"Samurai, 1st Impetus beta list" Topic

The first beta list for Impetus, now free on the web, is a Samurai list for the 1550-1600 period.

Direct link: dadiepiombo.com/beta1e.html

have fun :-)

Not familiar with the rules but I'm very familiar with samurai in this period ;-)

Couple of suggestions, and thats all they are:

#1) In 1550 Ashigaru foot soldier probably numbered about the same as foot samurai and then greatly outnumbered them by 1600. So I would up the Foot Asigaru allowed to similar to the samurai.
#2) Teppo ashigaru reprisented about 5% of all troops in 1550 and about 20% in 1600 so I might up the number of those allowed.
#3) I see there are no weapons designated for the Ashigaru or Samurai Foot. Again, I am not familiar with the rules. But about 2/3 of Ash foor at this time would have spear and 1/3 lance (pike).
#4) You are missing Ashigaru Bowmen, which would make up about 20% of all Ashigaru in this period.
#5) You are missing Samurai Bowman, which would be about 10% of all samurai foot during this period.
#6) You could include mounted bowmen, however they were in serious decline after early 1500's. You could allow maybe 1 in 10 Cavalry units to be "bow" armed.

Hope that helps you. You should check out the "Killer Katanas" (version #2) rule set by Brian Bradford. Even if you dont use the rules his book has more information on samurai in it than most books on samurai!!!

I use his army lists for my battles with Terry Gore's "Medieval Warfare" Rules set.

Here are 2 web forums that discuss samurai armies:

games.groups.yahoo.com/group/AsianWar/
forums.samurai-archives.com/viewforum.php?f=2

Cheers.
Danny

many thanks for suggestions I will take in consideration. This is only a first draft, so suggestions are very welcome to evolve the list.
Actually Ashigaru archers are present (0-2 Units).

What about Teppo ashigaru?

In the early part of the period, only about 5% of the ashigaru would have been armed with teppo. Uesugi clan had about 5.5% of it's ashigaru force in 1570 with teppo. Takeda Shingen purchased his first 300 in 1555. Demand for the new weapon was greater than supply. In 1575, Oda Nobunaga had over 3,000 teppo armed ashigaru at the battle of Nagashino to compose about 10% of Oda's ashigaru.