January 2020 Games

It was a bit of a slow month. But that's okay...

Wednesday, 1 January 2020

For New Years Day we'd planned to spend the day playing games... much as we'd planned to spend the week between Xmas and New Years playing games... and like that week, we didn't really get up to as many games as we'd hoped. Just the day before we'd said we'd play Lords of Waterdeep (Finnegan's choice), Viticulture (Keira's choice), Hellboy (a family decision) and... maybe something else...?



The Grrrlz and I DID get to play Viticulture.



I got off to a commanding lead - just picking up points wherever I could - selling and buying back land, selling grapes, etc.



I also started with the windmill, so I planed small vines EVERY turn for another victory point... it all added up!



They eventually started filling orders and gaining victory points... but by that time, so was I, and they just couldn't catch up.



Later, in the evening, Amanda and I played another game of 7 Wonders Duel - with the Pantheon expansion.



She totally crushed me with a military victory... She said it wasn't a very satisfying way to win and was disappointed we didn't get to play to the end and count up the points....?

Never did get to Lords of Waterdeep...

Or Hellboy...

Friday, 3 January 2020



Brent and Kurtis came by to join me and Amanda and Keira in an epic game of Terraforming Mars - with ALL the expansions we have! We played with the expansions we have: the Hellas/Ellysium board (on the Hellas side), Venus Next, Prelude, and Colonies. This was the first time we've played with Colonies and only the second time we've played with Prelude - and the first time we've played with Prelude with more people.

I don't know, it felt like the game went a little too fast!? Not in terms of the amount of actual time to play the game - -in terms of the number of actions we got before it was OVER!? We only played through six generations - I feel like usually we play through TWICE that many!



I played the Mining Guild with Power Generation and Mohole.



I was leading in Terraforming Rating when the end game was triggered... but..

too many moving parts.

prelude and colonies seem interesting... but also it feels like if you happen to get the right combination of cards at the beginning...


Saturday only two of Finnegan's regular D&D players came by, so, for a lark, they decided to make a bunch of first edition AD&D characters!


Sunday, 5 January 2020

This dude turned 16....



I mean, SIXTEEN!? WTF!?



There was a bit of a theme with most of the presents this year (if you can't make it out, it's three D&D themed boardgames - and Amanda's holding up a comforter we got for his bed that's all dice...



In the afternoon ALL the Saturday game crew showed up and played an epic SEVEN HOUR marathon one shot D&D adventure Finnegan had set up for them that was sort of an introduction to the new campaign that would be starting the following Saturday. They each played a pre-generated 15th level, evil-snake-person-creature-thing that was a warlord or leader of their respective tribe and had all found out there was a way to become a god-king-type thing and lead their people back to prominence in their world and subjugate all the other races as they felt they should...? Or something like that...? I was only listening in a bit of the time. He basically had it set up that they had to work together to do the thing, but if any survived, they would eventually have to fight each other to see who would become the new god-king... Basically it determined and, in a way, introduced who would be the nemesis of the player-characters in the NEXT campaign.

It was a riot. They all had a fantastic time.



Then there were cupcakes.


Wednesday, 8 January 2020

Keira asked if I was interested in playing a game Wednesday evening... like she really needed to ask...



She suggested Patchwork, which we haven't played in a while!



I actually even won - with a POSITIVE SCORE! (Seriously, over half the time we play, when we count up buttons and then subtract points for unfilled squares I have a NEGATIVE total!? Anyone reading this play Patchwork? Is this normal, or do I just REALLY SUCK at this game!? I mean, I've sometimes WON because I was less in the hole than my opponent!?

Friday, 10 January 2020



We tried out one of the new games Finnegan got for his birthday - Betrayal at Baldur's Gate! Kurtis joined us, as did Patrick - a new player at our table - who I met at the Strange Bedfellows 40K Team Tournament last summer (Other Tim and I faced him and his own eldar - which were teamed up with some T'au...).



