Saturday 18 September 2021

Western desert game, Horse and Musket rules, and samurai painting

I initially through I would be playing a ancient naval game this weekend to start for the 2nd Punic War campaign, but I still seem to be stuck in the Western desert messing around with One Hour Wargames rules. Or rather a variation of those rules to include gun calibre are armour thickness. I have started to type up the rules as they seem to be giving me an enjoyable game, and I am now only making a few clarification notes.

In the games played I have a unit is represented by two bases. This gives a 4 inch frontage and each base generally contains 2 or so vehicles or guns. A quick reread of the OHW rules and notes reminded me that a unit in this period represents approximately 3 tanks, guns, or 40 infantry. This lines up quite nicely with models on my bases.

The photographs below are from scenario 12 (an unfortunate oversight). Rather than having a river as described in the scenario I have replaced it with a minefield. The tabletop is 4 by 4 foot.

Italian troops are located around the buildings and old fort unaware the Allies know of another pathway through the minefield.

The Italian react quickly and engage the Allied forces. A tank engagement quickly started and was eventually won by the Allies. The one unit of Grants proved very useful against the lighter armour of the Italian M13's.


A weakened Allied force is able to hold the objective hilltop.

A quick note the D3 Horse and Musket rules I used in an AWI game a couple of posts ago. They are a variant of OHW rules but use D3 dice for hits and have an activation rule. These are now written up as a page (see above). Included on the page is also has a link to a PDF of the rules. I will be revisiting these rules at some point to add rules for regular infantry to charge.

Finally, painting of my samurai armies is progressing at a steady pace. Below are a selection of photographs of the units completed so far. Foot units are made up of two bases so I can mix and match arquebus and pike, bow and pike, or have a unit made up of just bow or arquebus. Mounted units are on a larger base and are treated as a full unit. I look to be about halfway through paining judging by all the available models.

A unit of arquebus and pike

A range of model from Minifigs, Minifigs S-Range, and Dixon.

Bow and pike unit.

All the figures are simply painted with a gloss finish.

Mounted samurai and their retainers following on foot.

Hight wise there is not much difference between the ranges, but some figures are definitely more chunky.


6 comments:

  1. More terrific work on your Samurai armies, Peter! I have been seeing reference to your D3 rules on the OHW groups.io feed. There is confusion as to who is the author of the D3 variant. Perhaps you could clarify that you are the author.

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    1. Thanks. Just signed up and added to the discussion.
      With luck I may be able to have a small game in month or two if I maintain progress.

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  2. Please share your WW2 rules when ready - I am interested to see how you deal with the classic gun-armour conflict. I always like to make sure that enough fire should disconcert / drive back a unit even if it doesn't have the theoretical ability to defeat armour.
    Your Samurai armies are coming on apace and looking better than ever. IMO once you field a decent sized force even fairly basic paint jobs can look effective - which is pretty handy for my armies.

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    1. Will do. I am currently flipping between them and the Tank on Tank rules to see which I have a preference for.
      I tend not to look too closely when wargaming, so a simple painting approach works for me too.

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  3. What do the mixed horse and foot bases in your samurai army present? They look nice, more redolent of the battle depictions in Japanese screen paintings.

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    1. They represent the mounted Samurai/cavalry. I do like the look of them and I am wondering whether I have taken the best basing option for the other figures.

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