3mm Pico Samurai on the paint desk

I was browsing the Pico Armor web site a few weeks ago and came across a new line of figs.  3mm Samurai.  I've always thought I'd get to this period someday but the lure of checking out this line and doing some new research pulled me in.  I found enough information online to figure out what to order.  I'm planning on building 4 initial clans and then adding smaller ones later.  Pico is perfect for this. 

The Sengoku period is fascinating and offers about a hundred years of variety during the "warring states" period.  Multiple personalities and warring clans "daimyo" create a ton of possible scenarios. 

The troop types of this period offer some real interesting possibilities.  The Samurai are still present but the bulk of the fighting falls to large surf armies of Ashigaru armed with spears and arquebus introduced by the Portuguese.   

Pico offer Samurai and Samurai on horseback as well as three types of Ashigaru armed with spear, bow, and arquebus.  They round that out with command packs that have two types of banners included.

There are some good rules out there, but I'm using a slightly modified set of homegrown Pike and Shot rules.

After an introduction to the tactics I opted to base the units as Samurai horse, Samurai on foot, Ashigaru with spear, bow and arquebus on separate stands. I also added a combination stand of bow and arquebus and intend to make some special rules for them.  The tactics involved adding bow sections to keep up the rate of missle fire while the arquebuers were reloading.   I made one General command stand per side and built curtains around three side of the base.  Each clan has a daimyo stand.  I want to include personal combat by the leaders that can determine morale effects on their troops. 


I recommend the Samurai Archive for just about everything including awesome heraldry.  
http://www.samurai-archives.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1638&sid=b9bc94c080aa81cc83855ef65db1a2dc