I liked Betrayal at Baldur's Gate - it played a LOT faster than I initially imagined it would - especially considering four of us had never played it before - though Kurtis has played a fair bit of Betrayal at the House on the Hill (which this is just a resikinning of). Patrick owns the game, himself, and has played it a lot. The cool thing is, there are SO MANY endgame scenarios, that, even though he's played it a lot - BOTH TIMES we played we ended up playing one he hadn't played before.



In the first game I played an angry dwarf named Torskar... bit of a tank... but then I got this omen that said I can only take Mental damage instead of physical damage! Not my strong suit. He could HIT HARD though...

I knew the game involved one of the players eventually turning out to be THE BETRAYER - I didn't realize that this is fairly random and determined later in the game when the endgame conditions are triggered. Other games that I know of that are co-op, or semi-co-op, but have a traitor that works against the others - it is usually determined at the beginning of the game and is kept secret and the traitor has to subtly work against the others without being figured out. I like the way it is done in this game, as... well... some people just aren't that good at subterfuge - and they other style of play can be impossible for them!?



Finnegan reading the end-game scenario for the Heroes.



Amanda, the TRAITOR, explaining her bit... It seemed like it was going to be really, REALLY difficult for us - we had a limited amount of turns to figure out which things were real and which were illusion and uncover the true portal and shut it down before daemons swarmed the city!?



Oh... but killing the Traitor also worked... Remember when I said my dwarf could HIT HARD!?

 

BAM! One-shotted Amanda's traitorous little halfling!

Kurtis took off and Keira didn't feel like playing again. But Amanda, Finnegan, Patrick and I had another go at it.



This time when the end game was triggered, it didn't even determine a traitor just yet - everyone moved to the tile where the person who triggered the end game was at... removed all the other tiles - as we realized we were in and illusionary shadow version of Baldur's Gate.... and basically had to start all over again!



When the end game was triggered again, it was, once again, AMANDA's character that was in league with Count Strahd (yeah, from Ravenloft) and was trying to capture us all to feed him for dinner (or... something like that..?). Two of us had to escape for us to win... in the first post-haunt-turn, Amanda's character totally took out Patricks. Finnegan and I thought we were totally Effed! But I slipped out past her - and so did Finnegan a turn later and so we won! Woo!

I like the game. Plays quick enough and it seems like there are LOADS of end scenarios to play through... I have a feeling we'll see it hitting the table regularly!


Saturday, 11 January 2020



In the afternoon everyone showed up to make characters for Finnegan's new D&D5E campaign - one showed up late. Keira's not playing in this campaign for some reason...? I think maybe it's the way some of the guys play that's irritated her in the last two campaigns and she's decided to take a break.



later in the evening we kicked off our family Wrath & Glory campaign! It was mostly finishing up character creation and introducing some of the other (non-player) characters and what it's all going to be about. So excited to get going this!!! By the time we were done with all that it was a little late to get started on the first adventure, so we called it a night...

The campaign is going to be an Inquisitorial campaign. I have loads of stuff from the old Dark Heresy role-playing game that I'm going to make use of. Amanda is playing a Sister of Battle, Keira is playing a Sanctioned Psyker, and Finnegan is playing a fast-talking, ex-ganger from a hiveworld. Should be fun.


Sunday, 19 January 2020



I can't remember why we didn't play on Saturday...? As no one was available to play Necromunda on Sunday, however, I started off our Wrath & glory campaign proper. I was making use of Shattered Hope - an old Dark Heresy adventure... man... there were plot holes you could pilot a void ship through... They spent the entire evening just exploring outside the mine and talking with people above ground - something the writers clearly did NOT expect players to do - They expected them to just jump on the railroad and head straight down into the mines!


Saturday, 25 January 2020

We'd originally planned to play a boardgame on Friday evening... but then Supernatural Season Five arrived at the library and Amanda and Keira decided they were going to binge-watch the WHOLE FREAKING SEASON over the weekend...



On Saturday, Finnegan did carry on with his new D&D campaign...



and the Grrlz took a long enough break from Supernatural to finish off Shattered Hope. This evening they headed down into the mine - and it went pretty well. Had a real Horror Movie vibe going on. The baddie they faced at the end - a solitary Bloodletter of Khorne, just about did them in! Nearly cleaved the Battle Sister (in Power Armour!) in two - She'd failed two defiance checks when Cynthia was able to stabilize her - after, nearly single handedly, taking down the Bloodletter with a couple blasts of SMITE (a psyker ability).

