This Saturday, the forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi embarked upon the Chongyu invasion of the Korean peninsula at Tyneside wargames club.
We set up a 5x12ft table, viewed here from north-east, looking southwest toward Busan.
This was the road the samurai invaders would have to take to Jeonju...
For this scenario, Paul, Reese and myself would each command a Japanese column, marching up the two roads towards the river crossings at a ford on the left of the table and the bridge on the right. The Japanese victory objective was to make it off the near end of the table, whilst the Koreans had to deny that outcome.
Ian and Daryl's Korean defenders would deploy to block our path, while Roderick's warrior monks and armed peasantry were free to spring from our flanks at the drop of a lacquered Heungnip hat.
On the Korean right, Daryl deployed taking full advantage of the riverbank.
The river was a significant obstacle which would take a whole round to cross at any point other than the ford or the bridge.
He lead with his formidable archer and artillery units, keeping his halberdiers in reserve.
In the Korean centre and left, Ian kept the armoured core of the Korean forces back as a fire brigade.
Facing Daryl's archers, I deployed my leading brigade.
It would do no good to screen with my matchlock-men. Outnumbered and outclassed they would inevitably get the worse of any exchange of fire.
I reasoned my best chance was to grasp the nettle and push melee units across the river without hesitation, minimising the time spent under the arrow storm. With some very good command rules (we were using Pike & Shotte) my advance was rapid.
With further to go before any prospect of contact with the enemy, Paul's Samurai advanced in column.
My line's coherency started to falter as the command dice deserted me.
But my units had closed with the enemy and could now take a single advance or retreat move on their own initiative. These initiative moves would be enough to bring my naginata-wielding samurai into melee with those squishy, unarmoured twangy bois.
The melee didn't go entirely as envisaged - the final round of archery as the forces closed was devastating, stopping one unit of samurai dead in their tracks. The ashigaru matchlock-men were keen to come to grips and locked in inconclusive melee with their counterparts. A second unit of samurai pushed across and cut down the artillery crew opposite.
...But were so badly beaten up in the process that they failed their subsequent break test and fled!
My column had now advanced far enough to allow Reese to follow down the road. He echeloned to his right to shake out the in centre of the table.
And as he did so... the Korean monks launched their flank attack!
Back at the ford, Daryl tried to shore up the Korean defence by committing his halberdiers, only to have them break and run at the first tickle from the Japanese light gun.
Reese had managed to redeploy almost all of his units to face the Korean ambush. I pulled my samurai cavalry back into light woods to allow him room to form a line. One unit of ashigaru matchlock-men failed to heed the threat, and were caught unawares by peasantry who had pushed through the underbrush. Roderick had cannily accepted the risk of becoming disordered by terrain for the payoff of catching the invaders napping!
Seeing the writing on the wall for the brave defenders of the ford, Ian marched the fearsome armoured core of the Korean force to reinforce them.
If they formed a line before my second brigade could cross, there was no way the mauled remnants of my first brigade could handle them unsupported.
As Roderick's fanatical monks and their sturdy peasantry began to force some samurai units back, Paul diverted his column to come to Reese's aid.
Back at the ford, a unit of my matchlock-men broke and retreated. At this point, I wanted to withdraw the badly cut-up lead brigade, but a good round of Korean shooting had handed out disorder results to all the remaining samurai & ashigaru. Nobody was under effective command!
Meanwhile, a fortuitous gap in the line offered the perfect opportunity for my waiting cavalry to sweep away the lowly Korean peasants.
However, with an awful command roll, the samurai elite decided the order to attack was phrased inelegantly and declined to act.
Even without the support of the underwhelming cavalry, Reese began to turn the tide against one end of the peasant's line.
My second brigade had now abandoned all intention of reinforcing defeat at the ford, and were pulling back. The remnants of my lead brigade followed... apart from one unit hopelessly pinned in place! When this unit broke, as it inevitably must, it would take the brigade over 50% casualties and the surviving units would flee.
At the second time of asking, my samurai cavalry at last deigned to join the party!
Meanwhile, back at the ford, the long-threatened brigade collapse occurred. And is it any wonder? Look at the opposition!
Bravely but vainly, Reese attempted to use the survivors of the flank ambush to press on with our original strategic objective. Eeerm.... good luck with that, lads.
While behind that forlorn hope, the rest of Reese's column had disintegrated under the concentrated fire of the monk's Circular Firing Squad.
Having ridden down one unit of peasants, my lead unit of cavalry crashed into a second. The luckless serfs found themselves unable to flee due to my retreating ashigaru, and were destroyed. Behind them, my supporting cavalry unit slammed into the monks.
Who collapsed and fled after a devastating round of melee.
With the threat of the ambush broken, the road back to Busan was clear, and with some relief the Samurai commanders gladly took advantage of the opportunity to withdraw.
In hindsight, victory conditions for the Japanese were never really achievable. The march was too long, the front too narrow, the river crossings too few and the defenders too numerous.
Despite this, the game proved enjoyable to play, with plenty of to-&-fro in the individual engagements.
Unit of the day has to be the Korean peasantry who formed up in good order and stood their ground to receive the Samurai cavalry when we all expected them to scatter. Good effort!
(Editor's note: I was stuck with a family outing so couldn't join in this game, so many thanks to Phil for doing my job of taking pics and all that text!)
