Bandit raid Apua rosvoja

Paikallisen lautapelikerhon illassa pelattiin viimeisenä pelinä 7 wondersin ja Love lettersin jälkeen Roninia.
We had a four team Ronin game at the local gaming club after / wonders and Love letters.

Päätin ulkoiluttaa wakoja joista laadin 100 pisteen listan. Johtaja naginatan kanssa, 5 merirosvoa vaihtelevin asein mutta ilman haarniskaa ja kaksi talonpoikaa työkalujen kanssa saapui kentälle minun johdossani.

I played with my wakos of whom I got the leader five normal pirates and two auxiliary peasants to the field.

Wakos after the first move

Poikani T toi rosvojoukon, jossa oli hyvin varustautunut johtaja, muskettia kantava varajohtaja,  lauma talonpoikia sekä lyhyeen sauvaan erikoistunut panssaroimaton ronin. 

My son T had a a bandit leader in heavy armour, his lieutenant with arquebus, unarmored ronin with the jo and a bunch of no good peasants.

Brave leaders behind a wall of peasants

Pelikerhon Toni pelasi kolmatta , suhteellisen hyvin varusteltua rosvojoukkoa, jonka jäsenillä kaikilla oli jotain haarniskaa ja kunnolliset aseet. 

Tonui from the club had third bandit buntai - decently equipped with armor and weapons and even some skills.

Professional criminals - just look at the armor and weapons.

Puolustajalla oli lauma talonpoikia sekalaisilla aseilla, vaeltava jojutsumestari  ja palkkaronin. Lisäksi kentällä oli lauma aseettomia siviilejä, joita talonpoikaissotureiden piti suojella ja rosvojen jahdata sekä yhteen taloon kätkettynä Buddhan patsas. Oli mahdollista, että joku siviileistä olisi valepukuinen ninja.

Defender had a whole bunch of peasants with improvised peasants, traveling master of jo and a hired ronin. They tried to protect a group of civilians and venerated statue of the Buddha. There was also a slim chance that one of the civilians would turn out to be ninja.  

Aikaa pelille tuli arvalla 7 kierrosta.

Length of the game was rolled to be seven rounds.

 Round 2 Wakos have advanced to perimeter. On other sides similar moves are happening. The meanest bandit bunch draws first blood by slaughtering first of the guards. Wako archer proves to be lousy marksman.

Civilians flee in panic towards the village center.

Kierros 2 Wakot ovat edenneet kylän laidalle. Muilla reunoilla kaikki ryövärit alkavat olla tuntumalla ja Tonin buntai lahtaa ensimmäisen vartijan pohjoisportille. Siviilit pakenevat kirkuen kylän keskustaan.

 Round 3 contact is reached by all groups.
 All groups slash new holes to paperwalls of the houses and enter. First civilian dies.

Wako bowfire is still totally useless. But they find the image of the Buddha!

Kierros kolme kaikki ryöväriporukat pääsevät taisteluun puolustajien kanssa. Jokaisen ryhmän jäsenet viiltelevät uusia kulkuaukkoja seiniin.
Ensimmäinen siviili jää kiinni ja murhataan. 
Wakon jousiammunta on edelleen turhaa, mutta he löytävät Buddhan.

 Buddhan löytänyttä wakoa häiritsee ryöstöpuuhissa lyhyen kepin kanssa kulkeva siviili.

The wako who found Buddha is disturbed in his robberwork by soft looking civilian with a short staff.

Tulija osoittautuu jojutsumestariksi ja akrobaatiksi joka yhdessä vuorossa lyö patsasvarkaan hengiltä ja ulos talosta ja tekee selvää myös hänen toveristaan.

 The intruder proves to be master of jojutsu, acrobat and shuguyosha who promptly dispatches both wakos in the house.

On the perimeter peasants stop invading peasants by winning initiative and also wound the leftmost wako. Those by the gate are killed in short order.

Village headmans house - with the hired ronin holding two bandits at bay.

Kylän päämiehen talossa palkattu ronin pitää pitkään puoliaan kahta ryöväriä vastaan.

Mutta kierrosten 5 ja 6 aikana vastarinta murtuu.
Ronin kaatuu, shugyosha taistelee kolmen vastustajan kanssa, saa nuolen selkäänsä ja jää viimein kurjan talonpojan tappamaksi. Vartijatalonpojat kaatuvat yksi kerrallaan ja siviilitkin jäävät kiinni. Wakot ryöstävät Buddhan.

During rounds 5 and 6  resistance crumbles. Peasant guards are picked off one by one. Ronin dies in the house and shugyosha is whittled down in 1 against 3 combat, with arrow in the back for good measure.  Civilians are all caught and wakos run away with the Buddha.

The professional bandits take the lead in points by most civilians caught. Peasant defenders take a crushing defeat which is not surprising being outnumbered 3 to 1. The whole match takes roughly 2 hours to play through.

