Legends of the Five Rings - Oni No Akuma

 Another Oni from the Legends of the Five Rings Clan War Miniatures. 

Oni No Akuma - or Akuma no Oni, as I see it written in some places 

This one is a bit bigger than the Kamu No Oni I did last month. Shown here for scale...

And here are some unfortunate Phoenix Clan warriors facing the three large Oni! (Also for scale!) 

Oni No Akuma is apparently an Oni Lord and one of the most powerful creatures of the Shadowlands? So I'm going to go ahead and call it a Greater Warbeast, Single Model Unit. That's 6 points, I could give it FEAR to make it 8...? I guess I have to wait and see what other units end up being in this force!? I know I have boxes with two other types of greater Oni, which could all pretty much end up being THE SAME - they could ALL end up being Greater Warbeasts, Reduced model units... where would the fun be in that...?

I guess I don't really need to worry about it until I get a few more units DONE. I guess it does help to figure these things out in advance, then I have a better idea of WHICH units would be best to paint up first... 

In the end I could end up with TWO Shadowlands forces - on of just Oni, another of just Goblins! 

Though I do have a couple units of both hovering in boxes around my workbench, I have a feeling it may be some time before I get to them... Interests have shifted... I'm on to other things. 

If I COULD find those boxes of other Oni - I would probably get them done, because they'd be relatively easy to do and could potentially finish up another force. 

I may also try to finish up Yogo Junzo and his entourage/bodyguard - as a unit to LEAD the Oni. 

Legends of the Five Rings - Kamu No Oni

So, I've been looking at my Legends of the Five Rings: Clan War Miniatures... 

I... I can't even begin to explain how that happened. 

It probably had something to do with the imminent arrival of Xenos Rampant got me thinking about Dragon Rampant...? And that got me thinking of possible campaigns I could run with that...? Maybe it's because it's the time of year I start thinking about the Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend in February...? The Clan War collection is one that I could, once they were all painted, easily host an entire campaign of SOME sort, with 6-7 complete armies. 

(I got a little out of hand buying these a few years back...) 

Regardless... I got to looking at them and thinking about the different clans (and other factions) in terms of Dragon Rampant forces and, when I was looking at the Shadowlands stuff, thought painting these up would be easy and fun! 

Could also be used as weird alien creatures in Xenos Rampant! 

Kamu No Oni

They are pretty big - here they are facing off against a band of Kuni Witch-Hunters.

I think the Kamu No Oni will be Greater Warbeasts (2 - Reduced Model Unit) for 6 points. As Greater Warbeasts they move pretty fast (10" - same as heavy cavalry), but not super fast (like Light Cavalry or Lesser Warbeasts - 12"). The get a Wild Charge and deal some SERIOUS damage with an attack value of 3+. They aren't so great on the defence (Defence Value 6), and only have 6 Strength points... but have Armour 4, so that will keep them in the game and charging. 

I was thinking of adding FEAR for another 2 points... Because they DO look terrifying... but I will probably have LARGER Oni in the Shadowlands force... And how will I differentiate them? Other than they will likely be Single Model Units. Also the fact that two models will be removing a lot of enemy from the field, one could assume more than a few of those would be those that flee in terror when the first members of their unit are shredded in the gaping maws of these demons! 

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...

Phoenix Clan for Dragon Rampant

Hot on the tails of the Lion Rampant Clan Warband for Dragon Rampant, I finished up a small force of a Legend of the Five Rings Phoenix Clan for Dragon Rampant. This was mostly a re-basing operations - though I did paint up two new minis to make units the right number.

I have to admit, I have very little idea about the actual make up of the armies of Rokugan. I never played Clan War (the miniatures game these were originally made for), I never really played Legends of the Five Rings (the Collectible Card Game), and, while I HAVE a pile of reference books for various editions of the role-playing game, I've read very few of them and only briefly ran a game of Savage Worlds lonely based on what little I knew about the setting. So these armies are based solely on the little I know about the different clans and what few miniatures I have available.

I think a lot of these miniatures are 20 years old now. I picked up the ones I have 8-9 years ago. I don't think they're getting any easier to come by, so I probably won't be adding any more to any of these forces - at least not any of the fantastical Clan War Minis. If I did add anything else, at som  point, it would be just generic samurai and ashigaru from the likes of Perry Miniatures or Dixon. (Though there is that "Daimyo" expansion in the new Reaper Bones Kickstarter!)

These limitations have meant some of the units may not be what they really SHOULD be... The Clay Soldiers, for example, should not be a reduced model unit. As I understand it, they are low-quality warriors conjured up from the earth in large number - there should be a HORDE of them!

Phoenix, as I understand it, are peaceniks. They love to study and learn about and practice magic. Life is precious to the Phoenix and therefore I imagine them not using human warriors to defend against invaders, where possible, but rather using conjured void guard and clay soldiers and magic!



The entire force (so far... but I'm not sure when - or WHAT - I'd ever add to it!)



