The Feudal Japanese Project - Part 4. Background.

 

I mentioned in the previous post in this series that I was going to explain my thoughts behind this project, I've therefore broken this piece down into three sections;

• How did the Project begin?
• Inspirations of the Project?
• The aims of this Project?

How did the Project begin?

This is a project which I have had in mind for a very long time, twenty five years or more this has been sitting in the back of my head, awaiting it's time in the sun.

Things came to a head last year, when during one of our game days at Element Games we were talking about various things we would like to do, or have on the go.

I was adding to the Tyranid horde, Fraser was looking forward to Legions Imperialis being released and Cardboard Fortress was talking about Bolt Action, doing a small late war British and German force each so that we could field them in a game (one of us often build both sides for a game we want to play, so that we're not relying on the others maintaining enthusiasm).

Talk inevitably turned to dream projects and Hail Caesar was brought up.

Having watched a number of battle reports By 7th Son Wargaming on YouTube, I was interested in the system, and happened to mention about wanting to build a Samurai army.

"That would look brilliant".

"A huge game would be amazing, imagine all the flags though".

"Well I have been 3D printing some Sohei warriors for Test of Honour".

"You have to do the army project now".

So I kind of got pushed into the project, but it's something I was keen on anyway, so it was just that first push which was needed to get going.

Inspirations of the Project?

I've always been interested in the Samurai, all the way back to when i first got a copy of Age of Empires 2 on PC, and i would spend more time sat reading the encyclopedia of the gane, rather then playing it.

Next in the PC gaming history came Shogun: Total War. The first entry into the massive series, and still a personal favourite*. 

It also introduced me to historical figures such as Oda Nobunaga, Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin**.

(If I can ever make a miniature of one Daimyo, it would be Uesugi Kenshin like this artwork).

During this time I was in my previous career as a bus driver and slaving away for just above minimum wage (as it was then). I was in no form able to afford an army of miniatures from the Perry stable. Absolutely beautiful miniatures when compared to the other offerings at the time.

So I continued on with the Games Workshop path which ensured I was able to play games with my toy soldiers I was spending my spare cash on***.

I was also introduced to Magic: The Gathering, and through the local card/comic book store a game called Legend of the Five Rings.

The world of Rokugan from. legend of the Five Rings immediately grabbed me, and suffice to say, twenty-four years later, is still with me.

The setting is a "White guys idea of what's cool about medieval Japan"**** being that it has Samurai, the Kaiu Wall (the Great Wall of China), the bad guy is called Fu Leng (syllables which do not appear in the Japanese language) and the map of Rokugan is almost the far east of mainland China anyway.

I could carry on about Rokugan and L5R for pages and pages, but that is beyond the remit of this post (it may be something i look at in a future post).

The aims of this Project?

This project is mainly an army building project, and I mean ARMY!

With force creation in Hail Caesar, you create a Division/Battalia/Squadron (whatever you want to call it) consisting of a command base and then a number of other troop bases to the size you wish.

You then issue orders to the division, IN THE ORDER YOU WANT THEM ACTED UPON (this is important) and then roll against the division commanders strategy rating and whatever you beat it by is how many of said orders you get to actually play out.

It's a great system and a real sense of battlefield friction is built into the command aspect of the game.

As I said, Army building, so I'm going to work my way up to four or five divisions per army so that we can eventually have a truly massive battle.

I'm also keeping the miniatures "rules agnostic" and magnetising them to the big bases, so that they can be used for Dragon Rampant and Age of Sigmar (proxying in for some Cities of Sigmar). This aspect of the project is thanks to the suggestion of a third friend I told about the project who has been helping me with printing the numbers of figures which I need.

Speaking of figures.

The vast majority will be printed from Kyoushuneko Miniatures STL files as not only do I really like the digital sculpts, but they are a joy to paint.

As mentioned in part 1 of this project, I'm not sticking to definitive unit sizes, but everything will have up to three of the big oval bases to make a Large unit (small is one base, standard is two bases). I'm working this way because I have a copy of 7th Son's nodal campaign rules for the Wars of the Roses which I can reskin to Feudal Japan, and they include an easy army builder to help with force organisation and attrition.

I've just built a Sohei Command Base, and am looking through my box of prints to see about making a couple of Samurai Commanders with attendants for the clan command bases.

Alongside this I have assembled a fair few bits to work on as the days slowly begin to get longer as spring approaches here in the UK.

Hopefully with some better weather, I can do some painting outside and I can get primer coats to dry properly again*****.

This is one cavalry unit, to give a sense of the size of units I am aiming for, and there are multiple units planned for each division.

I'm going to end this post here, so Until next time, have nice day...

*Not only because of the setting, but also how simple it is compared to later versions of the series.

**A personal favourite historical figure, look up his story of ruthlessness and his rivalry with Takeda Shingen and see what I mean!

***I know GW models are expensive, but the difference is that I could actually get games in with those. I didn't know anyone at the time who had a hankering for historical wargaming, and I hadn't discovered solo rules at this point.

****According to Matt Colville in his video describing it. That's a bit inflammatory given modern sensitivity, but who cares?

*****I've learnt the lesson over too cold a can of rattlecans primer, and also the lessons about Rustoleum white primer which lied on the tin and dried with a semi-gloss finish meaning Contrast paints would not adhere to it at all...