The Imperial Court
Legions of identical stone warriors march in lockstep. They have no fear, no mercy and no soul. They exist only to follow orders and serve the Emperor.
The Emperor has his Golden Legion, recruited from every prefecture across the great Empire, they are the biggest army in the Eastern Hemisphere. He has his Golden Sentinels, The Emperor’s personal guard. Trained to be an elite force and still larger than the army of any one prefecture.
These are powerful strategic pieces but the Emperor’s reign is secure and he expands his borders using the bǎi qiān. Untold phalanxes of warriors created and animated by the powers of unique sorcerers, loyal only to the Emperor himself. Those with the potential to become fangshi are found using tarot divination and haruspexy when they are newly born and imperial teishin appear to evaluate the child and take those worthy to be educated and trained by the Emperor’s own tutors.
The unworthy are taken and grow up to serve the legion too… inside a terracotta statue.
Playstyle
The playstyle of the Imperial Court is reminiscent of a huge clockwork machine: each gear is connected to another one, driving the Imperial legions slowly but inevitably towards victory.
The Imperial Court faction sports three unique model types:
- The bǎi qiān are Terracotta Warriors. They are cheap, have a high number of wounds and are heavily armoured. As soon as they are exhausted, bǎi qiān become inert statues. They only revert back to life if other models provide them with ki to buy additional activations. This unique feature of phasing in and out combat provides a puzzle for you as well as your opponent.
- The fanghsi are warrior mages who command bǎi qiān on the battlefield. They provide powerful unique effects and ki for bǎi qiān. Fangshi are the vital bottleneck of a terracotta army. Their resources determine to a great degree how effective bǎi qiān are going to be.
- The wardens are powerful bodyguards. Their task is to guard the fangshi’s secrets at all costs. Depending on theme, wardens are mandatory inclusions in your army. Their strong abilities are balanced by the fact that wardens will kill nearby fangshi as soon as they end the turn engaged by enemy models.
The Imperial Court also has access to a lot of excellent ronin models with the "Imperial" tag. Among those are samurai with even more bodyguard abilities, Imperial emissaries who manipulate scenario interactions or royal princesses who fight in perfect harmony with each other. The ronin Imperials provide a different playstyle than terracotta warriors. Some can hand out death sentence tokens, thereby announcing which enemy models have brought upon them the wrath of the Imperial throne.
- Commander Vimes, Bushido community member