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The Book of Ashigaru Harquebus

Firemaster

Firemaster

Raconteur Extraordinaire
The Book of Ashigaru Harquebus
Fields of Valor - Collection 7 - Riflemen and Spearmen​

ashigaru_harquebus_original.jpg

If you cannot see the Army Card graphic, check Hasbro's Unit Page for stats and special powers, plus "character biography" and other non-game unit info.​

Character Bio:As the ashigaru yari was the main force in group combat, the ashigaru harquebus was the prime choice of warfare. Taking an untrained soldier and handing him a harquebus required very little training. All that was required was to teach him to load and shoot the harquebus while holding his position. An army of ashigaru harquebus could fire a wall of lead smashing the largest cavalry charge and reducing it to a mere pittance.

The harquebus revolutionized the way battles were fought. No longer was there a need to face your enemy, to look him in the eye before bringing him to his demise. Charging samurai cavalry, once the heart of a daimyo’s army, could be decimated by this faceless army of low-class warriors. To Einar, this was a perfect complement to the rest of his army. On Valhalla, the ashigaru harquebus are similarly altering the face of warfare. (Hasbro)

Confred said:
WAIT THEN FIRE
If none of the Ashigaru Harquebus move this turn, add 1 die to their attack.
Click to expand...
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-Rulings and Clarifications-
  • - N/A
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-Combinations and Synergies-




Synergy Benefits Recieved
  • - HATAMOTO TARO : Heroic Defense Aura
    As Ashigaru, the Ashigaru Harquebus may benefit from Hatamoto Taro’s HEROIC DEFENSE AURA.

    - KATO KATSURO : Kato Katsuro's Command
    As Ashigaru Harquebus, the Ashigaru Harquebus may benifit from Kato Katsura's KATO KATSURA'S COMMAND activation synergy.
Synergy Benefits Offered
  • - SACRED BAND : Disciplined Army Defense Bonus
    Having a Disciplined personality, the Ashigaru Harquebus may aid the Sacred Band with their DISCIPLINED ARMY DEFENSE BONUS.
C3V and SoV Custom Synergies
Spoiler Alert!
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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-_________________________________________________________________
-Heroscapers Community Contributions-



Power Rankings

Jexik: Ashigaru Harquebus- Pretend Raelin is always on your team and the 4th Mass Line don't already exist, and you've got yourself a respectable ranged squad. B-

OEAO: Ashigaru Harquebus- 3-4x Harqs and Raelin is essentially budget 4th. Just make sure to leave Kato home. B+

Cleon: Tier 6 (76/208)

dok (VC inclusive): B

Master Index
Base a Competitive Army Around: Ashigaru!
Unit Debate #29 -- Ashigaru Vs. Romans
Ashigaru: A Closer Look (How to use)


Unit Strategy Review
  • - TBA
 
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I'm not that impressed with these guys. With only 10 pts below the 4th mass, you get pretty much the same unit except that you have much worse defense, with no special ability that let's you boost that horrible defense. These guys will definetely not replace the 4th mass as a viable tournament army. Even with hatamoto these guys aren't that good. I would choose the tagawa archers over these guys anytime.

I do love the sculpts and love the fluff about them! I will have fun havinga swarming samurai army.
 
I'm not impressed with these guys at all. The Tagawa Achers are only 5 points more expensive, but bring an extra two defense and counterstrike. I too would pick the Tagawa Archers anytime instead of these guys.
 
They also lack the Soldier class that lets Marcus speed them up and boost their offense. They're certainly not going to replace the 4th Mass, though they're not all that terrible either.
 
These guys are cheese. The Wait Then Fire ability has been recycled, which it shouldn't have been. The 4th Mass Wait Then Fire has the "don't shoot until you see the white of their eyes" theme behind it, yet these guys were handed it just because they have primitive firearms. Their defense is utterly ridiculous, and as previously stated, it cannot be boosted by an inherent ability. Furthermore, they do not benefit from Marcus (and yet they're Einar!). All in all, a big dud of a squad that I'd choose over the 4th Mass only if going for a themed army. I mean, 60 points for these guys when you can spend 10 more for the vastly superior 4th Mass?

Man, between these guys and the Tagawa Archers, all the samurai army ranged squads really stink.
 
While these guys pale in comparison to the 4th Mass I don't think they're completely terrible.

These guys will fill roles nicely in casual games and backed with the Sacred band you can literally create some neat long lasting themed swarm armies.

Competitively? Not so much.
 
Yeah, this is by far the biggest dissapointment in the wave. I really thought we would see something cool, a unique addition to the Einar power house. But what do we get? Toned down 4th Mass. Still, 4 ranged attacks aren't nothing.
 
