Alternative Japanese list

[Pijlie]

Edited some little mistakes and unclarities, mostly those pointed out by Leondegrande (thanks mate).

Am embarking on a painting scheme for 2011 to finish my samurai before the end of the year. Who knows, battles and pictures may ensue...

[jacobSander]

I'm looking forward to when I have some serious time to devote to this period so I can offer more advice.

Just take your time dude.
I'll be expecting more advice from you.

Olaf has some useful thoughts I'd say....

I agreed. And I'm having great times reading those tips and advices.
Great help. Keep it up dudes..

[BattleMan]

@Pijlie: First and foremost, you have a brilliant mind and i like your ideas. Continue on what would you like your ninja to be.

I second that! I'm a newbie but I have read a lot of posts and you ALL seem to be pretty brilliant...

[redben]

Are the points values in the list designed from 1st ed or 2nd ed? I'd be using this list against lists from AoA2 which have the increased points cost as against 1st ed lists.

Was a little confused by this bit -

The Japanese katana could be used one- and two-handed and to parry as well. Therefore samurai on foot may use the katana either as a normal sword/hand weapon or to parry (+1 Save in close combat only). This choice may be altered for each combat round and must be made before the opponent makes his to Hit rolls.

When splitting up the fighting models in parrying and two-handed swordsmen, you have to divide the armour Saves proportionally with a minimum of one for the smallest group.

Example: of a front rank of 6 samurai, 4 choose to parry and 2 to use their swords two-handed. Their opponent scores 3 hits. Two save with a +1, one with a +0. Only the models who did not parry (and survived) may strike back. In this case a maximum of 2 since the other 4 parried.

Should all instances of "two-handed" in that passage be read as a standard hand-weapon as per WAB?

The example is a little confusing as well. Why are only the front rank of samurai choosing? An opposing unit could get more hits than there are models in the front rank, what happens to the excess hits? The numbers used in the example are nice and neat but what if the opposing unit gets 4 hits in that example, do you automatically round up (i.e. they'd be split 3 and 1)?

I do think this is a weak part of the rules (the only one I might add ). It's cumbersome and a bit awkward for what it's trying to achieve. I think you'd be better off either awarding a permanent +1 save to Samurai units (and increasing the points cost as a result), forcing the entire unit to choose rather than individual models, or doing away with it altogether.