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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Zenit Miniatures - Kensei



 Kensei is a new miniature wargame inspired in feudal Japan designed for two or more players.
The characters, histories and legends from Kensei " War in Hymukai" are inspired by the history and mythology of feudal Japan and Asia. Created by Zenit Miniatures




These are the most beautifully sculpted Samurai miniatures I think I have ever seen. They have a really nice variety of military  units: Dai-Katana Samurai, No-Dachi Samurai, Yari and Yumi Ashigaru, Naginata Monks, Ashigaru with Teppo(Rifles)

I like the fact that these are sold as sets, the Basic army pack includes 21 miniatures ($65.93/$3.10 per mini) for you to start forming your armies. The other sets contain 5 Samurai each ($26 -$35/ $5 - $7 per mini) Very reasonable considering the quality of sculpts.

Check out the Kensei store for more details










They also have the individual Heroes from  each of the clans, these are so cool. I wont go into the rules set for the system, i'll let you look over the free Kensei Rulebook PDF and decide for yourselves if it will work for your play style. (updated version dec 4th 2012) Let me know what you think.

Also I wanted to mention one section of the rule book that I found very interesting:


Three factions: Before you start to play
you must choose one faction to play your
games. In this game there is a conflict
among three social classes who struggle
to dominate the Himukai Empire; these
are represented by three different factions:
the Buke, the warrior class; the
Kuge, the aristocratic class; and theSohei, the religious class. Choose your
faction and create a clan belonging to
it. In order to give more depth to your
games you can make up the whole history
of your clan, its name or its symbol
(mon); you can also name your characters,
name your Daimyo, establish the
lands they rule over and the internal
relations within the same clan. It all
depends on the depth you want to provide
the game with. Nothing prevents
you from creating a campaign for you
or at your game club; your only limit is
your imagination.



I love this! I love a system that encourages its players  to expand the game out side of just war gaming. I can see this system working great in conjunction with a Legend of the Five Rings RPG campaign. Which I plan on starting after I order my Army Box set! So plan on seeing a follow up review down the road. One other item I want to mention is a product by Craft Plast Games who make oriental buildings and bridges specifically for the 28mm Kensei miniatures.





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