G08 FIRST BATTLE OF AZUKIZAKA 1542 AD

Nephew Tom and I continued our first May session with this scenario. Starting as Oda, some useful cards let me attack on both flanks. My mounted samurai on the left removed two ashigaru for minimal losses, but my ashigaru on the right were driven back by Tom's own mounted samurai. That's 2:0 in my favour.

We both continued to attack on our respective left. My horsemen made good inroads into Tom's right flank forces and headed towards his command tent, while my right flank took a battering without losing many complete units. Tom threw more troops between me and the tent, but I took out another ashigaru for the win.

Final score was 5:3 to me/Oda and we concluded our day after some four hours play spread over three games.

A couple of days later we reconvened for the return match and my turn to play Imagawa (red). Over the first few turns I marshalled my troops into a solid line and advanced. The initial fighting was on my right where Tom's samurai took out my Arquebusiers, putting him into the lead 0:1.

My formation broke up as I pressed forward on the left, my samurai eliminating Tom's in front of his Command tent. Their Leader fled (with the appropriate loss of Honour for Tom), but another on the edge of the battlefield fell to the spears of my ashigaru. And I took the lead 2:1.

With support from the archers further back, my foot samurai took out two of Tom's ashigaru and closed on his Command tent - that's 4:1. Tom's mounted samurai relieved the pressure and removed my foot to make it 4:2.

The final action was on my right flank where my ashigaru avoided Tom's samurai to finish off a battered ashigaru of Tom's. 5:2 is the win for me/Imagawa after also winning as the Oda last time. So that's a 10:5 victory for the scenario.

I've also posted this report on my BGG blog (with pictures!): boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/162885/ for the first game, boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/163156/ for the rematch.

Oda Win 5-4

One of the most interesting and balanced scenarios in the book.

First Battle of Azukizaka 1542

This game went down to the wire and was a real thrill. Judd started off pushing hard on my troops and did some early damage. I fell back to try and center my troops around the command tent as an anchor. While it looked bad, I was able to get a miracle shot with an Arquebus using a tactical card for a re-roll on sword hits. I got two hits swords and two more on the re-roll. I took out one of Judd’s Car units and split his line. There was hope and we broke for the night. The following week we picked up with more fighting right off the bat. I was up two to one until we had a fast exchange in which we had three leaders killed in a row. We were then 4-3 with Judd up one. On my turn I had the chance to win. I got one VP to tie. It came down to one chance to win. Judd had one unit with just one block left. I missed with my two dice for attacking into a forrest. However, I had the re-roll tactic card. Another miss. Judd came back the next turn to take out a lone medium infantry with three blue triangles. Judd wins 5-4. A fantastic game. Footnote: this was the first scenario with both teams having command tents on the board. Neither one of us tried to attack the other command tent.