Samurai Battles - the board game minis.

A few people have mentioned the joint Zvezda/Richard Borg collaboration on the board game with miniatures (1/72nd scale), I have this set and have enjoyed playing the battles as well as painting the minis. The set has been expanded by the makers and is still available, but I only have the original box set. I have added a few photos of some of the units and their unique bases. These bases are for use with Zvezda's own rule set which is included in the box with Borg's C&C type rule system. Both systems are quick and fun to play and of course comes with a scenario book. Along with Battle Cry, which also uses the C&C system, I often enjoy a quick game.

Samurai horsemen with lances. The over sized banner on the base gives information about the unit in Zvezda's rules.

Foot warriors.

Archers, the large arrows on the base are for showing the amount of ammo left. Each time the unit fires, one large arrow is removed from the stand.

I painted up two factions, one in purple and one in red. Not the best of light for the photo's.

The unique bases that are supplied.

The figures are very well sculpted, as you would expect from Zvezda.

Foot knights and some 1/72nd scale.

As promised I have taken some photographs of the completed foot knights for the War of the Roses armies. They sport non of the faction colours and so can be placed with whichever faction is required for a particular battle. There are seven units of six men, plus a couple of spare. This has come about as I have used the four fully armoured command figures from the two boxes of WotR infantry to make more units. I still have two or three more boxes of the infantry as well a one more box of foot knights so should end up with 16 or 17 units of foot knights in total, more than enough for my needs.

I have put in a few banners from the various box sets, they may or may not be relevant to the War of the Roses, but if I like the flag, then it gets used!

Quite a formidable looking force.

I also had a sort through my painted 1/72nd scale figures, as you know from previous blog entries, I have a ton of unpainted figures in this scale, all of which I intend to paint up over the coming year. Some of the figures can be used for different rule sets as they are all single based, when I first returned to the hobby, and didn't realise there were other scales now available, or even considered war gaming, I just put the minis on pennies. I have added some photographs of some Crusader figures, they could be used with Hail Caesar, L'art de la Guerre or even Saga.

A host of mounted knights and men at arms.

Certainly a good starting point for a future army.

I also have a large number of Feudal Japanese in 1/72, these came from the board game by Zvezda and Richard Borg entitled 'Samurai Battles.' It has a board and terrain tiles etc. as well a good quantity of 1/72nd scale figures by Zvezda, so they are of a good quality. They come with bases that are used in the game as movement trays, but they can just as easily be detached and used for other rule sets.

Here are just a few of the units I have painted up. The archers in the foreground have some rather large arrows on their base, the idea being, that each time they fire an arrow is removed. A neat way of showing when they are out of arrows!

I think there is a lot of potential games to be had with these figures and their colleagues still stored in boxes.