2021 Mid-year team event - Back to Japan - Round Two

[SnuggleBunnies]

Well played indeed! As you'll see me mention at the end of the recording, I think my main mistake was army comp - I brought missile troops to fight from the forest, but you had a ready made counter in the form of naginata and swordsmen. In retrospect I should have brought even MOAR HW monks, and ignored the shooters entirely...

[GDod]

...In retrospect I should have brought even MOAR HW monks, and ignored the shooters entirely...

Don't forget the need for masses of cheap peasants snuggles...one of their biggest advantages it seems is their insane ability to be pushed back, or break off from melee (often in the second turn). This provides an opportunity for the ikko's superior numbers being able to duck around a flank or cover the bounced back unit (even though they are often disordered or fragged this buys crucial time)
I think in many respects forests may indeed hamper this tactic. Although, admittedly I haven't done any stats.

[KiwiWarlord]

Well, here’s an unlikely outcome:

GentlemanRanker’s Oda defeat SnuggleBunnies’ Ikkō-ikki 50 – 25

You are indeed a mighty Samurai Warrior of the Oda Clan GR !!
Oda Nobunaga has immortalised your heroic deeds in the woods.

Oda Daimyo
KiwiWarlord

[GDod]

A hastily scrawled note from the People's Shogun No mori Daimyo's who is at this moment mopping up the Oda clan in and around the forest Gempo reports that:
...while our genetically challenged peasant hordes under the tutelage of our righteous monks have secured most of the field, some Hardcore mounted Oda samurai (probably from the Naki) are still refusing to sell us their flash gear and clothing. We continue to chase a unit of Yumi samurai across the field to offer a fair price for their nice kimonos but for some reason they keep running away after our peasants fell headlong into a bog.
Our tireless Chinese correspondent Dam Li will hopefully produce a full report soon.

Are they chasing us Yushi.jpg (8.55 KiB) Viewed 1448 times

[GDod]

Ikki ikko's commissioned Chinese correspondent Dam Li's has now provided a full report. Ikki ikko (The People's Shogun) vs Oda (Black Pete) 60/46

Ikki ikko fielded some 29000 peasants including sympathetic monks from nearby monasteries against a Oda-ious conglomeration of 14600 zealous samurai eager to teach these peasants their place. Ikki peasants eager to obtain Oda's fancy robes for themselves entered the central Forest Gempo but were expelled quickly by naginata and sword-welding Oda. Yet, other Oda were held long enough on the edges of the wood for the rest of the vast horde of unwashed loincloth wearing fieldworkers and monks to surround and ultimately crush those Oda holding open ground. By the time the Oda cavalry circumvented the forest the fight was all but over.
As a result:-
8500 Oda were either killed wounded or captured to Ikki's 5000

Now the People's Shogun has the best dressed fieldworkers in the whole province.

After.jpg (23 KiB) Viewed 1449 times

Yet another great game and player Black Pete... until next time

[fybyyn]

After the battle against Ahuyton, 4% to 48% Ikko Ikki army advances unstoppable, all my generals eliminated in the first five turns, I suspect that they are actually cardboard dolls and that the real ones are secretly deserting ...

[ahuyton]

After the battle against Ahuyton, 4% to 48% Ikko Ikki army advances unstoppable, all my generals eliminated in the first five turns, I suspect that they are actually cardboard dolls and that the real ones are secretly deserting ...

Buddha was with us on this occasion, and he allowed Fabian's generals to depart early from their suffering existence to the Pure Land.

Well, it was just one of those games. Luck was not on the side of the Oda, whose Generals died and whose troops disrupted or fragmented at the sight of a monk, and I have to admit that we outnumbered the Oda by nearly 2:1. Woods on the flanks helped and allowed us to launch some pleasant flanking attacks that rolled up the Oda line.

