15mm Wargaming for Fun and Sanity: OGAM Gempei Wars trial

I've designed this to playtest my new ideas, going for a “good guys – bad guys” theme. This is a generic game, this sort of encounter occurred since the rise of the Buddhist monasteries.

Lettuce imagine part of a fortified monastery high in the mountains protected by the monks, a hero and the local population. The mountain spirit, a Kirin, also makes an appearance. I had a problem deciding which deity to choose, but such is the two-fold path. Plus, I'd learned my lesson on having two similar gods last time. This is a bit like “The Golden Naginata” meets “47 Ronin” but no apologies for that.

Once we get this out of the way, we quaffed ginger beer until we agreed on the direction of the campaign.

Goddess Amaterasu with sword of heaven Q2 C4, Burst of light, Breathtaking beauty, combat master 300

Legends

Kirin (local mountain Kami) Q3 C3 Flying, Shooter (M) Dashing, Long, Armoured 124

Abbot Q3 C2 Bard 60

Legendary Hero Q3 C3 Armoured, Shooter (L) Group fighter 80

Mortals

Monks Q4 C2 Fanatic 12x 19 = 228

Mountain Samurai (Warrior) Archers Q4 C2 Shooter (M) 4 x 20 = 80

Mountain Samurai Q4 C2 8 x 15 =120

Armed peasants Q4 C1 8 x 10 = 80

Goddess 300

Legends 264 (264x3 = 792 – 300 = 492)

Mortals 508

1,072

Raijin, God of Thunder Q2 C4 Lightning, Weather control, Flying, Long, Hammering blow 308

Shugenja Q3 C1 Transfix 50

Giant Spider Q3 C3 Big, Poison 70

Oni Q3 C3 Big, Hammering blow 84

Ensorcered Armour-Hero Q5 C4 Artificial, Armoured, Combat master, Fanatic, Group fighter, unique. 98

Samurai Archers Q4, C2, Armoured, Steadfast, Shooter L, 8 x 29 232

Samurai Q4, C2, Armoured, Steadfast, 8 x 22 176

Followers naginata Q4 C2 4x15 = 60

God 308

Legends 302 (302 x 3 =906 – 308 = 598)

Mortals 468

1,078

I'm taking the role of defender, laying out 3 paddy fields as a linear feature and 2 stockades.

We classified the paddy fields as slippery (P15) and the stockades as cover and tall linear objects requiring an action point to smash through or a spider to climb over.

That means Tony gets first placement, so can “grab” a stockade. Many wargames start at a mid-point in the action, OGAM goes a bit further.

Tony set up quite far back, building from his left, leaving his spider and god to last. I set up for easy internal lines of support.

"They'll never hit anything at that dist---"

The dice were in his favour, he moved his archers up to the paddies then shot my Abbot. Then the Oni led a general advance on the other flank straight into my archers, killing only one. I sent my Hero in, who died. So I was forced to send in Amaterasu, who polished him off.

Now it was the turn of the other flank, protected by the Kirin. I sent it against the spider, which died, then it got fried by a lightning bolt. That left the flank open for Raijin to do an end run into my stockade, kicking my monks out and getting Her attention with another lightning bolt.

Back on the other flank I'd managed to get some advances using reactions but failed to get a good line. I got my Samurai against his followers, who did a good job, pushing back twice their number. Now I had to send Her against his Samurai, she stomped 3 but I didn't want to follow up – just in case! Now those same Samurai moved past her and hit mine on the flank, pushing me back. This became a confused melee, I kept sending in my monks who bounced of the armoured Samurai every time. Finally his Shugenja got in range of my Samurai, tried a Transfix with one action – and got it. That hurt.

Having being challenged, She moved into combat, stopping to nobble his archers with a burst of light (the rules say “not melee”, nothing about shooting) my remaining 2 archers got off a couple of shots at Raijin, getting close. Now the inevitable clash. Blinding his archers allowed them to invoke, while Raijin had zapped one of my peasants thus halving their ability. Now the big clash with Raijin all diced up- poor Amaterasu went down heavy. And that finished me! I was now over half and the only one unit capable of invoking was right in front of the big guy-.

So we had a good game, but didn't really test what it was designed for. Never mind! I was right though, the ensorcered hero was the last to be activated and the first to try a reaction.