Samurai vs. Samurai...

...the Samurai win!

Good morning,

Yesterday afternoon I spent a pleasant while whiling away the time over a game of Samurai vs. Samurai, DBA 3 style, over at Stans.

We were both using the IV/59 Post Mongol "b" list.

Stan went with the double ranked Cv General with Samurai...

• 1 x General (6 Cv)
• 1 x Mounted Samurai and followers (Cv)
• 3 x Samurai (4 Bd)
• 1 x Nobushi (4 Bw)
• 2 x Ashigaru with yari (3 Pk)
• 4 x Sohei (3 Bd)

...while I chose the Cv General and Ashigaru.

• 1 x General (Cv)
• 1 x Mounted Samurai and followers (Cv)
• 3 x Samurai (4 Bd)
• 1 x Nobushi (4 Bw)
• 2 x Ashigaru with yari (3 Pk)
• 4 x Ashigaru with yari (3 Pk)

Once again, I was the aggressor (what's that all about?!) so Stan laid out the terrain (hilly - steep hills and forests...and not an auxilia or psiloi element between us!), so, as I had a bunch of heavy foot, there was only one place to deploy them.


I thought I might try something clever with my mounted, so deployed them facing east.


Stan rolled up...


...I tried to move around...



...and then the shooting began.


Check out Stan's funky dice! That's a "4" (I think) in Japanese. Vs my 1 in...Society of Ancients dice!

I get round the edge of the hill.

Nice big movement distances. 'Cept command distances - my general was out of touch...literally.


Stan rolls in his 3 Pk up against my 4 Bw. "Fast" heavy foot against against "Solid" foot respectively.

It was about now that he realised that even though his pike were fast, they were still heavy foot, so still went down two factors in the wood. Opps!




I realise that my clever trick of sending my mounted up against Stan's blades-emerging-from-the-woods wasn't going to work. And also that I had no reserves for when Stan's general punched through my line, as he was bound to do. So...back we go!




See. Case in point.

Keep an eye on Stan's Bw. Up against my double ranked Pk. All. Game.


The situation so far. His blades-emerging-from-the-woods have romped up to my blades-waiting-on-the-steep-hill, lots of pushing and shoving in the centre (with both sides following up any recoils), a rather large hole in my line and my bow about to be mobbed in the western woods.




So...I roll in my Bw before Stan can flank it.



Huzzah!

More pushing and shoving.

That Bw was overlapped. @ +1. Double ranked pikes @ +6, overlapped, +5.

Come on, die already!



Then Stan makes his move. As he had no room to flank my centre, straight ahead he did gallop. Up against my camp, and associated camp followers.

Ladies in...waiting...?


Which left enough room for his second mounted element to flank my western pike block. Who were still up against those jolly bow.


And, so as to give the Cv some room to recoil if they had to...single ranked pike in bad going against my Bw. +1 vs. +2.


The camp fight was never really in doubt.

That counts as one element lost for me. (The camp followers themselves don't count for anything!)


But the pushing and shoving that continued in the centre...



...had unexpected consequences. My pikes bounce his Cv, so I peel off my supporting pikes to deal with his mounted caught in the wood. (Just).



Those Fast Bds were making good progress up that hill. Mostly through recoils, hence their companions being left behind.


Finally, my own general arrives at his [sacked] camp.





Huzzah!

And very bad news for Stan. The first double element lost counts as two elements lost, + the general, which counts as an additional element lost. That's three down in one blow.

The pushing and shoving continues...up hill...


...while in the west...



...Huzzah!

And that was the end of that. Stan lost five element equivalents to my two.



And that bow element still survived!

Great game Stan, thanks.

I'm really liking the 3.0 subtleties of the fast vs. solid foot, as well as the longer movement distances which are allowing for such things as feints in the east and the sacking of camps in the north!

Nick