Slitherine

Prelude
FOG has the great advantage of presenting a very uniform system for classifying troops. This means that although the lists for the Samurai are not out yet, and although those lists might cover a period slightly earlier than the Sengoku period, the enthusiastic samurai players can engage on some historical refights just by doing a little of extra work to define the troop types according to FOG in light of historical evidence.

In Buenos Aires our samurai armies had slowly been developing over years but were yet to see the tabletop until FOG arrived. After a few playtesting battles the local players decided to expand their armies and soon we had enough minis to do our first historical refight. Mikatagara seemed an interesting battle to represent.



Historical Reference

The battle of Mikatagahara took place in 1573 ( Sengoku Period ) between the forces of the Takeda clan and the forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tekada Shingen moved towards Hamamatsu castle and was faced in battle on the Mikata high plains by Ieyasu’s troops which had been reinforced by Nobunaga..
In the actual battle Ieyasu was defeated on the field by Shingen and had to retreat to the castle, however Shingen was reluctant to initiate a sige and thus did not exploit his victory against Ieyasu. ( I will leave the considerations of why that was the case to the reader, as historians disagree on the matter )

Representing Samurai Warfare in FOG

CAVEAT: First of all let me be clear about how we approached this subject. Our intention was not to guess what the FOG team will come up with for Samurai lists. We understand that the FOG team will have to consider how the Samurai list interacts with other lists, we didn’t have this concern. There was no need to worry about this; we simply had to worry about how samurai armies would interact with each other. There was no need for us to consider if it was fair to represent Samurai warriors as skilled swordsmen or simple swordsmen in light of how they would match against other armies. All of our troop selections were based on how we wanted the interaction ashigaru-foot samurai-mtd samurai to be.

Now that I’ve clarified this point let me describe the choices of troops that we selected.

All troops were classified as drilled. We did this not to make a point about professional vs unprofessional armies but to give mobility to the armies. When you combine “drilled” with having small size for battle groups ( 4 – 6 bases ), then troops are very mobile, encouraging the armies to do lots of maneuvers, something that appears very characteristic of samurai warfare with their extensive maneuvering and redeployment. This apparently was common in samurai warfare as the troops would go through an extensive period of training and maneuvering every year.
Most infantry was classified as heavy foot as apparently from what we’ve seen in battle recounts troops had a preference to fight in the few open grounds they could find ( many times repeating the same site for many battles, ie. Kawanakajima). Teppo units were counted as medium foot as some evidence of Teppo ambushes might exist and it could add some variety.

Ahigaru:
All ashigaru were considered average drilled protected.
Yari ( the shorter yari) ashigaru we classified as heavy foot armed with light spear
Nagae-Yari ashigaru were classified as heavy foot offensive spear
Bow ashigaru were classified as light foot long bow ( the only skirmishing units in our armies)
Teppo ashigaru, although FOG includes “handguns” these seemed a bit prior to the sengoku teppo to us, hence in order not to create strange rules ( not in the spirit of FOG ) we decided that representing teppo units as medium foot crossbow would make sense. After all the teppo appear to have had longer or comparable range to the bow troops but lower rate of fire, thus cross bows seemed a good alternative. So teppos were classified as medium foot crossbow.

Samurai
Samurai were considered superior drilled armored
Foot samurai ( w/najinata) we classified as heavy foot armed with heavy weapons
Mounted samurai were classified as cavalry, lancer swordsman

Sepcial troops
Hatamoto : the retainers hatamotos were classified as mounted or foot samurai but upgraded from superior to elite
Levy: some units of peasant levy were classified as undrilled, heavy foot, unprotected poor ( with spear or bow ).

summary



Line of Command

Few rules system treat commanders in such an interesting way as FOG. In fact commanders’ use is many times cause for victory or defeat in FOG. That being the case we had to decide how to take advantage of this. Samurai armies appear to have acted in many cases as army contingents from different retainers joining for battle. It would seem appropriate then to treat these contingents as independent divisions. These makes the game a lot of fun, each player only commands one division, and his commander only has line of command to that division ( ie. only that commander affect cohesion and combat for the division). Sort of like having an army composed of ally contingents. On top of that players were encouraged to communicate through written notes via the game master (me). As it would turn out this had a profound impact on the battle.
Also the commanders were used to represent the commanders on the field, the army general was assumed to be in the camp, represented as a fortified camp, ie a command camp with Shingen or Ieyasu with their personal hatamoto.

The armies

Below you can see the opposing armies classified in the independent divisions.

Tokugawa's Alliance


You can roughly see the divisional organization



Tekeda's Invading Army


Again you can identify the divisions ( Fire, Wind, etc.. remember ? )




The battlefield.

