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. 

Women of Rokugan

I’ve started a new Savage Worlds/Legends of the Five Rings campaign. Four of the six players are female – and like to play female characters. Though I didn’t necessarily need these – as I have plenty of female minis to use – I took this as an opportunity to finish up a few new ones. All the figures here were produced for AEG/WOTC’s Legends of the Five Rings: Clan War game.

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

The bunch of them.

A Crane Clan Courtier

Dragon Clan Shugenja

Dragon Clan Warrior

 

Unicorn Clan Shugenja

Phoenix Clan Shugenja

Lion Clan Shugenja

In other news… I may have about a dozen people showing up for the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend. I’m hoping I can count on at least two of them to show up with their own buntai, which means I’ll probably need to provide about ten. I can sort of cobble together one or two, maybe three at the moment. So I should have at least seven or eight more ready. The Wargaming Birthday Bash is just over 9 weeks away, so I’m kind of going to shoot for finishing up about one Buntai a week. ZOUNDS!

I also want to build some new ~3’x3’ battle boards and some Japanese (or at least “Generic Asian”) terrain – houses, walls, etc. 

I also have a few civilians for “protect the village” scenarios.

Good thing I’m a paintin’ fool.

In other other news...



I finally have a front entrance to my house...



...and a bed of my own to sleep in! There's still a lot of finishing details inside - like CLOSETS!? and we STILL NEED THE REST OF THE ROOF ON!? But things are slowly getting... well... slightly less CrAzY - on the renovation front!? 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a few Lion Clan Samurai I’m just finishing up and should hopefully get in a game with them tomorrow.

After this next batch of painted figures there will be a bit of a lag between when I get them done and when I post them as part of the Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge I am to allow curt to post stuff over on his blog first. 

Masked Nasties

Took a break from assembling and prepping minis last night to actually paint a few. I’m not sure what these are called – they’re some sort of creeptastic masked zombies or perhaps tainted with some dark plague… I can’t remember. They’re kind of cool looking though…

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

These figures were made by AEG (or Wizards of the Coast or whoever was making miniatures for Legends of the Five Rings Clan War?).

Hmmmm... I might have liked a bit more contrast in the masks.... Ah well... 

I kind of like them...

I seem to recall there being lots of undead or zombie like plague-tainted minions of the Shadowlands involved in the Clan War. Zombies always make a good generic baddie. Unfortunately looking at my own collection of zombies (all 120+ of them painted so far) and they all have a very “modern” look to them. So looking about for some more generic fantasy zombies I came across Mantic Games Kings of War zombies – just rotting bodies with scraps of cloth hanging about their midsection. They could be made to look timeless.

So I think I’m going to pick up a few of those in the new year to use as baddies in my new L5R campaign that I’m running for the kids now. . I can paint some of those scraps of cloth hanging bout their mid sections with colourful patterns – to look like shredded kimonos. I also picked up the kids some of the Wargames Factory Samurai and Ashigaru - When they're done with those I could scavenge a few spare armour bits or helmeted heads to do some converting...

I’m not a fan of the plastic figures, but the price just can’t be beat. I’ll probably pick up some extras to make some Hordes elements of Hordes of the Things.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a Shugenja and a few more Samurai and Ashigaru that I’m working on… They’ll probably be next. 

Lion and Crab – A Few More L5R Minis

These are a few more Legend of the Five Rings/Clan War figures I finished up over the last week. I’ve ben doing more prepping and priming than anything else this week. It’s not really because I’m in on Curt’s  Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and it starts in one week. Usually whenever I get new miniatures I base and prime them right away and store them away in the drawer that they will forever be stored in. Partly to ensure that I have enough space for them, but mostly so they’re ready to go whenever the urge strikes to get some paint on them. If they’re to be skirimish figures they go on a round washer, if they are to be used for a big battle game or are part of a crew or team that requires they be on a multi-figure base, I will put them on a temporary painting base. The exception to this rule has been when the models require a fair bit of assembly (beyond just sticking to base) or manufacturing of bits (like spears). Or possibly if I’m not entirely sure if I’m going to use them for Skirmish or Big Battle games.

The L5R/Clan War minis are a bit of Column “A” and a bit of Column “B”. A lot of them do require at least a bit of assembly, and more than a few require some tedious, fiddly-bit assembly. This, coupled with the fact that I bought a whole lot of them all at once AND the fact that I originally intended to use some of them for skirmishing/role-playing and some of them for building armies for a Hordes of the Things Clan War campaign… I just never really got around to assembling/basing/priming them.

As I’ve been really taken with Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai - and am planning a campaign/tournament in February (10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend) I thought now might be a good time to get them all sorted out…

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

Two Lion Clan Samurai from AEG

Two Lion Clan Ashigaru, also from AEG. I think I have enough of these that I could do four for each of the major clans. Originally I may have intended to use these for HotT bases, but if/when I ever get around to finishing those armies I can fill out the ranks with cheaper minis from Old Glory.

