Sengoku Japanese: Yamashiro Fortification

It's not just an Englishman's home who's his castle, sometimes it's a Samurai as well.

I do like a castle and whilst the large sprawling castles of this period aren't going to be useful in Test of Honour for me a smaller more modest construction will be. I got this one from Oshiro Models and as I described earlier I was lucky to have James who runs the show reach out and help me make my vision a reality. 

It has taken me a little while to get around to this one but having painted up the village (also from James) very recently I had a scheme to work with and it all came together over a week. It's not the best or neatest paint-job but I think produces a good overall effect for the table.

I did make two additions to the original model for the tower, both 3D printed. Firstly I added a piece to the bottom of the big roof section to make it sit snuggly on top of the bottom floor. 

The original model is designed to have some banisters around the top most tower, which look great but stop you putting any based models at the top. So I designed a quick tower caddy to pop the top most piece in to give space to put models on. Again, with this one I put a piece underneath to sit inside the lower room and aid stability. 

Now it's ready to repel raiders or perhaps be a vantage point for sneaky Ninja's!

Fox & The Rat: Day 9 Battle 2 - The Race

It was all over, the British hopes of reaching Benghazi were in tatters.  Lieutenant Singh was distraught - his brave Punjabi boys had been massacred and yet here he still was and not a scratch on him.

There was a small fuel dump just off a rudimentary road.  Up the road was a basic hut with a well inside a type of courtyard.  Initially it looked like the British had come up trumps - they could replenish their dwindling water and ‘liberate’ well-needed fuel supplies.  Before they could get too excited though they could hear the low groan of DAK armour and see the clouds of dust showing that Jerry had the same idea and wasn’t going to let them stroll in and take it.  An SDKFZ-250 complete with an infantry section rumbled into view and was then lost again behind the building.  A truck emerged and disgorged another section near to the fuel while Lieutenant Singh sent one of his own sections to contest this.  He brought up his medium mortar behind a sand dune to give covering fire.

His own ‘armour’ - a Humber MkII from the recce squadron supported the infantry by the fuel dump while his second infantry section were going to try and probe the centre.  The Hun brought up a recce squad in a Kubelwagon ahead of the well on the British left and Lieutenant Singh would send his jeep borne medium machine team to deal with them when they eventually turned up - where the blasted damn were they?

The Royal Artillery did their best to help the Sikhs but on this occasion they were a little off the mark and Jerry pushed on unperturbed.  The British centre section soon took a hell of a battering from the Jerry’s in and around the courtyard by the well, the recce team and the half-track moving up on their flank.  The British mortar and the MMG when it got set up damaged the recce team but it was not enough to redress the balance.  Meanwhile by the fuel dump lieutenant Singh thought his men had the Hun when the Humber moved up on the flank of an LMG team but couldn’t make it count and return fire from these and some other infantry scurrying about in the palms did for the Sikh’s own LMG team and they were cut down.  The only ‘consolation’ was the medium A/T gun brought up by Jerry to deal with the Humber was as ineffectual as the scout car.

The Humber wasn’t going to hang around to see if they got any better and set off to support what was left of the infantry in the centre.  The SDKFZ had moved out of sight to avoid this and a forlorn attempt by the HQ squad to attack the half-track with grenades was a failure although they didn’t sustain any casualties which was reward for their foolhardy courage.

The game was up.  Jerry had the fuel and the water.  Lieutenant Singh and what was left of his force had to beat a hasty retreat and try to extricate as many of their fallen comrades as possible.    

Sengoku Japanese: Shimazu Ride Forth

Here are the first unit (of two) Shimazu cavalry completed for the army and ready to ride down their foes. As always these are Fireforge miniatures models who have a great plastic kit to work with.

I've also been busy putting some artillery together for both sides and they have joined the painting queue which for the battlefield armies is now growing reasonably short.

I've also painted up another Test of Honour model, the Geisha Spy. She may (or may not) be featuring in a scenario in the near future.