As usual when I arrange a historical refight I still like to use FOG’s terrain generating system as this is I believe a great feature of FOG. What I tend to do is select the terrain type according to what might best represent the terrain where the battle was fought and then the rest of the system kicks in.
In this case the Mikata plains appear to be a high plain in hilly terrain next to the Hamamatsu castle, so I set up the castle on the top left corner of the table ( out the battle terrain ) and placed the roads that lead to the castle. Then the players bring in the terrain, this represents the fine tuning that generals would do when maneuvering to fight.

This was the resulting “field of glory”



Map Key

The Deployment

As can be seen from the deployment Shingen’s plan was to exploit their superior numbers in cavalry to overturn Ieyasu’s flanks.
Ieyasu had a little Japanese trickery up his sleeve. Upon deployment Shingen realized that some of the forces observed by his scouts were not to be seen, that meant they had either left or their were planning a flanking march, however there was not much to do at this point, the divisions would carry out their plans and fate would play its role in the battle.





The Daimyos

Takeda


Tokugawa




Takeda


More Takeda (You can see Hamamatsu Castle in the back)


Tokugawa





Ready to clash

Opening Moves

As we know no battle plan survives contact with the enemy
Honda upon seeing the numerous amount of Takeda cavalry he was facing decided that it was better to initiate a defensive maneuver that would allow his troops to anchor their flank on the woods to his left ( right side of map ). With that in mind his troops performed a 180 turn to face backwards and sent a messenger to Onda asking him not to advance according to the original plan. In the meantime Oda decided to continue with the original plan, and Honda’s messenger was almost executed by Onda’s personal guards! “ I will not turn my back to the enemy” was the answer and he destroyed the paper message.
This conflict among these two commanders of the Tokugawa side resulted in a disruption of the Hamamatsu defenders line on the left flank opening a dangerous opportunity to the enemy.

In the center of the battle field both sides rushed forward so size a commanding position in the center of gravity.

On the left side of the battlefield Tekeda’s weaker forces commander by Baba Nobuharu, were trying to gain a tactically superior position on the hills when suddenly they were able to observe an outflanking force that would soon be arriving on their left flank ! ( It so happens that Ii was lucky enough to get their outflanking force on the table almost immediately ).



Takeda moves


Tokugawa moves


Honda's surprising maneuver


Ieyasu observes from Oda's base camp


Takeda's base camp


Takeda's left


Panoramic


The menacing Anayama's cavalry on Takeda's right side




The center ( from Tokugawa's view )




Panoramic




Nasty surprise, Baba observes in the distance an arriving flanking Ii force


View from Hamamatsu Castle

The battle reaches its climax

Takeda’s commanders at this point accelerated the pace to try to exploit the disruption in the enemy lines while try to hold the left flank in face of an adverse situation.

On the right, Takeda’s Hatamoto chased and killed the bow ashigaru skirmishers. One unit of mtd samurai moved to prevent Honda from realigning with Oda, while the other mtd samurai unit charge Oda’s flank now protected by his own foot samurai.

On the center Oda was haiving a hard time to correctly position his mtd samurai among the Ii advancing infantry while on the center hill Oda’s teppos were outnumbered by Takeda’s.

On the left side Baba was juggling a difficult position. The arriving flanking force pushed his levies towards the center towards the advancing Ii cavalry but he was able to carefully outmaneuver the advancing cavalry with his yari ashigarus. Ii’s hatamoto was forced into combat in an isolated and surrounded position and exterminated while the rest of Is cavalry got pinned by Nobuharu’s own cavalry.




Tekda's left compromised


by arriving Ii








Baba and Yamagata try to control the situation on Takeda's left



Disruption between Oda and Honda on Tokugawa's left


Anayama trying to exploit the disruption



Some critical combats started to get resolved shaping the battle to Takeda’s favor. The mtd samurai on the right routed Oda’s foot samurai and engaged Oda’s spearmen ( who had been disrupted by the running foot samurai ), Oda’s cavalry had been forced to charge against the nagae-yari in the center and where now getting encircled by the enemy and trapped by Ii’s infantry behind them. Having your cavalry trapped in FOG is a very bad thing, cavalry has the great advantage that if they don’t disorganize the enemy infantry they retreat taking advantage of its mobility to charge again ( maximizing its combat advantage ), however if they cannot break away due to friends blocking them they quickly loose cohesion ( this is a feature loved by most FOG players as an excellent historical representation of cavalry in the battlefield ).

Ii’s flanking force was not finding it easy to exploit their situation as the weaker yari ashigaru were outnumbered by levy and bow ashigaru, while the heavier nagae-yari ashigaru had to spend time going around the hill.

