Monday, August 8, 2022

Samurai Archers

As a brief intermission between fielding SYW French, off from the painting desk today is a unit of Samurai bowmen.  These 15mm figures are from Museum Miniatures were part of a holiday sale pick-up in January.  Great figures with excellent sculpting.  Still more cavalry and teppo remain to push into the painting queue when I need a change of pace. 
SYW French remain a dominant sight in the painting queue although another diversion is in work.  A dig through The Lead Pile surfaced a box of TAG Thirty Years War/ ECW figures.  Both infantry and cavalry were rediscovered in the mix.  Nine of the horsemen were gathered up and primered in preparation for seeing some action at the painting desk.  After the next SYW French infantry musters out, I expect these cavalry troopers will be next on the scene.  

Gaming remains afoot including an introduction of Commands & Colors Ancients (CCA) to a fantasy gamer.  Yes, indeed!  I enticed a Warhammer 40k player to give historicals a try. 

Having replayed Caralis 215BC a number of times and finding it always to produce a close game, I put that out on the table for a refight in 6mm.
Caralis 215BC
My opponent chose to command Carthage and after a brief overview of the rules, we set to combat.  Logan began the game in a blaze of successes.  Quickly opening up the center, I found Rome down 5 banners to nil.  Rome recovered.  By endgame, Rome stood on a 7-6 advantage.  In one last grand cavalry charge, Carthage took out two severely weakened Roman infantry units in the center to claim victory.  It was a terrific Carthaginian victory.  Even better, my WH40k opponent enjoyed the game and is looking forward to more historical CCA games.

Score!

Up on Graham's gaming table for Tuesday is a rematch of last week's RCW battle.  Players are switching sides and plotting new battle plans. 

34 comments:

rross said...

Nice looking Samurai additions Jon, and sounds like CCA as a rip roaring success....who would not be back for more if he won the first gam! Look forward to seeing your TAG cavalry, they are akays lovely figures. And also will be interesting to see you all swap chairs for the RCW refight!

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks! On gaming, sometimes a first win sets the hook forever.

The TAG cavalry will be trotting off the painting desk in a week, I think.

On Tuesday’s game, I often wonder if Graham sets the stage based on which players are playing which roles. I have a hypothesis but data are still in the collection phase.

Neil Scott said...

Nothing better than introducing a change into the painting queue, always helps to maintain output. Look forward to seeing the RCW refight

Norm said...

Nice additions, I have always thought that Museum Miniatures have been an under appreciated manufacturer from a media perspective. Even in the early days they used a stronger metal, which I felt gave their figures a crisper look with good undercuts.

Cyrus said...

Nice Samurai Jonathan! Good to hear you may have a CCA convert, you obviously need to try a 15mm C&C Samurai Battles game.

Steve J. said...

A nice unit of Samurai there Jon. The painting queue sounds interesting and look forward to seeing these figures when painted. Great result on the CCA game too.

Phil Robinson said...

Great looking samurai additions, I always find having a mix in the painting mill keeps me ticking along. Well done on pulling someone in from the dark side 🙂

caveadsum1471 said...

Lovely looking samurai, I'm going the other way for a club campaign day but it's all fun! Looking forward to the TAG cavalry!
Best Iain

Lawrence H said...

Great-looking samurai Jonathan. I wish I discovered Museum Miniatures a bit earlier as their figures are great, and these are no exception. I'll look forward to your TAG cavalry which are also very nice.

George Anderson said...

Nice archers Jonathan. The Thirty Years War, another interesting period, noooooooooooo.

El Grego said...

Very nice. CC:A is a perfect introduction to historical gaming.

Jonathan Freitag said...

I agree! We need to shake up the panting queue to keep interest and motivation firing on all cylinders.

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks, Norm! I am a recent discoverer of Musuem Miniatures so fall into the "better late than never" category. The metal is extremely hard. Lucky for us that the figures are so well cast with little to no flash. Otherwise, figure clean-up would be difficult in such hard metal. MM's latest 3D sculpts are amazing.

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks! My Samurai collection began as a conversion of Zvezda's original Samurai Battles to 15mm gaming. I have yet to sicker my GMT version of the game.

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks, Steve! The CCA game was great fun even in defeat. I may have sparked an interest. Time will tell.

Jonathan Freitag said...

Much appreciated, Phil! You are a seasoned painting vet. You know how to keep production high. As for pulling someone in from the Dark Side, I need a few more data points to declare victory.

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks! You are playing fantasy in your club campaign??? What? TAG cavalry up in a few days.

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thank you, Lawrence! I wish I had discovered them earlier too. Almost all of my 15mm Samurai collection is Peter Pig. MM figures are a bit larger but gorgeous sculpts.

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks! TYW is an interesting period, for sure, but I am trying to keep my wargaming interest to ECW only.

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks! CCA is a perfect intro to historical wargaming or wargaming in general.

Stew said...

Nice looking archers. Hex bases always look kinda cool to me. And CC is a great introduction game to historicals. 😀

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks! Being a boardgamer too, hexes seem natural to me and offer a sensible approach to abstraction.

Anonymous said...

Well done on the missionary work Jon!
Chris/Nundanket

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thank you!

Ed M said...

Lovely samurai archers: I can just see them running through the streets of a burning village at night, ala Kurowsawa!

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks, Ed! Makes one want to pull up a Kurosawa film.

Matt Crump said...

Nice paintwork Jon, your productivity even at the slower pace is astounding. Good to se the gradual conversion of another historical gamer 👍

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks! I think August may prove a better month on the painting front than late spring and early summer.

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

A fine looking group of samurai Jonathan and good job adding a new member to historical wargaming.

Christopher

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks on both counts, Christopher. I hope to see Logan at the game table again. I need a rematch to regain my honor…

caveadsum1471 said...

Yes, the club is mainly fantasy/ sci-fi with a bit of bolt action, I thought I would show willing and join in the campaign, after all it's what I played exclusively for some time, I guess I'm the proof you can turn as I started playing just fantasy, long ago!
Best Iain

Jonathan Freitag said...

Yes, Iain, you are a prime example of a fantasy gamer turning to historicals. Hooray!

Mike Vella said...

Lovely work as usual Jon. Your collection must be colossal by now!

Jonathan Freitag said...

Thanks! Several boxes painted thus far.

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