The action took place on the main island of Honshu in the area around the city of Osaka which is on the south coast. The city was held by the Daimyo (warlord) Ishido and his allies who were under attack by his arch-enemy, Daimyo Toranaga and his clans.
The armies drew up for battle as shown and although the strength of the sides, chosen randomly, were fairly even the quality of the troops certainly was not. Three basic sets of orders for each side were written and chosen at random. These were created to take the troops and terrain into consideration, so on all of Isido's cards his right flank were ordered to hold the high ground but with various instructions for his allies in the center and on his left. Please remember that. Because I was experimenting with various ideas and rules I decided to "umpire" and let the table top generals fight it out.
To add to the confusion each army had two convoys enroute during the battle. Ishido had a train of porters taking rice from the Crane Gate to the lake to be put on sanpans and there was a noble lady in a palanquin being escorted to the city from Kyoto. On the other side a mule train carrying arrows was to move from the village to the camp and a line of porters carrying rice was to move in the opposite direction.
The battle began with a couple of heros trying their stuff in the center of the battlefield which resulted in one dead and the winner being carried off the field weak from his wounds but clutching his enemy's head. Great glory. Then the main event started with mounted warriors on both sides moving forward firing arrows as fast as they could and then engaging in hand to hand combat (vicinity A). These encounters were brief but bloody and the victorious Toranaga and Hojo horsemen were soon pursuing their enemies towards the city.
Warriors on foot had been engaged in long range missile fire with very little effect and so those of the Toranaga and Hojo began to advance. This prompted the monks of the Onjo-ji to stride out to meet them, alone. The Minamoto foot were busy trying not to get ridden down and the Kofuku-ji had resented not being allowed into battle first! [They couldn't get the right card to move]. The warrior monks led by Jomyo smashed into the ranks of the Hojo and a serious long drawn out melee began (B). Ishido's men forgot their orders and the advantage of fighting uphill and charged the advancing samurai and ashigaru of Toranaga. A large confused melee resulted (C). Still the Kofuku-ji did not move.
Convoys. Ishido's one from the Crane Gate had been dispersed by his routing horsemen and fled back into the city dropping their bundles of rice (R). The noble lady's escort had seen the advancing enemy and had formed a defensive hedge of spears, even though they were well behind their own front line! Toranaga's rice porters left by the north gate and had to march the extra distance and his spare arrows on the backs of his mules could not get out of the gate for the milling peasants. All was not going well.
The Onjo-ji monks slowly pushed the Hojo back but had to stop just short of complete victory because of the enemy mounted samurai to their rear. It was at this time that Tajima finally got his hooded warriors to advance towards the ronin and their villagers. Samurai and Ashigaru fought it out at the base of the hill with honors even (C). The Toranaga and Hojo cavalry had had to fall back to regroup behind their comrades on foot, which allowed their opposite numbers to escape into the city.
The escort to the noble lady had decided to quickly advance once they saw their samurai charge the enemy. The arrow train had managed to get out of the village only to see the Hojo horse come riding back towards them, thought they were routing, turned around and sought cover.
The rice porters were so disgruntled with their extra distance to travel that they just plodded on taking no interest in the surging battle.
The end came quickly on both flanks. Ishido's men broke and ran back up the hill around the lake to the gate, overtaking and sweeping along the palanquin's escort but not the lady herself! She was left to be captured by the pursuing enemy samurai in a most honorable and courteous manner (L). A sign of the times! The monks of Kofuku-ji smote through the ronin and peasants (D), scaled the walls of the village and captured (you've got it) the arrow supplies! [15 all]. In the center the warrior monks from Kyoto conducted a fighting withdrawal towards the Crane Gate under constant and close archery fire from the mounted samurai.
At the end of the day, Toranaga held the field but the village had been overrun by the monks and his arrow supply was low. He had taken many heads but still not gotten into Osaka. The lady he captured turned out to be the mother of Minamoto and was held as hostage for her son's withdrawal from the city. (He actually changed sides). Ishido had lost the battle, a strong ally and had what was now a third of his force cut off in the peasants' village. Did he now - order Tajima to withdraw to the city having set fire to the village or use the village as a jump off point to attack Toranaga's camp? Could Toranaga storm the city, which was held in strength, with a vigorous enemy ensconced in his rear or would his attempts to bribe his way into Osaka work? Time and next chapter will tell.
Both sides are awaiting reinforcements [purchased at Claymore] and then hostilities can commence again. Enjoyable first attempt at a large solo samurai battle from which I learned quite a bit especially about fighting with warrior monks and initially I forgot, in the heat of battle, that the mounted samurai were archers first. At the start of the game it was one quick shot then "Charge!" but towards the end of the battle, when the monks were withdrawing in good order, the mounted samurai stood off firing and seemed much more effective. Even if you are not into this period, and it sure is colorful, perhaps the layout and convoys will give you some ideas to work on for yourself. Good soloing.
1.Terrain. My table is 6' x 4' on which go my 2' x 2' home made terrain squares. I used the Mobile Terrain technique described in previous editions. Basically the squares containing Toranaga's camp and the Eta Village were taken off, the remaining four squares complete with terrain and troops was carefully moved to fill the gaps that had been left. A further two squares were now placed in the empty positions at the north end of the table and on these were built the City Center and the Eta Town, both separate and self sufficient in accordance with the research I have done.
The lake terrain square was my only purchased one and I have been wracking my brain for ages on how to incorporate effectively in a conflict because in the first battle it was just a hindrance to movement. The model buildings were: City Walls, Eta Town (Roman Marching Fort), Toranaga's Camp (Barbarian Fort), Causeway (Harbor), Don Jon all from Village Green. The buildings in the city were from the very useful Mediterranean range and those in the Eta Town were from the Japanese range produced by Hovels. The siege tower and covered ram were from Hallmark and the ram on wheels was from Feudal Castings. The boats were from Irregular Miniatures 1/300th scale which make ideal 15 mm skiffs.
2. Troops. As per previous battle, plus my ever useful mixed assortment of civilian figures, none of which are Japanese, and animals to fill the city and town. I do love a crowded table, no pun intended. Various piles of crates and barrels were placed in the city, town, fort and ronin camp - all given various random victory points and are also objectives for sabotage. Enter the ninjas whose operations were governed with ideas from Michael Gray's rules on the French and Indian Wars (LW 106 & 108), but of course upgrading the men of stealth considerably. OK. It is nearly impossible to spot them at night and in the day-time they disguise themselves as wondering monks, peddlers, peasants, etc. They could be an article unto themselves! The majority of figures were from Two Dragon Productions with the Ii Clan coming from Feudal Castings.
3. Rules. Still a bit of a mess at present but apart from ideas gleaned from Lone Warrior along with some samurai rules kindly sent me by members I relied very heavily on "Siege" - skirmish rules for siege warfare in Ancient and Medieval times by Richard Stevens and published by Tabletop Games. This is a classic for anyone interested in siege warfare and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Obviously a few adaptations had to be done because of the samurai style of warfare and their general outlook. Furthermore I was using large units not skirmishing figures, but I found this book invaluable.
4. Books.
Stephen Turnbull's wide range of books: Battles of the Samurai (ISBN 1854091611), Samurai Warriors (ISBN 071371767X), Samurai Warlords (Guild Publishing), The Book of the Samurai (ISBN 085368538X) and The Lone Samurai (ISBN 0853689679). There are some excellent illustrations in these books by James Field. Those books were for the factual research and James Clavell's Shogun provided the initial inspiration to move into the period and having read Turnbull's books it is obvious where Clavell got his main characters from. The selfsame characters now command and fight in my tabletop armies!
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