In 1562 Mori and the Amako went to war. On 3 July 1562 Mori led his armies into the Amako's province of Izumo in an effort to crush them. In early December Mori arrived at the castle of Arawai and established his headquarters in anticipation of attacking the Amako capital at Toda Castle. However, there was a branch-castle network defending Toda and Mori decided to take caution—taking his time to conquer them one after another.

On 29 October 1563 the main branch castle that defended Toda, Shiraga, fell to Mori's troops after a 70 day siege. Realizing that the castle was on difficult ground and strongly defended, Mori chose to surround the fortress and starve the garrison into submission. Motonari began conquering the outer areas surrounding Toda. By the Spring of 1565 Toda was completely isolated and its defenders were starving.

"The chance has come. All-out attack," said Motonari to his commanders. His force of 26,000 was divided into 3 columns of attack. On the right was Kikkawa Motohara's command of 5,500, on the left was Kobayakawa Takakage's command of 5,000, and in the center was Mori Motonari and 15,500 troops.

Amako organized his defenses guarding the three approach routes to the castle. On the right was Amako Hidehisa's command of 3,000, on the left was Amako Tomohisa's command of 3,700, and in the center was Amako Yoshihisa's 5,200 troops.

The battle began around 8 a.m. with the Mori moving slowly towards the hill. On the right flank Kikkawa struck Amako Tomohisa's lines at Shiotani-guchi. On the left flank Kobayakawa's troops, having traveled up the mountain trail, smashed into Amako Hidehisa's position at Sugatani-guchi. Meanwhile, the main force of Motonari forded the Linashi River and charged up the hill into Amako Yoshihisa's troops at Okomori-guchi. Yoshihisa's men poured a heavy fire into the lead Mori contingents with their arquebuses, causing them to buckle, but they continued on despite the loss. The battle seesawed back and forth for several hours. Finally, with the battle in stalemate, Mori withdrew.

On 17 April Mori retreated back to Arawai and reorganized his forces. On 20September he again surrounded Toda. This time the garrison was running low on provisions. The defenders were in peril, made all the worse by the fact that there were no reinforcements to be expected.

Motonari killed any soldiers who attempted to surrender, his purpose was to keep the garrison inside Toda so that they would consume food. In the winter of 1565, the food ran out. Mori changed his tactics and offered land and food to the Samurai who would join him. One after another Amako's retainers deserted him. However, there was one retainer who would not; he was Uyama Hisanobu. Mori sent a spy to spread bad rumors about him and Yoshihisa became so suspicious that he had him killed.

By January 1566 desertion has left Toda with about 2,000 exhausted and hungry defenders. Motonari sent Yonehara Tsunahiro to offer peace terms. The Amako brothers agreed and on 28 November surrendered to the Mori.

MORI	AMAKO
ON BOARD:	ON BOARD:
*Mori Motonari - 15,500 (+3)	*Amako Yoshihisa - 5,200 (+2)
Kikkawa Motoharu - 5,500 (+2)	Amako Tomohisa - 3,700 (+2)
Kobayakawa Takakage - 5,000 (+2)	Amako Hidehisa - 3,000 (+2)
TROOPS AVAILABLE:	TROOPS AVAILABLE:
1950 MTD SAM w/CLNC	890 MTD SAM w/CLNC
650 MTD SAM w/BOW	300 MTD SAM w/BOW
2280 FT SAM w/LNC	1045 FT SAM w/LNC
5325 FT SAM w/LS	2435 FT SAM w/LS
2535 FT SAM w/BOW	1160 FT SAM w/BOW
1015 ASH w/ARQ	465 ASH w/ARQ
1690 ASH w/BOW	775 ASH w/BOW
1215 ASH w/LNC	555 ASH w/LNC
2840 ASH w/LS	1300 ASH w/LS
6500 ASH w/OTHER	2975 ASH w/OTHER
13 x UNATTACHED LDR	6 x UNATTACHED LDR

GAME LENGTH:

The Battle begins at 8 A.M. and continues until the Mori objective is met or they give up.

SPECIAL RULES:

*Amako's forces are set up first, followed by the Mori. Yoshihisa's troops may begin in and within 6" of the fortified areas labeled B. Hidehisa's may set up in or within 6" of the forts labeled A. Tomohisa may set up in or within 6" of forts labeled C. All Amako commands may also set up their troops inside Yamagata fortress.
* Optional rule 16.1 is in play. Command range for Motonari and Yoshihisa is 30" and all others is 15".
* Optional rule 16.9 is recommended for this game.
* The Mountainside is covered in dense thicket. This is treated like heavy woods except lancers may enter and visibility is not restricted.
* The Mountainside is steep, therefore, all cavalry must be dismounted to negotiate this terrain.
* The area between the two streams (where Kikkawa is located) is covered with rice paddies. Units moving through them lose 1/4 movement.
* The Linari River may only be crossed at the fords.
* All fortified areas are surrounded by palisades and have one entry point. The Amako may also set up defensive palisades anywhere on the mountainside. Each palisade measures 1 1/2" in length. There is a total of 20 sections available.
* Yamagata-goten-daira is enclosed by walls and has one gate entry where the paths meet. The gate is 1 1/2" in width, enough for one base to enter or exit through. The walls act like palisades. A unit must first stop at the wall and expend four cards to climb the wall, while doing so the defender may fire on them. Upon play of the fourth card the attacker may put one rank worth of figures over the wall and another rank for every card thereafter. For example, a unit of 16 figures in 2 ranks would need two full cards to cross the wall.

