Remote Game Preparation - The Battle of Cheriton 1644

In the coming week, I have a remote English Civil War game planned with Jon from Palouse Wargaming Journal. Jon suggested that we play the battle twice, once with me hosting and then with Jon hosting. We've used this approach before with the Battle of Lake Tresimene (see here and here) which proved a very interesting comparison and enjoyable.

A view of the Royalist units

This time, the battle was selected from the English Civil War, the Battle of Cheriton (1644) picked from one of the scenarios in C.F. Wessencraft’s book “With Pike and Musket”. I plan to play the battle on a 6 foot by 5 foot tabletop, which allows nearly the entire battlefield to be visible from my mobile phone mounted on a tripod. It’s a simple and cheap setup for remote gaming, though it does limit the size of the game.

A view of Parliamentarian units

The Battle

The Battle of Cheriton, fought on 29th March, 1644 and was a Parliamentarian victory. Sir William Waller's force defeated a Royalist force commanded by the Earl of Forth and Sir Ralph Hopton. The Parliamentarian army had marched overnight and had occupied Cheriton Wood. Lord Hopton positioned the Royalist army on a ridge north of the wood. The battle began with the Royalists taking the wood and forcing the Parliamentarians to retreat. Hopton had then planned to defend, but an impulsive Royalist infantry commander attacked the Parliamentarian left wing. The attack failed and the Royalist cavalry were drawn in to supporting the attack, but were defeated. Hopton then moved his left wing cavalry to join the attack and they were similarly defeated. The Parliamentarians then counter-attacked, driving back the Royalist forces and regaining Cheriton Wood. As evening fell, the Royalists retreated.

The tabletop layout.

Order of Battle…

Parliament

• 6 x Cavalry units
• 8 x Infantry units
• 1 x Artillery units
• 3 x Dragoon/Commanded Shot units

Royalist

• 6 x Cavalry units
• 7 x Infantry units
• 1 x Artillery units
• 3 x Dragoon/Commanded Shot units

Scenario Rules?

This weekend, I plan to test the scenario and try out some rules. For example, Royalist units must attempt to capture the woods before any other units can advance. If they succeed in taking the woods, roll a D3 dice to determine how many infantry units make an impulsive double move towards Parliament’s cavalry.

The tabletop ready for a game.

Remote Samurai Game

A day or so ago, I had the pleasure of hosting and playing a remote samurai game with Jon from Palouse Wargaming Journal. It had been quite some time since my last remote game, as other non-wargaming activities had been keeping me busy.

Early stages of the game

My remote gaming setup is quite basic, consisting of a mobile phone running the remote meeting and a camera attached to an extendable tripod. Generally, this works well since I limit the tabletop playable area to either 5x4 feet or 4x4 feet. This setup allows the tripod and mobile phone to cover the entire table from a set position, giving the remote player a good view. 

For the samurai game, I used a 6x4 foot area, which required occasionally moving the tripod so Jon, the remote player, could see all the action. As the game progressed and the armies closed in, the need to reposition the tripod was less. However, the tripod is not always stable when the mobile is extended up quite high to get more of a top down view, and there were a couple of times where the tripod toppled over, causing Jon to experience a virtual "face-plant" on the tabletop. Despite these hiccups, the larger table was manageable.

A cheap tripod and mobile are used for hosting remote games.

The game takes place during the Sengoku period, featuring a clash between two hypothetical clans. The Shinku (Crimson) clan had been relentlessly besieging a castle allied with the Ao (Blue) clan. In response, the Ao clan dispatched a relief force, which has secretly marched overnight and used the early morning fog to surprise the Shinku forces. As the fog lifted, both armies found themselves face to face, ready for battle.