I'm really excited about this and looking forward to continuing on with it! The next adventure looks a bit more promising!


Friday, 31 January 2020 

Railways of North America.



Friday evening our friend Laura came by and joined me and Amanda and Keira for a game of Railways of the World - using the Railways of "North America" board... it's an odd name for it, because... well... it's CANADA!? The Eastern U.S. is called Railways of the Eastern U.S. The Western U.S. board is called Railways of the Western U.S. The Mexico board is called Railways of Mexico.... But this one is Railways of North America!?

It was almost like two separate games going on until the last turn or two. Laura and I were fighting over the west coast, and Amanda and Keira were all over the East. Amanda started off strong - she took a LOT of bonds - like, NINE of them. Though it looked like she would get swamped with debt - when she started making 4-5 stage deliveries in the first few turns and when rocketing WAY ahead of us in points! It took some time, but I eventually bought up and only had four bonds at the end of the game and was able to just squeak past her in the last two turns! Woo! I don't often win at Railways - or... even do well! - so I was pretty excited.


Looking back at Game Plan 2020 - Q1... well... I ticked off three of the Wrath & Glory games on the 5x5 list... Looks like I'll have some catching up to do in February - which shouldn't be a problem as there is the Family Day long weekend coming up - where I plan to play Hellboy, Blackstone Fortress, and Necromunda all weekend... except Friday and Saturday night. Friday night is valentines and Amanda and I are going out. Saturday, I'm hoping I'll be running Wrath & Glory.

Every other Friday evening in February I'm planning on playing Power Grid - as I am helping out with that at ToonCon now and every other Sunday evening I will be playing... some sort of skirmish game Hellboy, Blackstone Fortress, or Necromunda - and, if no one else is available, I'll be roping the family into it because I want to do a LOT of practice and play testing of the scenarios I plan to run for those at ToonCon


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a half written game report from a Hellboy game at the end of December I still haven't posted?! Maybe I'll try to finish that up! Also should have some more Blackstone Fortress stuff done in the next few days! 

Renegade Knight Acheron (and Other Chaos Goodies!)

Okay, I got a little distracted... I can't even think of HOW I ended up working on this again!? Ah, well... It's done, I can hopefully get back to working on Blackstone Fortress stuff now!

The Cerastus Knight-Acheron was not a planned purchase. I picked it up last summer along with a HUGE LOT OF IMPERIAL GUARD. Originally hadn't even discussed the knight, but the dude I was buying it all from brought it along and said he'd "throw it in" for a ridiculously low amount... like $30 or $50...? How could I NOT buy that!? It was even (mostly) assembled - I mean, it HAD been full assembled and painted, but then broken and was in need of repair.

In theory I COULD have just glued it back together and used it as is... but... that's just not my way! So, I primed it black and started over! I washout 90% complete - having painted it in a green and yellow scheme when I stalled... (for the very same reason I never finished the OTHER KNIGHT!) I couldn't decide on any heraldry! And so it (they) sat.

Late last year, when I got it into my head that I should make a CHAOS army, I decided that I should do all my knights as RENEGADE (or Chaos) Knights! (Or, two of them, at least... I still have plans for the third, which remains, to this day, on the sprue!). So I blacked out the armoured plates on this one and started over. heraldry wasn't an issue, because I wasn't going to do any individual heraldry - just some chaos symbols.



Cerastus Knight-Acheron from Forge World.



I haven't come up with a name for this beastie just yet... I'm not 100% sure I'm actually FINISHED PAINTING it yet. I'm not loving the "camouflage" on the central part of the carapace. I was thinking this morning the I may repaint it the same purple that the weapons, helmet and kneepads are painted... with or without some more chaos-y sigils. The "camouflage" just looks a little TOO busy.