They aren't amazing, but, 4 attacks with a potential 4 dice for 60 points isn't terrible. One thing to keep in mind is that their value increases the more of them you field. 2 squads at 120, 3 at 180, 4 at 240...etc. The 4th are 2 at 140, 3 at 210, 4 at 280. When fielding three or more of them the point difference is significant. As I said, at least as far as attack goes you get pretty much the same as the 4th. As far as them not being soldiers, well it's accurate. The guys were more conscripts than soldiers, at least at first. They should have been soldiers though to benefit from other heroes, etc.

You could have:

Harquebus x4-240
Izumi-60
Kaemon-120
Yari x2-80

500 points and not a terrible team. Then Yari tie up witth the Izumi, Kaemon goes mid-range and the Harquebuses flank. I think it works ok.
 
Not bad, SC, but I think I'd drop one set of riflemen and the Izumi (though they were my favourite unit from the MS), for the Tagawa Samurai. The gives you something other than Kaemon with decent offensive ability (although WTF can make the riflemen good). Only thing that would still bother me about that army is only having one unit with more than one life.
 
Hmm... Maybe the price is so high because you can stack Hamtaro and Raelin on them, which you can't do with the 4th... They have an attack of 4 with height with a formidable Hamtaro boosted 4 defense... Entrenched on a hill they could become a formidable threat.

Though, of course, the Tagawa Archers can do all that, with only one less attack die, a much higher defense, and counter-strike.
 
I think they are easily worth 60 points. Sure, they're no 4th, but not everything in the game can be just totally outstanding.

Compare them to Arrow Gruts. You get another attack and another unaided attack die per round for only 20 points more (plus the ability to get another attack die with Wait Then Fire).

Compare them to Tagawa Samurai Archers. You get an extra attack and the possibility of an extra attack die per round, but without counterstrike for 5 points less. Add in the fact that you can Wait Then Fire and I think that's an even trade off.

They can't benefit from being Disciplined like the 4th can from being Valiant, but they can fit into a Disciplined army nicely. Also, as someone else mentioned, for only 60 points, you can fit quite a few of these ancient warriors in your army.

I agree with Chimpy-they are worth their points but just aren't very exciting.
 
Chimpy said:
See my complaint against them isn't that they are bad. I mean, four ranged attacks are never bad. My problem is that they are just so unoriginal.
Click to expand...

I agree. My beef with them is 1. they're overpriced (4th Mass for 10 more points? No contest) and 2. they are terribly unoriginal.

As for the "Well if you have 4 or 5 squads of them..." defense, that grates on my nerves a bit. Most people do not have multiple squads in that quantity (there was even a suggestion of how they would fare if you had 7 squads of them -- I mean, get real). I myself do not buy more than 2 sets of any one squad, as I find it a waste of money and am not going to fall for the Hasbro marketing ploy of compulsively buying up wads of commons. Besides, I prefer variety in my armies. Games are more interesting that way. Playing a load of 4th Mass or what have you is just boring in my opinion, even if it yields a deadly army. I think the most annoying game I ever played was against an opponent with 3 squads of Death Reavers. Ugh.. Squadscape nightmare.
 
The more I look at these guys, the more I like them. Sure, at 50, they would of been a steal. However, at 60 points, you have a potential 4 rolls a 4 attack dice if you get them height and a turn. With 3+ squads, they will come into their own. You save 40 points over 4 squads. So, that leaves you with 260 points to blow for other figures compared to 220 with the Minutemen. Not too shabby for having 16 ranged figures on the board!

-Ski
 
I think these guys have a specific playstyle and a specific unit they must be played with.

Very situational, yes. But I think they could be deadly effective.

The playstyle would have to be "Patience, Young Grasshopper." Allow the enemy to come to them with them having ht. adv. Plus, they must be played with the FB and Rae-Rae.

Four defense die that actually roll at the same percentage as attack dice (50 % on each dice). Pretty nice.
 
I agree with Chimpy and whoever else agreed with him about them being terribly unoriginal. Now that I think about, they're worth they're 60 points. 4 attacks of a possible 4 can do a lot of damage, and if you field multiple squads of these guys.... well you know. But the thing I'm questioning about is how often 'Wait and Fire' will actually happen. Unless you can get them up on a hill before your opponent can, you probably won't be using the 'Wait and Fire' because of their one defense. They won't be able to survive a volley from ranged units with attacks of 3 or 4. Unless they whiff or they only kill three(three man squad) you'll rarely use 'Wait and Fire'. But I might be wrong because I've never used them, but in a couple of weeks, I'll be able to know for sure.
 
Teamski said:
The more I look at these guys, the more I like them. Sure, at 50, they would of been a steal. However, at 60 points, you have a potential 4 rolls a 4 attack dice if you get them height and a turn. With 3+ squads, they will come into their own. You save 40 points over 4 squads. So, that leaves you with 260 points to blow for other figures compared to 220 with the Minutemen. Not too shabby for having 16 ranged figures on the board!

-Ski
Click to expand...

Here's a battle report from another thread...

Last night I played a couple of games with ninthdoc and it only confirmed that Cyprien is over rated. Here is what ninth threw at me...

