"Getting started with Samurai Period" Topic

Hi all

I'm getting started with the Samurai period. I'm giving to use Northstar figures and Old Glory figures. For rules I'm going to start with Osprey's Ronin and En Garde.

Had anyone tried "Samurai Wars" by West Wind or "Taiko" by Flagship games?

Secondly – I'm looking for 28mm terrain for the Samurai period. Anyone care to share their favorites please?

Can't do better than Oshiro. Beautiful stuff…

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Oshiro, Sarissa, Plast-Craft, and TREGames for terrain here.

Rules I've tested out are Ronin, Pike and Shot, and Clan War, and they all have their own pros/cons. Ronin is pretty good for skirmishes.

For figures I use a mix of Perry, Warlord, Clan Wars, Old Glory and Kensei.

Wow. Some really great ideas here. I had no idea about Oshiro and Kensei. Oshiro make some really nice buildings! Kensei make nice minis – but I can only see using them as character figures.

+1 Oshiro and Ronin

Samurai are not the easiest thing to paint

John

Samurai are not the easiest thing to paint

I know – but I figured if I start with a small force (like Ronin) then I can just build from there. If not, then I can always send them out to be painted.

Old Glory are the easiest samurai to paint, with the bonus of being fun to paint. And they look great painted, as well.

And I say this as a Perry fanboy who usually doesn't care for Old Glory.

Old Glory are the easiest samurai to paint, with the bonus of being fun to paint. And they look great painted, as well.

Funny you should say that – Allot of the Old Glory line has that trait. You look at the naked metal and think "ah… they'll do". Once you paint them up, the look amazing.

Plus they are generally allot of fun to paint.

I don't do this era but I recall that there was a new skirmish battle system released a short while back called "Test of Honour" from Warlord Games.

I am a fan of the Test of Honour game, as my previous posts indicate. It's a great way to get into the Samurai period with committing to a huge army. You can see my various blogs here:

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As regards scenery, Sarissa Precison make a lovely range, available post free from my shop here:

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Finally, there will be a superb new range of Samurai figures coming from Warbanner under the 'Warring Clans' brand. the range should be released next month.
I hope that this helps.

You should take a look at the Samurai line from Steel Fist. They are amazing.

There was a fellow here at TMP selling Perry Samurai and Koreans for a buck a figure just a couple of months ago. And that is below the Old Glory price. I bought a ton!

I now have a 6 point Old Glory "Saga" army and another 4 points of Perry Samurai. Plus a big bunch of Koreans… to paint!

The Oshiro Co. will be releasing Korean buildings next month… I'm saving up for that day, beautiful stuff. Their Samurai range:
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Wow – thank you everyone for your input. I appreciate the advice and the links.

as far as starting goes my advice is don't lacquer armor is too hard to paint

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Old Glory, painted 20 years ago!

as far as starting goes my advice is don't lacquer armor is too hard to paint

For the earlier armor with lots of lacings (like what a lot of Daimyo would wear later), prime white. Paint the lacing with all sorts of obnoxiously bright colors. Wash with black.

But practice on the mooks before you get to your characters.

@Lucius – they all want me to sign into drop box :-(

Google photos –

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Wow. Really nice Lucius

I went with Perry miniatures mainly because they were a really cheap ebay lot purchase, that got me 3/5ths of the way the rest I bought from the War store there as they carry the Perry range here in the us.

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Like everyone else I wanted to do Samurai but thought of all that painting put me off a bit until the ebay lot came up, then I just had to.

This army was where I learnt all the different painting methods, you'll see some figures are a little heavy on the paint etc. , so you should be able to tell which figures I did at the beginning and which ones were towards the end.

It was daunting with all the different colours, lacings, banners and choices etc. but you just take the plunge and you generally find your way. I even did one in 15mm, all Peter Pig samurai, they were nice to paint.

For terrain I highly recommend Tre Games , I just got the fortified Japanese gatehouse and walls to go with my samurai, once I get them made will post some pictures. They do 28mm and 15's, fairly straight forward to make so far.

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Good luck with yours, let us know how you get on with it all.

Aynsley

Great job, aynsley683!

Wow Aynsley – you painted all those? I bow to you.

I can't add any more to what has already been discussed. they are all good suggestions. I'll just add Kingsford miniatures. These are large figures that match well with the Steel Fist sculpts.

kingsfordminiatures.org

Just be careful. Samurai warfare can be a pretty big rabbit hole to find yourself going down.

Hmmmmm Bowman. I heard there is a big, strapping Canadian that is an expert at painting Samurai…… is there truth to the rumor?

Seriously, you never know. We've put on big ECW games. Big WWII games. Big ACW games. Maybe the time has come for a big Samurai game??

Quite a few large battles, particularly post-1540. Sekigahara had some 200,000 troops all told.

Just to keep the number of models I need to paint down to a sane-ish number**, I am going with Gempei War. Also allows for rules with lots of characters doing heroic things.

**Meaning I'm more likely to actually get the project finished!