Warlord Games offered up an awesome Samurai Army to get you going in Pike & Shotte last year. This has now been broken down into different plastic sets, based on existing miniatures, to help you bolster your force after the fact.

The backbone of any army during the period would have been the Ashigaru who will make up the majority of your force on the tabletop. The spear was a simple and easy weapon to teach the soldiers to use and they could also be replaced with ease too during periods between battles.

They also formed a formidable array of spikes for the enemy to run onto. The Ashigaru also bought ranged weapons to your army in the form of some impressive bows...

...and also later on plenty of black powder weapons. The bows took a long time to perfect but they could be deadly in the right hands. Of course, later on, the black powder weapons being introduced into Japanese warfare also completely changed how armies would fight.

Samurai Charge!

At the head of your army, the pride of your commanders, we also have some plastic kits packed with Samurai. You can now get your hands on some regular foot Samurai...

...as well as Mounted Samurai to help police your flanks and keep the enemy at bay with charge after charge into their ranks.

You get plenty of options amidst the plastic kits allowing you to arm your Samurai with plenty of ranged and melee weapons as well as varying options for their headgear and armour.

As we've mentioned before it would be awesome to see you bring together a force based on the characters you've been building up from Test Of Honour, their skirmish-scale Samurai game. You could then tell the tale of how they became mighty Warlords at the head of their own clan.

Throw in a few Fantasy elements and you'd have your very own Legend Of The Five Rings!

What do you think of the plastic kits on offer?