4th Kawanakajima, 1st practice

As promised, courtesy of Dr Yamaguchi's amazing instant woodblock machine. A certain Stupid Fat Hobbit forgot to take his box of foot Samurai to Hamilton (and had to substitute Sohei and some heavily armoured teppo-men), so this was only a practice.

We will be doing the "real thing" on or about the 450th anniversary of the battle in September this year.


4th Kawanakajima 6am, behind Takeda lines




4th Kawanakajima 6am, behind Uesugi lines




06.15am, the Uesugi line presses forward. Kakizaki prepares to charge




Takeda-Brown-san considers his prospects of getting out of this with an uncut abdomen




06.30 Takeda Nobushige breaks thru the Kakizaki line





06.30 Kakizaki line stalls, Kenshin pushes his line forward




06.45 Morozumi Torasada's Takeda cavalry charge Kenshin's line





07.00 Kenshin is wounded in hand to hand combat with Morozumi Torasada




07.00 Nobushige slaughters hundreds of ashigaru




07.15 Nobushige is surrounded and cut down, but he has stalled the Kakizaki attack




07.30 the sky darkens with arrows and gunsmoke as the Uesugi foot close. Morozumi rampages in the rear after breaking Kenshin's bodyguard




07.45 Morozumi Torasada charges the rear of the Uesugi line, cutting down musketeers, befor he is surrounded and killed




08.00  Kosako Danjo Masanobu and the  Takeda Woodpecker force




08.00 Kakizaki furiously charges towards Shingen's headquarters as his own command disintegrates




08.15 Kakizaki tries to hack his way through Shingen's Hatamoto




08.15 Shingen's Hatamoto beat off the attack. Kakizaki is wounded and carried from the field




08.30 Amakazu and Suda prepare to sell their lives dearly to hold back Kozaku




08.30 a relieved Shingen watches the Kakizaki troops flee and the rest of the Uesugi army start to retreat