More seriously, I played it aggressively and decided to charge as fast as I could down one flank while sitting in echelon on the other. At one stage I thought that Fabian was going to send his cavalry around my flanks and rear, which was a worrying prospect. When he cut back into my centre with them I was relieved and used my warriors to shoot them up and then outflank in melee - I am guessing that Fabian forgot that warriors can successfully charge cavalry. Perhaps I should have reminded of that.

Lots of fun for my chaps, but undoubtedly less amusing for Fabia, so sorry for that!

[PeterThePainter]

Ikki ikko's commissioned Chinese correspondent Dam Li's has now provided a full report. Ikki ikko (The People's Shogun) vs Oda (Black Pete) 60/46

Ikki ikko fielded some 29000 peasants including sympathetic monks from nearby monasteries against a Oda-ious conglomeration of 14600 zealous samurai eager to teach these peasants their place. Ikki peasants eager to obtain Oda's fancy robes for themselves entered the central Forest Gempo but were expelled quickly by naginata and sword-welding Oda. Yet, other Oda were held long enough on the edges of the wood for the rest of the vast horde of unwashed loincloth wearing fieldworkers and monks to surround and ultimately crush those Oda holding open ground. By the time the Oda cavalry circumvented the forest the fight was all but over.
As a result:-
8500 Oda were either killed wounded or captured to Ikki's 5000

The report from Dam Li is misleading as this was not a battle in which all 29,000 Ikko Ikki took part, as many as 8,000 did not put in an appearance until half way through. So the correspondent is underselling the performance of the rest who did extremely well, more than holding there own against the might of the Oda Samurai.

I have now played the tricky Ikko Ikki three times in multiplayer games and have a score of 0-3 so clearly the Oda Nobunaga I am not. I used to believe that on an open plain the Samurai would be better with their Yari armed troops and cavalry but all the games show the superior warrior monks can beat them in the open and in this game in the forested part of the battlefield the cheaper Ashigaru and Naginata Ashigaru of the Oda quickly dispatched their opponents only to find the adjacent plain empty apart from a dust cloud raised by the fleeing Yari Samurai. Time for a rethinko about playing against the Ikko Ikki I thinki.

Well played sir!

[KiwiWarlord]

Time for a rethinko about playing against the Ikko Ikki I thinki.

Time for the Raw Mob to be downgraded from Super troops to the untrained Peasants that they are imo.
They should not be allowed to beak off & step back without dropping a cohesion level. Note: Mob with shooters are able to fire a Volley after stepping back.
i.e. If a Mob is Disrupted then Steps back, it should drop to Fragmented.
They should not have the same movement as Warriors, 12 MPs is far too much.
In a game at the moment I have a unit of Superior Lancer Cav tied up for move after move with a Fragmented Mob that won't Break.

[SnuggleBunnies]

Time for a rethinko about playing against the Ikko Ikki I thinki.

Time for the Raw Mob to be downgraded from Super troops to the untrained Peasants that they are imo.
They should not be allowed to beak off & step back without dropping a cohesion level. Note: Mob with shooters are able to fire a Volley after stepping back.
i.e. If a Mob is Disrupted then Steps back, it should drop to Fragmented.
They should not have the same movement as Warriors, 12 MPs is far too much.
In a game at the moment I have a unit of Superior Lancer Cav tied up for move after move with a Fragmented Mob that won't Break.

I dunno man I lost pretty my match as Ikki pretty efficiently ;)

[GDod]

“Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob,...”

― Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars

[KiwiWarlord]

I dunno man I lost pretty my match as Ikki pretty efficiently

I have been extremely impressed with Th30n's Leadership & the perfomance of his Ikko Ikki that I would like to try and emulate his feats against you SnuggleBunnies, the best gamer that I have ever come across in these games, to see if we can agree that changes to the 'Super Troops' are needed.
password Ikko

[SnuggleBunnies]

I dunno man I lost pretty my match as Ikki pretty efficiently ;)

I have been extremely impressed with Th30n's Leadership & the perfomance of his Ikko Ikki that I would like to try and emulate his feats against you SnuggleBunnies, the best gamer that I have ever come across in these games, to see if we can agree that changes to the 'Super Troops' are needed.
password Ikko