Two Bushi from the Crab Clan. The fello on the left is another AEG Clan War figure, but the one on the right is an old Grenadier Miniatures figure that I just painted in Crab Clan colours. I don’t think there are actually any gunpowder weapons in Legends of the Five Rings, but I figured if there were any clan that would make use of them, it would be Crab.

I have a few more teppo (arquebus) armed Ashigaru on the way from Perry Miniatures so I can add one or two to each other clans as an option for the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai campaign.

My plan is to, over the next two months, put together about a dozen buntai for the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai campaign. There will be six or seven Bushi Buntai based on the L5R clans (Lion, Crane, Phoenix, Dragon, Crab, Scorpion, Unicorn. I’m not so sure about Unicorn… they seem more Mongel-like and fight mostly on horseback… Also I was originally going to represent the Crane as a Koryu Buntai of the Kakita Academy, but after last week’s game I realized the Koryu would be a terrible Buntai to play. It’s pretty much no different from the Bushi Buntai, except the Koryu can’t have any armour or missile weapns – two very debilitating factors – so I’ve decided to represent the Crane as Bushi but they would be allowed to field some of their samurai unarmoured. There will also be two Monk Buntai (one made of minis from Perry Miniatures, the other made of minis from The Assault Group). There will be an Ikko-Ikki Buntai (mostly Perry Miniatures). There will also hopefully be a Bandit Buntai or two and maybe a Peasant Buntai (with lots of added Ronin – think “Seven Samurai”) - both will be made up of minis from a variety of manufacturers.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hopefully another Ronin game report or two…? some more minis for Ronin…? 

MORE Ronin

Just like last weekend, I got in a few games of Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai on Saturday. And again the game was with the boy in the afternoon….

We tried some bigger buntai (150 points) one a slightly larger surface ~3’x3’.

I’d noted that the close combat can be fast and deadly and very quickly become rather one-sided when one side started taking loses. I thought I’d like to test some games with a bit more shooting. I made up three buntai; a Bushi Buntai with a Bousho, a Samurai and Four Ashigaru – small with one heavy hitter, a so-so samurai and four shmoes (two of which could shoot) and all armoured, a Koryu with a Sensai, and Senpai, four Kohai(?) and an initiate (skill wise way better than the samurai, but without any armour or shooting ability), and a Bandit Buntai – the best they had was their leader who was pretty much the same as the samurai in the Bushi buntai, with a whole bunch of unarmoured, low-ranking bandits – basically a mob – with four archers!

GAME ONE

Finnegan decided to take the Bushi Buntai and thought I should take the bandits. Hunting down bandits seemed a noble thing for some Samurai to do…

SCENARIO

We played the standard Skirmish Scenario. Both of us were to kill the enemy’s leader as a secondary objective.

The game was to last 11 turns.

FORCES

Lion Clan Bushi Buntai

Bushou – Rank 5

- Heavy Armour, Katana, Naginata

- Commander, Intuition, Powerful, Fast

Samurai – Rank 3

- Heavy Armour, Katana

- Kenjutsu

2x Ashigaru – Rank 1

-Medium Armour, Katana, Yari

2x Ashigaru – Rank 1

-Medium Armour, Katana, Yumi

Bandit Buntai

Leader – Rank 3

- Heavy Armour, Katana, Tetsubo

- Commander, Powerful

Gashira – Rank 2

- Katana, Naginata

- Commander

3x Bandits – Rank 1

- Katana

4x Bandits – Rank 1

- Katana, Yumi

Peasant – Rank 0

- Improvised Weapon

THE GAME

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

Finnegan setting up his forces.

The bandits at the end of the first turn. I was playing a little cagey - not as cagey as I could have been – but these were clearly my martial superiors so I wasn’t about to charge headlong into close combat (as is my usual plan of attack!).

The Bushi after the first turn. Looks like he had a plan… archers on the flanks warriors in a tight unit moving up the center.

Those Ashigaru archers fired arrows on the move and scored one hit on one of my bandit archers.

Turn Two saw a proper exchange of arrows and I hit both of his guys!

His warriors cautiously approaching up the middle. They probably should have ran to engage as quickly as possible. 

On Turn Three, when their leader moved within 12” I let her have it with all the arrows I could – standing still in the movement phase and firing only in the action phase to give my guys their best shot. I got extremely lucky and rolled 12 with one – just enough to cause a grievous wound and then 11 with another that caused a light wound and took down the Bushou – the Leader of the Bushi!

Finnegan almost cried. (I know, I’m a terrible dad…)

I convinced him to carry one – as this was all in the name of play-testing a system that was new to me – just to see how badly it might go for the bushi after this. In a campaign I think anyone that this happened to would probably concede to save the rest of their guys.

In another turn or two they were all in contact. Actually this might have been after the second round of combat. All of his guys were outnumbered. One of the Ashigaru (Rank 1) was fighting the Gashira (Rank 2) and a bandit (Rank 1) – I was pretty amazed how long they held out. I think armour really helps!