The order of battle:

Shinku (Crimson) clan

• 1 x Mounted Samurai (Hotomoto) with Daimyo
• 2 x Foot Samurai units
• 4 x Ashigaru units
• 3 x Tsukai-ban
• 1 x Command tent

Ao (Blue) clan

• 1 x Mounted Samurai (Hotomoto) with Daimyo
• 1 x Mounted Samurai unit
• 2 x Foot Samurai units
• 4 x Ashigaru units
• 2 x Tsukai-ban

While the Ao clan outnumbers the Shinku clan, the overnight march left them poorly organised for battle. This disarray is reflected in their having fewer Tsukai-ban (messengers) and no command tent, resulting in a reduced chance of their units rolling for multiple actions when activated. Additionally, the absence of a command tent means their Tsukai-ban cannot be reassigned to other units.

Deployment

The Shinku clan must deploy all their units within the red zone. The Ao clan will deploy after the Shinku clan and can place units anywhere in the blue zone.

Map of the tabletop showing deployment zones.

Game Length and Turn Order

The Ao clan player always goes first in each turn. The game lasts until one army is reduced to two units.

Victory Conditions

Reduce the opposing army to two or less units.

Game Report

The Ao clan positioned their samurai on each flank, with their Ashigaru in the center and their mounted samurai and Hatamoto held in reserve behind the centre. The Shinku forces, on the other hand, formed two battle lines placed their Ashigaru in the front line and kept their all their samurai and Hatamoto units in a reserve line.

Opening moves of the battle with Ao samurai units advancing on the flanks.

Battle Report

The battle commenced with the Ashigaru units of both armies advancing towards each other. They were soon engaged in an exchange of arquebus fire. While the Ao samurai on the flanks advanced, entering the wooded area on their right and the hills on their left. 

Despite effective shooting by the Shinku forces, the Ao samurai on the flanks proved to be a real handful and threat. Their aggressive advances had disrupted the Shinku battle lines, forcing them on the defensive and causing one of their units to rout.

The Shinku are forced to retreat from the woods.

As the battle progressed, the Ao attack intensified, putting significant pressure on the Shinku army. In response, the Shinku forces advanced their samurai and Hatamoto units to counter the threat from the Ao flanks. Their Ashigaru in the centre continued to performed well, successfully routing part of the Ao centre. This forced the Ao clan to advance their mounted samurai and Hatamoto earlier than planned to maintain pressure on the Shinku centre.

The Shinku respond to the Ao samurai attack from the hill.

The Ao Hatomoto are engaged early plugging the gap in the centre.

The Shinku army having endured the Ao army’s attack, and despite suffering significant casualties, began a counter attack led by their Ashigaru. The Ao army having exhausted its strike force of samurai from their earlier assaults, were forced onto the defensive, and were eventually forced to retire from the field of battle.

A turning point in the battle as the Shinku forces reorganise to counter attack.

The Ao army having been reduced to two units retires from the field of battle.

Summary

Congratulations to Jon for his hard-fought win. The Shinku army did initially struggle with the Ao flank attacks by their samurai units, but were able to withstand them. In the centre their Ashigaru were effective, guided by the Tsukai-ban, and they wore down the Ao units with their shooting. This meant the Ao Ashigaru failed to inflict sufficient damage with their shooting for their mounted samurai and Hatamoto to launch an effective assault in the centre. A most enjoyable game.

For the game, we used my home-brew samurai rules. There are a few areas of wording I need to clarify and tidy up for my next game. The activations and use of Tsukai-ban seemed to function as the rules intended. Alas, there were no personal challenges during the game. I suspect we both forgot about that rule.

Adding messengers to my samurai games

This weekend I was able to paint up a few more samurai messengers (Tsukai-ban) for my games to replace the tokens I had been using. These messengers played an important part on the Sengoku battlefield, translating the Daimyo’s orders into actions on the battlefield. Over the past couple of weeks I have been trying to incorporate Tsukai-ban into my samurai rules where they can have an influence on the actions a unit may take.

Tsukai-ban and a command tent.

