As our scenario we played the Domination mission from the Legions of Middle earth, representing a fight for control of the village / river crossings. On the far side we have some warriors of the Oda clan, and on my side we have some Sohei monks and their Samurai allies. This represents some fighting in one of Nobunagas campaigns against the monks of mount Hiei. In domnation there are 4 terrain features which you must control at the end of the game (the 2 crossings and 2 groups of houses, the game continues until one side is broken (half models dead), and then ends on a 1/2 at the start of each turn.
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| The bridge and small house on the rice paddy and meant for 15mm games, but you use what you have. |
I decided to deploy in the corner with one of the vilages, but for some reason neglected to put any one in there to hold it? The Oda clan split there forces advancing a squad of Samurai across the bridge, and a block of Nage-Yari (pike) and Teppo (gun) armed Ashigaru across the open ground. In this game each soldier acts individually but it's usually a good idea to keep them together for support.
I advanced my Monks towards the ford, and the rest started down the field, but I kept my archers back in a big group so they could fire volleys of arrows down at the Oda. This was not especially effective, but they did take out a few guys here and there.
The advance continued as we tried to have a good position for the upcoming battle. My plan for the monks in yellow was to block off the space between the house a the river so the greater numbers of the Samurai would be useless, but this didn't really work as well as I had hoped.
This the last turn before the action really begins, my Monk had gotten knocked back from the house handily, but my mounted troops were now ready to charge. My Ashigaru on the hill were taking casualties from the Oda gunners thou.
I lost the initiative on this turn so had to use some command points from my commanders to get the first move, else my cavalry would be caught flat footed. Unfortunately the rice paddy prevented me from getting all of them into combat so they were quite out numbered. The Oda Samurai charged across the ford and engaged the rest of my Monks to try and beat them back and take the village. I had started to finally bring my archers around to get into it as well, but it's a bit of a track to the gate by the ford.
Here we are a turn later, my mounted got beaten off by the Nage-Yari armed Ashigaru and Samurai, with 1 dieing and my Samurai Commander taking a wound, he was then brought down by a volley from the gunners. The main group if Oda Ashigaru is now engaging mine with quite a numerical advantage, but I have my Nobori banner to help really the cause. It's only near the village that my troops are holding there ground and fighting back well. On the other side of the river my Sohei commander and his buddy keep getting pressed by the Oda over there.
I managed to make a good show of the fighting around the village, and even got my mounted into the frey, but my Ashigaru fighters were wipped out by their opposition in the field. It tooks a couple of turns thou and they managed to kill a few Oda troopers on the first turn by shear luck so can't complain. At this point the Oda remembered the objectives and 1 ashigaru made a b line for the bridge. The guys across the river continue to puch my Senior Monk back but he is making them fight for it despite now having a wound.
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| Crap forgot to turn off the flash |
But I do get a wound on the Oda commander (hopefully it gets infected or something!). At this point I just became broken so would now need to make courage test to stick around, and the game could end at any point.
Which is does! Thankfully, so the Oda have both of the villages, and I technically have the ford with no one on the bridge. So we end with a draw, technically, as the scenario required someone to capture at least 3 items to declare a victory. But some (wrong!) people might point out that the Oda significantly have the upper hand.
Really enjoyed this game, Samurai are always fun, and the Lord of the Rings game is actually one of my 3 favourite rule sets so always good to give that a go. It's really simple but still gives a nice game. May have to expand out the troop definitions for next time and make them a bit different, and bring it some fun stuff like Ninjas or something.
Thanks;
Mike
Also since this is a Samurai game I thought I would give a shout out to Steelfist Miniatures who are doing a kick starter for some nice Samurai Lords, so check them out if that's your thing.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/536771983/samurai-lords
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