Samurai in the Snow

Hi all,

December is traditionally a very tense time at my office - everyone expects me to finish all those projects that nobody was really interested in for so many months before. So I have to be a busy bee, and (as I had anticipated) painting progress for the painting challange so far is quite slow - but my masterplan is to make up for this lack of progress during and after the holidays!

My first entry to the painting challange is a Samurai of the Perry range - indeed I had this backtrop of a beautiful Japanese-gardens-calendar, and this inpired me to paint a fitting figure to use for the "cold" special theme of the painting challange.

It was really great fun to paint this Samurai, especially without the typical armour. I'm going to paint some more of these...

Have a nice holiday everyone, and thanks for your great support in 2014. I hope you get a lot of shiny toys under the Christmas tree. for me it will be the new Perry Azincourt-Range, and I'm really looking forward to these figures!

All the best,
Tobi

Great Games at AttritiCon

My club's annual event, the AttritiCon, was tremendous fun again. The con was well recieved (we had something of a hundred participants and visitors this time), and it was a very relaxed and joyful atmosphere with people having big talks about little figures and playing old and new games. For me it was a first that I didn't play any tournament but helped staging two demonstration games - the best decision I could have made, as it was truly great.

One of these games was a big 400p Impetus demo in 28mm with Christopher aka Axebreaker. Christopher is a very nice person and a gifted painter, and the army he put on the table certainly has a very lasting "wow"-effect. Here he is, sitting in the middle and explaining grand strategy to the players:

Facing each other on the Spanish plainland were my Andalusians (which you already know)... 

28mm Andalusians

... and Christopher's fantastic El Cid army:
 

28mm El Cid

The Scenario was a historical one, but we took liberties with the set up and added a Spanish Version of La Haye Sainte:

In two large battles the armies fought it out who would rule this part of Spain...

... and there were plenty of heroic moments like with this mercenary knights in Andalusian service (bottom centre), who survived turns after turns of onslought by a overwhelmingly outnumbering enemy...  

...or simply massive, optically overwhelming fighting scenes. 

I can only say thanks to Christopher, who (since it was one of my first times playing Impetus) had the hard work of involving and explaining, while I was free to enjoy the figures and role some dice. What a great game it was. We're considering to do something like this again in the future, but for the moment we're both glad that we finished everything in time (and we both shrink back even from the thought of another such huge project...).

The other game was much smaller in figure-numbers but not in matters of fun. In our own adaption of the SAGA rules, Patrick alias "Wraith" and myself prepared a little scenario set in the end-struggles of the Imjin war: A Japanase colony is attacked by a Korean army, and in a limited number of seven turns the game is decided by the number of buildings burned by the Koreans or defended by the Japanese. For those interested, I have made available the Korean Battleboard for download.    

The setting: A little Japanese village built by the invaders

 Patrick is a very nice person and great fun to game with, and his Samurai troops are truly a feast for the eyes. Here is the master of the games...



...and here you can see some of his very beautiful troops:

Perry Samurai painted by Patrick

I myself added the scenery (the buildings are John Jenkins Design) as well as the Koreans:  

Perry Koreans

The scenario was played five times that day. Everytime the fighting was tough...

 ...and both the scenario as well as the battleboards proved to be well balanced, as the results of the battles were quite different. The only thing that didn't differ was the fun the players had: 

Here are some more shots of the battles in progress:

My heartfeld thanks to my both co-organizers and hobby friends - as well as to all the players joining in. It was so much fun!

Now I'm back at my painting table, and it feels so good to be free to paint anything I want without having to keep a shedule. Alas, as gaming events like these are known to be the petri dish of hobby inspiration, a new plan and shedule will emerge soon enough... But more of this some other times.

All the best to you and thanks for your visit,
Tobi

Planning ahead

I hope you all had a very enjoyable Christmas. I also hope that you've found many hobby-related presents under the Christmas tree (or in your Christmas stockings). I for myself was very lucky indeed and have recieved an army of perry HYW figures. So together with my Samurai/Korean project these figures will be the big project for next year - and I'm very much looking forward to it.

