Editing Nippon (section)

==Nippon's Army Through The Ages==
Rooted firmly in the days of Oldhammer, the Nipponese army appears only in the first three editions of the game, which means it was never particularly fleshed out compared to some of the other armies that similarly emerged from that era.

===1E===
The 1e version of the Nippon force found in ''Forces of Fantasy''' names them as the '''Men of the Orient'''... which is a bit redundant since they'd already called the [[Araby]] forces "Men of the East". 

In this edition, they have a fairly small army list; [[Samurai]] in infantry and cavalry forms, Ashiguru as regular troopers, Kamikazes (Samurai with Frenzy), and Vim-to Monks (for the non-British; Vimto is a Coca-Cola-esque soft drink). They can also field Samurai Heroes, Martial Arts Heroes, and Vim-to Mages.

===2E===
In the 2e corebook, Nippon didn't get much lore to shine; most of the "Orientals" portion of the Human ethnic writeup was actually devoted to [[Cathay]], with Nippon just getting a few passing mentions - they have [[samurai]], death-seeking samurai [[berserker]]s called Kamikazes, and warrior-monks who practice a martial art called Vimto, sacred to a god called ''The Orange Simca'' and whose worship was common to both Nippon and [[Cathay]].

Nippon could at least claim superiority in one field; the ''Ravening Hordes'' army book featured a full Nippon army list, but had no such list for [[Cathay]] or [[Araby]]. In this edition, aside from the generic Heroes and Magicians, a Nipponese army could field Samurai, Samurai Cavalry, Regular Cavalry, Mounted Archers, Mounted Crossbowmen, Warrior Monks, Ashigaru, Archers, Crossbowmen, Arquebusiers, Peasants, [[Ninja]]s, Kamikaze Suicide Warriors (who in this edition are guys who run into enemy formations with a keg of [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] strapped to their back with a burning fuse), Skirmishers, Cannons, Rocket Launchers, Stone Throwers and Bolt Throwers. Also, they could take [[Ogre]]s and [[Giant]]s as mercenaries.

Honestly? Pretty generic, but then, most of the armies in 2e were.

===3E===
The Nippon forces began their slide into obscurity in this edition; in the corebook, they don't even warrant a separate entry as a nation in the basic writeup of the setting, being instead folded into the Cathay writeup - the book promises that "a complete guide to the lands of Nippon is already under development", but it never appeared.

''Warhammer Armies'' saw them downgraded from their own independent fighting force to simply a [[Mercenary]] force. In this edition, [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dark Elf]] armies could take a single Samurai Lord commanding a single [[Ninja]], up to 60 [[Samurai]] and up to 60 Ashigaru... why were Dark Elves the only army that could take Nipponese allies? Who knows!

===Warhammer Army Project===
Naturally, the [[Warhammer Army Project]] was quick to seize the opportunity that [[Games Workshop]] abandoned and made their own Warhammer Armies: Nippon army book for their 9th edition project. And it is '''massive''', with one of the ''biggest'' army lists of their project! Seriously, this is on par with their [[Warriors of Chaos]] and [[Skaven]] 9e rewrites for terms of sheer content!