Howdy! Seems like every two or three years I delve back into Battle Companies and it's about time to do so now. This time I'm going to get at least one of my nephews into it and teach him how to paint (my son's only three and not ready yet) so I'll have a real opponent to get beaten by. The last two times I've run battle companies it was dwarves but I think this time I'm going to switch things up and try something new.

I've sat down and tried to make a feudal Japanese faction from the far East for this round. Basic guys are essentially Haradriem with pikes and no special rules. Four of them, two with bows, and one with a sword. The leader is a Minor Nobel who has fight/shoot 4/4+, Str 3, Def 6, 1 attack and wound, and courage 4. Essentially, this is a low ranking samurai. Special rules include Bushido (must charge enemy hero if able and can't be supported by buddies when in this kind of fight) Chop! (cheese maybe? sure, but wanted something to give some distinction to the forces and represent the fighting style) and then Will of the Daimyo (chose between Bodyguard, Commander (can issue stand fast orders to Ashigaru) or Linebreaker (gain an extra attack on a charge of five or more inches) which is chosen at the start of each game and can't be changed for the duration.) War gear is a katana (elven blade that on a six to wound will inflict two wounds instead of one) and wakizashi (hand weapon which means they can fight with two weapons) I priced them at 12 points and know that it's probably too low and need to be revisited, but I was not going to have many other "elite" infantry in the army and I can't tell you how many times I've seen Def 6 stuff get slaughtered without much effort. Some test games are in order! I'm hoping strength 3 is also a break and for the Battle companies, the hero HAS to take Commander for the Will of the Daimyo.

I think for my nephew i'm going to start him out with Gondor for the ease of painting. Silver, black, washes, move on. I have a fully painted Isenguard Scout Uruk-hai force I can use as well. We'll be using the older LotR rules as I don' the Hobbit books. I'm sure some of the weapon special rules would be better for the weapons I've fleshed out (No-dachi, naginatas, teppos, ect)

We'll see how it goes!

Sounds like a good plan to me!

I'm waiting for my nephew to be old enough to be able to concentrate on a miniatures game, too.

What system are you running this on, I don't quite understand alot of the option in this!!

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If you're into skirmish samurai games, have you looked into Test of Honour by Warlord games? I'd like to buy a copy this winter. The narrative of this game appeals to me, especially since I'm a Legend of the Five Rings fan and want to paint them to match the Great Clans. Still, that warband sound like fun!

Rain: The community has given great support to the Battle Companies over the Support Your Hobbit Hobby period of the last decade or so. During this time, GW had very little support officially for the hobby. It was through the dedicated love of venerable players and the community that we have emerged from these dark ages. The history of Warbands can be found in that article you were kind enough to share with me. If you want to see the community version, it can be found for download at the DCHL website, which has tonnes of goodies. ('Cause a metric tonne is bigger than an imperial ton.) Go download some stuff and get psyched about the glorious past that is about to be reborn!

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

Yup, I have a bunch of feudal Japanese models from Warlord and Perry but never really played it. I’m painting all of these so I can play test of honor if I get the bug lol! Thanks for the tip!

I’m using the 2016 fan made Battle Company rules set that is also using (or I am) the old Strategy Battle Game rules and not the Hobbit rules. If that makes sense!