The Battle of Daifukuji was not based on any historical engagement of which I am aware (which is not saying too much).  Instead, it was designed to present the players with a feel for a battle in Sengoku-era Japan.

We ran this event at Celebrate History "II".  If you have any interest in history, we highly recommend attending this event.  There are not a lot of games run there (although there are plenty), but every one is of the highest quality, and we were proud to be allowed to participate.

The playing area was about 8'x5'.  Ueda's border castle was in one corner, and the monastery was in the opposite corner, both on top of hills.  There was a village, river, several forests and hills, some roads, and quite a few flooded rice paddies.  The intent of the terrain was to funnel the action into the center of the board, thus accelerating the game.  In fact, if I were to make any changes, it would be to set the troops closer together from the start, so that the general combat starts sooner.  Still, we managed to play to a full conclusion within 4½ hours.

The Tomada side had approximately 250 figures (or 12,500 men), ranging in class from poor peasants to experienced samurai.  Ueda had around 200 figures (or 10,000 men), but he had all first class troops - no peasants or low quality ashigaru.  Gomo had less than 100 figures (or 5,000 men), but like Ueda, they were all experienced troops.  As you can see, Lord Gomo's decision would definitely go far in deciding the outcome of the battle.

Each Lord had one unreliable commander on his side.  Lord Ueda had a disgruntled samurai general, who, in spite of his feelings, carried out his orders as given, albeit a bit slowly.  Lord Tomada had to deal with the mercenary ronin, who ended up putting on a performance worthy of the best samurai, fighting almost to the very end against overwhelming numbers.  Lord Gomo had his brother to worry about, who was pretty much guaranteed to cause trouble from the start.  It was only Gomo's decisive action (and luck!) that kept him from losing his brother's contingent of troops, which contained half of his cavalry and samurai.

This was the largest playtest of the Taiko! rules to date.  Everything played smoothly, with the exception of the fatigue rules which were quickly ironed out during play.

Finally, my personal thanks to everyone who participated in and/or commented on this event.  We received nothing but praise on the aesthetic quality of the figures and scenery, and everyone seemed to enjoy playing.

Now, if Thomas can just get used to the 50:1 men-to-figure ratio, we'll be ready to publish this thing. . .