The only encounter going to Ieyasu’s side was that of Takeda’s mtd Hatamoto on the right got too confident and engaged some teppo ashigaru in the woods without much success, and now where being threatened by Honda’s cavalry that had being previously trapped behind its own maneuvering infantry.




Anayama's cavalry routs the foot samurai and engage disrupted Ashigaru





In the center Ii and Oda have difficulties coordinating against Yamagata and Anayama's forces ( view from Takeda's side)


On Takeda's left Baba and Yamagat have the situation under control


The flanking force is not being able to exploit their position






Shingen is pleased as he starts to accumulate enemy heads ( green pearls representing attrition pts )


Back to the center


Ieyasu displeased with Oda's routing foot samurai


Takeda's Hamamoto going a bit too far into bad terrain


Stand still between Cavlary and Infantry


Takeda gaining the edge on the center

The final stage

And so we reach the conclusive stage of Mikatagahara.
At this point it was clear that there was little Ieyasu’s alliance could do to save the day. Oda’s army was routing in front of Tokuagawa’s incredulous eyes. The extreme flanks were still holding, on the right Takeda’s hatamoto was in a complicated spot while one of Takeda’s forces was not able to get the upper edge on Honda’s infantry, on the left although the yari-ashigaru were falling back the nagae-yari were still moving towards the enemy. The problem was the center, the interaction between Ii, Honda and Oda’s forces had been very unsuccessful, with the distruption between Oda and Honda and the traffic problem between Oda’s cavalry and Ii’s infantry.



As more units continued to rout the breaking point for Ieyasu’s army was reached and the army retreated to Hamamatsu castle.

Panoramic


Takeda's Hatamoto in a difficult spot


Finally Cavalary and infantry engage on Takeda's right but with unconclusive results


Battle goes on and on in the center


On Takeda's center left things are falling appart for Ii and Oda's troops


Oda's cavalry is dying against Yamagata's troops being surrounded and obstructed in the back by Ii


Takeda's left survives long enough










Ieyasu observes the fall of his alliance




The army is in disarray




Even the flanking forces ( two red pearls = fragmented )




When Oda's Ashigaru go fragmente in the center


Tokugawa's army breaks and Shingen is victorious






The siege of Hamamatsu castle will have to wait until FOG releases siege rules ( hint , hint ). I promise to organize that stage when those rules come out

Conclusion and final thoughts

Overall it was a superb battle. The troop interaction gave the feeling of a real samurai battle, the division line of command resulted in a fascinating tactical challenge to players and in the end defined the outcome of the battle. Also it was the first time we saw a side try an outflanking maneuver and although it was not successful the expression of surprise on the Takeda side gave great satisfaction to the Tokugawa alliance. Oda and Honda will have to have some tea to resolve their differences, unless they end up in a duel .


Again this is a great example of the resilience of the FOG rules system. This was a big game, with many players per side and utilizing every advantage that FOG offers, terrain creation, line of command, etc, while refighting a classical Sengoku period battle.

Everyone enjoyed the game and it was played in one day (starting at 11AM ending around 9 PM).

From Buenos Aires, happy gaming, next historical refight “Zama” ( it has been played already I need to work on the report) !!

Regards,
Francisco

Many thanks, Francisco, for another excellent battle report and superb pics!

Cheers,
Scott

Wonderful report! Great terrain as well, good job!

Bravo!!!!!!!!


David

Great report. Can't wait for Zama!

Seldon wrote:Conclusion and final thoughts

Oda and Honda will have to have some tea to resolve their differences, unless they end up in a duel .

Typical bloody Samurai - happy faces if there is a duel

Ian

Seldon

A very clear and enjoyable report. The photos help a great deal. The use of colour is brilliant to aid BG recognition.

Many years ago the UK Pike and Shot Society display team put on Mikata-gahara as a display game and worked really well. It is colourful and quite easy to explain. I think that this shows why we are keenly FoGR.

Roll on Zama. There is a very interesting article in the latest Slingshot on Zama - it will be interesting to see how that relates to how your game went.

Regards
Tim

Very good.

Thanks for the report.

Very nice pictures and report! Except at the real Mikata-ga-hara the Takeda outnumbered the Tokugawa/Oda 35,000 to 12,000 !!! But that would make for much of a game, would it!

Yes, it would be kind of boring.

That is why we always try to do the historical games balanced by points. Sometimes it is possible to reflect the difference in numbers with quality but in this case it would not have been a viable alternative. We did try to represent general historical concepts like Takeda's larger proportion of cavalry.

I guess we'll be able to re try this games when FOG-R comes out

Francisco