Way of the Warrior

Its been quite a journey in collecting a Samurai themed army. I've got bits and pieces of Samurai related stuff through the years. Now i'm finally settling on to assembling a full playable army using the WH Fantasy rules :)

Many many thanks to Wargames Factory for making these excellent plastic miniatures. And they are also really affordable as well as plastic to boot! I got quite a few boxes of Samurai troops from Wargames Factory; namely 2 boxes of Ashigaru Missile Troops, 3 boxes of Samurai Troops and 2 boxes of Ashigaru Yari Troops. That's a bit more than 200 plastic men in all!

Also check out their new German infantry box sets. Looks promising.


Above are the Ashigaru Yari that i have assembled so far. They will be a unit of 30 counts as Spearmen.


Above are the Ashigaru missile troops. They are armed with guns and will count as Handgunners.

More Purple...

I did a test model of the Yari Trooper using the Unicorn Clan colors of Purple and Purple! I painted him up real fast as i would have many more to do.


His spear is really long, so transport may be an issue.


I may remove one of the 2 swords he is carrying.


I used Liche Purple as a base for the main armored parts. For the cloth areas, i used a 1:1 mix of Liche Purple and Shadow Grey.


This is a size comparison between the two spearmen from different miniature companies ;) Not much difference in height. I plan to place magnet strips on the Yari Trooper so his base will roughly be the same height when i'm done.

Heroes Past...

Above are some Samurai heroes of the past that i have collected and painted. These chaps were painted 8 years ago and were to be part of the Samurai army in the future. Yup, the guy on the left is on my blog banner ;)


Above are also Samurai minis i painted, about 7 years ago. Sadly i never found suitable minis to represent the Core units of WH Fantasy. Until now that is! I used to treat them as counts as Greatswords on the field in an Empire army. I will probably have to purple-lize them now hehe!

Heroes Present

These are some of the newer miniatures released by Reaper Miniatures. They are excellent in quality (pose and sculpt). The leftmost mini is Seoni and i will be using her to represent my Empire Wizard. She will be the Shugenja. The middle guy will be my General and the lady of the left is my BSB.

I kept remaking lists for them in private even through all the different editions of the Empire codexs. I will also mention that i am still trying to sort our a 40K version (Star Samurai army).

Anyways, below is my most recent army roster, until i get my hands on the NEW Empire book haha!

Samurai Empire List 2500pts

Lords 165pts
1 General Takeno 165pts
Armor of Meteoric Iron, Sword of Power, Crimson Amulet

Heroes 360pts
1 Captain Ujio 105pts
BSB, Gambler's Armor, Relic Sword

1 Priest Shingen 130pts
Barded mount, Heavy armor, Sheild, Wyrmslayer sword, Ironcurse icon

1 Wizard Kuromaku 125pts
Level 2, Dispel Scroll

Core Units 1472pts
29 Swordsmen 209pts
Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame

15 Spearmen (Detachment) 90pts
10 Handgunners (Detachment) 80pts

29 Swordsmen 199pts
Full Command

15 Spearmen (Detachment) 90pts
10 Handgunners (Detachment) 80pts

29 Halberdiers 199pts
Full Command, Shields

10 Spearmen (Detachment) 60pts
10 Handgunners (Detachment) 80pts

9 Knights 262pts
Standard of Discipline

5 Knights 123pts
Musician

Special Units 480pts
20 Greatswords 230pts
Full Command

1 Cannon 100pts

1 Mortar 75pts

1 Mortar 75pts

Grand Total: 2477pts

I would also like to highlight the Warhammer Armies Project where i found the Nippon Army book for Fantasy. The book was most inspirational in its effort and integration of backdrop of the Legend of 5 Rings (L5R) story.

I drew from quite a few resources like the MTG: Kamigawa series, The Last Samurai movie as well as L5R and historical stuff. Its like a chaotic mix of everything.

There really are many fantastic miniature ranges out there waiting to be explored. Let me know if you come across any neat Samurai minis i could use (both fantasy and sci-fi).

Personal Note
I have been quite busy with personal/ family life of late as well as trying to settle into my new job. This leaves little time for gaming, yet again... Hope to meet up with my gaming buddies again real soon. I still have yet to pass the Hydra to JaeRoler lol!

And on that note, I wish everyone a great weekend ahead :))

Cheers!