Daisho

This was on special offer over at Northstar the other day so I thought I'd take a closer look. It's based on the In Her Majesty's Name system, which I've played a couple of times, and is similar in theme to Ronin which is a set of rules I've had on the 'to do' list for a while. The rules are pretty impressive and look far more detailed than Ronin, although I don't think this will make them any more complex or time consuming to get a handle on. The production values are also pretty high, with nice glossy paper and plenty of photos to add further inspiration.

The thing that's been my stumbling block with samurai skirmish games is the figures and I've yet to find a range that ticks all my boxes, having looked at both the old Wargames Foundry figures and the Northstar buntai for Ronin. I think that the best way ahead is to abandon both of these options and go for the Perry Miniatures range, which is much more realistic in terms of sculpting style and the size of the figures. I'll see if I can pick up some packs at Warfare in a few weeks time especially the Samurai in everyday clothes, the Ninja and the Sohei warrior monks.

The great thing about this is that I can make more mdf buildings (!), having already collected together a number of the Sarissa Precision Japanese kits including houses, an inn, a temple, a bridge and several sections of wall. There's loads of potential for some imaginative modelling here and the terrain could also double up for modern espionage games using the forthcoming Osprey Black Ops rules and my Copplestone Future Wars figures, to which I've just added some Moonraker Miniatures men in suits and security guards.

Anyway, there's still plenty of Old West stuff to glue together and paint in the meantime!