Congrats to Brent, powering over the top of me again!

Final 2 -  G28 NAGASHINO 1575 AD  (Battle Overview) 

BrentS (Oda-Tokugawa) 6 banners

Mark McG (Takeda)  2 banners

The Oda had a disappointing opening hand and the Takeda played a frightening opening move of White Dragon-Order Red, getting cavalry into the river in all three sections. Unfortunately it petered out for the Takeda from there. They lost cavalry blocks to close combat with archers and arquebusiers and were whittled away by ranged fire, despite a timely Shot Proof Armour play. They had their best advance by Masakage on their left but he fluffed a First Strike and Todaya killed him on leader check then took out his cavalry (after two failed attacks courtesy of Kishijoten) and a final successful advance and bonus close combat (I know Mark thinks he made a mistake here by not taking a second retreat flag to get his cavalry out of killing range but he was close to the bottom of the H&F barrel and that would have been dangerous....tough choice). 

From there the Oda just kept shooting while getting two cheap banners from Order Ones. The Takeda sent their second cavalry wave and an Infantry Onslaught across the river and killed Ieyasu (but the shogunate!?!)......but the Oda took the last banner with an Ambush.

The Takeda can win these Nagashino scenarios (because it's Samurai Battles and chaos reigns) but I would say after multiple plays that it's rare. The firepower of the arquebusiers and the cheap banners from Order Ones for the Oda are just too strong. Yes, the Takeda can do it with some good dice and cards and get across the river to rampage while the Oda get a dud hand and crap dice......but they have to be lucky.

Thanks Mark for some fun, bloody encounters along the banks of the Renongawa, and for setting it up, and everyone else for another fun tournament.

Brent.

 

Final 1  G28 NAGASHINO 1575AD (Battle Overview)
Mark McG (Red) 6 banners 25 blocks lost
Brent (Blue)  4 banners   20 blocks lost

Blue came up on their left and was subjected to a withering fire which took Masakage out of the saddle, but crossed the river none the less, where upon they proceded to hand out a battleback beating to anything that close combated them. I would guess that particular run of dice will cost me dear.

From there on, the remainder of the Takeda cavalry came up and was systematically gunned down. Takeda losses were 1 leader and 5 cavalry.
Nobunaga challenged Nobukado to a duel, and lost, whilst Baba Nobuhara commited seppuku
Oda losses were a menagerie of units and a leader.

 

Semi-Final: G22 ANEGAWA (Battle Overview)

Game 1
Mark McG (Red) 5 banners
gotigerssc (Blue) 1 banner

What seemed a much harder match, with Red taking the offensive on their left. I had what seemed to be a pack of Order 2 cards, and as it transpired, most of the Red victory can be laid to having Blue use some creative card combos to bring their units up to me, roll poorly, and I rolled better in battleback. My Blue Dragon card did nothing, Justin's Turncoats did nothing, but my Wild Winds was magnificent, pulling Cavalry charge from Justin's hand at a time when that was sheer waste. Probably my key move was to get Nagamasa and the Samurai Cavalry across the stream, where he lived from card to card, but battled back magnificently. In fact the 5th and final battle came from battleback, at a time when I had completely exhausted cards to play for him (and his 1 remaining horse)
 
Game 2
gotigerssc (Red) 2 banners
Mark McG (Blue) 5 banners

This game seemed to play much faster, even though I as Blue chose to hold back and shoot it out. The red right caved very quickly, and I could get Ieyusu and his cavalry into the fight. However victory was won on the Blue left, where a leaderless Red assault (using the Flatulent Serpent) broke on the firm Blue line.
 
Remarkable, in both games not a leader was lost.
Good tense games.

Semi-Final: G22 ANEGAWA (Battle Overview)

Match 1

goshublue (Red / Asai & Aaskura) Banners 5
boredbeyondbelief (Blue / Oda & Tokugawa) Banners 2

The armies exchanged early Hold and Shoots which Red got slightly the better of, weakening a Blue samurai infantry which they finished off with subsequent fire. Red then had the cards (Infantry Onslaught and orders for their Cav) to get their left flank off the river and into close combat with the Blue right, thereby neutralising their ranged attacks, and blunting their response with a White Fox Spirit (such a good card). Blue did the right thing in response to what looked to be an imminent overrun, diverting by getting both their cavalry across the river and into the Red centre and right, forcing Red to shift attention and killing their momentum on the threatened flank. Red attempted to withdraw damaged units but the Blue spearmen cav ran them down with a Katchu Keiba Victor and eliminated two. The battle was in the balance here but Blue ran out of centre cards to order their cavalry and stalled. They attempted to mobilise their right with a Serpent Command but the rolls didn’t go their way. Red responded with their own Serpent there to finish off the last two units for the victory. That was all down to card pool superiority for Red. No leader kills (a novelty)….that wouldn’t hold for the second battle. 

Match 2

boredbeyondbelief (Red / Asai & Aaskura) Banners 5
goshublue (Blue / Oda & Tokugawa) Banners 3

Hand up that I had a shocker here. Forgot to start a logfile and the halfway through the battle got myself back to front and started manipulating the Red H&F counter instead of my own. Our pools weren’t near empty and we were able to mostly fix it so that it shouldn’t have affected the outcome but thanks Eric for being so cool about it.

A similar story to the first battle. Red Infantry Onslaughted into the Blue right and caused carnage, including a leader kill on Nobunaga (that should be victory in itself!). There was a bloody exchange of units there, the highlight (lowlight?) being a successful Blue Ninja Assassin on Nagamasa. At three victory banners apiece it could have gone either way but Red held their nerve and won the contest of the 1 block desperados to take the last 2 banners for the win. 

They were close, enjoyable, well contested matches. Excellent play, Eric. Not ideal that the difference came down to an assassin……that never works, let alone being the winner of the tie. I do feel dirty.

We did comment after that neither of us would have given Red any chance of victory, but the Asai & Asakura won both legs. It was also interesting that both battles were decided by action on the Oda right and Infantry Onslaught was the key both times.

Brent.

Scenario 24
 
Blue (Forrest) 5 banners 16 blocks lost
Red (Cavie) 3 banners 23 blocks lost

Cavie came out firing missiles but without much success but garnering a lot of Honor tokens. Blue survived a charge on it's weak right flank and turned the tide when it killed a red leader not long after that. Blue goes ahead 3-2 and red pulls back and with some nifty play of dragon cards makes blue wrok really hard for the win, the final count was 5-3.

Fun game and lasted longer than regular game of this. Cavie is a fun and gracious opponent. 

Whilst I encourage the final heat matches to be played, the Semi-Final positions are now determined.
G22 ANEGAWA 1570 AD (Battle Overview)
Boredbeyondbelief vs goshublue 
gotigerssc vs Mark McG

Round 4: G30 NAGASHINO 1575 AD (Takeda Right Attack)

DanieleC     (Red - Oda) 7 Banners, 17 Blocks lost 
JR             (Blue - Takeda) 3 Banners, 21 Blocks lost

As already said by other players in this battle either the Takeda Cavalry is able to cross the river and do a slaughter or the Oda Arquebusiers are able to stop them and save the day. Today the winners were the Oda’s. A timely Hold & Shoot right after the first advance of Takeda’s cavalry proved effective reducing three unit out of four to just one block. The weakened cavalry has then been decimated by another volley of arquebus and finally been preyed upon by the Oda’s samurai. The last fell under a Fire by Rank from three arquebusier’s units. In a nutshell, fire, fire, fire, with little close combat here and there. This is the story. 

Round 2 – G24 Anegawa 1570 AD

Boredbeyondbelief (Asai) 5 Banners 20 Blocks lost
Mark McG (Oda) 4 Banners 24 Blocks lost

