Test game: Osprey's "Ronin"

 I had some free time this afternoon so I decided to squeeze in another game before the weekend ended. I've painted a fair few samurai and other Feudal Japanese miniatures this year, and I've been itching to get them on the table for a proper samurai game. I had a pair of 100-point "Buntai" lists drawn up for Osprey's "Ronin," and decided today was the day.

 A pretty simple meeting engagement to get a feel for the mechanics of the game - a Takeda Clan samurai and his ashigaru bodyguards are waylaid at a river crossing by a gang of bandits. 

 The Takeda won priority, and one of the spear-armed ashigaru moved forward; the bandit archer snapped off a shot, stunning him. Both buntai moved forward, the bandit and ashigaru musketmen exchanging ineffectual shots. During the action phase, the bandit archer fired a second shot, putting a light wound on the ashigaru he'd previously stunned. 

 The bandit second-in-command charged forward, and the two ashigaru spearmen moved forward to meet him. The melee was on!

 Here's where I got a taste of the "combat pool" mechanic - each figure has a combat pool, and when melee begins draws any combination of Attack and Defense tokens up to that number. They then use these to attack, enhance their attacks or improve their defense. Normally, you'd be playing against someone and you'd keep what you were drawing for your pool a secret, resulting in there being a bit of a gamble to each combat - you have to wager on what your opponent has in mind and how aggressive or conservative you want to be. Some of that's missing trying to play it solo, unfortunately, but them's the breaks.

Unfortunately for the bandit second in command, he gambled poorly.

 At that point, both buntai were fully committed; the spearmen moved on to engage other low-ranking bandits, while the Takeda samurai faced off with the bandit leader.

 The more heavily armored samurai buntai made pretty short work of the bandits, with the ashigaru archer and musketmen finishing off their counterparts and the spearmen carving their way through the other bandits with ease, receiving only light wounds in return. 

 With a final sweep of his sword, the samurai cut the bandit leader down, and was free to continue on his way.

 

It was a pretty quick game, only about an hour, maybe an hour and twenty minutes, and that's with double-checking the rulebook every few minutes. I feel like I got the hang of the mechanics pretty quickly, especially melee combat and the system of enhancing rolls, which are potentially not the most intuitive since it's not the same across initiative, attack and defense.

I did realize right at the end that I'd forgotten that musketfire largely ignores armor, which may or may not have made that big of a difference in this game, but will be something to keep in mind next time. 

I should get some terrain rolling for the next time I want to play Ronin as well. I do have an MDF temple from Things From The Basement to work on one of these days... Possibly in September, since I really should spend Augut focused on getting things ready for Zombie RV at Wargames Among the Warplanes next month.

Last Two Zombicide: Invader Monsters Complete!

Having finished flocking the bases this morning, I can count these last two "Zombicide: Invader" monsters complete and ready to see action in games of Majestic 13 - indeed, one of them's destined to appear in the next game! 

First up, the "Widowmaker Abomination," a spidery thing with long, spiky legs. It's meant to sit on a clear acrylic post, but the gent who sold it to me couldn't find the base to go with it. 

 Not the end of the world! I wound up cutting off the back legs, drilling the legs and body, and using bent pieces of paperclip to reattach the legs at a different angle, allowing it to stand stably without the post and to tilt it back slightly, raising the head and front set of limbs into a more active position. 

 A little greenstuff to cover the gaps where the legs re-met the body and the fill the peg-hole in the belly and it was ready for priming.

 I kept the paint job simple - prime white, go over with GW "Nighthaunt Gloom" contrast paint, then a heavy drybrush of Reaper "Aircraft Gray." The spikes on the back and the two tentacles at the end of the body were given a little bit of a green glaze to break up the gray. 

 All in all, I'm really pleased with how this one turned out, with the repositioned legs working great - it stands just fine even without the base, all four feet on the ground, which to me is a sign of a job well done. 

The second figure didn't need any conversion; this is the "Shadow Abomination" and it reminds me very much of the "Aliens" action figures I had as a kid in the early 1990s, loosely based on the 1986 James Cameron film. Most of the Xenomorph figures in that line were molded in colored metallic plastic or black and given a heavy drybrush of colored metallics. I decided to follow that look here.

