Fukushima Masanuri’s Revenge

That idiot Inori, what has he done? Hirano Nagayasu was apoplectic with rage, the poor peasant farmer cowered on the ground, shaking with fear. So much for being the bearer of bad news he thought.

The idiot Inori was the headman of a small farming village on the estates of the great Samurai Lord Hirano Nagayasu and he had heard that his Lord wanted to take over the lands of his neighbour Fukoshima Masanuri, of course being the headman of a small village was like being a mouse in the field, he knew nothing, could see no further than the next ear of corn, would not see the hawk soaring overhead, even when it was too late.

He had decided to aid his lord by raiding the nearby village that was on Masanuri’s land. It also had Kami, the very pretty daughter of the neighbouring village headman who had scorned his offer of marriage. Revenge would be sweet, he would burn their houses, capture Kami and at the same time ingratiate himself with Lord Hirano. Life would be good. It was a shame that he had not thought to ask permission from Lord Hirano to do this!

Inori’s raid had gone well he had captured Kami, burned the village and pillaged food and other goods. The only problem was that he had been seen and recognised by 2 young women who had escaped and gone straight to their Lord Fukoshima, who called his immediate followers together and set out in pursuit of Inori.

Text relating to pictures is below the picture.

Inori’s small but productive village.

Another shot

Bottom left Fukoshima in the lead with a small band of retainers and farmers, the farmers are at the rear for some reason. In the middle distance is Inori and the 3 villagers he took on his raid. There are various other villagers around the place but it is unlikely they will stick around, once things get noisy.

A better picture of the idiot Inori with his bold warriors. Kami is over to the left of the picture, thinking you are going to get it now you idiot Inori.

Fukushima moves into the village and starts to shout insults and threats to Inori (failed activation 3 moves running), this is a mistake because it gives Hirano time to get to the village with his small band of retainers.

Here is Lord Hirano and 2 of his samurai, all without armour because of the rush to get here in time, the man nearest us Tada Zumi is Hirano’s personal bodyguard and is the only one in armour.

Hirano Nagayasu and retainers push through Inori and the farmers, they are very happy to see their Lord arrive at such a difficult time, but his comments to Inori can not be printed.

Nagayasu wastes no time on insults and charges straight into the superior numbers of Masanuri, who finally decides that they have shouted enough insults and threats and charge right back, although you can see the farmers and lower class fighters on both sides are strangely reluctant to join in the slaughter and hang back.

1st blood to the Hirano Clan but the other fighters push backward and forward, not gaining any advantage apart from Tada Zumi (bottom) who has pushed his opponent back out of the line.

The fight is starting to swing in favour of the Hirano Clan. Tada Zumi (right) has pushed his opponent back again, it is only a question of time before he goes down. Both of Masanuri’s Samurai retainers are down, there are still a couple of fighters to deal with but they are not high quality and the 4 farmers at the back are decidedly shaky.

The warriors go down and two of the farmers pluck up courage and attack but they have little chance against Hirano’s warriors, even if one of them is Inori.

One farmer down and the other two run away, Inori has still not beaten his man yet, it’s not his day and likely to get worse.

Masanuri and Nagayasu are still fighting after 8 rounds of melee. They are evenly matched, both have moderately good attacks but excellent defences, so each time one or the other loses the attack initiative, they regain it when they are on the defensive. However on this move 15 Nagayasu has been pushed back twice in succession and it is hard to come back from that.

Sure enough he goes down with a serious wound, however Masanuri is the last man standing - all his retainers are either badly wounded, dead or fled. He could try to surrender.

O dear too late, but he would never have surrendered anyway. He is attacked on 3 sides, holds 2 men off but the 3rd one strikes hard and he falls with a serious wound.

It's all over bar the repercussions.

This was my 1st game with these Japanese figures, it was solo and there was not a lot of manoeuvring but I thought that would be authentic for this sort of small scale brawl, see them - kill them or run away.

What will happen to Inori, I guess he will have his head cut off and stuck on a stake. What about Fukushima Masanuri, will he be killed, that would start a war and his Clan is larger than the Hirano Clan so will Nagaayasu apologise for his idiot headman Inori and try and avoid a war until he is ready for it, any thoughts?

I'm away for a few days with no internet will catch up when I get back.

If you are still here - thanks for reading and leave a comment to show you passed this way.