A Sampling of Samurai

A Headless Body Production

Venue: A secluded fire house at the edge of the dark and forbidding Pine Barrens of New Jersey, home of the New Jersey Devil.
Event:  Kozcon ADLG organized by Don Manzer.
Players: Phil Gardocki running Medieval Polish (254)
Richard Jarosz running Samurai
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.
Scale: 25mm

The Forces:

Medieval Polish: Commanders Larry'ego (Brilliant ), his brother Darrellem (Competent), and his other brother Darrellem (Competent and Unreliable).
4 Winged Hussars, Medium Knight, Impact, elite
2 Followers, Heavy Cavalry, Impact.
4 Medium Cavalry, Crossbow
2 Tartars, Light Cavalry, Bow elite.
2 Lithuanians, Light Cavalry, Javelin
2 Serbian Hussars, Light Cavalry, Impact, elite
2 War Wagons, Crossbow
1 Heavy Spearmen, 1/2 Crossbow
2 Light Infantry, Firearm, 1 elite
Breakpoint...21

Richard Jarosz had a strange tale to tell of what happened to his actual figures. But by the third round, he was tired of telling it. So I know nothing about it except that it was a strange tale.

And with a borrowed army, terrain on loan, and ambush markers made by Mattel, he went to war.

Since he was reading crib notes as to his figures, I certainly don't have a chance of correctly identifying them.

He did say there were no elites in his list and it had a breakpoint of 25. That is really good, as when I run Samurai the breakpoint is around 19.

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" "痛い" or "Auć!", this implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen.

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

Deployment: 

The Polish win the initiative and elect to attack in the plains.

With 3 foot units and 4 horse, and sitting on a road, this command is prepared to attack, defend or redeploy, as needed.

The center has 7 foot units showing, and looks like it was more of a defensive force.

On the Samurai right is their main attack force. 5 heavy swordsmen supported by bowmen and cavalry.

On the Polish right is Darrelem with 2 war wagons and miscellaneous foot units.

Leaving just a couple of lights to hold the field in the center, Larry'ego has lined up all his lancers and horse archers on the right.

Darrylem is looking at 2 Samurai horsemen to his 8 units on horse.

Turn 1:

Darrylem's mission is to screen off the Samurai on his side of the field.

The field in the center is annoying, and if the Samurai take it, it would be a decisive platform for them to shoot from. The Poles really cannot keep the Samurai from taking it, but they can slow them down getting there.

The plan is blunt. Go straight into the swordsmen. Knights are +2 - +1 on contact, with furious charge. That should be enough to crack a couple of heavy swordsmen.

Especially with a number of lights on the flanks of the line providing melee support.

It's the bottom of the first, let the Haiku's fly!

On their right, the Samurai foot advance to the fields edge, but go no further.

Their foot on the hill, take the high ground. Their mounted are redirected to their left to deal with the flank threats on their heavy sword.

Their heavy food advance fearlessly.

They detach one horsemen to delay the flanking lights.

This looks great! My Lithuanians are already in a position to flank charge the Samurai horse in the main line, or cause it to evade from the swordsmen. If the Japanese horse evades, then the foot are in range as well.

Turn 2:

Darrylem recalls his one fire arms men.

The other is taking cover in the field.

Arrows fly on the approach. The Japanese archery is proving brutal. 3 Polish units are disordered already, including a second Winged Hussar.

And this is where the plan fell apart. Darrylem rolled a 1 for command points. So none of that fancy maneuvering of the lights was going to happen. His only orders was for his body to advance, and for the lights to turn and face their single adversary.

But the Polish are not alone with a shortage of command points. Their assault against the Polish left seems limited to pushing their lights forward.

The Japanese center commands actions seem limited to redeploying their horse.

But their foot samurai are not going to wait for Darrylem to get his act together. They charge down the line. Winning 3 of 7 impacts.

Correction, winning 3 of 8 impacts.

Turn 3:

The Score is 6 all.

The Polish firearmsmen line up on their heavy spearmen.

The Tatars note the timidity of the Japanese on the hill and advance for some taunting.

The left of Larry'ego's line is a Heavy Cavalry, and the sees an opportunity to run down some medium foot. With a great feat of skill at arms, runs his opponent into the mud. The rest of Polish horse however, is not doing well. Three are destroyed by highly skilled katana wielding Samurai.

Sharp shooters all round!

Samurai foot advance to the bottom of their hill. Ignoring the Polish heavy horse in their rear.

The foot swordsmen to not move. Leaving the Japanese horsemen to do the job of dealing with the flankers.

One reason is there was if they move forward, they will get flank charged on the next Polish turn.

Serbian Hussars defeat a mounted Samurai. But Darrylem's last medium horse is disordered.

Turn 4:

Darrylem recalls his fire arms man.

Polish followers charge again. But the dice gods were not kind, and they were stopped at the edge.

Darrylem finally gets his lights moving.

The fight on the hill continues.

The remaining foot Samurai turn and face the rear foes. 3 units of mounted Samurai finally arrive into the area.

Turn 5:

The battle continues.

Both ends of the Samurai foot line have collapsed!

At the hill, the Polish attack meets strengthening resistance.

And on the right, the Samurai horse arrives to save the day. Both Lithuanians are caught and destroyed, taking the Polish to their break point of 21.

What went wrong? It's rare that I'll blame dice for a loss, but in this case, there were two decisive 1's when rolling command dice for the right command. Just a 2 would have started a series of flank charges down the Samurai heavy foot command that would have picked them up. And a 4 would have accelerated the process.

But with a 1, all the lights on the flank could do was deflect the single mounted samurai sent to keep them busy.

As it was, it was still a near thing. The Samurai were at 23 towards their breakpoint of 25.