Beginners Guide

A small guide for players totally new to Warbands: Bushido or other card games, in wich I merely point out what basics been important to me early on, things I wish I'd known when I started playing.

1. Introduction

1.1 Guide versions.
170118: Original publication.
180328: Updated: added single player campaign rewards, finished tactical considerations and edited minor issues to make the guide up to date.

This is ment as a guide for strictly new players of Warband: Bushido or other card/tabletop/board games, to give a rundown of principles that might be useful when first playing this game.
I am by no means a veteran player of Warbands: Bushido or card games in general, but I felt several times during my first hours in this game that I would've liked a beginners guide with basic guidelines. I did read FieserMoep's "player handbook", but when I was completely new to this game that one was difficult to put into context. Hopefully this guide can provide a stop-gap. Once you get rolling and begin to grasp the overall principles of the game, I can really recommend FieserMoep's "player handbook" to complement your knowledge.
Feel free to drop feedback, rookies and veterans alike.

1.2 Game modes
At the moment there's 4 basic game modes that you can play in this game.

1.2.1 Campaigns
Campaigns are the single player side of the game. It differs from the other game modes primarily in that you don't yourself pick the units that are used, and that there's a story being told and that you are part of playing out. So far there's one part of the campaign released, and finishing all the battles included in that part will net you an epic reward unit (more on units further down).

1.2.2 Duel with friends
This mode allows you to type in the name of a friend playing the game and search for him, and put you two in a fight against each other. I haven't tried out that part yet so don't know much more about it.

1.2.3 Skirmish
Skirmish is as of now at least the PvP-mode of the game. Picking a warband and clicking the Skirmish button (the two crossed katanas) will put you in a search for a game. The matchmaker will try and find an opponent that is your level or +/- 1 level if I've understood it correct, and if none is found, a bot opponent will be drawn for you. Winning in skirmish will give you rating, rank, make progress on daily missions, and give units XP as well (more on unit XP further down too). Losing a skirmish might deduct rating from your profile, while units still can gain XP if they kill a unit, and anything needed to be done for daily missions still count as well.

1.2.4 Training
In training you have the same rules and setup as in skirmish, and play an opponent for the win. The difference compared to skirmish though is that there's noting you gain or lose in training, whatever the outcome, and nothing done will count towards progression of daily missions either.

2. The playing pieces

2.1 The board
The playing field is pretty much a board with hexes and some obstacles of different types. Each team starts on opposing ends of the board, where there's some obstacles (wich work like covers for and against ranged units) close by. No other objective exists except beating your opponent.

Board layout from the first campaign map. No miniatures were harmed in the making of this picture.

2.2 The units
2.2.1 Unit basics
Basically there's ranged units and melee units. Ranged are pretty much archers or flintlock musketeers and they have slightly different characteristics, while melee units can differ alot, from sword-wielding samurais to shieldbearers that block ranged shots.

Units have different points of toughness, agility and armor. Toughness defines how many dice that are used for attack and how many hits a unit can take, agility determines how far a unit can move and its place in the battle order, while armor is points that soak up damage before toughness is reduced by hits.

Something important to note is that all units have a rarity rating that is color coded, wich is either common (grey), rare (green), epic (blue) or legendary (yellow/gold). The rarity rating decides how much you can level a specific unit.

The type of unit decides what WP-value it has, so more powerful units will have a higher WP-value than lighter units. One thing that is really important to know here is that the WP-value is the same no matter what rarity rating the unit has. That means that a common Renegade has the same WP-value as a legendary Renegade.

Renegade, your insurance against aggressive haystacks

2.2.2 Experience and levels
The level that a unit can achieve depends on its rarity. A common unit can reach a maximum level of 3, a rare unit can reach level 4, an epic level 5, and a legendary unit can reach level 6.

All units start at level 1, and gain experience by killing other units. The first level requires fairly little XP, but the higher the level the more XP is required to reach the next level. When a unit levels up it also recieves an addition in characteristics.
Level 2: Agility - the unit can move further and can be picked earlier in the battle order
Level 3: A unit specific skill/ability - the unit get a skill/ability that can be used in battle
Level 4: Armor upgrade - the unit get 1 point of armor
Level 5: A unit specific skill/ability - the unit get a skill/ability that can be used in battle
Level 6: Toughness upgrade - the unit get an additional toughness point

Notice though, that the experience required for each level depends on the units WP-value, so more powerful units with higher WP-value require more XP to gain a level than a unit with lower WP-value, and thus levelling higher WP-valued units usually take more time.

