Samurai Battles and ConFusion

I had a great time at ConFusion. I met a lot of people, bought a lot of books, and drank some wonderful beer — the best of which was homebrewed by my buddy Mike. All good. Besides seeing old friends I hadn’t seen in years and meeting new people, I got a chance to do some gaming, in particular Zvezda’s Samurai Battles.

It’s a great game and pretty simple to play once you get over the learning curve. The scenario involved me defending a village from marauders. We played using the Art of Tactics rules, which involve writing orders in dry erase marker on laminated cards and then having both sides act simultaneously. Stuff happened. Enemy arquebusers (like those above) walloped my archers, but not enough to prevent my cavalry from doing a flanking movement. Spear guys poked people with spears. Samurai got hewn down. Folks ran out of arrows, and the village was defended. Score one for the good guys.