Ieyasu's Great Ride!

...or Mikata Ga Hara Game #4. 

Back to the 1572 Battle of Mikata Ga Hara once again!  In today's installment, we see elements of Postie's Rejects take to the field in a remote battle of wills.  Richard (Shingen in Center) and Ray (both Wings) take command of the Takeda Army while Lee (Ieyasu in Center) and Steve (both Wings) steer the Tokugawa Army hopefully to victory.  A new member of The Rejects, Colin, stepped in to relieve Richard of dice rolling duties in an effort to turn around Richard's propensity to throw the wrong number at the right time.  Did it help?  Please read on!  Player commentary embedded within the narrative.

Tokugawa poised for battle.

As a reminder, the battlefield and army deployments are as shown in the table photo below: 

Battlefield and Army Deployments

View before Tokugawa (mostly red) Army begins. 

When the battle begins, the Tokugawa Army enjoys the potential for two uninterrupted turns of maneuvering to set up the ambush.  The decision whether to hold back or strike early is in the hands of the Tokugawa players.

[Lee] Steve and I teamed up to play the ambushing army and somewhat foolishly, Steve let me take command of the Centre units and Tokugawa Ieyasu. We didn't have time to discuss a plan but based on the pre-game briefing notes I thought that boldness would serve us well. 

Takeda oblivious to the danger ahead.

Tokugawa uses Turn 1 to advance upon the unsuspecting Takeda Army's Center and Left while positioning for outflanking attacks against the enemy's Right.  The army moves forward without raising any alarm in the enemy camps.  

[Lee] We advanced cautiously in the first few turns, taking care not to spook the enemy commands into action before we were ready. We got into what felt like a strong position and poised to attack. 

[Richard] Lee and Steve's positioning in those opening turns really worried me.  They were redeploying to be aggressive and to strike along the whole line.  I had premonitions of them wiping out and breaking through the front units in quick time. 

Tokugawa advances without raising alarm.

Unable to restrain himself any longer, Ieyasu Tokugawa strikes!  Galloping out of the center, Ieyasu leads his heavy cavalry forward and straight into a body of foot Samurai that find itself somewhat isolated from the main battle line.  Shocked by the sudden appearance of heavy cavalry bearing down upon them, Takeda's Samurai put up some resistance before turning to flee.  These Samurai stream toward the rear! 

Ieyasu charges out driving back the enemy!

With Samurai scattering before them, Ieyasu pursues!  Rather than pursuing the dispersed Samurai, Ieyasu sets his sight on a body of archers to his right.  Fortune is with the longbowmen on this day.  Rather than being overrun and ground into dust, the rock-solid archers hold their ground.  Ieyasu and his disordered cavalry are driven off under a hail of arrows.  Hoorah!  

The enemy scatters and Ieyasu pursues!

Not only unlucky once but Ieyasu is unlucky twice!  Emerging from the Takeda battle line is a body of heavy Samurai cavalry and they are closing fast!  Despite being struck in flank, Ieyasu manages to turn his horsemen about to face the enemy.  Miraculously, Ieyasu forces Takeda's cavalry to pull away from combat.  As Takeda's Samurai horse falls back, Ieyasu presses on into the gap now opening in the Takeda battle line.  The enemy center is pierced!  (NB: this may be where Richard turns over his dice rolling duties to Colin!). 

[Lee] Then I "went for it" in the centre and immediately got carried away! I recklessly charged forward with Ieyasu and the Mounted Samurai. Winning the first melee went to my head because I decided to pursue and before I knew it Ieyasu was halfway across the table and deep inside the enemy army.

[Richard] I thought that Lee had over played his hand with Ieyasu and his cavalry.  With a flank attack, I had all the advantages... and then I rolled the dice! Well, Colin was there to spectate but now it was time he took part and rolled the dice for me.  I was happy to do so, this was Colin's first experience of a remote game and he had developed a taste for it by the end. 

Repulsed by archers, Ieyasu finds himself a target
as he heads back to his lines.

Turning to face the enemy, Ieyasu fights hard!

Surprisingly, the enemy retreats!
Ieyasu pursues!

Having cleaved the enemy battle line, Ieyasu and his Samurai now find themselves like a cat among the pigeons.  This time, however, the pigeons can fight back!  Subjected to a hailstorm of arrows from enemies left and right, Tokugawa Samurai drop like leaves in a storm.  To compound the danger, a body of enemy horse archers attack firing arrows as they come in.  Already wavering, what remains of Ieyasu's cavalry breaks.  Ieyasu goes down in the confusion.  Not only are the heavy cavalry lost but Ieyasu is dead on the field! Ieyasu's Great Ride is over!  The gap in Takeda's battle line has been plugged.