2.2.3 Aquiring units - Purchase
Except for the starting units, new units can be aquired by spending coins in the main menu, in the section for miniatures. Each pack will net 3 units of different quality, but naturally the higher rarity units are, of course, more rare.

2.2.3.1 Aquiring units - Crafting
If you aquire units in someway that you don't want, those can be dusted, which basically means you destroy them and gain Dust, the commodity that is used for crafting new units. The more rare a unit is and the higher level it is, the more Dust will you gain from dusting it, so an unleveled, lowranked common unti can give you 5 Dust, while Legendary units can net you Dust in 100's. The Dust is then used for creating units using from 15 Dust for an uncommon Tanto Geboku up to 800 Dust for top Legendary units like the Taisho.
Remember though, while it might be tempting to go for a lower rarity unit since it takes less time to aquire the required Dust, your ultimate goal should be to only have Legendary units, and any use of Dust to create anything else than Legendary units will only postpone your creation of said Legendary units.

2.2.4 Single player campaigns - Reward units *UPDATED*
The single player campaigns that are available allows you to gain units as a reward if you complete them. Each campaign gives a specific unit, and each campaign can be solved in three different difficulty levels. Beating a specific campaing on a specific difficulty level give a different unit rarity on the unit rewarded according to the following:
Difficulty: Rarity:
Normal Rare
High Epic
Insane Legendary

The specific unit type for each campaign is:
Shadows: Kunoichi
Cutthroats: Kaijin
Odawara: Taisho
Samurai: Kensei


Two of the reward units from the single player campaigns.

One important note here is that, while any player naturally would want the Legendary unit, the reward unit can be claimed once for each difficulty level. This means that if you play a campaign on all 3 levels, you'll get the reward unit in all 3 versions, as Rare, Epic and Legendary. Considering the reward units are the most valuable in the game, any player most definetly should go for the Legendary reward, but since all 3 can be picked up, the Rare and Epic ones should be picked up as well since you can dust them.

2.2.5 Unit summary
To sum it up, legendary units can get 1 extra armor, 1 extra toughness and one extra ability/skill compared to common units, and for two units of the same type but of different rarity, the higher rarity unit can bring more skill into a game in the end than a lower ranked one, for the same WP-value.

3. The playing cards

3.1 The ordercards
3.1.1 Card basics
As with the units, ordercards can be categorized in offensive or defensive cards. Some cards will increase the attack of a unit or allow it to move further, while others increase the defense by only allowing flag rolls to make damage, or heal a unit. A few cards could be said to fall into a category of their own, like cards that increase the amount of flags (morale points) gained, or the wildcard Hand of Destiny.

3.1.2 The sidedeck
No matter how many cards you have, only a specific number can be brought into a game. The amount of cards you can bring depends on the players level, and increases with level progression. Another limit is that a player can only bring at the most two identical cards.

A picture with alot of pictures of alot of angry samurais

3.1.3 Aquiring sidedeck cards
As with miniatures (units), sidedeck cards can be aquired at the starting menu with coins. The cards too come in the games different rarities, common, rare, epic and legendary. The key difference with the cards though is that they don't have levels, so once you aquire a certain card it's ready to use fully right off the bat.

3.1.4 Unit specific cards
Units can have specific cards unique for their unit type, that will be available during that units turn. A level 5 or 6 unit can have two different unit specific cards, and these can be viewed in the far left part of the unit description. These cards do not have to be picked for the deck, but are available once it's the specific units turn. Some units can have an ability instead of a card though.

"Watch this, I'll cut my toenails all in one swing!"

3.1.5 The full deck
The full deck, all the cards that are brought into a battle, will be the cards picked for the side deck and the specific cards the units have. At the start of a battle, 4 cards are available, and before the battle starts, any, some or all of the 4 starting cards can be swapped for other random cards of the side deck. Swapping cards here does not discard the cards being swapped.

During each units turn the available side deck cards and the specific unit card will be available for use. Using a specific unit card will not discard that card, it will be available again the next round. Side deck cards that are used are discarded from the current battle once used though, but will be available again in the next battle.

4. Miniatures or Cards?

4.1 The amount of miniatures (units) needed
As of now, the maximum amount of units a player can bring to a battle is 8. That said it might be good to work on levelling at least 8 units. Earlier though the limit was 12, and considering this game is still in Early Access, having a stable of some surplus units is probably not a bad idea. On top of that, Early Access also means rules and settings might (probably will?) change, so what might be a viable tactic for a player today might have to be reworked tomorrow. With that in mind having a variety of different units in your stable won't hurt, since it will allow for a flexible respons to additions or alterations.

