Giant Battle For Japan

We have just had the biggest point battle of our lives.

The battle was the culmination of one of our big games. The world was drawn on paper and divided into squares. Each square is a battlefield. The map was large with an ocean in the middle. The ocean was filled with islands, both large and small. This last battle took place on an island called Japan.


the push pins represent outposts and armies and you can see the pile at the Isle of Japan

The samurai had been a faction in the game, one of the ten playing, but they were eliminated early on. There was really two things happening in this game- the islands fought amongst themselves and the shore factions fought each other. Japan was the samurai capital, but it was overrun by an alliance of small factions- lizard men, orcs, elves and gnolls. Truly a horrible army of icky stinky things. The Samurai fought bravely but they were outnumbered and fell.

So the island of Japan was taken over by the lizard men. I like lizard men. I like their armies and their figures but I wouldn’t want to live with them. I imagine everything would be humid and slimy and they’d eat bugs and raw meat. Not my kind of place.

Far to the South the drums of Rome began to beat louder. Allied with the Theocracy of Delaine, the Romans rolled over all the islands and no faction could stand against them. The lizard men fell easily and Japan went Roman. Soon Rome and Delaine controlled half the map. The lizard men, like the Samurai before them, disappeared forever.

On the other side of the map, out East, the battles had reached a stalemate. The Kingdom of Arc, allied with Egypt, was locked in an unending fruitless struggle with Nordique- a power composed of frost giants, Dzh-teh and all of our squads of Tarn, plus a few others. Neither side seemed to be able to gain any ground and with the rise of Rome and Delaine, Nordique and Arc and Egypt finally decided to make peace and look to their other borders. A new struggle began with Nordique, Arc, Egypt and the few remnants of the crushed Templar empire fighting against Rome and Delaine.

Just as quickly as Rome had expanded it contracted. Nordique overran Roman outposts and even took Rome itself. The Romans began retreating and running. Egypt and the Templars pressed from the North, Nordique from the South and Arc across the seas. Soon Rome held only the island of Japan.

Armies at sea in our game move by 20d. 1-4 is foul weather and they cannot move. 5-13 is normal move one map square and 14+ are powerful winds that allow them to move two squares.

The navies began collecting, circling Japan. Finally when the time was right they attacked.

It’s the biggest battle I’ve ever played in. Rome had about 5000 points, and its attackers abut 8000. Rome spent hundreds of points on castle pieces and ballistas. The attackers had to buy boats and they filled them with cannons and catapults. It took us more than an hour and a half just to pick armies and boats and artillery pieces.


the initial bombardment with catapults, cannons and ballista

Then my son built the Roman fortifications. It was to be a landing- with the invading navies attacked and trying to land. Landings are always tricky. Mages have increasingly been appearing in our game, using nasty spells like teleport to send cannons and fighters to drown in the sea.

Finally we were ready. The invasion force began to move. The bigger boats move slowly, only four hexes per turn. We’d filled the entire living room with map and cards. There were so many army cards there was no place for people to move around. All of the cards are in clear plastic holders but they stick to your arms and hands and feet sometimes, so I was constantly messing up my cards.

The battle opened with salvos of artillery and catapult. The boats edged close to the wall and then ladders went up. The flyers- Nordique had Niffy and valkyries and Egypt had sphinxes- attacked the ballistas atop the castle walls.

There were two castle doors that were smashed by cannon fire. The battle became many small battles- the battle atop the wall, the battles at the doors, the battle for a stretch of beach on one side. When you’re fighting with huge armies luck becomes unimportant. Sometimes you have it and sometimes you don’t. We leave the dead on the field and soon corpses were everywhere, floating in the water, hanging over the battlements, piling up on the ground. The water would have run red.


ladders up

Time flew. Midnight passed. We had work and school the next day but we fought on, calling out the numbers of skulls and shields from endless dice rolls. At 1am we had a bathroom break and when we returned we just sat there Just sat, wide eyed and battle shocked. It was too late at night and we were too tired to continue.

The battle was probably going to be won by the invading armies of Nordique, Arc and Egypt. But it was Rome’s last hurrah and they were fighting viciously, taking back every hex that was taken from them. I felt bad about quitting- I would have liked to see how it ended. Rome probably would have lost. Even if they had won the world was against them then and they would have fallen another day. The big game battles are only fun when you don’t know who’s going to take over the world.

We began to pick up and clean up, sorting the figures and terrain. Then fell into bed. Now, this morning, I’m tired. But it was totally worth it. Next week, we’ll start a new big game and it will all begin again.