Ming Chinese v Samurai

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Paul K
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Ming Chinese v Samurai

Post by Paul K »

This club game was always going to be a brain teaser in that the terrain layout which was chosen before the armies were allocated to the players was always going to dictate the course of the game. The scattering of 3 and 4 hex areas of woodland and the rolling landscape created by the numerous hills and escarpments was not going to enable the two lines armies to face-off against each other in the centre. The dice dictated the Tony and Chris took the Samurai and James and I the Chinese and the dice then gave the Samurai choice of table edge, second deployment and first move – the omens were not good right from the start.
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The Samurai army contained 5 units of mounted Samurai and 3 units of foot Samurai which were very expensive in terms of points. So to boost the overall number of units and in doing so enable the Samurai army to include 4 generals on the standard 5:1 ratio the army also included 7 hordes of peasants at just 3 points per unit. This brought the total number of units in the Samurai army to 24 against the 21 of Chinese. The Chinese had just 2 units of armoured cavalry but did have 3 units of horse archers and 3 units of medium cavalry giving them an 8 to 5 advantage in mounted units.
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Let the game begin! Both armies advanced to quickly take possession of the numerous terrain pieces and I said to James that this terrain favoured the infantry. The most open area was on our left where we concentrated all our light and medium cavalry with our heavies in reserve. 4 of the 5 units of Samurai drew up in a line to face them with the multitude of peasants following up behind to occupy the woodland. Chris lead most of the rest of the Samurai infantry on what became a sweeping flanking manoeuvre. James took possession of the 3 hex escarpment and arranged his Chinese crossbow units in its defence.
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I advanced my horse archers and medium cavalry and Tony responded with his mounted Samurai forcing them to evade. This bought time for him to position his peasants between and inside 2 areas of woodland which made them into a major obstacle for my 8 units of cavalry. For the loss of one unit of cavalry for each side, the Samurai cavalry withdrew behind the peasant infested woods!
Meanwhile James was engaged in a shooting match between his Chinese crossbow and the ashigaru handgunners. His main enemy turned out to be his shooting dice which constantly failed to deliver any results throughout the game.
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It took a long time but I finally managed to push the peasants back far enough to position my 2 units of heavy cavalry to the centre of the table ready to charge. However, again my horse archers failed to dislodge the peasant hordes from the woodland and time was now pressing as Chris’s flanking movement was now beginning to give James’s Chinese infantry a hard time. Chris’s shooting was very good in stark contrast to ours which had declined from being merely poor to being quite awful!
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Time was in favour of the Samurai as Tony had used his peasants to great effect as a chess master uses his pawns. With my 2 remaining units of horse archers having little effect against Tony’s peasant hordes in their forest fortress it was time to throw caution to the wind, and charge the Chinese heavy cavalry and medium cavalry against the peasants and Samurai cavalry waiting behind. To have any chance of success the 2 generals available were reluctantly also committed into this do or die hand-to-hand combat. Having carefully calculated the odds, we needed to win the first round of combat well in order to withstand the tougher second round when the Samurai cavalry would become fully engaged.
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Sometimes, when you need just a little bit of luck, you unfortunately get none at all. The medium cavalry failed to hammer the peasants and the heavy cavalry fell at the first hurdle! As a result of this miserable combat performance Tony’s counter-attack proved devastating with the loss of the 2 Chinese generals and 3 units of cavalry. James’s infantry fought on valiantly but there was no way of reversing this disaster. It did take a while for the Chinese infantry to be finally defeated with James using the woods and escarpment to good effect, but I had already lost the game for us with my cavalry committing what turned out to be a suicidal charge.

Game Analysis

Chris and Tony won the game by showing greater patience throughout, and also using the terrain to give their infantry the advantage when it was most needed. The Samurai peasant hordes performed way above their pay grade and demonstrated their affinity with trees! The Samurai missile troops shot better than our Chinese throughout the game and Tony aptly demonstrated his uncanny ability to roll a good set of combat dice when required. This is a particular skill which has eluded James and myself in recent games.
Kind regards
Paul

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