Combat effects of walls:

A) Only the ranks of a unit that are over the wall at the time of a melee may be counted in a melee.

B) If the climbers are engaged while climbing the wall only half of the eligible men may defend.

C) No arquebus units may fire at units behind a wall. Archers units, however, may fire over walls. The target is considered in heavy cover. Missile units may freely fire from inside the walls, however, to shoot at a climbing target they must be at the base of the wall (so that they appear to be shooting through loopholes).

D) No personal challenges may be issued to leaders behind a wall from leaders outside the wall and vice versa.

E) The main gate may be forced in by attacking troops. To do this the person forcing in the door rolls 1D6 and modifies the roll +1 for each figure used to force in the gate, the defender likewise rolls 1D6 and adds +1 for each defending figure used to push back against the gate (only the figures which touch the gate and those that follow behind in the second and third ranks may be used). The gate is forced in if the attacker's roll is 5 greater than the defenders.

F) If a unit successfully climbs a wall they may move to the gate and open it, expending a card to do so.

VICTORY CONDITIONS:

Mori must take the Yamagata area in order to win. Therefore, Mori must sweep this fortress area of any defenders and remain in possession of it with a unit for one complete turn, ie. 4 cards. Any other result is a victory for Amako.

OTHER:

The following are available for use as unit leaders. For most you will need to roll for their ability level on the chart in KK (20.5). ?? means that I do not know what the first name is.

MORI	AMAKO
Positioned with Kikkawa	Positioned with Hidehisa
Hososako??	Kuromasa Jinbei
Asaeda??	Takao??
Moriwaki??	Yusa Watarinokami
Sushi??	Sase Izunokami
Ninomiya Naritoki -1	Uyama Hidanokami
Kagawa??	Mega Danzaemon
Kasama??	Mega??
Yamagata??	Honda Yojiro
Moriwaki??	Meguro Souroku
Kittkawa??	Koreda Uzaemonnojo
Ninomiya??	Endo Jinkuro
Asonuma Motokage +1	Sagara Kurobei
Kumagai Takanao +1	Tumori Nyudo
Kumagai Nobunao +0	Hirota Toushirou Maki Souemon Umada Hikojirou Moriwaki Nagatonokami
Positioned with Mori	Positioned with Yoshihisa
Watari Motomasa	Kasai Saburozaemon
Yokomi??	Takao Umanojyo
Hiraku Motoyoshi	Sakurai Nyudojinsai
Kodama Naritada +0	Nakao Bizennokami
Inoue??	Hosoya??
Awaya??	Kawamoto??
Kagawa??	Nakai Suruganokami
Kihara??	Mitoya Kuroudo
Shohara Hyobu	Nakao Danjonochyu
Watanabe Zaemon Dayu	Fukuyama Higonokami
Saka Motokiyo	Yoshida Saburozaemon
Awaya Motozane	Kumato Hyogo
Kodama Motokata	Yoshida Hachirouzaemon
Kodama Mototada	Kawazoe Jirozaemon
Kuchibami Michiyoshi -1	Kawazoe Ukyonosuke
Shiji Motoyasu	Kuroda Ukyonosuke
Katsura Motozumi +1	Umada Owarinokami
Fukuhara Sadatoshi -2	Tsumori Shirouzirou
Awaya Tenkou	Rikishi Hyogo
Kokushi Motosuke +0	Hirano Kahei
Naitou Rokurouzaemon Mori Terumoto +2 Kodama Shirouzaemon Amano Motoaki Amano Takashige Amano Motosada	Yokomichi Hyogonosuke
Positioned with Kobayakawa	Positioned with Tomohisa
Yokomichi Gensuke	Oonishi Jyubei
Yonehara Tsunahiro	Fukuyama Jirozaemon
Nanjo Munekatsu	Akiage Iorinosuke
Misawa Tamekiyo	Akiage Saburozaemon
Sugihara Morishige -1	Tachibana Hisatsuna
Mitoshi Hisafuchi	Kumagai Shinemon
Yamada Shigenao	Nakao Mikawanokami
Miyoshi Shikibu	Hirano Bunemon
Narasaki Mikawanokami	Moriwaki Ichimasa
Kinashi Jibu	Yamanaka Shikanosuke +3
Sanada Magobei	Inoue Bungonokami
Suenaga Shichirouzaemon	Kawazoe Mimasakanokami
Kawai Ohinosuke	Tago Mondo
Yamada Shinzaemon	Yu Shinanokami
Kusai Shikibu	Kawamoto Yabei
Minami Hyogonosuke	Satoda Ukyonoshin Kamei Yasutsuna Amako Tomohisa Nakao Tarozaemon Nakao Toutouminokami

NOTES:

This battle was taken from information found in Rekishi Gunzo # 9. The map and OoB was excellent, however, there wasn't much information on the battle itself, so I had no idea what to rate most of the leaders. I did find some information on Mori leaders, but for the Amako only one other was talked about, Yamanaka. Yamanaka was a kind of hero to the Amako and sometime around Setember 20 he fought a famous single combat with the Mori hero Shinagawa Taizen and won (ironically, I cannot find him in the OoB for Toda).

The hardest part in making the map was identifying what roads were there at the time of the battle, so I chose to not have any. This battle also involved storming a fortress and I had to devise some simple rules for simulating the effects of the walls. I have only playtested the wall rules once, so I would appreciate further comments.

This would be a great scenario to play with hidden movement.