Japanese List

[ravenflight]

Hi All,

Here is my list that I used for MOAB. No doubt it was the luck as opposed to any 'killer list' or tactical genius that lead to the points I scored.

Great commander
2x Troop commanders
2 BG's of 6 armoured warrior spearmen - 1 poor, 1 average
3 BG's of 8 heavily armoured superior warrior spearmen
3 BG's of 8 armoured average warrior bow
3 BG's of 4 armoured superior cavalry bow sword
1 BG of 4 Heavily armoured elite Det Foot spearmen.

I found it to be a tough army, but didn't fight any super mounted armies. The French TYW PROBABLY had me buttocks clenching the most, but very bad dice on his behalf and very good dice on my behalf took the wind out of one attack on a flank. Admittedly, I had the Hamamoto guard on that flank, but the Samurai could quite easily have gone down in a screaming heap.

I feel that it is essential to have a Great commander with this army... and not for the plethora of shooting as per other armies (i.e. I feel a GC is essential for a Louis XIV just because of shooting on the way in). In the case of the Japanese, I'm less fearful of the shooting (8 base units, armour making high casualties at long range difficult etc), but you absolutely positively MUST maintain cohesion on impact. A GC (NEVER fighting in the front rank) and rear support really does help that... and against impact or salvo foot and against mounted, especially if you feel the need to charge, it is crucial to survival to maintain that steady line.

My dice did do me good this comp, but I also think that maintaining that battle plan also helped.

My one fault with how I ran my army was against the Swedes. I did manage to defeat him, but it was hit and miss and I got lucky (at times 14 shooting dice against one BG of superior salvo foot) which hurt him a LOT but that could have gon bad REALLY easily, and I now realise that I should have intermixed my mounted Samurai with my foot. An intercept charge by them could really blunt a P&S attack, but then how do I counter his mounted?

I need to look into that more.

My game against the Russians was interesting. Even my theoretical "he's behind FF' and I'm armoured at 4" so we should be equal didn't seem to work out. I certainly didn't have any advantages there but my Samurai managed some good actions against his mounted and left me with a victory.

My other games were very enjoyable, but can't think of anything that happened in them that was particularly noteworthy. I loved playing all of my opponents. It was a great con. I may try to give an AAR on the weekend with a little more details, but memory will be starting to fade, so...