Sengoku Japanese: Shimazu Leaders and a Test of Honour

This week the first of the Shimazu commanders take to the field with the foot versions being completed. Using the same box as before from Fireforge you get a good mixture of commanders with some taking it easier than others. I also have three mounted commanders from the box to paint up.

At least the troops are no longer leaderless!

We also played our second game of Test of Honour with Stu coming over with his birthday Sohei Monks to take on the home team's Samurai and Ashigaru.

The Home Team

The scenario saw the Monks attacking an outpost defended by a portion of my brave boys whilst reinforcements came on from behind my lines.

The opening move saw the Monks shoot and seriously wound my leader, he needs to make sure that some peasants are the closest target in the future so he's not so easily inconvenienced. My crack team of musketmen however didn't manage to hit anything for the whole game and so proved to be an expensive and ineffective addition to the team. 

The game moves along really quickly with combat being reasonably bloody as long as you don't fluff your dice rolls.

In the end the Monks came out on top as they cut down my leader and one of his companions leaving only a travelling Samurai to hold the enemy off. He did manage to kill the enemy leader though to salvage some honour for the home team.

Sengoku Japanese: Shimazu Ashigaru Leaders & Banners

Having completed all the infantry for both sides I've got the Shimazu commanders and cavalry left to do before moving onto some characters / peasants for Test of Honour.

These chaps are from the Fireforge Games Command box which includes a good mix of foot and mounted command elements. These are all the Ashigaru models from the box with some musicians and nobori bearers being  joined by a Ashigaru commander and the ever useful parasol carrier.

I've also painted up an unarmoured Samurai to use in Test of Honour, you can only use one of each commander type so having an unarmoured option allows for some flexibility in list building. 

This chap is from Perry and I have a few more to paint up in the future.

Fox & The Rat: Day 9 - We Must Hold

As the column moved forwards Capt. Rohrstock peered into the early morning gloom trying to pick out the enemy lines. The Stukas had done their work but he suspected it was mostly via guessing that actually being able to see the enemy. The wadi ahead and it's crossing represented the last natural defence between his men and Benghazi and he expected the enemy to put up a fierce defence.

The would no doubt be well dug in, he could only hope that they lacked the numbers to strongly man the entire wadi so he could seize the crossing point before reinforcements could arrive. 

As the men pushed closer to the crossing point Rohrstock ordered the anti-tank gun to deploy to give covering fire and the squad in the half-track rumbled forwards using a sand dune as cover. Rohrstock was sure the enemy would have a anti-tank gun and didn't want it to have any easy targets.

Then fire erupted from hidden positions all along the far side of the wadi, bullets whistled overhead and shells from a gun landed amongst the troops. Fortunately his men where by now veterans of many encounters in the desert and instead of panicking they behaved magnificently. Whilst the machine gunners laid down return fire the rifle teams pushed onwards towards the crossing point.

With the assault imminent the anti-tank gun starting throwing shells over into the enemy lines with great accuracy and the half-track had also reached a position to start throwing fire into the defenders. This seemed to much for the defenders as Rohrstock saw a unit of Indians break from their defences and fall back into the desert behind.

Then the moment of decision, with a roar of it's engine the half-track darted forwards which seemed to catch the British A/T gun by surprise, Rohrstock presumed it was still loading HE shells as it didn't open fire. At the crossing it's section poured out and started to lay down a heavy fire whilst supporting troops also advance to the line of the wadi.

A desperate struggle then erupted around the wadi with much reduced and shell-shocked Indians holding off two close assaults by one of the rifle teams. Rohrstock made a note to work on the close assault tactics if he ever got some time away from the front-line.

However, his men's firing was still top notch and the defenders where blown away in a storm of machine gun fire. Even as reinforcements started to arrive it was too late, the crossing was his and his men would not be shifted from control even by an entire division!

The leaves Capt. Rohrstock and his men on the very outskirts of Benghazi, no doubt staff officers are burning their secret papers even as you read these lines.