SAMURAI!

 

Chris' collection of Samurai have to be among the most magnificent figures I have ever seen. Each one beautifully painted, most with a sashimono, and the command stands are just amazing.

Placing as many as we could fit onto Ross' table we had a stoush that was fast, furious and bloody as two Samurai armies smashed away at each other one afternoon.

Chris and Ross took one force and Liam and I took the other. The armies have been painted with particular clans and daimyo represented but we just divided the forces in half so that both sides fielded mounted Samurai, foot Samurai, warrior monks, archers, ronin and ashigaru.

Just the opportunity to use these magnificent figures was a real treat!
My photos don't do them any justice at all.

My commander.....the detail is just amazing.

These guys aren't deployed...I was taking pictures as we took them out of the boxes.

More command stands

Ronin!

More Ronin

The table - deployment- with munchies too!

Liam and I commanded this lot!

My archers , with Ronin in reserve.

Samurai!

Archers

More archers

Archers with mounted Samurai in support.

My left flank - ashigaru with yari backing up the cavalry.

Chris' warrior monks at the top of the screen charge my line. The bottom 'charge' marker was my ashigaru charging his. The monks in the picture were Chris' most ferocious troops and they did enormous damage to my left flank.

Here are Chris' warrior monks smashing into my line- they forced my cavalry back and my samurai. The ashigaru at the front of the picture have amazing sashimono. 

Ross' and Chris' center. A line of samurai and archer ( right) and behind them ashigaru with yari.

The same lines

Chris' warrior monks slam into my line...they caused me all sorts of problems

I've counter-charged them

Retainer archers

On our right - Liam has launched his cavalry at Ross' Ronin- on teh extreme right of our line he has a couple of Ashigaru and monk units- they did damage too!

Those f**king warrior monks...I failed to inflict casualties- I disordered them....but failed to do damage.....and they just kept coming back.

They pushed me back ....

Samurai Unit.

They just won't stop....being Impetuous they just kept coming!!

Main line of Samurai clash.

Samurai, fighting, shooting, screaming, charging........

The remains of Chris' command on their right...forming a defensive line.

This was one tough, brutal fight- and the casualties were horrendous. In the end, time rather than Break Points meant we had to finish up. Neither army had reacher 50% but our ( Liam and I) centre command had broken and although on the extreme flanks of our army we had ashigaru getting behind their ( Chris and Ross) main lines , tactically we had to concede. A good game!

The arrows show where the various commands moved to during the game.
( I should have removed the biscuits for the shot)
 It was in the middle that Liam and I found ourselves getting hammered....I made a serious tactical error- I pushed my archers too far forward in the open area between the two hills and found them getting slaughtered by Ross' Samurai......it cost us the game!