Sohei

I finished up a Sohei Buntai for Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai over the weekend. All of the figures are from Perry Miniatures.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

The whole Buntai – with all options (so far…)

The Grand Master – This fellow I actually painted previously, I’m just showing him here again for completeness. The Ronin list says he should also have a Tetsubo, Yumi or Naginata, but obviously this fellow (along with the two senior Sohei below) obviously doesn’t have any of those, so I figured I’d just give him an attribute in exchange  - as they are the same point value.

Two Senior Sohei

Three Sohei

Four Initiates with Naginata (well… three with Naginata and one with a Yari – which isn’t an option in the lists… but it’s the same point value, so….)

Two Initiates with Teppo

This fellow was also painted previously painted but I’m including him again here because he IS a Monk from Perry Miniatures. I’m not sure if I’ll actually use him as a monk in the Sohei Buntai… He looks more like he might be a Wandering Monk – one of the Sword-for-Hire options. Again he doesn’t have the Tetsubo, Yumi or Naginata that the list indicates he should… but I don’t think anyone’s going to complain if I just substitute in a Bo (staff) – as it has none of the initiative or attack bonuses the options he “should” take have…

The force so far totals about 300 points – depending on what optional attributes were taken. To fill it out to 400 points (for the master list in the campaign) I’d take a few more Sohei and Initiates. I won’t ever have miniatures for them, as the whole 400 points would never be fielded together. For a 150 point force (which is what we’ll be using on the tabletop in the upcoming campaign) it could be fielded with the Grandmaster, three Sohei and an Initiate or a Senior Sohei with two Sohei and three Initiates or – if you were wanting numbers on the table – a Sohei and all six initiates!? Actually that last option wouldn’t really be legal as they couldn’t take both teppo… but you get the idea… four to seven could be fielded for 150 points. There are cheaper Temple Attendants that could be taken… They are unarmoured and armed with Yari… I could possibly use some of the peseants…?

There is a bit of a lack of missile weapons in this list (at 150 points only one teppo could ever be fielded). Perry doesn’t make any bow-armed monks, but I was looking at their catalogue again yesterday and noticed some of their Ashigaru with bows could easily be converted to look like monks…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

This will likely be my last post for 2013 - so I hope you all have a happy new year.

This isn't, however, the last of the miniatures I'll have painted in 2013. I've been painting like a mad bastard all day the last two days and by this evening (perhaps even this afternoon!) will have painted a big enough batch to make 1000 28mm foot figures that I've painted this year! Huzzah! Of course there's a bunch of other stuff I've painted this year, but the 28mm foot category is always the biggest and 1000 is just such a nice big round number...

This also means I've painted way more than I purchased this year! Woo-hoo! Now if only I can keep that up for the next decade or so I will eventually run out of stuff to paint!

I’ve been working on an Ikko-Ikki Buntai, which is also made up of Perry Miniatures (which could just as easily be fielded as Bandits) and some Perry Ashigaru teppo gunners for various other Buntai. I've also been finishing up a few assorted Dixon Miniatures and Black Hat miniatures.  They won’t be posted until the new year because, as part of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, everything has to be posted over at Analogue Hobbies for 24 hours first. In fact they may not even show up on Analogue Hobbies until tomorrow if I run out of light before I finish them all up this afternoon.

After that I'll be working on a "villain" for the next Bonus Theme Round...  

Villain.... hmmmmmm.... 

Samurai and Ronin and Ashigaru

Yet another batch of Feudal Japanese for various Ronin buntai. Most are from Black Hat Miniatures - which I've really had a lot of fun painting. The range is a bit limited, but I'd definitely like to pick up a few more... and some of their Tales of The Dragon King Chinese fantasy figures... or some of their highland dwarves... or centaurs...

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

The bunch of them.

Two unarmoured Samurai or Ronin with Yari from Black Hat Miniatures.

Three unarmoured Samurai or Ronin with Naginata from Black Hat Miniatures.

Two unarmoured Samurai or Ronin with Yumi from Black Hat Miniatures.

Two unarmoured Samurai or Ronin with Katana from Black Hat Miniatures.

Three Ashigaru with Yari from Old Glory

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More of the same. I’m pushing to finish 1000 28mm foot miniatures by the end of the year – which will mean about 10-15 per day for the next three days… I was thinking I might bust out some Great War stuff just to stop going cross-eyed trying to do individual intricate patterns on every damned figure and paint something that might take a bit less time... but then decided just to push ahead with the Japanese. I'm just finishing up some Monks (as well as a few others) which should hopefully be up on Analogue Hobbies tomorrow some time.. 

