Slitherine

Also worth noting that rating a BG as Unarmoured does not mean all the individuals within it lack armour. To justify Armoured rating it requires a high proportion of them to have suitable armour - so even within an Unarmoured BG you could have quite a lot of armoured guys.

nikgaukroger wrote:Also worth noting that rating a BG as Unarmoured does not mean all the individuals within it lack armour. To justify Armoured rating it requires a high proportion of them to have suitable armour - so even within an Unarmoured BG you could have quite a lot of armoured guys.

But they will be some Armoured BG. (So knickers can remain untwisted).

Well knickers twisted if you want to base the list on what noted historians say, some units would be armored. maybe 1/3. tops. But there would be a good amount of unarmored mob type floating about

1/3 tops is unfortunately an overgeneralization. Rapid change in many aspects of warfare occurred in 16th century Japan, so a lot depends on which decade you are talking about. The rabble disappeared, gunpowder dominated, archers were marginalized, and cavalry was driven off the battlefield in the face of pikes and musketry. As ashigaru became more skilled and important, they acquired armour as a matter of policy - it provides both real and psychological protection for valuable veteran troops. Hideyoshi in the 1580s determined that his entire army would be armoured.

Turnbull is prolific and essential reading in English regarding the Samurai periods but not entirely reliable. In one instance I puzzled over, it turned out he was confounding the events of two different engagements in the Korean campaign. He can be a bit slapdash with details, and he tends to gloss things over in ways that don't matter for someone reading for historical interest but can make a critical difference for a wargamer's tactical evaluation. I found Hawley's Imjin War well-researched and the most carefully written source. This is despite, or perhaps because, he is an amateur rather than a career scholar and he has no axe to grind, thesis to support or career to embellish. He does obviously admire and writes a great deal about Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin, but this is understandable as he was one of the great naval commanders of history and had a host of admirable character traits, and it is enjoyable reading.

Until more works are translated we have very few sources to relay on. Bradford is also pretty good on the peroid