Sure, just expect slower than usual play from me I've got 30 matches going right now which is more than I can get to every day

[Th30n]

I dunno man I lost pretty my match as Ikki pretty efficiently

I have been extremely impressed with Th30n's Leadership & the perfomance of his Ikko Ikki that I would like to try and emulate his feats against you SnuggleBunnies, the best gamer that I have ever come across in these games, to see if we can agree that changes to the 'Super Troops' are needed.
password Ikko

Thanks for the compliments!
I've been recording the match, so I'll merge the turns and upload it to youtube when we are done. Note, I haven't done nor plan to do any commentary of the video.

[GentlemanRanker]

I've been recording the match, so I'll merge the turns and upload it to youtube when we are done. Note, I haven't done nor plan to do any commentary of the video.

Excellent news - the more quality multiplayer coverage posted on YouTube, the better, as far as I am concerned.

[KiwiWarlord]

Round 2 Result, KiwiWarlord ( Oda ) 38% Th30n ( Ikko-Ikki ) 58%

Result, a Draw after 20 turns.

Th30n is going to post the Game on UTube I believe.

The terrain was such that I decided to deploy deep and make a small wood on my Right Flank my anchor point and had several units deployed within and behind.
When I saw the wall of Large, Superior Ikko-Ikki to my front I was quaking in my waraji and backed off my line but left my units in the wood.
This meant that the Ikko-Ikki would have to advance over open ground off the hill that they were deployed on if they wanted to fight, & fight they did !!!!
I tried to shift my units around to get the best match-ups whilst the Ikko-Ikki advanced and sent out my Teppo to skirmish with each flank.
About turn 10 the lines were close enough for the fighting to start with early success to the Ikko-Ikki fighting around the wood on my Right Flank where I had advanced out to stretch the Ikko-Ikki line bringing some Raw Mob into the front line. On my Left Flank my two Lancer Samurai charged and got tied up in a long melee trying to break their Fragmented opponents. One of the Samurai pursed for several turns then stopped within range of a Large Superior unit of Arquebusiers which blasted it and pursued shooting for several moves until the Samurai routed during the last move.
The Ikko-Ikki lost a General in the combat in and around the Wood on my Right Flank, this changed the situation and after a few moves the Oda troops had gained the upper hand in that sector.
Meanwhile the Ikko-Ikki had been cleaning up the Oda Centre and had some very good fortune when a Fragmented unit charged the flank of an Oda unit which was in position to Flank Charge a Large Superior Disrupted Ikko-Ikki unit in combat against an Oda, unit which would have routed it.
There were many Fragmented Ikko-Ikki units about the battlefield and in one turn most Rallied !!!! I told Th30n to go and buy a Lotto Ticket !
The very last combat of the game saw my CnC, Oda Toshiie, fall whilst defending the Honjin.
A game of standing around awaiting the dreaded Ikko-Ikki then total chaos until night fall.

[ahuyton]

So this exciting sounding game draws to a close this round. Special awards of honour to Nick (GentlemanRanker) for his outstanding victory over the mighty Snuggles, to Carsomyr for defeating the very experienced and capable Smjohnso77 and now to Th30n for drawing with the formidable Daimyo Brian.

But this being Japan, individual fame is as nothing to the Good of the Team. And with a 2.5 - 2.5 score this round, Kiwiwarlord and his faithful followers may select their side of choice for the next round: the Sekigahara scenario.

[Th30n]

What?! It's a DRAW?! I was sure I was gone, because in the last couple of turns Kiwi managed to overtake me in the "troop routed" percentage and I couldn't reach any of his troops in this amount of time to even up the percentage once more.

What a tense game right down to the wire!

I'll upload the game to youtube later today when I load the last turn on my computer. So far, all the turns combined amounts to 2 hours of video!

[Th30n]

The video is up (although at the time of posting, HD version is still being processed)