Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign

[Digits]

Nicely painted minis and I love the setting!

[Kikuchiyo]

I played a Japanese-themed ROSD too. I leaned heavily on the ROSD 'AI' to use with solo Test of Honour. I think ToH works well for a solo game as there aren't really that many choices to make, so it's much easier to use with a simple AI like ROSD has.

That's a great idea

[Vagabond]

Thanks for the info, activation is an interesting subject.

I  use group activation but a group can be any size even 1 figure. All groups have a leader, he does the activating. Each member of the group has his or her own morale and so may not always follow the leader. If they become separated from the group because of a morale result they then become their own group and activate accordingly.
Activation is randomly decided by group but the better the quality the leader is the better their chance of activating early in a round.
It sounds complicated but gives lots of unpredictable results, something I like for a solo game.
Hope to catch your next post sooner rather than later. 
Cheers

[Osmoses]

That sounds very similar to what I'm eventually going to do with a bigger skirmish game, around 30-50 figures a side kind of thing. Probably using Feudal Patrol as a base.

[Osmoses]

2.The Long-haired Priest.

Sadatsugu decides to attack the house of the ikkō-shū priest agitator, kill the man and take his head back to Masakatsu-sama. The plan is to wait until nightfall and then swiftly storm the house, take the priest’s head and get away, aiming to meet up at a pre-arranged spot after. This seems like a rather reckless plan somewhat at odds with Sadatsugu’s normally cool-headed approach.


(Not going to bother adding a darkness filter to the rest of the photos, you'll have to imagine it. Or wear sunglasses while reading.  )

The group move up to a position close to the house, but there are guards around. Possibly the survivors of the earlier ambush may have come through here. Toranosuke goes one side, Sadatsugu the other. Toranosuke attempts to take one of the guards by surprise, but badly misses his cut in the darkness. The guard retaliates and then another appears. Toranosuke is quickly on the back foot.



All surprise is lost as the alarm is raised, Toranosuke finds himself in a hard fight, and his inability to fend off the guards is not inspiring the rest of his men with much confidence.



Sadatsugu and the others manage to force back the guards on their side, but the now alerted priest makes a run for it on the other side.





Toranosuke finally cuts down one of the guards, and the others back off into the darkness. But the priest has fled.



Sadatsugu is fairly sanguine about the whole mess. He decides to head back to Masakatsu and report that perhaps a greater military presence is needed on the southern border.

This game was a version of a scenario from the ‘Sengoku’ expansion, with the rules for night fighting. In the game itself, Toranosuke managed to roll 3 fumbled attacks in a row. Given that the way I use dishonour cards in ToH meant drawing one for each fumble, some of the ashigaru in the group failed their nerve tests rather easily. As the failure was clearly Toranosuke’s fault, I rolled a reaction on the Bushido RPG table for Sadatsugu. Who wasn’t particularly impressed, but neither particularly angry.

[Vagabond]

(Not going to bother adding a darkness filter to the rest of the photos, you'll have to imagine it. Or wear sunglasses while reading.

That's very slipshod, if you don't mind me saying. I've done this a couple of times to try and get atmospheric photos, although I just turned off most of my lights. Problem is that you can't really see the figures when it's too dark. How we suffer for our art. 

Again another fine game and story, I really like it when things don't work out how you expect or hope in a solo game, it always gives a good story.

Toranosuke seems to have got away with his poor performance in the raid, but I'll be interested to see how it plays out.

I've read most of what you have written about honour in a Japanese setting, it sounds very similar to the Viking Sagas and very differeto how we would perceive it today. Makes a refreshing change to a scenario.
Cheers

[Osmoses]

Yes, I think there are things that solo games often do better, hidden movement, unequal battles and better narratives. This one could have ended with Toranosuke and Sadatsugu having a blazing row and going their separate ways.

Karl Friday wrote about the warriors from the Heian and Kamakura period that they were men "whose lives centered on the concept of honor but who seemingly held no notion of fair play." Unfortunately, most games that try and represent Japanese warrior honour equate it with modern notions of 'fair play.'

[Gibby]

This thread is brilliant - I've enjoyed reading the narrative on your blog. I like the methods you have used to weave it all together - and I imagine that solo gaming it all gives you even more freedom. Your figure collection is great, I've tried to spot all the minis that aren't Kensei/Zenit and so far I've only recognised Perry ones. Any other notable mini ranges among them? Size wise they all seem to work well!

[Osmoses]

The vast majority are Zenit and Perry. There are some Grey For Now in there and the odd Bushido GCT figure. Also a Dixon palanquin and bearers, and some nanban traders from Eureka in the following town pics: