Sengoku Japanese: Shimazu Yari Ashigaru

And finally for what has been a busy week of painting and gaming we have the first of many melee Ashigaru. Mostly armed with yari but with the odd naginata thrown in as well.

In total there will be three of these units painted up for each side, all paired with a unit of yumi Ashigaru. So there's a fair few of these left to paint but I have already painted up two of the yumi units so at least I've got a start on those!

Fox & The Rat: Day 4 Every Object Counts

With the 8th Army assault stalled on the coast Capt. Rohrstock was determined to press home the advantage of the lightning victory the day before and fully breakthrough the enemy lines. 

Looking through his binoculars he could see the ground he needed to capture and in the distance the colonial defenders rushing forwards to try and stop him. Once more the Stukas had been called up to wreak havoc in the enemy lines but he had not expected the enemy to be able to muster an artillery bombardment in return. Whilst this mostly went astray he was aghast to see the truck pulling their precious anti-tank gun do up in flames with the crew mostly bailing out alive.

With the preliminary bombardments over, both sides picked themselves up and advanced towards the enemy. This was mostly made up of cautious advances by the infantry on foot until Rohrstock unleashed the 3rd section in their Sdkfz 251. Guns blazing it rushed the central objective under the very noses of the enemy and disgorged it's passengers. The initial target was a Sikh mortar section which had unwisely crested a nearby sand-dune and it was quickly reduced to a single crewman. The men of the 3rd section also unleashed heavy fire into the advancing Sikh infantry, cutting a number of them down.

This boldness brought about an immediate reaction from the enemy as a Humber armoured car rushed down the road and opened fire on the 251, fortunately the shot was wide of the mark. This in turn signalled the time for the Panzer II attached to the attack to venture forth. The first shot from it's auto-cannon was wild and off target but the second struck home with deadly effect, causing the Humber to burst into flames.

During this armoured battle the infantry fight had continued in the centre with the Sikh's coming off the worst under accurate fire from the DAK 3rd section. The Sikh's had also made an effort to bring their own anti-tank gun forwards and into action. It also shot at the 251, and again the shot was wide.

Not wishing to give the 6pdr another shot at him the 251 sped forwards whilst it was reloading and opened fire on the crew to cut some of them down. Their was a brief assault by some Sikh infantry on the 251 but this was driven off with no damage done.

By this time the Sikh attack had largely bogged down but they did launch on last ditch assault on the central objective but whilst this caused a couple of casualties on one team the Indians had no support so had to withdraw. This allowed a different DAK team to retake the objective whilst the LMG team of 3rd section shot the Sikh's down.

With night falling and no chance of rescuing a victory the Sikh's decided to withdraw from the field of combat leaving it to Capt. Rohrstock and his men to celebrate another decisive victory.

Sengoku Japanese: Yumi Monks

Here we are with the last of the Sohei warrior monks (for the moment) from Fireforge games. I have two boxes of the monks each of which will be turned into a unit of melee, archers and skirmishing gun users.

Having spent the week painting up nothing but Sohei I've gotten into the flow of their scheme so these chaps came out relatively quickly. 

Here we have the entire box in one shot (with an extra banner bearer from Perry) and that means I only need to paint up some melee Ashigaru to complete all the different box sets I got from Fireforge. Those are up next and have already made their way onto the painting table.

Sengoku Japanese: Yamashiro Fortifications

I do have a weakness for a castle or other nice buildings so when I was looking around for some terrain to build up for our Samurai games I came across a nice tower from Oshiro model terrain I was immediately interested. As part of a larger range of walls and buildings the tower looked to fit in with the buildings I Kickstarted with Oshiro already and the more rustic setting I'm aiming for. You can buy STL's to print out massive stone fortifications but I was looking for something that didn't require an entire table to setup something reasonable looking.

