Guns, shot and powder

I recently came across an article by historian Hirayama Masaru, contrasting the usage of guns at Nagashino by the Oda and Takeda. The upshot of his thesis is that the Oda advantage in guns was not just in the quantity of the weapons themselves, but also in the quantity of shot and gunpowder. Simply put,…

Campaign Resources: Population

Following on from the list of income by province, here’s a map showing an estimation of Japan’s population distribution around the time of the Sengoku. Most board games or campaigns tend to treat each province as being equal, which can make those daimyō who controlled many provinces that may have been relatively poor and/or low…

Campaign resources: Income by province

Here's a list of incomes in koku per province in Japan in 1598. Bear in mind that the land surveys necessary for the assessment were completed after 8 years of peace and after Hideyoshi's social reorganisation, so the situation during the actual Sengoku Jidai would have been different. However, the list serves as perhaps an…

The Battle of Shōryūjijō, a campaign game.

I’ve returned to the campaign being generated by the board game ‘A Most Dangerous Time,’ which I wrote a bit about here. This time it was the Battle of Shōryūjijō. It is 1571 and Hosokawa Fujitaka is besieged in his castle of Shōryūjijō by the Miyoshi under Miyoshi Nagayasu. An Oda force under Takigawa Kazumasu…

Two ‘New’ Books on Sengoku Jidai Warfare

Till Weber's 2 volume series 'Die Samurai der Sengoku-zeit,' previously only available in German has gotten an English translation. This makes them easily the best 2 books for wargaming the Sengoku in English. I used to recommend the German versions to anyone who had the slightest ability to read German (I have them, and my…

Takeda command bases

It's been a while, but I've done some more command bases, this time for the Takeda. These are the usual 25mm x 30mm bases, with Baccus commanders and printed Project Wargaming nobori bearers. These are for the Takeda around 1561. The bases represent Takeda Shingen, Baba Nobuharu, Kudō Sukenaga and Oyamada Nobuari, (or Nobushige etc.)…

History of Japan Podcast on Warrior Monks

Isaac Meyer’s History of Japan podcast has two episodes on ‘warrior monks,’ which do a good job of summarising Mikael Adolphson’s argument that the archetypal warrior monk, or sōhei, image so beloved of figure designers is an invention of the Edo period. In fact, the armies of Buddhist temples were really no different in appearance…

Tenka Fubu Army Generator

I've added a simple army generator to the downloads section. I made one ages ago for Tenkatoitsu, but hadn't got around to making one for Tenka Fubu. I should say that I haven't actually used it as I tend to generate armies 'by feel' for specific battles or scenarios, so there may be a lot…

The Battle of Inō with Ningen Gojūnen

I’ve finally got around to getting some figures on the table to have a go at my small battles rules Ningen Gojūnen and try out some changes I want to make to them. The battle is the Battle of Inō, 1556, which I’ve talked a bit about before. It’s a battle that’s described in a…

Turning Feudal Contingents into Wargames Units

A bit of a long time since the last post, but I’ve been having a bit of a break from the Sengoku to do some other things. When I get back to it, it’ll be to have a go at the Battle of Inō. As all the units in the armies will be feudally organised…