4.2 The amount of cards needed
4.2.1 The sidedeck
This one is more fluent. Most games so far for me has been decently quick (5-15 minutes), and the amount of cards used varies, but I can't really say I've run out of cards. So what's more important is to load your sidedeck properly, rather than always fully. You're going with a heavy emphasis on ranged units? Order cards for ranged then of course, but maybe also headwind. Any additional card you bring will reduce the chance of drawing that card, so depending on how hard you want to focus on getting the right cards, the more or less card can be brought into the sidedeck. After playing some games, hopefully you'll have a good idea of how many cards you use in a fight, and can alter the setup accordingly to increase the chance of drawing cards you feel are necessary.

4.2.2 Considering the full deck
An important thing to take into consideration when measuring the use of cards is how often the cards you play are unit specific cards. Alot of cards from the sidedeck can be brought with the notion that they "might come in handy", but reality might be that the ones you're using actually are mainly unit specific cards, and the cards from the sidedeck you could use might not show because you draw the "might-come-in-handy" cards. Weigh your deck correct to get the most out of your orders.

4.3 Difference between need of levelling and no need of levelling
So, units can be levelled, and cards don't need to be. This might come off very basic, but the bottom line is your units will grow over time, and for that reason they need time. If you pick up a new legendary card or you pick up a new legendary unit when you are at level 20, the card can be put to maximum use right away, the unit on the other hand might struggle in a really tough enviroment, and then so will you. For that reason units in my opinion should always be prioritized until you have a good core of legendary units and a backup of epic units. This is to have the units levelling as you go up in rank, all to maximizing your odds in the increasingly difficult battles that will come. Once all units needed are available for use, cards can be picked up at any chance, all the while your chosen units level up.

4.4 Your choice
Of course, the setup and lineup is all down to the player. By winning games players gain rank, by losing games they might drop in rank. If this is of no importance to you and you're just looking for some good time, you know best yourself how to achieve that. Playing a unit or a card simply because it's fun or enjoyable is as good a reason as anything.

5. Picking your warband

5.1 Defining your goal and your playstyle
First off, a player that wants to play ranked games, wich is level 20+, will probably need alot of legendary units. A casual player on the other hand might make due with whatever looks cool, including glowing green miniature bases. What units you'll field will depend on your playstyle.

5.2 Picking the best available of what you want
If you have a clear view of how you want to play and with what units, and you're determined to use those units, the option available is to use the highest ranked units of certain types you have available. This might put you in a situation where you will field on or several rare units, and early on you might even field common ones. If your goal is ranked, my suggestion is to continue to pick up units until you have the ones you want in legendary or at least epic rarity.

5.3 Picking the best available of what you've got
Another option is to define your playstyle based on units you have. What this means is that Whatever legendary units you have is the ones you field, backed up by whatever epic units you have. Continuing picking up units will allow you to eventually either swap one epic for another epic that more suits your current playstyle, or swap an epic for whatever legendary you come across.

5.4 Rotating your units
Despite the temptation to keep a fully levelled unit in the group, once a unit has finished levelling, I usually exchange that for another unit, all to keep levelling as much units that are going to be needed. The slots available will increase towards the maximum of 8 usable units, and sticking to units you've maxed the level on will undoubtably put you in a position where, once you unlock a new slot, you'll have to stick a completely unlevelled unit into it. To prevent that and make sure you have as many unit at as high level as possible, rotate your units, if not for different setups, then at least for allowing more units to level up.

5.5 The ranked bottom line
If your goal is to reach as high a level as possible, my guess is that it is the legendary units that will make the difference. Compared to common units a legendary unit will have 1 extra armor, 1 extra skill/ability and 1 extra toughness, against a rare unit it will have 1 extra skill/ability and 1 extra toughness. In a fight between two teams of 8 units each, where one side fields 6 rare and 2 legendary units against 6 legendary and 2 epic, the difference for the legendary heavy player is 4 extra toughness and 6 extra armor across the board. Those 10 points will have a good chance of tipping the battle.

6. Basic tactical considerations

In this section I will try and line out what basic considerations I have about tactics in a game.

6.1 Tactical game rules
The maps that the fights are played on have certain characteristics. They're made up of hexagonal spaces (often referred to as "hexes") on wich your units move. Some hexes have objects, like tents, fireplaces, trees, barrels etc.

