SAMURAI ARMY LIST

By Robert McCloskey, (RJM)

Author's Notes

Each period has its own advantages and disadvantages. I have made minor changes to some of the AOA entries and noted so when done. In all cases, it was to down grade troops to give them a more historical feel then in AOA.

RJM

PREFACE

This Samurai list is fairly complex, due to it covering over a thousand years of time. I have placed all the supporting statements with each entry and its special rules. The final version after list review will place all special rules in the beginning and explainations at the end. This list is broken into 3 seperate time zones covering Early: 500-1100 AD, Mid: 1100-1500, Late: 1500-1650. Payclose attention to the periods,  Mid has the most troop variation options but none of the neat special weapons that the Early and Late periods had.

You will note that some of the base points for troops have been lowered. This is not a change, I have removed the base weapons they were armed with in AOA and you have to purchase them in the list. Early and Late troops were not always armed the same. The most notable example is the Tachi vs Katana. Point costs should be dead on target, with only some special items that may need to be LOWER in cost. I will go to the side of caution when in doubt. All items are historical, and some things have been abstracted somewhat to keep things simple enough for the WAB system. ENJOY!!

ARMY COMPOSITION:

Characters: Up to 25%
Samurai: At least 25% and up to 75%
Other Infantry: At least 25% and up to 75%
Special Troops: Up to 25%

CHARACTERS:

0-1 GENERAL

Samurai armies had 2 styles of generals. Those who led from the front and were strong warlords and those who stayed seated in the middle of their army and co-ordinated the fight and only fought if forced to.  They were not any less thewarrior, but to encourage the latter to be used historically, I have lowerred their stats and they are the only generals allowed to have the fearsome Hamamoto guard unit.

ALL GENERALS ARE: STUBBORN, HONORABLE, WARRIOR OF LEGEND, & ARMY GENERAL.

SHOGUN: Early & Mid..............200 points
LORD: Mid & Late...................175 points

Equipment:
Early Shogun: Armed with Tachi (sword) and Long Bow. May have Samurai armor +4, horse- free. May fire bow 2/turn (see Samurai bowmen below)
Mid-Shogun: Armed with Katana. May have Samurai armor +4, Long bow +4, Naginata +2, Spear +2, extra hand weapon +2, Horse-free.
Late Shogun: Armed with Katana. May have Samurai armor +4, Ancestral Bench +20  (The Ancestral bench is the portable seat the general conducts the battle from. As long as the general does not leave it, he is immune to all psychology and break test. The general on the bench, may NOT be part of a unit, and if another friendly unit is in the combat, it does not gain this bonus.  The general would rather die then flee. THE BENCH CAN NOT MOVE DURING THE BATTLE, AND MUST REMAIN WERE THE GENERAL STARTS THE GAME)

0-7 SAMURAI HEROS..............100 points

Equipment: Same options as the Early or Mid Shogun above, per your army period choosen. Early Heros may fire their bow 2/turn.

Special: Stubborn, Honorable, Warrior of Legend.

1 ARMY STANDARD
0-1/2000 PTS WING STANDARD

Samurai armies had several formal standard bearers. Ususally 1 large great standard (ususally a streamer like the japanise wind socks & kites you see at beaches but much bigger) and 2 large wing-standards. The Great standard has the normal 12" re-roll effect. Sub-standards have a 6" re-roll effect.

Great...............60 points
Wing...............50 points

Equipment: Armed with same options as Early or Mid Shogun above. (It is assumed a retainer holds the standard while the Samurai wields any 2 handed weapon.) Early may fire bow twice.

Special:
Great:  Honorable, Stubborn

OFFICER...............60 points

Equipment: Same options as Early or Mid-Shogun above. Early may fire bow twice.

Special: Honorable, Stubborn.

