Warring States 2 A Test of Honour Campaign Day - Part 2

Precluded in Part One.

Part 2 of the Campaign day held at Warlord Games and covers games three and four of the day.

Battle 3 - Village Supplies vs Scott (another one) 24 points

Bayushi Shoju after defeating the Phoenix and gaining a shorter route back to his own lands has been thwarted by the weather. With heavy snows covering the passes through the mountains, Shoju has been forced to find other paths.
Now finally out of the worst and on the descent towards Scorpion lands he has another issue, not enough supplies to complete the final journey. Fortunately the Scorpion lord has come across a bandit camp full of the devious Ronin's spoils.

Readying himself for combat Bayushi attacks.

Spotting a number of  objectives which could give the supplies needed, Bayushi maneuvers his troops towards them. Scorpion archers let fly stinged barbs and cause wounds on the Ronin defenders.

The Bandits and Ronin charge forward to force the Scorpion back but Bayushi storms forward and cuts down their Lieutenant, causing the bandits to waver. Bayushi follows on and starts to cleave through the bandit forces and then comes face to face with Chobei the bandits leader.

With swift attacks and the martial skill of a Samurai lord, Bayushi wounds Chobei whilst his troops dodge the multitude of arrows raining down from renegade bowmen. With the two leaders exchanging blows in the middle of the snow covered field, opposing archers trade shots, with the Scorpion gaining the upper hand.

Bayushi hacks down Chobei and his forces crumble. The Scorpion ransack the camp and gather up the much needed supplies without interruption.

Scorpion Win. Enemy Samurai defeated (well technically I defeated him as he wasnt taken off the board as we both didn't realise when I killed Chobei and he passed his test of honour that when I killed him again he passed again - you can only take one test of honour, after that your dead jim!)

My Samurai Hero survived.


Battle 4 - The Battle vs Paul (Spider Clan) 24 points

Well supplied after defeating the bandits, Bayushi Shoju is close to home. However in a small village on the border of the Scorpion lands, the dark warriors of the Spider Clan ambush the Scorpion. The Spider had taken advantage of Shojus absence and were raiding indiscriminately across Scorpion territory.

Shoju incensed at this invasion of his lands screams out at the Spider and hurtles headlong into the fray.

Straight away Scorpion attacks bear fruit and their arrows cut down Spider archers, whilst their Masked Men move further into the town. More arrows pierce Spider yari troops, but suddenly the remaining Spider archers find their mark and start causing casualties on the Scorpion.

Bayushi Hikoku suddenly see's a Spider Samurai and bellows a challenge whilst charging towards him. The fight is brief and Shoju's cousin stands victorious over the prone Spider. More Spider troops try and avenge their Lieutenant but Hikoku starts to cut through them as well.

Seeing his forces fall the Spider Leader calls out Hikoku and with a dishonorable actions manages to cut down the Scorpion. On the other side of town Bayushi Shoju decimates Spider troops and dispatches their sergeant as well, then out of the corner of his eyes see's Hikoku fall.

Distraught with losing his cousin Shoju flails wildly at any and all Spider troops near him. Whilst the Scorpion archers cause wounds on the Spider leader, Shoju chases down and kills the remaining Spider bowmen before, exhausted and arms aching from cleaving though enemy troops, being  cut down himself.

However the Spider Clan leader like all despicable, dishonorable raiders, seeing his remaining troops melt away at the fury of the Scorpion, makes his retreat. Bayushi Shoju is retrieved by his troops and his travelling Shugenja notices his very slight heartbeat.

The Scorpion will recover.

Scorpion Win. Enemy Samurai survived. My Samurai hero was defeated.

So four great games and amazingly four wins. Looking at the points tally I had earned throughout the day I thought I might be in with a shout of winning. Last year I had missed out by a few points.

Keiran and Jez the organizers (of a fantastic event) started to announce the winners of various awards. Best painted, best sportsman like etc... and then it came to the overall winner.

It was me!!! I had won Warring States SHOGUN 2018. Absolutely chuffed to say the least and cant wait for the next event.

Shogun (clear acrylic trophy!!)

A few of the amazing tables we got to play on

Warring States 2 A Test of Honour Campaign Day - Part 1

Last October I attended the first Warring States Test of Honour event held at Warlord games and just missed out on top spot for Shogun. This time I was out conquer all. Ok not really I'm not that possessively competitive but I did hope to have four great games and most of all have fun.

