Signal Close action kriegspiel and Ronin.

A long play by email game of Signal Close action wound to end since last posting. Despite my mismanagement of French class 2 ship of the line Amphion I managed to pummel smaller British adversary to submission in a very close run boarding action.

On this game I was just a player. Organizer sent us mail with pics taken from the quarterdeck of ships showing the enemy, with some extra info relayed by 1st lieutenant. A blast to play, but must have been an enormous amount of work for the host.

With a friend a game of ronin where Pure land league clashed with some Hosokawa samurai.

 My opponents advancing.

 Hosokawa adavancing to the village.

 Shooting line of ikki teppo by the fence

 Peasants and monks on my left flank.

I managed to get so0me of the Crescent and Cross crusaders ready:

Levy infantry armed with various nasty clubbing and hacking instruments. 15 mm Legio Heroica.

I will continue with both the japanese and the  Saga crusaders, but with the arrival of Deluge for the By Fire and Sword troops for its army lists may get priority.

WIP Ronin and sohei

Even though a group of sipahis and a host of saga crusaders is on the table I caved in and started on doing the japanese of previous post. Some wip pics.

Over my depth in freehand decorations of samurai attire, but counts as practise.

Vaikka pöydällä on turkkilaisia Tuleen ja Miekkaan ja ristiretkeläisiä Sagaan edellisen postauksen japanilaisia on tullut sudittua eteenpäin. Koristelut ei aina paranna tulosta, mutta menee harjoittelun  piikkiin.

Mixture of TAG and Perry sohei in different stages of preparation. Nasty bunch to engage and far too large for single Ronin buntai.

Oopsie daisy. Hupsista.

Son wanted to invest part of his allowance to some ninjas. I agreed to work as intermediary and to take care of the mail costs. The six Black hat ninjas are his. I may have gotten a bit excited at some point... Poika tahtoi investoida ninjoihin. Lupasin välittää ja hoitaa postikulut. Mopo lähti hiukan käsistä...

 Black Hat ninjas and unarmoured samurai, single figures by em4 miniatures and sohei by TAG.

Black hatin samuraita keihäiden, miekkojen ja pulisonkien kanssa. Black hatin ninjoja ja TAGin soturimunkkeja. Em4figuresilta ronin, samurai ja ninja.

Mounted sohei and samurai command by TAG. Early equipment, but looking forward to painting this lot.
Ratsastavia soturimukkeja ja TAGin julma komentoryhmä. Varusteet ehkä 1200-1300 lukua, eli aika varhaista. Mennee omassa pelipöydässä hyvin sekaisin, varsinkin kun Black hatin ronineiden varusteetkaan eivät ole 1600-lukuisia.

Addition 11.2.
And with their January sale Museum miniatures sold me some more unarmoured samurai and ashigaru together with a bunch of 15 mm stuff. Very nice castings on the samurai range requiring minimal cleanup.

Painted figures for some kind of size comparison. Clockwise from top fighting ashigaru; ashigaru carrying supplies; japanese women; 15 mm pilgrims, mainly museum miniatures, but with addition of a peasant and some legio heroica pilgrims; Museum miniatures medieval spearmen; general and guards, and mounted samurai with attendant. 

Foul bandits against the heroes of the Pure land. Ronin skirmish

On Sunday I played a 100 point game of Ronin with my son.

He chose a bandit troop, led by rank 3 leader, assisted by a hired ronin of same rank, and ruling over one rank 1 bandit and 5 rank 0 peasants.
I countered with league of Pure land composite force. Samurai of rank 3 had under him a montogashira of rank 2 and 3 monto, footsoldiers.

We played on compound area with two houses one force starting inside and me with the ikki charging in.

Fast and furious action with bandits overwhelmed by the agression of the believers. The bandit tactics of meatshield of peasants to harass my valuable troops failed since he was a bit late in bringing his rank 3 actual fighters to scrap. The bandit leader did get away though so this story is not over.

 Opening moves.

 End of round 2. 

Around round 4 or 5. Fast action and I believe fun was had by both. Reinforced lesson - armor good. Peasants need to work at least 2:1 to have a chance 3:1 starts to annoy even better troops.

Ronin matsi pojan kanssa. Likaiset ryövärit saivat köniinsä buddhalaisen liigan sekalaiselta, mutta fanaattiselta iskuryhmältä. Panssari, paikallinen ylivoima ja muutaman kriittisen kerran omaan suuntaani pyörineet nopat tekivät tästä ottelusta hyvin epätasaisen.

Ronin - wip progress

First batch of the minis have already been varnished and are merely waiting for me to finish the bases. Most of the minis are already in dipping stage so I was feeling that I might actually finish a project for once.

