Masakado's Last Stand - AAR part1

  In the centre of Tokyo where head offices of major corporations are located, surrounded by high-rise buildings there is a tiny grave called Shomonzuka (将門塚). It is said to be the final resting place of Taira no Masakado, a samurai warrior who led a rebellion against the emperor in the 10th century. Soon after he revolted in the Kanto region, including present Tokyo, Masakado, a man of valour, put a large part of Kanto under control with his mounted army. He even claimed the title of Shinno (New Emperor). 

 The central government in Kyoto sent a sizeable punitive force. It defeated Masakado and burned down his base, Iwai Fort. Faced with an enemy of 4,000 strengths, he only had 400 guards left. But the leader of the rebellion didn't give up.  Masakado executed a sophisticated manoeuvre near Iwai to lead his army, which consisted of mounted archers, to a position upwind and launched an attack with his skilled guards of high morale. A fierce battle ensued. Masakado was killed by an arrow at last, but the outcome of the battle had never been certain until the last moment.

 "Masakado's Last Stand" is a wargame included in the magazine "Bushi Life", Nr 4. This game stimulates the battle of Iwai with simple rules. Basically each turn consists of the phases of fire, movement and melee. During movement phases, the players take turns moving one unit at a time, like in chess.

(BTW this game is registered as "Masakado's Last Battle" in BGG.  I don't know it is the official English title or not (the original Japanese title is "Masakado Saigo no Tatakai"). Still, I just prefer "Last Stand", for he and his guards were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to defend their cause, so determined that they would not surrender under any circumstances. ...sounds too dramatic?)

 The most notable point of this game is the rules regarding the initiative. The initiative player can shoot first with a longer range during the fire phase, decide how many units both players can move during the movement phase, and receives favourable column shits during the melee phase, in which only the initiative player conducts attacks. 

 During the first half of the game the north wind blows, which gives Masakado's army the initiative. But then the wind direction reverses to let the imperial punitive force have the initiative. This causes a dramatic shift, as you could easily imagine.

 The number of Masakado's units is much smaller than that of the punitive force, but for the latter it is not easy to make use of its numerical superiority; the battlefield is limited by the swamp on the left and the river on the right, and also stacking is not allowed. Although the punitive army units seem countless compared to Masakado's, more than half of them are untried ones, of which average combat strength is less than 1. Each side has 3 commanders, and Masakado's are more powerful.

 The game lasts for 8 turns, and at the end of the game, the player who has acquired more victory points than the other wins. Masakado gets VPs the same as the combat strength of the eliminated units, and 15 points for each eliminated commander. The punitive force receives 4 PVs for each eliminated Masakado unit, and 20 VPs for each commander. And if Masakado is eliminated, the punitive force player immediately achieves victory.

 Now Masakado's last stand begins...