Historical Background
Sakuma Morimasa regrouped his men in an attempt to repel Hideyoshi’s pursuit, resulting in a stalemate in the Hashiba left flank. Seizing the opportunity, Hideyoshi’s brother Hidenaga commenced an attack from the right flank directly against Shibata Katsuie’s main camp. Maeda Toshiie led 5000 men reinforcing Sakuma’s flank. However, he faced a dilemma.
Throughout most of his life he had been a dear friend of Hideyoshi, yet he was also a core and founding member of Shibata Katsuie’s Hokuriku Legion.
Shibata Katsuie had always treated him with trust and respect. The most proper decision would be to help his fellow soldiers by following his order, but he eventually could not bring himself to face Hideyoshi with his blade.
He hesitated with his advance for a long time and eventually decided to withdraw from the battlefield, leading to the collapse of the Shibata right flank. Hideyoshi defeated Sakuma Morimasa and marched towards Shibata’s main camp, forming a pincer with Hidenaga’s right flank. Shibata Katsuie was defeated and fled to his home castle Kitanoshou, where he would eventually commit suicide after 3 days of siege. The Battle of Shizugatake resulted in the elimination of one of Hideyoshi’s major political rivals after Nobunaga’s death. Hideyoshi would soon begin his rapid ascension to power with a momentum that ultimately led to his unification of Japan.
The stage is set, the battle lines are drawn, and you are in command. Can you change history?
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| 1 | 3 | 7 | 10 |
Shibata Army
5 Command Cards
2 Dragon Cards
2 H&F Tokens
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| 6 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Hashiba Army
5 Command Cards
2 Dragon Cards
2 H&F Tokens
Move First
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| 8 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Victory
10 Banners
* See Command Tent rules
►Eliminating Hashiba Hideyoshi grants the Shibata player 2 Victory Banners.
Special Rules
►Oni-Genba’s Rampage: When a unit attached to Sakuma Morimasa does close combat, tokens are not gained from token dice results. Instead, for each token symbol rolled, apply a flag to each adjacent enemy unit (not just the unit being attacked). Enemy player may choose the flag/retreat application order. This special action is not performed in battle backs by Sakuma’s attached unit.
►At the end of any turn, if Hashiba Hideyoshi is in an adjacent hex to Maeda Toshiie, remove Maeda Toshiie and all "Maeda"- labeled units from the board. This removal from the battlefield does not result in any Victory Banners.
►All hill hexes are impassable.
Source:
https://sengokubattles.blogspot.com/2021/07/battle-of-shizugatake-1583-part-3.html
Yuki's Post-Battle Notes and Trivia
• One of the burning questions some players have might be why the Seven Spears of Shizugatake (Ittr-t&opds**. Shizugatake no Shichihonyari) were not represented as leaders in this scenario. This has to do with both the scale of the battlefield and the statuses of these men at the time of this battle. The scale of this particular battle is macroscopic and the leaders represented commanders. These seven heroes of Shizugatake we all know and love were simply not given this much responsibility at this time for their names and actions to be visible from a zoomed-out map. Perhaps their personal exploits can be represented in future scenarios in more tactical scales.
• This battle was indeed what made these men famous though, and this battle marked the beginning of their successful careers in the upcoming Toyotomi Administration. For completion' s sake, the seven men are: Wakizaka Yasuharu, Katagiri Katsumoto, Hirano Nagayasu, Fukushima Masanori, Katou Kiyomasa, Kasuya Kakenori, Katou Yoshiaki.
• Maeda Toshiie was the very few people who was friends with Hideyoshi before Hideyoshi made a name for himself. This makes him one of Hideyoshi' s oldest friends.
On the other hand, Shibata Katsuie had always been a mentor-like role to Toshiie in his military career and they fought alongside each other in various Hokuriku region campaigns.
Furthermore, when the impetuous young Toshiie impulsively killed Nobunaga' s half-brother, Shibata Katsuie was one of the several retainers who begged Nobunaga to forgive Toshiie, thus saving his life.
• As expected, the Battle of Shizugatake posed a serious dilemma for Toshiie as he had and to choose between his lifetime friend and his mentor. After painful deliberation he chose Hideyoshi. He continued to be one of the most trusted men of Hideyoshi and wielded enormous power and influence in the upcoming Toyotomi Administration. Even the resourceful Tokugawa Ieyasu did not dare to make his moves to topple the administration until after Toshiie died of old age.
• According to Shizugatake Gassenki (RitA15400.E, "Records of Shizugatake Wars" ), on route of Shibata Katsuie' s retreat after his defeat, Katsuie made a comment that suggested he did not fault Toshiie for his decision to abandon him. Instead, he thanked him "for sticking with me for as long as you have" .