With the two fairly even lines initially lined up, Asai started by weakening Oda’s line with some artillery, hoping for a quick score or the potential early fall of a leader. Oda, realizing that the best approach may have been getting their superior reinforcements involved, retreated their entire line, baiting Asai into playing the aggressor. After both sides bringing reinforcements forward and extending their lines, the battle began in earnest with Asai working their troops toward Oda’s line, now flanked by samurai cavalry. Oda’s right flank was the first to make melee contact, but Asai’s archers stood strong through the initial charge. But a quick follow-up attack by Asai proved foolish as Hideoshi and his mounted spearmen eliminated the samurai archers with a strong battle back. Hideoshi continued to press the right flank, causing terror and breaking up the line. However, Nagamasa galloped across the battlefield to meet Hideoshi, eliminating his unit and forcing him to retreat over the open fields. Hideoshi joined Oda’s samurai archers and continued the attack on the right flank. Losses occurred on both sides, but this time Hideoshi did not survive the loss of his unit and fell on the battlefield. With units on Odi’s right flank depleted, the battle turned to the center and left flank, with both armies clashing along the fronts of their lines. Here, Asai drew first blood and was at the point of forcing Oda to retire from the field of battle. But Oda pressed the attack and in heavy combat, with both sides suffering losses, Oda evened the score – with both sides on the tipping point of victory! However, a final push by Asai’s rallied troops were enough to score the finishing blow; Oda retired from the field and Asai held on for the win.This was an extremely close game and could have gone either way, with both sides having rolls for potential victory. I feel that I had the better of the dice rolls against Mark – including rolling 4 swords on a battle back to bring a Samurai Cavalry unit to the brink of extinction. It was a fun match to play – and one where H&F levels were well managed and didn’t come into play.

Round 1: G23 ANEGAWA 1570 AD (Tokugawa against Asakura)

DanieleC (Red - Asakura) Banners 4 Blocks 11
PCScipio42 (Blue - Tokugawa) Banners 1 Blocks 19

It starts with some exchange of ranged fire from the Asakura right and left answered by Tokugawa right where the blue army has a scary two Arquebusiers unit together with Samurai Bowmen. The main achievement of the fire exchange is an Asakura bowmen unit killed and the Tokugawa left flank Samurai infantry reduced to one block, that will be killed later by the Asakura Samurai Cavalry forcing Tadakatsu to retreat to the bowmen unit. After a couple of Serpent move by the Asakura the close combat starts with the Tokugawa pushing in the center and the Asakura maneuvering on their right to avoid the fire of the Arquebusiers, and while the Asakura centre was holding Kagetake drove his cavalry, assisted by a Panic Dragon card, against Tadakatsu and his Bowmen forcing them to retreat and killing the leader, gaining the last two banners needed.

Boredbeyondbelief (Oda Tokugawa – RED) 7 Banners won 19 units lostPCScipio42 (Takada – BLUE) 5 Banners won 18 units lostLots of units on the battlefield, which makes sense given this is the center attack of a larger battle. Funnily enough, there were very few casualties. Partly this was due to Red getting four of their points through “order one unit” cards. It was also caused by red’s leader’s being notably fragile.The first three rounds saw little combat as both sides repositioned their lines. Eventually, Takeda (blue) approached the stream and crossed it with cavalry on their right flank. This would be the scene of all melee combat for the entire battle. Tokugawa never pressed hard out of their palisades and the fortifications, as well as the forests, kept Takeda’s cavalry from running rampant over the field. Still, I must credit Forrest for almost snatching a victory – I was ahead 6-2 until an Ambush took out one of my leaders. This was then followed by a hold and shoot accompanied by a fire arrows. After the skies cleared, it was 6-5. Two rounds later, Tokugawa finally went on the offensive, the final blow was delivered, and Takeda was forced to retire.

boredbeyondbelief (Oda Tokugawa - RED) 7 Banners won 27 Blocks lost (30 blocks lost with seppuku)
rjvonlne (Takeda - BLUE) 6 Banners won 20 Blocks lost (22 blocks lost with seppuku)

This battle should have been a rout by one of the sides. Which one? Well, whomever got the rolls of the dice. Instead, dice were cold for both sides and the game turned into a heated slog where not a single leader fell except by their own sword. In the end 5 leaders took their own lives to avoid dishonor.

