Hametsu Miniatures Showcase - The Heroes and Enemies of the Cataclysm

We recently reviewed the Hametsu core rulebook, which you can read here, but the rulebook is only the start of your journey and here we're going to delve into the Hametsu miniatures that represent the characters during the game. You can use any miniatures for this miniature agnostic system, but Black Site Studios produces a full range of heroes and enemies for every profile in the rulebook, and also those that have been released after. In this article, we'll have a look at the heroes, enemy units, and boss miniatures and how they work in the game.

The Heroes Of Hametsu

Hametsu includes a whole host of heroes to choose from when creating your party, and these all come under the 3 core schools from the Hametsu rulebook, the bonus school from the campaign, and an additional school that has been released separately since.

School of Magic

The School of Magic focuses on those who harness otherworldly energies through various forms.

• Onmyoji - These magic users focus on elemental energies, starting with access to the lightning bolt ranged ability, building through options for chain lightning, spirit summoning, and ending with Lifeforce Detonation where they can channel their own hit points into dealing damage to enemies. 
• Bunraku - The students of death magic are similar to the more widely known necromancers. They start with the ability to weaken enemies, lowering their resilience, and can level up through controlling lesser enemies, to control of small zombie hordes.
• Monk - These spiritual magic users have the highest body outside of the school of strength, and they use their progress to build into a talented martial warrior with attacks like suppressing palm, and eventually flurry of blows.

School of Stealth

My favorite School, and I'm going to try an entire School of Stealth party at some point to see how they fare. They obviously focus on the less forward arts of combat.

• Shinobi - These ninjas and masters of stealth excel at remaining hidden and boost their abilities to do so as they level up with Master of Hiding, the amazing video game nod, Get Over Here attack, and finally have the option for the Faces of Death ability at the highest level where they can create duplicates of themselves.
• Geisha - These performers use their abilities for distraction, gaining bonuses if they use attacks and songs in the same activation. Their songs build up from Soothing Serenade, Hypnotic Dance, and then to Divine Cacophony that can damage all nearby enemies.
• Matagi - The stealthy ranged warriors get a boost to their ranged damage if attacking outside of a target's line of sight. They get to focus their leveling up on their ranged attacks with volley of arrows and chain shot and with traps like the tripwire and the pit which can trap enemies and then remove them instantly if the Matagi is able to spend an action to remove it.

School of Strength

The core warriors of Hametsu come in three varieties of melee-focused combat.

• Ronin - These masterless samurai are what you expect from a feudal Japanese setting, and they don't disappoint. They start with Iaijutsu, which is the art of drawing and striking, and they deal 2 extra damage to an enemy when they first damage them each game. Their prowess also comes across as they gain levels, with Intimidating Presence, and finally with the option to take Undeniable Legend, which lets them chain attacks across the board if they can reach an enemy with a move after defeating the previous target.
• Gaijin - These foreign knights specialize in wearing armor and high-damage attacks. They can take the Wide Swing attack to target multiple enemies at Level 5, and Descendant of Heroes at the final level, which lets them attack an enemy when they're reduced to 0 wounds, staying alive if they slay their target.
• Sumo - The famous large fighters who specialize in hand-to-hand combat have the highest starting body points. They have the wonderfully thematic starting ability, Sacred Dohyo, which boosts their attacks and mind if they stay within the token. They can gain grapple and toss abilities as they level up, finally gaining access to the Greater Dohyo, which uses 6 templates inside of 1 and improves the boosted abilities.

School of Corruption

This bonus school is included as part of the Wolf and the Devil campaign, and players should play through the campaign before looking to use this school.

• Ketto - These are fast dual-wielding warriors who can gain the effects of two weapons when they attack. Other enemies will struggle to keep up with them when they level up, gaining Master of the Duel which gives an enemy -1 melee if they are the only one engaged with the Ketto, and gaining the option for the Flashing Whirlwind ability which can damage all enemies they move through.
• Kaeru - These stealthy acrobatic hunters are able to parkour around the battlefield, leveling up to attack multiple opponents and at the highest level, moving enemies with their attack for massive damage.
• Doku - The poison users are able to dish out poison counters, increasing the damage each counter deals as they level up to 10 per counter at the highest levels.

School of Elements

The School of Elements is an extra school, with the rules available when you purchase the physical or digital miniatures from Black Site Studios.

