Sohei vs. Ikko-Ikki

I got in another game of Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai this after noon with Gary this afternoon. This was his first crack at the rules. It was good to see Gary as we haven't had a chance to get together for some time!

SCENARIO

We played a straight skirmish scenario – as it seemed the easiest for learning the basics. We both ended up with the “control the board” minor objective.

FORCES

Sohei Buntai - Gary

Grand Master

Medium Armour, Katana

Fearless, Kenjutsu, Intuition, Fast

Senior Sohei

Medium Armour, Katana

Fearless, Kenjutsu, Powerful

Sohei

Medium Armour, Katana, Naginata

Fearless, Naginatajutsu

2x Initiates

Medium Armour, Katana, one with Naginata, One with Teppo

Fearless

Ikko-Ikki Buntai – Tim

Hanshou

Heavy Armour, Katana, Wakizashi, Naginata

Commander, Naginatajutsu, Powerful

4x Monto

Light Armour, Teppo

1x Monto

Light Armour, Yari

2x Peasants

Yari

7x Peasants

Improvised Weapon

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Gary’s Sohei deploy on the table.

The end of Turn One – we both charged towards each other.

Turn Two Gary’s Sohei kept coming, but my Ikko-Ikki stood firm and fired their Teppo… well, two of them fired Teppo – the third was shot by the Sohei’s teppo and ended up stunned and unable to shoot this turn.

One of my Teppo got a very lucky shot. And hit the Sohei’s Grand Master causing a Grievous wound!!

Despite what seemed like some initial success, things went downhill for me very rapidly! Despite being Grievously Wounded, The Grand Master was still a force to be reconed with! He took down my Hanshou in one turn.

My Monto with a Yari and a Peasant were also cut down by a Sohei and initiate, respectively. One of my peasants got in a lucky jab, though, and grievously wounded the Initiate.

We played out one more turn – which saw the Sohei’s initiate fall and another one of my Peasants slaughtered.

At that point I conceded. I probably should have a turn earlier.

So, had this been in the campaign, Gary would have chalked up a win with 6VP and I would have scored 1VP… I also lost 62 points worth of stuff and had two other peasants lightly wounded. Gary only lost 19 points worth of stuff, but his Grand Master was Grievously Wounds – which he could recover from, but effectively put him out of action for a few games…

I was a bit more rash than I might have been, but I wanted to get into combat so Gary could learn the system. Had it been a campaign game I might have just sat on that hill and shot at them and when they got close – ran away! Both of us had the “Control the Table” minor objective – which, as long as I didn’t lose to many troops, I might have pulled off – having far more numbers.

I don’t think I’d take three Teppo in the future – one, maybe two. Both of these buntai need some archers. I HAVE archers for both, I just need to finish painting them…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I haven’t got a whole lot of painting done this week. Hobby-wise I’ve mostly been doing some prepping and converting:

These are Perry Miniatures Ashigaru archers I’m trying to convert into Sohei to use with the same Buntai Gary was using above.