Speaking of it, I now have finished the plan for my 100 points DUX Korean adaption. Here it is:

100 points Korean army

The last weeks I have read the "Imjin war" by Samuel Hawley - a thoroughly reserched and very, very well written account of the Japanese-Korean war in the late 16th century. Sadly the book is out of print, and I was only able to akquire a used version at a very high prize. Yet given the quality of the book it was well worth its money (or even more). I can not recommend the book highly enough.

The reading is very inspiring, and even if many of the accounts are shocking from an humanitarian perspective (to say the least), the period itself is very exciting and full of potential. By reading the text I could see the armies unfold on the hilly ground of Korea, and I'm looking forward to bring the Perry figures which I've treasured for so long to live with the DUX Britanniarum adaption. There'll be quite a bit more about this project in the near future.

For now I wish you all the best, enjoy the last days of 2012 and make the best of them. Take care,
Tobi 

From DUX to Duke and Daimyo

When contemplating the year 2012 (which thankfully has not ended yesterday - along with the whole earth), one of the best hobby-related things for me in the last months was the release of DUX Britanniarum. With its very accomplished synthesis of game, simulation and story-telling, it hit the bulls eye. There is only one quarrel left (which can be considered a minor one): The Arthurian era is not one of my favorites. Yes, I have figures and yes, I like them, BUT it would be so much more fun battling away in Outremer, 14th century France or Feudal Japan. There is hope for offical supplements, but I think I don't think I can wait that long.

So, my new years resolution for the hobby does include many things DUX-related. While my basic armies for the Britons and Saxons are finished (just have to take pictures which will happen soonish), they will need to be reinforced. But in addition I also want to adapt the rules to other periods. And here the big challange is to keep the balance of the game.

Therefore I have tried to deduce a point-system for DUX, which for me looks rather balanced and rates both official DUX-starter armies at the same point value of 70 points. Here's the point-system I came up with:

Point System for DUX

Let me explain how it works: The point value of each unit is calculated by the number of figures, their quality and the fact whether they are mounted and/or have ranged weapons. Thus a 6 figure unit of elites comes out at 10 points (6 for the figures, 4 for being elite). A unit of 4 bowmen counts 6 points (4 for the figures, 2 for ranged weapons). I also had to make the destinction regarding unit-size in order to adjust the quality-costs to the number of figures. A normal unit for foot is 6 figures, a small one 4 and a large one 8. For mounted troops a normal unit is 4, a small 2 and a large 6. Thus a mounted unit of 6 elite shock troops costs 14: 4 figures + 4 elite + 4 shock horse + 2 large unit size.

With this system it should be possible to adjust the game to any setting mentioned above. Flavour of the period will have to be added by the card-deck as well as by (very few) additional rules. Talking about tinkering with the rules - you will notice the term "B&M Group" in the system above. This is a group of bannermen, standards and musicians which is indispensible in every feudal army. It works as follows: The force moral level for a battle with the basic army is 6 + 1D3 (meaning on a pip of 1-2 the level will be raised 1 point, on 3-4 it will be raised 2 points and so on). Thus this can be adapted for larger games as 0,5 force morale points per levy unit, 1 per warrior unit and 1,5 per elite unit present on the table plus the additional D3. The new B&M group will count as an elite unit (thus being a very cheap addition to the force moral level - analogous to baggage in DBMM) AND allow one re-roll of the D3 when first determining the force moral level. As a downside it will fight like levies (being encoumbered with all those flags and gear) but die like elites - with a potential loss of 3 morale points. I think this might work well and will also make for a beautifull addition to the army on the field.

You may also have noticed that bowmenship is not available for levies - that is because levies trained with ranged weapons will fight as missile troops or skirmishers in feudal armies. Experts of shooting belonging to the elites shoot better (thus the higher point value). When checking for hits they treat their targets as one quality level lower then they actually are (thus elites shot at by elites use the warrior-outcome). In addition, elites don't have to shoot on the nearest target (yet they still are not allowed to target commanders).

That's enough of special rules at the moment, now let's have a look at the 100p Samurai army I'm planning to field 2013:

100point Samurai army for DAIMYO (aka DUX)

In the same way I'm going to build up a Korean force. I will report on the progress. Enough of planning ahead, now let's enjoy the last remaining days of 2012. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you all!

Very best regards,
 Tobi