Command and Colors Samurai Battles - Arita Castle 1517 AD - Phase 1 - Takeda Vanguard

 

Initial deployment Mori L, Takeda R

Mori launch a cavalry charge

Takeda Samurai and leader

Takeda Ashigaru

Last Saturday afternoon Craig came over to my place with his lovely Perry Samurai and we played three games of Command and Colors Samurai Battles. The first two games were with his figures, we swapped sides and the scenario was the second in the board game, the Takeda Vanguard on Arita Castle. We just used the figures Craig brought along, with very small unit sizes and there were no actual Mori or Takeda clan painted figures. Craig's figures are all based for his Samurai skirmish rules, Ronin which are published by Osprey and great fun. 

Craig cleaned up quickly as the Mori in the first game, the scenario only has three victory banners, and in the second game I also won as the Mori but the result was a bit closer. The third game we just played with the blocks and this was third scenario in the board game, Arita Castle Phase 2 Matauchi River. This was a cracking game that had plenty of ebb and flow, before Craig emerged victorious, as the Mori again, this time 6-3 victory banners. All three games were great fun and provided an excellent afternoon's gaming. I've enjoyed playing this game so much that I've ordered 28m Samurai figures, so looking forward to this and reading up on the Sengoku Jidai period!

Takeda Ashigaru are in strife!

Game Two

Game Two Takeda Samurai die with honour!

Command & Colors Samurai Battles - First Samurai Skirmish

 

First Samurai Skirmish scenario 

Last Monday my eagerly awaited order of the new GMT Games board game, Command & Colors Samurai Battles, arrived and I spent the afternoon putting the stickers on the wooden blocks. Today after rereading the rules I played a solo game with the first of forty scenarios. This proved to be a cracking game, that was neck and neck right to the final turn. The two sides were evenly matched in terms of troops, command cards, dragon cards and honour and fortune tokens. While there is much that will be familiar to players of Command & Colors Ancients and Medieval, there are definitely differences which really add a lot to the period flavour.

An example of this is with a retreating leader, where rather than escaping and fighting another day, the player may choose to have the leader commit seppuku (honourable suicide), thus depriving the opponent of a possible victory banner, and in turn gaining five honour and fortune tokens, while losing a command card. Careful use and management of the honour and fortune tokens is really key to maintaining your army's morale. Retreating units entail the loss of honour and fortune tokens and a lack of honour roll can cause losses to the retreating and closest units. Troops depending on their type can generate honour tokens when rolling dice for ranged fire and/or combat. 

At the end of each turn the active player receives a dragon card as well as a replacement command card. The effective use of these dragon cards, including the timing in a turn phase, is something I struggled with in my first game but hopefully greater familiarity with the cards and rules will see some improvement in this area. The rules are only thirty pages and not overly complex but with all the scenarios, dragon cards and honour and fortune tokens there are many, many hours of rewarding and challenging gaming to be had with this board game.

End of a close game with a 5-4 result

Gandhara 304 BC - Command & Colors Ancients

 

 Seleucids on the right, Indians on the left

Opposite end

Indians play a heavy troops card

Chandragupta leads his elephants in attack

Indian Heavy Chariots

More Indian elephants on the left flank

Last Sunday I played a solo Command and Colors Ancients (CCA) game out in the shed. The scenario was Gandhara 304 BC with the Early Seleucids under Seleucus taking on the Mauryan Indians under Chandragupta. This turned out to be a really one sided game, as the Indians never really got going. They had consistently poor cards and dice, while the elephants, light and heavy chariots were very brittle with only two blocks each. The Seleucids on the other hand had good cards and a counter attack and double time card allowed their pike to wreak havoc in the centre. Chandragupta was killed and the Indians were thrashed 8-1 victory points by the Seleucids.

GMT Games are currently shipping Command and Colors Samurai Battles (CCSB), I should get it this week. I'm really looking forward to this as there are 40 scenarios. A pdf of the rules is already available:

https://www.gmtgames.com/p-724-commands-colors-samurai-battles.aspx

I've read them and they look really good, the Dragon cards and Honour and Fortune tokens really add an extra element to the game. I will just play this one with the blocks, as I have more than enough figures to paint as it is...

Seleucus advances with his Companions

Indians attack on the right flank

Indians retreat

Seleucids counter attack

A double time card - Seleucid pike wreak havoc

Seleucids thrash the Indians 8-1 victory points