Samurai SAGA gaming in Melbourne,Oz

[werekake]

Hello, thought I'd post some pics of a wargaming project my group and I embarked on - many many years ago - which culminated in a participation game we did at Little Wars Adelaide last year.

I guess, like everyone else, we were inspired by Perry's collections of Samurai - such beautiful figures, lovely details, wonderful movement and action. On top of that, I had some of the John Jenkins resin terrain, which is excellent in its design and detailing as well.





So my friends and I started painting our smallish forces - not really sure what set of rules we were gonna use.  Lon went for a similar Samurai force to mine, with lots of musket-armed ashigaru.


Jared has always been one for religious soldiers, so in a Sengoku-jidai context, went for the ikko-ikki.


I struggled to paint the Samurai. The Perry figures had so much fine detail - the individual armour pieces and the facial expressions included! I think I was also trying to give my samurai an individualised look, with armour that looked like it had been inherited in bits and pieces from family and friends, rather than a proper-looking battlefield suit of samurai armour.


So... I tended to get distracted by japanese terrain - telling myself I could use the terrain as a setting for me Infinity JSA forces as well...

I painted the tori-arch


And then worked on a whole bunch of Sarissa buildings.


So... I kinda drifted away from finishing my Samurai army

[Constable Bertrand]

Great collection there, its great what a bunch of people can do to put on a game.

The terrain looks awesome! (A very nice Tori) I like your idea of mismatching armour, thats a nice touch. And I know what a pain painting that kind of background fluff can be like. I've painted a bunch of bretonnian knights in individual colours.

Will you be at CanCon or at any upcoming events?

Cheers
Matt
NSW

[werekake]

Thanks Matt, it's nice to share with a fellow wargamer the intricacies of painting and preparing for a game - and its contingent ups and downs.

I'd like to come to CanCon again - attended a couple of years ago and had a ball of a time. Didn't play anything, just chatted to people, looked at some lovely tables/armies, bought too much stuff, and checked out the Australian War Memorial.

Can't make it for 2016 though - I've used up all of my brownie points and I'm gonna be putting on a Maori wargame at SALUTE 2016 in April with my mate Lon (excited!).

I know there's going to be a Little Wars Canberra in a few weeks' time, with some nice games on?  I also have a friend Mike Parker who is trying to a put on a participation game at CanCon - 28mm Chain of Command in Stalingrad, with lots of ruined buildings and Factories etc - if you're interested?


---

Back to the Samurai! So... things had come to a grinding halt with my figures/army. Then a few things happened in conjunction which helped move things along.

i) Little Wars Adelaide was coming, and we volunteered to put on a participation game. We decided that Sengoku-jidai would be interesting to do - and it'd give us (me) a kick up the backside to finish it.

ii) Our group liked to play SAGA, and I found a pretty good set of army lists and battleboards covering factions like Nobunaga, Shimazu, Ikko-Ikki, and European adventurers. I think it had been done by a german wargaming club? - not sure:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6cw1mwxE8DFa3dGdHp3WWRGZzA/edit?pli=1

To be honest, we kinda thought it would be possible to just substitute many of the army-lists and battleboards from SAGA into a Samurai context - Normans especially, but also Saxons and Vikings. Crossbows would become muskets,and there would be more riding options across the army-lists.

and iii) Mike Parker (the friend mentioned above) came up with a design for a Samurai castle that he made with his laser-cutter. The fortress/keep, I think, is brilliant - and it really motivated me to get back into finishing my Samurai.

Some pics of it, after I'd painted it and used - of all things - some soft coloured-pencils:


And the interior details, including stairs between levels.


So, suitably inspired, I got on with painting!

[Wilkinson73]

Very nice collection and paint. Those terrain pieces are ace!  I am painting a rather huge army of Samurai and Ashigaru for Kings of war. I am using old clan war figures and war games factory plastics and I have very few Perry. They are very nice. I have those battle boards for SAGA but I'm not sure if my local group would let me use them.

Are those Ninja Perry figures?

[werekake]

Are those Ninja Perry figures?

Not sure what range they are, sorry - bought them 2nd hand , already painted.

Some pics of my Samurai force. I really don't like how they turned out - the inks and shade didn't seem to work for me. I think this is what 'delayed'me in painting them... I wasn't motivated to finish them. I would have done a better job with a black undercoat but I would have lost the intricate details of the armour etc, I reckon.

Some samurai cavalry armed with yari


The Leader with some banner bearers


Some samurai on foot with katana


Some more samurai on foot with yari


Samurai cavalry, all of them similarly attired in red armour


And a some of unit (12) of ashigaru bowmen, with some banner-bearers


Even though Iwasn't happy with how they turned out, I did like the amount of colour on the table - with all of the sashimonos and banners, and colourful armour. It looks likea riot of colour on the battlefield - which is what I was kind of going for...

[Constable Bertrand]

The second and third posts images aren't showing up for me. The first one is fine.

Posting from places like facebook and google docs doesn't work. It needs to be uploaded to LAF or another website such as blogger, for the image to be linked to. A web service where you login doesn't work.

Cheers
Matt

[werekake]

Cheers for that, I hope it's fixed now. Ever since google photos put limits on public sharing of fotos, I've had trouble posting different images on different forums. Worked out a workaround - putting it on google+ gives me the 'jpg' file link.

Final set of fotos, with a lot of Lon's samurai (which I think look better)  - and us playing at Little Wars Adelaide.

Lon's samurai cavalry, charging at the Temple






My Samurai, protecting the Temple, countercharge - with my Warlord at the front




Our game at Little Wars Adelaide, a fun day had by all!

[Constable Bertrand]

All fixed now and pretty they are!

Cheers
Matt

[Euthanasor]

Where does the lantern seen on the first picture is from?

[werekake]

Thanks Matt!

@Euthanasor - the lanterns are John Jenkins. Can be found here: http://www.johnjenkinsdesigns.com/JT03.htm

Unfortunately, it looks like one of the few things they don't have in stock... 

[Euthanasor]

Tanks a lot.
Eutha

[tancrede]

Nice minis, and nice battlefield ! 
Thanks for the link for the Samurai Campaign rules, be assured it will be very helpful !