Boshin War Command - Bac Ninh Miniatures Painted

Painted these guys up today - and thanks to good weather, the Minwax Tudor Satin stain dried in record time. Testors Dullcote was sprayed over the finish. The research by Jose A. and sculpting by Mr. Hicks are commendable.

These are identifiable as Imperial troops by the red strips of cloth on their upper left arms. The two on the left represent officers of the Choshu and Tosa clans.

The excellent sculpting by Mr. Paul Hicks facilitated painting. Over a black basecoat, successive layers of blues (dark to light) were dry-brushed for the Western-styled uniforms.

Here they are stained, prior to the Dullcote finish.

Some images of Boshin War and Early-Meiji era troops:

Below - elite Denshutai troops of the Shogunate - including lancers!

Boshin War Figures - Bac Ninh Miniatures

These excellent Paul Hicks sculpts arrived today - only a week after ordering them from Bac Ninh Miniatures located in Spain. The owner/proprietor, Jose A., had them on sale for a discount and I just had to try them out. I am pleased not only with the figures themselves, but the ease of ordering as well as the speed of delivery. Thanks Jose!

This is the command set of officers in "bearskin" headress and NCO's in jingasa. Jose's website dedicated to the Boshin War has some very valuable resources and information to help paint these guys up. I plan to add more from his wonderfully researched line in the future - I'd like to see some in the bearskins in sword fighting poses like this image of the Battle of Ueno Temple during the Boshin War

I hope to have one of the officers painted up like Toshiro Mifune below:

Sonnō jōi! 

Celts/Gauls Rebase and Harold Godwinson

Decided to rebase some Celt/Gaul figures onto Litko bases; infantry three figures per 40mm square, and two cav per 50mm square. They were previously based for WAB - and used in games as Seleucid mercenaries. They are mostly Old Glory figures with a few Gripping Beast command figures. Most of the shields have LBMS transfers; a few of the Gripping Beast shields were hand-painted as the transfers wouldn't fit onto them.

Encouraged by the way the modified Hail Caesar rules played out with the Siege of Haengju game, I plan to use these against the Warlord Games EIR troops that have never seen action as of yet.

To round out the units, I painted up a few more Gripping Beast figures using the method of block painting and Minwax staining - I am still using the remnants of a can that is practically gone save a few drops.

The Harold figure in front is a Crusader Miniatures figure that was used to round out another base of Saxons.

Here is Harold in front of some Old Glory light armored Norman that were also rebased two per on 50mm squares.

I've just about had it with single-based figures and casualty removal for most games, so eventually all my figures will be multi-based. I'm thinking of rebasing my Norman and HYW French knights three-per 80X50mm bases. Another Litko order may be placed soon.

Enfildade! 2014

Just got back from attending my eighth Enfilade! - the local historical gaming convention touted as the largest of such conventions west of the Mississippi. The three-day convention hosted by members of the Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society, and  held over the Memorial Day weekend is in it's twentieth-plus year, and a major attraction for the historical gamers in Washington State, surrounding states and loyal attendees from the Great White North - mainly the Vancouver, B.C. area.

I hosted the Imjin War Siege of Haengju game in the first two periods of the convention - the afternoon and evening of Friday. I was preoccupied during the first game and forgot to take pictures. As I've posted pictures of this game from play tests before, I've only added a few pictures below as they depict actions which hadn't occurred before. First, Samurai cavalry attacking the outer wooden barricades - which the rules don't allow them to cross, but can fight defenders at. The second image is of Koreans having left their defensive positions and fighting Ashigaru outside of their defense works. Something which rewarded the Korean player with having his units destroyed in the first round of combat. And from the first game, Samurai cavalry entering the first tier after successful hits on the outer barricade by the lone Japanese cannon. The rules allowed a section of wall a unit base width to be destroyed (removed) if two successful cannon hits were made in the same round of firing. The cannon only had two shooting dice per turn. Incidentally, cavalry could fight at the wall, but not cross it mounted.

Samurai cavalry impetuously attacking the outer wooden barricades.

Over confident Koreans leaving the safety of their defensive position to take on Ashigaru - ending in their demise.

photo from Dave's Naval Gazing blog

I should add that both games had the Koreans victorious by destroying 50 percent of the Japanese forces. The first game in the the 6th and last turn, and in the second game during the bottom of the 5th turn (the Korean's turn). The first game had a Samurai unit in the top tier of the Korean defensive position, but later destroyed by point blank Hwa Cha fire.