[Lee] I had an opportunity to attack the Takeda camp, but my blood lust was up and instead, I kept trying to charge foot units, missing probably the best opportunity to deal a knockout blow to the enemy. When the Samurai were eventually overrun, Ieyasu was also killed. 

[Richard] This time Ieyasu really had overplayed his hand.  The cavalry was effectively surrounded by units that could do damage.  My moving and Colin's dice roll did the trick.  The crisis in the centre was averted.  With what Ray would do on the flanks, we were able to develop a coherent line to face the enemy. 

Suffering from a storm of arrows...

Ieyasu and his Samurai are dispatched.

For the Takeda Army, order is restored.

While the battle rages in the center, the wings have not been idle.  A bit more subdued and restrained, perhaps, but not idle.  Both armies push forward on the wings with missile fire softening up any planned attacks.  In a more workmanlike manner, the wings clash, fall back, regroup, and advance into contact again.  As the momentum sways back and forth on the wings, casualties mount.  The Takeda Right is holding its own against repeated and determined attacks.  On the Takeda Left, success is seen as a body of Takeda foot Samurai break through a wall of enemy Ashigaru.  Enemy Ashigaru spearmen scatter before the mighty Samurai.  The enemy right looks broken!   

Hard fighting on the Takeda Right...

and Left.

Takeda Right holds!

Facing a wall of Ashigaru spear...

Takeda Samurai break through.
Tokugawa Right looks broken!

With reports from the Right that it is under heavy pressure, the Tokugawa Army moves forward in the center in an attempt to tip the balance back to avenge Ieyasu's loss.  Spurred on by cries of "Ieyasu!", a body of Ashigaru spear crash into the enemy line.  Both enemy archers and cavalry fall back before their spears as a body of Takeda longbowmen perish.  Tokugawa spearmen continue pressing on.  Again, the enemy collapses before them!  The enemy is seen streaming for the rear.  Now, the Takeda Center is completely open to exploitation.  The problem for the Tokugawa Army is that the Ashigaru spearmen are spent and there are no reserves nearby to exploit this sudden advantage.  

Attack in the center!

Success...

and pursuit!

With both armies teetering on collapse, one good shove anywhere by anyone may push the enemy over the edge.  Continuing to press its advantage on the Tokugawa Right, Samurai push on!  With Ashigaru streaming toward the rear only one body of teppo remains to hold the wing.  Unfortunately, the teppo is no match for the Samurai and they are dispatched with seeming ease.  

[Richard] With matters so close, it was at this point that we really needed the initiative to push forward to assault the more exposed Tokugawa units in the centre and left flank.  Thankfully, Ieyasu's death now gave us a plus 2 over the enemy for initiative rolls.  This, and then a lucky and immediate activation straight after, firmly provided Colin, Ray and me the opportunity to deal out despair before it could be dealt out to us.  Fate fell kindly for us at the most critical of moments. 

Still, Samurai press on!

Tokugawa Army breaks!

The Tokugawa Army breaks and this battle is over.

Battle is over!

Before Takeda's Samurai scattered the last unit on Tokagawa's Right, the Army Breakpoint Clocks showed 3-1 for Takeda.  The destruction of Tokugawa's teppo brought the clock down to zero, ending the battle.  With Ieyasu dead on the field and his army in tatters, retiring to save what remains is the only option.  Still, Takeda was only three points away from breaking himself.  Close game.  Very close! 

[Lee] With hindsight, it was a spectacular charge (one for the history books) but ultimately very foolhardy indeed and almost certainly cost us the game. When the curtain came down we were just a few points apart. A great game but if we had a chance to play it again, I'd be much more cautious. 

[Richard] An incredible game.  Superb ebb and flow.  Every decision mattered and every activation raised and posed problems to be solved.  This is the type of wargame I love.  Thankfully Colin came through on the dice rolling.  A wonderfully conceived and balanced scenario.  Anyone could've won.   

[Colin] Superb game, thanks for the invite, a close-run thing. 

Cast of characters.

Congratulations to the Takeda Army led by Richard, Ray, and Colin.  Well done guys!  My condolences to Lee and Steve in fighting a hard and spirited battle.  As in the prior three games, outcome hung in the balance until the end.  Losing Ieyasu and his heavy cavalry early on was a blow, no doubt.  An equally harmful blow was with Ieyasu's loss, initiative tended to shift to the Takeda Army.

As always, great fun and a very entertaining battle.

Thanks, Rejects!

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.