The Feudal Japanese Project - Part 7. Hojo clan Horsemen.

 

The valley was quiet when the Hojo cavalry entered it.

Morning mist clung to the river, silver beneath the first light of the sun. Six riders passed beneath the trees, then twelve, then more, until the narrow road seemed filled with black banners.

Their sashimono moved gently in the mountain wind.

There was no hurry.

The horses were well kept and the men had slept. Some spoke quietly amongst themselves; others rode in silence, hands resting upon sword hilts worn smooth by years of use. A village appeared ahead, its roofs gathered beside the river like fallen leaves.

For a brief while, there was peace.

Then the watchman on the ridge raised his hand.

The column stopped.

Far beyond the village, something moved upon the opposite slope.

Indigo.

White.

The Uesugi.

The silence broke.

Men swung into their saddles. Harness buckles snapped shut. Spears were lifted. Sword blades flashed briefly in the morning sun as the black banners rose above the forming ranks.

The horses knew before the men did.

They stamped and snorted, eager now.

The order came.

The Hojo cavalry moved.

And the mountain pass filled with thunder.

*****

I'll admit it. I was feeling a little down on the Samurai project.

After the rather disappointing Element Games trip where the Samurai never actually managed to take the field, followed by another trip being cancelled when a medical procedure was unexpectedly moved up the queue, enthusiasm for the project had taken something of a beating.

And, obviously, you NEVER turn down a medical procedure when the opportunity finally comes along.

So the Samurai had been sitting somewhat neglected for a while.

Then, while watching the Plastic Crack Podcast, Dom mentioned that he'd recently tried the Daimyo rules from Osprey.

His group had apparently had a pretty good time with them, and he recommended I give them a try. From what he was describing, they sounded remarkably close to what I'd been looking for with the big Samurai game.

Well...

The book arrived as a birthday present:

I sat down one quiet evening and started reading.

And, well...

He may have been right.

The rules tick pretty much every box I was looking for from this project. They're straightforward enough to get a big game moving, but still have enough going on to make the battlefield feel like an actual battle rather than two blocks of miniatures taking turns hitting each other with sticks.

There is, however, one small problem.

Unit sizes.

Daimyo uses fixed unit sizes:

• Small infantry units are 8 models.
• Large infantry units are 12 models.
• Small cavalry units are 6 models.
• Large cavalry units are 8 models.

My own collection isn't organised quite that neatly, with the individual models based separately rather than on multi-bases.

I'm sure there is a solution to this somewhere.

Perhaps two individual models could count as one Strength Point, or perhaps I'll simply find a sensible way to house-rule the unit sizes once I've played a few games.

For now, though, I'm not going to let that stop me.

Because this unit is finished.

Samurai Cavalry.

I deliberately went with the plain sashimono on these models and used a historical Hojo sashimono design.

The same assortment of colours was used here as with the previous Samurai unit.

One of the things I particularly enjoy about painting this force is that the colour scheme doesn't need to be particularly uniform.

Historically, Samurai weren't necessarily turning up for battle in a perfectly matching set of armour fresh from the same production line. Men would bring the armour they had available, repaired and maintained over time, and the result could be a wonderfully varied collection of colours.

Certain lacquer colours were more common, particularly black, brown and red, while the silk cords, clothing and kimono worn underneath provided much of the brighter colour.

I've deliberately dropped one or two of the more unusual patterns and colours from the models, as those would have been relatively uncommon, the Kyoushuneko models I printed have more sections of silk cords showing, so I've gone with the majority colour of that for some of them. But I've kept enough variation to stop the force looking like it has been assembled from one enormous Samurai armour catalogue.

And this is where the sashimono becomes particularly important.

With armour varying from warrior to warrior, the banner tells everyone on the battlefield who these men fight for.

Friend or foe.

Lord or enemy.

The black Hojo banners make the answer rather obvious.

I've actually had these models finished for a couple of months now and have only just got around to putting them up here.

I just didn't have the enthusiasm to post for a while.

Thankfully, things are beginning to pick up again.

The Daimyo rules have given the Samurai project something I've been missing: a reason to actually get them onto the table.

There are also several 40k projects in the works, including the continuing Dreadtober 2026 project, and there's a new historical period appearing on the horizon too.

That's going to be a joint project amongst the group, so there should be plenty coming from that direction as well.

My next post will be the Dreadtober 2026 update.

After that, I'll be sure to get some more Samurai onto the blog, along with some thoughts on Daimyo once I've had the opportunity to put the rules properly through their paces.

The project isn't finished.

It just needed a little time to find its feet again.

*****

Hooves fade into dusk.

The war banners lose their wind;

steel cools in stillness.

I dismount from waking life—

a rider no more.

*****

Until next time, have a nice day...