 Over black primer, I drybrushed the figure originally with Reaper "Gunmetal Blue," and when that wasn't quite what I was looking for, went over the entire figure with TurboDork "Let Them Eat Cake," a colorshift paint that varies from dark blue to plum based on the angle the light's hitting it at. I only gave it a single coat so the colorshift isn't too apparent, but it definitely yielded a deeper metallic blue color that I like a lot.

 The tubes connecting to the throat were given a base coat of Reaper "Dungeon Slime," followed by a wash of GW "Biel-Tan Green," highlighted back up with "Dungeon Slime" and finally glazed with GW "Waywatcher Green." The tongues are Vallejo "Warlock Purple" washed with GW "Druchii Violet."

 I think after this I only have 3-4 more monsters to paint for Majestic 13, which is a pretty good feeling! 

While I was at it, I finished a pair of Northstar Robots, originally released for the game Rogue Stars, to use as Destroyer Drones in future "Special" Missions against the aliens who are dropping these monsters off on Earth.

 These were dead simple - spray black, heavy silver drybrush, then going over the panels with contrast paint for a colored metallic look; on the left uses GW "Baal Red" and the right uses Army Painter "Magic Blue" speed paint. I think the blue worked out a lot better than the red but no complaints about either one of them. Picking out the eyes on Vallejo Scorpion Green completed the look. 

So that's four more for the completed side of the tracker, things are looking good...except a buddy of mine found a stash of old Wargames Factory plastic zombies to give to me. Once I receive those from him the red side will be jumping...

 

Miniatures Acquired: 184

Miniatures Painted: 168

Terrain Acquired: 2

Terrain Painted: 7

Scatter Acquired: 8

Scatter Painted: 10

 

Finally, some real progress!

 I've had a baker's dozen of figures on my table, slowly chipping away at them one step at a time, one hour of painting time a night (if that). No reason for me to rush anything, so I chose to savor the process and really take my time and try to push myself a little bit on some of these. And as of last night, they're finished! I got them varnished this morning and now here they are.

First things first, here are the three Samurai from North Star that came packaged with the ashigaru I finished earlier in the month. Together, these nine figures make a 200-point warband, or buntai, for the Osprey game "Ronin." These are again painted as Takeda clan, and I used a fancier version of the clan emblem decals for the banners they're wearing. The armor got a little more attention plus the lacing picked out in different colors.

 Next up, a set of eight figures packaged as a set from Grey For Now Games for their samurai game "Test of Honour" - these are the Rogues and Ruffians, who can be played together as a thematic gang of bandits, or hired off individually into warbands to provide color and some unique abilities.

 Of these, my favorite is "The Witch" in the first picture, wearing the black kimono with the white sash and kabuki facepaint. She gains differing abilities in game depending whether she's wearing her mask or not, which is pretty cool. The kanji on her kimono reads "DEATH" if I drew it correctly. I decided, as a witch with an enchanted mask, she could afford to be a little extra flamboyant in her personal style. 

I also tried my hand at OSL on the lantern bearer in the last picture. I haven't done it in years, and with varying degrees of success at the best of times. I think this turned out solid, if not perfect. 

Next up, the "Ronin, Shojo" from Bad Squiddo Games. According to the description on their site, Shojo randomly arrives at inns, challenges everyone inside to a drinking contest, and by the time anybody wakes up the next morning, she's gone as if she'd never been in the first place.

 I think she's one of my favorites of this bunch - everything just worked right on her in terms of colors and placement. She's wearing more neutrals and desaturated colors compared to the Takeda samurai above, befitting her lower social standing, the the face half-hidden by the hat is a very neat "woman of mystery" effect. 

And lastly, my big favorite of this bunch. This is an "Ogre Mage" from Reaper Miniatures, but very clearly based on a Japanese Oni demon in appearance. I've had my eye on this figure for a very long time, and finally the time was right to paint him. I really tried to push myself to make him the best figure I've ever painted; I chickened out a little bit at the thought of painting a pattern onto his pants, but overall I'm really pleased with how he turned out, and was well worth 20+ hours at the painting desk to bring out every detail of the sculpt.