I have not played Test of Honour at all since the last event so was a bit rusty. In fact with real life so hectic I didn't even get to sort out a new Force for the day, so ended up taking my Scorpion clan themed models again but just tweaked the Force list to include Masked Men groups instead of Loyal Spearmen and Renegade Groups instead of Experienced Bowmen. Hopefully this would give me a bit of a more flexible force for the scenarios. 

My force consisted of:

Samurai Hero - Bayushi Shoju - 5 points

Samurai - Bayushi Hikoku - 4 points

Masked Men Group Naginata - 2 points

Masked Men Group Yari - 2 points

Masked Men Group Yari - 2 points

Renegade Group - 3 points

Renegade Group - 3 points

Renegade - 1 point

Mounted Retainer - 2 points

Battle 1 - The Cut Off vs Scott (Crab Clan) 15 points

Darkness shrouded the temple courtyard with only the slight glimmer of illumination from a single stone lantern. Eerie shadows were cast on the cobbles from the Stone Komainu guarding the temples doors and the resident Crab troops lounged about sleepily and unaware of any possible dangers this far inside their lands.

Bayushi Shoju and his infiltrators however had other things on their mind. The resident Crab Samurai, Hida Nari had dishonoured the Scorpion in the Jade court and the matter had been glossed over. The Scorpion however were not ready to let the matter rest.

The Scorpion had sneaked into the Crab temple and under the cover of darkness were attempting to assassinate the Crab Samurai. They were aware though that if they became discovered that the Crab could escape via the temple gate so they must be silenced before any could get away.

Bayushi Shoju marshaled his forces forward through the dark, staying away from the dim illumination of the lone lantern covering the bridged koi pond. He chuckled inwardly as he observed drowsy Crab retainers mill about aimlessly thinking they were quite secure in their own lands.

A lone Scorpion maneuvered his way silently up to the temple doors and slipped inside ready to ambush any enemy troops that wandered his way.

A group of Crab suddenly walk into range of the Scorpion infiltrators and are quickly attacked. Silently the Scorpions sting and manage to kill one of the Crab. The mounted Crab troops, unaware of the Scorpions attack, trot about on patrol as normal.

Bayushi seeing his chance charges towards the Hida Nari just north of the koi pond. Hida seeing the Scorpion lord digs his spurs into the horses flanks and tries to escape via the gate. Shoju cuts him off and with a huge sweep of his Naginata he manages to cut him down off his horse just before he can get through the gate to safety.

With the Crab Samurai decapitated at the gate, the other Crab troops whirl about in disarray. Bayushi charges at a mounted bowmen whilst his Masked Men charge at another mounted retainer. With the Masked Men taking care of the retainer, Shoju fumbles his attack but fate intervenes and he recovers quickly.

Another swift attack on the mounted archer see's Bayushi's blow glance off but third time lucky and the blade of the Naginata slices deep into the neck of the Crab and he falls bleeding heavily from his mount.

The Masked Men mop up the remaining resistance and under the light of the temples lantern the blood of the fallen Crab flows across the cobbles. Not one Scorpion had been injured.

Scorpion Win. Enemy Samurai defeated. My Samurai Hero survived.

Battle 2 - Dominate the Field vs Terry (Phoenix Clan) 18 points

After avenging his honour against the Crab Hida Nari, Bayushi Shoju journeys back towards his home lands. During this he comes across a small shrine and village situated in a deep valley just inside the Phoenix Clans lands. 

The Phoenix have a small force of monks led by Asako Kinuye in residence and after a few hours of stilted negotiation Bayushi is stunned to hear that the Phoenix will not let him pray at the shrine and move through their lands towards his own - which would suitably cut down his mileage.

Offended beyond recourse, the Scorpion prepare their arms and arrange their forces ready to dominate the field and teach the Phoenix a lesson.

Both sides begin their moves and counter moves, with the Phoenix led by Kinuye moving across the bridge by the watermill and straight towards Bayushi's main line. Another monk Asako Yasu takes position with some archers by the Tori gate, unaware that Bayushi Hikoku and his Renegades are loitering near the shrine.

Yasu climbs the steps towards the shrine and Hikoku bursts from cover and rains down blows on the surprised monk. With that private contest started Shoju sneaks along a mountain path on the other side of the valley, looking at ambushing the Phoenix troops as they make their way across the field.

