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Thread: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Jan 8th

  1. #101

    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Oct 17

    Not only the land is feeling the tension A first small fight which ended well for the Tokugawa (well, for the ones, now one less, which were present...), foreshadowing or are we being lulled into a false sense of security?... Like Alwyn, I am looking forwards to seeing what will happen during a battle!

  2. #102
    waveman's Avatar Decanus
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    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Oct 17

    Thanks! Sorry its taken so long, real life's been kicking me in the man-area, metaphorically speaking. But here I'll ease us a little more towards the battle....

    23. Skirmish

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    It took Ii Nagaochi only minutes to survey the clearing the scouts had reported on. This, this was why Lord Abe and Lord Tokugawa had put him in charge of the vanguard: his ability to think quickly and act upon those conclusions. It was how he first came to be noticed by them, back when he had taken Imagawa Yoshimoto’s head. Plus a great deal of luck.

    Now as he surveyed the clearing, he knew what needed to bedone. His men were immediately dispatched to the cluster of hills that were just to the eastern side of the plain. All five hundred of them, with him at theforefront. The two boys who had been sent by the fore-scouts he dispatched backto Sadayoshi with a hastily-drawn map of the area. Now, they just have to hurry, he thought, and we just have to hold. Nagaochi slid the cover from hisyari and sat at the crest of the hill. He could already see a handful of Asanosoldiers clustered at the edge of the forest to the north – they were clearly agitated. Many kept looking back to the forest from whence they had come, no doubt waiting on their reinforcements. Well, while they waited for the men and balls to make their attack, he would position his men as best he could. Already some of them were beginning to advance on the hills.


    Miyagi Shigeharu frowned yet again as he gazed at the hills in the clearing. Shinshichi stood by his side, leaning calmly on his spear. “Weshould-“ began Shigeharu.

    “Yes, yes, we should have taken the hill. No, we don’t know why they’ve gone advancing this early, and on a direct path to meet us. Comeon, ‘Haru, we’ve talked about this already. When your brother arrives, then we’llknow what to do.”


    Shigeharu had no choice but to agree. “He does seem toalways have a plan,” he said, offering a wan smile to his friend. So they waited. A few men who strayed over the crest of the northernmost hill were struck down by a flight of arrows that leapt from its southern counterpart, and after that the rest were content to wait at a distance. The two sides stared ateach over the small valley after that, occasionally brandishing weapons at each other, but the Asano were too few to launch an attack and the Tokugawa too cautious.

    As more Asano men trickled to the treeline, Miyagi Danjobustled his way to the front, accompanied still by Masayama Shoichi. Damjo,surveying the nearby soldiers, made eye contact with Shigeharu and jerked his head, indicating that his brother should join them.
    “Despite the apparent advantage that the Tokugawa have on the hills, we simply have no choice: we must dislodge them from their positionon that hill before their reinforcements arrive,” Shoichi was saying as Shigeharu arrived.

    Danjo nodded. “In this plain, there are three hills. The southern hill is where our… friends currently wait to greet us,” he began,raising chuckles around the command circle. “Just to the north there is the hill behind which our men shelter, waiting for the opportunity to attack, and between there is a small depression. Just west there is a long, low hill that runs north-south and is tactically worthless unless one of the other two is held. Thus we must dispatch more men to take the northern hill.”
    “From there we can continue on to face the Tokugawa,”Masayam Shoichi continued. “Danjo, you will gather the men here and take them to the northern hill. As soon as another sizeable group arrives, it will headto the west-hill, and we will then launch a concerted attack on the southern hill.”

    Danjo squatted by his brother. ”Have you noticed anythingabout the Tokugawa?” he asked.

    Shigeharu shrugged. “Some bowmen, obviously, some spearmen as well. Perhaps six hundred all told?”

    Shinshichi scoffed and shook his head. “Five hundred, if that.Majority are spearmen so we should be able to advance on them fairly easily,especially if we have archers to cover us. They also seem to be fairly green –when our men taunted them, few would reply.” With his report over, he pulled sheepishly at his mustache, mumbling something about paying attention to his surroundings.

    Danjo laughed and stood, clapping him on the shoulder. “My brother sould certainly learn something from you then!” He then strode away,yelling at the men to join him, and Shigeharu and Shinshichi dutifully fell into line.