 To give an idea of size, he's on a 60mm x 40mm oval base - his pose made him overhang a 50mm round base by just a little too much for my liking! I'm really pleased with the depth of color I got on the shell of the kappa clinging to his basket. These little water goblins have a depression on their head filled with water; if this water is spilled, they're paralyzed until it's refilled. They're nasty little critters with a taste for human intestines but unfailingly polite - if you bow to one, it will automatically bow back, spilling its water. 

So that's 13 figures added to the "Painted" side of the tracker, 14 if we say the Oni is large enough to qualify as two. In fact, let's do that.

 

Miniatures Acquired: 135

Miniatures Painted: 112

Terrain Acquired: 4

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

 

Ashigaru - Takeda Clan

 I've continued to make progress, slowly but steadily, on some Feudal Japan figures, rotating back and forth between different groups of figures as needed while paint or washes dry. And I'm very please to report that I've finished the first batch.

 These are the ashigaru (peasant light infantry) from North Star's "Bushi Buntai" box set, one of several that were released in support of Osprey's "Ronin" skirmish ruleset. The three samurai that were also in the box may be the next figures I finish, sometime in the next few days. The sashimono back banners were completed with decals from Battle Flag, marking these men as serving the Takeda Clan. Both Perry Miniatures and Grey For Now Games offer miniatures of Takeda Shingen, lord of the clan during the height of the Sengoku Period, and I think eventually I'll have a small Takeda army. 

 Beneath the red armor, they're a little motley - shirts are either a dark blue-gray (basecoat Reaper "Midnight Blue," washed with AP Soft Tone, then highlighted with Reaper "Twilight Blue") or a desaturated green (basecoat Reaper "Jungle Moss," washed with AP Soft Tone, highlighted with "Highland Moss"), while pants are base-coated with either Reaper "Uniform Brown," "Shield Brown" or "Cloudy Gray," washed with AP Soft Tone, then highlighted back with the base color. 

I'm still really pleased with the winter bases. I'm looking forward to incorporating that look into some terrain pieces. 

Yesterday morning, my wife handed me her credit card and told me to buy myself some terrain to go with my samurai as a birthday present, and I ordered a few pieces from Things From The Basement that will be combined into a 12" by 12" board with some trees and scatter that can be placed on a larger tabletop.  

So let's update that tracker:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 135

Miniatures Painted: 96

Terrain Acquired: 4

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

 

Modern Africans Completed and New Acquisitions

 Time to upload the next bunch from the Painting Challenge here. These are some figures from The Assault Group, from their "Modern Africa" range; a collection of militia with light arms (supported by one guy with an RPG) and some "Wild Geese" style mercenaries with Ak-47s. These join General Mutende's warlord army, visible here.

This bunch, mostly carrying pistols and SMGs, are a militia unit in Wars of Insurgency, relying on bodies more than accurate shooting to accomplish General Mutende's goals. I might go back in and do some freehand on the gray T-shirt the man in the middle is wearing. 

Next up are the mercenaries; I'm seeing these guys as General Mutende's personal bodyguards.

And a shot of General Mutende and a LMG-armed soldier with them:

I'll need to get the table cleared off this weekend so I can do a group shot of the entire force. 30 figures overall. Not too shabby.

I also had a few new goodies come in this week. First up, North Star announced that they likely wouldn't be reprinting their Colonial Africa ruleset "Death in the Dark Continent" when the current stock sells out, and having flashbacks to the FOMO I felt when "Congo" suddenly went out of print, I ordered a copy. Colonials are an area near and dear to my heart though I haven't painted any in a very long time, and I'd like to have a well-regarded ruleset handy if I ever get an opportunity to paint some up again.

