Ashigaru

Legend of the Five Rings card from Pearl Edition, Shadowlands, Jade Edition, Hidden Emperor Starter, Ambition's Debt, Fire & Shadow

Card Type

Follower

Force

*

Chi

0

Honor Requirement

0

Gold Cost

0

Personal Honor

-

Keywords

Ashigaru

Card Text

This Follower has +1F for each Farm you control.
After this Follower is destroyed, lose 2 Honor.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Clan Wars (Imperial), Hidden Emperor (Jade)

MRP

This Follower was MRP'd in Fire & Shadow starter decks; trait was changed to read, "for each of your Farms in play", not specifically "Small Farm"s.

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Ashigaru *F/0C 0HR 0G -PH 3FV Ashigaru gain +1F for each of your Farms in play. If Ashigaru are destroyed, lose 2 Honor." [MRP, Fire & Shadow; ZF, 1 June 2000] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 42
• Erratum: Ashigaru: Now gain +1F for all Farms. The Imperial Herald, Issue 16, p. 12

Rules Q&A

• Q: 3.- Token cards
  In the WoE Rulesheet I can read "Things that count as both tokens and cards follow the rules of cards."
  My opponnet plays Stern Reprimand on my Seruma. She has one Ashigaru Follower token. I don't want to dishonor Seruma, and choose the "sends the card back to its owner’s hand" path. What happens?
  3.1 The Ashigaru Follower token is removed from the game (as per DE Rulebook: Tokens) 3.2 The Ashigaru Follower token goes to my hand (as per WoE Rulesheet: Tokens) I have to use a proxy for it, backed exactly as the rest of my Fate cards. 3.3 Other. Please, explain.
  A: According to Jeff in email:
  "As a general rule, tokens leaving the game if they leave play does not stop the original method of leaving play from occurring or being successful. I'm pretty sure this is a reversal of at least one ruling I've made."
  In light of that, I'd think you successfully move the Token from play to your hand and then remove it from the game immediately. Martin Lund, "Rules for 10 December 2004", 13 Dec 2004
• Q: Just a quick question- When Large farms first came out, they were considered small farms for things like ashigaru and Pennaggolan. Is this still true???
  A: Large Farms have the "Small Farm" trait on the Gold Edition printing, so, yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 21 January 2002", 22 Jan 2002
• Q: Hi ! Sorry if this has already been answered, I didn't find any clue here. Those two little followers now read : After this Follower enters play from your hand, you may draw an additional card when this turn ends.
  With the new Equip ability, we can now put them into play from our hand on an opponent's turn. So, it seems, we will draw a card at the end of his turn. Do I get it right ? Thanks !
  A: You do indeed get to draw a card at the end of your opponent's turn. Alex Jones, "Ashigaru followers", 13 May 2015
• Q: I'm curious as to how often an event is checked, specifically Ceremony of Planting. I'm wondering if it checks more then once or just when its reveled.
  Ceremony of Planting Each player who controls any Farms or Ashigaru permanently gains +2 Province Strength to each of his provinces.
  A: This event is cheked once, when it resolves. Dan Jacobson, "Event resolution (Ceremony of planting)", 15 May 2009
• Q: Pretty sure all of those bans were specifically targeted at murdering the Ashigaru swarm deck in the face (except Cav Escort, which was banned for being too dumb to let live). Ah yeah, forgot about the Oboro errata. I never played against that engine when it was legal, so it was just sort of a footnote curiosity for me.
  A: I'll let the Chicago PT commentary on Advance Warning when Design was deciding whether to take action on it speak for itself:
  Advance Warning: Of all of the Ivory1 cards, our group as a whole feels that this one is the single most environment-deforming card out there. There are very few answers to province strength manipulation (even when you compare the relatively few answers to force boost/penalty), and a military deck that does not run Advance Warning up against a deck that does run it is at an inherent disadvantage, due to one deck needing fewer resources to take a province and having a key unit at home unbowed, or in the case where a single defender runs away to pump the province strength by 3 or more, making the province-trading equation lopsided. It makes the matchup against control decks more problematic, as traditional answers (Encircled Terrain, etc.) tend not to work in the face of it, particularly with the move-in available (especially Back to the Front). It is almost an autoinclude for military decks -- we haven't put it in every build, but we feel strongly that it could improve several of them. Its ability is not worded in a balanced way; if the movement is stopped, the Scout unit still straightens, and the province strength is still manipulated. We want to recommend that this card be under consideration for banning currently, as it skews the environment militarily even prior to Ivory2, and it has no good answers. (Advance Warning was 2nd wave ban alongside Cav Escort) Jeff Williamson, "Oracle of the Void #l5r", 1 Aug 2023