Examining Musashi’s Book of Five Rings on Late Medieval Japanese Strategy with GMT’s Samauri Battles
Lead-in
Several weeks back, I introduced the commands and color system to a friend via Memoir ’44 the miniature-infused WW2 game. My friend Jacob, who doesn’t have much experience in wargaming, quite enjoyed the system. I was telling him of all the different themes that C&C has explored. I saw his interest peak when I mentioned the newest in the series, Samurai Battles. From there he was on his phone making the purchase.
By the following weekend, I was at his place, and after stickering the included 316 blocks, we played the first handful of scenarios. My friend, victorious in all our battles, marveled at the feel of the much more visceral volume. We spoke about how much the theme came out in this game.
It was at this point that he went to his library and returned with the Book of Five Rings. He talked about reading the book, and how it would be fun to take a look at the book and the game together. I immediately loved the idea and so this post was born.
Disclaimer
A few things I should mention before I get started:
- I am no historian, including this book, I’ve read all of one book on Japanese war strategy of the time
- There are several translations of Musashi’s work out there. A quick look online mentioned how the work was very vague and difficult to translate Japanese philosophies to western thinking. I used the translation by Stephen F. Kaufman, 1994 Tuttle Publishing.
- My experience with C&C is limited to the aforementioned Memoir ’44 and Samurai Battles, which I’ll focus on here
With these out of the way let’s get started.
Musashi and the Book of Five Rings
Miyamoto Musashi was a well-known warrior in medieval Japan who lived from approximately 1584-to 1645. He was a Kensei, or sword saint, who fought and founded a school based on using two swords: both a long sword and a short sword as his style. In the book, he credits himself with killing over 60 men in combat throughout his life. He wrote the Book of Five Rings, near the end of his life, and gifted it to his favorite pupil shortly before his death. In it, he described his strategy in his school of swordsmanship and describes the book as his philosophy on what he sees as a warrior’s path.
The book itself is broken into five parts:
- Earth: This book is the introduction of Musashi’s philosophy and compares warriors to the other classes of the era: Warriors, Farmers, Craftsmen, Merchants
- Water: Describes in general terms the principles a warrior should employ in combat such as footwork, sword grip, looking enemy in the eye, etc.
- Fire: This book takes Earth and Water, and details specific strategies to use in combat
- Wind: In this book, Musashi breaks down what set’s his school apart from other teachings
- No-thing: The shortest book of only a couple pages, summarizes that only continued practice, study, and devotion to craft will allow the preceding teachings to be clear
Book of Earth
In the Book of Earth Musashi covers broadly his warrior philosophy. He uses this book to compare a warrior to that of the other classes of Japan of this time: Farmer, Craftsmen, and Merchants. In it, he, very bluntly, explains that a warrior’s job is to kill his enemy before his enemy kills him.
Musashi also discusses how his school is the way of two swords: The long sword and short sword and how he believes they are superior. However, he does mention that his warrior philosophy applies not only to any weapon, but to fighting a single combatant, a group, or even in an army.
Musashi also takes time to preach that only through constant training, patience, and repetition will the “spirit of the thing” the student studies reveal itself. The key to the warrior is timing and learning how to act in rhythm with the universe in combat.
The book of Earth ends with these nine principles that the author tells his reader are key to the rest of the book:
- Think Honestly within yourself in your dealings with all men
- Constant Training is the only Way to learn strategy
- Become familiar with art you come across
- Understand the Way of other disciplines
- Know the difference between right and wrong in the matters of men
- Strive for inner judgment and an understanding of everything
- See that which cannot be seen
- Overlook nothing, regardless of its insignificance
- Do not waste time idling or thinking after you have set your goals
Book of Water
The book of Water begins with the specific teachings of Musashi’s way of fighting but in general terms. Musashi does not get into specifics of swordplay, but rather overall tactics that one should use in battle to defeat his enemy. This book focuses more inwardly, what tactics should the reader do to ready themselves for battle?
Many of these can be boiled down to specifics: Grip your weapon tightly but not too tightly, make sure you have good footing, but do not use fancy footwork. From a technical standpoint, Musashi has many short paragraphs in this book that include specific actions. These are items such as: looking into the eyes of the enemy, how to approach your enemy, cutting and slashing attacks, sticking to your enemy, and pressing the attack.
