Mikata Ga Hara #3 w/Player Commentary!

Game #3 in the Mikata Ga Hara series took place ten days ago in a two-player game between Mark (Blood Mud and Steel) and Tony (Prometheus in Aspic).  Tony and Mark have faced one another in other paired match-ups and these clever fellows never fail to produce an interesting game.  I expected no less from this game.  As a special treat, Tony and Mark have graciously included their insights, thoughts, and impressions from the game.  These game notes are scattered throughout the narrative with attribution.

Takeda Command Tent

As a reminder, the battlefield is as illustrated in the game photo with Tony taking command of the Takeda Army (black and blue VBU dice) and Mark in charge of the Tokugawa Army (red and green VBU dice). 

Battlefield and initial deployments.

[Tony] I had read about the ambush in the scenario notes, but hadn’t fully grasped the horror of what it all meant! For the first turns, I had to look on as Mark developed an aggressive stance, and then the attacks started. In some ways this simplifies the game strategy; in this fight, there was absolutely no doubt that I was up against it right from the start, so any fancy ideas about sweeping manoeuvre were replaced by the need to just dig in, fight as hard as possible and try to get the units to support each other. Any opportunities for counter thrusts might come later, but at the start my strategy was just to be as difficult as possible, to block up Mark’s attacks and make him pay for any successes. Those horse archers held my right flank together…

[Mark] I’d already played this scenario against Jon the week before and in that game I’d pinned my hopes on a decisive left hook. The idea was probably sound but the execution proved sadly lacking and I got a thorough kicking for my pains. (NB: a "thorough kicking" resulted in my very narrow two-point victory!).  Tony is a regular opponent and a bloody good general so I knew I was going to have to come up with something new on this occasion. One of his strengths is what I’d term force refreshment. He is ever mindful of how much damage his units have taken and usually ensures that they are cycled out of harm's way before it’s too late and that fresh troops are kept ready to replace them. I wondered if I could use that against him? 

With this in mind my resolution was to attack on either flank but not advance and make myself vulnerable. The thinking was that as Tony’s forces became degraded on the flanks, he’d begin to filter units off from his centre to support or replace them. Once he was fully committed on either flank, I’d use my heavy hitters to pass through his centre and swing around to envelop whichever of his flanks had become the weakest. 

The opening shots of my ambush did not go as well as I’d hoped and my inability to induce serious losses over the next few turns meant the Tony didn’t seem to feel pressured enough to reinforce his flanks as I’d hoped.  

To begin, the Takeda Army is surprised by the presence of the Tokugawa Army.  Tokugawa moves into positions from which to spring an ambush.

Tokugawa moves up...

ready to spring his trap on the exposed enemy. 

After maneuvering into position on Turn 1, Turn 2 sees Mark spring his ambush before Tony has a chance to respond.  Mark's attacks begin on the left against Tony's Right.  Preceding the attack, Samurai archers launch volleys of arrows into the enemy with no noticeable effect.  Then, Ashigaru spearmen move forward to contest the high ground.  After a lengthy fight, Mark's Ashigaru spearmen are repulsed.  Following a brief pause to regroup, Mark attacks Tony's Right a second time.  Foot Samurai and horse archers move forward to contest the ground.  Fighting is fierce.  Again, Mark's attack is stalled when Tony brings up his own body of horse archers to stabilize the situation.      

Mark attacks the enemy Right.
It is rebuffed...

and attacks again!

Arrival of Tony's horse archers turn the balance...

and Mark is compelled to fall back.

Attacks do not stop there.  Over on the opposite flank, Mark advances to put the two isolated enemy units under pressure.  Tony's teppo is attacked and driven back.  Mark's Ashigaru spearmen pursue but are viciously counterattacked by foot Samurai moving up quickly to plug the gap.  Mark's spearmen are driven off with heavy loss.  

Mark attacks the enemy Left...

driving off the enemy teppo.

Success is short-lived as Tony counterattacks...

and the enemy is sent away!

In the center, all hell is breaking loose!

Tony attacks with his heavy cavalry in the center.  Enemy longbowmen are ridden down where they stand having failed to get off a volley before being crushed under the weight of the horsemen.  The horsemen choose not to pursue.  Instead, Tony follows up by bringing foot Samurai into the fray on the horsemen's left.    Mark's Ashigaru spearmen stand and the Samurai foot is repulsed.  Mark counterattacks by advancing spear against the mounted Samurai.  The spearmen fall back but once a lane is cleared, Mark launches a mounted charge into Tony's now disordered horsemen.  Suffering heavy losses, Tony's cavalry unit breaks toward the rear.  Caught in pursuit, Tony's cavalry is destroyed.  Running into a wall of archers, Mark's rampaging cavalry is stopped cold.  It retires to regroup.    

Takeda cavalry drives off enemy longbows...

while supporting foot Samurai join in.

Tony's foot Samurai is repulsed
while his cavalry is counterattacked.

Only one counterattack is not enough.
Mark sends his heavy cavalry into battle!

In pursuit, Tony's cavalry scatters!

The battle continues to rage in the center with constant fighting.  Units from both armies are seen breaking for the rear.  Losses are heavy.

Having only just recovered from its earlier combats, Marks's heavy cavalry is attacked by enemy horse archers.  Mark's cavalry repels this attack as his foot Samurai advances against Tony's isolated bowmen in the center.  The body of Samurai foot overpowers Tony's longbowmen.  The longbowmen fall back in disorder.  Following up in pursuit, Mark's Samurai faces a wall of archers.  Standing their ground the bowmen drive off the Samurai with great loss. 

