Shogun Triumphant (XTR'1993, from Command magazine #23). 
is about the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 Japan, between loose 
coalitions of warrior clans in a long East vs. West civil war. 
I chose it to accustom a computer gamer to board gaming: 


* It's ergonomic: large hexes, 5/8" pieces and little stacking.
* 1-step units, back side represents joining the enemy.
* The game shows very well defeat as a multi-level process:
    - Frontal combat is usually indecisive, but concentrations
of *firepower* and their lucky effects, plus *melee* (the 
canonical 3:1 to be really effective, or concentric attacks)
can overwhelm a *unit*'s Stalwartness, so it disintegrates.
    - *Clans* with losses about a threshold run away entirely.
    - The *side* taking 160 SP runs away and loses.
* There is an interesting dilemma between disperse against 
musket fire vs. concentrate for melee (but the 2nd stacked 
unit doesn't fire, and both are more vulnerable to fire).
* Random initiative and limited command points to activate
and move each clan give a feel of local cause-and-effect
loosely connected in overall chaos. Also, only most important
things are 'allowed to happen', others just as didn't exist.
Not all units running in parallel, like in other games.


First game
==========
    My opponent chooses the larger but more fragile Western
Army. Studying the Clan Table, he finds orderings of clan
activation to reduce the risks of treason: 3>1,2,4>5>6,7; 
16>19>15,18>17


* Turn 1 [Initiative West: 8 command points; then East: 6 CP]
    West (my opponent) starts recruiting systematically: 
first Clan 3; then 4; 1; and 2. Clan 16 in the SE corner remains 
neutral. At end, the substantial forces: Clans 11 (Ishida) and 13
(Ukita), the latter moves to attack Eastern Clan R,  pin S (stays 
neutral even enemy approaching), and occupy Sekigahara village. 
Combat phase: lost 1 unit from 13, 1 from S, 2 from R (will run 
away when turn ends).
    East (myself) finally activate clan S, and counterattack a salient
of Clan 13 [bad idea]. Clans O, A, N fail to activate, but J does.
Lost 1unitx13, 2xS, 1xR. R and S run away (16 & 31 points).
    Score 47 west : 12 east


* Turn 2 [E=5,W=3]
    East activates P, they advance NW to kill the weak Clan 12.
(One cavalry unit is defeated, the infantry flees).
J advances to cover the south flank of P. A and N remain neutral.
    West: clan 5 (Kobayakawa) refuses to join; 13 advances SE 
to attack Q (2 units elim. from Q, the rest flee; K also awakes). 
Clan 16 awakens now in the southeast corner to crush A and B
later [very bad idea in retrospect, increases the chance of the 
mighty Tokugawa = D being available next turn]
Score 63 west : 25 east


* Turn 3 [E=5,W=3]
    East activates Tokugawa's (D) mighty force and they all
march west to the main action; in the east, A and B fail to
activate when enemy Clan 16 approaches in the distance;
clan K retreats south of the coming D to form a single line.
    West attacks with his best forces (11 and 13) routing
enemy clans P and J after hard, lucky fights. 16 marches 
to battle. He "forgot" to activate clan 5, obligatory.
Score 96 west : 25 east


* Turn 4 [W=3,E=3]
    West finally activates clan 5 and marches them to cover 
the NW-SE river line; 16 approaches closer to A and B.
[As a possible mistake, clan 13 stays in its dense formation
with which they crushed J; my opponent didn't prepare for
two enemy moves coming back-to-back ]
    East cannot activate A, but B can and moves closer to 
defend A; Tokugawa (D) marches closer. No fight this turn.
Score 96 west : 25 east


* Turn 5 [E=3,W=4]
    Tokugawa can strike the main blow: against Clan 13,
who remained in a dense NW-SE line. They come from the
south and east, and Clan L activates and sandwiches them
from the north. Four enemy units die against only one each
from D and L, and Clan 13 vaporizes. Enough units from
D cannot fight now, they form instead a south flank.
    West is now desperate to stop Tokugawa from doing
as they want: clan 5 "attacks" to pin them from the south
(but only take two losses as they are less steadfast at 5SP), 
14 from the north (1:1 losses), and 11 from the NW.
They also crush the cavalry of clan L, evaporating them.
In the other corner, clan 16 now attacks the flank of clan B
making them lose 2 units, just 1 point short of routing them.
Score 134 west : 90 east
    Now East tries to be as careful as possible to prevent
losing units, keep below the threshold and prolong the battle.


* Turn 6 [W=8,E=5]
    West activates 15 and 19 (a bit late now !) and marches
them toward the eastern battle. 17 doesn't respond. 15 and 
16 attack both A and B (B will lose one more unit and flee). 
    Clan 11, then 5 reorganizes to keep D in check again. 
But losses are high at 3:2.
    East faced now with certain loss strikes boldly to take
as many enemies with them and break their overall morale.
    A and B make minor adjustments, A will survive with
B's sacrifice helping them. Clans K and D well mixed
together strike at clan 11, the last large Western force
remaining. Enemies takes 3 losses, barely surviving.
Score 168 west : 171 east
    Valiant samurais from both sides run away in panic
from one another, so this game is a draw !
    Many units are still not activated, or unused yet:
mostly small, fragile forces. The whole Eastern force
starting NE of the river (E,F,G,H,I,M,N,O) is untouched.


    My opponent was interested by this form of paper
gaming but annoyed by factor-counting and -seeking
to get the critical 3:1. It took some 5 hours for the game.
(I told you we're slow, and we keep detailed logs too).
    Actually we played a rematch, and he beat me
with the Eastern side !! Another file will come soon...


    We like very much reading game replays and 
analyses, and consider them the happiest parts of
wargaming. Is there a Web site with such files,
other than www.grognard.com ?


    Happy gaming, and thanks for reading,
    Mircea Pauca (mpauca@fx.ro), Bucuresti, Romania