A couple of games this past weekend.

In addition to painting a few miniatures this weekend past, including additional Ashigaru and some English Civil War dragoons, I was also able to play a couple of samurai Sengoku period games with my Red clan and Blue clan samurai armies. Using an online translator, I believe their names are Akai ichizoku and Ao no ichizoku. For the games I selected the “surprise attack” scenario from One-hour Wargames, with 7 units per side instead of the standard 6 units. The first game was played on a 4x4 foot tabletop setup.

The scenario set up on a 4x4 tabletop.

The defenders are well prepared.

The games gave me an opportunity to get my recently painted headquarters encampments onto the tabletop and to test out some different chance cards that reflect the period and add a bit of flavour to the games. One of these cards is called "Personal Challenge," which allows a unit to issue a personal challenge to an enemy unit. When played, the enemy unit selected is inactive for its turn, it also cannot be attacked by any other unit. I had read that samurai, even in this late period, would use personal challenges, their objective along with any personal glory was to delay attacks or buy time to retreat. I have two of these chance cards in a player’s deck of 15 cards.

I found that the “Personal Challenge” cards added a new and themed twist to the game. It allowed me on a couple of occasions to protect my units when moving up for an attack and also to delay an enemy advance.

A personal challenge is issued.

The delay caused by the personal challenge stopped half the defenders shooting in the first game.

When I replayed the scenario a second time I decided to play length-wise down my 6x4 foot tabletop with the centre 4x4 foot of the tabletop being setup as per the scenario with a reserve area of 1 foot for each army’s base edge where I can place the headquarters encampment and any troops yet to arrive.

The scenario is set up in the centre allowing the reserve space to be set up with troops arriving later in the game.

The “surprise attack” scenario. Setup length-wise down the tabletop. The bulk of Red Clan is encamped near a town at the far end, unaware of Blue Clan’s imminent attack. It will take a while for them to be warned and organised to join the battle.

The attack well underway having forced the first line of defence.

The mountainous and wooded terrain of Japan played an important role in samurai battles. Strategic positions, such as bridges, castles, and mountain passes, were often fought over by samurai armies. This provides plenty of opportunity to use quite a few of the scenarios from the One-Hour Wargames book in a short campaign.