3d-printable terrain for all your samurai wargaming needs
We have some new designs to look at today, for an upcoming fishing village set for the samurai collection.
▲ This new design is a fishing village set of terrain from old Japan. This set contains various small terrain pieces and accessories that you would typically find in a small coastal village, and will work great for territory feuds and bandit attacks.
▲ The only permanent terrain building is a large wood and stone platform for a covered taiko drum structure (used to welcome visiting dignitaries), while the rest of the structures are more temporary - designed to be replaced and rebuilt whenever required. These include thatched and wood-roofed sheds, wooden jetties and connecting bamboo bridges and ramps, and a tall warning bell tower. The bell on the tower can be replaced with a lantern to act as a guide for incoming boats.
▲ Two sizes of boats are included, along with some natural rock formations themed to the setting, and many, many small scatter items to bring the scene to life - drying racks, fishing traps, boxes, tubs, buckets, and piles of ropes, nets and other detritus.
Welcome to another Test of Honour battle report, our favourite skirmish-level samurai miniature game!
Today we are playing a night scenario, with one samurai imprisoned in the castle managing to slip his bonds and make a daring bid for freedom. We begin the battle as darkness is falling over the town square outside the castle...
▲ The 'Attackers' in this scenario are a much smaller force (15pts) than the castle defenders (24pts), and Toshiro the samurai hero (on the right) begins the game on the walls of the castle. His supporters in this bid for freedom are his lieutenant, the deadly geisha Tomoko, and 3 individual ninja models. Their objective will be to sneak through the town without being discovered, to be ready to attack when Toshiro is spotted by the defending guards.
▲ The 'Defenders' include one samurai hero and 2 lieutenants, 2 units of spear-armed guards, a sergeant to order them about, and one musketman. I also used the watchman model from the Unlikely Allies boxed set to support them, because his lantern should help visibility in this night game.
▲ The defending force can place 4 lanterns on the board before the game starts (highlighted with those pools of light), which help the guards spot the escaping prisoner.
However, since the guards are not expecting an escape attempt, they begin the force unaware, and will move around randomly until they see or hear something suspicious - at which point they can be controlled as normal. Some of the defenders also begin the game off the board, and will arrive as reinforcements as they finish their patrols.
In the board photo above the defenders (circled in white) began the game roughly in the middle of the board near the castle, in an attempt to mitigate the chances of them wandering off in completely the wrong direction and leaving great big holes in the net.
Toshiro the prisoner (circled in red at the top) begins on the castle walls, and has to escape off the bottom table edge to win. Tomoko the geisha and her ninja assassins (also circle in red) begin at the bottom edge, in darkness.
▲ Tomoko the geisha started the game by slowly walking up the main street, trusting to the encroaching darkness and her civilian costume to cover her approach.
▲ The 3 ninja models stealthily crept along the sides of the buildings beside her, while one of them quietly climbed up on to the roof of the tea shop.
In the distance, she could see her lord Toshiro up on the castle walls, ready to begin his escape.
▲ Alas, the samurai leader of the defenders (model on the left) took that exact moment to stroll out of the main gatehouse on to the castle walls. At this point he was still unaware of the escaped prisoner crouching behind the flag stand just a few steps away, but it was surely just a matter of moments before he was noticed!
▲ Pulling another samurai token from the cup before Toshiro had a chance to even move, the defender's samurai hero took a Test of Wits to notice the escaped prisoner nearby, and immediately charged in to attack. This surely meant a great early lead for the defenders?
Unfortunately luck was not with him as he charged in, and he tripped and stumbled in the darkness, twisting an ankle and giving himself the game's first blood-drop!!
▲ Toshiro, thanking his lucky stars, took the big risk of quickly dropping down from the castle walls into the marketplace. As he lightly landed on his feet, he glanced up to see the enemy leader above him scanning for him in the darkness.
This left a problem for the enemy samurai trying to follow the prisoner, as he only had one more action token, and even if he safely jumped down the walls he would be at the mercy of an angry Toshiro and might easily be cut down!
▲ The other defenders had slowly started to wander off in random directions, and this wise old samurai (model on the left) decided to stroll off past the shops. He was still completely unaware of the escape attempt, so he failed to spot the ninja warrior on the rooftop above him.
Tomoko the geisha also decided to casually shuffle down the alleyway between the shops, ready to pounce on the unsuspecting old man when the time was right.
▲ Meanwhile, Toshiro had dashed away from the castle walls towards the back of the market stalls. As the oden stall vendor chatted with her customers, Toshiro ducked down into a corner.
The defenders got their second stroke of luck in the game so far, as a group of castle guards randomly marched over towards Toshiro's hiding place, perhaps drawn by the mouthwatering smells of food coming from the stall's hotpot.
One guard at least was concentrating on his job properly, as he spotted Toshiro and shouted the alarm to his mates! Pushing aside the boxes and tubs, they charged in straight away, but failed to land an attack on the escaped prisoner.
▲ As the guards stumbled back from the fight, Toshiro quickly dodged away, but hesitated before running into the pool of light from the nearby lantern. The defenders would soon all be alerted! Was this the time to just run for it?
▲ Toshiro's indecision cost him dearly, as a new enemy reinforcement appeared on the board, just a few steps in front of him. Thankfully, the lone musketman failed to spot him in the darkness, but surely he was only moments from discovery....
▲ It was time to spring the trap!
The ninja on the tea shop roof threw a knife down at the unarmoured samurai below him, and managed to get a blood-drop on him. The old man instantly woke up from his daydreams, and scanned the area for the hidden assassin!
▲ The samurai hero who had earlier attacked Toshiro up on the castle walls had, by this time, rushed out of the main castle gates in an attempt to run through his guard units and alert them to the escape.
