Bushido Ring of Fire Review - To Battle

No one knows how it started, but everyone knows that they are here. The Savage Wave of oni, demons from myth and legend, and waves of goblins, has descended on the Jwar Isles. Before they fully become oni, there is a rite of passage, and the onisho need to pass through the ring of fire to prove their worth or perish in the attempt. You might think that not being full oni means they're not as powerful, their rage not as all-consuming. You would be wrong. In this article, we'll have a look at the new Ring of Fire themed warband for the Savage Wave. We'll talk about the new and returning fighters, and where you can go next.

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.

Thematically Themed

When selecting a warband in Bushido, you must first choose a faction from the 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 Savage Wave is a faction for Bushido, and The Ring of Fire is a theme card that restricts you to onisho, but gives them some incredible benefits that play into their theme.

Using the theme, all friendly onisho gain the last stand trait, which means that if they're reduced to 0 wounds, they're not removed from the battlefield until the end of the turn. Normally, units with last stand can't heal, but onisho can still heal using their consume soul or soul thirst abilities. For every onisho that's removed from play during a game, when an onisho uses oni rage, consume soul, or soul thirst, they gain ki and heal an amount equal to the number of friendly units removed so far.

All The Rage All The Time

The Ring of Fire themed warband includes 5 onisho for the Savage Wave, 3 new models, and 2 returning models with updated sculpts. All of the onisho here have the consume soul ki feat, which is a once-per-turn instant use, that allows them to heal wounds equal to the ki stat of an enemy model removed from play within 3 inches of them.

The Ring of Fire theme is led by Junec, who comes armed with Brutal (1), +2 damage swords, along with armor 2 and tough 1, making them difficult to damage, and even more difficult to remove with their healing through enemy removal and last stand ability with the theme. They also have ki feats that let them use banzai to charge for 1 activation (rather than 2), and add +1 to their brutal trait.

Backing up Junec are Jokash and Kuroko. Jokash comes armed with the pole-armed style agoniser, which is only +1 damage (most of the onisho have +2 damage weapons), but it does have reach to allow them to go first in combat if they're not in base-to-base contact. Their indomitable trait means they ignore small and tiny enemy models they're engaged with for penalties and have their melee stat ki boost reduced by the number of them they're engaged with. With armor 3 and tough 1, throwing them into hordes of smaller enemies only benefits them.

Kuroko is armed with a +2 damage ranged arbalest to hit targets you can't reach in melee. The onisho don't benefit from killing targets at range, and with reload 1 and 2 ammo (which can be replenished by taking no actions for a turn), you will want to throw Kuroko into the fray and use the arbalest stock in melee, unless you need to use the arblast to get past armored and tough foes.

Boba and Kano are two older sculpts who have received updated models and retained the same stat cards. Boba likes to throw +2 damage iron skulls, with ki feats to increase the attack range and gain rapid fire 2. Kano likes to dish out stunned markers with their batter ki feat and +2 damage club.

Brutal Cunning

The rice cost of the included onisho in Ring of Fire is 87, and you can easily make up the rest of the 100-point rice cost with the 17 enhancement and event cards included in the set. Each fighter has a unique card enhancement for them, and the rest are generic enhancements or events. My favorite is the There Can Be Only One event, which means that if there is only 1 friendly onisho remaining, it doesn't remove activation counters while enemy units have activation counters, so they can continue to activate multiple times until your opponent finishes their activations. You're going to be extremely aggressive with your onisho, so it's a great just-in-case card to mean you can dish out some insane damage in a phase where you only have 1 onisho left, especially when combined with the last stand ability.

The Ring of Fire theme is extremely aggressive, allowing you to throw your fighters into combat, knowing that they can heal and are difficult to remove because of layers of armor and tough. They have abilities that allow them to come out on top in combat and deal massive damage when they do. The themed last stand ability means that even if your opponent takes them out, they're still dangerous until the end of the turn, and can still heal and keep going.

Increasing Aggression

On top of the previous 2 onisho who've had updated sculps for this pack, 3 other onisho are available, and another is releasing alongside The Ring of Fire. Goro is a huge onisho, on par with Junec in damage-dealing terms. Tsuta and Yasei are slightly cheaper onisho, with Tsuta having ranged options and the only support ki feat out of the whole group with Idolize that can boost another onisho's melee pool. Yasei deals damage with only their fists, with +2 damage wrestling, and a unique ability that always adds another wound to damage rolls in melee.

Releasing alongside The Ring of Fire is Merlek, an onisho shugenja, or magic user. They still have a +2 damage staff, but also a short-range black magic attack that increases in damage for each enemy they damage. They have a Fall into the Ring ki feat, which gives all oni and onisho in the aura strong, making damage tests easier, and all other models in the aura weak, making damage tests more difficult for them. They also have the most thematic of ki feats for the warband, Ring of Fire, which puts a 4-inch aura in the centre of the battlefield, and units within it can't allocate dice to defense.

What Are Our Final Thoughts On Ring of Fire?

This is my first experience with the Savage Wave, and they do exactly as you would expect. There's something freeing about throwing your fighters entirely into combat, knowing that your opponent will be on the defensive, and even if they're not, they will struggle to even damage your fighters and, almost impossible to remove them. I love the fact that there is also always the risk of you dropping There Can Be Only One when you've only one fighter left, for an insane final turn with your fighter rushing to deal as much damage as possible while your opponent tries to avoid them. Someone said something about victory points, but I was too busy smashing their forces into the dirt. 

Ring of Fire will be available to preorder from the GCT website in the coming months.

The copy of Bushido Ring of Fire used to produce this review was provided by GCT Studios.