Things started off well for Oda-Tokugawa (Red) as they started moving some of their reward troops forward and taking a pot-shot with their arquebusiers; one hit scored against Baba Nobufusa’s (blue) troops. But Baba withstood the leader check. Takeda immediately started following the historical precedent and moved his right flank into the river, hoping to quickly gain the far bank, but red’s flank held strong and worked on repositioning troops. By blue’s second turn, a cavalry unit was across the river and 3 more were fording across. With red’s left flank suffering two quick losses, it looked like the rout had begun. Blue had successfully crossed the Rengongawa. The fighting went a few rounds with each side dealing losses, but the dice were fairly cold; no units retreating and very few hits. Tsuchiya Masatsugu (blue) was brave and took his last soldier straight into the depths of Oda-Tokugawa’s lines and was handsomely rewarded by wiping out a full Ashigaru infantry spearmen unit on one roll and then following this up with damaging Hishiba Hideyoshi’s (red) unit and forcing them to retreat – the first retreat of the battle! The cavalry charge continued and Mizuno Nobotomo’s (red) unit was routed then destroyed. This should have been the end for Oda-Tokugawa, but final hits could not be rolled! The fighting continued 3 more rounds until an arquebusier unit took down the last of Takeda’s cavalry on a two-hit roll for the victory. Tokugawa suffered greater losses, and 3 generals took their own lives, but the day mimicked history; “unable to break the Oda defenses by mid-afternoon, the Takeda were forced to retire and the siege lifted.”

Renaud was extremely unlucky this game. He rolled 15 single-die leader-checks (and a ninja assassin!) but could never get a leader to fall. (I was slightly less unlucky going 0 for 11 in leader-checks). I love how the dice sometimes dictate strategy, and this was true to form in the battle. It made for a great afternoon. (The chances of getting zero successes in 27 leader checks is less than 1% - so I’m unlikely to see that again!)

logfile:

Round 3: G29 NAGASHINO 1575 AD (Takeda Centre Attack)

DanieleC (Oda/Red)  4 Banners, 26 Blocks lost 
gotigerssc (Takeda/Blue) 7 Banners, 20 Blocks lost 

I was hoping to draw at least one cavalry charge but it never came out. My concentration during the battle was heavily on the center with my cavalry and then there was a lot of luck in my favor. I lost count of the number of dice rolled against the cavalry units that I sent across the water only to keep surviving - very frustrating for the Oda army. Fate smiled on me again as I was able to claim three Oda leaders and send another off the board with a Personal Challenge.....that Oda played. The only leader that left the board for me was Takeda who committed sepukku after getting too far behind the enemy lines. Daniele is an excellent opponent and without the leaders falling we would have been tied in the match. 

 

Round 2: G24 ANEGAWA 1570 AD (Oda against Asai)

goshublue (Red - Asai) 2 Banners, Blocks Lost 21
gotigerssc (Blue - Oda) 5 Banners, Blocks Lost 17

The Asai ranged attack proved deadly in the early goings of the battle as they quickly claimed a light bow unit and left my troops in a very odd bowl shape. I then took a couple of turns to pull back and regroup to form a more stout line and we took several turns each battling in ranged combat with another of my units falling (Asai up 2-1). I then got lucky as I had two infantry onslaught cards in hand that I used to bring forward two SSp and two ASp to slam into his lines - the first play of it claimed Nagamasa and his SBC and greatly weakened other units around him. The second play of it on the next turn had me pursue the weakened units who had retreated for the win. Really lucky card draw or otherwise the outcome could have been different. Brent played really well and I look forward to playing him again in the future.

 

Round 3: G29 NAGASHINO 1575 AD (Takeda Centre Attack)

goshublue (Oda/Red)  Banners 7 Blocks lost 20
JR (Takeda/Blue) Banners 3 Blocks lost 21

Another Nagashino scenario, so was going to go all one way.....this time to the Oda. Two leader kills and an Order One SSR banner added to the imbalance. Four Takeda cavalry did make it across the river but depleted and three succumbed to ranged fire and mopping up by Ieyasu (once the enemy cavalry were weakened....brave man). One Takeda mounted unit did break through relatively unscathed on their right, causing casualties among the Oda ashigaru and making Mototada seppuku, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. Appropriately the battle ended with an Oda Outflanked / Fire by Rank combo that killed the full strength Takeda samurai footbowmen unit with multiple swords and a reroll. It was closer than the banner count suggests, as the block count shows and the Oda were hanging on with a couple of one block units. Thanks for a very enjoyable game JR.