And secondly...I'd been on the lookout for a 28mm scale Daimler Ferret Scout Car for a bit to accompany my UN Peacekeepers. I wasn't seeing any STLs that I liked, and Patrick Miniatures' only offered theirs in an already-printed version that shipped from Germany. Empress Miniatures offers one in resin and metal, but I'd be ordering from Australia and wasn't sure I could stomach the cost of shipping and such. I was going back and forth, waffling, checking eBay, checking and rechecking Empress Miniatures' US distributor...and then found out that Sloppy Jalopy (who I believe are now out of business as their website is down) produced a Daimler Ferret Scout Car in 1/56th scale. And Sally 4th in the UK had exactly one in stock!

Naturally, I figured out after I'd received it that with the current currency conversion between Australian dollary-doos and US dollars, even with shipping and tariffs and what not buying the Empress Miniatures' Ferret would have been close to $15 cheaper. Oops. Always do your due diligence! At least now I'm aware if I want to add some of Empress' Jazz Age Imperialism and Russo-Japanese War figures to my Back of Beyond collection. 

So let's update that tracker:

Miniatures Acquired: 48

Miniatures Painted: 60

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 1

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 0

Return to Dracula's America

 It's been a long time since my posse, "The Speakers for the Land," got on the table - injuring my knee and bad weather, coupled with the various holidays, kept me from taking part in Dracula's America for a few months. Fortunately, the campaign hasn't progressed much in my absence, so I wasn't hindered beyond needing a few extra reminders of some of the rules.

I played a quick game against Phil, a member of the campaign I hadn't faced off against before, pitting my Skinwalker Tribes posse against his Twilight Order posse - members of a secret society of monster hunters, armed with silver bullets, medieval armor and the possibility of summoning a sixgun-toting angel to the battlefield. 

We rolled "Escalation" for our mission - each of us would start with half our posse, rounding down, deploying on the table and in subsequent rounds could use our activations to bring the remainder on to the battlefield. For side agendas, I rolled that one of my posse members would be carrying an important letter and would receipt 1 bonus victory point if I still held it at the end of the game, while Phil had a VIP/hostage with his posse that he needed to maintain possession of to score 2 bonus victory points. 

With half-sized posses, the first few turns went quickly, with both of us leaving our corner deployment zones and starting to fan out towards the center of the table. Beyond the agendas, our only goal was to either kill or force a withdrawal of the opposing posse. 

Phil drew first blood, injuring Growing Thunder, a Crow tribe woman armed with a rifle and loosely considered second in command of my posse; one of my new recruits, Zeke Freeman, managed to immediately shoot the varmint what done it in the back.

Midgame, we both played the same card when testing for turn order, triggering an event - the occupants of a randomly determined building would shoot at everyone within 6". And wouldn't you know it, the dice came up that the green building - a dentist's office - that almost my entire posse was clustered around was the one that started shooting!

Six out of eight figures I had on the table were within 6". It was brutal. 

My two lycanthropes transformed, the chief into a bear and the other into a wolf. The bear unfortunately got gunned down almost immediately (he's a big and tempting target), but the wolf chewed through two members of Phil's posse.

The game ended with me still in possession of my letter and Phil's hostage secure (she, and the figure guarding her, never left Phil's deployment zone), so it came down to who scored the most victory points off of casualties. And when all was said and done, Phil beat me by a single victory point. 

Going into the post-game advancement, Growing Thunder sadly succumbed to her wounds and died; Chief Kicking Bird developed a second lasting injury (he'd previously lost an eye, and now has a lingering ache) but everyone else fared pretty well. Zeke's older brother Josiah gained the skill "Lead-Belly," which means his abilities don't deteriorate when he's Shaken, and White Hawk, one of my pistoleers, advanced from Novice to Veteran status, improving his combat abilities. 

All in all, a good game, and Chris gifted me a couple of Native American figures that had been in his leadpile.

Miniatures Acquired: 4

Miniatures Painted: 6

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 0

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 0

New Recruits for Dracula's America

 So after my last game of Dracula's America, I was down a man and had a significant chunk of cash on hand, which meant it was time to do some recruiting! I figured out what I wanted to spend my dollars on in terms of recruits and gear for them and got to work.

Left to right, we have Strikes Like a Snake (a Novice), Runs Ahead (A Hired Gun - he's a little bit better and has some special abilities but I have to pay an upkeep fee to keep him in my posse), and Zeke and Josiah Freeman, a pair of Buffalo Soldiers who have "gone native" and signed on with my posse out of a shared hatred for the resurgent Confederacy in the game's alternate-history 1875. 

