A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

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A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by AlbertoC »

Jayson NG, one of the developers of the new, upcoming DLC for Sengoku Jidai: Shadow of the Shogun, has written an AAR to show us what this new expansion is all about! We hope you'll enjoy it.

The Gempei War started in 1180 when Taira no Kiyomori placed his grandson, Antoku, on the imperial throne after deposing Emperor Takakura. The Minamoto lords then rose up to oppose this political move.

Warfare during the late Heian period was quite different from the period of warring states 300 years later. During this time, the samurai were mainly mounted archers but they would also fight on foot in their heavy and boxy Ō-yoroi armour. The supporting ashigaru wore less armour than their Sengoku era counterparts. Because shock cavalry was non-existent, their main weapon was the naginata polarm instead of the yari spear. There were ashigaru units armed with bows too.

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Illustrated Story of Night Attack on Yoshitsune's Residence At Horikawa, 16th Century


In the following AAR, I took command of 7,000 Taira troops against 11,000 Minamoto warriors in open battle (skirmish mode). The terrain is pretty open with a town and temple, flanked by fields, in the centre. On my right is a forest. There is nothing in the terrain that will greatly influence my tactics. For my optional troops, I chose to bring more naginata armed ashigaru and some samurai (mounted and foot). I do not foresee a large number of opposing cavalry so I opted to purchase more melee than bow infantry. Bows are good weapons against cavalry due to the rate of fire but the samurai armour would partially reduce the damage potential. Just like the early Sengoku era, all foot units are classed as warriors during this time. This gives them less problems with mobility and terrain so the paddy fields won’t be a problem. Since they don’t require to fight in formation, they are able to charge cavalry at will. But bow cavalry can choose to evade a melee engagement.

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The left flank was commanded by Taira no Katsunari. Taira no Fujiharu’s yumi samurai took the centre. On the right is Taira no Sukehide’s naginata troops. The army’s taishō, Taira no Kagehara‘s honjin was at the rear with samurai ready to provide support. With a majority of missile troops at the centre, the plan was to use the left and right divisions for flanking while the centre harassed and pinned the enemy with their arrows. Note: All names are fictional and procedurally generated by the game.


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The Taira army stopped advancing as they reached the town. The bulk of the Minamoto army also headed for the town, taking fire from Taira no Fujiharu’s archers. Two Minamoto commanders, Naomune and Mitsusugu, charged ahead of their foot troops and stood in the way of Taira no Katsunari’s left division.


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A brief exchange of arrows disrupted Taira no Katsunari’s cavalry and they evaded a subsequent Minamoto cavalry charge. The enemy cavalry then engaged Katsunari’s exposed ashigaru. At the centre, Fujiharu’s ashigaru engaged in melee while the yumi samurai shot at the approaching troops. A brawl between samurai from opposing sides raged in the town. The Taira samurai, would eventually vacate the town to regroup.


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On the right, Taira no Sukehide’s division has not yet fully engaged, but some battalions are beginning to falter after a brief melee. Their lack of bowmen was a disadvantage as they took fire while waiting for an opportunity to charge. Sukehide’s cavalry positioned itself to engage the enemy flanks while the taishō reserve cavalry was on the way.


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Katsunari’s infantry have been quite successful in pushing back the Minamoto but their pursuit of fleeing enemies has led them into a dangerous position.


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Sukehide’s on the other hand, pushed back the Minamoto troops but it led them into the paddy fields which adversely affected the unit’s performance.


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The Taira centre collapses under the weight of the Minamoto forces -- sending Taira no Fujiharu and his troops fleeing. The left flank consolidated their position. Minamoto no Mitsusugu has fallen while fighting some Taira ashigaru. Elsewhere, the infantry on the right flank has avoided getting into a melee and went past the Minamoto to support the left. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Sukehide and his cavalry as they got bogged down due to the paddy fields. They are had a difficult time defeating the enemy in a melee and eventually fled the battle.


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Fierce fighting raged on the paddy fields on the left flank and the Taira have surrounded the Minamoto troops from three directions. One by one the Minamoto troops broke and fled.


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As Taira no Fujiharu and a band of ashigaru entered the honjin of Minamoto no Norikiyo, the enemy taishō had enough and ordered a general retreat. While taking a lot of casualties, the outnumbered Taira has prevailed in bitter fighting against the Minamoto. But is it enough for them to win the Gempei War?


