The Lord of Tea

My Samurai finally have their Daimyo and his hatamoto/Close Protection Detail, in their distinctive red armour.

These started out in 2015 as a second 100 buntai for Ronin; 1x samurai on foot, 2x yaris, 1x bow, 1x teppo. I think repainting the sashimono, to tie them into the rest of the force, and then expanding them into a guard detachment, was the way to go.

But their colours are still heavily influenced by the Yorkshire Tea bonus pack.

Here is Yokshie Tokubetsu and his two banners.

Better view of the Ikko-Ikki sashimono, which he is riding triumphantly over. This was something I started with my Napoleonic commanders and quite enjoy. The plastic sashimono came from the Warlord sprue.

Gareth Beamish, who writes and wargames in feudal Japan a lot,  (read his Tenka Fubu blog here, he has a lot of good insights about how to portray samurai warfare in miniature) helped me with the inscription on the long banner. 

It is a variation on a historic banner which featured a slogan about baths, and should hopefully say something like: "there is no cold water in a hot bowl of tea." If it doesn't, then I blame my calligraphy. 

It's rather Zen, and speaks to me on several levels.

To protect all this, we've got a couple of Samurai with naginata. While painting their equipment, I noticed that this one's scabbard was broken off. So I repaired it with a piece of plastic fruit basket and a blob of cement.

Can't really notice the repair, can you?

They are backed up by a total of 4x ashigaru with yaris (2 new and 2 old), plus the samurai with katana I painted originally. He is now the ko-gashira.

Supporting them, I've expanded the missile capabilities. The group now has 4x teppo and 2x yumis (bows).

Now, I need to crack on with some more random figures that I'm adding to the ronin/ikko-ikki and see what I've got before I buy anything new.

Road Trip! KEGSCon 2023

I took a day trip to Chatham yesterday with Mikey, Big Dave, and Dave's son attending his first gaming event, to attend a little gaming convention organized by my friends Keith and Brian. 43 attendees came to play 17 games over the course of the day.

Brian's 15mm ACW game

The 2+ hour drive, and being unwilling to get on the road at 0630, meant arriving after the morning session had started. But that gave time to visit with people, get caught up, and buy some Ospreys from the single dealer, who had everything on clearance pricing.

Lardie games were well represented. Dux Britannarium ran twice. Plus 6mm Charlie Don't Surf, 15mm They Couldn't Hit an Elephant, What a Tanker, and Seven Spears, the Samurai variation of Dux Britannarium. 

Dux Britannarium hosted by Frank Kailik

Star Wars Shatterpoint ran twice. One friend thought it too slow moving, another thought it was "not a good tactical skirmish game, but a good objective control game." So take that for what you want.

Interesting to note that Shatterpoint is all Clone Wars era, and bigger scale, compared to Rebellion era Star Wars Legion, to keep you from combining the two sets. Because how else is Disney going to make more money?

Friends Rico, Pablito, and Joe ran noisy VSF games. One on the fictional continent of Euronesia using The Men Who Would Be Kings, and the second on Venus, using Xenos Rampant. 

Charlie Don't Surf

They Couldn't Hit An Elephant, 15mm ACW

Five Men At Kursk, 54mm

Battletech 

Charlie Company in 20mm

When the heck did Axis & Allies get so big?

Seven Spears 

I was happy to sit in on this and give the rules a try. The card play is interesting. This was also the young GMs first foray into being a convention GM.

I guess I'll need to buy the relevant special and print off Seven Spears now, and see how I can break them with my eclectic figure inventory. 

Purchases. A deal at Cdn$15 each. Some inspiration for the Quar.

We didn't stay for the evening session which was going to be What a Tanker and I'm not sure what else. But getting most of the way home and dropping Big Dave and his boy off in London just before the sun went down was a Good Thing.

Bacon was eaten. Friends were seen. A game was played. Fun was had.