Bushido The Awoken Themed Warband Review

The Kumo have awoken and they seek to take back the Jwar Isles, enslaving and turning its inhabitants. In this article, we'll look at the new faction for Bushido, The Awoken, and their Joyless Smiles and Dark Eyes-Themed Warband starter set. We'll check out at what's in the box, and where to go from there.

We've been covering Bushido for years, so if you'd like to learn more about the game, check out our guide to Bushido Risen Sun, our review of the Bushido Risen Sun 2-player starter set, and our "Start Collecting" guide to Bushido, which includes an interview with the game's developer.

What's a Themed List in Bushido?

When selecting a warband in Bushido, you must first choose a faction from the now 13 available to select your fighters from. Each faction also has access to theme cards, which offer special abilities, but restrict the units that can be included in the warband. The Awoken are a faction for Bushido, and Joyless Smiles and Dark Eyes is a theme card.

Who Are The Awoken?

Softly through the shadows, they come, The Awoken, spinning death, dread and corruption in their silken webs. Not even the empire of flesh can withstand their potent venom with just a single bite undoing all the gods have wrought. They creep ever closer, viewing the empire and Jwar through numerous eyes, choosing their prey carefully, assembling a host that thinks as one under the control of a powerful force older than time itself. Sleep not, for The Awoken are everywhere, lurking in the twilight, biding their time, ensnaring us one by one, and reshaping the world in their terrifying image.

The Awoken are an entirely new faction for Bushido Risen Sun, and Joyless Smiles and Dark Eyes is their first theme card. This theme card allows you to distribute Ki tokens to friendly Kumo models for each enemy that is in their Webbed Ground terrain and also gives enemy models a Ki Block marker if they have a poison marker.

Why Play The Awoken?

The Awoken are a new and terrifying faction for Bushido Risen Sun. You would think they would fit under the also creepy Cult of Yurei, which includes the occult spirits and monsters of Asian myth, but GCT has made them their own faction, with their own unique playstyle.

The Kumo are human spider hybrids, some more spider than human in the various stages of transformation. As you would expect with a spider-like faction, they focus on slowing down their prey with webs and dealing damage slowly over time with poison. The Kumo also don't generate Ki, which is used to power special abilities, each turn like most Bushido fighters do. Instead, they gain Ki for enemies trapped in webs, and also for doing damage to them in combat.

Where Should I Start With The Awoken?

The only place to start with The Awoken currently is with the Joyless Smiles and Dark Eyes-themed box. This box contains 7 miniatures and has 1 theme card and 13 special cards, including a new Kumo Trait and Web Defence rules cards.

The units included in the Joyless Smiles and Dark Eyes-themed box are:

• Chinatsu, the Cold Anger - The largest of the Kumo in the box, Chinatsu has a ranged poison attack and the ability to stop any enemies performing scenario actions while within webbed ground (once per game), which can be used to entirely lock out your enemy with enough Webbed Ground markers on the board for a turn.
• Aiumi, With No Compassion - Aiumi has the most effective ranged attack in the box, with Pierce(2) and Fire. They also have an aura ki feat that makes poisoned enemies weak, making it harder for them to damage your fighters. This combos nicely with another ki feat that lets them give a poison marker to an enemy in contact with webbed ground. And if they engage an enemy in contact with webbed ground, they gain Grapple Attack and Defence.
• Eimi, of the Mind's World - Eimi messes with your opponent's unit's Ki, and has a ki feat that lets them steal 3 ki from an enemy within 8 inches, and another ki feat that puts a 4 inch aura around them, making poisoned enemies spend an additional ki to use ki abilities.
• Tashi, the Eightfold Blessing - Tashi has a once-per-game ability that lets them move to any Webbed Ground terrain on the table, allowing you to set up some late-game shenanigans, leaping them across to score objectives. She also has a ki ability that stops all poisoned enemy fighters from using Special Abilities in ranged or melee attacks.
• Kiyo, Who Sees Behind - Kiyo likes to lock down enemies, firstly by stopping them from gaining additional activations with a ki feat, and then through a ki feat pulse, giving out Immoblized markers to enemies failing a size test within 6 inches. 
• Hidemi - Hidemi is a human cultsit supporting the Kumo. They begin the game poisoned, which means they slowly die throughout the game. Hidemi comes armed with a melee and ranged weapon for supporting the more expensive Kumo fighters.
• Banri - Banri, like Hidemi, is a human cultist who starts the game poisoned. While their are options for sacrificing your cultists for benefits, Banri also has an inbuilt ability to be sacrificed to give all Kumo in base-to-base contact 2 Ki and also heal 2 damage.

What Products Are Available For The Awoken And Where Should I Go Next?

The only Awoken product released so far is the Joyless Smiles and Dark Eyes-themed warband, but two other profiles are available to see on the Bushido App, which hints at their future release:

• Akita, Princess of Fear and Pain - Akita is another large Kumo, but not as expensive as Chinatsu. Akita has a once-per-turn ki feat that allows them to roll dice equal to the number of Kumo in play, rerolling until you have unique dice between 2 and 6. Poisoned enemy models consider any dice they roll with the numbers shown to be 1 instead. This is a powerful ability that can shut down several of your opponent's fighters. 
• Ren - Ren is the cheapest unit available to the Awoken and is a full Kumo and not just a cultist. Ren has a ki feat that can reduce the move of an enemy by 3, and 2 melee attack options, Mandibles with Web Defence and Grapple Attack, or Atame with Ki Block, and Sidestep defence and +1 damage.

What Are Our Final Thoughts On The Awoken?

Following my review of The Deep for Bushido, the Awoken are another fun combo-heavy faction. Like the Cult of Yurei, who focus on debuffing their enemies, the Awoken like to cover the board in webs, their opponents in poison markers, and then strike at their weakened state with their own fighters. They've got some very powerful abilities, but they don't feel overpowered, but they can feel a little oppressive to your opponent if they let them get on top of them. They're not an easy faction to pilot, but there is a lot of fun to be had with their initially available models, and it will be very interested to see where GCT goes with their future releases.

Should I Buy The Awoken Theme Box?

The Awoken are a very combo-heavy warband for Bushido, and if what I've described above sounds great to you, then you should definitely look at picking them up. They're a great time to start playing as you will be able to follow all their releases easily, as opposed to factions with a large amount of units available. Even if you're not looking at playing them, their miniatures are incredible, and will also suit many other systems (but you should absolutely be playing Bushido Risen Sun).

The copy of the Bushido The Awoken-themed warband used to produce this guide was provided by GCT Studios.