    Last edited by waveman; December 02, 2016 at 11:26 AM. Reason: atrocious grammar

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  3. #103
    Caillagh de Bodemloze's Avatar to rede I me delyte
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    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Dec 1st (finally)

    Yeah, real life has been frantic for me recently, too. But look, I managed to get here at just the right moment to see your update, so it isn't all bad!

    Your descriptions are excellent, as always, and I really like your characters in this one. I'll be hoping real life allows you to give us the next chapter soon. (But I'll wait to see it even if that means I need to wait longer than I want to. )






  4. #104
    waveman's Avatar Decanus
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    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Dec 1st (finally)

    Shouldn't be too far off - my schedule will be lightening up significantly in a week!

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  5. #105
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Dec 1st (finally)

    Ah, the tension continues to build, I am enjoying seeing the build-up to the battle through the eyes of these characters, as they think about the crucial locations on the battlefield. I'm looking forward to seeing how that attack on the southern hill goes. When the Tokugawa men were taunted and few replied, this was interpreted as a sign that they were inexperienced; I wonder if their silence is, in fact, a sign of disciplined troops. If so, the soldiers attacking the southern hill could face stronger resistance then they expect.

  6. #106
    waveman's Avatar Decanus
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    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Dec 1st (finally)

    24. The Battle Deepens

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    After an hour of enduring the occasional petulant arrow launched in his direction, a barrage of wood and steel was begun in truth, and that was when Ii Nagaochi knew he was in trouble. “Places men!” he roared as he walked among his men, rousing them from their rest. He swung his sword lazily at the crest of the hill, directing the archers there, while the spearmen would wait just behind them on the south face of the hill.

    As he suspected, after the hail of arrows had go e on for some few minutes the Asano infantry launched their first attack aimed at securing the commanding position over the battlefield. Three flights of arrows from Commander Ii’s bowmen, waiting on the southern hill, sliced through them as they crested the northern hill and sent them scattering back to the north. They left several dozen men dead and wounded behind them.

    The second wave was similarly repulsed, but the third surged down into the depression between the two hills and nearly made the Tokugawa position, but Ii sent his infantry forward. They ambled up the hill and filed through the bowmen who were whipping arrows into the Asano men ascending the hill and the archers who were their northern counterparts. Presenting nothing but their spearpoints, they held the enemy back and even began pushing them down the hill, outnumbered though they were.



    Shigeharu gasped next to Shinshichi, who likewise was leaning on his knees, panting. After a few minutes they had recovered some of their stamina and, grasping their yari firmly, began climbing the hill again. The climb itself was not overly troubling; most of the Tokugawa bowmen were focusing on their Asano complement, yet they had been repulsed in three attacks and forced back down into the depression between the hills twice already. Shigeharu’s armor had several arrows sticking from it at odd angles that under other circumstances might have been comical. But in this instance they were deadly serious, and another few paces’ climb brought the two men within reach of the Tokugawa warriors. They presented an impenetrable wall of spearpoints to the Asano. Shinshichi and Shigeharu strove to press forward, but the could not form a cohesive formation struggling as they were against the incline, stumbling over their fallen comrades and the few Tokugawa men who had fallen as well. As they pressed forward the Tokugawa bushi jabbed at them with their yari and the few men where were able to dart past their hungry spearpoints were beaten into submission by the hafts.

    Step by step the were driven back, the Tokugawa pressing slowly forward to deny them the chance to regroup. A wordless glance from Shigeharu was all Shinshichi needed to back off of the attack, and other Asano men began backing off the attack as well. In small groups of ten to twenty men they steadily gave ground to the Tokugawa, stabbing out at them halfheartedly. Then they reached the floor of the valley between the two hills. Still they were pushed back.

    Then they were halfway up the northern hill, and the disparate clumps of men steadied their withdrawal, normalizing their pace until they too presented a united front against the Tokugawa, and still more men were streaming from the forest to the crest of the hill. As one the Tokugawa bushi halted their advance, suddenly stopping as men who were just waking from a disorienting dream. But their situation was far worse for they were outnumbered, had lost the advantage of the higher ground, and were in danger of being outflanked.

    “Now!” roared Shigeharu, an intensity in his voice that Shinshichi would have found familiar only in his elder brother Danjo, not his friend. The Asano bushi roared and flung themselves into a counterattack, heads tucked down to guard against Tokugawa arrow- and spearheads. The sheer impetus of their charge sent the Tokugawa line reeling back. Soon they were backpedaling as fast as they could.