Voitto menee ammattirikollisille lähinnä kiinnisaatujen siviilien ansiosta. Puolustajat ottavat takkiinsa juuri niin kovasti kuin yksi kolmea vastaan voimasuhteella voi odottaa.

Wako

At last some finished troops.
10 wakos, of whom one skipped the photosession.

I think the magic glaze is a tad too light in these, but dark eough to tone the chiefs armour.
Any decent group of bushi should eat these guys for breakfast.

Japanilaisia merirosvoja. Uimasille joutuminen tuskin paljon haittaisi, mutta minkä tahansa haarniskoituneen porukan pitäisi Roninissa syödä nämä kaverit aamupalaksi.

Focusing? Keskittymistä?

I had this idea of trying to finish stuff already on the table before starting anything new.

Succes has been mixed - I have not started much new and I have concentrated on the peasant horde, Japanese pirates and the Danish command group. Other projects have gotten attention mainly when there has been extra color on my palette.

The wako - and some peasants - now block painted and with sand on wet acrylic paint. With dip, some glue on the base and varnish they are probably pretty much done. Disreputable bunch and with no armor except on the leader they'll probably die horrendously in the games of Ronin but they were fun to paint.

Peasants are a bit large batch - progress on them is depressingly slow. Still they are closing on getting their. I need to finish their faces (for some reason I've used two different shades - neither of which looks  really convincing) and facial hair, sand the bases  and see how they look after the dip. In the forefront  Danish command groups. With the new Swedish army lists for Scania these gentlemen will finally have an enemy they might want to meet on the field. So it is time to give finishing touch of powder to their whigs give them flags and make them ready for the battles of autumn.

Hoarding. Harakkaelämä jatkuu.

Polish peasants have been very slow to progress.
The different groups for Ronin have acquired some color but nothing has been finished - oh and I got myself some more minis from various makers.

The travelling hatamoto with his retinue is slowly progressing. And have run into a disreputable ronin.

 

Still wondering about colourscheme for these servants. Leaning towards vibrant blues at this point - not really happy with the hues I've tried though.

The samurai from Steelfist are almost intimidating in their detail. And in size tower over their lesser compatriots.

The wako bunch 

Ten disreputable pirates, bandits or rebelling peasants. Fun to do - very slim in their proportions.
Maker Forlorn games.

 Peasants of 1st corps. A bit stocky but mixture of improvised weapons is nice - might serve as bandits or join Ikko  army as lowest of the bunch.

From Warriorminiatures bunch of ashigaru, 2 samurai and a seminaked guy who will probably serve as bandit or very disreputable ronin. A bit short in comparison to some others but might augment bushi buntai or form one of their own. Sculpting style is very different from Perrys or museum miniatures - in a way these guys resemble sculptures more than real people. It will be very intersting to see how they paint.

Now I just need to resist the urge to get some more wako - even if I have seen one with Portuguese morion.

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.

Ronin

With some figures close to being painted I decided to try out the skirmish game Ronin.
I have tried it before, but at that time I was playing under someone elses instructions and did not really learn the rules throughoutly.

This time I deployed a group of sohei against bandits fielded by my elder son.
I had two initiates, rank 2, one with teppo and unarmed the other with naginata, in medium armour.
Furthermore I had one basic sohei rank 3 and senior one, rank4, both armed with naginatas, wearing medium armour. Both had naginatajutsu.

The proper monks in orange, initiates in yellow. Soheilla oranssit noviiseilla keltaiset kaavut.

The bandits had rank 3 leader armed with no-dachi, no armor and mastering kenjutsu. He had a lieutenant rank 2, in medium armour wielding yari, there were three bandits one with bow, one with teppo - musket - and one armed with katana, tailing the formation was a hapless peasant with bamboo spear counting as improvised weapon.

Ylpeä rosmojohtaja isoine miekkoineen, luutnantti keihään kanssa, kolme rivibandiittia ja mukaan epätoivosta liittynyt talonpoika.

Game started by my initiate with teppo being shot with the opposing bandit musketman and bowman in concert on round one. On second round  there was no contact, but on round three my naginata armed initiate charged the peasant, was in turn charged by bandit leader, who in turn was charged by junior monk, who was charged by the bandit with the katana.

End of round 1. My initiate is down. Ensimmäisen kierroksen loppu. Kitkerä ruudinsavu roikkuu kujalla ja noviisi makaa henkitoreissaan maassa.

In the end combination of medium armour giving defence bonus of +2, the attack and ini bonus of naginata and naginatajutsu allowing rerolls of weaker attack dice gave me the endresult where the other initiate was grievously wounded, sohei leader was healthy and the other monk had light wounds.
Glorious victory  to peacegiving arms of the Mountain.

Lessons learnt.
The splitting of multiple combats into pairs is not quite simple and may effect the end results of the melee.
 Armour is a very good thing to have - that +2 is quite a lifesaver.
Quality of troops has cumulative effects: higher ranks tend to hit earlier and with better effect.
And paying 3 points for that bujutsu was well worth it.

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.