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Author Topic: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign  (Read 8823 times)

Online Osmoses

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #30 on: March 20, 2021, 07:45:04 PM »
Chapter 3.
1.The ikkō-shū
   Toranosuke heads back down the Kiso river, intending to return to Owari and possibly visit his family. On the way he meets a group of ikkō-shū adherents, followers of the Hongan-Ji Jōdo Shinshū sect. They are heading to Nagashima to seek employment as temple guards. Because the group are well armed, they decide to push on ahead of the main group of travellers and reach the next village. But it’s a violent age, and inevitably trouble ensues.




Bandits emerge from the trees and circle round the travellers. One of the ikkō, Kotarō charges them, but is cut down by 2 brigands. Some of the ikkō fall back, Toranosuke shouts at the group to attack the left. He charges the brigands, cutting down two, but is wounded when only one of the ikkō follow. The ikkō-shū leader, Nagayori, cuts down another one of the brigands, and Toranosuke kills the man who wounded him. The rest of the ikkō have shrunk back, leaving Toranosuke and Nagayori alone. But the brigands have had enough and retreat back into the trees.



Kotarō is dead and another of the ikkō badly injured. The group carry him to the next village.

Offline orc

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #31 on: March 24, 2021, 08:00:04 PM »
After read your reports, and saw your wonderful  sceneries and minis...I must give a try to test honor rules!!! thanks for sharing!!! Arigatoo  8)

Offline Lascaris

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #32 on: March 24, 2021, 09:44:25 PM »
I think these might be the best miniature action photographs I've ever seen. Brilliant job.

Online Osmoses

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #33 on: March 25, 2021, 04:57:47 PM »
2.The Vendetta

   Toranosuke parts company with the ikkō-shū as they head on towards Nagashima. He is staying at a village one evening, and gets to talking to a retainer of the Hachisuka clan named Sadatsugu. Toranosuke is relating his tale of the fight against the brigands on the way there, when a commotion is heard outside. Toranosuke and Sadatsugu rush out to find a well-dressed man fleeing in terror, a man with drawn sword hesitantly backing away from a group of armed men.



The two walk forward to see what is going on, when the group attack. Sadatsugu immediately strikes down one of the assailants, and contemptuously pushes another aside. The other man rushes forwards and cuts down one of the attackers, but is himself cut down by another attacker. Toranosuke darts forward and strikes the assailant dead. The others flee.





It seems that the group were attacking a merchant as part of some vendetta. They had overcome the man’s guards but he had managed to flee with one of his bodyguards. The irony of intervening in such a matter to protect the merchant is not lost on Toranosuke.

Sadatsugu and Toranosuke go back to their talk. Sadatsugu is on a mission for the Hachisuka clan to locate and destroy a band of brigands who have been menacing nearby villages. He offers to employ Toranosuke, which, given Sadatsugu’s cool headed behaviour in the fight, is an offer Toranosuke accepts.

Online Osmoses

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #34 on: May 05, 2021, 09:24:51 AM »
3.The ikkō-ikki

The Hachisuka forces conduct a sweep towards the border. Sadatsugu’s own men, along with Toranosuke, take the centre. The ‘brigands’ it turns out, are in fact members of an ikkō-ikki that had crossed the border from Ise and entered the lands of Hattori Tomosada. From there, they had infringed upon Hachisuka territory.



Sadatsugu’s group encounter a force of ikki troops and move to engage. Toranosuke defeats one of the apparent leaders, as does Sadatsugu. But then, cries of confusion break out, as some of the Hachisuka have changed sides…





Toranosuke leads the attack with his group, while Sadatsugu defends his position with his now characteristic cool-headedness. In a hard fight, where Sadatsugu’s sashimono bearer is knocked unconscious by a teppō ball, the Hachisuka eventualy drive off the bandits. The cost is heavy, however. Between death and desertion, there are only 7 men remaining. Sadatsugu wryly observes that at least there are 7 that he can trust.

The ‘traitor’ event was inspired by one of the clan traits from the Sengoku expansion. The event naturally followed from an extremely favourable result of the meeting with Sadatsugu. There had to be a reason Sadatsugu was so keen to take on Toranosuke, and it was a reasonable inference that he couldn’t wholly trust some of the men he had hired. Historically, one of the reasons for the antipathy powerful daimyō had for the ikkō-shū was that some of their own vassals were members and could have divided loyalties.

Online Osmoses

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #35 on: May 05, 2021, 09:28:32 AM »
4.The pursuit
   Sadatsugu meets up with the other Hachisuka forces. The left wing had decisively defeated the ikkō-ikki force, but the right had been led into a trap by traitors and annihilated. Sadatsugu sends the left wing force to find the main ikkō-ikki force, while he and the reserve group sneak into Hattori territory and try and catch any stragglers. Sadatsugu’s force encounters a band of ikkō-shū and attempts to stop them escaping into Hattori territory. Toranosuke is given command of one of the groups. Initially the Hachisuka prevail against the ikkō-ikki, but the fight turns against them, and the ikkō-shū men successfully break through and escape.
Overall, the operation has been only partly successful. Sadatsugu returns to Hachisuka Masakatsu to report.







5.Hachisuka Masakatsu
   Masakatsu-dono is surprisingly favourable given the lack of success. Sadatsugu explains the problem with ikkō-shū members within the clan being asked to fight their co-religionists. Sadatsugu gives Toranosuke a good reference and Masakatsu suggests that Sadatsugu take him on as a retainer.

This battle was a bit larger than normal so was played using ‘Feudal Patrol’ rules. It could probably have just about been played with ToH using a lot of groups, but I thought I’d have a go at integrating another game into the campaign for larger actions. Feudal Patrol is very adaptable and you can create characters with better than normal stats to cross over ToH characters. 