As the monks come level with his position, Shoju bursts forth and cuts down the monk banner bearer in one blow of his Naginata, quickly following up into the group of monks nearest to him.

Scorpion troops hurtle into the fray to help their lord whilst Shoju finishes off a few more lowly monks. With Hikoku and Yasu stepping back to gain position the Scorpion Renegades by the shrine loose of a few arrows and manage to injure the Phoenix.

Seeing his chance Hikoku slams into the wounded Yasu and sends him to his ancestors. Asako Kinuye whirls his staff above his head and rains blows upon the nearest Scorpion troops, taking a couple out of the fight.

Seeing his troops waver, Shoju challenges Kinuye and in personal combat, surrounded by both sides troops he quickly kills and takes the head of the Phoenix lord.

It only leaves a small mopping up effort from the Scorpion and the mountain pass and its shrine is secured for the Scorpion.

Scorpion Win. Enemy Samurai defeated. My Samurai Hero survived.

Continued in Part 2

Chain of Command - WW2 British Infantry Platoon

After a long hiatus of only painting the odd miniature here and there or small projects like my Gangs of War figures, I have finally finished a large (for me) force of WW2 British Infantry. These are to make a Platoon with a few added attachments for Chain of Command by Two Fat Lardies.

All models are Warlord with a mix of plastic and metal. The plastics were very fiddly and annoying to build but eventually after doing so many it started to get quite enjoyable seeing each complete built figure sitting there ready for paint. I was surprised with the lack of mold lines on the plastics and didn't have much clean up on the metals either - so happy with that. 

Only thing left now is to add decals. I'm basing these on the 4th Batt Kings Shropshire Light Infantry who were part of the 11th Armoured Brigade. No Infantry decals exist in 28mm so I will be making my own. Hopefully I should have these sorted soon.

Lieutenant and Sergeant  

Adjutant and Medic

2 x PIAT Teams and a 2" Mortar Team

Royal Engineers and Flamethrower

A Section

B Section

C Section

1st Platoon, B Coy, 4th KSLI

Next up should be Universal Carriers, a Sherman Tank and a Churchill Tank.

Gangs of Rome

After frantically painting up a load of Gangs of Rome miniatures (still not 100% finished) and building a load of MDF terrain freshly ordered from sarissa precision, I was ready to put on a couple of games at my local club.

As these would be quick introduction games I shuffled all the fighter cards I had and dealt out 4 fighters to both my opponent (Alex) and I.

We totted up the points and then added enough denarii to make a round 100 points. 

First game was to be the tribute to Mars scenario with six mobs to roam around the streets of downtown Rome.

Both Alex and I deployed our fighters and we slowly edged towards each other. Alex sent one of his fighters up onto the balcony over the trade block building whilst I sent one of mine over towards the scaffold to counter his move.

Our other fighters came into contact and proceeded to batter and bludgeon each other. I tried to throw a Heavy Pilum at one of Alex's gang but he deftly dodged the missile.

I soon took out of of Alex's gang with a Brutal Cleaver and picked up the coin tribute. Both gangs continued to battle around the slave cage and I soon gained the upper hand, picking off a few opposing fighters. With no opposition, my fighter with the tribute managed to lay it at the foot of the statue of Mars.

During the fight the mobs of Rome mainly stood and watched or ran away in panic. They really didnt have much baring on the game.

Second game we played the home fires burning scenario but kept the same terrain making the game in the game. We used the wind rule to affect range attacks and kept the mobs. 

We diced off and I became the attacker with Alex the defender. I deployed my gang on the board edge and Alex deployed around and inside the central villa. With the first activation Alex let loose with a short bow and the winds were definitely in his favour as the arrow whistled true and struck one of my fighters and caused 3 wounds.

Another acivation from Alex and a second fighter with a bow, this time though the winds still in favour but less damage. My fighter was still on her feet but seriously hurt.

Bursting forward my gang ran towards the villa and managed to start a fire against the front wall. However Alex surged his gang outside of the building and managed to quench the fire. The combat passed back and forth and a few of my gang fell to the arrows and blades of the defenders. 

I managed to set another fire and it raged for a while but in the end Alex manoeuvred his gang well, quenching the fire and causing more hurt on my gang.

Not being able to destroy the villa with fire and my gang suffering from lack of numbers I had to retire from the streets, leaving Alex victorious.

So two great games and a win each. Cant wait to get my buildings painted up, models based properly and to get more games in.