To help the local owner of the figure manufacturer Kingsford Miniatures start his business, I bought a bunch and agreed to paint up a mounted unit of the Sengoku era Samurai for him to photo for his gallery page. To be honest, I did not do much research at that time into this conflict so just saw the letter character (meaning ‘great’) was cool enough and I put it on a black background for the sashimono - the small flags attached to the warrior’s back. I did nothing with the remainder of the collection for the past 7 years and originally thought to use it for DBA. But with the advent of the ‘Lion Rampant’ rules I became motivated to bring them out of storage. Needed a shovel as they were deep in the back of the cabinet but I managed.
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| The Takeda mounted samurai with a rather antiquated horse archer model. However I will use the unit modifier for ranged weapons. Verses the Okudaira it will be old tactics mostly using bow within combat unit rather than devoted arquebus groups. |
I am a firm believer in completing both sides of a battle or conflict and I am always a bit tied to the realism of history so I endeavoured to stay to the actual history to gain a matching adversary for the Takeda Katsuyori whose mon -personal/family symbol- was painted on that first unit. I found my historical adversary in Okudaira Sadamasa whose sashimono device is a simple red and white pattern for ease of painting and the mon of a red fan. His family was killed by Katsuyori who did not appreciate his departing after the death of Katsuyori’s father, Takeda Shingen who had Sadamasa’s family as hostage. The Okudaira took part in the final campaign against the Takeda in 1582.
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| The newly painted Okudaira 'expert' fighting ashigaru. The poses seem aggressive enough! |
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| a samurai unit showing the use of different shapes and sizes of bases. |
I have mounted all my units on bases of circles, ovals and rounds of various sizes which work well for these rules and look quite good in my eyes. I added tufts and model flowers to give a nice organic look to the terrain work.
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| Teppo unit. My handgun units are 6 strong. |
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| My Takeda ashigaru units are considered a mixed weapon yeoman classification so have some archers within. |
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| The two clans clash near a farm house. |
Besides the combat units, the Okudaira have the addition of a musical party sporting a large
uma jirushi standard with the red fan personal symbol which is used also on the conch shell horn-blower's tunic and on the war drum.
