Misc. (Samurai), Black Powder (modified), 28mm

We survived the night, and returned to the game on Sunday morning. For once, rather surprisingly, I wasn’t nursing a hangover, and I had a reasonably early night. Essentially, we resumed the game where we’d left it. I was still holding off Charles (uesugi Kinshin) and Donald (AKA Kagemochi Amakasu) on the left flank of the army, while our Shogun Kevin (Takeda Shingen) was busy countering an attack by Uesugi Kinshin’s guard units in the centre.So, once again I (or rather Oda Toramasa – above) was left to my own devices, and there were rather a lot of the enemy in front of me! That morning I only a token degree of support from Bill (Oyamadu) on my right – he was off helping Kevin fend off the elite samurai warriors of the enemy’s guard. So, I found myself launching limited charges, to fend off the enemy, but my contingent was getting whittled down.

Actually, I was doing okay, until about 11am, when I had to make a series of morale tests, all of which went horribly wrong. Over two turns I lost two of my three Samurai foot units, and had to fall back to regroup. The only thing that prevented disaster was the arrival of a unit of Bill’s, which joined my Samurai cavalry in a charge which held off the enemy for a little while longer!We were actually playing against the clock here, as we planned to pack up after lunch, so people could get home. that was especially handy for me, as I had a ferry to catch in Aberdeen, and wanted to pop into Hobbycraft before I went aboard! However, by late morning Kevin had seen off the threat from the Uesugi hokoshu (guardsmen), and launched his counter-attack, which pushed in the enemy’s left flank.Things then, were starting to look up for ‘Team Takeda’. Mind you, I was still holding on by the skin of my teeth, and was slowly frittering away my remaining units, launching charges against Charles and Donald’s pesky missile troops – who’d caused most of my casualties. In the centre the table was now a swirling mass of figures, and the Ueshugi line was having problems, but still holding. Casualties on both sides were mounting steadily though.At that point this mammoth battle could have gone either way. Dale, who’d organised all this, was a little disappointed though, as he’d come up with a  system of issuing challenges for duels and so forth, and nobody had taken him up on it. Now though, the Ueshugi side decided to give it a try, much to Dale’s delight. The two army commanders squared up for a duel, rolled lots of dice – and nothing happened!So, the battle reconvened. This time the pressure on my wing proved too much, and I pulled back, lining up with Bill’s yellow-clad troops, to form a new line close to our table edge. For some reason though, Charles and Donald seemed hesitant to charge in. It seems they had a succession of ‘blunders’, poor command die rolls and other such mishaps, and the troops didn’t seem as keen to get stuck in as their commanders would have liked!By now though, the clock was ticking, and rather surprisingly – as it was just a little after Noon – Dale declared it was the last turn. So, we played it out, and I managed to hold off this last Ueshugi attack, although by now my Samurai cavalry were a spent force. it was just as well it was the last turn – otherwise my heavily battered and reduced command would have evaporated. Still, the little lead samurai emerged with their precious honour intact.Elsewhere on the battlefield not much else happened, although the Takeda Shingen forces were still pushing forward. Dale though, had been counting coup throughout the game, recording honour points, casualties and various other things. As a result, after a mercifully brief debrief, he declared the evidently drawn game a draw. He added though, that the Ueshugi side had the slight edge in points, so had bragging rights of a narrow victory!With that we all packed up – a task made easier as all of the figures belonged to Dale. I must say I was surprised, as with 2,500 figures on the table, he still had another 1,000 in boxes! It was a real spectacle – one of those eminently memorable games. As I’ve said before, while Samurai aren’t really my period, and I don’t really know or understand the whole epoch, I can appreciate wargaming eye candy when I see it – and this ticked all the boxes!

Tags: Black Powder