Miniature Wargaming in Rural Japan

The rescue of Gamygyn The handgunners of Gunther's company looked out from the old tower, it was cold on the open top, but the stench from their prisoner was so foul that this was still better than being inside. The elf mage Calarion had joined them and it was he who first spotted movement in the forest. Slowly in a great curve, the figures of the northmen and their terrible hounds emerged from the forest, they had come for their master. The marauders advanced through the forest, nearing the watchtower before the defenders could react. One group of warhounds and one group of horsemen went around the tower to try and cut off the stradiots who were arriving from their patrol. Some axes thrown by the horsemen clattered harmlessly off the brickwork of the tower. Inside the tower Calarion tried to gather the magical power to unleash a fireball on the horsemen, but felt the power drain away as Gamygyn cackled madly, it seemed that the bindings which prevented him for exercising ...

 The battle of Petrizzi part 2. The archers on the hill again fired into the Khorne warriors while Calarion, realising the dangers of his situation, turned and ran down the hill towards the ogre leadbelchers. The twins, Big Makh and Kortor Pounder, charged into the rallied marauders and Gamygyn again rather than the ranks of magically armoured chaos warriors. The dwarves tried to join the great combat that was about to start in the centre between the generals of both ogre forces, but the lacked the leg power and pulled up short. The giant stopped running and turned to face the chaos forces. Elesando Contti, who had been leading the small group of knights, left them to chase a group of warhounds that had broken though one of the gangs of the goblins the followed the ogres. Big Makh smashed Gamygyn into the ground, while Kortor crushed several marauders, and the rest scattered and fled, though not before they had mortally wounded the last irongut with their flails. The twins turned ...

 The battle of Patrizzi On the 32 nd day of the 7 th month of 2492 by the imperial calender, along the coast of North Tilea, “The Grand Raid from the Sea” or “ Il Mare Cattivo” as the Viadasans still call it, began . Norse long boats were seen beached along the beaches north of Viadaza and the ogre mercenaries in the city's employ were sent out to meet them. Norse raiders that far south were rare, but not unheard of at the time, and any hopes that they could be paid off were dashed when they started raiding villages. Like many other cities in the north of Tilea, Viadaza had been overrun by vampires at the beginning of the century. Many of the structures, begin made of old stone, had remained intact after the siege to recapture the city, as had the tunnels and catacombs. Thus it had taken much longer the purge the taint from the city than the smaller villages and towns around it. Even nearly 90 years later, older citizens still triple locked their doors and windows for fear o...

 On Sunday the 24th of September I hosted a Warhammer 40k team tournament. I had hoped to get 5 or 6 teams of 3 players each, but due to Corona and the release of Armored Core 6 we had only 8 players spread over 3 teams. The system I made for this had the team Captains rolling off and then the winner choosing 2 armies to fight, one from their team and one from another. The other team's Captain could then choose which table was used for the game. All the tables had set missions.   The system worked better than I had hopped and made for an interesting event, though the team captains were very casual about their choices and could have made more tactical decisions. There were a good mix of armies. Imperial Agents, Chaos, Tau, Tyranids, Necrons, Space Wolves, Thousand Sons, Adeptus Mechanicus.    This was the first 10th edition event I have run, and everyone was still getting used to the new rules. I had felt less enthusiasm for 10th as the army creation side of the game ...

  The final game of the Karl Franz Cup 2 was a doubles game with 4 players on 1 table. I was playing with my partner for the event, Kobayashi-san and his Ogres. He had a BSB, a butcher, 6 bulls, 6 iron guts, 4 leadbealchers, 3 mournfang cavalry, 2 sabre tusks and an iron blaster. I felt they would add some muscle to my flimsy elves. We faced Rodion and Aki who had High elves and Empire respectively. Rodion's High elves were all cavalry with 4 units of Ellyrian Reavers and then 10 or so Dragon Princes led by a mage a BSB and a frost heart phoenix. The Empire were a traditional style list with 2 blocks of halberdiers, a few hand gunners, some knights, pistoleers a general, BSB, warrior priest, wizard and a cannon. It was the Meeting Engagement scenario and the empire pistoleers and 1 block of halberdiers started off the table as well as my archers. The high elves/empire deployment was focused on the centre and deep on the left side of the table and looked quite spacious. With ...

 The second game was against Nagai who also had dark elves. This time the list was more traditional with 3 big units of spear men, black guard and 10 cold ones led by a item heavy lord and also a sorceress on dark steed. I was on the same table as last time. Turn 1  We were playing the watch tower, I got the tower but declined to put any units in it, we deployed and Nagai went first. He moved his units up but was out of range for magic and the little shooting did nothing. In my turn I moved up 1 unit of silver helms to block the spear men, and put the dragon in between them and the tower. The rest of the army moved up, except the white lions which kept the barricades in between them and the cold ones. The dragon mage then buffed himself with flaming sword and Nagai saved his dice to stop fireball and the bound spell. The dragons breath weapon then killed 14 out of the 20 black guard after some poor saves from Nagai, he failed all 14.  Turn 2 The spear men charged the sil...

  On Saturday the 29 th of August 2023 I attended the Karl Franz Cup Team Tournament in Hachioji. This is the second Karl Franz Cup in Hachioji this year. Having won the last one back in April, which was a singles event, I decided to bring a slightly more unusual army. My 3 monster high elf list is as follows. Lords Prince (140) Lance (7) Heavy armour (6) Enchanted Shield (5) Griffon (150) Khane's Ring of Fury (25) Swooping Strike (25) 358 Heroes Dragon Mage of Caledor (350) Level 2 (35) Dragon Armour (10) 395 Core 15 Archers (10x15) 150 5 Silver Helms (21x5), shields (2x5) 115 5 Silver Helms (21x5), shields (2x5), Champion (10) 125 Special 10 White Lions of Chrace (13x10) 130 Rare Flamespyer Phoenix (225) 225 1498 I had some doubts about this list, especially around is killing, and surviving power, but at least it would be fast. The event had an unusual style as the first game was a singles...