Siege of Ueda

The Siege of Ueda was staged in 1600 by Tokugawa Hidetada, son of the warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu, against Ueda castle in Shinano province, which was controlled by the Sanada family.

Hidetada came across the castle as he marched his army along the Nakasendō (central mountain road) from Edo to rendezvous with his father's forces. When the castle did not fall as quickly as Hidetada had hoped and expected, he abandoned the siege and hurried to meet up with his father. As a result of this delay, Hidetada missed the battle of Sekigahara, the decisive victory in his father's unification of Japan.

References

Ueda Castle

Ueda Castle (上田城, Ueda-jō) was the original home of the Sanada clan, built by Sanada Masayuki.

It was this castle that the Sanada defended twice from the Tokugawa, first in 1585 and again in 1600, putting up a very impressive defense both of those times.

When Sanada Masayuki refused to hand over the Numata Castle to Tokugawa Ieyasu, it led to The Battle at Kami River. During the battle, Ieyasu charged into the Ueda Castle with a very large army. But Masayuki was ready, having an ambush party ready to attack. This effectively threw the Tokugawa army into great confusion, causing them great losses in numbers.

Masayuki and his son Sanada Yukimura both faced off against the Tokugawa once again at the Battle of Sekigahara. The Sanada announced their surrender, but this surrender was all part of Masayuki's plan. He wanted to make them think he was truly surrendering, but instead Masayuki was really in preparation for the defense of the Ueda Castle.

When Tokugawa Hidetada was alerted of the Sanada clan's plot, Hidetada began to mobilize his troops. But Masayuki was already prepared for an attack, so he had another ambush party ready, but this time he sent them into the enemy's main camp. In the end the battle had devastating effects. Hidetada failed to seize the Ueda Castle, and he was also kept from joining the field at Sekigahara.

Samurai Warriors

Samurai Warriors (戦国無双, Sengoku Musō, Sengoku Musou in Japan, lit. Unrivaled Warring States) is the first title in the series of hack and slash video games created by Koei's Omega Force team based loosely around the Sengoku ("Warring States") period of Japanese history and it is a sister series of the Dynasty Warriors series, released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004. A port of this game called Samurai Warriors: State of War has been released for the PlayStation Portable, which includes additional multiplayer features.

Gameplay

In the basic gameplay of Samurai Warriors, the player takes the role of a single officer in battle and must fend off hordes of enemy soldiers and defeat the enemy commander. The player has at their disposal a range of combo attacks and crowd-clearing special moves known as Musou attacks. The variety of attacks available increase as the character increases in level and gains new weapons.

Musou attacks can only be performed when the character's Musou gauge has filled up, which does so gradually when the player inflicts or receives damage. Additionally, if the player is low on health or possess a special skill, they can use their special True Musou attack which causes elemental damage in addition to normal damage as well as adds on a trio of attacks that cleans up the final few enemies in the vicinity. One difference between Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors is the ability to perform free-style combo attacks during Musou attack mode, during which the game enters bullet-time; common soldiers move very slowly, however officers are unaffected. Other abilities that Samurai characters have over the Dynasty series include the ability to perform a roll to dodge attacks, and deflect incoming arrows with their weapon.

Samurai Warriors 2

Samurai Warriors 2 (戦国無双2, Sengoku Musō 2, Sengoku Musou 2 in Japan) is a sequel to the original Samurai Warriors, created by Koei and Omega Force. The game was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, and ported to Microsoft Windows in 2008. Like the Dynasty Warriors series, an Empires expansion was released as well, and an Xtreme Legends expansion followed on August 23, 2007 in Japan. The game, alongside its two expansions, Xtreme Legends and Empires also receive a HD-enhanced port for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita under the name Sengoku Musou 2 with Moushouden & Empires HD Version.

Samurai Warriors 3, the sequel to SW2 and the third game in the series was released in December 2009 for the Wii.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Samurai Warriors 2 builds on the first Samurai Warriors by adding new characters and new features, such as the removal of the traditional range attacks in favor of the addition of two unique special abilities that differ from character to character. For example, Oichi can either summon new soldiers to the battlefield or improve the combat abilities of nearby allies, Yukimura Sanada can either whistle to call his mount to his side or perform a flaming charge, and Ginchiyo Tachibana can either increase the strength of her weapon or summon lightning to stun nearby enemy soldiers. In addition, characters movesets can evolve in a larger variety as they level up, elaborating on either their combo, charge or special attacks, with the progression of each character being different from the next. This leads to the characters having 1 of 3 different button combos.

Nobunaga's Ambition

Nobunaga's Ambition (信長の野望, Nobunaga no Yabō) is a series of turn-based grand strategy role-playing simulation video games. One of the first games in its genre, it was first released in March 1983 by the Japanese video game developer Koei.

Games in the franchise have been released on a variety of gaming platforms, including the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Mega Drive, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, PlayStation 2, Virtual Console, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4. The title was also released for Macintosh as well as MSX, Amiga and computers with DOS-compatibility.

Nobunaga's Ambition takes place during the Sengoku period of feudal Japan. As the title suggests, the player is tasked with achieving the ultimate goal of warlord Oda Nobunaga: the conquest and unification of Japan. Selecting Oda Nobunaga is optional, however, as the player is also able to choose from a variety of other regional daimyos of the time.