For the next two bases I thought I’d try something a bit different. I was looking at some of those elaborate samurai battle formation diagrams when I realised that they were roughly the same shape as two of my bases one behind the other. So I figured I’d try and arrange the figures in the style of one of these formations. In this case the kakuyoku, or ‘cranes wing.’
Now, I think these formations are a little too elaborate to have been used in the field. I don’t think they represent armies either, but rather contingents within the army. As I’ve discussed before, in my opinion, the feudal structure of Japanese armies precludes collecting and grouping troops by weapon type in large numbers. At a lower level, however, there were probably ways in which the various small units could be arranged depending on the battlefield situation. Again, I think these would have been simpler than the kind of diagram below, but maybe not too much so.
Anyway, the two bases here represent the Akamatsu clan. These were the shugo daimyo of Harima province. Their mon is another triple tomoe one, the same as the Bessho clan but ‘moving’ in the opposite direction. Now, in 6mm, this isn’t very helpful as they’d look much the same as the Bessho. Again, a Taiga drama came to the rescue. In the Taiga drama Gunshi Kanbei, the Akamatsu are shown with sleeve banners showing the character ‘matsu‘ (pine). I’ve no idea how accurate this is, but it was the only source for sashimono I could find, and it differentiates them from the Bessho. I used some nobori with the clan mon, and another banner from the Taiga drama behind the commander.
The bases:
The bases side by side. The base on the right looks a bit odd without any skirmishers or long spears in front I think.
The bases in formation.
Side view of the sashimono showing the matsu character
And here’s a comparison with a diagram of the kakuyoku formation. I’ve left some parts of the formation out for reasons of space.
I’ve simplified things a bit. The depth of the skirmishers are reduced and the two units next to the commander had to be shrunk somewhat. I was at a loss as to what the units labelled 遊勢 were. The best guess via the excellent Samurai Archives forum was a sort of mobile independent unit. So I did these as mounted samurai.
Obviously, there are some problems with this, the units won’t always be in the ‘right’ position. In fact, sometimes the rear unit might be in front etc. So I’m not entirely sold on this, it would certainly be better if you could fit a whole formation on one base, but this isn’t really possible even in 6mm. However, the various formations have a certain Japanese flavour to them, so in future, I might take inspiration from them to add a bit of variety to the basing.
With another 2 bases done, the total has now reached 31. I really want to get to 40 bases as I think you need 20 bases a side to really begin to get the best out of the rules.
Getting there slowly.
TENKA FUBU 