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well first i can hear "no vampires went to Nippon!" and no none of the prim arc vampires went to Nippon, but one did go to Cathay, so my thoughts were "sweet ill do a Cathay Vampire army!" this was before i read up. now first I'm a follower of the samurai code well i like the idea at least, and we all know a Nippon or Cathay army will never come out in our life time THANKS GW!, anyways back on topic, i di9d some reading and found Nippon was on the warhammer map, and that there the equivalent to Japan, so what I'm gonna do is convert a high elf dragon to be a new Oriental dragon and have a Ronin samurai on it, not sitting but standing on the dragons neck. the next thing I'm gonna do is build up normal skellys but give them katanas and sheaths, then I'm going to convert grave guard to be in gull samurai amour... oh and I'm gonna take a unit of Merc ogres and convert them up to be like Oni

and yess i fully understand this will be sooo much work

so tell me what you think of the idea and give any advice, if you see fit

There ARE samurais in Nippon in Warhammer... As much as there are ninjas there as well, and the Oni who are ogre-like creatures (if not ogres, I belive they're related to them, but since Warhammer focuses on the Old World we don't know much about the animals and creatures outside that area).

So don't speak nonsense unless you know what you're talking about... D:

Anyways, back to business, this is a quite original idea, and I like it, but as you say it's gonna be hard to pull out this project from the closet.

Are you good with greenstuff and plasticard?

Hrm, GW has little info on Nippon, Ind and Cathay. Oh ******** yes, the names sound like Japan, India and China, but they are not much alike to the historic counter parts.

But yeah, what Kento said, mo' research.

Cathay and Nippon actually are ancient names for China and Japan respectively though... And if memory serves, the Oni are the Japanese ogre analogue, though westerners often make them out to be demons.
And if you want a more Oriental style dragon, I'm pretty sure the old woodelf one was pretty much spot on.
And you might want to convert some ghouls or zombies or something up to be Chinese hopping corpses.

Going for many samurais would be a no-no if I can have my word said.

Grave Guards should have the only role as samurais, same with mounted grave guards.

Skeletons on foot should be normal "soldiers" used by the japanese imperial armies, having spears, or as "not so fresh peasants" having bamboo spears (Seven Samurais anyone?) and shields since normal soldiers did use some sort of shields if I recall correct, and use zombies as re-animated enemies perhaps?

And the Samurai Shield problem can be solved with just their stance, since their stances with their sword could be used for both defending and attacking positions (been playing too much Way of the Samurai).

Crypt Gouls could be Japanese demons perhaps? Lesser demonic creatures, much like imps are, scavenging rascals following the dark powers sensed in the Vampire who will lead the undead legion from Nippon. Gouls have another role in the new book, they're alive, but have gotten the undead rule, since the Vampire calls for the gouls with his dark powers, and when it weakens (beaten in combat) they run away or somehting like that, so they're more like an undead skirmish unit now.

Your Vampire Lord could be a Shogun, having a high council of Samurais or something like that, represented by the Blood Dragon Knights, a real KILLER unit, you'll make Chosen Chaos Knights of Khorne look like kittens! twisted