Samurai #3... Ronin

 

So the final game of our Samurai trilogy unfolded last week (current score son 2, me 0).  Having played a couple of games of Test of Honour we decided to dig out the Osprey rules, Ronin...

I haven't played these for ages but had good memories of them so we decided it would be interesting to compare and contrast with ToH.  In many ways these are a more straightforward set of rules with alternate figure activation and nice straightforward dice (plus modifiers)... no fancy dice required!

The USP for these rules is that each figure has a number of counters in their Combat Pool each turn. At the start of each round you secretly select some for attack and defence, so you could, for example, fight an entire round on the defensive... hoping to hold off your opponent until reinforcements arrive.  Alternatively you could throw everything into multiple attacks and hope to finish your opponent off, but risk being injured in the process.  Counters can also be used to enhance attack or defence rolls or to boost your chance of gaining the initiative in the round.  I believe a similar system is used in Osprey's En Garde rules which I own but which are still in the great 'unplayed rules' pile.

I used some beads for attack and defence counters: I picked these up at a local Hobbycraft and they have a suitable 'Go' style about them...

Some figures also have additional bonuses and skills in certain weapons to add to the list of things to forget each round.  Our game pitted a band on Bushi (or regular warriors) against some Sohei monks who were defending their temple.

The quiet temple...

The monks rush out to defend the temple...

The Bushi arrive, determined to loot the temple

Ashigaru armed with Teppo (or arquebus) take some
long range shots across the river...

The melee concentrates around a rice store.

Neither of us made any attempts at subtlety.  I had split my troops and one of my Samurai and an Ashigaru armed with a spear made a brave rush towards the river but were quickly driven back by Bow and Teppo-fire, leaving the Samurai badly wounded and out of the fight.

Everyone else was drawn into an increasingly brutal melee which I really ought to have won.  At one stage I had a 2:1 advantage in numbers but my son fought a defensive couple of rounds, holding me off long enough for some extra monks to arrive to balance the odds.

more Teppo-fire rings out but with little effect...

The markers in the picture above indicate light or grievous wounds so you can see how bloody the fight was!  Despite my early advantage, the battle slipped away from me and my troops were cut down, leaving the monks victorious and me conceding a 3-0 defeat in our latest round of games.

On reflection we decided that we preferred these to Test of Honour... nothing wrong with ToH but these felt less chance driven and had more elements of tactics and skill in choosing where and how to balance attack and defence. That's enough Samurai for now though... time for them to retire to the loft to lick their wounds and find something else for our next game.

Test of Honour - the rematch

 

So, having managed a win against my son in last week's game of Test of Honour he was very keen for a re-match and a chance to have a game where practically every roll wasn't a fumble.  We'd both felt that luck (or lack of it) had played a heavy role in the game.  We decided to stick to the 'encounter' scenario we'd played before with a bit of reorganising the table and a chance to re-think our troop choices.  

This time the clash took place at a farm somewhere in the Japanese countryside, although clearly the cherry blossom was still in bloom!  Last time Callum had opted for a lot of single-based figures and hadn't taken up the option of having them organised in groups of 3: this time he added in a couple of groups and some single missile troops.  I'd opted for 2 Nobles and a couple of groups of Ashigaru with only 1 individual commoner.  Both of us had also taken a Banner wielding figure: these give a bonus in defending to units with 6".  My choices meant I had fewer chances to activate but when I did I could use my more powerful groups.

This game was a much more cautious affair than last time. 

The enemy move up through the trees...

...and once again Callum's missile troops immediately climb onto the nearest roof.
This was actually a pretty sound tactic and they stayed there for most of the game

My troops advance, trampling some innocent peasant's precious crops.

Snipers on the rooftops...

The first half of the game was surprisingly bloodless.  We both advanced very cautiously with missile troops taking pot shots without much effect.  Eventually I crossed the stream and  we ended up with a clash between the 2 spear armed Ashigaru groups and our Samurai Heroes.

My Samurai leader was cut down and my spear group wiped out and at this point I thought it was pretty much all over, but my other Samurai, obviously enraged at the loss of his master, charged in and killed the enemy leader and most of the opposing spearmen.

The Samurai clash...

Unfortunately my force was now quite depleted and I fought a gradual retreat.  Apart from my Samurai I only had missile troops left and so we gradually withdrew, pursued by the enemy Ashigaru.  The musketeers and archers managed to inflict wounds on each other but eventually my single archer and then the Samurai were overtaken and cut down, leaving the Musket armed troops to surrender.

