This battle intrigues me in that two armies, one of 18,000 samurai warriors of the Uesugi and the other the Takeda totalling 20,000 moved into battle positions in total darkness without one being aware of the other. Both armies had to descend a mountain, ford a river and move into their allotted positions without disclosing their whereabouts to the enemy. (Did this battle inspire the British Army, in their latest recruiting TV commercial, to emphasis that "The recent battles that the British Army have fought and won, have been at night."? Perhaps not, but you never know ).

This battle appears an ideal game for a soloist. irrespective of what period he/she plays, to set-up a quick encounter with quite a few interesting variables thrown in. The initial set-up of the opposing armies should be within cavalry charge range of each other to be historically correct when dawn breaks! For full details of the battle and others with good wargaming potential are contained in Stephen Turnbull's "Battles of the Samurai" (ISBN 1-85409-161-1) which is highly recommended, even if Feudal Japan is not your period.

Historical Scene

To set the historical scene. The Takeda were crammed into their mountain castle and just across the valley, within sight, was the camp of the Uesugi. A plan was put into operation in which a force of 8,000 men (The Woodpecker) from the castle would attack the rear of the Uesugi camp at night. The disordered enemy would flee down the mountain, across the river into the waiting arms of the Main Army, which had left the rear of the castle stealthily in the hours of darkness and formed up in position on the plain (The woodpecker taps on the bark of the tree and when the insects come running out he gobbles them up!). When dawn broke the fleeing Uesugi would be caught between the pursuing Woodpecker and the waiting Main Army and be annihilated.

In the real battle both armies appear to have been in position at dawn, the Uesugi having either second guessed their enemy or been served with an excellent spy system. So far, so good. The Takeda were in a Crane's Wing formation designed to enclose and defeat a fleeing disorganised enemy. The Uesugi were organised in an attack formation! It gives the soloist an amazing amount of room for improvisation and enjoyment, with loads of "What if?" situations that can be thrown in.

Forces: The Takeda had a total of 20,000 men and 8,000 were used for Woodpecker, which left 12,000 for the Main Army. The Uesugi had 18,000 men in total and left 3,000 at the ford which gave them 15,000 for the battle on the plain plus the element of surprise.

It was an amazing military feat by both generals to move so many men and horses silently into position at night. From a wargaming point of view one can start the battle with the armies formed up in their positions just prior to dawn breaking with the Uesugi having attack orders and the Takeda ones to defend/hold until given orders. This gives the element of surprise to the Uesugi (who was the "automatic opponent") and made me in the role of Takeda give orders via runners, drums and conches to my units. I had written down my audible signals for each clan prior to the battle but used messenger (tsukai-ban) with the written ones and the system actually worked quite well, when I remembered to move the figures! Each messenger is a colourful individual figure, who should move every turn.

My Crane's Wing comprised of the Takeda Clan as Vanguard, Anayama on the Right Flank (refused) and Hara on the Left Flank (refused). I positioned my HQ within my maku screen behind the Van and between the wings. The Uesugi had taken up a chequered board formation (for ease of gaming) to allow them the opportunity of rotating their units as they did in the real battle when the troops tired. Uesugi Kenshin held the Centre, Nakajo the Right and Oishi the Left, all with Attack orders with a special game order for the front units to retire when the conch was sounded, to be replaced by the next line. This produced some very interesting situations that in my opinion only a solo wargamer could handle. I will leave it to your imagination what could and did happen on my table.

Historically, it appears that the main armies hit head on and so there is no problem in actually setting up the battle. It is essential that the Takeda wings are sufficiently refused that it takes one game move for the foremost unit to engage and then the rest of the wing is fed into the battle one unit per game move. This gave the Takeda a fresh unit every move and worked quite well, but maintained the initial Uesugi supremacy in numbers The Uesugi should have a 5:4 unit advantage in the main clash but a 1:3 disadvantage at the Ford. The Battle at the Ford was very interesting.

The Woodpecker force of 8,000 warriors on reaching the Uesugi camp foud that it was empty! Hearing the noise of battle from the plain below, they hurried down the mountain to give aid to their comrads, only to be halted at the ford by of forcee of 3,000 commanded by Amakasu.

It is essential for victory for the Takeda that the Woodpecker force not only gets over the river quickly and joins the main battle but that their losses were kept to a minimum. Must report failure on both counts! Even though I boosted the ratio to 3:1 in favour of Woodpecker, the fight put up Amakasu was tremendous and was the reason for the subsequent Uesugi victory, contrary to the historic outcome. The narrowness of the ford allowed three units at a time to cross and a unit needed to push back their opponents to allow others to follow them over. Some did manage this, others failed and the result was chaos, but an enjoyable game.

The majority of my Clans comprise of 3 mounted and 3 foot units but the type and quality are extremely varied between the clans. This system of grouping is to do with my storage system and nothing to do with historical units but does work out on average of 1 horseman to 2 or 3 foot figures. Looks right.

Rules used: Age of the Country at War by Barrie Lovell from Firebase Games. Castle was from Village Green and figures were mainly 2 Dragon Productions with some from Feudal Castings and Lancashire Games, to give variety.

Game map of The Fourth Battle of Kawanakaiima (Not to scale).

Related

Solo Samurai (LW124)
Feudal Japan Part 1 (LW109)
Feudal Japan Part 2 (LW110)
Feudal Japan Part 3 (LW111)