There where however two issues, the first of which was that they didn't produce 90 degree corners and the second of which was using the other parts available you couldn't make an enclosure that joined up properly. I mentioned this on a Facebook group and James who runs Oshiro reached out to me to say he would create some 90 degree corner pieces and he could help with a castle setup by modifying the pieces he supplied to me.

So only a couple of weeks after that initial conversation I received my castle in the post today, James has trimmed down the wall parts on the tower to allow everything else to connect up properly. I also have an extra corner piece in case I want to leave the tower out.

I've also been working on my Fireforge Sohei, this time the monks with teppo. As with the gun armed Ashigaru I've already done these are five to a base to act as skirmishers. 

Sengoku Japanese: Sohei Warrior Monks

A week off means more time for painting and I was eager to get these new models onto the painting table. These Fireforge Games Monks are fresh from being Kickstarted and I've only just received my box. 

The box comes with 24 models and a mixture of Naginata, Teppo, & Yumi, eighteen of each to be exact. This does mean you can't arm the entire box with one weapon but that wasn't an issue as I planned to make up troops armed with all three weapons from the box. The only issue is that I wanted 10 melee, 10 bow and 5 gun armed monks so I needed to add an extra model in somewhere. Fortunately I had some Perry banner bearers so I decided to add one of them into the melee group, size wise he fits perfectly.

The models themselves are of a different plastic to the other Fireforge Games kits being darker and slightly more shiny than the older kits but they cleaned up well enough and the melee troops went together ok. You can also use the arms from the other Fireforge kits as they fit the bodies so I used a couple of the Samurai sword arms to make the leader and as the basis of the tetsubo.

Next up are the Teppo Monks and then those with Yumi, after that it's probably going to be some Yari Ashigaru as I don't have any yet.

Fox & The Rat: Day 4 Battle 3 - Breakthrough!

Location - Front line Western Desert, west of Benghazi, Libya

It all hung in the balance…..Overnight Lieutenant Harbhajan Singh’s hard-pressed Indians had been reinforced by two sections of raw New Zealanders.  He couldn’t be certain but he thought Jerry had been stiffened by some DAK reinforcements on the British right.

Singh was determined he would not let this chance slip by.  He cursed his timidity the previous day and resolved to be bold, channelling his inner Frederick The Great (he afforded himself a wry smile at the irony).

The Honey continued to pour fire into the central building where the MG42 was skulking away and causing issues for the Sikh infantry on the left.  It felt like Sgt Odeball was at last starting to have an impact.  However the rifle team of section 2 in the centre of the Sikh line finally succumbed to unending concentrated fire from their right and broke.

The Indian MMG team packed up back in the jeep which raced round the right of the DAK line and looked to set up on a sand dune overlooking the rear of Fritz’s left flank - this was the speed which Lieutenant Singh had been craving.  Section 1 of the Kiwis now took the initiative - in the clapped out old Bedford truck they raced from the jump off point on the right of the minefield following the course of the Honey and then went straight past Sgt Odeball to alight behind a fuel dump overlooking the rear of the central building - this should give the Hun something to think about rather than pinning the Sikhs in front.

Lieutenant Singh had been right.  Fritz had been reinforced.  A fresh section moved up on the DAK left occupying the right hand building facing the British and another team working their way past the smoking wreck of the Sdkfz222 looking to take up a position in the scrub ahead of that same building and threatening the flank of what remained of the LMG team of the Indians’ section 2 and the support command team,  Section 2 of the Kiwis, led by the fiery Corporal McDougall, pushed forward on the British right to put pressure on those Fritz’s in the scrub ahead of them.

Meanwhile Sgt Odeball finally obliterated the MG42 in the central building.  Not before time.  The Kiwi rifle team from section 1 now rushed the building from behind the fuel dump.  The LMG team however had come under heavy fire from the DAK and were unable to support,

The Honey now turned the turret to unleash hell against these same DAK who’d targeted the Kiwis.  They were supported by the MMG on the sand dune in their rear and the Hun LMG team broke.  The Hun in front of the central building could now hear and then feel the relentless crackle of Lee Enfields from the rear as the Kiwi rifle section in the central building poured withering fire into them.  This was too much.  They soon joined their dastardly compatriots and broke and fled.  The tide was turning distinctly in favour of the British.

