The local game store, McCormick's Hobbies and Miniatures (free plug), asked me to run an Armies of Arcana demo in their never ending battle to the Evil Empire (tm) and their line of over-priced products.  Always one to donate my time and effort to a worthy cause, I quickly volunteered and set about running the demo.

We ran it on a Saturday, and response was terrific.  While only four people played, we had a constant crowd of eight or more people watching and asking questions.

The battle we fought was Barbarians vs. Samurai, simply because these happened to be the figures I already had painted in sufficient quantity to put on a spectacular game.  To lend some credibility to the battle, I had decided that the Barbarians had been goaded into hostile action when their shaman summoned an ancestral daemon spirit who led the Barbarians across the sea to the realm of the samurai.

Things began thusly. . .

The Barbarians chose to invade the Samurai home lands at a point nearest their own.  Their landing area turned out to be near a small village, overlooked by a large fortified monastery.  The villagers had just flooded their rice fields, which may be seen to the left of the picture.

The right side is dominated by a rocky and wooded hill.  The rice paddies and hill effectively funnel any oncoming force that wishes to make a quick advance up the center and through the village.

The Barbarian transports approached the beach during the night and dropped off their belligerent passengers.  The Barbarian commanders decided that, since they had no idea what lay in front of them, it would be best to delay the assault until morning.  Fortunately for the Samurai, they were alerted to the presence of the invaders (mostly because the daemon constantly burned with hellish fire that could be seen for miles around) and the local lord sent out a call, summoning all of his Samurai to arms.  The peasants quickly beat their plowshares to swords, and prepared to join the action.

The Barbarians quickly deployed along the beach.  Most of them were armed with shields and javelins which they could use both as missile weapons and for stabbing any enemy within reach.  These warriors formed up into units 25 strong.  Meanwhile, the shaman took his personal guard of berserkers and arranged them into a separate unit of 16 warriors.

Two units of scouts dispersed themselves in front of the horde, as much to absorb any casualties from missile fire as to actually scout the terrain.

To the rear, the Barbarians deployed their "secret weapon", a mighty man-powered chariot surmounted by a gigantic bolt thrower.  Six brave and strong warriors pushed this construct around.

Interspersed amongst the warrior units were several Barbarian heroes, both mounted and on foot, and the tribal shaman.  Bolstering the left flank was the daemon, his fire burning fiercely as he peered through the dawn mist in the direction of the enemy. . .

The Samurai lord decided to lead from the rear, as was the tradition amongst his people.  He set up his camp stool on the hill next to the monastery, along with his war drum, personal bodyguard and many standard bearers.

At the base of the hill, a unit of Royal Samurai waited for orders.  With they was one of the Lord's hatamoto, a hero of some renown.

Next to the monastery stood the ancient guardian of the temple, a Titan.  The Lord felt that victory would be his as long as that giant creature stood.  As it turned out, he was very nearly wrong.

The Samurai army was composed of brave and loyal troops, but the early morning found them scattered, scrambling to find their positions on the battle line.  This photo of the Samurai right flank shows (from front to back) a unit of samurai archers holding behind a rice paddy, a unit of peasant spearmen led by a hero, a unit of ashigaru archers defending the rearmost rice paddy, and a unit of samurai.  The cowled figure on the horse next to the building is the local Wizard, who would find himself magically outgunned by the Barbarian shaman and daemon during the battle.

The Samurai left flank was similarly arranged, with archers on the hill overlooking the village, and some ashigaru with naginata forming the bulk of the defense.

Coming to reinforce were a large unit of samurai, and another large unit of samurai cavalry.  Guarding the sacred tree in the center of the village were 10 warrior monks, ready to die to a man if need be.