they were in Japan isn't quite clear to me. This is actually a great deal more important for this army, since they can't use shields, which removes 16% from their protection. It's also important, because these are the units you want protected, since the Ashigaru are just fodder. For bow equipped troops, the units would tend to be more lightly armoured than those used for shock. While light cavalry comes as no surprise , the fact that the game gives the same protection for heavy spear equipped Samurai is harder to take, since they become rather vulnerable, and can only be alleviated by giving their horses barding.

OTOH, this allows a natural scaling up to heavy armour for Katana Cavalry and plate armour for Great Guard.

The no-dachi equipped troops get light armour, since they're meant to be storm troops, katana equipped Samurai get heavy armour, as do the spear equipped ones; however the naginata equipped ones have plate armour, which is more for game dynamic purposes.


Monks

Apparently they all seem to have light armour, and since the intent is that they're vulnerable to missiles, they need parry defense.


Ninja

They seem to have light armour, which in the scheme of things is alright; they're usually too expensive and vulnerable not to give them some additional protection either from parrying or wards, usually both.

[condottiere]

FIRE ROCKETS 15 points
Profile . . M Ws Bs S T W I A Ld Troop Type
Rocketeer 4 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 7 Infantry

Unit Size: 5-15

Equipment:
- Hand weapon
- Rocket launcher

Special Rules:
- Skirmishers

ROCKET
A rocket is a metal tube mounted on a wooden stock to allow aiming of the projectile. A fuse is lit to ignite propulsion portion of the rocket. Can be used as either anti personnel weapon or against fortifications.

Name Range Strength
Rocket 6"-36" 4

Special Rules
- Move or Fire
- Critical hit
- Firing Indirectly
- Misfire

Critical hit - On a dice roll of 6, strength 5 wound inflicted.

Misfire - On a dice roll of 1, consult the misfire chart; in woods or building, misfires occur on dice rolls of 1-2.

Firing Indirectly - LoS not necessary; ballistic skill penalized at -1; no critical hits possible, they wound as normal.


FIRE ROCKET MISFIRE CHART
D6 Result
1 Destroyed! Remove miniature.
2-6 Fuse went out; can shoot again as normal in the controlling player's next turn.

[condottiere]

Update


Actually, I'm having too much fun playing the game, to actually write about the fandex; still trying to figure out how to survive the Realm Divide.


Ronin

I think the Ikko Ikki can recruit them. Makes sense, since they are the equivalent of landless knights, Samurai either directly had a leasehold or were guaranteed a stipend by their overlord(s), which in most cases, ironically resembled the condition the peasants were placed in, just sufficient for a frugal lifestyle (though without the direct existential presence of starvation).

That seems to me an equivalent to a Samurai unit getting a downgrade, making it cheaper but also providing for a more expensive cost to upgrading equipment. Also, a character has to be assigned to lead them, being the equivalent of a commissioned officer specializing in leading Ronin.

Besides having a cheaper basic cost, the only other advantage I'd say they'd get would be a specific rule, Nothing To Lose: basically, if they pass their first leadership test, for the rest of the battle they either have a moral boost, or Stubborn, or something that would make them tougher to break. If they lose the first test, they get a leadership penalty for the rest of the game.


Fire Rockets

Really fun to watch; unfortunately, I see that their effect is closer to a template. Possibly a large template, whose central strength is unit strength, and the periphery half of that, rounded down. What good is a single survivor? In the campaign, he gets the chance to regenerate the unit.


Clan Traits

Since I was wondering about how to fit the Ronin in, a clan would basically be Outcast or embroyic to deploy them instead of regular Samurai (and wouldn't need a dedicated character to lead a unit).

Possibly, a way getting around their weak protection is to have Clan Traits based on the upgrades portrayed in the game, which may be universal or confined to specific units, like Way of the Sword would give +1 bonus to melee attacks by Sword or hand weapon armed units.


BTW, normal diplomacy isn't getting me anywhere, vassals may be loyal, but their ambitious expansion keeps causing me trouble, and never have more than twenty one provinces, unless you have three large armies near Kyoto. I'm trying to complete the game with the Shimazu, but the only way you get the military power you need in the beginning is to spam Ashigaru, as the specialist Katana Samurai for the clan are too costly at the beginning and take to long to build. In this case, power comes at the point of a spear, though four Katana Samurai do a fairly decent job of clearing the field in close combat, and surprisingly, three matchlocks in a siege I thought I was going to lose at three to one odds pretty much devastated the assaulting units. Upgrade one Samurai unit to Retainer status with points drawn from Core if deployed near one of your strongholds.