    “Yaaaah!” screamed Shinshichi as he shoulder-charged a Tokugawa samurai. His armoured bulk sent the man stumbling back, and his heel caught on a fallen Asano warrior. Good for the fight, even in death! Shinchichi thought. His enemy sprawled on his back and Shinshichi dispatched him with a a quick thrust to the neck. To his left, Shigeharu was assaulting a determined group of Tokugawa soldiers. He advanced steadily on them, his obvious confidence inspiring the men around him, and the followed him without question, beating their opponents back. With a flurry of thrusts with his yari Shigeharu forced the man who seemed to be the Tokugawa leader back, back over the grass, now slick with the mingled blood of Asano and Tokugawa alike.

    The enemy’s spear scored a desperate, lucky strike on Shigeharu’s face that rocked his face back, but he seemed unfazed as he continued his relentless assault on the Tokugawa man. A wild slash across the Tokugawa man’s forearm disarmed him, and Shigeharu followed up with an elbow to his face and then reversed his spear and rammed the blade into his enemy’s unarmored armpit. He pushed the man off of it and by the time he looked up the rest of the Tokugawa men were fleeing. “After them!” he cried, whipping the spear around his head, and the Asano bushi gave a loud sheer as they followed up the face of the southern hill, hot on the heels of the Tokugawa.

    And all the while, the rest of the armies were marching towards each other, twenty thousand warriors all told.




    Seems like I blink a month's gone by, but here's my next update...

    On a more positive note I've gone ahead in the story and prepped some material for what happens after the battle!
    Last edited by waveman; January 05, 2017 at 10:18 PM.

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  7. #107
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Jan 4th

    Great update! I feel like I'm reading about an actual battle, rather than units clashing on a computer screen. I like your description of the use of weapons - the 'petulant arrow', the infantrymen who push back their enemies 'presenting nothing but their spearpoints' and despite being outnumbered, and the comic image of arrows sticking at odd angles into a commander's armour. With so many men still marching towards battle, I wonder what the outcome will be.

  8. #108
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    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Dec 1st (finally)

    Nice chapter! (Although I don't need to say that, really, do I? They're always nice chapters!)

    Quote Originally Posted by waveman View Post
    And all the while, the rest of the armies were marching towards each other, twenty thousand warriors all told.
    This last line is brilliant. Almost gave me shivers.


    Quote Originally Posted by waveman
    Seems like I blink a month's gone by, but here's my next update...
    And this, I am all too familiar with. So I can hardly complain when other people have the same trouble I do.






  9. #109

    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Jan 4th

    Yet again, an intriguing chapter!

    This really feels like a real battle - climbing up the hill, the impetus of the charge and the fight!

  10. #110
    waveman's Avatar Decanus
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    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Jan 4th

    Gracias, thanks to all of you. Your kind words have given me the inspiration to crank this out...

    25. Circles

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Commander Ii stroked his stubbled chin. He missed his whiskers. He stood tall on the ridge and turned to his second aid – the first had been felled by an arrow to the face – and made the call: “Send them over,” he said gruffly. The aid nodded and scampered down to the base of the hill where another two hundred Tokugawa soldiers were gathered in disarray, separated somehow from their units. They trudged past him on their way to the charnel house that lay between the hills that were the focal point, but there was no choice but to commit their meagre numbers to the battle that raged below him. Of the 5oo-man vanguard Ii had led this morning, maybe half still stood, and most of them were archers. These few hundred men, disorganized as they were, could very well sway the course of this skirmish – and perhaps even the whole battle. Ii would hold this hill or die trying, and should the enemy push his beleaguered warriors back to the crest of his hill, well he would not be moving from this spot. He would hold it or die trying.

    An anxious glance to the rear revealed that at last the bulk of the Tokugawa army was beginning to emerge from the forest. A handful of yumi-shu were rushing forward, and hot on their heels were a dozen yari-shu. “Boy!” barked Commander Ii, and when a page arrived he gave the youth some simple instructions: “Send two yari-shu to circle to the right of the hill and two to the left as well, we need five hundred men there immediately, and then get the rest up this cursed hill on the double!”

    Was Ii afraid to die? No, and he had not been since the battle between the Seki and Saika, during which he and a handful of other samurai had fought a fierce rear-guard action to allow their comrades to escape to safety over the only bridge available to them. Of course he had been drilled to the attitude that before entering a battle, a man should consider himself to be already dead, but since that battle those words had somehow seemed more true. No, Ii Nagaochi would hold this hill or die on it, and both were outcomes to be proud of.