6.1.1 Attack and defense
A unit attacks and defends with its toughness, and as a base rule, each toughness point allows for one die roll in either attack or defense. Another base rule is that every attack allows for defense, wich means the attacking and defending units both will roll dice equal to their amount of toughness points. Hits are made if a unit rolls a skull or a flag, and hits null each other out, wich means if both units score two hits, then no damage is done (both are nulled out). If either side manages more hits than the other, then the surplus hits are deducted from the other unit. If the attack scores 1 hit and the defense 2, the attacker will suffer 1 hit damage. If the attacker score 3 hits and the defense score 1 hit, then the defender takes 2 hits in damage.
This is the base rules, but some units have skill cards that allow for multiple attacks, for attacks without a defense roll and so forth.
Each die, both attacking and defending, have 3 "X" wich is a miss, 2 skulls wich is a hit, and 1 flag wich equals a hit and recieving a morale point.

6.1.2 Morale and order cards
To be able to use the order cards, either the unit specific ones or those from the side deck, morale is needed. Morale points can be seen in the lower left corner, each card has a number indicating its morale use, and using a card will use up an equivialent number of morale points. If not enough morale points are available, a card cannot be played, and you have to roll flags to recieve new morale points in that case.

6.1.3 Unit blocking
What is important to remember is that units block movement as well as ranged shots. No unit can pass through another unit, it has to go around it, so instead of using 1 movement point to get to the other side of a unit, 3 is needed. The block from units against ranged shots is partial, and applies to all units in the line of fire, both friendly and opponent units. Partial interference will remove one die for each object, wich means if you have 3 dice as attack with a ranged unit, firing through/over two units will net you only one die for the actual attack.

6.1.4 Zone of Control
Each unit also excerts a Zone of Control, wich is the six hexes around the unit. Zone of Control (ZoC) means that a unit can interfere with anything within that zone. ZoC is a concept that has been available in tactical combat boardgames for a long time, at least 40 years, and generally in old war games, combat between two units can occur when they're within each others ZoC.

The red units ZoC is visible by the crossed katanas around it

The rules concerning ZoC in Warbands: Bushido are:

• Any unit entering an enemy ZoC stops but can move on if it has moves left for the turn
  
• Leaving a hex within the ZoC of 1 or more units will allow those units a free 1-die attack
  
• Some units can gain the ability to have a free 1-die attack for units entering their ZoC

Also, moving from one ZoC to another will have an impact on your movement, doubling the cost (as far as I've figured out).

6.1.5 Object blocking
The objects on the map will block the movement of units, so you need to plan your movement accordingly.

One of the maps in the game showing the blocking of movement.

Objects also interfere with ranged shots. Some objects are tall, like tents and stacked barrels, and those objects completely block ranged fire, while others like spanish riders obstacles (the crossed pointed logs) and single barrels only partially interfere with ranged fire. As with units, partial interference will remove one die for each object, wich means if you have 3 dice as attack with a ranged unit, firing through/over two partial covers will net you only one die for the actual attack.

6.1.6 Summary of blocking
All in all, your movement will be limited by the three blocking limitations, objects, units and zone of control, so this is what you need to plan for when moving a unit. Not always for the specific unit that is active at the moment, but what effect any move you plan will have. An early moving unit might block a later moving unit by being positioned at a choke point.

Here the selected unit can't move further up the bridge, the only way open is to the right

7. Basic tactical principles

Instead of using rules, the base of my tactical approach is based on principles. Rules (or doctrines as they're called in armed forces) tend to make people stick to them too rigidly, and since a tactical situation can change both often and rapidly, basing an approach on principles will provide a good base of conduct, but if needed they can be bent or broken.

7.1 Fight on your terms
If you decide when to fight, you have a higher chance of controlling the pace or the tempo of the fight. What this means is not to attack before your opponents do, but to value the options of an attack. An attack that brings you superior numbers, puts an opponent weak unit under preassure, or a blocking move that would allow other of your units to do something similar is fighting on your terms.
This is where the order cards come into play. Some cards will give you an extra attack die, while others will allow you to interfere with your opponents plan and put his units out of position. A unit that overextends for example can be the target of "Provocation", which will move that unit an additional 3 hexes up the map, and combined with "Headwind" the other units of the force will have a tough time coming to that units aid.

Cards that does not deal damage can cause significant problems instead

A succesful use of cards in this way can put you in a situation where you locally outnumber your opponent, wich in turn if things go well allow for further outnumbering during the rest of the fight. Locally outnumbering is with other words known as bringing superior numbers.

7.2 Bring superior numbers
Combat in general is tainted with at least some randomness, so taking into account Murphy's Law is always a good thing to do: If something can go wrong, it wll (and probably when you least need it). To counter this I want to stack the odds in my favor, and the easiest way to do this is by outnumbering the opponent. That doesn't mean that if I have more units to start with I'm at an advantage, since the game has different units that are different in power. Instead in this game it translates into making sure your force in a specific situation is more powerful than your opponents.