[condottiere]

One question is what I'm trying to target for:


WS/BS Troop Quality
2 ...... Recruit - In theory, peasants
3 ...... Trained - Ashigaru
4 ...... Veteran - Samurai, Monks
5 ...... Elite - Kisho Ninja, Great Guard, Samurai Retainers

Armour
7 ...... Matchlock Ashigaru, Bow Ashigaru
6 ...... Spear Ashigaru, Loan Sword Ashigaru, No-dachi Samurai, Kisho Ninja, Fire Bomb Throwers, Bow Monk, Naginata Monk
5 ...... Light Cavalry, Spear Samurai, Katana Samurai, Bow Samurai, Bow Cavalry
4 ...... Katana Cavalry, Yari Cavalry, Naginata Samurai
3 ......
2 ...... Great Guard

Armour Buffs (Units recruited in provinces with)
+1 ... Master Armourer

Weapons Buffs (Melee units recruited in provinces with)
AP ... Master Weaponsmith
+1 ... (Specific weapon) Master Dojo

[condottiere]

Characters


Field Commanders

The way I see it, you have basically three types:

1. Lord - Daimyo
The Clan ruler

2. Hero - Taisho
A Samurai entrusted to lead anything from a brigade to a corps level grouping of troops.

3. Champion - Kashira
When you run out of available field commanders, a Senior Centurion type gets chosen, representing a possibly anything from a promising or well connected junior (in age) officer, or a grizzled veteran who knows which end of a spear is lethal and is respected by the rest of thr troops (not to get them massacred).

Embedded - The game embeds Daimyo and Taisho in Hatamoto type katana equipped heavy cavalry units. Kashira into whichever unit happens to be first in the stack. The question is whether they can have freedom of movement and reassign themselves to another or wander around by their lonesome.

[condottiere]

Characters


Agents

Agents are characters that cannot command armies, though they can be embedded in troop units. While Shogun 2 puts a maximum number of three per stack, this probably is an inadequate solution. While the rules state no capacity limits for characters beyond that of the General and BSB, I'd say it should be one plus one per thousand in the case of agents.

1. Metsuke
Embedded, the Metsuke's role would stretch between a leadership boost, and possibly increasing the movement rate of the unit he's with. Operationally, makes infitrating harder for the enemy, and easier for the army he's with, in whatever form this takes place on the tabletop, such as if it were possible to insert an assassin in the ranks.

2. Monk
A> Inspire troops - increase movement rate
B> Convert characters - defined as agents, which would exclude Warriors, but include Priests, Wizards and Assassins.
C> Demoralize the enemy - one specified unit or units within a certain radius take a leadership penalty.
D> Should have some offensive capability, especially harmful to Undead and Chaos.
These seem non spell-like abilities, except for D.

3. Ninja
You don't see them popping out of units, so infiltration seems an option, and leading Kisho Ninja; seems hard to define a balanced set of capabilities.

4. Mahoujin
Wizards; though I'd like to give them their own set of five lores based on the elements.

All agents are limited to Hero status, they have no Lord equivalents in their generic form.


Retinue

Retainers that add to the capabilities of their respective employer characters, but unlikely to be realized in physical form; where would you place your Foxy Mistress?

[condottiere]

Magic


Elemental Lores

Ideally, for a native Nippon based system, you want to incorporate divination and exorcism, buffs and protection, with a sort of hard/soft yin/yang tension.

Void - Psychological

Water - Health

Fire - Destruction

Earth - Buff

Air - Movement, illusion

Is how I'd imagine it.


Ninjitsu

Is a sort of minor variant, specialized to support the acitivities of practitioners, which would be bufffing and senses deception.

[condottiere]

Magic


Elemental Lore Air

I mentioned movement and illusion, but you also have weather. Personally, I'd rather take a leaf out of Mage: The Ascension, make spells depend on a mixture of elements to get certain effects, like Air plus Fire equals Sun, to turn night into day or cause damage to the Undead, but that's too complex for this.

Weather effects are:

Storm
Rain
Lightning
Thunder
Sun
Fog

Half of them require Water, so again mixing would be nice.

1. Lightning

Lightning could take a number of forms, depending on how you'd like a spell to effect the game. If we look to D&D, there are three forms that come to mind, Shock. Lightning Bolt and Call Lightning.

Shock is close combat electrical discharge, something that no wizard in his right mind would want to be in.

Lightning Bolt is just a variant of Fireball, though in this instance, it could work similar to cannonball, taking out a line of troops.

Call lightning requires line of sight, but range could be tablewide; it could be either template, or what I'd prefer, model specifc (God disapproves of your actions).

[condottiere]

Actually, I've been having second thoughts on the Magic aspect.


1. Mahoujin

Sixty points; second level ninety five points; third level one hundred thirty points. Then one hundred points of magic items.


2. Indigenous Magic System

As I pointed out, I thought a tension between yin and yang would be appropriate, so I charted it out, and I thought that Fire-Water and Earth-Air opposition seems to provide that; at this point you wonder where Void comes in, and I thought at the centre, being neutral.

An elemental specialist could only draw from his elemental lore and that of Void; a non-specialist could pick and choose from all five. This won't be included, it's just a thought for the upgraded version.