Katana

This is actually two sets in the same book. The Katana rules are at a scale of 1:10, but it plays like a skirmish game, with figures getting individual hits. The second set of rules, called Arrowcutter, is a true 1:1 game where players get to track individual wounds on each figures.

SAMURAI ERA WARGAMING

Another colorful era that lends itself to both skirmishes and large battles is the Samurai era, particularly the late period where numerous factions fought to be shogun. There are Samurai with all kinds of differrent weapons, ashiguru armed with spears, bows, and the arquebus, fighting monks, and ninja. The battles are visually very exciting and the combat is very bloody as neither side took prisoners. The good thing about this era is that you only need a few figures for a skirmish, so you don't have to heavily invest just to try it out.

Katana is a 1:10 scale skirmish set of rules with units being 10 figures, either on foot or mounted. Each type of warrior has a number of hits and a specific type of die to roll for combat. Hand to hand combat is very exciting and a melee can go on for multiple turns. Although there isn't any command and control, play is very smooth and the oppurtunity to add house rules is definitely there. The rules come with several scenarios, combat tables, and a set of 1:1 rules called "Arrow cutter".

Warhammer Ancient Battles has certainly revitalized ancient gaming and the Samurai army list is a powerful one. While not very historical(units of ninjas?), it is fun to play armies of different eras and the Samurai are very tough in this system. The scale is definitley grand tactical and units can range from 5-40 figures strong, so you will need a lot of figures to play these rules.

The one thing about this era is that painting figures goes slowly. Although they look great when finished, the samurai in particular, can take a long time. Since only the ashiguru wore some semblance of a uniform in the later wars, each figure is an individual work of art. If you're use to painting masses of ancient figures such as Nubians or ACW, this is going to be quite a shock to the system. The good thing is that with both sets of rules you won't need hundreds of figs to play.

25mm figures by Old Glory, Dixon, and Foundry.

Around 200 foot figures and 30 cavalry so far. The goal is to reach a total of 500 figures.