Cyprien - 150
Sonya - 45
Iskra - 50
Rechets - 50
Marcu - 20
Deathreavers x 4 - 160
Dumutef - 25
TOTAL - 500

So I countered with this army:

Ashigaru Yari x 3 - 120
Ashigaru Harquebus x 2 - 120
Kaemon Awa - 120
Hatamoto Taro - 130
Isamu - 10
TOTAL - 500

In the beginning I worked on getting the Harquebus troops and Taro into a highground position. ninthdoc sent out Reavers and Iskra. Iskra was able to summon the Rechets early on and they surround Kaemon Awa. Kaemon's counterstrike was deadly though and killed two of them outright. Meanwhile the Harquebus troops that so many are disparaging sat with height and the Wait Then Fire ability and rained down four attack dice on Iskra, the remaining Rechet and several Reavers. They were deadly and by keeping them around Taro they kept him alive with the auto shield on his dice rolls while he boosted their defense. Once ninthdoc figured out that the Reavers weren't going to be able to take down the Harquebus troops easily he sent in Cyprien. The vampire tried his best and managed to kill a few of them but between the Wait Then Fire and Kaemon's double attack he went down quickly and ignominiously. After that it was just clean up. In the end I lost one unit of Harquebus, a couple of individual Yari, and Isamu. I was amazed at how well Taro worked in this army, he was easily worth the 130 points and I won't be so quick to write him off as worthless anymore.

After that game ninth had had it. He was convinced he hadn't played the vamps correctly so he wanted to play his army again. I said sure, but I wanted to switch mine around so for the second game I played this army:

Ashigaru Harquebus x 2 - 120
Kaemon Awa - 120
Roman Legionnaires x 3 - 150
Marcus - 100
Isamu - 10

Once again the game opened with me rushing the Harquebus to gain height and ninth moved his Reavers into position. In the second round I focused on getting the Legionnaires into position and ninth brought Cyprien in again. Once again the Harquebues' four shots did him in. Try as he might his four defense just wasn't enough and down he went. ninth played this game pretty well and made it closer than the first. In the end I was left with two Harquebus troops, one unit of Legionnaires, Kaemon, Marcus and Isamu. The vampires did not impress me. If anything is broken it is the Ashigaru Harquebus.
 
philowar said:
(there was even a suggestion of how they would fare if you had 7 squads of them -- I mean, get real)
Click to expand...

The only post here that mentioned 7 squads was mine and it had nothing to do with how they would fare at all. In fact, it was discussing a hypothetical situation where they cost 50 points instead of 60 and I only used 7 squads to make the math easy to follow since 350 points is the least common multiple for 50 and 70 point squads. I could have calculated the cost per figure number and gone from there but saying 5 vs. 7 squads was a quicker and easier way to show that there was a 40% increase in numbers. The number of squads was only used for clean ratio purposes and had nothing to do with how many anybody would field in an actual game. So, no, I won't get real because nothing about my post was real in the first place. :D
 
I've thrown out 320 points worth of Vipers before. Never say never when it comes to incredibly cheap hordes. :D
 
Eclipse said:
I've thrown out 320 points worth of Vipers before. Never say never when it comes to incredibly cheap hordes. :D
Click to expand...

Unless there are restrictions to the starting zone. ;)
 
markwars said:
Eclipse said:
I've thrown out 320 points worth of Vipers before. Never say never when it comes to incredibly cheap hordes. :D
Click to expand...

Unless there are restrictions to the starting zone. ;)
Click to expand...

Well, if you're fielding more than 50% of your points as a single unit, you're probably not going for the most competitive or rule adhering scenario out there anyway. There's too much fun to be had fighting 1200 points of Zombies to worry about starting zones :p
 
Now, with Kato Katsuro from wave 8, I think the value of these guys increases significantly. One would have more flexibility in maneuvering the ashigarus, and one can move 8 of them (not from the same squad) in one turn.
 
LongHeroscaper said:
Now, with Kato Katsuro from wave 8, I think the value of these guys increases significantly. One would have more flexibility in maneuvering the ashigarus, and one can move 8 of them (not from the same squad) in one turn.
Click to expand...
You can only move 4 of them and 4 yari.
 
So sweet now. I'm so happy! They will be used differently than the 4th mass! What a swarm army! Movign and attacking with 8 figures now! wait then fire ranged attack, and then a special attack of 6 if you want it! Ridiculous! I can't wait to try the combo out!
 
edridtc123 said:
For 60 points, I would replace these with the Izumi Samurai without hesitation. What a waste, these guys. At least they're common. I guess you could go en masse with them and succeed with making a good little pawn team, but, still, why not just get some Izumi, or, as the first poster said, the 4th Mass. Line for 10 points more?
Click to expand...

ah, but at that point we did not know that Kato existed. With him the harquebus have an entirely new use.
 
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