Anegawa

	Battle of Anegawa
Date	August 9, 1570
Location	Ane River, near Lake Biwa in Ōmi Province
Result	Oda and Tokugawa victory
Forces
Azai; Asakura	Oda; Tokugawa
Commanders
Nagamasa Azai; Yoshikage Asakura	Nobunaga Oda; Ieyasu Tokugawa

The Battle of Anegawa (姉川の戦い, romaji: Anegawa no Tatakai), also called the Nomura Conflict and the Mitamura Conflict, or erroneously named the Battle of Anegawa River in Samurai Warriors 5, is one of the decisive battles between the Azai family and the Oda family. Each leader calls upon their family allies to assist in the campaign. The exact details of the conflict are unknown since it is given mixed details from the various parties involved. The Nobunaga Kouki only gives it a brief mention at best.

In the games, it is often dramatized as a tragic battle between both parties, who have family ties due to Oichi's marriage to Nagamasa.

Role in Games[]

Samurai Warriors[]

Samurai Warriors has the battle used for various parties and at various times. It also doubles as the map for the Echizen conflicts with the Honganji Rioters and the escape at Kanegasaki in the Xtreme Legends expansion.

In Oichi's story, she sides with her husband and faces her brother in the conflict. Determined to see if there is an alternate way to solve their differences, she only partakes in defending Yoshikage from being routed. When she sees Noh in the Oda ranks, she wonders if her sister-in-law could help her dilemma. Depending on the player's actions, she will keep searching for her own future or she will give up and decide to kill her brother. Noh's version of the battle is set during the same time frame. She helps her husband's troops to scatter the Asakura forces and defends Ieyasu. When faced with routing the Azai army, Nobunaga gives his wife the choice to kill either Nagamasa or Oichi to bring an end to the conflict. Choosing either one will end the battle and decide which path the player will take in her story.

Ranmaru's version of the stage takes place after saving his lord from Honnoji. Mitsuhide flees from death and rallies several anti-Nobunaga forces to join him, including Ieyasu, Masamune, and Keiji. To counter, Nobunaga joins forces with the Yoshikage and Nagamasa, thanks to Oichi helping him escape. After stopping the initial attacks from enemy generals, Magoichi appears and threatens to snipe Nobunaga. Ranmaru may choose to prevent the sniping and is one of the steps needed to decide which path his story shall take. As he rushes into Mitsuhide's camp, he struggles to overcome his feelings for his mentor whilst staying true to his duty. In their duel, Mitsuhide either retreats or dies at Ranmaru's hands, deciding which path Ranmaru will take for his last scenario.

During the lower path for Kenshin's story, he faces Shingen and his army here. As Kenshin is determined to put an end to his nemesis, he rushes for the main camp. If he defeats Shingen there, he learns that he defeated an impostor and the real Shingen appears in a different part of the map. With his enemy's move, he has to deal with Yukimura's invigorated charge and Kunoichi's trickery. Keiji will also arrive to help Kenshin's army.

The battle in Samurai Warriors 2 includes an intricate river system and mainly limits the battle to the main parties involved. In the Oda-Tokugawa version of the stage, The Oda take on the stronger yet smaller Azai army while the Tokugawa face the larger Asakura army. While Ieyasu holds a strong defense, a spirited Nagamasa charges through the Oda army to break through to Nobunaga. Although the player can face Nagamasa as many times as they would like, it's best to wear down his allies and then surround him to put an end to the battle. In order to do so, the Oda army suggests routing the Asakura, Nagamasa's generals, and Oichi first. Meanwhile, Ieyasu and his general's order an attack to the Asakura's main camp, using the side road to break through the Asakura numbers. Players may also head to the north-eastern section of the map to take Yokoyama Castle, triggering Ittetsu Inaba's reinforcements and raising morale.

If Nagamasa is defeated before Yoshikage, the Asakura leader will fortify a strong defense and continue fighting. Defeating the Asakura first greatly lowers Nagamasa's morale, but the Oda forces will likely suffer more damage from his charge due to the time it took to rout Yoshikage.

The Azai-Asakura side has both armies heavily surrounded by the Oda and Tokugawa troops. If players desire, they can defend Yokoyama Castle from Nagahide Niwa, but their main objective is to drive back the enemy on both fronts. Hideyoshi and Magoichi spring a surprise attack on Oichi and Ieyasu orders Hanzō to take her life to stop Nagamasa. Protecting her raises ally morale and prevents the battle from ending prematurely. Breaching through the Oda main camp can be done by defeating Katsuie in the northern gate and Mitsuhide at the west. If ally morale swings in their favor, Yoshikage is unimpressed with the Oda army and retreats. Tadakatsu then orders a charge to the Azai main camp. Players can choose to either wait for Tadakatsu to pass to defeat Ieyasu or beat both of them at once while they're in the camp. Both options rout the Tokugawa troops, only leaving Nobunaga at his camp.