Japanese Courtiers, Villagers, and Townspeople

My first submission to the Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. This volley temporarily catapulted me (temporarily) into... well... fifth place. 

I had it in my head that I’d like to finish 1000 28mm figures this year. I’ve already painted well over 1000 miniatures this year – when you consider the 28mm cavalry and such and the 40mm figures I’ve done - but  28mm foot is the category I do the most of and 1000 is such a nice big round number… Anyway… a week or so ago I calculated I’d need to paint 6 minis a day for the last two weeks of the year to catch up to that goal…

I haven’t really been keeping up to that so far…

This would be so much easier if all I had to do was NINJAS!?

Why am I doing such individual and complicated figures when I have to paint so many so quickly!? Well, the first of the Fortnightly Bonus Theme Rounds was “Non-Combatants” and as I had a PILE of Samurai era Japanese was “Non-Combatants” I thought I might as well finish those up…

Between Xmas and new years I should have some spare time to catch up… Though as most of the stuff I’m going to be painting for the next 8 weeks before the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend will be samurai in corded armour… Miles and miles of corded armour... What was I thinking!? 

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

The whole big bunch.

This batch is from Old Glory Samurai Villagers pack. There were 30 in the pack – most of which I painted years ago. Of the 30 there were about 3 each of 10 different figure/poses. Only one of which was female and looked like a courtier or geisha… Ah well… It’s better than the Vietnamese Villagers pack I got from West Wind Productions that had no women at all!

Their back sides. (I’m showing these because Curt asked for multiple angles of every figure… and on some of them – like the next bunch – you can see the patterns better)

These are from a Perry Miniatures Villagers Pack. I really like this pack – I’m tempted to buy another – I think Perry is the only manufacturer of Samurai era women villagers – all the other women are gussied up courtier/geisha-types.

Their backsides.

These are from a Perry Miniatures Townspeople pack. Again a great selection of poses.

Their backsides.

Finally these are mostly old AEG L5R/Clan War figures… mostly… I think… The one in purple I’m not so sure about…

Their backsides.

If you do like these figures, please feel free to go vote for them on the Theme Bonus Round Poll - while you’re there check out all the other fabulous submissions – and vote for some of them too - it’s an open poll – you can vote for as many as you like!

(Maybe don’t vote for anyone that’s ahead of me…)

(Except for SidneyR – because his war artists/reporters are awesome)



One more odd thing... not really a miniature I PAINTED per se - this is a Reaper  Bones ghost of some sort that was cast in some semi-transluscent green - all I did was base it. 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hopefully I’ll get in some games over the next few weeks of holidaze with the family - so I have something to post… Other than that, more pics of whatever I end up painting… thought it will be posted a few days after it shows up on Analogue Hobbies… 

Looks like I have 60 to go to make it to 1000.... with 8 days left that's 7.5 per day... not sure I'm going to get any done today (trying to get the last bit of hardwood floor down...) so if I start tomorrow tha's more like 8.5 per day... I wonder if I DO have any Ninjas squirrelled away somewhere...? 

STILL More Ronin

I finally got in a few more games of Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai on Saturday. It’s been a busy couple of weeks… activities wrapping up with winter recitals and seasonal holiday parties… still trying to finish up the inside of “Phase One” of the renos – before starting “Phase Two” early in the new year… lots of violin practicing.... On Friday the kids and I played our violins at a local seniors home – we played carols for a little over an hour - running around to play in each of the six dining areas for about 10 minutes each:

We’ve done this every year for the last three or four years. It’s good fun. The residents just love seeing little kids. They could play wildly out of tune and no one would care (actually they DO play wildly out of tune half the time… and no one cares…)

Today some fun stuff arrived in the mail:

That ain’t for me, yo…

The kids have become interested in painting miniatures this year. The Girl LOVES painting miniatures and burns through them like crazy! The Boy… he likes having miniatures… but doesn’t love painting them like his sister does. A few weeks back I noticed Wargames Factory was having a bit of a sale and all the Samurai/Ashigaru were 40% off!! I’m going to split up those packages – there’s five sprues in each and I thought I’d give the kids two each and try and convince Amanda to assemble and paint the figures on the remaining one to have her own Buntai and run a family Ronin Campaign!