SAMURAI

NOTES: Samuri fought in loose order but with alot of retainers. Samurai had a set number of retainers they were expected to bring and equip based on the amount of income the Samurai earned. 1/2 the retainers were not fighters but the other 1/2 were armed with naganatas, spears, swords, forks and the like and would often guard the Samuria's back or even pin the foe with a fork for the Samurai to make the kill. Early Retainers were all on foot, but later retainers would be mounted if their Samurai was also mounted. To represent this directly in WAB would be very complex, so I have implimented the following simplified effects:

FOOT SAMURAI

MAX RANK BONUS +2. Samurai are under the max +2 rank bonus of light troops but may not skirmish per say. The retainers are not modeled in the unit, but are what gives the unit its effective rank bonus. Ranks are still determined by number of Samurai forming the unit ranks. ie. 12 Samurai in 3 ranks of 4 get max +2 bonus. This is just a way of explaining the unrealistic way that Samurai foot units must deploy in WAB. NOTE: The max +2 is a change from the AOA book which allowed +3 but Samurai never fought in a heavy infantry role.

CAVALRY

EARLY CAVALRY: Early Samurai cavalry had 1 mounted samurai with foot retainers. The cavalry would move slow enough for the foot troopers to keep up untill they charged and the retainers would catch up when they could. To represent this, Early Cav may have runners. These are treated exactly like chariot runners of the Egyptian army list. Any runner in base to base contact with the enemy or a friendly cav unit that is directly engaged in HTH may also fight. (see runners below)

LATE CAVALRY: Late samurai cavalry had mounted retainers with spear or naginata. This is represented by actual mounted figures making up the back ranks of a unit. 1/2 of the retainers may each attack once per HTH combat phase but at str-3 only with no charge bonus and always in initative order.

The samuai cav also fought in a loose order and this rule represent the retainers waiting for the chance to put in a helping hand. Also samurai cav with retainers may count a rank bonus of up to +1.

MID-CAVALRY: Mid-samurai cavalry fell inbetween the other 2 methods with some mounted and some foot retainers. Mid armies may use eighter option, on a unit by unit basis.

SAMURAI EARLY BOWMAN: Early and some Mid samurai were bow specialist and only fought in HTH as a last resort. To represent this specialization, Early and Mid (with bow and Tachi only) samurai may shoot twice in the shooting phase with all normal firing modifiers. 2nd + ranks may area fire even if the unit moved. If the unit did not move, then 2+ ranks may area fire twice.
NOTE: For those that think this may be powerful, remember that these samurai can not use the katana and so loose the str-4 attack and the parry that weapon gives, making them weaker in HTH and lower saves in both HTH and Missle fire.

HATAMOTO: These were the elete of the elete samurai and were the personal guard of the Lord. If the army has taken a Lord general, then they may have 1 unit of Hamamot which are normal samurai but have  the TO THE DEATH special ability and if the Lord should be killed, they suffer hatred of that unit.
TO THE DEATH: This just means that no matter how bad they lose combat or how much they are outnumbered, the Hatamoto will always fall back in good order and can not be destroyed by pursuit. They will still break and fall back from HTH or panic test but always automatically regroup. Their personal honor and sense of duty is so great they will die before running from the battlefield.

SAMURAI CAVALY

Samurai.................25 points
Retainers...............16 points

(note: if any retainers are taken, you must have at least 1 per Samurai and may not exceed 2 per.)

Equipment:
Early Samurai: Armed with Tachi, Samurai armor +4, Log Bow +4. (may fire bow twice)
Late Samurai: None. May have, Katana +3, Naginata +2, spear +2, extra hand weapon +2.
Mid Samurai: May be armed as eighter of above, but the whole unit
must be armed the same.
Retainer: Armed with naginata or spear, light armor.

Special:
Samurai: Stubborn, Honor, Lt Cav.
Retainers: Lt Cav

RUNNERS.................7 points

Limit 1 per Early samurai cavalry (or early style Mid) unit. Runners may have up to 2 times the number of models in the cavalry unit they are assigned to. Runners follow all rules for Egyptian chariot runners plus they must always attempt to stay within 6" of the parent cav unit if physically able to do so. They may only declare a charge at the same unit the cavalry is charging fighting, unless the parent cavalry is destroyed without them. If they are engaged in HTH on their own (by an enemy charge) or shooting/panic tests, they may use the parent units leadership value if within 6". If they are in HTH with the parent unit they stay or break with that unit. Only 1 break test is taken, and that one taken by the Samurai.

Equipment: Armed with light armor and spear. May have shield +1.

