Bushido Weeping Sky Cycle Deck Review

We check out the next stage in the narrative and catch up with Jason Enos in our Bushido Weeping Sky Cycle Deck review and developer interview.


Published: March 25, 2023 11:00 AM /

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Bushido Weeping Sky Cycle Deck

The next cycle of the Bushido Risen Sun narrative starts now with the Weeping Sky Cycle Deck. What began with the Year of the Risen Sun Cycle Deck continues with Weeping Sky. In this article, we'll have a look at what's in this cycle deck and talk to Bushido's lead developer Jason Enos about it.

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

An image of the original Bushido Year of the Risen Sun and Weeping Sky deck packs.
The Bushido Weeping Sky card deck contains nearly double the cards of the first pack, Year of the Risen Sun.

What's In The Bushido Weeping Sky Cycle Deck?

The Weeping Sky Cycle Deck contains 54 Bushido cards. These are a mixture of different types of cards, including:

  • Events, usually actions that can be played during the game
  • Terrain, which can be deployed onto the battlefield for specific effects
  • Enhancements, these are attached to units to offer effects and abilities
  • Themes, offer new abilities if the warband construction restrictions are followed

The included cards are all broken down by the following factions:

  • 9x Ronin (8x Event, 1x Terrain)
  • 4x Shiho Clan (1x Event, 1x Enhancement, 2x Enhancement - Equipment)
  • 4x Shadow Wind Clan (4x Event)
  • 4x Minimoto Clan (2x Event, 2x Enhancement)
  • 4x Savage Wave (3x Event, 1x Enhancement)
  • 4x Prefecture of Ryu (1x Event, 3x Enhancement)
  • 4x Silvermoon Syndicate (1x Event, 3x Enhancement)
  • 4x Jung Pirates (2x Enhancement, 2x Terrain)
  • 4x Temple of Ro-Kan (1x Event, 3x Enhancement)
  • 4x The Descension (2x Event, 1x Enhancement, 1x Theme)
  • 4x Cult of Yurei (3x Event, 1x Enhancement)
  • 4x Ito Clan (3x Enhancement, 1x Terrain)
  • 1x Kinshi Temple (1x Theme)

Weeping Sky includes something for players of every faction. Including the Ronin cards, players of a single faction will get access to 13 cards (except Kinshi players, the newest faction who only get 1 card this Cycle) with a nice mix of card types across the factions. 

An image of our picks from the Bushido Weeping Sky deck, Imperial Censure, Straw Hat and Drunk.
Our picks of the Bushido Weeping Sky Card Deck, Imperial Censure, Straw Hat and Drunk.

Some of our favorite cards from the deck are the Ronin, Imperial Censure event, which lets you remove an activation counter from an enemy model if you have an Imperial and Teishin model (Koshimori Yukio has both). The Shiho Clan Equipment, Straw Hat, gives its owner Disguised (2), which makes it difficult for enemies to target them without first passing a Ki test, and my personal favorite, the Jung Pirates, Drunk enhancement which gives its owner Immune (Stunned), Unstable, Fearless and Dodge (1).

What Are Our Final Thoughts On The Bushido Weeping Sky Cycle Deck?

Weeping Sky includes a great range of new options for all warbands, with the number of different warbands you play increasing the value of the card cycle for you. The Weeping Sky cards are of a much higher production quality than the Year of the Risen Sun deck, which had a smooth glossy finish. The Weeping Sky cards have a textured finish and feel slightly thicker than those in the previous deck. They also have a matt quality which means there is very little reflection on them which is extremely helpful when on the tabletop.

A side by side image to compare the quality of a card from the Bushido Year of the Risen Sun and Weeping Sky decks.
An example of the difference between the production of the cards from the 2 card packs, Drunk from the Weeping Sky pack and War Weary from the Year of the Risen Sun pack.

Should I Buy The Bushido Weeping Sky Cycle Deck?

The Weeping Sky Cycle Deck has something for every player and the superior quality of the cards makes them a great purchase. The more warbands you play, the more you will get out of this deck, but even players of single warbands will have access to their factions cards and the Ronin cards, all with some new and interesting options. 

Bushido Developer Interview

We sat down with Jason Enos, Bushido's Lead Developer to ask him about the 2-Player Starter Set and the new Weeping Sky Cycle Deck, and what the future holds for Bushido

TechRaptor: Jason, welcome back to TechRaptor. The 2-Player Starter Set, which we reviewed on release and loved, features 2 families of opposing ronin, rather than 2 dedicated factions. What was the thought process behind the release? 

