Ninja Time!

Whist my 15mm Samurai army is already too extensive to really use in one go, that doesn't stop a steady drip-drip of additional units and, well, cool toys being added to it from time to time.

The latest incremental unnecessary items are a Japanese folklore-inspired replacement Stampeding Herd ("Expendables" in ADLG terms), and some good-at-hiding Ninja ambush markers as well.

These all come from Philp Mann's recent Kickstarter project, and were obtained by "ADLG-R" guru "Aussie Simon" on my behalf.

Oni are basically Japanese Troll/Demon things, with a long tradition of being generally unsubtle and violent - and most usually bright red as well ! As such a herd of Oni seemed a great way to represent a more mythic retelling of the use of a stampeding cattle herd in the Battle of Kurikara

The Oni's flesh is all painted with the new Citadel Contrast Paints - Blood Angels Red, Akhelian Green (the blue coloured one oddly enough) and Creed Cammo for the Green ones. There's more Contrast Paint malarkey coming soon ...

Oni typically carry these types of iron clubs called kanabō. In Japan the expression "oni with an iron club" means to be invincible or undefeatable - not something my cattle herds have really achieved all that often it must be said!

The ninja figures are really nice, with a lot of variety but are a smidge large to use alongside or mix in with my Old Glory Samurai -  but being ninjas, they are good at hiding and sneaking around so I have press-ganged some into service as ambush markers. 

 I've colour-coded the three 40x40 markers using the flower grass tufts - each base also has the ninjas with a small bit of the same colour on their inner-garment sleeves

The Red markers above, and below the green ones

Here are the sets of figures next to the Old Glory Samurai for scale comparison.

As you can see, the Ninjas are not too far off, but just a bit too far for using together with the Old Glory figures for my taste.