3d-printable terrain for all your samurai wargaming needs
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We haven't been able to do our regular monthly game days here in Japan recently, so we've been playing a few games via Skype! As long as both players have the dice and tokens with them, it works pretty well. The 3'x3' play area for Test of Honour games is just about right for playing via webcam, so here's a battle report of scenario #3 : "The Spy"!
"A spy has been uncovered in your lord's household, and they have fled carrying who knows what information that your enemies would benefit from knowing. Your master has tasked you with finding the traitor and returning them, unharmed, for questioning and punishment."
£ Here's the gameboard for this scenario.... and sorry for forgetting to take a picture BEFORE the game, so I've tried to disguise the flow of the game by turning this pic black and white! Don't look too close!
Samurai Lord Liam-sama chose to place his troops on the left of the board, having rushed through the nearby shrine and torii gate in their pursuit of the treacherous spy. His troops are all dressed in red, from the Mori-clan.
I chose to group my rescue force on the central road, on the right edge of the board. My troops were all in white, except one mounted samurai dressed in blue.
The mysterious spy, choosing to use cunning tricks to distract the pursuing force, has taken shelter in this small village. The exact identity of the spy is unknown to the small force tasked with the capture, and in fact is also unknown to the majority of the rescue force.
There are 3 suspicious characters lurking in the village, and they are located in the red circles in the photograph above, at the entrances to 3 buildings; a geisha at the teahouse, a wealthy landowner's daughter at the large house, and a humble priest at the door to the tall tiled house.
£ The rescue mission started with the blue-armoured horseman riding in at full gallop towards the teahouse, and skidding to a stop on the deep gravel path. Before he could dismount to check the identity of the geisha at the doorway, an enemy samurai leapt the bamboo fence and charged straight at him!
As his horse reared up to kick out at the sudden attack, the red samurai slipped on a moss-covered stone and fell flat on his face! The mounted samurai quickly tried to capitalize on this fatal error by slamming down his horse's hooves on the foolish attacker's head, but he nimbly rolled away and leapt back to his feet!
£ Ashigaru spearmen tried desperately to catch up and lend their aid to the mounted samurai in his counter attack, but for now the combat was a stalemate, with neither fighter able to interrogate the geisha.
*Quick scenario rule explanation is needed here: you can only identify the spy if there are no enemies also within 3", and so in this instance neither model was able to interrogate her.
£ The early gambit by the mounted samurai has failed to pay off , but there were still two other potential locations for the spy - the priest or the girl in the pink kimono (on the right of the photo).
The white samurai force had marched forward to the doorway of the large thatched house, where the girl was standing, but had a little argument about the best way to identify her as the spy! They would have to wait another turn before trying again!
Meanwhile Liam's red samurai hero chose to sprint forward around the corner of the closest building. Spotting the kneeling priest in the doorway, he hesitated for a moment in indecision, but instead chose to run onwards to the girl in pink - there was no way he would let his enemies find the spy before him!
£ Leaving the priest far behind him, the red samurai ran forwards with a scream, hoping to distract the enemy guards from their prize!
£ As he closed in for the charge, a slim figure in a golden kimono stepped out from behind the guards and calmly paced forwards with a smirk on his lips.
The warcry of the charging red samurai faltered as he recognised the leader of the rescue force! With the smallest of sidesteps, the katana of the golden samurai blurred through the air, and sliced clean through the neck of the charging samurai!
* In our first proper combat of the game, the two heroes squared off and we prepared for an epic clash. To our surprise, the golden samurai managed to roll 9 (!) swords on his attack dice, and since the red samurai had chosen to use all his activation tokens on rushing forwards, had left himself wide open. He died instantly!!
£ With a deft flick, the golden samurai returned his katana to its scabbard, content to stand back and wait for his troops to advance in support.
Seeing her impetuous uncle cut down in the distance, his niece (who funnily enough was using the "Wise Samurai" profile card) decided to perhaps stop and question the kneeling priest her uncle had earlier ignored.
Swinging her naginata down to rest at his neck, she barked an order at the priest, who quickly decided that the time for cunning was at an end. The sneaky spy had been identified!!
Now it only remained to drag the priestly spy back to the starting table edge nearby, and the mission would be a success......
£ Seeing that the priest had been uncovered as the spy, the samurai horseman abandoned the geisha at the teahouse and urged his horse across the low fence in pursuit of the captured priest.
As he dug his heels in and galloped to the charge, he found a solid wall of spears blocking his way! Turning to his left, he tried again to dash through a gap in the defensive wall but again he was foiled as an enemy samurai stepped forward to block his way.
Recognising the same red samurai who had so rudely interrupted him at the teahouse at the start of the game, he saw some chance to teach this young pup a lesson.
Entertainingly, the samurai horseman didn't get the chance to cut down the red samurai as he'd planned, as the inept fool once again fell over on his charge and disappeared beneath the hooves of his horse!
£ With a solid wall of red troops blocking any attempts to catch up with with retreating woman samurai and her prisoner, she finally dragged him off the board edge, and the game was hers!
£ Victory to Liam and his red samurai force! Well, not really his red samurai, as both of those guys performed terribly in combat!! But the wise niece was a game-winner.
But there will be a reckoning soon, as the golden samurai carefully plots his revenge.
He was ace fun, by the way. Only one chance for combat (because I kept pulling the wrong tokens), but thanks to his dishonourable actions he cut the enemy hero's head off in one go!
It's so much fun to be evil. Mwa-ha-ha.......
| << Introducing WAY OF THE RONIN MINIS, our new US print partner... 2020-05-29 | Construction begins on the samurai castle! >> 2020-06-02 |
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