3d-printable terrain for all your samurai wargaming needs
| << Wrecked knight 120mm base 2020-01-23 | Printing the samurai card boxes >> 2020-01-31 |
Here at our local club Test of Honour is a popular samurai-themed skirmish game, and last weekend we pulled out all the stops (and ALL the terrain!!) to create a massive 6x3' themed table. However, Test of Honour is usually played on a 3x3' table, so we were able to browse through the scenarios to find a fun one, and happily we were able to find exactly the right kind of terrain arranged on one section of the board!
So here's our battle report of the Escape scenario....
One of the onna-bugeisha samurai women had recently been captured by a rival lord and imprisoned in his castle, and this is the tale of her escape attempt one dark night.
One samurai hero (Reiko) starts the game in the castle gatetower, shown above, having escaped her bonds and slipped past the guards. Her objective is simply to escape off the opposite side of the board, while her loyal retainers create a distraction to occupy the castle's guards.
The enemy forces start scattered through the rest of the board, but more reinforcement arrive throughout the game, attracted by the cries of their colleagues.
£ Reiko's loyal retainer has hired a small force of 3 ninja warriors, who all start the game on the far left edge of the board, and hope to infiltrate the town and sow confusion. Reiko has to dodge her way across the board from the gatetower (shown on the right), and once she is safely across the river she will have escaped her would-be captors. 
£ The castle's forces start the game with only half of their troops on the board, and Jason placed the majority of them in the centre in the circles of lamplight, with one lone spearman in the house's garden, having a quiet smoke by the lantern.
£ Reiko gently slides through the front gate of the gatetower, thankful the hinges have recently been oiled. She spies an ornamental bridge over the nearby pond, which might provide cover in the shadows away from those bright lanterns, and dashes across.
£ Her approaching footsteps cause the koi carp in the pond to splash about, alerting the nearby guards and their sergeant, who quickly move to recapture her.
Even without her samurai armour and armed only with a stolen katana sword, Reiko is still more than a match for the guards, and they back off warily.
At this point one of Jason's reinforcements arrived on the other side of the statue, but the confused samurai warrior (shown at the bottom of the photo) failed to see through the darkness to the swordfight at the pond!
£ Things are looking bad for Reiko as another group of guards arrive from reinforcements, but they too fail to see her in the darkness. As Jason's first trio of guards move around behind to cut off her escape, his samurai hero charges in from the front.
A flurry of swords fails to take down the nimble warrior woman, and she takes the only way out she can see - a jump across the small bridge and into the pond!
As the guard forces scramble to chase after her, she pulls herself out of the murky waters, and with a quick glance over her shoulder starts to run.....
£ Reiko has escaped the first line of pursuers, but now has no choice but to head away from the pond across the middle of the board - and into the lamplight of the lanterns!
One of the samurai guards spots her and rushes to intercept, but finds a figure in black jump out from behind the stone bridge, throwing soot-darkened knives! The ninja mercenaries hired by Reiko's loyal retainer had finally moved up far enough to provide some support - although individually too weak to help cut down the enemy samurai, they boosted her resolve and she fought on....
£ Luck plays Jason's guard forces a bad blow, as more of his reinforcements arrive in just the right place, but are distracted by something in the darkness...... Pochi the shiba dog has been woken up by the noise, and is just too cute to ignore!
* Pochi wasn't actually a player in the game, but it seemed funny to blame the archers' mistake on him!
£ Realising the hired ninja would be the perfect distraction, Reiko slipped away from the fight and dodged down behind an old cart, but again the nearby lantern gave her away again! If only she's worn something other than a bright white kimono!!!
Jason's samurai hero had finally arrived to stop her himself, and jumped up on the cart to attack! This time he managed to cut a streak of bright red blood across her side, but couldn't bring her down.
£ Meanwhile, the other two ninja warriors has slowly made their way around (and over!) the farmhouse and walls, and were now able to earn their money with a steady stream of throwing knives and shuriken from the darkness.
As more castle guards arrived to cut off Reiko's escape across the big bridge, one of the ninja stepped from the shadows to block their path. Neither force could cut the other down, but the ninja had done his job...
£ With the bridge somewhat blocked by enemy forces and her hired ninja allies, fate smiled down on Reiko, as she suddenly picked up the "One with Nature" skill card, allowing her to move her full 6" across rough terrain instead of the 3" she'd been struggling with until now!
Shouting a curse back over her shoulder at the hated enemy, she deftly leapt from rock to rock across the fast river, and escaped to freedom into the town. Let's hope her loyal retainer had the foresight to tether a horse around the corner!
The ninja assassins slipped back into the shadows, content that their services would be required again soon.....
LOVE THIS GAME!!! If you haven't tried it - I can't recommend it enough! Simple to learn, fast to play, and oh so super-cinematic if you're fighting across a table full of 3d-printed terrain!
| << Wrecked knight 120mm base 2020-01-23 | Printing the samurai card boxes >> 2020-01-31 |
Blog