I was kind of going for a look inspired by the original Noise Marine. The "camouflage" on the central part of the carapace came about because I wanted something rainbow-ish up there... and then thought of the camouflage I did on the other knight... and thought I'd do something similar - but with not-so-muted rainbow colours - and not nearly so small, neat, and even... Too much...? Can you really have "too much" on Chaos stuff...? Especially Chaos stuff that's aligned with Slaanesh? I worry that it might be painful for my opponents to look at... but then... maybe that's not a BAD thing for Chaos...

In the end I may just leave it... because I am lazy (if repainting something TWICE, and not wanting to do it a THIRD time can be called lazy!?)... and this is DONE and I have SO MUCH OTHER STUFF still to do! Maybe, once I'm done the rest of the chaos army, if I STILL hate it then... THEN I will repaint it! There. Done. Decision made!



I might rebase this at some point sooner, though. It's odd that it came on a smaller base than the other knights - especially considering it's taller, heavier (being solid resin!), and more top-heavy than the plastic ones. That's probably why it was broken when I got it - it probably toppled over and got smashed by its own weight.



Speaking of the base. I didn't put any dried grass clumps on it yet, as I'm also considering just repainting the base. I went with the sandy desert look when I repainted it (thinking, at the time, it would most likely be walking in support of my Tallarn forces), but now that it's working for the Dark Gods... and most of my Chaos stuff is now on urban-like-bases... I'm considering repainting it to look like the crumbled concrete of a ruined city... y'know... like it was ORIGINALLY painted.

I...

I am a special kind of stupid...

One day I'll laugh at all this. Hopefully you're all laughing already!

Hey - speaking of Chaos forces on urban bases...



Over the last month, or so, I've rebased all the Chaos Cultists I have (I also picked up a couple more boxes of the cheap 5/$12 cultists, as they've just gone out of production) I have another 15 of these to paint up - which will make 30 - could be 3 units of ten, or one big unit of 30. I've converted a few of the new ones so that, if fielding them as units of ten, in a game of apocalypse, I'll have two units or ten all armed with autoguns, and a third unit of ten with autopistols and "brutal assault weapons"

Complete forces of Chaos... so far...



Wow... That's like Campbell's Chunky CHAOS SOUP!

(Yes, that is an old Keeper of Secrets I'm using as a Daemon Prince of Chaos)

So far, I guess that could be fielded (in Warhammer 40000: Apocalypse, the only 40K mass battle I really care about at the moment) as...

Chaos Battalion Detachment
HQ - Daemon Prince of Chaos - 9PL
Troops - Cultists with Heavy Stubber (10) - 3PL
Troops - Bloodletters (10) - 4PL
Troops - Daemonettes (10) - 4PL

Chaos Vanguard Detachment
HQ - Karanak - 4PL
Elite - Rogue Psyker - 3PL
Elite - Rogue Psyker - 3PL
Elite - Plague Marines (5) - 4PL
Fast Attack - Flesh Hounds (5) - 3PL

Chaos Knight Auxiliary Super Heavy Detachment
Lord of War - Renegade Knight Acheron - 26PL

63 Power Level in total.

I should see if Keira wants to do battle - she's been pretty excited about the idea of me doing Slaanesh stuff as it gives her a chance to make use of the Ancient Doom rule that all her Eldar have!

I still have a lot to complete. When everything I have is all assembled and painted, I should have (Organized for Warhammer 40000: Apocalypse):

Emperor's Children Battalion Detachment
HQ - Sorcerer - 3PL
Troops - Cultists with Heavy Stubber (10) - 3PL
Troops - Cultists (10) - 2PL
Troops - Cultists (10) - 2PL

Emperor's Children Battalion Detachment
HQ - Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour - 7PL
Troops - Chaos Space Marines (5) - 4PL
Troops - Noise Marines with Blast Master (5) - 5PL
Troops - Noise Marines with Blast Master (5) - 5PL
Elite - Terminators With Reaper Autocannon (5) - 12PL

Death Guard Battalion/Vanguard Detachment
HQ - ?
Elite - Plague Marines (5) - 4PL
Elite - Plague Marines (5) - 4PL
Elite - Plague Marines (10) - 7PL
(in regular 40K these would be three units of seven... but for some reason in Apocalypse they're only foldable in units of 5/10/15/20...?)

