Bushido Shiho Clan Beyond The Starter Set Preview

The Shiho Clan once ruled the Jwar Isles, but they were broken by the Prefecture of Ryu and scattered. Now the return of the Shiho Hiroto, The Black Eagle, has rallied the remnants of the clan, and a storm brews to sweep across the Isles. As the Shiho Clan draws its strength, the scattered forces become available for Bushido. We've already looked at the Shiho Clan Starter Set, and a few of the other releases for the followers, so in this article, we're going to look at some of the other available Shiho Clan units, and what they offer the faction.

Bushido Risen Sun is a skirmish wargame from GCT Studios. You can learn more about Bushido in our guide here.

Shiho Clan Starter Set

A core purchase to start your Shiho clan uprising. It contains five warriors and some key cards that let the Shiho fight in their unique way. You can read more about the Shiho Clan Starter Set in our preview.

Open Rebellion Themed Warband

The Wolf Clan are loyal to the Shiho, and their way of war matches the guerilla-style of combat the Shiho is now pushed to. This pack contains five warriors and two wolves, and we take a look at it in detail here.

The Brotherhood Themed Warband

While all of the Brotherhood are ronin who can be hired by different warbands, this eclectic group of warriors, most of whom were found overseas by Shiho after his defeat, are linked by their Shiho loyalty. This pack contains six warriors, but the Two Lone Swordsmen operate from the same unit card. We look at the pack in detail here.

Shiho Hiroto, the Black Eagle

Shiho Hiroto himself, and an extremely competent fighter who excels at the new Shiho way of war. He can arrive on the board using flank and drive into the enemy, locking down their special abilities while making full use of his own. With a couple of options to stay mobile, your opponents should be wary of Hiroto, especially as he can prove a perfect distraction to let the rest of the clan operate unopposed.

Tanaka Kazuo & Heir

Tanaka Kazuo and Heir is not only an incredible miniature, but it's a fantastic design piece. Kazuo is a combat monster, with a melee pool of five, and he gets better the more opponents he's in combat with and doesn't suffer penalties for being exhausted, along with being able to defend freely and still make his own actions each turn. But Kazuo needs to defend the Heir, which means allocating as many dice to defense as attack. The Heir only has a few wound boxes, and taking out the Heir takes out Kazuo. I love the balance of insane combat prowess while maintaining defense.

Shiho Keita

Keita is a very solid support unit. He can give a Virtue token to a friendly unit within six inches, which can be spent for a variety of effects. Keita's virtue effects are a free one-inch move, the ability to move out of base to base contact after engaged, the unit can gain dodge and ranged defense, or it can gain Endurance to stop them suffering melee penalties when exhausted. Keita isn't a great fighter though, so keeping him protected, or using his free once-inch walk when a friendly virtue token is spent to position him is key.

Maki

Maki is a named ashigaru for the Shiho, but she wields two swords instead of the spear. She's can happily work with other ashigaru but is very capable of holding her own against overwhelming odds of weaker enemy troops, or one on one against stronger enemies.

Loyal Yarimen

The Shiho Yariman are capable fighters who work well together to overwhelm enemies. When engaged, other Ashigaru can move to support them, which should keep your opponent on their toes when picking their targets.

Heimin

The Heimin are cheap, not very capable fighters. But that's not their role. Their ki feat can be used to replace them with any Loyal Samurai that are off the board, which will force your opponent to either deal with them, or risk leaving them and allowing you to deploy fighters where they really don't want them. For the points, running some Heimin in your Shiho list is worth it just to keep your opponent guessing.

Shiho Shota

Shota is a powerful archer and has the ability to target an enemy out of line of sight using Kyudo ability. Which, like all great Shiho, will keep your opponent guessing who will be targetted and where the attack will come from.

I'm a huge fan of the Shiho and their way of war. They're great fighters, and their tricks will always keep your opponent guessing and will restrict their ability to engage them directly, which will reduce the effectiveness of their own fighters. So join the rebellion, and let us take back the Jwar Isles.

GCT Studio Shiho Preview

GCT Studios have kindly given us an exclusive preview of an upcoming unit linked to the Shiho clan. The ronin ashigaru, Tadoki. Here's what Jason Enos has to say about them.

Hiroto knows he hasn't enough men to face the Takashi head on, this led to his guerilla fighting tactics, To finally overthrow the dragons and reclaim his birthright, Hiroto has begun to buy hired swords with stolen Takashi moons.

Tadaoki leans on the ability to draw ki from nearby friendly units, in order to lock down the special defences of their opponents.

The Shiho Clan Units used to produce this article were provided by GCT Studios.