My current rules have an activation approach where units are individually activated by a player during their turn. With each activation a D6 is rolled. The result determines the number of actions the unit can take:

• On a score of 1, the unit fails to activate.
• On a score of 2-4, the unit can perform 1 action.
• On a score of 5 or more, the unit can perform 2 actions.

The unit then performs a number of actions based on the roll. All actions for the unit must be completed before the player activates another unit. Possible actions include:

• Move (including charge by moving into contact with an enemy unit)
• Shoot
• Personal Challenge (with 2 actions)

Units with two actions can perform them in any order, such as: move and shoot, shoot and move, move twice, shoot twice, move and charge, or charge twice. Actions cannot be carried over or saved for later use.

A Tsukai-ban attached to a unit.

Tsukai-ban can be either attached to units or placed in the command tent, ready to receive their next orders. At the start of a player’s turn, before attempting to activate their units, they can move from the command tent to attach to a unit, or detach from a unit and move to the command tent. They cannot move directly from one unit to another; they must first return to the command tent.

A Tsukai-ban adds 1 to their attached unit’s activation D6 rolls, playing a crucial role in activating units and increasing the likelihood of a unit taking multiple actions and avoiding a failure to activate.

If the unit they are attached to is eliminated, then the Tsukai-ban is also eliminated.

If an army does not have a command tent, or the command tent has been eliminated by an enemy unit making contact, Tsukai-ban cannot move between units and must remain with the units they are attached to.

The messengers are the last piece to add to my samurai rules. I am now writing up all my notes after a number of enjoyable test games.

Adding personal challenges to the samurai rules

As I continue to work through my home-brew samurai rules, one of features I want to include are personal challenges (and heroic deeds). Even during the 1550-1650 period, the time period these rules are aimed at, samurai would occasionally issue personal challenges to their opponents. They were often employed as a tactic by retreating samurai units, hoping the time spent issuing, accepting, and fighting the challenge would allow them to either escape or reorganise themselves.

I wanted the rule mechanism to be easy and fun to use, and also provide variable outcomes. I opted for an approach using coins to decide the outcome, where coins are flipped by both participants with heads winning. Whenever the result is two heads or two tails, then another round of combat occurs. After each round of combat, unless killed, players can remove one of their unit’s hits as they reorganise or are inspired by the challenge. While this rule offers little to no benefit to fresh units, it can be advantageous for depleted ones that have accrued a number of hits.

Challenges are issued and accepted.

Below are the draft rules, followed by an example…

Personal Challenges (and Heroic Deeds)

The leader of a samurai unit must spend 2 actions to issue a personal challenge to an enemy samurai unit, whether on foot or mounted, within movement range. Challenges can only be issued between samurai units, foot or mounted.

When a personal challenge is issued, both players move their commanding samurai bases to an equal distance between the units to commence personal combat. The process for combat is as follows:

Combat. Both players flip a coin for their samurai leader, then compare on the table below. Heads will win unless the other player has also flipped a head.

Personal Combat Table

Combat Results. For each round of combat a samurai leader survives, remove 1 hit. When combat concludes, the winning samurai leader returns to their unit with their opponent's head, while the loser is removed from play.

Example of personal challenge combat…

Blue mounted samurai who have taken 7 hits are now facing off against Red’s foot samurai and Ashigaru. Wanting to delay until further reinforcements arrive they successfully roll 2 actions and choose to offer a personal challenge to the foot samurai who currently have 1 hit. 

The leaders of both units are placed equal distance between the two units.

The first round of combat has both flipping tails. So both will be able to remove 1 hit.

Blue flips a heads while red flips tails. Blue wins and can remove another hit, while red loses.

Blue leader returns victorious to their unit which now has 5 hits. Red leader is removed as a reminder they cannot issue a challenge. They have removed 1 hit for surviving the first round of combat.

All being well I hope to try these rules out in a couple of games over the next week. I will also be considering whether to add victory points to the game where personal challenge wins can add victory points.