Jason Enos: One facet of the thinking was that we wanted a 2-player starter box that doesn’t tie a player to any one faction. Most games (Including the previous Bushido 2-Player Box) simply featured 2 of the game's factions pitted against each other. For players of other factions this makes for a difficult choice, get the great combination of things included in the 2-player box or go straight for their chosen faction starter. Some players want to try the game out before selecting a faction, and if you don’t choose one of the factions in the starter those models are not something you can use in your new Warband. 

So the new box has all Ronin models. You can play the 2 minor samurai houses included as their own Warband, but whatever Faction you choose, there are going to be some models you can use for your new faction. This way you can keep playing the models you like while expanding your collection with Faction or more Ronin models. 

Once I had this idea I think Gordon suggested a “Hatfields & McCoys” style setup where 2 feuding families were fighting for control of a town. I changed this slightly to be a little bit more “Romeo & Juliet” and added the complication of the heirs of each family falling in love. This adds a lot of flavor to the enhancement cards for the models and gives a clear narrative for players to frame their games with. 

An image of the miniatures in the Bushido 2-Player Starter Set.
The Bushido 2-Player Starter Set featured 2 waring families.

TR: The most recent wave featured the Weeping Sky Cycle deck. Tell us about the deck. What's in it and who's it for? 

JE: The Weeping Sky Cycle Deck is the follow-up to the Risen Sun Cycle Deck. It is a selection of new special cards (Enhancements, Equipment, Events, Terrain, and Themes) which represent the current state of the ongoing story in the Jwar Isles. With things like the Dragon Civil War, Sojobo’s meddling, and the Grey Pilgrim incident, every faction can see its own ongoing story unfolding in the flavor text on the cards, while the game effects of those cards represent those events in game. 

The important rule is that you can only ever use 1 cycle deck.  So your Warband cannot include cards from both Risen Sun and Weeping Sky. This separates historical events, for example, Takashi Hiro cannot have his Heir by Blood card alongside his Daimyo of the Takashi card because on of those represents Hiro as the next in line to the seat and the other is later in his life when he has obtained it after the Dragon Civil war. This also allows us to add in many more fun abilities and effects and we don’t have to worry about power creep because they will never interact with the other deck. 

TR: You recently released Grand Master Ekusa who's a large model, but not quite to the same scale as Ryujin. Have these larger miniatures had any effect on the game since its release?  Can we expect to see any other large miniatures for Bushido? 

JE: Ryujin is the first 60mm base model but not the first Huge model. Wraith has been Huge for some time and Rashka joined the club with the Risen Sun edition. One thing about these models is they need to be more than just a beat-stick, or more than just a support. “More than just...” is the key.  Ryujin can be played in many ways, sure he can go and just eat enemies with his huge Melee damage modifier or do similar from range but he could also be helping witches with his traits or keeping Moyasu from killing herself with fire or simply protecting with Cover and terrain effects. 

Building around Ryujin leaves a huge chunk of rice already accounted for so we had to make sure players still had plenty of options available when creating warbands. 

As for more, Our last tournament was called The Second Awakening and the cover of the booklet featured a Dragon. 

An image of the 3 of the large units mentioned above, Ryujin, Grand Master Ekusa and Wraith.
Some of the largest Bushido units so far, Ryujin, Grand Master Ekusa and Wraith. 

TR: What's next on the Bushido release schedule?  

JE: I’m not in charge of releases but I know we have Skeletons, Bear Samurai, Ninja, Bakemono, Kami, and another Kaiden (Ghost) since the last one was perfect in every way.

TR: Are there any new warband boxes soon or is the next wave similar to the most recent one? 

JE: New Themed Warbands for some existing factions (including what we call “Sub Factions” like the Kitsune or Wolf Clan) and also a whole new faction (though not the one people may be expecting) are being worked on.   

TR: And finally, which warbands are you all currently playing in Bushido and what are you enjoying about them? 

JE: I have been trying Tribesmen from the Descension in their all-new Hunter Gatherer theme. Playing with no Tengu is odd but it's certainly been fun and interesting. A lot of Ranged Attacks with Strong has been great. I also like the Bleeding Moon ninja. It’s so different from how we’re used to seeing ninja play, highly aggressive and fighty all the time.

Other than those I am playtesting things which I hope to share very soon.

TR: Thank you Jason. Can't wait to see the new releases and we'll talk to you again soon.


The Bushido Weeping Sky Cycle Deck used to produce this article was provided by GCT Studios.

 

Review Summary

The Weeping Sky Cycle Deck has something for every player and the superior quality of the cards makes them a great purchase. The more warbands you play, the more you will get out of this deck, but even players of single warbands will have access to their factions cards and the Ronin cards, all with some new and interesting options.  (Review Policy)

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A Potts TechRaptor
| Senior Tabletop Writer

Adam is a Tabletop Specialist for TechRaptor. He started writing for TechRaptor in 2017 and took over as Tabletop Editor in 2019 and has since stood down… More about Adam