Hosting the two games, I failed to take pictures of the numerous others games going on at the time. I did manage to take a few photos of some of the games on Saturday - including a War of the Roses game using Armati rules which I participated in. Here are the pictures - hopefully captioned correctly.

Battle of Sambre , 57 BC Rome against the Gauls
Presented by White Rock Gamers - Armati 2

Lancastrian Vs Burgundians!
Presented by White Rock Gamers - Armati 2

Waltzing Matilda
Presented by David Sullivan and Bruce Meyer - Bolt Action

LZ XRay
Presented by Lawrence Bateman and Damond Crump - homegrown rules

Get the message through!
Presented by Gary Williams - homegrown rules

Gzombies!
Presented by Daryl L. Nichols - Gnome Wars

The Battle of Nome
Presented by James. McEwan - Starguard

Battle of Riga
Presented by Doug Nolan and Aaron Peterson - Wings of Glory

These are only a fraction of the over 100 games at the three day convention - I actually left the evening of the second day; missing the last three periods. If you're ever in Washington State during Memorial Day weekend and looking for some great historical games (as well as a smidgen of other types), be sure to drop by.

West Wind Samurai

I managed to pick these up off of ebay for a great deal. I had wanted to sample some these figures as the lower ranking foot samurai look just like the Minamoto samurai on the period scroll depicting the raid on Sanjo Palace. These are bare-legged and without armor for their arms as in the scroll. I painted them up today using the block painting technique followed by Minwax Tudor Satin Stain. These are the first figures I've painted in some time, as I've been in a sort of painting slump.

The two on the left in the photo above appear to be in armor from a period a bit later than Heian, but not too far off. The three on the right are carrying naginata which many of the foot samurai in the scroll are armed with.

The image below shows them block painted over a black undercoat.

Next, reshly stained with Minwax. The can of stain is several years old and only a few drops are left and had to be refreshed with thinner.

Here are a couple of images from the scroll - note the bare legs and lack of sode (upper arm protection) on some.

The samurai in the scroll are from the Minamoto clan and were considered uncouth by the opposing Taira clan. In fact, the scroll shows many of the Minamoto whiskered and bare legged - as well as doing very vulgar things like decapitating unarmed individuals, and parading the heads on the blades of their naginata.

Here's a comparison shot of various 28mm miniatures for the Heian period.

For the record, I like the less-armored West Wind samurai over their more armored ones. The more armored ones (with sode, etc.) seem to be wearing later period armor which would work fine in Sengoku era, but look a bit advanced for Heian. All of them come with separate heads, which allows for slight variations of poses. Overall, the West Wind figures aren't bad figures and painted up quite quickly.

Meiji Army Re-Based

These are all Old Glory figures from their Boxer Rebellion range, except for the cannon which are from the Spanish American War range, IIRC. They're painted up in early Meiji era uniforms, which were worn up until the middle of the Russo-Japanese War. They are also similar to what was worn by Imperial troops in "Dances With Samurai", er...I mean "The Last Samurai".

The figures have been re-based on Litko plywood bases for either Hail Caesar or Black Powder. They were previously based as singles and used in a couple of The Sword and the Flame games in the past. As I'm not much of a TSATF player, I wanted them multi-based for the types of games I play.

I suppose they could still be used in games like Bolt Action with casualty counters too.

I might try them out against Samurai like the movie mentioned above.

Litko Cavalry Skirmish Trays

A few more Litko movement trays - this time for cavalry in skirmish formation. These were the three remaining such trays on sale from FRP Games. They arrived within a week from ordering; guess I've been really lucky with my orders, as others have mentioned slow delivery. Maybe it's because I'm just two states north of them.

The cavalry are a unit each of Scythian bowmen, Celt/Gallic warband and Tarantine light cavalry. The Scythians and Celt/Gauls are Old Glory, and the Tarantines are mostly Redoubt. They've all been used in games as part of a Successor army. The figures are on GW style bases. In addition to the trays individual bases for each cut out are also supplied. I intend to use some in conjunction with 50mm squares for various formations.

Litko Re-basing - Early Samurai

In a continuing effort to organize figures for easier handling, both in gaming and also storage, I used up some leftover 50mm round bases from Litko. I had just enough to re-base the mostly The Assault Group (T.A.G.) Early Samurai cavalry I've had for several years. The lone monk is a Kingsford from their excellent line. These had been gamed many times as singles in WAB and modified-WAB games in the past. As this period suits smaller scale skirmish best, I wanted them based for ease of play in this respect. Having two per round base seemed like a good enough idea. So, here they are in a few gratuitous photos.

