Battle of Wada (Bushi Life #5) AAR part2

 -Turn 1

 The Wada clan rose in rebellion and stormed Kamakura. The battle started with exchanging fire on the left front. In the shooting phase, each player selects one stack and fires into an adjacent area in alternating turns, with the Wada shooting first. The Wada managed to disorder three Bakufu units (flipping them), while the Bakufu made two enemy units unmovable.

 Then came the move & melee phase. As in the shooting one, each player moves one stack at a time. Each stack has three movement points, and entering an area occupied by the enemy to engage in melee costs two points. As a result, the game features limited maneuvering and frequent head-on clashes. Stacking is limited to five units per area at all times, preventing a stack from launching an attack by moving through a friendly stack that already occupies the space.

 From the left side of the main street, the blue stack led by Doi Yoshikiyo 土居義清 crossed the street and attacked an intact Bakufu stack. Doi, a powerful leader with a combat strength of 4, drove the enemy back, causing two of its units rout.

 Doi attacked the intact red stack, but there had been a damaged Bakufu garrison in front of him, already weakened by the earlier shooting, which he could have attacked under more favorable conditions. However, the Wada strategy was to pin down as many Bakufu units as possible to prevent them from falling back and forming a defensive line in stronger terrain to the rear. In this game, units that suffer damage are flipped to their fatigued side and cannot move. Units that retreat after melee also become fatigued. For this reason, the Wada chose to attack the intact four-unit red stack so that it also would be unable to withdraw further.

 In the centre, the formidable Wada stack advanced directly up the street and charged the Bakufu forces. This stack, led by Asahina, includes Wada Yoshimori 和田義盛, the leader of the rebellion. In melee, Yoshimori has a special ability that allows him to contribute an additional 1 point as a supporting unit. This makes the already strong Asahina-led stack even more powerful, and the red army had no choice but to retreat.

 In melee, if combat lasts more than one round, all units on the winning side also become fatigued. To exploit this rule, three undamaged blue units on the left wing attacked a Bakufu stack that had already taken fire damage. Although the Bakufu, benefiting from defensive terrain, repelled the attack, the blue forces fought stubbornly. As a result, the remaining red unit that had not yet been fatigued was also flipped.    

 While the Wada pressed forward relentlessly, the defending Bakufu attempted to pull back as many units as possible to establish a defensive line, with reserves hurrying forward to bolster the front.