Battle of Niigata

「八十里 腰抜け武士の 越す峠」 "Hachijuri: the pass that a faint-hearted warrior crosses." -- attributed to Kawai Tsugunosuke, on the Hachijuri Pass, leaving fallen Nagaoka for Aizu. The men of Yonezawa who had held Niigata went home over the same pass. Ten in the morning on the 25th day of the 7th month, Keio 4 (11 September 1868). The vanguard of the New Government army has finished crossing the Agano River. The front at Nagaoka has not moved for three months. The Northern Alliance is fighting with arms that come in through the port of Niigata. The New Government army embarked twelve hundred men at Kashiwazaki in two warships and four steamers, took fishing boats in tow at Ogi on Sado, and at dawn this day put them ashore at Tayuhama, in the territory of Shibata. The beach lies off the eastern edge of the board. The board begins where the vanguard has crossed the Agano; the rest come on from the ferry at Matsugasaki, on the eastern edge, on Turns 2 and 3. Ten kilometres to the west is Nuttari; beyond it the Shinano River; across the river, the town of Niigata, with its magistracy and its port. The defender is Irobe Nagato, a senior retainer of Yonezawa: Yonezawa troops, small parties from Aizu, Sendai and Shonai, and three units of Shibata posted at Nuttari. [Shibata] Those three units are units that change sides. At the start of Turn 1 there is a 60% chance, and on Turn 2 a certainty, that they pass to the New Government. Shibata had sent out troops as a member of the Alliance; on this day they fired blank charges and served as guides. [Two rivers] The Agano and the Shinano can be crossed anywhere, but a defender attacked across a river is doubled. Only at the ferries (the hexsides a track crosses) is there no penalty. The historical New Government army halted three days at Nuttari, collected thirty boats, and crossed upstream before dawn on the 29th. The clock of this board jumps on Turn 5 to three in the morning of the 29th. [How many may move] The New Government may move 13 of its 22 units each turn; the Alliance 6 of its 20. Many of its men are slipping away, and the commander's hand does not reach them. [The way out] The Alliance alone may leave the board by the south-western edge, the road to Yahiko and Kamo. A unit that leaves scores two points for each point of combat strength; Irobe Nagato scores ten more. Even if the town cannot be held, to bring the men away makes the defeat smaller. [Points] The result is decided by a single margin. Margin = (points of objectives you hold - points of objectives the enemy holds) + (losses inflicted - losses suffered). The objectives are the Niigata Magistracy 30, Niigata Port 20, Nuttari 10 and Kanabachiyama 10, all held by the Alliance at the start. If the margin, seen from the New Government's side, ends above the victory line (+54), the New Government wins; below it, the Alliance wins. 6 points beyond the line is a tactical victory, 47 an operational victory, 94 an overwhelming victory. Within 6 points of the line the game is a draw. [Names on the pieces] New Government: Yamada Ichinojo of Choshu, who directed the landing (later Yamada Akiyoshi); Kuroda Ryosuke of Satsuma, in overall command (later Kuroda Kiyotaka); Satsuma Tojo 1st, the first company of Satsuma's outer-castle troops under Murata Yuemon; Choshu; Geishu; Takanabe; Akashi; Fukuchiyama; Iwakuni; Chohei, the conscript companies. Alliance: Irobe Nagato; Yonezawa; Aizu; Sendai; Shonai; Shibata. Not on the board: Yoshii Kosuke, the staff officer who arranged the operation with the navy; Iwamura Takatoshi, inspector of the force; Mizoguchi Hanbei, senior retainer of Shibata; Ishihara Kuraemon, an elder of Shonai, shot at Matsugasaki this morning; the Schnell brothers, the merchants who sold the arms. [Decisions to try] First, for the Alliance: receive the attack on the line of the rivers, or keep the men and leave by the south-west? You can move only 6 units. There is no way to bring everyone out. Second, for the New Government: where do you cross the Shinano? In front of Nuttari; upstream, from Kamidokoro to Hakusan; or farther upstream, from Dekijima to Hirajima? Cross to Hirajima and you stand on the Alliance's road of retreat. Third, for the New Government: wait for the three Shibata units to come over, or press on without them? [What followed] Before dawn on the 29th a diversionary party crossed upstream; the main body landed at Hakusan and divided. One column went to Kanabachiyama at Sekiya, the other round by Yorii Beach to the back of the town. Fire broke out, and five hundred houses burned in Shimo-Shinmei-cho, Tera-machi and Furumachi. At about ten in the morning the magistracy fell. Irobe Nagato shared out the rations in front of the Korinji temple, his headquarters, dissolved his force and ordered each man to make his own way home. He himself, with some twenty men, was making for Kamo when a guide's mistake brought him out at Sekiya, face to face with the men of Takanabe coming up from Hirajima. He was wounded and died there. The dead of the five days were forty-three on the Alliance side and nine on the New Government's. On the same day Nagaoka castle fell for the second time. The men of Yonezawa joined their headquarters at Kamo and went home by the Hachijuri Pass and Aizu. The Alliance had lost its door to the sea. 　　Twelve hundred from the sea 　　The domain that fired blanks shows the road 　　Thirty boats; the river before dawn 　　Five hundred houses burned; ten in the morning 　　A guide's mistake, and Sekiya 　　Hachijuri The landing at Tayuhama and the march from there to the Agano are left off the board. The bombardment of the 26th to the 28th is folded into the jump of the clock; the fire of the warships Settsu and Teibo from the sea on the 27th is not written as a rule. The column led by Kuroda, four hundred and thirty men, went to Shibata castle; the sources do not show which of its units joined the attack on Niigata, or when, and their entry on Turn 3 by the same ferry is an estimate. Whether Shonai had troops in Niigata is also an estimate. The river courses and the coast are estimated from the modern map; the Shinano was then about twice as wide as it is now. 1 hex = 1 km, 1 turn = 3 hours, 1 CS = about 40 men. T1 = 10:00 on the 25th; T2 = 13:00 (the follow-up force arrives; the three Shibata units have changed sides by now); T4 = 19:00; T5 = 03:00 on the 29th (the crossing before dawn); T7 = 09:00; T9 = 15:00. Dates are in the old calendar: the 25th day of the 7th month is 11 September 1868.