10mm Samurai game using Fantastic Battles rules

10mm Samurai game

Rules - Fantastic Battles (Using my custom made Samurai stats with help from the Author).
Miniatures- Pendraken (all bought and painted new this year)
Players- Four
Points- unsure but both armies identical in composition.
Time - Five casual hours

Army composition

1x hatamoto 3 Company unit

3 x Mounted samurai (4 company unit)

5 x Yari Ashigaru (4 company unit)

5 x Arquebus Ashigaru (4 company unit)

1 x Levy Yari Ashigaru (4 company unit)

1 x levy Arquebus Ashigaru (4 company unit)

Each side had the same army compostion for our first game.

Initial deployment- Tadeka (left) vs Oda and a few Isuegi (right)

Takeda rolled as defender so chose the terrain. oda chose the table edge the wanted. takeda then deployed followed by Oda.

There were a few hills - but they dont show up well in the photos. the Mishap rules meant both sides had to tidy up units whose deployments meant they were depleted or moved ahead or behind their intended deployment. 

View from Takeda Shingen's command tent (Maku).

First moves- Impetuous Takeda cavalry advance as does the whole Oda line.

Newbie mistake by me was to have armies deploy 20" apart not 10" - this meant the oda army was harder to keep together and attacked in disjointed waves. my bad. Will aim to fix that next time!

First combat. left wing cavalry fight. very bloody. takeda have upper hand and upper slope!

Oda advancing, impetuous units bunch up on the right. - known as "the blob" by the oda commanders.

Oda mounted Samurai smash into the Takeda front line, scattering Levy Ashigaru spearmen.

the Oda Ashigaru units in yellow would have been well poised to exploit the cavalry success if they were closer (oops)

Despite huge loss, the regular Takeda Ashigaru spearmen manage to fight them off.

The blob lumbers forward.

Arquebusiers fight it out in the center.

An oda captain unit manages to sort out the blob as it approaches.

Takeda spear units backup the wavering Arquebusiers just incase.

The dastardly Oda Nobunaga leaves his Maku and leads his personal guard (hatammoto) against the takeda left to force a breakthrough.

Takeda shingen does the same as his centre-left is rather battered.

Oda Levy Ashiguru scatter under fire.

An Isuegi Samurai unit (Oda Ally today), tries to outflank via a village but the inhabitants have other ideas as two villager units are spawned.

On the right, the Blob finally arrives, the famous Takeda cavalry smash through their Arquebusiers and into their spears. huge loss on both sides.

..and they tear into a third unit. this time samurai. An Oda Ashigaru unit joins in from the flank.

"Get orf my laaand!"

Takeda cavalry wiped out but at great cost as the blob is only shadow of its former self!

Both sides chop and shoot for a few turns as more units scatter.

Until finally the Oda army concedes as 50% of its units have now scattered. on the right we see Oda Nobunaga fight to the last. He even won a duel!

Conclusion

Takeda major victory (three units lost to Oda ten)

Great game with fun had by all.

We love the rules- simple, elegant and easy to use. (well written and laid out).

The victory was in large part due to an error on my part deploying too far apart allowing the attacker's unist to become spread out (or bunched in the case of the Blob!). We can fix that next time.

Improvements for next time-

re-read deployment page!

We will use objectives / a scenario for a more narrative game.

Use of historical Army formations (crane wing and all that).