Napoleon's Invasion of Japan: Battle of Hokaido

On January the 1st, 1813, General Jacques MacDonald and Johann Yorck crossed the frozen sea at Riga, captured the British naval squadron and then the Russian's defences before marching on the city. By February of that year they and Napoleon were in st.Petersburg with the Grande arme at their command. More troops arrived from Prussia and France to support the dwindling force and by April 1813 Napoleon was back on the road. He planned to be the sole ruler of the world! He would march across the steppes of Siberia before conquering all the primitive feudal tribes of Asia and finally expelling the British from India! The April of 1813 saw the Grande Arme march across the steppes of Siberia, all along the way they were joined by the Cossack tribes before finally reaching the Pacific Ocean in the October of that year, just before the snow fell. The following April (1814) Napoleon ordered the construction of an invasion fleet which was completed within two weeks. He then launched the invasion of Japan!
May 3rd 1814; Napoleon landed on Hakaido, the northern island of Japan. He quickly subdued the primitive bear tribes of Hakaido and spent until June looting and pillaging the locals, but then he turned his interest towards the southern island...
July 17th 1814. The red devil clan sends an army of Samurai and Ashigaru to Hokaido to expel the foreign invaders who were threatening their northern borders. In Yo Ning pass the two armies clash!

This was a game based on an alternative history that us two gamers had come up with for the tale of two gamers. Basically Napoleon had actually taken St. Petersburg and had been declared Tzar of all the Russias. He had then marched his army East, planning to succeed where Alexander the great and Trajan had failed and become master of all Asia!
I was playing as the French force (I always seem to play French for black powder!) lead by General MacDonald while my tale of two gamers gaming partner was playing the Japanese force (as he always does in these historic games) we were using the Black powder rules (my army was selected from the Napoleonic armylist while the Japanese were made using the profile calculator at the back of the book), the models are 20mm (1:72) from Zvezda and Airfix.
Un be known to my opponent I was keeping 2 extra units of Prussian Landwehr off table just in case things were looking scary for the French (and in the spirit of uncompetitive gaming I was quiet prepared to declare that they had mutinied if the Japanese seemed to be loosing).

 My French force lead by General MacDonald was composed of two standard units of old guard, two standard units of fusiliers and two artillery pieces. We were facing off against a force three units of Samurai, one of Ashigaru musketeers and another of Ninjas.

Ichiro sichida, leader of the Japanese Red devil clan stands resplendent with his banner flying high at his side as he prepares his men for the advance down the gorge!

 The old guard, enthusiastic veterans of all Napoleon's campaigns some of whom had arrived here from as far as Spain, went charging off down the valley opting for firing lines rather than their classic Attack columns. Their aim was to deliver close range fire at the Japanese before falling back in their firing lines whilst holding up these primitive natives!
However with an almighty war cry the ninjas and samurai threw themselves at the picket of Old guardsmen, and even with their stamina shaken from the closing fire they still sent the veterans fleeing the field. But the Japanese were not without their own tactical faults and far too eagerly the Commander's samurai bodyguard had abandoned him and charged for the other old guard. The guard fell back and MacDonald brought up the artillery. When the bombardment had stopped and the smoke cleared the Samurai were blown to bits on the ground.

Both lines had gained little ground and had lost many men, however even more bad luck was to fall upon the French and one of their Fusilier units misinterpreted MacDonald's rather poetical (and very Accented) order to advance as an order to fall out, and the French fusiliers marched off the field to some local tavern as the old guard were being cut to shreds by the red devils.

 MacDonald stood calmly astride his horse as the Japanese warriors hurtled down the valley, yelling war cries and challenges as they waved their weapons around in the air! The Old guard calmly formed a line, having fallen back previously, in front of the Fusiliers and prepared to deliver closing fire on the Ninjas spearheading the charge straight for them. As the ninjas got nearer the Guard let of a volley of closing fire, however the manic warriors merely shrugged off the shots, before laying about themselves at the Frenchmen with their Ninjatos! The old guard put up a valiant fight with their bayonets, but the ninjas weren't having any of it and soon the line of guardsmen was buckling as the pints of the local pub began to look a lot more inviting than a shiny medal for bravery.
With the loss of so many of my units to the local pub I decided to unleash one of my Prussian Landwehr units upon the Japanese!

 MacDonald acted quickly, moving his artillery, by limber, to the sides of the valley ready to deliver flanking fire on the advancing warriors. He then moved the Fusilier line across, leaving the Prussian attack column to take up the centre of the formation.
The artillery then opened up their bombardment with supporting fire from the Fusiliers and Landwehr

 Instead, even though they were much shaken from the intense bombardment, they charged straight for the Fusilier line taking the closing fire like men (well superhumans any way!) and whipping their Ninjatos out at the French infantry. But the ninjas must have lost the momentum of their charge and the French were taking none of the Japanese sword twirling and they met it with fierce bayonet blows. However in the end both units broke apart and rallied a little distance away from where they had clashed.

The Japanese were now upon the French line, the Prussians and French Fusiliers had formed a line to hold up the ninjas from doing more damage and deliver fire on the Red devil warriors. The Japanese archers and handgunners had managed to avoid the forward French line and were arranged to open fire on the artillery at close range. However this did not go quiet to the plan and the artillery men continued their dirty work under fire.
The Prussian Landwehr kept up their resistance for a very long time, holding off the Ninjas with many blows of their bayonets and many times they almost sent the Japanese packing but in the end that pub claimed them from my ranks as well and the ninjas stood triumphant with three units to their name!

 The artillery crews began to bombard the Japanese firing lines and soon sent the Samurai archers packing from the field, however the other Artillery piece was having as much luck against the Japanese guns as they were against it, even at such close range neither was making any impression on the other.
With but two guns and a line of Fusiliers to his name things were looking desperate for MacDonald

So as I was loosing quite badly I decided to deploy my next unit of Prussian Landwehr, bringing them up to support MacDonald in his position behind the Fusilier line (which had been charged by the Japanese warriors) as he aimed his last 12pdr (the last had lost its crew to that wretched pub when the Ninjas charged it) at the Japanese Handgunners.
The Fusilier line soon Buckled under the red devils and the French line infantry fled the field.

 MacDonald then personally joined the Prussians, hoping to inspire them to great deeds. He then formed them up into a line and prepared them to employ closing fire should the Japanese try a charge, meanwhile the last 12pdr continued to pound away at the enemy warriors, but to little avail.

 The warriors had charged towards the French cannon and it had opened up with closing fire upon the warriors, hitting their morale hard! They then proceeded to beat the Red Devil's commander to death with their rammer and send the rest of the warriors packing before the triumphal crewmen turned their gun on the Japanese musketeers and sent them fleeing the field as well!
Things were begining to look up for the French but then a blow from a Ninjato took down MacDonald and his men decided to quit the field with their wounded general.
With that the Ninjas went on to send the 12pdr packing as well.
The Japanese had successfully defeated the Grande Arme and Napoleon's plan of invading Honshu was set back considerably. Red devils victory!I

I included this pic of the Ninjas as they did stunningly. They were shaken from turn one as a result of the old guard's shooting but this did not stop them and they Spearheaded the Japanese army in taking down both guard units, both Landwehr units and both artillery pieces as well as General MacDonald. In the end the amount of casualties they took (but ignored) amounted to far more than there were models in the unit so i'm not quite sure how that works, they must have kept getting back up from being shot down!
They are also superbly painted considering this is 20mm! (don't believe them when they say 1:72 is 25mm, black powder says it is 20mm and that is what they measure up as)!