Shugenja

As I said, thePhoenix all about the magics - but I'm not really sure how best to represent their Shugenja. I really like that Dragon Rampant leaves it abstract and open to interpretation and gives a number of suggestions about how to represent magic on the tabletop... but have little experience to determine which is the best to go. Currently I'm thinking of ignoring the "Spellcaster" magical rule (it seems to me it just adds points to a standard unit and doesn't make it really any "better"). Instead I'm thinking of classifying them as Light Foot with Short Range Missiles (4 points).
The Wall of Spears ability could represent a conjured wall of thorns (or forming some other magical barrier) and the short range missiles represents ranged offensive magiks...?

A particularly powerful Shugenja could be a single model unit. Others could be in a small unit with multiple lesser shugenja (and perhaps a few yojimbo - body guards) - as seen in some of the units below.



Bow-Armed Shiba Samurai - Elite Foot with Missiles - 8 points

Yowza! One third of the entire force right there!

The Shiba are one of the prominent families of the Phoenix Clan. Where the Isawa focus on study and learning magic, the Shiba study the martial arts to protect the Isawa shugenja...



Void Guard - Elite Foot + FEAR! - 8points!!!?

The Void Guard are terrifying etherial warriors, summoned or conjured into existence to fight for the Phoenix clan - so they are lead by a shugenja who has summoned them - or is there to keep them stable, and he is accompanied by a yojimbo. (The yojimbo in this unit is one I recently painted - I would like to paint a few more for other units, so that all the yojimbo are better armoured!)



A SECIND unit of Void Guard - as above...

...and that right there - two units of Void Guard with one unit of Bow-Armed Samurai - that could be an entire 24-point force for Dragon Rampant.



an alternative to the above units...

Heavy Foot + FEAR! - 6 points

OR

AGGRESSIVE Heavy Foot + FEAR! - 8points!!!?

As Heavy Foot, the unit would have 12 strength points - Void Guard one each, Yojimbo and Shugenja two each. I kind of like this option as it would make the unit look a bit more substantial (in a force where there are already a LOT of small Elite or Reduced Model units)



Avalanche Guard - Reduced Model, Aggressive, Heavy Foot - 6 point

If I'd had two more, I probably would have just called them "Elite Foot"... as it is I only have the four... as Heavy Foot they have 12 strength points which divides easily into four. I had thought of attaching a Shugenja with a Yojimbo to the unit - like Ive done with the Void Guard above and Slay Soldiers below, but that just didn't make any sense, fluff-wise. Unlike the Void Guard and Clay Soldiers, the Avalanche Guard are not summoned creatures, but rather are themselves warrior Shugenja that have, through magic, turned their skin to stone (albeit, FLEXIBLE stone! Or maybe it's just covered with stone...?) - which acts as super hard armour.



Clay Soldiers - Reduced Model, Ravenous Hordes - 1 point

This is how I initially envisioned the unit - a very small unit of Clay Soldiers... 2 strength points per model... I feel like a proper unit of Clay Soldiers should have 12 of them.

Then, I thought maybe I'm going about this all wrong - maybe DON'T even bother trying to have a UNIT of "Clay Soldiers", but rather have the Clay Soldiers be conjured protective elements for a Shugenja...?



Shugenja (and Protective Elements) - Light Foot with Short Ranged Missiles.

The four Clay Soldiers and two Yojimbo have one strength point each - and the Shugenja has six (and would have to be tracked with a die once all the other elements of the unit have been removed).




Isawa Inquisitors - Reduced Model, Light Foot...?

(+Aggressive? +Cleric? +Wizardling and the Sod Off! spell?)

I'm not really sure how best to represent these. I think they just counter magic...? Part of me feels like calling them Light Foot + Wizardling. Wizardling is a less power version of Spellcaster. Spellcaster adds 4 points to the cost of the unit and allows the unit to cast any of the spells available in the list. Wizardling is cheaper (2 points) but only gives them access to three. I feel like I want to make my own rule for them and give them Wizardling and ONE SPELL (Sod Off! cancels the effect of any spell with a "until the start of the players next activation" duration) but make that spell +2 to cast (normally it is 8+ - the hardest spell to cast! - this would effectively make it 6+).  As I'm only ever going to play with people using my own miniatures, I feel like I can make up my own damned rules for them...



Alternative Isawa Inquisitor unit - same as above, but with two Yojimbo - and so each element is worth two Strength Points each - just to make it look like a (slightly) more substantial (looking) unit.



Mounted Shiba Samurai

I suppose I could call them a "Reduced Model, Elite Mounted"... but that would be just too much... there are ENOUGH reduced model units in this army already! I need a few more mounted samurai before I could field these without feeling ashamed of myself. The problem is - these horses are WAY huger than any other samurai horses I have, and I only have six or eight of these models, and only these two are actually painted. originally I was going to give two each to the Crane, Lion and Phoenix  clans - for use in their Hordes of the Things armies - they would have two on a single base that would represent an element of "Riders" or "Knights". So do I steal the unpainted ones from the other clans and give the Phoenix all the big horses and buy some new ones for the other clans when (IF) I ever get to adding mounted elements to their forces. Or do I just go ahead and mix these with others and hope that no one notices (or minds, if the do notice) that a couple of the horses are considerably bigger than the others in the unit...?
 