One opponent separated on the far bank allows superior numbers on both flanks

7.3 When your opponent is making a mistake, don't interfere
An old principle, coined by Napoleon Bonaparte. This might seem easy and straightforward enough, but what it means is basically to try and maximize how you can capitalize on an opponents mistake. Mistakes will happen on both sides, and usually when that occurs there's an urge to rush in and take advantage of it. While this sometimes gives an edge, other times the end result is stalemate or no real advantage gain. This comes down to randomness that occurs in combat as mentioned before, and this is why it can be advantageous to keep a cool head.
Holding your turn will allow you to capitalize on your opponents mistake once he's moved all his units. If units overextend to either side for example, that might allow you to commit all your units to one side, once again to be able to locally outnumber your opponent.

7.4 As often as possible, flank your opponent
Flanking basically means you're attacking an unguarded side of an opponent. Alot of military tactics/operational/strategic games have rules for flanking, wich usually means flanking impose some penalty to the defender or bonus to the attacker. A part of fighting on your terms is to stack the odds in your favor, and in this game an outflanked opponent suffer a penalty, so outflanking will be stacking odds in your favor. Two rules seem to apply here, the first is when you have three units next to an opponent, basically clearly outnumbering him. That will reduce 1 die from your opponents roll. The other rule is the strict flanking, wich means you have one unit each on opposing sides of your opponent, wich also reduce the opponents roll with 1 die.

The red young samurai in the lower left is flanked

These two rules also stack. Having three units around an opponent, out of wich 2 are on opposite hexes, will reduce the opponents roll with 2 dice. As a rule of thumb, I always try to both outflank and outnumber as often as possible to get the 2 dice penalty on the opponent. This is because it will allow me a higher chance to strike harder than his counter-attack, wear his unit down with multiple attacks on one round, but also finally, to allow me to save morale and order cards.

An opponent cornered with maximum penalties as a result.

The more I take advantage of opponent penalties, the less I need to use morale and order cards, wich allow me to save up on both for use in real dire situation. That said, in some situations order cards are needed nevertheless, no matter the penalties, either becuase an opponent simply is too strong, or because it is necessary to finish him off quickly.

8. Closing arguments

This should be pretty much the basic knowledge you need to get started, and with a warband picked and the right focus set, you are now ready to go out and do some hack and slash (or sniping). Hopefully you'll end up with a warband of good units and will be packed with some awsome sidedeck cards, and if you came this far in this guide, found it useful and implemented it, the next step is to visit the guide I referred to in the introduction, Player's Handbook by FieserMoep. It also has some rundown of the different units in the game, with their abilities and so forth.
Part from that, with time I will hopefully be able to complement this guide with a section of basic tactics that I feel got me far, as well with some suggestions of cards that can be used for those different tactics. As for now though, that is pretty much a work in progress, and will be continued once time is available.

[The crazy geek]

Welldone good job, Omedetto, shigoto yatta desu. ;-)
Let's meet on the battle ground, be welcome !
Isho ni, kumite randori shimasho , yokoso ta !

[Nitwit]

180328 Updated with Single player campaign and some other corrections and clarifications due to new game mechanics since this guide was first published.

[Skullbone Jonez]

Oh ok that's much clearer. Thank you Ampen. Much appreciated.

[Nitwit]

skullb0ne, this guide is somewhat out of date since crafting became a thing. But the general principle is that the cards don't need experience to have a full impact, once you get them you can use them right off the bat, and to the extent they're intended.

For units to be at their maximum though they'll need experience and to level up, and with that said, the focus of resources should first go into getting the units you want, and AFTER that is done I recommend you go for different cards. I can't say for sure how it works these days though since I've been away from this game for a long time.

[Skullbone Jonez]

Thanks so much for this guide. I'm not quite finished with it yet, but Section 3.3 is making my head spin. Any chance you (or anyone) could elaborate to a noob like me? Thx

[Nitwit]

Might not be the case, will have to revise this once I get some time over. This is from January.

[IceDice]

Is homecoming campaign still in the game?

[Cryptic]

What homecoming campaign do you speak of?

[AdApt*]

Yea got it figured now but thanks anyway.

[Nitwit]

AdApt*:
1. You gain WP when you gain levels, so the higher your level the more units will you be able to field.
2. You don't have to move all the hexes available, you can choose anywhere from 1-max or to not move at all.