So here some collected buntai pics:

2 yariashigarua, 2 yumiashigarua ja 2 samuraita. Samurait lakattu jalkamiehet dipattu.

The bushi - the guys of law and order nobody really likes. Samurai already varnished ashigaru with dip only. All miniatures Perry. They might be joined later by this fellow:

Golden lacquered armor with red lacing and red lacquer on kabuto. Armed with a naginata. Perry again.

Group I was thinking as my primary buntai:

5 Perryn soheita.

The sohei - great fun to paint. I may need to get another bunch later just  to try how the effect of brown gowns works. Miniatures again Perry. As gaming buntai against the bandits these guys were lethal - perhaps even a bit too lethal.

The sohei lack long range weapons - so they need to get some from the ranks of teppoarmed miniatures below.

Perry ikko-ikki teppo, tulevat esiintymään soheina, ryöväreinä ja ikko-ikkin riveissä. 

And further the league of Pure land followers - the Ikko- Ikki in one possible 100 point combination.

Perryn ikko-ikki ampujia ja keihäsmiehiä, taustalla Black hatin talonpoikia.

 Perry Ikko-ikki teppo and ikko-ikki defending, on background some Black hat- peasants.

Making small lists showed that 100 points is really limited especially for the bushi but also for the sohei. Intersting to see if games of roughly 200 points flow as smoothly.

Quick inventory showed that even though this project is over halfway mark work remains to be done. Primed and begun there are still 6 figures and yeasterday I finally assembled the rest of the Black hat ronins I had waiting:

Black hatin ronineita aseistettuina no-dachilla, 3 katanalla, 3 yarilla ja 3 naginatalla.

Some of these guys might work as normal bushi: samurai or ashigaru depending on coverage of armour. Some though are clearly ronin or bandits. One interesting point to note is that these guys wear armour more fitting for the 1300-1400 than 1500-1600 of the Perrys. The large sode (shoulderguards) the wide shikoro (brim of the helmet) and o-yoroi and haramaki type of cuirasses seem to be of earlier types. So either these guys are really poor and have scrounged some antiquated junk or in case of o-yoroi they are using the stuff as ornate statussymbol. (Which was also done in sengoku period.)

Payback time. Munkkien kosto.

We replayed the ronin skirmish with same buntais switched.
This time my son with the monks beat my troops to pulp.
Well played.
An error was noticed after the game - we have not taken into account the fact that teppo ignores light and medium armor - something that will give those teppoarmed semipeasants a bt better fighting chance.

Vaihdoimme pojan kanssa rosvo- ja munkkijoukkojen pelaajaa ja tällä kertaa poika pieksi minut täydellisesti.

Huomasin virheen pelaamisessa, olemme unohtaneet musketin jättävän kevyen ja keskiraskaan haarniskan huomiota - seikka jolla olisi hyvinkin voinut olla merkitystä molemmilla kerroilla.

Mass  of dipped ronin figs waiting for varnish:

Pari samuraita, soheita, ikkoliiton ampujia ja talonpoikia. Dipattuna ilman lakkaa.

Peasants again. Maajussit bambukeihäineen.

Same downtrodden group of villagers as in previous post.

Keihästä siis pidetään näin! 

I decided to go with still green bamboospears and give these fellows really subdued colors. Brown and darkgrey might even be too prosperous and respectable.

Siis terävä pää viholliseen päin, montako kertaa se pitää sanoa?

The peasants still drying from the dip. Some highlights, varnish and grass and they are ready to meet run away from first group of samurai, bandits or sohei they happen to meet.

Roninprojektin alkua. Start of progress for Ronin buntais

After 15mm these ronin guys are interesting new experience.
Very much WIP, not even at finished block painting stage yet. First a Group of Black hat peasants of 25 mm listening closely as member of Ikko Ikki from Perry is instructing use of spear.These guys might form the required peasant core of 100 point peasant buntai, but will probably be seen as hangaround members of bandit or ikko-ikki warbands.

Black hatin Lantsareita nojailemassa bambukeihäisiinsä, kun Perryn Ikko

 

yrittää näyttää mitä sillä on tarkoitus tehdä.

 

 Second a group of Perry warrior monks with naginatas and teppo. Joy to paint, but getting those yellows and oranges to look good will be a challenge. They actually look better on picture than in real life, which is nice for a change.

Soturimunkkeja. Kerrankin kamera imartelee - keltaisen ja oranssin peitossa on isoja ongelmia.