Corporal McDougall now made sure.  The rifle team had been pinned by the DAK from the building on the left of the German line but with the LMG team he rushed the unsuspecting Jerries cowering in the scrub and drove them off - Don’t stop until you get to Stettin.  Tschussy tschuss Fritz!   

The Kiwis - despite their rawness - had shown some tactical acumen and flair to resurrect the floundering Indian advance and push the Brits over the line.  Lieutenant Singh was mightily relieved.

Fox & The Rat: Day 3 Battle 3 - Breakthrough!

Location - Front line Western Desert, west of Benghazi, Libya

Tonkin’s mob had certainly cleared some channels mused Lieutenant Harbhajan Singh as he stared at the imposing line of fortified buildings beyond the minefield.  Speed was going to be critical otherwise his relatively small force was going to be stopped before it could even get going.  The multiple channels might give Jerry something to think about but they were too narrow for most of the vehicles with the squad.  

Section 1 were drawn up on the left hand side against the seemingly weaker German flank, along with Lieutenant Singh.  Section 2 were towards the centre along with the jeep borne MMG team and the support command team.  On the right, and through the largest breach in the mines was Sergeant Odeball in his M3 Stuart ‘Honey’ light tank.  This was against the strongest part of the enemy line.

The jeep and MMG team set off at quite a lick heading for the cover  large sand dune on the left flank overlooking the furthest building.  Meanwhile the Honey set off towards the strongest part of the line - Sgt. Oddball was fairly confident that Jerry didn’t have any 88’s hiding away.

What he hadn’t seen though was a Sdkfz222 cowering behind the buildings.  It broke cover to his right.  It was obviously trying to get in the rear of the Honey and try to take them out.  Odeball had the measure of the sneaky Hun and with devastating accuracy scored a direct hit stopping the weasel in it’s tracks.

Meanwhile the infantry set off, canalised though they were through the narrow channels.  On the right Section 1 made reasonable ground although concentrated fire put them under some pressure.  Section 2 though found it much harder going.  Their LMG team sprinted ahead but met forceful fire from many different locations and they were soon pinned down in a precarious position in front of the strongest part of the line.  Their rifle team fared little better moving up in support on their left but also stalling.  Section 1 had now deployed covering the centre and left building and the MMG team were atop the sand dune concentrating fire on the far left building.  This however had been reinforced by a DAK section having been transported across the back in a Kfz15.  The daredevil driver attempted the same manoeuvre, this time to pick up the MG42 holding the Hun left flank.  The Honey had the weasel in it’s sights between buildings and almost got the blighter as it sped along - a fine effort but bugger escaped unharmed dropping it’s deadly crew into the central building to put even more pressure on the Sikh

infantry.

The infantry push was grinding to a halt - the Hun were dug in and unleashing a hellish rain of fire.  The Honey pushed on right into the middle of the Jerry infantry forcing one group to flee backwards and then turned it’s attention to the central building where that craven MG42 had set up.

The front was stalemated with most of the Sikhs pinned down and Jerry unable to do much other than keep firing.

Night started to descend.  The Sikhs were in need of reinforcements  - they just had to kick the door in and watch the whole rotten edifice crash down around the DAK Ohrs! 

Sengoku Japanese: Shimazu Yari Samurai

This week it's some reinforcements for the Shimazu in the shape of some melee Samurai. This is the final set of melee Samurai I have planned for both armies though I may come back and add some extra weapon options for Test of Honour as I have a few spare men from the boxes left over.

Next up are some warrior monks so I'm excited to get those on the painting table as they should be a nice diversion from the rest of the forces I've been painting up so far.