Brent.

 

Round 5: G31 NAGASHINO 1575 AD (Takeda Left Attack)

goshublue (Red / Oda) Banners 5 Blocks Lost 18
PScipio42 (Blue/ Takeda) Banner 3 Blocks Lost 19

This is the weak point in the battle for the Oda and I think their best bet is to hold out and hope for Order Ones. They only drew one this time, which they played early and were very fortunate to pull it off, particularly with the Command card distribution. They drew almost all right cards so migrated their forces to that flank, which the Takeda wisely denied by moving that flank to the centre, so that the Oda right was barely involved for the rest of the battle except for some long range pot shots. This was compounded by the Takeda having a stellar hand...Order Red (Oda dropped Wild Winds straight up to nerf that and buy one turn before the entire Takeda cavalry force hit the stream.....maybe it made the difference?), Flying Geese x 2, Shogun and Cavalry Charge. That should have resulted in a trampling but once the cavalry were across the stream, the Oda played their one good card (Flying Geese) with a Panic they had saved for the occasion, and this was decisive, killing a Takeda cav, forcing others back into the stream and inflicting lots of H&F loss so that the bad guys dropped to zero. It didn't quite force the Loss of Honour roll but slowed the Takeda tempo just long enough for the Oda to draw breath and reposition. Yasumasa committed seppuku, further restricting the Oda hand but Tadatsugu was able to survive on the 1 block Oda cav and use a Tactical Wisdom to get a centre order to take 2 final banners. Desperate stuff. Dice were with me and it could have been 5-3 either way there. The Dragon cards made the difference for the Oda, no question. Thanks to Forrest for a very well played, engaging and tight game. 

Brent.

Round 1 G23 ANEGAWA 1570 AD (Tokugawa against Asakura)

beckerdo (Red Asakura) 3 banners 18 blocks lost
gotigerssc (Blue Tokugawa) 4 banners 13 blocks lost

Quite an interesting fight that we both thought would be fast and decided at close combat but that was not to be the case. I started out by taking ranged shots on both flanks and then moving the samurai spearman on my left across the river where he was promptly met and defeated. Oh, and Tadakatsu didn't survive the leader check. On that same turn I also lost Ieyasu, which meant there were no leaders left on the board for either side - Asakura up 3-1 and my chances looked bleak. Units from both sides were scattered across the board  in no real formation and over the next several turns we both focused on regrouping. Eventually the Asakura cavalry and medium spearmen crossed the river on my left and nearly took out my light bowmen (cav got 3 hits and then a first strike forced a retreat to save me). Following turn I moved him back to safety. My Samurai bowmen then claimed a one figure Asakura cavalry to tie it up. On my final turn the arquebusiers were able to defeat the red SB at range (aided by Shogun command card) for the win. Tense fight where both sides advanced and then backed off. 

 

Here is the file for my Round 5 match with Eric as I know he is on vacation

 

Round 4: G30 NAGASHINO 1575 AD (Takeda Right Attack)

Cavie (Red - Oda) 3 Banners,  34 Blocks lost 
gotigerssc (Blue - Takeda) 7 Banners, 19 Blocks lost

Shortest summary I can write is that I made some noise with the cavalry and then got really lucky. Only one non-cavalry unit (heavy spear) made it across the stream for me the entire game. Instead, the cavalry caused just enough chaos in the center and left to keep the Oda units in check. The match was really decided on three lucky rolls early on in close combat that claimed three Oda leaders. It took away so many inspired attacks that could have chipped away at my advancing cavalry. Not much Dan can do in that situation as it really put him in a bad position. I look forward to playing him again in the future!

 

Round 3 - G29 NAGASHINO 1575 AD (Takeda Center Attack)
Cavie - (Red/Oda) 7 Banners won, 17 blocks lost
rjv - (Blue/Takeda) 2 Banners won, 23 blocks lost

The Oda moved up to the river bank and taunted the Takeda to come and attack.  While doing so, the Oda took shots at the Takeda and seemed to hit at about 70% rolling red on just about every roll to reduce the Samurai Cavalry down before they made their attack.

The battle dice continued to favor the Oda throughout the rest of the battle.  Renaud made an excellent effort to move his final cavalry across the river and try to take out the weak Oda left flank.  The dice continued to only favor the Oda despite the coordinated effort and move into the Oda side.  

Good game with Renaud that was not reflective in the banner count.  Block count shows a little better how much closer it really was.


 

Round 1 G23 ANEGAWA 1570 AD (Tokugawa against Asakura)
Cavie (Red Asakura) 2 banners 18 blocks lost
Mark McG (Blue Tokugawa) 4 banners 9 blocks lost

With a fairly indifferent starting hand, and my initial volley failing to gain a hit, the Tokugawa sat back and looked to cycle my hand. Whether Dan sensed this, or was just saw advantage I don't know, but the Asakura came forward into the Stream, forcing me to play my one decent card to meet him there. Here we eked out a hard scrabble of melee, hit by hit wearing each other down. The bright spot for me was the archers, hitting twice on 2 die on the Samurai Cavalry.

Ieyasu performed no great deeds, but Tadakatsu did some good cleaning up of three 1 block units with his 1 block unit until it also was eliminated. A Hold and Shoot then cleaned up the Asakura samurai cavalry.
Surprisingly, no leaders died.
 

 

Round 5 G31 NAGASHINO 1575 AD (Takeda Left Attack)

boredbeyondbelief (Oda-Tokugawa) 5 Banners 10 Blocks lost

gotigersc (Takeda) 2 Banners 24 Blocks lost

<EDITED - I put the wrong number of blocks and banners - this partially had to be corrected due to us misplaying the leader rule - it’s corrected with the true outcome now). Log file will be added when I get back from my business trip).>

History repeated itself at Nagashino. The "hail of bullets" Takeda faced was again his undoing. In the opening moments of the battle, Takeda advanced on both flanks but suffered such high casualties that the only solution was to charge a strong center and try to cross the river in the center. But river crossings are treacherous and slow. This was no different as Sakai Tadatsugu brought his line up to the river's edge to prevent Takeda from getting a foothold on the opposite bank. Takeda finally broke through and was able to take the hills, but fording the Regongawa had proved too costly; his forces were too week and fell to Tokugawa's infantry.

Dice can be fickle, and this game was lopsided from the beginning when in the first 4 rounds I rolled 11 dice for my arquebusiers and hit on 9 of them! Justin meanwhile went 0 for 4 from his quickly eliminated bowmen. And the rolls didn't get any more even - throughout the battle it seemed my hit percentage was greater than Justin's. But Justin took the unlucky beats in stride and as always it was a pleasure playing with him. I look forward to the next time I get to meet him across a C&C board.

Round 3 G31 NAGASHINO 1575 AD (Takeda Left Attack)
Dan Becker (Oda-Tokugawa) 1 Banners 18 Blocks lost
Renaud (Takeda) 5 Banners 10 Blocks lost

I grouped 5 units on the right, including 3 cavalry units, and crossed the river. Helped by a Serpent and 2 Leadership Command cards, I was able to get a foothold and push through. My opponent chose to abandon his palisades, and I took advantage. Luckily, I had a Dragon card prior to my advance that reduced his Hold and Shoot card's ability from 4 to 1 unit and I escaped mostly unscathed. I did have 1 cavalry unit down to 1 block, but I was able to shield them behind my other units, and they only died in the next-to-last turn proving a useful distraction. I closed the game by taking the head of Sakabara Yasumasa. Fun game. My cards were good, and my die-rolling fine. Dan was a bit handicapped by his cards given my lack of attention to the his right flank or the center. 

Dan, you can access the tournament mode by Shift-Right Clicking the army banner on each baseline and selecting Tournament Mode from the dropdown. A very handy feature. You just have to remember that it doesn't count leaders killed so they need to be added manually.

Brent.

Quick question. In the Vassal module, how do you turn on the blocks lost counter next to each side? I recall the module being able to count block losses.