NAGASHINO
28 June 1575 / Mikawa / Siege and Battle
Takeda Katsuyori (12,000)
VS
Oda Nobunaga (30,000)/Tokugawa Ieyasu (8,000)
In the summer of 1575,
Takeda Katsuyori led his army into the Tokugawa domain and laid siege to Nagashino Castle, a locally important strongpoint
that had changed hands a number of times in the past few years. The castle's
defenders managed to resist the initial Takeda attacks and, thanks to the
heroic efforts of a certain Torii Sune'emon, managed to alert Tokugawa Ieyasu
of their plight, and the latter convinced Oda Nobunaga to commit to an all-out
battle with the Takeda. When faced with the appearance of a numerically
superior enemy force, Katsuyori, over the objections of his veteran commanders,
opted to attack. Thanks to superior firepower (as many as 3,000 arquebuses were
used in the battle) and good positon, Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu crushed
the Takeda attack and relieved Nagashino Castle. Most of the famous Takeda generals
present were killed in the battle and the offensive power of the Takeda was
severly crippled (having lost around 10,000 men). Oda was now free to fully
turn his attentions elsewhere, leaving Ieyasu to contain the battered Takeda.
KIA: (Takeda) Takeda Nobuzane, Baba
Nobufusa, Yamagata Masakage, Naito Masatoyo, Hara Masatane, Sanada Nobutsuna,
Sanda Masateru, Kasai Mitsuhide, Wada Narishige, Yonekura Shigetsugu, Atobe
Shigemasa, ect...