Khorne Daemon Patrol Detachment
HQ - Karanak - 4PL
Troops - Bloodletters (10) - 4PL
Fast Attack - Flesh Hounds (5) - 3PL
Elites - Blood Crushers (3) - 6PL

Slaanesh Daemon Battalion Detachment
HQ - Infernal Enrapturess - 5PL
Troops - Daemonettes (10) - 4PL
Troops - Daemonettes (10) - 4PL
Troops - Daemonettes (10) - 4PL
Fast Attack - Seekers (5) - 6PL
Fast Attack - Seekers (5) - 6PL
Heavy Support - Exhalted Seeker Chariot - 9PL

Slaanesh Daemon Vanguard Detachment
HQ - Daemon Prince of Chaos - 9PL
Elite - Fiend of Slaanesh - 3PL
Elite - Fiend of Slaanesh - 3PL
Elite - Fiend of Slaanesh - 3PL
Elite - Fiend of Slaanesh - 3PL

Chaos Knight Auxiliary Super Heavy Detachment
Lord of War - Renegade Knight Acheron - 26PL

Chaos Knight Auxiliary Super Heavy Detachment
Lord of War - Knight Despoiler (with Stormspear Rocket Pod) - 25PL

181 Power Level in total... a pretty decent size for an Apocalypse army (though a little light on the Heavy Hitters!)... Or a smaller one with a few options... Ideally, at SOME point (probably NOT this year) I'd like to add a few things to these forces.  One of the new Keeper of Secrets models, for one! A third Chaos knight might be nice - just to make a full Super Heavy Detachment of three. I do HAVE A third knight I COULD paint up as a Chaos Knight... but I had plans for her... and if I got a third knight for this force, I think I'd rather get a Knight Desecrator or Rampager. Also, I love the idea of having SWARMS of Daemonettes - like, three units of thirty of them! Also, another two units of Bloodletters might be fun - just to upgrade the Khorne patrol into a "battalion" detachment... And maybe some Nurgle character to lead the Deathguard detachment.

Oh, I suppose I could actually make a Black Legion Detachment out of all the Blackstone Fortress minis...

Black Legion Battalion Detachment
HQ - Obsidius Mallex - 4PL
Troops - Traitor Guardsmen (7) - 2PL
Troops - Traitor Guardsmen (7) - 2PL
Troops - Cultists of the Abyss (8) - 2PL
Troops - Cultists of the Abyss (8) - 2PL
Elite - Rogue Psyker - 3PL
Elite - Rogue Psyker - 3PL
Elite - Negavolt Cultists (4) - 2PL
Elite - Chaos Beastmen (4) - 1PL
Another 19 Power Level... which would put me at 200PL..

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I'll be posting a round-up of the games we played through January later this evening. After that...? Hopefully MORE BLACKSTONE FORTRESS miniatures!

More Blackstone Fortress and other 40K stuff

I've been sick this last week and production has slowed, despite not actually going out or doing much...

Still here are a few things I've managed to finish up!

First a few things from Blackstone Fortress...



These are Spindle Drones - thought to be part of the Fortresses own defence mechanisms.

I've come up with a new way of doing the bases for the Blackstone Fortress minis. While they're not perfect, I'm a lot happier with them than with previous attempts. So much so that I've redone part of Jainus Draik's base (see below).



Three new explorers - now I have four done - If I can finish up the basic baddies, we can start playing!



Espern Locarno, Imperial Navigator




Amallyn Shadowguide, Asuryani Ranger



Shadowguide's background is that she is from the Biel-Tan craftworld - but rather than paint her in the Biel-Tan colours, I painted her in the camouflage of my own Biel-TIM fleet ranger camouflage!



Crusader Gotfret de Montbard - this fellow is actually from the Excalation expansion (yes, I've bought expansions for the game without actually playing the base game!?)



