GP05. NARA, January 1181

Following the destruction of Miidera, Taira no Kiyomori decided to deal with the temples of Nara, which had attempted to support Prince Mochihito’s rebellion. Proceeding more delicately this time, he sent ambassadors who were threatened and rebuffed, then a detachment of unarmed samurai with orders not to initiate violence. The monks executed sixty of the Taira samurai and displayed their heads around the Sarusawa Pond. Enraged, Kiyomori ordered an attack in force, led once again by his son, Shigehira.
The monks entrenched across the Kyoto road with two lines of ditch, shields and abatis. In extended fighting around these defense works most of the monks were killed. With a blustering wind rising, Shigehira ordered the residence of a temple official to be fired. The flames quickly spread downwind to the other temple buildings and the whole precinct was soon ablaze. Among important buildings destroyed were the two great temples of Kofoku-ji and Todai-ji. In the Todai-ji the heat was so intense that the great buddha melted and thousands of people who had taken refuge from the fighting in its rafters, among them women and children, were immolated.
With the burning of Nara, the Taira had firmly established their control over the capital, but at a terrible cost.
The stage is set, the battle lines are drawn, and you are in command. The rest is history.

Taira (Red)
> Move first


H&F 6

Monks (Yellow)

Dragon Cards 2
H&F 6

Victory
7 Banners
1 Victory Banner for each Leader or Unit eliminated.
(See the Burning the Temples special rule)

Special Rules

* Burning the Temples

• - At any time after the Taira win their fourth Victory Banner, they may start the fire. To do so, an ordered Taira unit occupying a Forest, Palisade or Building hex must spend the whole turn lighting the fire and may not move or battle that turn.
• - Once the fire is lit, at the end of every Taira turn roll 2 dice for each Building hex. On any sword result, that Building hex is set on fire. Place a token such as a coin on it to mark it. Note that some temples are multi-hex Buildings and each terrain tile is treated separately.
• - Any unit in a burning Building hex may attempt to extinguish the flames by rolling its normal 2 close combat dice in lieu of battling (this may be increased by Leader Inspiration or card effects). The fire is extinguished if any H&F symbol is rolled and the flame token is removed.
• - At the beginning of every Taira turn, any Building hex with a fire token is destroyed. Remove the Building tile. Any unit on the Building hex at the time of its destruction loses 2 figures.
• - The Taira player gains 1 Victory Banner and loses 3 H&F if both hexes of the Kofuku-ji are destroyed.
• - The Taira player gains 1 Victory Banner and loses 5 H&F if both hexes of the Todai-ji are destroyed.
• - The Taira player loses 1 H&F token when each of the single hex Buildings are destroyed and gains 1 Victory Banner if all three are destroyed.

• The Irregular Peasant Infantry represent townspeople and gakusho (scholar monks) and follow all normal rules for Irregular Peasant Infantry.
• The Sarusawa Pond water hexes are impassable.
• Optional: Before cards are dealt, if both players agree the Monk player may replace one of his Sohei Warrior units with one Samura Naginata unit and one of his Sohei Archer units with one Samurai Archer unit.