That said, some sections describe the mental aspect of warfare: “You first beat your enemy with your spirit and then you beath the enemy with your hands or your sword.” Musashi’s Way includes both the physical and repeatedly the commitment one must have to utterly destroy one’s foe in order to win at combat.
He closes the book of water in summary: “Remember that you must kill the enemy correctly. Not doing so is not the Way of the warrior.”
Book of Fire
If the book of Water is all about the reader, the book of Fire is all about taking the fight to the enemy. This book is structured about how one should tactically approach their enemy. Sections such as how to approach an enemy or choosing the ground you fight on are the types of topics that are explored.
Several sections include specifically the importance of shouting and demoralizing the spirit of your enemy. This is useful not only as a confusion tactic but as a means to break their will to fight.
Many sections of this book describe that Musashi has little regard for overdramatic displays of footwork, or fancy tactics. He describes rather bluntly the best way to attack the enemy is right at his face furiously and without hesitation. The job of the warrior, in his mind, is to kill:
“If the fight develops to the point where neither you nor the enemy are able to make the killing strike, you will have the advantage if you suddenly change your technical strategy and proceed relentlessly with your attack. This is called “flooding in.” To back off and try to regain your composure gives the enemy the opportunity to do likewise; it then starts all over again. When you are in a fight, you are not in a contest to see who can outlast each other in a standoff.”
Not only can you tell from Musashi’s writing that he has no use for showmanship in fighting, but he also has little use for many of the other teachers of the other fighting schools. He calls them fools and warns that these false teachers will corrupt the Way of fighting. He ends the book with what makes his own teaching superior: “If you understand what I am telling you in these pages, you will never lose to anyone. You will always win.”
Book of Wind
in The Book of Wind, Musashi doubles down on his critique of other schools of combat. Though he does say there are some good points of some of the other schools, he uses this book mostly to point out the flaws of many other teachings and how his teachings are superior.
Some of the specific teachings Musashi counters are as follows:
- Schools teaching to use a second long sword: He does not like this, as the long sword can be defeated by a short sword in close combat. This is why his method that uses each is better
- Schools teach excessive showmanship: This does not help in combat. In his words, if it does not help kill an opponent it is not useful. A rather funny line here: “Otherwise why be a warrior? It is easier to count beads.”
- Schools that teach “odd methods” of using the long sword. In summary by Musashi: “There is only one way to kill the enemy. The Way is to kill the enemy with one stroke.”
- Fixing the eyes of other schools: In this section Musashi comments on how some teachers preach to focus on an enemy’s weapons, feet, or eyes. Musashi’s counterpoint is to focus on nothing look through the enemy and let your spirit express itself. In other words, use your instinct and years of training to aid in reaction to changing battles.
- “The Stupidity of Fancy Footwork” this sub-title tells all, Musashi has no need for anything less that surefootedness and resolve
- Thoughts on speed: the author makes little regard for schools that talk of speed for speed’s sake. He counters that he focuses on quickness of mind and action. Being able to react vs. blunt speed.
At the end of the Book of Wind Musashi does take time to mention that one must master their school before critiquing others, warning readers that while he possesses that knowledge, we should be slow to pass judgment of others before we are masters ourselves.
Book of No-Thing
In this last book of Five Rings, Musashi focuses on what he calls “no-thing.” This of all the books is much more abstract. I’m sure that much of it is lost in the translation of eastern philosophies to English. However, he describes that “no-thing” is much like the concept of Mu from Zen Buddhist teaching. In the Zen philosophy Mu is used as a way to focus one’s thoughts. As Musashi describes each person already can be a great warrior inside, they only need to look inward. He ends the Book of No-Thing and the Book of Five rings with this simple passage:
“Best to have put it this way. Simply be! You are the Spirit of the Thing itself!”
Samurai Battles
Similarities and Differences with Book of Five Rings
Let me first say, other than focusing on the same period, there is a little direct comparison between this book and the game. Musashi’s work is too direct and specific to battle and Samurai Battles, with the Commands and Color system, has combat based around card draws and die rolls, much too random for Musashi I would think.
That said there are some items at a much more abstract scale that you could see come across. Samurai Battles rely heavily on the concepts of fighting honorably and in a sense “correctly.” If you must retreat you lose honor in the game. The honor is your “glue” of sorts that keeps your units fighting and in cohesion. As you lose that you will start to lose units and be unable to continue the fight for very long.
