Arguing when ... Katanas clash

[jon_1066]

I've decided to start a thread to record my dive into a new rule set, period and scale.  Sengoku era Japan, 10 mm (thanks to the new Wargames Atlantic and old Pendraken figures) and the Arguing When Money Talks: Der Soldner rules.

I've always loved the idea of a Japanese Sengoku era wargame since playing the original Shogun Total War back in the day but I've never quite managed to line up all the pieces of the puzzle.  I bought some Dixon Ashigaru a long time ago and realized 28 mm would be too much of an undertaking to paint the figures.  The rules then available struggled with the unique Japanese elements and it always languished as a nice thought.  Well no longer!

My idea is to use the Arguing When ... rules with suitable modifications for Sengoku period warfare.  To be honest not much needs to be done - just some extra words for the Matrix and figuring out the combat starting points.

The figures will be predominantly the Wargames Atlantic plastics.  My idea is to have a sonae based game.  The principal unit will be the sonae but I'll base the missile troops and cavalry separately.  This will give maximum flexibility to commanders and to scenarios.  It will allow gun kumi to be added for later battles, allow gun lines to be formed, which does appear to be what happened at times, and give Takeda Shingen a chance to rampage his cavalry about the place without dragging his Ashigaru with him.

I reckon with three boxes of Samurai and Ashigaru plus command figures and I'd have enough for about 30 odd Sonae.  This should be enough for most of the battles of the period until you get to some of the later ones which could be very large - though quite one sided and less interesting to game.

In terms of battles themselves the Daimyo tend to start small and work up so are ideal for both painting perspective and figuring out the rules.  eg two or three sonae a side up to ten to twenty.  They should work well multi player as well with each commander of a Te being represented by a player.

There are also some interesting scenarios to re-fight.  Bonus is most people don't have detailed knowledge of these battles as well so there can be genuine surprises.  The Arguing when rules also lend themselves very well to handling all those (mostly Edo period embellished) tales and strategies employed by the sides.  So no specific rules are required for people changing sides, losing heart, lying in ambush, attacking at night, attacking whilst the other side parties, hiding your force in a depression, lining your guns with horse fences, sending half your army up a mountain, employing false retreats, woodpecker tactics  or firing on your supposed ally to get them to make a decision.

I'm waiting on Wargames Atlantic to release their command stand before pulling the trigger on the figures.  In the mean time I'll start with dummy stands to test out the basing, rules and scenarios.

[fred]

This sounds very interesting. Not least as I have several of the pieces already

The Arguing When rules - though only given them the smallest read so far
10mm Pendraken Sengoku armies - based on 40mm squares with single troop type per base (these have had a few outings but as the fantasy Nippon army not an historical one).

Interested to see what you Sonae style basing looks like jon

[jon_1066]

My plan is to use a 100 by 50 mm base for the ashigaru, samurai, command and flags in various sonae layouts inspired from this site https://gunbai-militaryhistory.blogspot.com/2018/03/sengoku-period-warfare-part-1-army-and.html

So basically a line of yari ashigaru with various things behind them.

The individual missile and cavalry Kumi will be 50 by 25 so two missiles can go in front and two cavalry behind to give an overall size of 100 by 100 for a sonae.  This will allow early sonae to have just bows and later to have bows and guns.  Guns can also be sent forward or kept with the sonae, likewise the cavalry.  It will also allow different attacks to be shown - so if you are leading with the missile troops or being aggressive and charging in with the ashigaru and missiles to the side or even leading with the cavalry against a disordered enemy.  Sort of the best of both worlds - things fight as a sonae mostly and you only have a few bases to move about but the different arms can still be represented.

A te will be formed of 2+ sonae and an army from 1+ Te.

The commanders will be with their sonae with the overall commander in his honjin.  He won't ride around giving orders but his messengers will so time checks will be the same for them.  I'll post up my minor modifications to the rules once I've tested them out a bit.