FOOT SAMURAI

0-1 Hatamoto.............15 points
Samurai......................13 points

Equipment:
Hatamoto: none may be armed with katana +3, samurai armor +4, Long Bow +4,naginata or spear +2 (but only if bow is not taken).
Early Samurai: Armed with Tachi. May have Long Bow +4, samurai armor +4. May fire bow twice.
Mid-Samurai: May be armed as eighter of above, but whole unit must be armed the same. If Early options is taken, may fire bow twice.

Special:
Hatamoro: To the Death. All samurai/Hatamoto are Stubborn and Honorable.
Samurai:All samurai/Hatamoto are Stubborn and Honorable.

OTHER INFANTRY

ASHIGARU

Ashigaru may be lead by a samurai bought from the list above. If a samurai leader is taken, he may not be singled out by missle/bolt/cannon fire, but may be directly attacked by any model in base to base contact. If killed in HTH then the enemy unit gets an additional +1 combat result to reflect the effect on morale his death causes.
Note, I have lowered the WS of the Wakato and also removed the option for armor. Otherwise no one would take Ashigaru as they were the same stats but 1 pt cheaper.

0-1 CHUGEN.........8 points (Mid and Late only)
ASHIGARU...........6 points
WAKATO..............5 points

Equipment:
Early: Tachi. May have naginata +2, Light armor +2, Spear +1, shield +1. (Early represent well trained retainers/levey troops, as the ashigaru did not exsist yet, but replaced these retainers in later years.)
Mid & Late: Hand weapon. May have light armor +2, Naginata +2, spear +1.
Wakato: Hand weapon. May have naginata +2, spear +1.

ALL ASHIGARU ARE LIGHT TROOPS.

PEASANTS.............3 points

Early and Mid period only. (Late may only use in sieges & special senerios)

Peasants suffer from FEAR of any unit except skirmishers. They may not declare a charge against any unit with a base leadership of 6 or higher, except skirmishers, which may always be charged without penalty.  (Warbands add their bonus to their leadership for this test, but do not count a characters bonus)

Leader: peasants may be led by an unlucky Ashigaru, bought from the list above and follows the same rules as the Samurai leader noted above.

Equipment: Armed with rocks and farm tools. (Count as javelins with 4" range and hand weapon.)

Special: Light infantry.

WARRIOR SECTS

MONKS

The monks in AOA are very fanciful and do not reflect the true warrior monk of history. Early monks were feared as they were the only full time standing troops of the period. (Samurai of the time were not yet formally known as samurai, but were nobles with horses and men on call for war after the crops were taken in.) This standing regular army gave Early monks a fearsome reputation that was backed up by a relegious awe. To represent this, Monks are treated as Late period samurai with str of 4 (no katana though) to reflect their year round training and cause FEAR in any unit with a leadership of 7 or less. Once true samurai came into the picture, the mortality of the monks was proven and they lost the sense of awe that surrounded them.  Mid & Late period monks are treated just like Late samurai, but with increased weapon choice.

EARLY MONK............................20 points
MID & LATE MONK.................13 points

Equipment:
Early monk: Armed with Tachi. May have samurai armor +4 (but decreases movement to 4), long bow +4, naginata or spear +2, extra hand weapon +2. If the units is armed with bows, then 1 in 10 may have a light Oyami (see special troop section).
Mid & Late monk: None. May have samurai armor +4, long bow +4, katana +3, naginata or spear +2, extra hand weapon +2, Late period only may have arquebus (matchlock)+4.

Special:  ALL MONKS ARE STUBBORN
Early Monk: Fear in Ld-7 or less.

OMIKOSHI..................20PTS (EARLY PERIOD ONLY)

The omikoshi was a portable shrine carried by the monks to make a statement. In the early period, the monks would often carry the shrine into town as a treat to the local lord to meet their demands. It would often be left in the middle of town or in front of the gate to the lord's home/castle untill he came arround. Peasants were terrified of this thing, and its presents would disrupt everything. The monks would often get their way without having to fight. It may only be used in the early period as this great fear of the monks was disbanded once true standing samurai came into the picture.

Special rules: The omikoshi may only be brought by a Early period army that has at least 500 pts of monks in it. It is carried by a unit of monks at least 10 strong and loses -1 movement per 2 men less then 10 remaining in the unit. A unit carring the omikoshi, may not march move, but may charge as normal.