This game felt very different to the last one... I suspect both of us were thinking more about the strengths and weaknesses of the different troops after our first game and took a more thoughtful approach.  Very enjoyable and great to get another game on.  I'm stll keen to give the Ronin ruleset another try so there may be a 3rd Samurai game before long.

Test of Honour - duel at the bridge

 

Although lockdown has generally meant an end to gaming with my usual group of friends, it has prompted my son and I to dig out some figures and set a smallish game.  The dining table isn't really big enough for a larger game but can easily accommodate a skirmish level game.  As there has been a bit of a Japanese theme in our house lately (the boardgame Tokaido, my son's latest PlayStation game, Ghosts of Tsushima, and some odd oriental teas) we decided to keep this going and have a game of Test of Honour.

Digging back through the blog I discovered that I last played this over 2 years ago!  I had bought the starter set (then published by Warlord Games and now in a 2nd edition by Grey for Now Games) at a show (Salute?), mainly for the good deal on the figures that came with it, but the game itself is pretty good although we found it can be a bit dependent on chance.

We chose the opening scenario in the game: there are a series of typical scenarios (an encounter, a raid, an escort mission etc) but these can be linked into a campaign.  The 1st game pits 2 forces against each in an encounter.  Although this has pre-set forces in the scenario booklet, we decided to build our own forces.  You have to include a Samurai Hero (of course) and a third of your force has to be made up of commoners.  There is the option to deploy spear and missile Ashigaru as single figures or groups of 3 and we ended up with 2 very different forces.  I opted for my Noble, along with a 2nd Samurai and 2 groups of 3 figures.  These all activate on a single order but have to stay together as a group, meaning I wouldn't have many activations each turn.  My son opted for a single Samurai and lots of individual figures... individually weaker but with more flexibility.

Figures are activated by drawing a counter from a cup and Samurai get multiple activations per turn while the common rabble only go once.  Combat tends to be quite bloody... figures either take light wounds which impair them or are cut down.  Samurai are able to cope with multiple wounds and also have the chance to avoid a wound but take an injury card instead which may persist through a campaign.  Samurai can also behave dishonourably and gain an extra dice to attack but this comes at a morale penalty as your commoners don't approve of that sort of thing.  I'm pleased to say neither of us stooped to using this shabby tactic and risking dishonouring our houses.

So, on with the scenario...

Our 2 nobles have arrived at opposite sides of a village where a bridge is the only way across the river without getting your feet wet. Both have demanded the right to cross first and, of course, neither wants to give way to the other.  There's only one way to resolve this....

The village with some peasants happily going about their business

My forces arrive at one end of the village.  The cards in the background are for dishonour, wounds, skills etc.  One issue with the game is there is quite a bit of 'clutter' which needs to be available on the table... tokens, cards etc.  I know some people don't really like this sort of thing.

And Callum's troops arrive at the other end of the road...

Callum's Samurai Noble makes his way to the river to do a spot of taunting

And, of course I fall for this and charge my Samurai retainer across the river and into hand to hand combat.  This didn't go well... his Lord wounded my Samurai and then a cowardly archer struck him down while he was recoiling from the combat

My spear and bow Ashigaru move up to the bridge.  Missile troops are very useful as, even if they don't cause a wound they can force units to use up their activation for a turn as they defend against the bow or musket fire, effectively pinning down their opponents.

My spearmen crossed the river and there was a bloody battle at the end of the bridge which eventually went my way.  The 2 Samurai Heroes now clashed in a flurry of katanas.  

My son was managing to defy the odds and consistently roll fumbles which meant I was causing wounds on his troops even when they were attacking me (to be fair some of my spearmen managed to trip themselves up and fall in a heap at the foot of the bridge!) and his Noble was picking up growing numbers of light wounds and being driven back.  Eventually these wounds grew too much and my noble cut him down and then turned on the remaining enemy Ashigaru.  The single enemy musketman had positioned himself on a rooftop and took a few unsuccessful pot shots before he realised that his lord and most of his comrades were dead and he abandoned the battle, leaving the field to my noble

The game was enjoyable but we did find a lot the dice can have a big effect on the combats, from criticals to fumbles, which can really affect the result of the game.  Good fun but we may give Ronin by Osprey Games a go for a comparison.  It's even longer since I've played those and it would be good to see how they compare.