Janus Draik, Rogue Trader



glitchlings - from Warhammer 40000 Kill Team: Rogue Trader (remember that!? Yeah, still working on those! This year, for sure, I'm going to finish them up and PLAY through those scenarios!)



Finally a Commissar from Victoria Miniatures. I wanted to finish her up to use as the Commissar in the Wrath & Glory adventure I've been running the family through, in case they somehow manage to drag the Commissar into the action. (They probably won't, she is pretty busy with her own job, but if enough Exalted Icons were rolled on a persuasion or intimidation roll... she could be convinced...)


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I've tried to clear the paint desk of all things other than Blackstone Fortress... but a few other things linger (Noise Marines!) - Painting-wise, it will probably be more Blackstone Fortress minis... as much as I'd LIKE to get on with those Noise Marines, they're going to require some thought and planning, so... they'll likely get shifted off for the time being...

Other than that... I still have a lot of bad guys to paint before I'll get started PLAYING Blackstone Fortress. There could be Hellboy or Necromunda game reports in the not-too-distant future...? (If I can ever get over this cold and invite some people over to play!) Maybe even Kill Team (I've been feeling that itch again...).

In a week there will be a round up of the games we've played throughout the month. There have been few... not LOTS, but a few...

Crab Clan for Dragon Rampant

I'm only counting this as a PSEUDO-Distraction from THE PLAN...

This all came about because I was tidying and organizing in the basement and these were left out from last fall when I was reorganizing my legends of the Five Rings forces for Dragon Rampant (I had reorganized both Lion Clan and Phoenix Clan - rebasing elements that had previously been based for Hordes of the Things). Organizing and putting things away is a good thing and helps with focusing on what's important... but these had been left out for a reason - I HAD painted one of the Kuni Witch Hunters and repainted two others... and that demanded a painting update post... which... I never got around to!? (I'm not going to bother counting it now, as it was painted months ago...).

This is a small force and was relatively easy to organize and, while there are a few miniatures still to paint, doesn't really NEED any more miniatures to field all the units once they are completed.

Now, I'm no expert on world of the Legends of the Five Rings, and what little I knew from perusing a bunch of books I picked up for both he role-playing game and the Clan War miniatures game, I've mostly forgotten. What I DO know is that the Crab Clan are a dour lot, living in the south of Rokugan  along the border with the Shadowlands - they've maintained a wall for centuries and are the first line of defence against the evil that lurks across the border. Always vigilant and on guard, they have little time for courtly matters...



Kuni Witch Hunters

These are super elite warrior monks tasked with tracking down and dealing with tainted individuals, Bloodspeakers and other servants of the Shadowlands that operated within the Empire. They could be the catalyst for many scenarios against other clan forces - the Witch Hunters have tracked down a blood speaker or tainted individual living amongst another clan and called down some fellow Crab Clan warriors to root them out as the opposing clan doesn't want to just give them up!

They would likely be classified as a Reduced Model, Offensive Light Foot, Cleric...? Making them 5 or 9 points (depending on whether undead are actually present - clerics only cost the extra 4 if there is something for them to oppose!). Alternatively, they could be given HATRED (+1 point) and nominate one unit to contain the Tainted/Bloodspeaker/etc that is their quarry...?



Some unarmoured/lightly armoured samurai.

I imagine these are poorer samurai, from poorer families or seventh sons, lacking the full armour of the more prominent families or earlier born brothers. They could be classified as Reduced Model, Offensive, Light Foot for 5 points.



Archers

I have four more to finish painting for this unit. These are bow-armed samurai - but without armour. Despite the lack of armour, they are highly trained and deadly -  their capacity to cause casualties and take (or deflect) damage is greater than a unit of massed Ashigaru, thus the reduced model count. (also, I only had six models I could put in the unit... so...). They will be classified as Reduced Model, Light Missile at 4 points. (If I wanted to make them SUPER bad-ass, I could add "Sharpshooter" for another 2 points, giving them a 4+ shoot value - making them even deadlier!)