Strikes and Runs Ahead are from North Star, and came included with my initial Posse purchase; the Freeman Brothers are from Artizan Designs.

I'm scheduled to play a game tomorrow, but I may need to take a rain check - the weather's supposed to be pretty miserable with another winter storm rolling in off the Lakes, and I re-wrenched my knee yesterday, just as it was feeling better. I'm not a fan of this at all. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 246

Figures Painted in 2025: 174

Beginning a Dracula's America campaign

 Tonight, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting up with a couple of local-ish guys to start a fresh campaign of Dracula's America - a supernatural western skirmish from Osprey, which really deserves the same level of releases and support as Frost/Stargrave, if you ask me! 

Premise of the game is that it's 1875, and Count Dracula used the chaos of the American Civil War to assassinate Lincoln and his entire cabinet, ensorcelling Congress into declaring him president for life. Various supernatural evils have crept in in Dracula's wake, and other forces have arisen to combat the powers of darkness. The rules themselves are perfectly servicable for a solid, non-supernatural western game as well. 

The table we played on was absolutely lavish - the game technically calls for a 3' x 3', but we played on a 4' x 4', densely packed with the the town of Shady Pines, Nebraska. I brought my posse, a group of Native Americans with a pair of lycanthropes in their midst (one turning into a bear, and the other a wolf), while Chris, my first opponent, had a warband of voodoo zombies. Our mission was to collect as many loot tokens (out of four available) as possible within the 8-turn limit of the game, with an amusingly interlinked pair of side missions - Chris got extra victory points if my posse leader was killed, and I got extra victory points if his posse leader was alive at the end of the game.

Elva Growing-Thunder darts across the street, past a drunken mountain man.

We also had civilians on the board that could get in the way, become human shields, etc. Late in the game, a complication arose - the locals were sick of us shooting it out, and began unloading their own guns at everyone around! 

Ultimately, the game concluded in a draw, though my one shapeshifter did manage to grab a loot token, transform into a wolf, and hightail it away from where all the shooting was taking place.

loot tokens portrayed by fortune cookie-shaped beads!

The second game was between myself and Set, who was also the one hosting the game. We rolled up a mission that saw our respective posse bosses squaring off in the center of town with a pair of underlings close by, and the remainder of our warbands deploying in a corner of the table. He was playing the Dark Confederacy, a group of Confederates who had stolen the secrets of reanimating the dead for their own profit. 

My boss immediately transformed into a bear, but didn't have the available movement to charge the mint-julep-slurping necromancer standing across the street. The necromancer summoned a minor eldritch entity (portrayed by a Confederate zombie holding a flag) between himself and the bear.

Unimpressed, the bear mauled the unnatural thing and sent it back to whatever hell it had been whistled up from. 

Unfortunately, the second game was all downhill from there for me, with the bear being shot down and the rest of my posse being whittled away one after another - though thankfully, most of them bled out the turn after being shot, which denied Set the victory points for either killing them outright or finishing them off. The win went to my opponent, but it was fairly close, with him ending the game with 4 VP to my 3. 

With these being campaign games, there's rolls to make after each game to determine who survived, if there are long-term injuries, and how much money your posse collects between games. Chief Kicking Bird, my posse leader, lost an eye to the Dark Confederacy, and unfortunately one of his followers, Charlie Iron-Knife (the blue-shirted figure in the staredown picture above), died of his injuries and a replacement will need to be recruited. 

All in all, I had a great time, and I'm really glad I connected with these guys and was able to meet up with them for a few games. I'm looking forward to continuing this campaign!

Getting Out of the Funk

 Two weeks without a post - I think that's the longest I've gone all year! Truth be told, I hit a bad slump in the aftermath of Wargames Among the Warplanes and I just had so much trouble even just sitting down at my hobby bench. Or I'd get there, get set up, and realize I'd been staring blankly at my miniatures for 15 minutes while paint dried on my palette. I'm not 100% sure what caused it, but I just didn't get the buoyed enjoyment/urge to hobby after this WATW that I'm used to having after a convention or show. 

