Battle of Sekigahara

"A man with a human face and the heart of a beast." -- Otani Yoshitsugu, on seeing Kobayakawa's troops descend Mt. Matsuo (attributed) Sekigahara, 15th day of the 9th month of Keicho 5 (21 October 1600), Fuwa District, Mino Province. A narrow pass where the Ibuki and Suzuka ranges close in, and where the Nakasendo, the Hokkoku road and the Ise road meet at a single point. The night before, the Western Army had marched ahead from Ogaki Castle through the rain and deployed from north to south in a "crane's wing": Ishida Mitsunari on Mt. Sasao, Ukita Hideie on Mt. Tenma, Konishi Yukinaga to his south, Otani Yoshitsugu on the Fujikawa heights, and Kobayakawa Hideaki on Mt. Matsuo. Tokugawa Ieyasu, following behind, set his headquarters on Mt. Momokubari. At eight in the morning, as the fog lifted, Ii Naomasa rode across the front of Fukushima's corps to strike first, and the battle began. Yet the Western Army had two kinds of ally who would not move. On Mt. Nangu, the 28,000 of the Mori were held in place by Kikkawa Hiroie, who blocked the road down and did not descend a single step; on Mt. Matsuo, Kobayakawa's 15,000 stayed still until noon. At noon (T6) Ieyasu had his musketeers fire towards Mt. Matsuo, and Kobayakawa's troops poured down the slope into the flank of Otani's corps. Wakisaka, Ogawa and others followed, and the Western Army broke within half an hour. Shimazu Yoshihiro, the last to remain, chose for his line of retreat not the road behind him but the very front of the Eastern Army. The battle was over by two in the afternoon. [How to win] 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 dividing line is Eastern Army +43. The Eastern Army wins with a lead of +54 or more; the Western Army wins by holding the Eastern lead to +32 or less. Anything in between is a draw. A further 88 points beyond the line gives an operational victory, and 175 a strategic victory (for the Western Army, -45 and -132). The objectives on the board are worth 115 points in all. The headquarters on Mt. Sasao and Mt. Tenma weigh heavily; unless one of them is threatened, no large margin will open. [Western Army] Ishida Mitsunari (Mt. Sasao), Shima Sakon, Gamo Satoie, Mai Hyogo. Ukita Hideie (Mt. Tenma), Akashi Teruzumi, Hanabusa Motoyuki, Nobuhara Kageyoshi. Konishi Yukinaga. Shimazu Yoshihiro and Toyohisa. Ito Morimasa. Otani Yoshitsugu (Fujikawa heights), Otani Yoshikatsu, Kinoshita Yoritsugu, Hiratsuka Tamehiro, Toda Shigemasa. On Mt. Matsuo, Kobayakawa Hideaki, Hiraoka Yorikatsu and Inaba Masanari defect from T6; Wakisaka Yasuharu and Ogawa Suketada defect from T7 (the Ogawa counter also includes Akaza Naoyasu and Kutsuki Mototsuna). On Mt. Nangu, Mori Hidemoto, Kikkawa Hiroie, Chosokabe Morichika, Ankokuji Ekei and Natsuka Masaie form a standby force and will not move of their own accord. [Eastern Army] Tokugawa Ieyasu (Mt. Momokubari; his 30,000 household troops are divided into five counters). Fukushima Masanori with Kani Saizo, Kuroda Nagamasa with Goto Mototsugu, Hosokawa Tadaoki and Tadataka, Kato Yoshiaki, Tanaka Yoshimasa, Kyogoku Takatomo, Todo Takatora. Ii Naomasa with Kimata Morikatsu, and Matsudaira Tadayoshi, lead the premature first strike (the "Red Devils" have a movement allowance of 5). Honda Tadakatsu. Asano Yoshinaga, Ikeda Terumasa, Yamauchi Kazutoyo and Arima Toyouji hold Mt. Nangu in check. Oda Nagataka, who killed Toda Shigemasa, Takenaka Shigekado of Fuwa District itself, and others. [Decisions this board lets you test] How much do you commit to containing Mt. Nangu? If it is not enough, 28,000 men begin to move. How far can you push before Kobayakawa changes sides? How do you use Shimazu's 1,500? As the West, can you hold the crane's wing to the end? As the East, can you finish it within six hours? [Outcome] It was over in six hours. The moment Mt. Matsuo moved, the crane's wing folded from within. Otani Yoshitsugu took his own life on the Fujikawa heights, and his retainer Yuasa Gosuke buried his head in the earth. Konishi Yukinaga was captured in the Ibuki mountains, Ankokuji Ekei was found in Kyoto, and Ishida Mitsunari was dragged from a cave near Furuhashi and beheaded at the Rokujo riverbed on the first day of the tenth month. On the way to the execution ground he was offered a dried persimmon and declined it as bad for his phlegm. Laughed at -- what does it matter to a man about to die? -- he replied that a man of great purpose guards his life to the very last moment. Shimazu Yoshihiro took the enemy's front as his line of retreat and returned to Satsuma; his house alone endured, and two hundred and sixty years later it stood among those who overthrew the Tokugawa. The Mori were reduced from 1.2 million koku to 370,000, the Uesugi were moved from Aizu to Yonezawa, and the house of Toyotomi was left with 650,000 koku in Settsu, Kawachi and Izumi. Three years later Ieyasu became Shogun. It is called the battle that divided the realm; the dividing took half a day. A single mountain moved, and the crane's wing broke. Blood on the Fujikawa heights; a man hiding in the Ibuki hills. At the Rokujo riverbed, a man who declined a persimmon. The man who returned to Satsuma waited two hundred and sixty years. They call it the battle that divided the realm. The dividing took half a day. Forces of fewer than 1,000 men are not represented as counters. Choinin Moriatsu (killed as a stand-in for Yoshihiro), Yamada Arinaga, Yuasa Gosuke (Yoshitsugu's second), Oyama Hoki, Kawajiri Hidenaga and Toda Naiki were present that day but do not appear on the board. 1 hex = 200 m, 1 turn = 45 minutes, 1 CS = about 1,000 men. T1 = 8:00, T6 = noon, T8 = 14:00.