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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by Blathergut »

I just might have to use this in my gr5 class. I always do the Tale of Hoichi the Earless, the Tale of the Heike with them. :)
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by Huskie »

Alas, a happy ending, I remember reading another AAR that had a sad one
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by GShock112 »

Is the name generator also working in the campaign? Is this why I can never find Nobunaga? :evil:

Ahm... supposing that the number of maps is finite (meaning, they are not randomly generated), have you guys thought about building a "rotator" for the maps?
That way we can have each map become 4 maps because every time you get on a map, you can be deployed on its North, South, West or East side.
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by Paul59 »

GShock112 wrote:Is the name generator also working in the campaign? Is this why I can never find Nobunaga? :evil:

Ahm... supposing that the number of maps is finite (meaning, they are not randomly generated), have you guys thought about building a "rotator" for the maps?
That way we can have each map become 4 maps because every time you get on a map, you can be deployed on its North, South, West or East side.
Are you talking about the battle maps for campaigns and skirmish mode? I am certain that they are randomly generated.
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by rbodleyscott »

Paul59 wrote:
GShock112 wrote:Ahm... supposing that the number of maps is finite (meaning, they are not randomly generated), have you guys thought about building a "rotator" for the maps?
That way we can have each map become 4 maps because every time you get on a map, you can be deployed on its North, South, West or East side.
Are you talking about the battle maps for campaigns and skirmish mode? I am certain that they are randomly generated.
They are indeed. Every map is different.
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by GShock112 »

campaigns.
I can't tell for sure because when I complete Tenka with Oda I do the next one as Takeda. I had the impression (and I might be wrong) that the province has an assigned map and oda will always start from one side of the map (always THAT side) and Takeda always from the other side (always THAT side). If map was ROTATED by 90° say... left, you could play the same map starting from another side... which makes it a brand new map. It basically means multiplying any number of maps we may have by 4. Instantly.

... if I am right. But I don't know. If I always played with only 1 side I would have spotted it. But changing sides so often doesn't make me see clearly this thing.
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by Paul59 »

Provinces have a predominant terrain type; Mountains, Hilly, Agricultural, Wooded etc.

When a battle occurs in a province the terrain is randomly generated, but modified by the province terrain type, for instance in an Agricultural province you will get more fields and less hills and woods, in a Wooded province you will get less fields and more woods.

You would have to fight millions of battles to get two maps exactly the same.
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by GShock112 »

Excellent.
Music for my ears. :)
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by rbodleyscott »

As Paul says, the number of different battles is only limited by the 32 bit seed number. This should mean that the random map algorithm will generate about 4 billion different maps for each terrain type. Good luck playing through them all!

The provinces are large enough that we assume that multiple battles would not generally be fought on exactly the same battlefield. This is not entirely true from a historical point of view, as there were often geopolitical reasons why certain choke-points tended to become battlefields, but even in cases where battles were fought in the same general vicinity, they were often fought on a different part of the local terrain, or at least from a different orientation. It would be possible to have randomly generated maps that were always the same for specific locations (by storing the seed number) but we deemed that it was preferable for replayability, and mostly more realistic, to have them generated afresh each time.

The player always starts on the left and the AI on the right, because this makes the complex programming of the AI somewhat easier to manage. Rotating the starting positions would be fairly pointless anyway, as the players would almost certainly rotate the map to their preferred orientation, thus ending up with the armies back in their usual relative positions.
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by jomni »

GShock112 wrote:Is the name generator also working in the campaign? Is this why I can never find Nobunaga? :evil:
"Nobu" is part of the first half of the given name list. "naga" is part of the second half of the given name list.

Given that there are tons of first halves and second halves, "Nobunaga" can be formed if you are lucky. :lol: The historical scenarios use the same logic gut the selection is not randomised.
We could have made full names in the random generator. But splitting into halves would form more names with less input.
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by rbodleyscott »

jomni wrote:We could have made full names in the random generator. But splitting into halves would form more names with less input.
And also avoids historical names appearing at the wrong time or place.
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by GShock112 »

rbodleyscott wrote:
The player always starts on the left and the AI on the right, because this makes the complex programming of the AI somewhat easier to manage. Rotating the starting positions would be fairly pointless anyway, as the players would almost certainly rotate the map to their preferred orientation, thus ending up with the armies back in their usual relative positions.
No, I was saying rotate the map UNDER the player and the AI.

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This is the map

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This is the same map, rotated 90° right.
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by rbodleyscott »

GShock112 wrote:
rbodleyscott wrote:
The player always starts on the left and the AI on the right, because this makes the complex programming of the AI somewhat easier to manage. Rotating the starting positions would be fairly pointless anyway, as the players would almost certainly rotate the map to their preferred orientation, thus ending up with the armies back in their usual relative positions.
No, I was saying rotate the map UNDER the player and the AI.

This is the same map, rotated 90° right.
Yes, I understand that, but as the maps are all different anyway, what would be the point?
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Re: A Sengoku Jidai: Gempei Kassen AAR (by Jayson NG)

Post by GShock112 »

rbodleyscott wrote: Yes, I understand that, but as the maps are all different anyway, what would be the point?
In fact, there is no point but when I posted about the "rotation" I didn't know the maps were generated. :)
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