Eventually I took one Ashigaru down (that had been grievously wounded by his opponent in the first round of combat and stuck around for two or three more rounds and even managed to wound his assailant before expiring).

Then finally I got his other Ashigaru – the one that had been fighting the Gashira and another Bandit.

His Samurai was fighting, for a number of turns, against my leader (which was pretty much his equal) and two bandits and managed to grievously wound my leader – while only being lightly wounded himself. I can’t remember if we played another round and saw his Samurai go down in a blaze of glory or if we called it at this point because he was way to upset… (there were tears… many tears…)

While he finally kill two of my archers – and grievously wound another I only managed to take out one of his.

Afterwards to show him that it really was just terrible luck to have had his bushou killed in the hail of arrows and how badly it would have gone for me if she had made it into contact I set her up against my own leader AND two bandits – just to show him how badass she was. In one turn my leader was dead and I think one of the bandits may have been grievously wounded. She was unscathed. Bushou are nasty. NASTY!

I think I probably could have prevented her getting killed if I’d given her the Yadome-jutsu (arrow-stopping) ability – basically knocking arrows out of the air with her naginata! Would have had to have swapped out two of her other abilities to give her this and the prerequisite Naginatajutsu. But that would have made her nigh impossible to kill with arrows. Basic defence of 6, +3 for heavy armour, +2 for Yadome-jutsu… 11… so only if a 12 was rolled could she even be STUNNED, 13 for a light wound. Archers would have to be standing still and shooting at medium range to have a hope of causing any sort of injury. This, of course would not help against Teppo… (Arquebuses).

Despite all the tears and disappointment, when I asked the kids if they wanted their own Bushi Buntai to paint and play with, they were both very excited about the idea (I happened to notice that Wargames Factory Samurai and Ashigaru are on 40% off until midnight tonight!) 

GAME TWO

In the evening Rick and Curtis showed up to have a go at Ronin. Curtis took the Bushi Buntai (because it was closest to where he was sitting down) and Rick decided to go for he Kakita Academy Koryu Buntai. Had the Bushi been facing the bandits again I might have switched up those abilities just to see, but as the Koryu had no missile weapons to speak of, I left it as is…

SCENARIO

Again I set up a Skirmish scenario. And again, both rolled the same secondary objectives: kill the opponents leader.

FORCES

Lion Clan Bushi Buntai

Bushou – Rank 5

- Heavy Armour, Katana, Naginata

- Commander, Intuition, Powerful, Fast

Samurai – Rank 3

- Heavy Armour, Katana

- Kenjutsu

2x Ashigaru – Rank 1

-Medium Armour, Katana, Yari

2x Ashigaru – Rank 1

-Medium Armour, Katana, Yumi

Kakita Academy Koryu Buntai

Sensei – Rank 5

- Katana

- Commander, Kenjutsu, Powerful, Intuition

Senpai – Rank 4

- Katana

- Commander, Kenjutsu

4x Kohai – Rank 3

- Katana

- Kenjutsu

Initiate – Rank 1

- Katana

THE GAME

The Koryu completely outclassed (and slightly outnumbered) the Bushi in terms of rank and ablilities, but completely lacked armour or missile weapons, so I was curious to see how this worked out…

Having heard of how things went down in the afternoon, Rick, sensibly attempted to keep his Buntai in cover as they approached the Bushi. Unfortunately they had to come out at some point. Curtis’ Ashigaru rained down arrows on them from the moment they could see them in the woods. By the time they rushed out into contact with the Bushi two or three were already injured, one, I think, grievously so…

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

I think this was Turn Five at the end of the movement phase when everyone had moved into contact. Two of the Koryu students are lightly wounded, one is grievously wounded.  

“Hey, D’you think we should shoot into that mess…?”

They probably could have - friendlies being all quite well armoured... but Curtis chose not to, he did try to pic off a few of the trailing students. 

The end of the first round of combat… The Koryu’s Sensei is critically injured (after his class with the Bushi’s Bushou) along with one of his students. Two other students are grievously injured. Things are looking bad for the Koryu.

The Bush had only suffered one fatality - an Ashigaru - and the other Ashigaru was grievously injured.

The Koryu had to check morale the next turn and I believe they failed and thus were “Waivering” (also with the death of their Sensei their morale level dropped from 9 to 7)

The end of the second round of combat. The Senpai has now been slain by the Bushou, and two other Koryu students have been finished off.

On of the students, however, managed to charge one of the ashigaru archers and cut him down before he could get another shot off..

I think we rolled morale for them at the beginning of the next turn and they failed and thus would be routing…

It was a slaughter…

Armour, hey? It works.

I’m wondering if Teppos (Arquebuses) would be the leveler – or if they’d be unbalancing “hero-killers”. I have one model with a Teppo that I just finished painting. I’ll have to work him into the next game.

There's a few things I have to work out, but I'm feeling fairly confident this will work fine for the Winter Wargaming Weekend!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Samurai, Ronin, and Ashigaru miniatures – and hopefully some more Ronin game reports.