Some Perry Ikko Ikki. The buntai will probably get some of the peasants, just for flavor. Rest will be a mixture of guys with various levels of armor.

Perryn Ikko-Ikkejä. Vahvistukseksi voi tulla talonpoikia, soheita tai jopa samuraita.

 

 And finally some Perry Bushi. Two samurai and four ashi-garu waiting for me to finish the armor and give them some kind of clan mon.

Perryn samuraita ja ashigaruja - 1 samurai ja 4 ashigarua on suunnilleen 100 pistettä, suositeltu buntain aloitusvahvuus Roninissa.

Mielenkiintoinen uusi maalauskokemus 15 millisten jälkeen. Tilaa maalata on ruhtinaallisesti, toisaalta peittävyyden kanssa on erilaisia ongelmia. Soheit ja bushit voinee viedä pelitestauksen kohtapuoleen. Varalla on vielä jonkun verran Black hatin ronineita, jotka voivat joko muodostaa ryöväribuntain rungon tai tulla peliin palkkasoturironineina.

...se vie koko käden. It takes Your whole hand.

Kesän aikana maalaus on ollut lähes kokonaan jäissä. Ainoa edistyminen on ollut pieni satsi Donningtonin 15 mm vainajia. Nekin toki ovat vielä kesken, puuttuu haarniskat ja aseiden teräsosat ja alustojen käsittely.

During summer the painting has been on hold. Only thing progressing has been a set of Donnington casualty markers in 15mm. Still a work in progress though.


Alkukesästä oli tilaisuus demota By Fire and Swordia ja tyypätä Ronin niminen kahakkapeli. Näistä en kuitenkaan ottanut kuvia. Pieni kipinä jäi Roniniin - samurait ja rähjäisemmät japanilaiset soturit 28 millisinä vaikuttivat mukavalta projektilta, varsinkin kun maalattavaa ainakin teoriassa on maltillisia määriä. Siispä pitkän pähkäilyn ja Ospreyn soturimunkkiopuksen hankkimisen jälkeen hankin kaverilta joukon Perryjen ashigaruja ja samuraita, tilasin samasta lähteestä soheita ja ikko-ikki liigan sotureita ja lisäksi Black Hatilta joukon ronineita ja talonpoikia. Homma lähti ehkä aavistuksen lapasesta. Ja tietty Roninin sääntökirja, jonka oheen tarttui muutama opus "postikuluissa säästämistä varten".

Ronin piqued my interest after having a chance to try that. So I acquired some Perry ashigaru and samurai - and sohei and warriors for ikko-ikki... and some peasants and ronin from Black Hat. Together with the rules book - bundled with some other books "to save in shipping costs". I might have gotten a bit over enthusiastic on that one.

From left: Ikko-ikki, sohei, some ahigaru and samurai and horses for Polish skirmish force. On background skinks of my son and some Turkish command from Donnington.

By Fire and Sword lupaili uutta Kickstarteria Deluge lisäosansa tiimoilta ja päätin samassa yhteydessä laajentaa armeijavalikoimani turkkilaisiin. Luvassa hirveä lauma kuritonta ratsuväkeä, kurinlaisia janitsaareja, epäsäännöllistä roskaväkeä ja niin paljon tykkejä kuin kukkaro sallii. Varsinkin ratsuväki on mielenkiintoista - liikkuvat yhtä nopeasti kuin puolalaiset, mutta kankeammin. Lyövät melkein yhtä lujaa kuin puolalaiset, mutta masentuvat tappioista. Uskoisin että mielenkiintoinen vastustaja puolalaisille, itävaltalaisille ja muskoviiteille.  Miksei epähistoriallisesti Ruotsillekin joka on aivan toista äärilaitaa.

By Fire and Sword has a new kickstarter going for their Deluge supplement. This was an excuse to widen my troop selection to Ottoman Turks. A horde of wild cavalry, fierce janissaries and irregular rabble and as much guns as my wallet can afford. The cavalry - relatively fast moving, hard hitting but vulnerable to casualties seems interesting. Should be a good opponent to Poles, Imperials and Muscovites and why not anacronistically even to disciplined Swedes. 

Next regiment - Imperial tercio WIP

Next group on painting table is group of Matchlock miniatures musketeers and assorted command together with Black Hats pikemen. In their light blue and greys they may serve as Tillys veterans or in By Fire and Sword as any nameless regiment of old type infantry regiment. Goal is again to get semiuniform look. Enough same colors to make these guys unit and just enough variety to avoid the too modern military look. Also I want these small guys to be light enough in color to be readily visible in normal playing table distances.

 

 

Catholig league tercio, assorted painting table disorder and roasted pig