However, in the darkness all 4 models (sergeant, samurai lieutenant, watchman AND group of spearmen) all failed their tests to work out what was going on, and instead randomly rushed off in different directions!! Perhaps the lieutenant thought his captain was alerting him to an escape attempt going on INSIDE the walls, which might explain why he immediately rushed back INTO the castle gatehouse?!
Idiot.
▲ The poor training of the guards was beginning to cause real problems for the defending player, as half of his force was now running away into random corners of the board, and as such they were even less likely to hear or see the enemy and join in the game properly!
▲ Tomoko the geisha rushed around the corner, charging into the wise old samurai. Luck was with her, as the enemy lieutenant was swiftly cut down by her flashing blade.
The musketman nearby was alerted by the fracas across the street, and quickly spun around to fire off a shot at the escapee as he rushed past, but Toshiro was nimble enough to dodge out of the way!
▲ As the musketman frantically reloaded his gun, his samurai captain charged down the street after the escaping prisoner, furious for revenge. After a quick exchange of blows, both warriors drew apart. Had the delay been enough for more guards to arrive in support?
▲ No, it seemed not! Tomoko the geisha had decided to buy her lord more time, by running into the marketplace and engaging the spearmen in a desperate fight. She was injured in return by their countercharge, but neither side backed off. It looked like the distraction might be enough....
▲ Oh look, the idiots among the defending force spent another entire turn bumbling around in the darkness, wandering even further away from the fighting!! The spearmen and the watchman, in particular, thought perhaps something was going on in the sumo ring, and decided to search it carefully.
I don't think they'll be getting promoted any time soon, do you?!
▲ While the ninja above them rained down more throwing knives, the samurai captain tried one last attempt to hold the escaping Toshiro in place, but was unable to cut him down.
As the prisoner dashed away off the board to safety, the samurai captain screamed his anger into the darkness after him. Then, spinning around back towards the castle, he swore that his idiot guardsmen were due for some serious punishment for their incompetence tonight!
Victory to Toshiro for escaping the castle, and Tomoko and her ninja for a well-timed rescue.
We have a new UK retail partner to introduce to you today - PLASTIFACTORI, supporting their local Bushido gaming scene in the North East.
They're printing our samurai collection of terrain, so if you can't see the models you want there just drop them a line - they'd be happy to add those to the store, too! Take a look and see what they have for you!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Plastifactori
Need to protect your feudal Japanese realm from rival forces? Why not invest in a Samurai Lighthouse to warn local troops of would-be attackers? Or just.... guide ships safely past your shores... I guess?
▲ This is a model of the small lighthouse found in the grounds of Kokura Castle, Fukuoka prefecture. It's a slightly more recent addition to the traditional castle, dating to the beginning of the Meiji period (1868~), but matches the rest of our castle range perfectly.
It's a quick and easy print, and works well on a castle-themed or coastal-themed board, as well as a game objective that needs to be captured or held.
▲ The lighthouse measures 210mm tall, and 120mm wide, and can be fitted with CR2032 (3V) batteries and LED lightbulbs, commonly found in cheap LED tealights.
For the top section, you can insert thin white paper to diffuse the light bulb, or the solid version file can also be printed in vase mode with thin walls on white filament.
▲ Here's the Kokura Castle lighthouse this model is based on. Pretty cool little building, eh?
▲ The Samurai Lighthouse is available for download from today!
The new Lighthouse is a quick and easy print to add to the samurai collection, and works well on a castle-themed or coastal-themed board, as well as a game objective that needs to be captured or held.
▲ This is a pretty straightforward print, starting with the stone base, the curved wood lower section, and the wood-beamed middle section. The model can also be used without the wide stone base, for a smaller footprint on your table.
▲ The lower roof section prints in two halves, and does require print supports for the large gap in the centre. The clever battery and LED bulb section simply slots into the roof, although you should remove those 4 fat print supports (shown in red in the photo above) before the next step.
▲ This is the underside of that lower roof section (please excuse the mess my printer made of those beams - I made a mistake in the retraction settings!). You can see that it has slots for four 3V CR2032 coin batteries. If you grab some LED bulbs from cheap tealights (or Amazon/AliExpress) these should fit into the paired holes on the top side. The two metal prongs for each bulbs make direct contact with the + and - sides of each battery, but note that the longer prong is usually the positive + side, and they won't work if the battery is reversed.
▲ You have some assembly options for the light section. Of course we would recommend printing the version designed for LEDs, which is the frame box (shown on the right of the photo above), which slots neatly into the main section.
There is also a solid box included in the files, which is intended to be printed in white filament using "VASE MODE" in your slicer. Currently, this is a simple checkbox in Cura (other slicer software may vary) in the Special Modes menu, labelled Spiralize Outer Contour. When you check that box, you'll see that the software changes the solid 6-sided box to a square 'vase' with no top. It will also prints at only 1 wall thickness (i.e. 0.4mm thick), which is ideal for letting LEDs shine through! So in the photo above, that white box has been printed in vase mode, and slides inside the frame box.
Alternatively, you could just fit some semi-transparent paper inside the frame. Baking sheet works well for that!
▲ If that seems too much hassle, then you can ignore all of the LEDs and batteries, and simply print the solid version of the light section, as shown in the photo above.
▲ Here's the finished lighthouse building, with LEDs shining bright. This model will be hitting the paint desk this week, and should be ready for release very shortly. Watch this space!
Samurai Lighthouse 
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2 Comments :
Brandon Helms
2024-09-30 (Mon) 3:30AM
I’m looking forward to this one!
2024-09-30 (Mon) 6:40AM
Thanks, Brandon, it should be a great little atmospheric set!
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