The stage also serves as Mitsuhide's dream stage where he battles the Tokugawa, Uesugi, Sanada, Date, Fūma, remaining Oda forces, and various ronin such as Okuni, all led by Ieyasu Tokugawa, as Mitsuhide's last step to unify Japan after defeating Nobunaga and Hideyoshi.

For Samurai Warriors 3, the Asakura are stationed in the west with the Azai in the east. In Hanbei's story, he can get one of the Asakura officers, Naofusa Haguchi to mutiny. Once he defects, he can be escorted, to Keijun Miyabe and another officer to also make them defect to the Oda as well. Only Oichi and Nagamasa gets the Azai side as part of their story, while Keiji, Ieyasu, and Hanbei gets the Oda/Tokugawa side as part of their story.

This stage is also used as Akechi army's final battle against the Tokugawa coalition for the control of the land following the hypothetical victory at Yamazaki. Exclusive to Motochika's final stage as part of his story, he must protect Mitsuhide against the enemy coalition army lead by Ieyasu. Motochika starts off by defeating Katsuie and Toshiie while capturing the enemy strongholds to prevent the bombs from exploding in the river. After both of their defeat, Magoichi, alongside Keiji and Ina, will charge toward Mitsuhide, in which they must be defeated as well. However, as Motochika fights and defeats them, Hanzo decides to camouflaged himself and charge toward MItsuhide, in which Motochika must find him and defeat him as well. After Motochika defeat all four of them, Ieyasu decides to sent out his four Heavenly Kings of the Tokugawa consists of Tadakatsu Honda, Tadatsugu Sakai, Yasumasa Sakakibara, and Naomasa Li to attack Mitsuhide, but Motochika defeats them as well. After that, Ieyasu and his remaining generals will launch a full attack. Defeating Ieyasu will bring victory to the Akechi army.

In the Moushouden expansion, only the Oda side is available, as both Ranmaru and Toshiie gets the stage as part of their story.

Warriors Orochi[]

In the first Warriors Orochi game, this battle is among the many side story stages available to Wu. It uses the same exact layout unchanged from Samurai Warriors 2. The battle has Sun Ce come to the aid of his wife who is being cornered by both Dong Zhuo and Sima Yi for secretly defying Orochi. The mission will end in failure if Sun Ce, Da Qiao, or the main camp are lost.

To unlock Da Qiao, player must make sure Sun Ce reaches Da Qiao before the enemy does. To make this task easier, it is best to play as Sun Ce for this stage.

This stage makes a return in both Musou OROCHI Z and the PSP version of Warriors Orochi 2 as another additional dream mode stage featuring San Zang and the army of Wei as they seek to capture Sun Wukong who helped release Da Ji and Himiko. The player must overcome various traps and sorcery set up by the enemy forces in order to ensure the arrival of reinforcements from Shu. Da Ji's defeat results in the appearance of Kiyomori.

Warriors Orochi 3 makes use of the Samurai Warriors 3 version of Anegawa albeit with some radical changes based on modern-era Japan. While Ma Chao, Yukimura Sanada and Ranmaru Mori pursue Kiyomori and Guo Huai guards the main camp, the demon commands the brainwashed officers under his control to annihilate their former allies. Ryu, Benkei, and Zuo Ci appear as reinforcements and allow the coalition to free the enslaved. After the battle, them, alongside Cai Wenji, Toshiie Maeda, and Kanetsugu Naoe, join Ma Chao's forces.

Ultimate shows the same battle, but this time, from the perspective of Ryu Hayabusa's forces. It also reveals how Ryu, Benkei, and Zuo Ci managed to breach Kiyomori's defense.

Kessen[]

Game Nihonshi Kakumeiji[]

The Battle of Anegawa is one of the more intense stages in terms of unit count. This skirmish tests the player's ability to coordinate attacks from different sides, thus patience and careful planning are necessary to win the battle. To lessen the amount of active foes, make liberal use of Tokichiro's tactic to disable them for several turns.

Historical Information[]

Gallery[]

Goofs[]

One of Keiji Maeda's lines in Ranmaru's Battle of Anegawa is written as "Let's see how you do against me!" but actually says "Let's see what happens when I get into the mix!".

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