Takeda horse archers swoop in and then swoop out!

Mark attacks with Samurai against the enemy center.

The enemy archers fall back
but stand firm to drive the Samurai off!

Seeing the enemy line of archers weakening, Mark attacks with his mounted Samurai.  Overrunning one of the bodies of bowmen, Mark's Samurai carries on in pursuit.  Pursuit catches another of Tony's units in flight and those Samurai footmen are scattered.  A pathway is open to the Takeda command tent!  Unfortunately for Mark, the routing enemy Samurai carry his cavalry away from the tent as the cavalry cuts down stragglers. 

Attacking the enemy line...

and breakthrough!

With destruction everywhere in the center and Tony's army looking to break, Tony attacks!  A body of Takeda horse archers is sent forward to finish off a wavering body of enemy foot Samurai.  Easily dispatched!  With the center almost entirely cleared of any troops, Mark moves forward in the center-left with another body of dismounted Samurai.  What remains of a body of Takeda horse archers breaks for the rear.  Mark follows up destroying Takeda archers in the process.  Continuing in pursuit, Mark's Samurai spearmen wheel to bring enemy Ashigaru to bear.   

Samurai overrun!

Tokugawa Samurai keep on coming!

Pursuit!

Coming up in the enemy's rear!

[Tony] As the big fight developed in the centre, I was working to move my more worn units to the rear, and there seemed a worryingly high number of occasions when my last line of archers, more or less by the skin of their teeth, managed to stop what looked like a major breakthrough. When Mark’s Samurai troops did finally push through, I expected them to sweep round behind my flanks and mop up enough of my weakened units to clinch victory. I’m still not sure why this didn’t happen.

[Mark] Eventually my persistence began to pay off and Tony’s flank forces began to show signs of weakening. Unfortunately, his dogged defence had caused a similar degradation of my own flank troops and seeing no sign of his centre thinning to provide reinforcements I jumped the gun and attacked there earlier than I’d really planned.  

Despite Mark's seeming dominance in the center, Tony is successfully pressing the enemy on his left.  One by one Mark's Right Wing is being pushed back and destroyed.  The battle hangs in the balance as both armies teeter on breaking. With only two points remaining on each army's breakpoint clock, whoever can destroy one more unit will likely see victory.  Who will it be?   

Pressure against Mark's Right...

causes more than one Tokugawa unit to break.

Using his horse archers against the enemy left, Tony repeatedly charges in against a body of spearmen firing arrows going in.  The first charge pushes the enemy back with heavy casualties.  In pursuit, the spearmen are destroyed.  Tony and his Takeda Army are victorious!  Hoorah!

Takeda horse archers can decide the battle...

which they do!

[Tony] As I shuffled my wreckage in the rear, to try to keep them out of harm’s way, the only potent forces I had left seemed to be my mounted archers on the right, and some spearmen on my left flank who had only been lightly engaged early on. Mainly out of bloody-mindedness (and to distract enemy attention) I attacked with these troops, and it went pretty well. The sweeping-up of my rear didn’t develop, so I must have been keeping the enemy busy with these flank pushes, and I managed to win enough of these scraps to tip the balance – just about! It is a cliché to say it could have gone either way, but the following morning I still couldn’t believe it!

[Mark] The result of my premature attack through the centre was a long hard slog that only just resulted in the breakthrough I’d hoped for. I could see there was nothing Tony could drag back from the front lines to engage me so I felt the final mopping up could come at a time of my choosing. Rather than pressing my luck as usual and seizing the moment I attempted to shore up my by now badly weakened flanks for a turn or two, flanks which he wouldn’t stop attacking. Couldn’t he see that he was beaten?

And then all of a sudden the remnants of his right flank, (ironically the ones I was preparing to get behind) made one final push and my lads folded under the pressure. And just like that he wasn’t beaten…I was. Doh! 

What more to say?  This was a titantic struggle with Tony and Mark bludgeoning each other with abandon.  With the center of the battlefield practically devoid of troops, the battle's outcome hinged upon who could deliver the next fatal blow against one of the flanks.

In this game, Tony was able to strike that final blow.  Congratulations to both Tony and Mark for a very finely played game with lots of drama and tension from the start.  Outstanding!  That was a close one!  Thank you!

[Tony] From the ambush, right up to the end, I knew I was beaten, and concentrated on making the enemy’s victory as costly as possible. If I have any kind of natural style, it might be that I can be a usefully difficult opponent rather than a dashing one! The game was miraculous – I have no previous knowledge of the period, though I have enjoyed a number of Jon’s Basic Impetus events in the past. The rules support a far more nuanced confrontation than I would have expected, and Jon’s umpiring and handling of the game, as ever, was as faultless as the design of the scenario. My thanks and my compliments, in equal measure, to our host and my worthy opponent. 

 

[Mark] While observing Tony’s gaming habits over time I’ve become increasingly aware of my own. It seems I’m a push it to the red line kind of guy. If an attack is working and I’m in a position of advantage, I’ll take the risk of unit exhaustion just to press my luck one more time. Sometimes that’s once too many. Sometimes not. I’d made up my mind pregame to not be so rash when facing Tony and as a consequence did not follow up in pursuit on several occasions when I could’ve done. Pushing the pursuits and knocking the game clock down each time as a result might have made all the difference, but we’ll never know. In the end I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, outfought by an opponent who just wouldn’t give up.

If you enjoyed reading Mark and Tony's in-game commentaries as much as I, please let them know.  Perhaps I can convince them to do it another time?  One more Mikata Ga Hara battle to refight before moving on to another Japanese Samurai battle.