• Sora - The Sora harnesses the unseen energy in all things. They have a level 1 ability option that if they use both actions to perform in a single turn, boosts their stats (and reduces their resilience) for the rest of the game. They gain buff and debuff abilities as they level up, and one of their options at the highest level is a spell to resurrect a hunter that has been removed from the game, with full health points, making them an incredible asset on the battlefield.
• Hikaze - These warriors are fueled by fire and air, dishing out burning counters and fire attacks culminating in the Flames of Ambition ability that allows them to put any number of burn counters on themselves, gaining +1 mind or melee for each, but taking 8 damage for each unless they spend an action to put out the flames. This allows them to produce a single incredible attack, and possibly combust at the end of it.
• Tsuchimizu - These monks harness the power of earth and water, making them resilient in body and mind. The Level 6 Level Ground ability is one of my favorites, letting them remove a piece of terrain and damage all enemies on it.

The Enemies Of Hametsu

The Cataclysm caused a whole host of demonic horrors to pour from the portal. The core rulebook focuses on different types of Oni (Japanese demons).

• Lesser Oni - The lesser oni are the weakest of the various types of Oni, but they like to fight in packs, and their melee increases if they can gang up on a hunter.
• Oni - More effective than their lesser counterparts, they get a boost to their melee if they make a second attack in their activation.
• Oni Marksman - Firearm-carrying Oni, they can spot hunters at a longer range during the stealth phase.
• Oni Lookout - These Oni carry longbows, and like the Marksman, can spot hunters at longer range during the stealth phase.
• Oni Captain - The captains are the most dangerous of the Oni. They are more effective in combat and inspire other Oni engaged with the same hunter. If the Oni Captain damages a hunter, another random Oni also engaged with that hunter gets a free attack.
• Oni Shaman - The Shaman is a magic user and has a unique set of AI to attack, escape, and heal itself depending on its location in relation to the hunters.

The Bosses Of Hametsu

Once the Hunters have found enough clues, the boss of the scenario appears. The Hametsu ore rulebook contains 6 bosses, all with their own unique challenge to beat.

• Enenra - These monsters are made of smoke and ash, which makes them hard to land attacks on. They drift around the battlefield, trying to sneak up behind hunters and devour them.
• Daitengu - These winged Tengu are superb fighters and offer one of the hardest face-to-face challenges. Their Sword of the Wind attack pushes hunters away, and they deal damage when they successfully defend against the hunters' attacks.
• Shikigami - These random sprits are unpredictable, moving a random amount in a random direction each turn, with all nearby hunters having to save against a deathly cold attack, and then the furthest hunter from the Shikigami automatically taking damage from its Horrible Memory attack.
• Nogitsune - This nine-tailed fox always heads for the hunter with the lowest starting body and attacks. If it damages a hunter, it can attack again twice more, and with 2 core attacks each turn, it can really ramp up the damage if you don't defend well.
• Komainu - These stone lion-dogs are extremely hardy, starting with the most body points of all the bosses and if you damage them too much, they get a free attack the following turn. They also have a charge attack which pushes all hunters in its path and damages them, so positioning is key when fighting this boss.
• Ogumo - This giant spider does what you would expect a giant spider to do, it shoots webs, and heads straight for its chosen prey, grasping them and attacking them until they're subdued. It also moves around the battlefield, carrying the hunter they've grasped and dogging the other hunters.

The Raid Bosses Of Hametsu

Once hunters have progressed to Level 8, the bosses get easier, and they look for tougher enemies to bring down. These enemies are known as Raid Bosses, and battles with them don't follow the normal rules. There's no stealth or clash phase, players jump straight into the battle with the Raid Boss. The STLs for the miniatures for these bosses are available in the Digital Downloads section of the Hametsu products page.

• Omukade - The rules for this raid boss are in the Hametsu core rulebook. This giant insect-like boss moves through a series of 7 actions whenever it activates, moving, attacking with pincers, and trying to grasp the hunters, along with activating a series of cold spells. With 1000 body points, it will take a while to bring this enemy down, but each hunter that survives doing so, gets to roll on the Omukade's unique loot table.
• Gashadokuro - The raid rules for this boss can be found for free on the Hametsu resources page. This unique scenario finds the hunters battling and unkillable enemy, and having to survive a number of turns against it until the magics animating it wear out. While the hunters can't defeat the Gashadokuro, they can damage it and reduce its combat effectiveness. Each turn, the Gashadokuro moves through a series of actions, trying to grab and crush the hunters, and releasing death magic to reduce the hunters own effectiveness at trying to survive. Like the all raid bosses, there's a unique loot table that all hunters can roll on if at least 2 survive.

The Campaign Bosses Of Hametsu

• The Wolf and the Devil - I won't go into too much detail about the Wolf and the Devil, as they are part of the narrative campaign of the same name in the Hametsu core rulebook. But you can see from the miniature pack that it includes a large spectral wolf and a sturdy-looking devil miniature. You'll have to play through the campaign yourself to find out how you face them and what they're capable of.

The copy of the Hametsu Miniatures used to produce this feature were purchased by the author.