Besides static grass, Army Painter grass tufts and flowers have been added to the bases to jazz them up a bit.

The large banner is based upon one supposedly associated with Minamoto Yoshitsune - the hero from the Gempei Wars of the late 12th Century. The large white horo has markings from the Minamoto clan - the horo was scratch-built using Green Stuff.

They were painted several years ago - when I used to paint eyes - which nowadays are reserved for character figures only.

The rear shot above shows off the various lacing patterns on the o-yoroi - or great armor of the period. There isn't evidence that the patterns were anything like European heraldry, and more on the whim of the wearer.

Below is yet another gratuitous image - this time with the foot troops - on Litko skirmish trays; both samurai and chugen (pre-Ashigaru types). They are a mixture of T.A.G., Kingsford and Curteys; which mix well together. I feel fortunate to have not only met Mike Curtis of Curteys, but actually played against him at a WAB tournament last year.The figures are on a GW board with skulls which do not look inappropriate. If I were still into this period, I would've liked to have added some West Wind figures from their nice range also.

Cheers!

Siege of Haengju Play-Test - Success!

Well even with multiple last minute player cancellations, the game still managed to go off with two players. Pat L. and fellow expat Hawaiian James (Kimo) showed up to give it a go. James is a former White Rock Gamer from Vancouver, B.C. He now lives a few miles away from me - he was an Infantry platoon leader in Vietnam and a member of the local chapter 407 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. This was James' first time playing Hail Caesar, but got into the flow very quickly. Pat chose to run the besieging Japanese and James ran the defending Koreans. At the top of Turn 1, Pat ordered his three divisions to turn to their left with the objective of assaulting the flank of the defended position. His first division commander failed his command roll and basically bottle-necked the rest of his two divisions who had successful rolls.

Three Japanese divisions attempting to march to their left for an assault - the division on the far left failing to achieve this initial move stymieing the overall army maneuver.

The Koreans followed suit by attempting to shadow the Japanese's movements. James actually rolling a 12 for a Blunder with the first of his three division. He subsequently rolled a 1 on this D6 Blunder test and gained a casualty for one of his units in that division. This is a result from a simplified Blunder table for the game. Turn 2 had the Japanese deciding to move towards the defenders with some long range missile fire - not all of which were successful as the barricades provided covering saves.

Japanese at Turn 2 moving forward towards the defenders; having decided it wasn't worth the effort to attack the far right flank of the defenders. Pat changed his strategy a couple times in the game - from cautious to more, shall we say "Samurai-ish" as the game wore on

Turn 3 allowed the Japanese to move up closer, with not too much worries from the poor missile fire from the defending Koreans. Ming Chinese and Korean cavalry were allowed to attempt to enter the fray on the Korean's Turn 3, but failed their command roll to come on. In fact, they never were successful to enter the battle for the entire game of 6 Turns. This actually is historical as they never appeared at the actual battle.

Turn 4 with the Japanese moving ever so much closer

View from the rear of the overall Japanese army commander

By Turn 5, the some Japanese units were able to charge the outer barricades and defeat a unit of Korean defenders, thereby allowing them to move into the outer defense works. The Koreans did manage to destroy an Ashigaru unit or two in the process though. The Korean's Victory Condition was either to destroy 50% of the Japanese or keep them out of the upper level of the fortress.

A Samurai unit has entered the outer barricade area after defeating the defending unit in combat. An Ashigaru unit had been destroyed previously

Another view of the close combat going in inside of the Korean's outer defense work. This is historically accurate, as the Japanese did indeed manage to break into the outer defenses.

The top of Turn 6 had a Samurai unit enter the top tier of the defenses after wining their round of combat. The victory condition for the Japanese was to have one of their units reached the inner/topmost portion of the defensive position and retaining it at the end of Turn 6. This they did and the Japanese were declared victorious - unlike the historical battle which ended in severe casualties and defeat for them.

A unit of Samurai inside of the inner defense work at Turn 6 - retaining it until the end of the Turn and thereby achieving Victory for the Japanese.

Both James and Pat agreed it was a fun game and should work very well at the convention next month with little or no modification to the rules as is. The one thing that could've added a lot of friction would've been if the Ming and Korean cavalry were able to enter the game and cause some trouble to the attackers. It was suggested to leave them out of the game completely, but I plan to leave them, but maybe allow them to come at Turn 4 - contingent upon a successful command roll.

LATE ADDENDUM - here are copies of the rules used for this scenario, one each for the Japanese and Koreans: