Anegawa 1570 – First Phase

In early 1570, Oda Nobunaga marched against the Asakura clan. This forced his brother-in-law, Asai Nagamasa, to make a difficult choice between honouring a long held alliance with the Asakura or his family tie to the Oda.
He chose to remain loyal to the Asakura, and Nobunaga made a hasty retreat to Kyoto to avoid being trapped between two enemy armies. Enraged by what he saw as Nagamasa’s betrayal, he returned with a combined Oda-Tokugawa army in July 1570 and advanced on Nagamasa’s home at Odani Castle. Learning that a combined Asai-Asakura army was moving to intercept him, Nobunaga laid siege to the Asai mountain castle of Yokoyama with a small detachment and positioned the remainder of his army on the southern bank of the shallow Ane River, near Lake Biwa in Omi Province.
The two armies met across the Ane, with the Tokugawa on the Oda left flank facing the Asakura, and the Oda on the right flank, facing the Asai. Both sides waded into the shallow river, where desperate fighting ensued.
Tokugawa Ieyasu personally led his troops against the Asakura and gained the initiative when he ordered Honda Tadakatsu to flank the enemy troops, surrounding their commander Asakura Kagetage and threatening a rout.
This was prevented by the heroism of an Asakura samurai named Makara Jurozaemon, who stood in the river and challenged any of the  enemy to personal combat. This challenge was accepted by a number of the Tokugawa samurai and although Jurozaemon was eventually  defeated, the diversion allowed the Asakura to withdraw in good order across the river. They fought a successful rearguard action but were forced from the field and the Tokugawa now crossed the Ane and turned to threaten the Asai’s right flank.

Set-Up Order 9 4 2

Asakura Samurai Army (Red)
5 Command Cards
2 Dragon Cards
5 Honor & Fortune

4	2	1	2	2	1

Tokugawa Samurai Army (Yellow)
6 Command Cards
2 Dragon Cards
6 Honor & Fortune
Move First

4	2	1	2	1	2	1

Victory
6 Banners
1 Victory Banner for each enemy unit or leader eliminated

Special Rules
* Jurozaemon’s Sacrifice
At any time after the Asakura have lost 3 Victory Banners, when he plays his command card the Asakura player may place Makara Jurozaemon in any unoccupied river hex, represented by an infanty leader figure. Jurozaemon may not be ordered, moved, attached to a friendly unit, perform a leader escape, commit seppuku or be targeted by ranged fire.
While Jurozaemon is in play, Asakura units and leaders in Jurozaemon’s section do not lose H&F tokens for retreating and ordered Asakura units and leaders may exit the battlefield across any Asakura baseline hex in Jurozaemon’s section and are removed from play, the movement off the baseline hex costing one movement point. The Asakura player gains one Victory Banner for each escaping unit. Escaping Asakura leaders do not grant a victory banner to either side. All these effects end immediately if Jurozaemon is destroyed.
When an ordered Tokugawa unit declares close combat against Jurozaemon, it rolls 2 dice, or 3 dice if it has a leader attached, and destroys Jurozaemon on any sword result. The river terrain does not modify the number of dice rolled. The Tokugawa player receives no Victory Banner for destroying Jurozaemon. The Asakura player gains one H&F token each time Jurozaemon survives an attack by a Tokugawa unit and 3 H&F tokens if he is destroyed.