Question for historical wargamers

To those who play wargames, by computer, tabletop or boardgame..which single game is to your mind the best recreation of the historical accuracy of Japanese warfare in the period between 600AD and 1600AD?
Thank you

Depends on what you're looking for. Most of the time it's governed more by
the miniatures available, and less by the rules.

For a system that covers a wide time frame, I'd check out DBM, and DBA.
It's an older system, and it's 15mm but they've got lists for Japanese of
different time frames in their last rules set I saw. Old Glory had a
samurai line which I picked up some of, both in 15mm and 25mm. Twin
Dragons has some very detailed 15mm mini's but last I checked they were
backordered. (that may have changed, been a long time since then)

As for computer games, Shogun, Total war is one of the best games for the
Japanese genre that I've ever seen. All of the others tend to be fantasy
based.

For a fantasy version of samurai, Clan War isn't bad, but it suffers again
from the Old Game syndrome, meaning most of the miniatures are no-longer in
production and fewer people are playing it. The mini's are gorgeous
however, and are in 28mm. It's tied very strongly to the Legend of the
Five Rings RPG.

For a historical RPG, I'd go for Sengoku. Though it's got a fantasy
element to it, it's easily stripped out and it allows you to play the
chambara(sp) style genre fairly accurately. Alot of actual historical
research went into that game, and I've found it to be a good down to earth
system to play in. If I remember correctly, Anthony Bryant? (I apologize if
I got his name wrong) one of the leading scholars on the time frame
contributed to it. I believe his website to be sengokudaimyo.com

All of that being said, if I'd have to recommend a wargame, and only one,
I'd go for Shogun: Total War.

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 12:10 PM, Evan Hodge <evan_hodge@...> wrote:

> To those who play wargames, by computer, tabletop or boardgame..which
> single game is to your mind the best recreation of the historical accuracy
> of Japanese warfare in the period between 600AD and 1600AD?
> Thank you
>
>
>



--
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Tom
Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum europe vincendarum
Thou shalt not refer to the Machine Spirit as "Cruise Control".


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

-This will be slightly off topic on your war-games question, but it is viable and related anyway I feel.

So my game suggestion is Dynasty Tactics and Dynasty Tactics Two for the Playstation 2. The sequel is better, and the setting is the Three Kingdoms period in China, but it is arguably a similar time period with the samurai in Japan. The games is somewhat abstract, turn based, and involves armies lead by officers who convey special movements and tactics. It is turn based and on tiles almost like a chessboard except with different terrains and fortresses and things. Armies are made up of units like archers, swordsmen, pike men, crossbows, catapults, cavalry, engineers, etc. Also there are different goals like taking specific castles, capturing specific enemy officers, and more.

These games are both very fun and easy to get into games, and both are probably very cheap on the web as they are older titles.

Koei who publishes these games does make other samurai related video games, and I always wanted this type of game made with Samurai involved.

I hope this helps.

Bryan B.

Shogun: Total War.



-----Original Message-----
From: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com on behalf of Evan Hodge
Sent: Thu 3/5/2009 2:10 PM
To: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [samuraihistory] Question for historical wargamers

To those who play wargames, by computer, tabletop or boardgame..which single game is to your mind the best recreation of the historical accuracy of Japanese warfare in the period between 600AD and 1600AD?
Thank you




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

in regards to the reply about dynasty tactics. I believe there was a similar game by the same publisher entitled Kessen and Kessen 2 that are the period and country he is requesting.

Also, Samurai Warriors Empires is a fun game, not quite as accurate, but still, entertaining.


-----Original Message-----
From: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com on behalf of Bryan
Sent: Thu 3/5/2009 2:49 PM
To: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [samuraihistory] Re: Question for historical wargamers

-This will be slightly off topic on your war-games question, but it is viable and related anyway I feel.

So my game suggestion is Dynasty Tactics and Dynasty Tactics Two for the Playstation 2. The sequel is better, and the setting is the Three Kingdoms period in China, but it is arguably a similar time period with the samurai in Japan. The games is somewhat abstract, turn based, and involves armies lead by officers who convey special movements and tactics. It is turn based and on tiles almost like a chessboard except with different terrains and fortresses and things. Armies are made up of units like archers, swordsmen, pike men, crossbows, catapults, cavalry, engineers, etc. Also there are different goals like taking specific castles, capturing specific enemy officers, and more.

These games are both very fun and easy to get into games, and both are probably very cheap on the web as they are older titles.

Koei who publishes these games does make other samurai related video games, and I always wanted this type of game made with Samurai involved.

I hope this helps.

Bryan B.




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I think shogun total war is the best wargames.although the graphics are not so smooth but the gaming aspect in it is very entertaining.




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-original message-
Subject: [samuraihistory] Question for historical wargamers
Author: "Evan Hodge" <evan_hodge@...>
Date: 06th March 2009 2:16 am

To those who play wargames, by computer, tabletop or boardgame..which single game is to your mind the best recreation of the historical accuracy of Japanese warfare in the period between 600AD and 1600AD?
Thank you

For boardgames (actually more like wargames or simulations), GMT's RAN and Samurai are the most accurate recreations of samurai warfare in English. There are more very accurate wargames produced in Japanese-more than I can write about here, but you can read about some of them on the Samurai Archives forum.
For computer games, the Takeda series by Magitech (with Takeda 3 having just been released) is far better than Shogun: Total War as far as accuracy of gameplay and simulating historical situations. Shogun: Total War (in my opinion) has far too many abstractions, ahistorical units, and unrealistic gameplay. Shogun, however, does tend to have a higher fun factor. The Takeda series is brutal and unforgiving in its depiction of warfare.

Greetings/La math duibh
Ciamar a tha sibh

Shogun: Total War and its follow on games [Shogun Total War: Warlord Edition] which include the Mongol Invasion and the era of the country at war. So you get to play the samurai generals who drove back the Mongols or up to the 16th century and play the warring daimyo to become Shogun!

It is an awesome series available for the PC.


Dia beannaich
Gu'n ro' math agaibh
Mar sin leibh



Signed
Bob Thompson

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God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son.
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I think the best game for me is Samurai Warriors 2:Empires.Because It requires a tactics for the consult&decree...We need better money for invading enemies territorries...Start from a little unificication&then unification of Anegawa!