An assortment of others I've painted for the Phoenix Clan - Coutiers, MORE Shugenja, an Ashigaru with a tepo, and a Jade Samurai (not actually a thing from L5R - the model is a Shadowrun miniature - from a pack of stylized items meant to represent programs or avatars while netrunning)

There are maybe a half dozen other miniatures in the Phoenix drawer... I'm in no rush to paint them. They would just be more characters... or miniatures that would need MORE miniatures to complete a unit - and as I have a complete force here (28-32 points worth, depending on how I chose to represent things - 24 points is suggested size for an army) I have NO desire to be buying anything new for these any time soon!

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I WAS supposed to be finishing up a few Necomunda items this week... (y'know, according to THE PLAN). Now that I've got these done, however, I wouldn't mind actually PLAYING A GAME with them... So there could be a Dragon Rampant game report coming up...

I do have Necromunda stuff on the workbench... and more Legends of the Five Rings stuff for rebasing (plus a few to paint up to finish off units)... and I did prime some of the Hellboy miniatures last week... could be anything!

Lion Clan for Dragon Rampant

Somehow I got thinking about my collection of East Asian Fantasy collection (I think it was probably from seeing the "Daimyo" expansion in the current Reaper Bones Kickstarter...?). I had previously planned to do Hordes of the Things armies for each of the Clans in AEGs Legends of the Five Rings, plus keep a bunch on individual bases for role-playing games, and later I expanded those a bit to be used as Buntai in Osprey Wargame's Ronin - Samurai skirmish game.

The largest and most complete of the HOTT armies was the Lion Clan army. I completed a Hordes of the Things army for them in 2011-2012(?) along with an opposing Phoenix Clan army. I used them in the Summer 2012 HOTT Campaign... and... never used them again. They've never even faced the other L5R HOTT Army I built - the Phoenix Clan.

I also have a number of minis that were dedicated to a Lion Clan Ronin Buntai.

Recently I have been reconsidering my basing standards and whether I'm likely to use some of the units/armies I have on multi-figure bases. I've decided that I'm going to rebase all the L5R HOTT armies (well the two that I've done - and a few other elements I made for other armies) onto individual bases, as it is very unlikely that I will EVER finish HOTT armies for any of the other clans... I probably COULD, however put together large enough forces to use them with Dragon Rampant - and, being on single bases, they could still be used for Ronin or any role-playing game I happen to want to use them in.

So here is a Warband of Lion Clan troops for Dragon Rampant.



the entire force - 24 points worth

The force is mostly made up of figures from AEGs old L5R Minatures Game (Clan War..?), Old Glory and a few from Perry Miniatures... and possibly Dixon...?



The Leader is a Shugenja  - a wizard of sorts - (probably of the Kitso family). I like that in Dragon Rampant wizards are sort of... abstract... There are some rules for making actual wizards that cast spells (that all seem pretty... weak...) or you can just field it as a Single Model, Light Missile unit (which is what I'm doing here) and the shooting it does represents magic blastification of some sort... - 4 points



Foot Samurai - Elite Foot - 6 Points

I think the one in the centre is supposed to be Matsu Tsuko - the Daimyo of the Lion Clan at the time Clan War was going on... Perhaps SHE should be the leader!?



Foot Samurai - Elite Foot - 6 Points

Ashigaru with Spear - Light Foot? I have some Ahisgaru with heavier armour - they might qualify as - 3 points

Ashigaru with Bow - Light Missile - 4 points

Hmmmm... actually, that's only 23... I guess I could call the Ashigaru Heavy Foot...?



Battered Unit Marker. 

I have a few more as well...

Some are painted (but there are not enough of to fill out a unit - or they're just fun extras that will NEVER be in a unit for Dragon Rampant)

There are a bunch that are unpainted (that will fill out said aforementioned units),

and a few that are still on multi-figure bases that need rebasing.

Eventually I will have options for Missile-armed Elite foot (armoured samurai with bow), possibly some Heavy Cavalry (mounted samurai), a few more archers (more ashigaru, or lighter armoured samurai?), MORE units of Elite Foot, Lesser War Beasts (the Lions!!). Once they're all painted the elite foot will be reorganized - I have enough of the Matsu Lion's Pride (elite, all-female Samurai unit) to form one unit of six. I'm currently using one - the one with two swords in the second unit of Elite Foot. At SOME point, when my interests gen-u-inely return to the far east and Samurai and I actually get to painting up all the minis I have, I could potentially order a few more from Perry miniatures - just to fill out a couple last units (more archers, and a reduced sized unit of Heavy Missile - ashigaru armed with Tepo - muskets - not really part of the L5R world... but these are MY fantasy figures, I can add in whatever I want!!!)

I may or may not get to re-basing the Phoenix clan minis... It will require some creative unit construction to get anything useable at this time... and will have a LOT of mages in reduced model units... but I might try as I can now rebase things quite quickly and easily (having so much experience at doing so!) and then I would have an opponent for these and be able to play a game of Dragon Rampant - which I've been wanting to do for some time (I mean "Dan Mercy Games" was on my original 10x Personal Challenge list!) 

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming blog:

A few Necromunda Items and another rebasing project!

And then... some other stuff...  

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….