A couple weeks ago, Trevor invited me over to play Test of Honour, out of the blue.
Trevor moved to Saskatoon from Ontario in the middle of the pandemic! He joined a local Facebook miniatures group and was pretty active in that and then set up a Facebook group for Saskatoon Role-players. Even organized some socially-distanced meet-ups in parks - where I met him on one occasion.
Though we've interacted a lot on the Facebook groups, and he seemed like an awesome dude that painted a lot of fun miniatures for a lot of different, interesting games, we kind of just never got around to playing any games. He wasn't interested in playing online role-playing games (having tried it earlier in the pandemic and just didn't love it...). And was reluctant to meet up with people in person to play miniature games when things opened up (far too early, around here!) - which was understandable, given the lack of uptake of vaccines in our area... I completely understood and respected that. I mean, I was wearing masks in public until a few months ago (at least in any public buildings) (and seriously considering doing so again as I return to school in a couple of days!)
The two local Facebook groups we've interacted on are often silent for extended periods and I just haven't been using Facebook much at all for months... So it was a bit of a shock when he sent me an invite through Facebook to try out Test of Honour! Despite lots going on around our house, and just getting over my first cold in... forever... I was pretty excited about this opportunity to get out and try something new!
I'd heard of Test of Honour, but really didn't know much about it (other than Samurai Skirmish Game!). I'd never really looked into it as I already have a Samurai Skirmish Game (Ronin: Skirmish War-games in the Age of the Samurai - from Osprey Publishing) that I've really enjoyed playing - though, admittedly, have not done so for quite some time! (and there are plenty other games I have that I have used for Samurai skirmishing, and would again if ever I felt the urge - Savage Worlds, Song of Blades and Heroes, etc, etc...)
(looking it up on Board Game Geek, the last time I played Ronin was... OVER A DECADE AGO!? At the Ronin Campaign Weekend for the 10th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash!? WTF!?)
When I arrived things were all set up and ready to go. Also playing were Brian (on the left in blue, a friend of Trevor's visiting from Hamilton), and Steve (in white on the right, a local friend of Trevor's who had never played any miniature games). Trevor is in orange in the middle.
I ended up playing Team Blue - an Armoured Samurai, an Ashigaru armed with a Teppo (matchlock gun), an Ashigaru armed with a bow, and a group of three Ashigaru armed with spear. I think everyone had, more or less, identical units.
The idea was it was a free-for-all - all of our bands arrived at a temple and wanted to pray first and words were exchanged, then hurt egos demanded satisfaction...
Each group set up in a corner and... the idea was to destroy all the others...?
Activation was done by passing a bowl around from which was drawn a token. It could be a Samurai token, an Ashigaru token or one of three fate tokens in the bowl. If you drew a Samurai or Ashigaru token you could use it to activate an Ashigaru or Samurai. The Samurai are super heroes and can each be activated three times in a round. Each Ashigaru or Ashigaru group can only be activated once. If you draw a Samurai or Ashigaru token that you cannot use (because all of your troops of that type have all activated as much as they can in a round... or they're ALL DEAD!?) you miss your turn and pass the token on to the next player and they use that as their turn - instead of drawing a token themselves... if THEY can't use it, they pass it to the next player, and so on. IF you draw a Fate token you just lose your turn, unless it is the third Fate token drawn then the round immediately ends - regardless of whether everyone has activated or not!
I liked the system. It felt pretty fast moving. I like games where not everyone necessarily gets to act.
I started off taking pot shots at Steves forces on one flank with my Ashigaru armed with ranged weapons. I targeted the Ashigaru armed with ranged weapons to try and eliminate his ability to do the same back. The shots had limited (zero) effect. Afterwards it probably would have been more effective to shoot at the grouped up Ashigaru with the spear - as they are an easier target...
My Samurai and Ashigaru advanced toward Brians force on the other flank.
Because Samurai activate more often, both our samurai kind of left the Ashigaru behind and were fighting to the death at the shrine while everyone else trailed behind.
Brian's Ashigaru slowly making their way towards the Shrine, while his Ashigaru archer exchanges shots with Trevor's Sohei!
irritated by my shooting at his followers, Steve's Samurai charged over to deal with my shooty Ashigaru himself!?
Seeing the Samurai advancing my Ashigaru archer backed away while firing... the two Xs meant a critical fail - bow string snapped or something...
The Samurai charged the Ashigaru with the Teppo
YEAAAARRRRG!
and chopped him clean in two...
Because he'd scored some sort of critical hit, the Samurai was able to immediately charge someone else within range, and cut down my archer as well...
Meanwhile... my plotting Ashigaru with Spears were slowly advancing towards the desperate battle on the other flank.
They finally got into contact with the opposing ashigaru... just as Brian's Samurai cut down my own...
Which caused my Ashigaru to flee.
At about an hour into what turned out to be almost a three hour game, 3/4 of my units were wiped out (or five of six potential activations per round, is another way to look at it...)
At that same point, only one other play had lost a single Ashigaru...
Steve's Samurai returned to his followers to pick some cherries from the nearby orchard...
My Ashigaru briefly returned to the fight...
But with when Brian's Samurai turned on them...
Things went downhill pretty quickly.
trying to maneuver away from Samurai!
But he just rejoined the fight...
... and slaughtered them all...
And less than half way through the three hour game, I became a spectator...
Again, only one other player had lost ONE guy at this point!?
I guess I could have just packed up and left at that point... but it was a fun game to watch play out. It was fast moving and with the activation system everyone stayed involved (until you start losing more stuff that your opponents have...)
Trevor's Sohei being bullied by Steve's Samurai...
Trevor's head priest (equivalent to a samurai) attacking Brian's Ashigaru archer across a fence.
Melee at the crossroads.
Steve's shooty Ashigaru taking pot shots into the melee.
It was a fun game. It did go a bit long. But I feel like that was because of the multiplayer, free-for-all situation. If it was a two-player game with similar forces and people who knew what they were doing, I imagine a game could likely be played in less than an hour - maybe even half an hour...? Like it FELT like it went FAST!
I would totally play this again.
Am I going to run out and BUY all the stuff for it...? Probably not. There are core rules, special dice sets, tokens, cards... expansion rules, MORE cards... it all adds up. MAYBE if I were playing this very regularly and entirely gave up on ever of playing with Ronin (or Song of Blades and Heroes...?)...
I kind of want to dig out Ronin again and re-read those rules and maybe set up a game - to kind of compare and contrast. (and/or Song of Blades and Heroes...?)...
Thanks to Trevor for inviting me! I hope we get to play again soon!!