The other two boxes (the Zombie Apocalypse Female Survivors and the Skeletons) are additional ones The Girl has been asking for that I picked up to save for her birthday in May… Or whenever she runs out of samurai to paint… which might be about the end of January…!?

Anyway... the games... 

GAME ONE

Finnegan actually made his own 150 point Bushi Buntai (with my figures) he picked them out according to the Buntai composition rules. He spent a long time going over the list and reading all the attributes and ultimately he went for a smaller group of hard-hitting Samurai. I went for numbers and fielded the Teppo I painted a few weeks back.

SCENARIO

We tried out the Capture Scenario. Both of us were to try and recover the body of a slain leader in the middle of the field of battle. Carting the body off the table or being in control of it at the end of the game was worth 5 victory points.

The game was to last 8 turns.

FORCES

Lion Clan Bushi Buntai - Finnegan

Bushou – Rank 5

- Heavy Armour, Katana, Naginata

- Commander, Intuition, Naginatajutso, Yadome-Jutsu

Hatamoto – Rank 4

- Heavy Armour, Katana

- Commander, Powerful, Tough

Samurai – Rank 3

- Heavy Armour, Katana, Yumi

- Commander, Fast

Samurai – Rank 3

- Heavy Armour, Katana, naginata

- Commander, Powerful

Crab Clan Bushi Buntai - Me! 

Hatamoto – Rank 4

- Heavy Armour, Katana. Tetsubo

- Commander, Tetsubojutsu

Samurai – Rank 3

- Heavy Armour, Katana,

- Commander

2x Ashigaru – Rank 1

-Medium Armour, Katana, Yari

2x Ashigaru – Rank 1

-Medium Armour, Katana, Yumi

Ashigaru – Rank 1

-Medium Armour, Katana, Teppo

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

My Crab Clan Bushi enter the field of battle in a gaggle – trying to take cover as they approach the buildings.

Finnegan’s Lion Clan Bushi.

End of Turn One – my guys are all taking cover, Finnegan’s boldly striding about the field of battle. My archers had taken some pot shots but didn’t even come close.

I didn’t play nearly aggressive enough. I knew one-to-one his guys totally outclassed most of mine so I was a bit stand-off-ish and tried to take some shots with the yumi and teppo to whittle them down… totally useless – I think in the entire game my archers cause ONE samurai to be stunned (and he quickly shook it off at the end of the turn!)

Some fancy maneuvering to try and split up his force and catch the samurai carting off the body on their own.

Still with the ineffectual shooting.

I’d reloaded the teppo and ran up as close as I could – hoping to get them in close, if not point-blank, range. I kind of figured the Hatamoto would fall back to protect his samurai carrying the body… boy was I wrong. Lesson learned – never move within 6” of a Hatamoto that hasn’t moved yet!

I played all defense tokens hoping to NOT DIE and keep the Hatanoto busy… That’s why my Teppoman didn’t die outright in the first round of close combat.

Samurai about to haul the body off the table in the background there… if only I could get priority and engage them first….

No such luck – Finnegan got priority next turn and off the table they went.

My Hatamoto tried to engage the Lion’s Boshou, but she fled. So my Samurai and two spear-wielding Ashigaru tried to chase her down. My only hope of winning (or not losing as badly) was to take out the Bushou and Hatamoto to close the victory point gap.

Should have just ran from this dude… The archers had stood around trying to fire arrows at him – into the close combat – but couldn’t even scratch him. for their folly he chased down and killed one of them after the teppo man went down.

My Hatamoto and the lion Bushou finally came to blows. I think she got the initiative and cause my hatamoto a grievous wound… I took ALL attack tokens and got in two enhanced attacks and took her DOWN! 

Finnegan still won; he scored five victory points for taking the objective off the table and two more for the two Ashigaru the Hatamoto killed. I got five points for killing his Bushou. It would have been a costly win for him in a tournament or campaign…

The Teppo wasn’t the hero-killer I feared it might be. Maybe in the hands of a samurai and/or with a hojutsu ability it might be a bit nastier. With the severe limitations on how many can be fielded I’m not too worried.

GAME TWO

In the evening Rick, Christian, Dave and Patrick all showed up to have another go at Ronin. We used the exact same scenario and forces as the game I’d played earlier with Finnegan. Dave and Christian, who hadn’t played before decided to sit and watch Rick and Patrick play to get an idea of how it goes – figuring if it was quick they could play in a second game. We didn’t get to playing a second game…

SCENARIO

As mentioned we tried the Capture Scenario again. Both sides were to try and recover the body of a slain leader in the middle of the field of battle. Carting the body off the table or being in control of it at the end of the game was worth 5 victory points.

