Tokugawa and the Beginings of a Tradional Japanese Village

I have spent much time in debate over how to prepare my samurai army for an epic battle. Originally, I planned to build my army based on Uesugi Kenshin in the fourth battle of Kawanakajima where he fought against Takeda Shingen. Kawanakajima was a very bloody battle, filled with masterful maneuvering, brilliant generals going head to head and ending with both sides taking over 60% casualties. Pretty epic I'd say. But then I stumbled across a biography on Tokugawa Ieyasu. It just happened to be one of the six books based on Japanese history that I found in Barns and Noble, and only one of the two based on samurai. Needless
to say, they had a very limited selection. I took a fancy to this Tokugawa character. Raised in captivity of an enemy waring state, he lives a life of day to day survival and makes his way to the top of Japanese society. Yep, I was hooked. This is the man I want to command my army in to battle! And what better a campaign to do then the Battle of Osaka Castle. I took plenty of pictures of the castle while I was there in Osaka and can't wait to begin constructing Osaka-jo (jo = castle). I currently own a Osaka-jo in 1/300 scale. A bit small for 15mm battles, and yet this model is still pretty large. Glad I'm not doing 25mm. \\(^v^)//

Before I chose the Osaka campaign and Tokugawa as my general, I had started on a small Japanese village. To be more specific, I began construction of a gassho-zukuri village. I started with a paper model and googled gassho to see what I could find for pictures. I had recently seen a show called Being Japan that showed the gassho-zukuri construction process and functions. I found it fascinating and thought it would work great for the Uesugi Kenshin battles. Here are a few pictures of the hoses and the one's that I began construction on.

I have a template made out so I can easily make more. I'm not sure if the scale is correct, it was supposed to be a two story house when I started (with the 3rd window being for the attic), but I'm not so sure now. It's constructed out of cereal box cardboard and the roof has yet to be done (the roof being the most important part and key element of the gassho-zukuri house). Still trying to figure out if I want to use putty to make the thatched roof or find some straw like material and glue it on or perhaps a mix of the two. At the moment I can't find any straw type material at my local Hobie shop. Next stop, Michale's. The windows and doors are just cuts from the cereal box and yes, I know, the door opens on the wrong side (as my wife so enjoys to point out to me). I based the door off of the Japanese sliding door and I'm thinking of placing a noren (a cloth that hangs down in front of a door way) to help hide my "glaring" error or perhaps just to appease my wife.

Obama the Samurai

Although these figures have been out for a while now, they still manage to intrigue me. I really wish I had bought a few while I was in Japan, but it seems that they sold out pretty fast. Definitely one of the most amazing action figure that I've seen in a long time. It's our president wielding various weapons like the katana, light saber, pistol and more. He even faces up against Darth Vader and takes a nap in a kotatsu (a short table with a heater built into the bottom and a blanket layed over the top to keep the warmth in). He can be your hero too!

I'm thinking I just might have to make a samurai Obama figure for my army, just for the fun of it. Though, its 15mm so it's not like anyone will notice. I'd have to come up with a cleaver sashimono (war flag worn on the backs of samurai warriors, sometimes conveying messages but usually used for army identification).

Samurai Commander w/ Naginata

I've spent way too much time painting my last two mounted samurai. I coverted this one to wield a naginata薙刀 as the naginata is basically a katana type blade with an elongated spear like shaft. Seems to me that BAW doesn't have rules for a naginata so I'll just have to use it as a spear or as a normal samurai katana, or make up some house rules for it. I converted 2 of my mounted samurai to wield the naginata. Not sure if I'll convert more or not.

Also, I play tested the game a little with my friend the other day. We had a good time running though the basic combat system and my friend really enjoyed the AP (action point) system for units. We only played a small game, around 4 units per side, not even enough to really get the feel for a large battle, but it did give us a feel for the rules. This system only has me worry in one respective... will it be too random in larger battles? With the pre-battle re-arrangement, the AP system (rolling a D6 for each unit to see how many AP they get) and Generals issuing motivation checks per unit (basically a moral check from Warhammer) per turn, I wonder if it will get too random. On the same token, I really think that this game plays smoothly and was a blast to play with our little skirmishing troops. The AP system really keeps you on your toes and gives you a reason to plan your motivation checks in order not to leave the rest of your army in the dust. I can't wait to play another game! In the mean time, paint paint paint!