Ronin

With some figures close to being painted I decided to try out the skirmish game Ronin.
I have tried it before, but at that time I was playing under someone elses instructions and did not really learn the rules throughoutly.

This time I deployed a group of sohei against bandits fielded by my elder son.
I had two initiates, rank 2, one with teppo and unarmed the other with naginata, in medium armour.
Furthermore I had one basic sohei rank 3 and senior one, rank4, both armed with naginatas, wearing medium armour. Both had naginatajutsu.

The proper monks in orange, initiates in yellow. Soheilla oranssit noviiseilla keltaiset kaavut.

The bandits had rank 3 leader armed with no-dachi, no armor and mastering kenjutsu. He had a lieutenant rank 2, in medium armour wielding yari, there were three bandits one with bow, one with teppo - musket - and one armed with katana, tailing the formation was a hapless peasant with bamboo spear counting as improvised weapon.

Ylpeä rosmojohtaja isoine miekkoineen, luutnantti keihään kanssa, kolme rivibandiittia ja mukaan epätoivosta liittynyt talonpoika.

Game started by my initiate with teppo being shot with the opposing bandit musketman and bowman in concert on round one. On second round  there was no contact, but on round three my naginata armed initiate charged the peasant, was in turn charged by bandit leader, who in turn was charged by junior monk, who was charged by the bandit with the katana.

End of round 1. My initiate is down. Ensimmäisen kierroksen loppu. Kitkerä ruudinsavu roikkuu kujalla ja noviisi makaa henkitoreissaan maassa.

In the end combination of medium armour giving defence bonus of +2, the attack and ini bonus of naginata and naginatajutsu allowing rerolls of weaker attack dice gave me the endresult where the other initiate was grievously wounded, sohei leader was healthy and the other monk had light wounds.
Glorious victory  to peacegiving arms of the Mountain.

Lessons learnt.
The splitting of multiple combats into pairs is not quite simple and may effect the end results of the melee.
 Armour is a very good thing to have - that +2 is quite a lifesaver.
Quality of troops has cumulative effects: higher ranks tend to hit earlier and with better effect.
And paying 3 points for that bujutsu was well worth it.