Have Battle Will Travel.

So I have succumbed to the latest offering from the Perry's as have about half the wargaming community . Here we see 'A' hiding behind the box .

The battlefield laid out with opposing armies. I drybrushed the boards and painted in the roads , fields and buildings .

I painted the figures whilst they were still on the sprue , just blocking in the main colours giving them a wash of brown ink and then picked out the faces, crossbelts and the more prominent features . I did not take to long or put much effort into them as being only 8mm figures a lot of the detail is lost.

Here 'A' ponders his next move . The rules are simple but have hidden depths and nuances which only become apparent when you start playing.

My forces (Red Army) await the attack of 'A's Blue Army - finger added for scale.

We played two games (I lost both) and quickly picked up the rules , which have similarities to DBA in their opposed dice rolls . Movement is one square for infantry/artillery , cavalry two  and plus one square on roads.

Here is a 'Brigade' of my army, bases have to be adjacent to each other and the General to move. Built up areas aid defence and infantry can go into 'square' to defend against cavalry . Troop types are Guard infantry, infantry, artillery, heavy cavalry and light cavalry .

The basic scenario is simply defeat the opposing army , but in our second battle we devised a scenario to hold a number of central squares over six moves and I think you could play 'Table Top Teasers' using this box . Overall I'm impressed with the game - it does what it says on the box and is ideal for the casual 'pick up' game and I will be definitely taking it on holiday with me .

A Book Of Character and a Unexpected Delivery.

The other week I was in Carlisle and visited the very good second-hand bookshop near the museum . Whilst perusing the military section I came across the above book , 'The Thirty Years War' by C. V. Wedgewood . Now I had tried to read 'Europe's Tragedy' a recent book on the Thirty Years War and it had defeated me - so full of information and a bit long winded , so I wondered if this book would be any better ? .

It was a first edition , published in 1938 and it was priced at £10 - so I bought it . The author Cicely Veronica Wedgewood was quite a character and used her initials when publishing books to disguise the fact she was a woman in a then male dominated field of history,  the book gets good reviews ( I think it's still in print) So I'm going to start reading it whilst on holiday .

This morning the postman dropped off a parcel - which was a surprise as I didn't have anything on order . It turned out to be a box of Mars 1/72nd TYW artillery which I had placed on a back order months ago and they had obviously just become available .

A sight to gladden the heart or furrow the brow - depending upon your opinions of plastic figures . The figures didn't have much flash but the gun wheels were a swine to clean up . The are sold as ' 'Swedish Leather Guns ' but can be made up using either a double barrel light gun or a larger 'Culvern' type barrel .

I decided to make three of the guns as the lighter version and one as the larger and here we see them ready for spraying a black undercoat . Hopefully I will get started painting them next week .

Conflict At The Shrine.

The Samurai Tokugawa was planning to visit the shrine of Izumo to pray before composing a Haiku to the local Cherry Blossom and was angered to find another Samurai and his retainers approaching - it was Konishi Yukinaga a rival Samurai , harsh words were exchanged and honour could only be saved by the spilling of blood ! . So I have got enough figures done for the introductory scenario in Test Of Honour .

Tokugawa's force of two bowmen and a group of spearmen .

Konishi's band is the same for this scenario . The winner is the one which cuts down the opposing Samurai.

The force cards for Konishi 's force . The figures/groups stats are on each card with the number of dice which are thrown to pass a test/attack.

My customised bag from which tokens are drawn to activate figures , Samurai can be activated three times - others only once . The dice which are used - you need three or more 'swords' on the dice to pass a test 'X' are bad news , better troops get to roll more dice .

The game started with some ineffective bow shooting then Tokugawa had a run of tokens - and good dice throws - driving the enemy spearmen back twice and slaying two of them .

Then Konishi drew a token and charged in - his opponent having used all his tokens was at a disadvantage and was promptly 'cut down' and so the game ended . A quick little game to try out the rules .

Konishi Yukinaga won the game and was able to draw a fate card which will help him in his next battle . The rules are simple but clever and use a similar mechanism to 'Bolt Action' to activate figures but also add three 'fate' chits which when they are all drawn ends the turn , so you may not be able to activate all your figures per turn . Samurai are very dynamic but are vulnerable if they become isolated from the rest of their force . I'm enjoying painting these figures and making the terrain and more importantly playing the games.

Saint George's Day .

A Happy Saint George's Day.

First Painted Samurai .

Well these aren't Samurai but Ashigaru , I'm painting one faction up in red armour and the other in black . Sorry for the rather poor photo , I normally take my photos in the bathroom were experience has shown I get the best lighting but as my wife is having a shower I've had to take the photo on my table with the afternoon sun shinning .

My first Samurai , luckily as this game and the figures are based in the later Sengoku period when the armour and dress of the Samurai became a lot plainer they are easier to paint .

Another Samurai in black armour , the armour of this era seems to have been mainly either red or black .

An Ashigaru archer and yes the arrow does go on the right of the bow rather than the left in European archery.

The 'Black' clan Ashigaru spearmen . Archers and spearmen can be played either on multi- bases or singularly . Will soon have enough for my first game and am putting together an MDF shrine for scenery .

Grey Plastic And Cherry Blossom .

The figures in 'Test Of Honour' come in many bits on lots of grey sprue , I think the world is divided into people who like gluing figures together and those that hate it ! - luckily I'm one of the people who likes gluing plastic together (takes me back to my plastic modelling days) .

Here are some I made earlier , a Aquebusier and a group of Ashigaru spearmen , the ordinary infantry can be either single entities or on a group base . Lots of arms , head and weapon options .

If your going to have Samurai who have got to have Cherry trees (in full blossom) . I got this bag very cheaply off EBay direct from China . The only problem is like the full size trees they seem to want to shed their blossom at the slightest movement .

I based four of them up and decided to give them a heavy coat of matt aerosol varnish which seems to have halted the shedding of Cherry Blossom .

I did a test run on one of them adding gravel and flock before going into mass production  , here seen posing with a small Japanese type tin I got from a Charity shop to contain all the various tokens the game comes with .

A Man Of Straw.

Okay so I said " no new projects this year !" and up to about three months in I remained true to my pledge , then I sold some figures off and had some ready cash - which of course had to be re-invested in the hobby . This concurred with Warlord's new Samurai skirmish game , with the inevitable result of me buying into it BIG time ! ( sigh what a weak creature I am ) ( who am I fooling - I'M LOVING IT !)

I've been a long time fan of Kurosawa and his Samurai films , but always been intimidated by having to paint the figures - so different and integrate than Western warriors and have found most of the rules rather complicated as well .

Warlord cleverly issued the rules as a free down load on their web site , which I had a look at and I was impressed ! , they use a token activation system for the figures (like Bolt Action) and stat cards for the figures/units (which I like) so I purchase the starter deal .

The Author contemplates the task ahead , I've started gluing up figures so further updates to follow ...