I've spent a lot of that time thinking about what I'm missing, what might be bringing me down, and trying to figure out a way forward without going "Why sure, I'll buy a big bunch of miniatures for another new time period - that's sure to inspire me!"

Ultimately I had to remind myself that I'm painting for *me* - not for attention on social media, not for the purpose of putting on games for others (which has been a bit of a crapshoot this year, to be honest), but for my relaxation and peace of mind first and foremost. 

After that it was putting my butt on the stool and saying, "I'm going to sit and paint. Even if I only do one thing, that's something I wouldn't have gotten done otherwise. I'm just going to paint the hair on my Dracula's America figures and see how I feel once I've done that."

And I've got some stuff done.

First up, a group of five "African Militia" from The Assault Group - I had painted these in the immediate aftermath of Wargames Among the Warplanes, with a vague idea towards playing some Zona Alfa with the setting shifted from Eastern Europe to Central Africa. I don't remember exactly why I bought like five packs of TAG Modern Africa figures earlier this year, but I've got 'em and these were a fast, easy paint up - basically one session of painting plus a night to flock the bases.

Secondly, I finished* my initial six figures for Dracula's America - the beginnings of a campaign posse! 

OK, so not finished-finished, I need to do another coat of brown on the rim of the bases and flock them, but the painting figures part is finished! Most of these are from Northstar's official Dracula's America line, but I did include a Crow Warrior Woman from Clearco Miniatures, complete with elk-tooth dress, to mix things up a little. I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. 

What else, what else...

A buddy of mine loaned me a stack of rulebook from Rattrap Productions, covering their ".45 Adventures" pulp crimefighting skirmish and some of its supplements and spin-offs. The rulebooks are a little rough and could use another editorial pass or two (and this is apparently the first edition, not the current version) but I'm interested in giving them a try. 

The downside is they're making me go, "Oh, I should buy some 1920s Gangsters and rewatch 'The Untouchables!'"

I'll be doing a solo playtest this week, and on Saturday I have another friend coming into town to give it a go - he'll be playing the Green Hornet and Kato, I'll be some modern-ish gangsters using the figures I painted earlier this year for Fistful of Lead. 

So that's everything going on here. Time to update the tracker... Oh hey! I'm at 150 figures painted this year! Cool! 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 167

Figures Painted in 2025: 150

Go West, Young Monster

 I got an invite to join a group of gamers locally who are gearing up to start a fresh campaign of Osprey's Dracula's America - a western skirmish that can be played perfectly straight as a historical western game, or can be played as gothic horror in an 1870s America where Count Dracula has become President. Yes, you read that right. 

The game had been kind of vaguely on my radar, I knew I had friends (not local) who were fans, but I hadn't been interested in picking up a new period and a new ruleset. 

So naturally, having been invited to join a group who were playing it and loved it, I picked up a new period and a new ruleset, along with one of Northstar's prepackaged warbands. Or, I should say, my wife Gina picked it up for me - the two Wargames Among the Warplanes days excluded, 2025 hasn't been a great year for gaming, especially (non-solo) wargaming, for me. She was so excited that I'd been invited to join this group that she handed me her credit card and told me to buy whatever I needed. 

It arrived today:

And after dinner I set to work getting everyone cleaned up, flash trimmed and mold lines filed before gluing them to bases.

I also recalled I had another Native American figure in one of my project boxes - a Crow Warrior Woman from Clearco Miniatures, a very small (one-man) operation out of Spain that offers an eclectic mix of Native Americans, Neanderthals and modern zombie hunters. I'd received the figure as a complimentary inclusion in an order I'd placed with Mana Press last year and, not knowing what to do with it at the time, I dug her out and assembled her (her right hand, holding a rifle, is a separate piece), adding her to the collection; she might be subbed in for one of these figures, or be available as a future member of the posse. 

Tomorrow I'll get these 10 figures primed and then I can start painting. The current plan is to begin playing some time in October and I will not be caught with half-painted figures, I can tell you that! 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 167

Figures Painted in 2025: 139