The omikoshi unit causes TERROR in those with leadership of 7 or less and fear in all others. (NOTE to elephant users. This causes fear in the mahout, not the elephant itself. If the elephant is rampaging it does not check, but if the mahout wishes to charge, he must pass his test. elephants treat the omikoshi as fear causing only, not terror.)

The omikoshi unit will always test on an unmodified leadership score of 9. Monks sometimes were forced to leave the omikoshi behind unwillingly, but would normally fight to the death to protect it.

0-1 NINJA.................10 points LATE PERIOD ONLY.

Whether or not ninja really exsisted is debatable, however, there were specially trained warriors for sneak attacks into castles and such.  This entry is unchaged from the AOA book but included for completness.

Equipment: Armed with hand weapon. May have extra hand weapon +1, naginata +2, light armor +2, throwing stars +1 (count as javlins).

Special: Light infantry, Infaltrate.  Ninja set up last and may deploy anywhere on the table outside of enemy deployment zone and out of sight of all enemy models.

SPECIAL TROOPS

ASHIGARU SPECIAL UNITS

Ashigaru were the troop of choice for special formations. This catigory also represents the Early period special retainer troops who used similar units. These units normally consisted of 1/2 archers and 1/2 spearmen lead by a Samurai and later 3/10ths arquebus, 2/10ths bowmen, and 5/10ths spearmen in rank behind, lead by a samurai. However, they were also deployed each on their own with a samurai leader. Spearmen on their own are already accounted for in the main list, as these were the most common unit used on its own. I have split the bow and Arquebus into 2 seperate units to avoid unnessassary complexity to play. You may field a unit of entirely missle troops or a mixed unit of 1/2 missle troops and 1/2 spear. Both unit types may use a special pavis.

SPECIAL RULES:

1) Mixed units: Long bow and arquebus units may be purchased with 1/2 missle and 1/2 spear troops. They are formed into 2 ranks. The first rank is the missle troops who can fight normally in HTH combat. The 2nd rank is the spearmen who may also fight in HTH from the 2nd rank. Max rank bonus is therefore +1. Any additional troops in extra ranks due to reforming into column ect are ignored for combat bonus.

2) Pavis: All time periods had pavis available for their front line missile troops. These were very unlike the Spara of the Persians. They were much stronger to stand up to missle fire, but only had 1 support pole with forked prong at bottom. These were very bulky, but easily set up or taken down. Due to the penalties involved, these pavis cost +2 instead of normal +3.
- A pavis takes no time to set up or take down and so is considered always set up, even at the begining of the game. However, if the unit moves, it may not shoot.
- A pavis unit may not march move, but may charge, in which case the pavis is left behind and and not useable for the rest of the game.
- A pavis gives the whole unit -1 to be hit by missle fire. (this does not apply to bolt throwers) - A pavis is NOT considered a regular shield at all, and so it does not give any additional armor save.
-Due to its ease of set up, a pavis is easily knocked down by an enemy concentrating on doing so. To represent this, enemy need a 6 to hit in HTH combat for the 1st turn only. There after combat is handled normally. If the pavis unit pushes off the enemy unit, they may reset the pavis automatically.
-A pavis unit, does not have to pursue the enemy. If they do, they lose the pavis. The same applies if they route from HTH.
- As long as the unit retains it's pavis, they may NOT skirmish. If the pavis is dropped, the unit may skirmish as normal for light troops.

3) ARQUEBUS: The arquebus is a matchlock rifle. The bearer, may move and fire, but can not reload on the move. It may be fired once per 2 turns. You may opt to fire only 1/2 the unit so that you get some fire each turn. If the unit is charged, only those who have not fired yet this turn may fire as a charge reaction.

ARQUEBUS: Str-4 -2 armor save modifier. Range 24", may fire once per 2 turns. Cost-4 pts.

MAY HAVE SAMURAI LEADER AS NOTED FOR ASHIGARU IN MAIN TROOP LIST.

ASHIGARU:

BOWMEN.................10 points
ARQUEBUS..............10 points
SPEARMEN...............7 points

Equipment:
Bowmen: hand weapon and longbow. may have light armor +2, pavis +2.
Arquebus: hand weapon and arquebus. may have light armor +2, pavis +2
Spearmen: hand weapon and spear (or naginata used as spear only). May have light armor +2.
MID & LATE troops may have katana for +2 pts.