The game was to last 8 turns.

FORCES

Lion Clan Bushi Buntai - Rick

Bushou – Rank 5

- Heavy Armour, Katana, Naginata

- Commander, Intuition, Naginatajutso, Yadome-Jutsu

Hatamoto – Rank 4

- Heavy Armour, Katana

- Commander, Powerful, Tough

Samurai – Rank 3

- Heavy Armour, Katana, Yumi

- Commander, Fast

Samurai – Rank 3

- Heavy Armour, Katana, naginata

- Commander, Powerful

Crab Clan Bushi Buntai - Patrick

Hatamoto – Rank 4

- Heavy Armour, Katana. Tetsubo

- Commander, Tetsubojutsu

Samurai – Rank 3

- Heavy Armour, Katana,

- Commander

2x Ashigaru – Rank 1

-Medium Armour, Katana, Yari

2x Ashigaru – Rank 1

-Medium Armour, Katana, Yumi

Ashigaru – Rank 1

-Medium Armour, Katana, Teppo

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Patrick (in the middle) played the Crab Clan Buntai. Christian (left) and Dave (right) watched on to try and figure out what was going on.

Rick played the Lion Clan Buntai.

Turn One – Patrick sent his shooty Ashigaru out on the flanks to get into a position where they might be able to cover their guys going for the prize.

Turn Two - Rick’s guys then flanked to the left – I think to chase down the teppo-gunner…?

This kind of left the objective wide open for Patrick’s Ashigaru archers to seize and make off with.

The Teppo-gunner had been hit by Rick’s Samurai archer. He fired back but missed. The Crab Samurai rushed forward to keep the Teppo-gunner from being overrun while he reloaded.

Realizing the Crab Archers were making off with the body, the Lion Bushou charged down the kill past the melee – where the Crab Hatamoto was cutting down a Lion Samurai and the Lion Hatamoto was chopping his way through yumi-armed Crab Ashigaru.

Having dispatched his samurai opponent the Crab Hatamoto charged the Lion Bushou to tie her up and keep her from chasing down the Ashigaru carrying off the body. She cut him good for his insolence – inflicting a grievous wound in her first blow!

The Ashigaru made it to the table edge unmolested!

The Lion Hatamoto, having finshed off his two Ashigaru opponents joined in the fight between the Lion Bushou and the Crab Hatanoto – The Crab – already grievously wounded didn’t stand a chance… 

These two samurai has been going at it toe-to-toe on top of the hil since turn three – on the final turn the Crab finally got the best of his lion opponent. 

The mess at the end of the battle.

This game took about two hours, but we stopped to have a few little chats about the rules and mechanics and to look up a few things we forgot or were never really sure of. I think these 150 point games of 3’x3’ table will be easily playable in 1.5 hours or less – once we get the rules solid in our heads.

Everybody seems pretty pleased with the rules so far. I think the one downside is I imagine multiplayer battles would likely bog down very quickly and take FOREVER to play…

Hopefully we’ll be able to get in a few more games over the holidaze.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Tomorrow you should see my first entry for the Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

over at  Analogue Hobbies - I finished off ALL of the Japanese courtiers, villagers and townspeople I had – 27 in all. I’ll post the picture here on Monday.

I should get going on my next volley – more Samurai and Ronin and Ashigaru….

They Fought Like Lions

I thought I should focus on one buntai at a time. So I’ve been trying to focus on the Lion Clan figures I have…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

Some of the stuff I’ve been basing and priming over the last week or so.. There's just over 200 minis there. I hope to have them all - and a few other new one's that are on the way - done by the end of February for the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend. Production has slowed somewhat over the last few months, but typically over the holidaze I get quite a bit done. 

 

  

The Batch I’ve finished up over the last couple of days. (Not counting towards the Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge because they were all started before today… by at least a couple of hours!). Most were finished up while I was watching 13 Assasins.

A Casualty from Perry Miniatures

A Lion Clan personality from AEG

Two Archers also from AEG.

Four Lion Samurai with naginata from AEG. Three are newly painted, one I painted Last Week

I also finished a generic samurai from AEG, and a civilian from Old Glory - but the individual pictures I took didn’t turn out and I couldn’t be bothered to go back out and take two more…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hmmmmm… not sure… Game report? I’d hoped to get in a game last night, but no one showed. Maybe I’ll get some games in with the kids this week.