Late Heian to Muromachi Japanese
Historical Overview Section
The Heian period began in 794 after the movement of the capital of Japan to Heian-kyÅ (present day KyÅto), by the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu. It is considered a high point in Japanese culture that later generations have always admired. The period is also noted for the rise of the samurai class, which would eventually take power and start the feudal period of Japan.
Nominally, sovereignty lay in the emperor but in fact power was wielded by the Fujiwara nobility. However, to protect their interests in the provinces, the Fujiwara and other noble families required guards, police and soldiers. The warrior class made steady gains throughout the Heian period. As early as 939, Taira no Masakado threatened the authority of the central government, leading an uprising in the eastern province of Hitachi, and almost simultaneously, Fujiwara no Sumitomo rebelled in the west. Still, military takeover was centuries away, when much of the strength of the government would lie within the private armies of the shogunate.
The entry of the warrior class into court influence was a result of the HÅgen Rebellion. At this time Taira no Kiyomori revived the Fujiwara practices by placing his grandson on the throne to rule Japan by regency. Their clan (Taira clan) would not be overthrown until after the Gempei War, which marked the start of the shogunate.
Kammu had abandoned universal conscription in 792, but he still waged major military offensives to subjugate the Emishi, possible descendants of the displaced JÅmon, living in northern and eastern Japan. After making temporary gains in 794, in 797 Kammu appointed a new commander under the title Seii Taishogun. By 801 the shogun had defeated the Emishi and had extended the imperial domains to the eastern end of HonshÅ«
Using the army in FoG
- V2.0 change to this list Late Heian to Muromachi Japanese can have up to ½ of their “Bushi and followers†battle groups as Superior.
- Bushi and their followers will be the backbone of your army. Making them protected is cheaper and won't make any difference in melee, as they have heavy weapons anyway. A lot of in-period opponents are quite shooty, though, so making them armoured seems like a good idea
- Make sure your Bushi and followers use their bow* to soften up their opponents before charging them
- Detached Bushi cavalry can be a very mobile shooty unit. Their bow-ability means, that even them can soften up an opponent beforde charging them down. For each of them you will have to take one unit of followers, though. Upgrade them to yari-armed (offensive spearmen) to give them punch.
- You need some good aiming with your units, as everybody here is undrilled
- A lot of your optional troops can be of poor quality. Most of them are useless. Take a Mob of inji-ruffians to guard the camp, but don't weaken valuable fighting units.
- In an 800-points-army, three seems to be a good number for samurai-cavalry. Two is too low, four you possibly won't be able to afford.
Tournament Results with this army
Have a look for them on the Official FoG Database on the FoG site.
So far 22 different players used this army at 28 Tournaments and played 113 games with it.
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
- put the link text readers will see in here write some more detail about the link here
Allies
- Japanese Monks. Gives you more Heavy weapons armed forces, mostly of poor skill. Not too interesting list.
- No other choices
Painting and Collecting the Army
- Paint schemes, insignia, shield designs? Put it here.
15mm Manufacturers supplying figures for this army
This is a listing of 15mm manufacturers for all "late" Japanese armies. A full listing of who supplies what can be found in my 15mm Suppliers directory. You can see some of the figures in the Ancients Photo Gallery also on this site
- Essex Miniatures - Samurai of course
- Gladiator Miniatures by Fighting 15's (Gladiator Games) - Samurai range* Peter Pig
- Two Dragons, formerly made by Dixon, now made by Caliver Books/Minifigs - often seen as the gold standard in later Samurai, but a little cartoonish for some tastes too
- Matchlock Another Caliver Books/Minifigs acquisition, Matchlocks ECW figures are quite nice but there are no pictures of this range
- Minifigs and finally the Minifigs range itself too.. now showing it's age
- Museum Largish miniatures, good for commanders' bases
- Hovels Nice buildings for scenery
- Irregular Minis Samurai range
- Lancashire Games - Samurai
- Tin Soldier - Samurai
- Fighting 15’s Eureka's Samurai in the UK
- Eureka Worldwide / Australian site
- Gallia Samurai
- Naismith & Roundway Samurai and others
- Baueda Emeshi
Army Lists
Sample army lists for this army
- Late Heian to Muromachi (1450)
- 6 Mob Undrilled Unprotected Poor Peasants
- 6 MF Undrilled Armoured Average Bushi, bw*, hvy weapon
- 6 MF Undrilled Armoured Average Bushi, bw*, hvy weapon
- 6 MF Undrilled Armoured Average Bushi, bw*, hvy weapon
- 6 MF Undrilled Armoured Average Bushi, bw*, hvy weapon
- 6 MF Undrilled protected Average detached followers/yari off. spearmen
- 6 MF Undrilled protected Average detached followers/yari off. spearmen
- 6 MF Undrilled protected Average detached followers/yari off. spearmen
- 8 MF Undrilled Armoured Average followers/standing shields Bow
- 4 CV Undrilled Armoured Superior Bushi Bow*, Swordsmen
- 4 CV Undrilled Armoured Superior Bushi Bow*, Swordsmen
- 4 CV Undrilled Armoured Superior Bushi Bow*, Swordsmen
- 1 TC, CinC
- 3 TC, sub-commanders
- possible changes: making the Bushi and Followers protected gives you a fifth unit of them
- making the followers/standing shields protected will buy you one unit MF armed ladies and boys unprotected average heavy weapon
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
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