Cangames 2015 - Part 3 Sunday

So finally for part there, here is day 3 of cangames from my point of view. I had to head in early as I was running my Samurai game at 9 and needed some time to set everything up.

Mikatagahara - Samurai Battle, 15mm Pike and Shotte

So this is the battle where the Taekda clan really put their cavalry to good use and crush the Tokugawa/Oda clan alliance at least in the field. This was another winter battle oddly enough, but this time I never told people that so it wasn't an issue hah. I had 6 players which is more then I normally go for, but this is a pretty easy game to pick up so it worked out fine. In order to spice up the battle a bit and give it some flair I made a set of personal objective cards to give the players something specific to do, and this could also be used to have some commanders betray and move of to the other side, although that didn't occur in this battle. Here are the objectives I assigned out, I gave them to specific people instead of letting them choose randomly. I quite liked how this worked and will do it again for sure. The names are all people that were really at this battle who I found interesting for one reason or another, and the italics gives a bit of flavor text.

Takeda Shingen

Upon securing Takeda control over Suruga, northern Shinano, and western Kōzuke, Shingen moved to challenge the Oda-Tokugawa alliance. This was part of Shingens desire to control a territory boarding on the sea. Tokugawa Ieyasu stands in your way and must be dealt with.

In order to complete this objective the Takeda forces must win a decisive victory.

  

Takeda Katsuyori

One of Takeda Shingen’s sons, if you aim to rise in the ranks and one day succeed Shingen you must prove yourself to be a successful field commander.

In order to complete this objective you must break one of the opposing commands without taking excessive losses.

  

Baba Nobuharu

One of Shingen’s famous 24 Generals, and commanded the Vanguard at Mikatagahara. Shingen has ordered you to sweep the plain clear of Tokugawa troops and advance on the fortress Hamamatsu which has been left undefended.

In order to complete this objective you must have some troops and your commander within 2 moves of the Tokugawa board edge, preferably along a road.

  

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu has great ambitions and it would be embarrassing to let the Takeda force pass through your realm unhindered. Against the advice of your retainers you have left the safety of Hamamatsu fortress to meet them on the plain.

In order to complete this objective the Tokugawa force must win the battle and retain control of the field.

  

Natsume Yoshimodu

One of Ieyasu’s most loyal retainers. Natsume Yoshimodu convinced Ieyasu to flee the field and survive after this battle was lost, and the gave his life in a hopeless charge to give him time to escape.

In order to complete this objective Tokugawa Ieyasu must be alive at the end of the game, with his force unbroken.

  

Sakuma Nobumori

Dispatched under orders to assist Tokugawa Ieyasu by Oda Nobunaga, Sakuma Nobumori was the commander of the Oda contingent at this battle. However Ieyasu foolishly left the safety of his castle against your advice. You no longer consider this to be an Oda clan battle.

In order to complete this objective your force must be unbroken at the end of the battle and have suffered inconsequential losses. 

So here is my initial set up, Taekda on the right, Tokugawa on the left, with the Oda troops up top. The Oda troops are supposed to not try and get in the battle to much, but I had assumed that Katsuyori would attack them, as crossing the bridge like that seems unpalatable to me. I really need to replace the green mat thou, my plan is to get one from Frontline or one of the cigar box ones.

Anyway both sides advanced and the Teppo Tai squads started to do some shooting to try and break up the formations a bit. The Oda commander unfortunately failed his first order so didn't get to do to much.

things advance a bit and we start to get allot of combats, the Takeda cavalry is bringing a fair amount of pressure. Surprisingly they tried to force the bridge which is more or less the same thing I did in the test game so that is quite interesting. This version of the rules gives you a big advantage if you are fighting units on your front and flank so not great for the Tokugawa.

The fighting gets intense and some units are being lost. But the cross roads hasn't quite been decided yet. The coins are to represent reroll that the commander can provide if he stays in his Maku. Really I would like to have trukiban (messenger) single figure bases to represent that but didn't get them done. Having separate bases for the commanders after they move off would also be a good thing.

After some tough fighting the Tokugawa force is left broken and retreating. In terms of the personal objectives Takeda Shingen was able to achieve a decisive victory in the battle, and his sub commander Baba Nobuharu was able to break through and take the road. Katsuyori didn't quit impress his father as much as he hope having failed to press across the bridge. Stan with Yoshimada gave it a good go to protect Ieyasu even loosing his head in a duel, so we can consider that to be mostly achieved. Tokugawa Ieyasu didn't quite manage to win the battle or hold out, but he gave it a real goo try. The Oda commander thou was very successful of staying out of the fight and making it not look intentional having failed a few key command rolls, and still managed to move up and put some pain on the trapped cavalary.

I think everyone enjoyed it so seemed a success on my part, thou perhaps a touch on the short side again. I was asked to run something like this again at the club so will have to do a few more units and details and try and get another battle lined up.

The dials are very nice with the Mon for the relevant clan etched into them, made by the dial dude.

In terms of other battles going on at Cangames I didn't take as many pictures this day it seems but here's what I have.

Seven Years War, 15mm Warmaster Historical Variant

Nick

Quite a huge game, really get the sence of a big battle playing out.

Mall set up for a Zombie Game

Not sure on the derails

Waterloo, 28mm Napolenics, Blucher

Tod

Shot of Tods Blucher game with lots of nice 28s.

Force on Force, Elements of destruction

Good Duncan

In the afternoon I played in Duncan's Force on Force game. We had some special forces types trying to take back some weapons of mass destruction from some bad guys. I had the special forces type, and Ed was bringing in some US Ranges from reserve in jeeps. Stan and Chris were running the bad guy. I don't have that many pictures for this one for some reason.

The premise is that the special forces guys HALO drop in to surprise and take up positions around the objectives, while the rangers run up to support, When then had to wether the storm and take out some missile sites in an old monastery.

The first phase went well and we took over the sights with a few casualties.

Then things got a bit dicey for awhile as allot of insurgents turned up. But due to our superior supply and better dice due to much better training were able to shoot them up real good without to much trouble. Although there were a few very dangerous moments where it could have shifted either way. The Rangers had allot of problems bringing up the trucks and had a few destroyed and a couple of casualties and wounds.

In the end we managed to get our operatives into the monastery to take out the missile sites, and the ranges rushed in to the small white house which was a major hot spot and narrowly prevented them from taking out the wounded and pinned down operatives and rangers hiding out around the shipping crates. So a costly marginal American victory I think it was called.

So that was the last game I played in as I was to tired to bother with the DBA tournament. Had a great time at the convention again and had a bunch of great games.

Thanks;

Mike