    And so the Tokugawa reinforcements rushed past the commander who stood resolutely on the crest of the hill, daring the Asano bowmen to shoot him down and silently saluting his soldiers with his sword as they rushed past him.



    “Kutabare!” they were screaming. Drop dead! Go to Hell! Shinshichi could hardly keep pace with Shigeharu’s frenzied advance, and they’d begun to push the Tokugawa back up their own hill. Shinshichi had a nagging feeling of doubt, for was this not the exact situation in which the Asano themselves had launched a successful counter-attack? Moments later it came – another wave of white banners, and the leading Asano men were swept away, the rest cast back into the depression between the two hills, same as last time, only again there were more bodies littering the ground.

    Shinshichi’s heart shattered as he watched Shigeharu get overwhelmed and disappear into the mass of Tokugawa bushi. At that moment he turned and ran – not out of cowardice, no, for if anything he wanted to avenge his friend, but because even as his heart felt as if it was dying his mind was racing. Twice they’d nearly made the summit of the hill and twice they’d been repulsed by infantry pouring over from behind it.

    A few gasped words to Danjo and suddenly he was leading six hundred men, newly arrived to the battlefield, westward and around the right flank of the hill. There were already men fighting to the west on the gentle, tree-shaded slopes of that third, lower hill, but he was to go even farther west and advance through the plain and encircle the Tokugawa. Another five hundred men were heading east to circle around from the left. Their path would not be uncontested, but only a mere three hundred men stood between Shinshichi’s two yari-shu and their goal. More Tokugawa were emerging from the forest farther south every moment, but they were too far away at this time. All he had to do was overwhelm an opponent he had outnumbered 2-to-1. Shinshichi raised his yari overhead and broke into a jog, feeling rather than seeing his new command surge forward alongside him.






    Last edited by waveman; January 09, 2017 at 12:05 AM.

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  11. #111
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Jan 8th

    Shinshichi's emotions, as he sees history repeating itself with a successful counter-attack, observes what happens to Shigeharu and leads his yari-shu into action, make this a dramatic and compelling battle.

    The Writers' Study Yearly Awards 2016 are now open for nominations. Everyone is invited to submit nominations here.

  12. #112
    waveman's Avatar Decanus
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    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Jan 8th

    As anyone who follows this has undoubtedly noticed, I've not updated this for nigh on two months. Well, I simply haven't had a lot of time to sit down and write, on top of not having a functional laptop for the better part of a year, thereby making writing away from home a challenge.

    To continue to write, I started to do my updates on my phone. Which I then dropped a couple thousand times, leading to its untimely demise. Out of a sense of spiteful vengeance it took all by updates, fully developed or in their infancy, with it.

    So unfortunately this is finished, for the time being, except for this spoiler if you want it:

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Sadayoshi uses matchlock troops to halt Shinshichi's advance and the Tokugawa are wholly victorious, abolishing the Asano clan within the year. They then go on to take much of the surrounding territories in support of their allies the Rokkaku, etc

    SUPER SPOILER
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    A year later, Sadayoshi gets assassinated after a ninja war with the Saika, so I was going to leave off the story after this victory ^ so as to end on a happier note, and to perhaps follow the Asano ronin after the battle. Sadayoshi's son marches on the Saika, defeats them and takes half of their territory, when he too is assassinated. Then Okubo Moritoki wipes out the Saika. The Tokugawa overthrow the Takeda and join the Mori after the younger brother (not Nobushige, he dies too) takes power and starts attacking their vassals, wars that the Tokugawa stay out of for the first few, but then Hirotada decides enough is enough, and the Mori, Tokugawa, and resurgent Uesegi annihilate the Takeda. The Tokugawa also invade Kyushu under Ieyasu and Mortoki's son. This transpires over the course of the next 10 years I believe, so I'm not sure how much of it I would have covered anyways.




    So, note to self, BACK UP UPDATES, right? In any case, I'll be starting something new soon, probably a hybrid Attila-CK2 AAR set up to be a successor to The Tin Isles

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  13. #113
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    Default Re: For Honor or For Glory? A Tokugawa (Matsudaira) AAR Updated Jan 8th

    I'm really sorry about your lost updates, waveman. That must have been really frustrating for you.

    And obviously it means I don't get to read the full version of the rest of For Honor or For Glory, which is sad for me!

    But if there's a sequel to The Tin Isles in the works, I have something very good to look forward to...






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