In this way I believe the game captures the same brutal thought process, you are here to eliminate your enemy as swiftly as possible. However much as Musashi teaches, you must do it by utilizing the Way of the Warrior.
Overview of Samurai Battles
Strictly speaking the game, itself is very good. My only other experience in the Commands and Colors system is Memoir ’44. While I still love Memoir, I find the gameplay of Samurai Battles to be much deeper and more thematic.
This game includes much more visceral close combat where a defending unit can battle back if attacked and it holds its ground, infantry can chain attacks, and leaders can be used to inspire the troops around them.
The other standout here is how honor and fortune are baked into the game in the sense of currency. Through your actions, if you act honorably such as engaging in honorable combat (which I’ll describe in a minute), you gain tokens. Likewise, if you have to retreat, that is dishonorable, and you lose these same tokens.
Honor and Fortune
These tokens are used to fuel special cards that you get each round called “dragon cards.” These might grant you certain bonuses like extra movement or extra attacks, or defensively they can do things like allowing you as a defender to attack first possibly eliminating an attacking force before they get a chance to hit you. You can play one of these cards on each of your turns (or defensively once per opponent’s turn) by paying the cost of honor and fortune noted in the upper corner of the card.
Each scenario will grant each side a certain pool of these tokens. At the end of each round, you will get a chance to either add an extra dragon card to your hand or add 2 honor and fortune tokens. This mechanic has you making tough calls. If you used a dragon card and/or were forced to retreat your H&C pool might be depleted which the urge to take more tokens might be great. However, if you are like me, and are behind in victory flags, you might risk a small H&C pool to pick up an additional dragon card, hoping it will be the one that turns the tide in your favor.
Tactics
Other than the Honor and Fortune and Dragon card system, I found the majority of the system to be easy to pick up knowing how the basics of the Commands and Colors system work. You have tactic cards that will grant you a number of orders to various units, mostly divided into one or multiple thirds of the map.
When ordered each type of unit can either move, attack, or both. As one can imagine different from the WW2 setting of Memoir ’44, Samurai Battle’s ranged combat is not nearly as powerful as close combat. However, in close combat, you risk the enemy battling back and damaging you as much as you damage them. Battling again uses dice in which you score hits for each color symbol that matches the unit you are fighting. Close combat also allows hits on sword symbols increasing your chance of hitting.
However, the big change here is the societal hierarchy and its effect on combat. Samurai were the warrior class of Japan, as such they trained ferociously for combat. As such they are able to ignore a certain number of sword rolls by lower-level units.
Other units in the game involve Ashigaru, the mercenaries of the era, and peasant levy infantry conscripted into battle by their lords. Samurai can block swords of Ashigaru and Levy infantry, Ashigaru can block the Levy, and the Levy can block nothing as they are the least well trained.
Similarly, the Samurai can resist the urge to retreat and can ignore a number of retreat flags rolled compared to lower units as they are more well trained. That said they lose twice the number of honor and fortune if they are forced to retreat by a very large number of flags rolled against them.
Final thoughts on the game
Samurai Battles is a game I think is an absolutely great game that I just happen to be terrible at. In 4-5 games we have played of various scenarios I have yet to score a single victory. Partially due to my bad tactics, but if you’ve ever played Commands and Colors you know, sometimes the cards or dice are not in your favor. This is very much a game that can swing. If you need to activate units on the left side of the map, but all you have are cards for the center or right side, you will watch in agony as your enemy continues to whittle you down and you will have little you can do about it.
That said, I always want to keep coming back to this game as it is a fun time. Its whopping 40 scenarios is a great value for your money as well as you will get hours and hours of gameplay out of the box with this one. It’s a high recommendation from me.
Wrap Up
So, there you have it, something a bit different. This was a fun write-up. I found the Book of Five Rings an interesting read on the period that Samurai Battles covers, and while not super connected to the game, it did give future playthroughs a different lens through which to look at the game. I hope you enjoyed it and if you are interested in either the book or game you can find more information below. Thanks to my friend Jacob for the inspiration and for cleaning my clock in this game! As frustrating as it is it does keep me thinking of how I might eventually win one sometime soon!
Samurai Battles on GMT Games Website