Offline Wellington

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #36 on: May 05, 2021, 12:16:28 PM »
Beautiful as usual! Thanks for sharing
A life without Samurai is possible, but not desirable!

Offline Kikuchiyo

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #37 on: May 06, 2021, 12:52:03 PM »
Really great work

I've been toying with the idea of a solo Samurai adventure for a while - I've played through ROSD with a samurai band and even used proxies for the villans but a TOH setup looks like a winner

Online Osmoses

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #38 on: May 06, 2021, 03:40:35 PM »
I played a Japanese-themed ROSD too. I leaned heavily on the ROSD 'AI' to use with solo Test of Honour. I think ToH works well for a solo game as there aren't really that many choices to make, so it's much easier to use with a simple AI like ROSD has.

Offline Kikuchiyo

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #39 on: May 06, 2021, 07:00:10 PM »
just been looking at your blog

realy like your honour/dishonour approach

I don't have TOH as I'm more a solo player these days but you may have changed that - otherwise I'll be looking at trying a similar approach with vanilla daisho - minus the magic and monsters

solo with a ROSD AI
« Last Edit: May 06, 2021, 08:02:09 PM by Kikuchiyo »

Offline mkultra99

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #40 on: May 07, 2021, 07:10:03 PM »
So inspiring! Great work!

Offline blacksoilbill

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #41 on: May 13, 2021, 12:51:11 PM »
I've just worked my way through this thread. Your campaign sounds really engaging and the games look gorgeous!

Online Osmoses

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #42 on: May 14, 2023, 07:53:31 PM »
It's been a while, but I've picked up this campaign again. Again, it's a version of Test of Honour played solo, with an 'AI' that's very similar to 'Rangers of Shadow Deep.'

Chapter 4:
Hachisuka Masakatsu had been a retainer of Saitō Toshimasa in Mino, but after Toshimasa was killed in his own son’s rebellion had returned to Owari. First supporting Oda Nobukata until he was defeated by Oda Nobunaga and Oda Nobukiyo. Now he had switched support to Nobukiyo, who in turn had turned against Nobunaga. Internal Oda politics was dynamic and confusing.

The Hachisuka were one of a number of independent kokujin on the Kiso river border region between Owari and Mino. They were engaged in the profitable river trade there. At the moment, Hachisuka Masakatsu had three main concerns, getting dragged into the ongoing war between the different branches of the Oda, preventing criminal gangs muscling in on the Kiso river trade and dealing with frequent incursions from the Hattori lands over the border in Ise, sometimes by aggressive Ikkō-shū members from the temples near Nagashima.

This last concern has led Sadatsugu and Toranosuke to be on a tour around the villages in the area to monitor signs of incursions. It is while engaged in this mission that the party is ambushed by raiders.







A small group blocks the road ahead while a group off to the right emerges from the trees and attacks. Sadatsugu drives them back. But Sadatsugu’s  hata-sashimono bearer is shot in the throat by an arrow, demoralising the ashigaru around him. Toranosuke cuts down the leader of the group on the road, but is wounded in the process.



Sadatsugu has pursued into the woods, and Toranosuke tries to hold off the raiders while calling the ashigaru to rally to him. Hemmed in and outnumbered he strikes down a raider, and, seemingly inspired, one of the ashigaru leaps forward and cuts down another leader. The raiders shrink back, but one of the ashigaru is slain.



Another wave surges forward. Their leader aims a blow at Sadatsugu, who dodges back cutting the assailant. Toranosuke rushes over and impales the man with his yari. The remaining raiders lose heart and back off into the trees.



Searching the bodies there is some evidence that the raiders may have been ikkō-shū members. The two interrogate one of the survivors who reveals the nearby location of an ikkō-shū cell leader. Sadatsugu forms a plan....

Offline Vagabond

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #43 on: May 18, 2023, 06:40:45 AM »
Excellent,  I'm pleased you resurrected your campaign, hopefully you will keep it going.

I've not read ToH rules, presumably the ambushers lost heart and fell back when their leaders were cut down, rather than you deciding that was their best option?

From your battle description it sounds as if the activation system is - one figure activates then another and so on, if so, do you think that gives a good reflection of combat in this part of the world at this time? i.e. individuals acting individually, rather than as a group.

Online Osmoses

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Re: Tora no Monogatari: An ongoing Test of Honour solo campaign
« Reply #44 on: May 18, 2023, 08:34:13 AM »
It’s been good to get back to it. It’s also a good accompaniment to finding out what was going on in Owari around this time, sort of like a virtual tour but with swordfights…

Like a lot of skirmish games, ToH scenarios end when a victory condition is met, and everyone left on the table kind of stops fighting and wander off. Never terribly realistic but saves having to figure in some kind of overall force morale, or play out a disengagement. In this case, once the attackers were effectively down to half strength, that was the end of the scenario.

ToH is basically alternate activations of individual figures, and those figures can move and/or shoot and fight etc on that activation. ‘Characters’ have 2 or 3 activations per turn rather than 1. It’s essentially more of a ‘chanbara’ game than anything else. I’ve changed some of the rules to make it a bit more ‘historical’ and but it’s still more cinematic than realistic. Though, I don’t think many skirmish wargames are particularly realistic, certainly not pre-modern ones. Casualty rates and shooting accuracy are usually way too high. I suspect that the average Sengoku Jidai skirmish would look more like a fight between gangs of rival football fans, albeit armed ones, than a Kurosawa film.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2023, 08:45:02 AM by Osmoses »

 

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