Historical Overview Section
This List covers the Kofun period from 276AD through the Taika Great Reform edict of 646 which created the ritsuriyo army, a Chinese-style conscript army, until the removal of the capital to Heian in 794. This period saw great increases in the use of iron armour, the introduction of cavalry, the gradual consolidation of most of Japan under an Imperial dynasty based in the Yamato basin with the capital at Nara, and military interventions in Korea. Armies of 10-25,000 men were common in the early period, and may have risen to 100,000 by the end.
Using the army in FoG
- While some shooty cav is available, almost the entire meat of the army will be MF with bow, front ranks having light spear. They do have the option to be armored.
- Standard tactics about making sure you are able to get as many shots as possible apply.
- You could take an IC and 12 stands of cavalry for +3 pre battle initiative, and attempt to get favorable terrain for your archers as no field fortifications or portable defenses are available, but this shrinks the frontage you can cover and shoot from considerably as that will cost 286 of your army points.
- Think about the later, drilled archers and the many available light artillery BGs as an interesting option (one light artillery BG per drilled archer BG).
UK Tournament Results with this army
Warfare 2010: empires Theme
- 1/17
- 4/17
- 5=/17
Useful Links
User-contributed links about this army:
- Register and you can put you own link in here and then write some brief detail about the link here
- Register and you can put you own link in here and then write some brief detail about the link here
- put the link text readers will see in here write some more detail about the link here
Allies
- Three Kingdoms Korean - Kaya Korean allies (only before 562) offer a unit of cataphracts, some lancers, a unit of light horse, and some required MF with Hvy Wpn backed by XB or Bow.
- Before 400 AD the cav in the ally is reduced, but still worth having as it's the only cav available!
- Three Kingdoms Korean - Paekche Korean allies (only before 700) offer much the same. Either of these could provide lancers plus shooty cav augmented by the Japanese archers.
Painting and Collecting the Army
- Paint schemes, insignia, shield designs? Put it here.
15mm Manufacturers supplying figures for this army
You can see some of the figures in the Ancients Photo Gallery also on this site. Where noted they are just Samurai, so may well not be appropriate for this particular army. Lots of the later Chinese armies have loads of artillery so look at those pages as well.
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- Essex Miniatures - Samurai of course
- Gladiator Miniatures by Fighting 15's (Gladiator Games) - Samurai range
- Minifigs UK Samurai
- Irregular Minis Samurai range
- Lancashire Games - Samurai
- Tin Soldier - Samurai
- Two Dragons, formerly made by Dixon, now made by Caliver Books/Minifigs - often seen as the gold standard to later Samurai, but a little cartoonish for some tastes too, ranges include Later Samurai & Monks
- Fighting 15’s Eureka's Samurai in the UK
- Eureka Worldwide / Australian site
- Outpost - Pre-samurai Japanese Range
- Khurasan - an actual honest to goodness Kofun-Nara Range
- Viking Forge - Early Japanese Range
- Gallia Samurai
- Naismith & Roundway Samurai and others
- Baueda Emeshi
Army Lists
Sample army lists for this army
Kofun-Nara Japanese sometime past 646 AD
- 8 LF UnPr/Poor/UnDr/Bow
- 8 LF UnPr/Poor/UnDr/Bow
- 8 MF Pr/Avg/Dr/LtSp-Bow/Bow
- 8 MF Pr/Avg/Dr/LtSp-Bow/Bow
- 8 MF Pr/Avg/Dr/LtSp-Bow/Bow
- 8 MF Pr/Avg/Dr/LtSp-Bow/Bow
- 8 MF Pr/Avg/Dr/LtSp-Bow/Bow
- 8 MF Pr/Avg/Dr/LtSp-Bow/Bow
- 2 Lt Artillery Avg/Dr
- 2 Lt Artillery Avg/Dr
- 2 Lt Artillery Avg/Dr
- 2 Lt Artillery Avg/Dr
- 2 Lt Artillery Avg/Dr
- 2 Lt Artillery Avg/Dr
- 4 Cv Arm/Sup/UnDr/Bow-Sword
- CinC TC and 3 TC
800 AP, 15 BG, +0 pre battle initiative
This listing is largely a 'gimmick' version based around a long, nearly table width spanning line of archers with light artillery in between. Expect to fail some CMTs when moving the light artillery and be able to deal with that. Note that any unit that takes two shooting hits that was shot at by artillery must take a cohesion test (at -1 for shot at by artillery at least) and the artillery need not have caused either of the hits.
Kofun-Nara Japanese sometime just before 400 AD
- 6 Pacified Emishi LF Unprot Poor Undrilled Bow
- 6 Pacified Emishi LF Unprot Poor Undrilled Bow
- 3 Korean Spearmen MF Protected Average Drilled - Heavy Weapon, 3 Korean Archers MF Protected Average Drilled Bow - -
- 3 Korean Spearmen MF Protected Average Drilled - Heavy Weapon, 3 Korean Crossbowmen MF Protected Average Drilled Crossbow - -
- 6 Nobles & Retainers MF Protected Superior Undrilled - Offensive spearmen
- 6 Nobles and Retainers MF Protected Superior Undrilled - Offensive spearmen
- 6 Nobles and Retainers MF Protected Superior Undrilled - Offensive spearmen
- 6 Nobles and Retainers MF Armoured Superior Undrilled Bow
- 6 Nobles and Retainers MF Protected Superior Undrilled - Offensive spearmen
- 4 Korean Horse Archers LH Unprot Average Drilled Bow - Sword
- 6 Nobles and Retainers MF Armoured Superior Undrilled Bow
- 6 Nobles and Retainers MF Armoured Superior Undrilled Bow
- 8 Nobles and Retainers MF Armoured Superior Undrilled Bow
- C-in-C TC - - - - - -
- Sub-commander TC
- Sub-commander TC - - - - - - - 1
- Ally General TC
- 798 AP, 13 BG, +0 pre battle initiative
- Taking the view that superiority is, well, superior...all a bit vulnerable to good mounted, spread the bow out to avoid it becoming a target. Korean LH could be replaced with lancer Cv if you prefer.
- Extreme aggression recommended, especially against LH.
Having used a the above list at 800 pts, albeit in theme, some thoughts. As you'd expect, it works very well against shooty armies. Against lancers it can be tricky, but it isn't a dead loss, even in steppe. Always fight with a general (especially the bow, they are at 5's most of the time). The Koreans are useful, but fragile (and you can't commit the general). Try and use them to cover the flank as you advance. The spearmen are solid, at least in book.
Problems - Doubtful that this works in open themes - knights look bad but their shorter move may actually help you, The real issue is likely to be impact foot, especially good stuff like romans or dailami.
Name of Army / Date
- Using asterisks inthe edit mode creates a bulleted list in the actual site
- This is a lot easier to do than easier than setting up tables
- For FoG I suggest listing your army in order or march
- with troop desctiptions on each line, for example
- 4 HF Armoured Average Drilled Impact Foot Swordsmen
- 8 LG Undrilled Unarmoured Poor Bowen
- Dont forget to include your Generals !!!
Include any notes you want here, including comments on how to use - or play against - the army.
Remember to leave a line before you copy the above section as a template for your own list
eBay Listings
UK Bookstore
| You can make the bookstore show only the books for the army you are setting up the page for. You need to change the line above where it says "node=0"by replacing the number "0" with the right code. You can find that by going to the Bookshop page, navigating to the right page, and holding your mouse over link to that army on the right hand menu. The node number you need to replace "0" with will show up in the bar at the bottom of your screen! Don't worry if you can't find it - I'll get round to sorting it out eventually |
