"The Battlefield"

Things have been rather hectic work-wise, and I also wanted to combine the necessary preparations with the AAR for this, the third of the linked introductory scenarios for Test Of Honour, instead of presenting it over two posts as I've done previously.

Introduction from the Battle Guide 
"Fuelled by your previous fight, tensions between your two clans has worsened resulting in a larger battle.
Reports arrive of many dead on both sides, and worse still, both heroes have family members still missing.
You hurry to the scene of the battle to search for your loved ones only to discover more of the hated enemy picking over the bodies...."

Reach the wounded soldiers before the enemy and search for your family member.

Five objective markers (I'm using casualty markers) are placed at least 6" away from each other and at least 12" from the edge of the playing area to represent just some of the dead and wounded lying on the battlefield.

A warrior in contact with a marker can make a "Search" action by taking a Test Of Wits, if successful they have found a member of their clan. As soon as one side has identified three clan members they have found the missing family member and must take one more Test Of Wits - if passed the man is saved and will eventually recover.
For the losing side, there is still no sign of their missing relative.

Once again, I've had a bit of prep work to do before I could play the game - the recruitment limit has increased to 18 points so I needed a few more minis painting and basing, and I wanted to substitute casualty markers for the supplied 'objective tokens', so they needed assembling and painting as well.
The map shows two of the supplied two dimensional buildings 'flipped' to their destroyed side, and as tempted as I was to scratchbuild a couple of burned out buildings, I just went with a pair of the recently constructed Minka.

Followers of the series so far will be pleased to know that the ashigaru spearman "Tamaki Jiro", who performed so heroically in the last encounter, has been promoted to 'sergeant' (not technically correct -  an  'ashigaru ko gashira' is the rank given to the leader of an ashigaru weapon squad) and is now resplendant as a new mini complete with the short spear which is his 'badge of rank'!

Meanwhile, the Taisho in charge of the Takeda buntai has displayed his displeasure with Murayama Tanjiro, who has been defeated in the previous two encounters, by sending along a wise samurai, Yoshihara Suzu, to "assist" Tanjiro.

Suitable opposing buntai were selected to an 18 point total, and deployed 6" from the board edge as follows..
Takeda, left to right, bowman, 3 spearmen, Wise Samurai, Samurai Hero, bowman, 2 spearmen.

Mori left to right,Experienced Spearmen, sergeant, 3 bowmen, 3 spearmen

Turn one and the opening of the engagement saw the Takeda bowman on the left flank stepping forward and firing a well aimed shot at one of the Mori spearmen,

causing a light wound. which he looked none too pleased about.

The Mori tactic on the right flank was a slow advance, using their superior firepower to try and pin their opponents (every successful shot forces the target to use up their action trying to 'avoid' being hit)

Tanjiro used a skill he'd drawn from the fate deck to 'double move' one of the ashigaru spearmen,

resulting in him being the first to reach one of the casualties,

but Yoshihita was next, and he still had two actions available this turn!

Not to be out-done, Tanjiro was next to reach one of the fallen warriors......

... but the first 'rescue' is made by Yoshihito for the Mori clan just before the end of the first turn!

In turn two, the Mori bowmen continue their harrassing fire, preventing the Takeda from checking the casualties,

but Tanjiro makes it one apiece,

and Suzu braves the arrows to try and identify the other fallen warrior on this side of the fence.

A Mori spearman tries to intervene,

but before he can get there, Suzu identifies one of his clan members and it's 2-1 to the Takeda clan.

Over on the other flank, Jiro and the squad of experienced spearmen are trying to get to the casualty near the Torii gate.

Yoshihito leapt effortlessly over the fence to reach the wounded bushi in the road.

The enemy bowman to his right took a shot at Yoshihita as he stood in the road but missed, allowing him chance to identify another of his clan members.

It's now two all and the race is on to identify the third and final fallen warrior!
The ashigaru on the Mori right flank did their best to try and engage the enemy and keep them on this side of the field,

while Jiro and the group of spearmen faced the Takeda foot soldiers and attempted to identify the final missing clan member.
At this point, Yoshihito spotted his foe on the other side of the fence,

and decided to buy time for Jiro and his men by rushing over to attack him.

This was the start of a long and bloody duel as the arch enemies traded blows!

 Everything was still in the balance at the start of turn three.

The Mori clan were first to activate and Jiro sent in a 'blocking charge', contacting the nearest spearman, and putting themselves between the enemy and the casualty.

The attack could have gone better - even though the spearman stumbled and fell to the ground as he tried to avoid the yari thrusts, the group failed to finish him off, and only managed to inflict a 'light wound'.

The duel between the two samurai heroes raged on, with Yoshihita taking another cut,

and yet another (remember that for each "light wound" blood drop, the opponent gains an extra dice for their attacks).

Jiro moves around through the Torii and gets ready to try and identify the fallen bushi,

as the two heroes are still at it, refusing to back down and using every tactic they can muster!
Meanwhile, the Mori bowmen were still managing to 'pin' the Takeda troops by forcing them to evade their arrows and the spearmen pressed the advantage....

...unable to block the attack, the Takeda spearman is cut down, forcing his ashigaru companion and Suzu to take a "Test of Nerve" which both failed misereably, retiring a full move distance from the jubilant Mori spearmen.

The situation at the start of turn four, and the situation looks bad for the Takeda clan!

The Mori clan are first to draw an activation, and it's a "Commoner" token - sergeant Jiro inspects the casualty and successfully identifies the last clan member, and claims victory for the Mori!

A Test of Wits by Yoshihito further identifies the injured warrior as the missing family member, whose wounds will heal when (if) they can escort him back to safety.

This was yet another thoroughly enjoyable game to play, with the action coming thick and fast throughout.
Murayama Tanjiro has failed his Taisho yet again, but Yoshihara Suzu retiring from the enemy ashigaru puts him in no position to criticize the leader of the buntai, and the Takeda will be looking for revenge in the next scenario!

I hope you've enjoyed the write up despite some of the photo's being a bit dodgy - my fault as I found myself 'snatching' shots as quickly as possible so that I could continue the gameplay!
As ever your comments and queries are more than welcome, and I hope you come back for the next installment when Tanjiro will attempt to prevent Yoshihito getting home with his injured relative.