Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles Session Report – Second Kondonai 1564 AD

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We are continuing with Lukasz our series of C&C Samurai Battles games. Usually as consecutive, geographically or chronologically connected sets of scenarios. Today I am presenting a two-day battle, which you can play as mini-campaign, where results of first engagement directly influence the second. I am talking about Second Kondonai 1564 AD.

Enjoy the picture-rich session report plus historical background!

Other Samurai Battles Session reports:
- Arita Castle 1517 AD - 2 scenarios
- Okehazama 1560 AD - 2 scenarios
- Koriyama Castle 1540 AD - 4 scenarios 
- Azukizaka 1542 & 1548 AD - 2 scenarios
- Fourth Kawanakajima 1561 AD (Phase 1&2)
- Fourth Kawanakajima 1561 AD (Phase 3,4&5)
- Sekigahara 1600 AD - 3 scenarios
- Anegawa 1570 AD - 3 scenarios
- Nagashino 1575 AD - 4 scenarios

The Game

Short How to Play video, presenting main game mechanics

As always, couple of sentences of introduction for those less familiar with that Commands & Colors installment – plus if you would like to see the actual gameplay, kindly please click on above video!

The Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles game allow players to portray important engagements of Japanese history mainly from the XVI century, before Tokugawa Shogunate. The scale of the game is flexible and varies from battle to battle. For some scenarios, an infantry unit may represent an entire clan of soldiers, while in other scenarios a unit may represent just a few brave warriors. The game follows the well-proven mechanics of Commands (cards driving the moves and creating Fog of War) and Colors (the units designation, having huge impact on battle results). The dices allows us to quickly resolve all battles and the components in the box allow for creation of countless scenarios. In essence, Richard Borg at his best!

Without further delay, let us jump to this wonderful campaign!

1. SECOND KONODAI (January 7, 1564)

Historical Background

Having received a report that the Satomi force had captured Konodai Castle, Hojo Ujiyasu summoned his retainers and ordered the advance to Konodai. Although the Hojo army was more than double the strength of Satomi Yoshihiro’s army, many men were lost in the initial fight as they attempted to cross the Ichikawa. But soon, by the sheer weight of numbers, the Hojo army was able to cross and gained the enemy flank. During the Satomi withdrawal Ota Sukemasa was wounded twice. The first day’s action had gone somewhat well for the Hojo army.

Note: There are varying accounts for this battle. Basically, the other version is that a Hojo advance force crossed the river, pursued the retreating Satomi troops into an ambush and retreated back across the river with loss. We chose to pursue a more evenly matched version for this scenario.

Special Rule

We decided to play this as a mini-campaign and thus used special rule, which showed impact of first scenario on the second. The rule says:

  • record the number of Victory Banners gained by each army in January 7th scenario
  • each player will determine block losses that are carried over to the January 8th battle. The side that won will go first.
  • Roll the battle dice equal to the number of Victory banners won.
  • Remove one block in an enemy unit of your choice for each circle, triangle, square and sword rolled. In the case of a sword, the block may be removed from a unit that has an attached leader.
  • For each flag rolled, move one enemy unit back one hex towards it’s baseline.
  • One Honor and Fortune token is lost from opponent’s pool for each Honor and Fortune rolled.

Quite interesting but it will put me in even worse position than the second scenario initially assumed for Satomi 🙂 Anyhow, let us see how it went!

Session Report

Our forces deployment in the first battle; I will try whatever possible to use the river to my advantage!
After couple of turns of range fire, Lukasz decisively charged, moving 6 units on my right through the river. I managed to dispatch one of them but could not do too much with the rest…
What a bloody turn it was! First, the deadly Mounted Charge by Lukasz but then also my Ambush! Still, my forces started to crumble…
That was a desperate charge but the only way to keep me in the game – especially because if I do not keep at least 1 unit in every section of the map, I will be losing VPs. The attack partially succeeded, partially miserably failed…
Another Mounted Charge targeted at me? No way I can win this scenario…..
And so it ended – Hojo decisively won despite the fact that Satomi mauled a lot of enemy units (I did not manage to get those two 1-block enemies)…

2. SECOND KONODAI (January 8, 1564)

Historical Background

After a hard days fighting, the Hojo army during the night repositioned to attack Satomi Yoshihiro’s army who had fallen back. Yoshihiro had expected help to arrive from his allies, but none had come during the night. The battle resumed on the second day and soon the Hojo army was able to push the Satomi army back again. Yoshihiro realized it was futile to try to defend Konodai any longer and ordered a withdrawal.

Note: The alternative narrative for this battle continues with the Satomi army drinking heavily in celebration during the night, only to be routed with great loss by an early morning surprise Hojo attack coming from all directions. Who would want to play the Satomi side in such a scenario?

Session Report

As mentioned earlier, we used special rule for second battle set-up – Lukasz had some great rolls, killing 4 of my blocks, two in Cavalry!
This time the action started on my left. First, poor Ashigaru Spearman was blown to pieces in range combat and then the enemy cavalry charged through river obliterating Samurai Spearmen!
Despite the set-back, I managed to kill the Cavalry and counter-attack on my own through the river – getting some decent results in the process!
Shogun can be both blessing and a curse. Lukasz rolled well and that gave him some points in center and reduction of my flanking force (left) to one-block units!
Again, I tried my last-chance attack, performing counter-attack to Shogun. Instead of victory I got such a battle back that my Spearman and Leader died!
End of scenario two – that was much closer and dynamic game which could potentially even go my way! Great Game!

Summary

Another scenario, another river and tactical maneuvering of both sides to either cross or prevent the crossing. The special rule is interesting although made it much harder for me to achieve good result in second battle – still, I was so close. The final banners tally was:

Banner count was as follows:

  • Historical sides perspective: Michal (Satomi) 6 — Lukasz (Hojo) 10

More historically accurate reports will come – stay tuned!

The Boardgames Chronicle
Author: The Boardgames Chronicle

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Category: After Action Report

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