Samurai

I have one unit of lightly armoured samurai (like the one on the right of the picture), and two units of more heavily armoured samurai (like the one on the left). Both units of six warriors. Only these two have been painted of the 18 in total... The two more heavily armoured units will, obviously, be Elite Foot at 6 points. Unfortunately, there is no way to downgrade units slightly (as there are in later games by Daniel Mercy), so I think the best way to classify the more lightly armoured samurai is Reduced Model, Offensive, Heavy Foot, also at 6 points - it reduces their Armour value, slightly (which can have a fairly large effect in terms of casualties taken... but they get 12 strength points instead of 6... so they can TAKE a lot more damage before they all die... They also have slightly lower Courage and so are more likely to flee...

I also have a larger Hero figure - probably one of the named characters a warlord/daimyo type. He'll be in a unit all of his own - either as a Reduced Model unit or Single Model, Elite Foot unit (in the reduced model unit, he is accompanied by a standard bearer - who isn't really all that tough - it's still the big guy taking all the damage - the standard bearer is really just there as an abstract element to mark when the Big Guy is reduced to half strength!) Either Way, another 6 point unit. I could also add any fantastical rules... Fear, Slayer, Hatred...? Any of those could be used.



Light Foot

These I imagine as the retainers of all the samurai - lightly-armoured, spear armed, not-so-enthusiastic warriors that are brought out to hold a flank or something. They would be classified as straight up Light Foot at 3 points. I have four more to finish painting to complete the unit.



Teppo armed Ashigaru

Okay I do have ONE unit that I don't have enough figures for. All I have for this unit are these two, painted dudes with Teppo (harquebuses). IF I ever felt the urge to fill out the unit and pick up another four, they'd be a Reduced Model, Heavy Missile Unit at 4 points.

I'm not sure there ARE gunpowder weapons in Legend of the Five Rings. So I'd likely only bother finishing off this unit if I were to ever feel the urge to use them as a not-so-fantasy-rokugani samurai force...


So, lots of options there.

Kuni Witch Hunters - Reduced Model, Offensive Light Foot, Cleric - 5-9 points
Unarmoured Samurai - Reduced Model, Offensive, Light Foot - 5 points
Lightly Armoured Samurai - Reduced Model, Offensive, Heavy Foot - 6 points
Heavily Armoured Samurai - Elite Foot - 6 points
Heavily Armoured Samurai - Elite Foot - 6 points
Daimyo - Reduced/Single Model, Elite Foot - 6 points
Archers - Reduced Model, Light Missile - 4 points (or Sharpshooters @6 points)
Retainers - Light Foot - 3 points

A standard Dragon Rampant force is generally made up of 24 points of troops. Which means the Reduced/Single Model Daimyo (not pictured, but mentioned above) with the three other samurai (the two heavily armoured and one lightly armoured) could be a complete force right there.

To get these on the table quickest, the most likely route would to be to field the Kuni Witch Hunters and Unarmored Samurai (which are done!) for 10 points, finish up the archers and retainers for another 7 points (17 points total - 8 minis to paint) and finish up the Daimyo and his standard bearer and give them a one-point fantastical rule (Hatred or Enchanted Weapons... probably Hatred...) for another 7 points, bringing the total to 24 and requiring only 10 more models to be painted. Of course, if they were fighting undead, the Kuni would then be worth 9 points and the retainers could be dropped and the Daimyo added (without the Hatred/Enchanted Weapons)... even less to paint (six models!)!

In total there are only twenty-six miniatures I have to paint to complete this totally playable force with a few options... I'm trying REAL HARD to NOT think this is an option for 2020-Q1!!! Too many other things to do!! If I started looking around, I'd find DOZENS of other forces for other games that, likewise, only need a dozen, or two dozen, or three dozen miniatures to paint to either complete a force or make it, at least, a PLAYABLE force... but I need to focus on the games I'm actually PLANNING TO PLAY in the near future!!!

As they are all individually based, these could easily all be used in a Buntai for Ronin ("Skirmish Wargames in the Age of Samurai" - also published by Osprey), which I have actually used some of these for previously!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Back to posting about 40K stuff - like I posted earlier today (if you missed it!) - Blackstone Fortress and Necromunda...

Hopefully...