Special:  LIGHT INFANTRY.

OYUMI: EARLY PERIOD ONLY.

Oyumi were of 2 styles. Light- which was a repeating crossbow and Heavy- which was a light bolt thrower complete with crew. They were used and crewed by Samurai, not retainers or ashigaru.

LIGHT OYUMI: Range 24" Str- 4, may move and fire but all normal penalties apply, cost- 5 pts. May shoot twice in one turn for additional -1 to hit.
(Str- should probably be 3, but then no one would take one when longbows are just as good.) Light oyumi may be fielded 1 per 10 samurai. They may be deployed within 4" of the parent unit, and may not be targeted by enemy missile weapons unless they are the closest model. If shot at they get the -1 skirmish modifier. They may not be charged themselves. But if the parent unit is charged, or charges, then they go into the back rank of the parent unit..
Alternately, if you have at least 5 oyumi, you may employ them as their own seperate skirmish unit.

HEAVY OYUMI: Range 36" Str-4 (-1 per rank) no save, d3 wounds. 3 crew. (This weapon is exactly the same as the Roman light bolt thrower.) It takes at least 2 crew to opperate. If only 1 crewmen is left, then it may only fire every other turn. Limit is 1 per full 1000 pts of the army.

SAMURI/ LIGHT OYUMI.....18 points (LIMIT 1/10 samurai)
HEAVY OYUMI......................20 points + crew. (LIMIT 1/full 1000 pts.)
SAMURAI CREW..................13 points (max 4 crew)

Equipment: Samurai is armed with Tachi. May have samurai armor +4.

Special: Samurai are stubborn and Honorable.

CANNON: LATE PERIOD ONLY. LIMIT 1/FULL 2000 PTS IN ARMY.

Samurai cannon were not very good. They often were carted to the scene on horses backs or small carts, then set up on site on rice bales or permanent wood holders. To represent this, the following special rules apply:

1) Where you initially place the cannon is where it stays for the whole game. It may not move. You may pivot the cannon up to 90 degress from the front to eighter side. (180 total).

2) Cannon may only fire once per 2 turns.

3) When fired, guess range then add the range dice result (the misfire,2,4,6,8,10 die) to the guessed range, this is how fire the shot goes when it first lands. Roll an additional range dice for how far it bounces. Anything between these 2 points can be hit and a roll to wound is made. Due to the inacuracy of the weapon you also roll 2 6 sided dice. The first die determines left 1-2, on target 3-4, or right 5-6. The 2nd dice determines how far off to side the shot goes. If the gun is at short range, the 2nd die is considered a d3.
If a misfire is rolled on the 1st range die, then roll on the boltthrower misfire table. If it is on the bounce, then the cannonball sticks in the dirt and you only hit what is directly under the ball.
Example. Cannon fires at a unit of mongol horsemen. The crew guesses 12" and rolls a 8 for start point on the range dice. The target unit is 24" away, so you measure your landing spot as a straight line from the cannon to center of target unit, putting it 4" in front of the mongols. You then roll the deviation die and a 2 is rolled, which means the shot goes to the left. The 2nd deviation die roll is a full d6 since you are at long range, a 2 is also rolled. So the initial shot landing site is moved 2" to the left then the 2nd range dice is rolled to see how far it bounces. 8 is rolled whcih means the bounce will catch 2 horses before exiting the side of the mongol horse unit.
(If you do not have a range dice, label a d6 as shown above, or just use a d10 with 1 being misfire.)

CANNON...................75pts (includes 3 ashigaru crew armed with Tachi. Crew may have light armor at +2 pts each.)

Range-48" Str-7 T-6 W-3 Does d4 wounds. Shoots once /2 turns.

0-1 SAMURAI ARQUEBUS...............17 points (Late period only.)

Some samurai were wquiped with arquebus after 1575, This was not viewed well by the samurai, who perferred a more honorable hand to hand combat. Late period armies may take 1 unit of samurai arquebus, but this must be the smallest special unit.

Equipment: Armed with hand weapon and arquebus. May have samurai armor +4, katana +3.

References

WAB rulebook, AOA, Dr. Stephen Turnbull's Samurai warfare, Osprey elete and men at arms series. DBM army book 3 & 4. Several Jananese museum web sites.

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