Xmas boardgames

 Xmas holidays are always a good excuse to dig out some boardgames and catch up on painting.

I was given a sprue of Warlord Games Ashigaru figures which came with a recent issue of Wargames Illustrated and have finally got round to painting them up (I've finished the bases since taking these snaps).  They might even get an outing on the table over the next few days.

The Japanese theme has continued with the 1st game we've played... Tokaido.  

This is a lovely game with fantastic artwork.  It's also one of those games which is deceptively simple.  Players take the role of travellers going from Kyoto to Edo, stopping off at a series of inns on the way.  As you travel you can stop off at various places to a bit of shopping and eating (collecting and building sets of cards on the way).  You can also visit temples, farms and view panoramas all of which help build victory points.  It's very much about the journey rather than the destination.  Although the rules are very simple it does create interesting tactical choices about where to stop... do you block your opponent or get to your choice of stop before someone blocks you.  There are advantages to racing ahead to be first at each inn but then you'll miss out on the chance to collect points in other areas.  The game only takes about an hour so great for people who take a bit of convincing (like my wife).  

Some food...

Some of the panoramas starting to build up.

We also played a couple of regular games which everyone will be familiar with... Settlers of Catan and Carcassone.  Having come 2nd in Tokaido I was hoping for better things and somehow managed a win in Catan...unusual as my son usually thrashed me at this.  I was soundly beaten by my wife at Carcassone though via her ruthless management of monasteries.

 

Some rapid urban sprawl taking place!

We were discussing getting some expansions for both of these but I'm not sure which to go for, so if anyone has any recommendations let me know.

We are planning a couple of other games before the holidays are over and it's back to work :(

The first is Guards, Guards which my son got for Xmas.  The Discworld games aren't always easy to track down as they are all out of print.  We've played Ankh-Morpork a lot so we're looking forward to giving this a try.

I've also dug out a copy of the GMT game Blackbeard.  

I picked up a cheap copy ages ago but it hasn't made it out of the box yet so we might give this a go, either as a 2 or 3 player game...more on this if we get round to it.

 

 

Painting...more Samurai.

On the paint table this week....  more Samurai for Test of Honour.  I'd been very wary of painting Samurai/Japanese figures but these have been nice to work on although I know my painting ability isn't up to adding the finnicky detail that some people can manage.

Nevertheless I'm quit pleased with these and even managed to assemble the figures without too much swearing.  These are the ones that I tried using a different base coat technique (the impressive sounding Zenithal Priming).  Did it make much difference...none at all as far as I can see although the lighter undercoat (black + white top spray = grey surprisingly!) did make it easier to pick out some of the fine detail so I may continue with this.

Updates...

Well Halloween's been and gone...bring Scottish I get to grumble about how it isn't the same any more.... how we had to make lanterns out of turnips and work hard for our treats (and they were rubbish...a  satsuma and monkey nuts...).  Firework night has just passed as well so I can moan about that too... fireworks going off every night for weeks, frightened dogs etc. God I'm sounding really moany....and don't get me started on Xmas stuff in shops!!!


No posts from me for a couple of weeks, although I did manage a few boardgame sessions thanks to Eric the Shed's hospitality.

In the last few weeks we've played Axis and Allies (fun but made my brain hurt), Star Trek Ascendancy (excellent...played this enough times now to almost know what I'm doing!) and Zombicide (fun and pretty intuitive).


I've started on some more Test of Honour figures and I've been experimenting with different undercoats. Normally I just whack on a coat of Black (or sometimes brown) primer and then work from that.  I've tried using white but it never seems to work very well.

Recently I've read a few articles on 'Zenithal Priming' which sounded interesting.  Essentially this is a fancy term for highlighting at the primer stage.  Undercoat in black and then use a lighter coat (white in this case) to bring up the detail.  Because this is sprayed downwards from above or at a 45° angle it leaves some areas darker and brings out the detail in a way that black primer tends to hide. Hopefully this will make picking out some of the fine detail easier...whether it results in a  better paint job is another matter!!

Highlighted Ashigaru

Don't usually use a coloured primer but red seemed suitable for these Samurai 

Plans for the dark winter months are underway...mote Test of Honour, Paper Soldiers Jacobites to go with the Government soldiers I did earlier in the summer and finally make a start on my ACW Ironclads.  And of course Xmas is fast approaching so if my well placed hints pay off there should be a nice new Warlord Games Cruel Seas to play with :)