Clan 13: Ren Sanada attacking Clan 9: Naoki Hojo

Ren, I think this is your best entry by far. I only saw one grammar mistake, but your descriptions and her emotions were so well blended and the action scenes were all realistic and well-executed, so it made for a really enjoyable and smooth read. The character development that you did with her in this entry was exactly what I was talking about last task. You did everything I suggested and more. The transition from last task and Ren being captured, to this one with her attacking another clan, was so smooth it made it feel real. You also included the flood element and every aspect of the battle task, making it exactly what I expected and more. The way you described the flooding and how they had to run made things intense and filled with suspense. I loved the cliff hanger ending where we don't know how things are going to end up. You would have scored a 12.9. This is still your best entry. Mostly because this one I can see such an amazing change in your writing and for the first time while reading your entries, I felt truly immersed in 1560 Japan. You used more terms and I could honestly just feel how hard you worked on this! Great job!

Naoki, as usual with battle tasks, your plans just get more and more genius. The idea of setting traps in the tunnels is so unique in and of itself much less the specific idea with the bees. Even before reading your end comments, I can tell just by reading your entry that you did a lot of research about it and put a lot of effort into your entry. I also liked the lack of action (yes I know that's very contraversal since this is a battle task), but you made it so realistic by doing that. I really enjoyed reading this entry. As for notes, you would have also scored a 12.9 because you had the word door twice instead of shoji or including the description that it was a paper door. I also likd how you included all aspects from the battle tasks and even made getting a unit and then it leaving part of the story line! You ended on a good cliff hanger so I can't wait to see what happens next! Great job!

So here's the stats between you two:

Naoki has 3,258 soldiers , level 2 castle, 5 highly trained ronin, 1 highly trained ninja and 2 months of supplies along with 1,675 gold.

Ren has 1350 soldiers, level 2 castle (which doesn't matter since she's attacking not defending), 2 ronin and 1 month of supplies along with 200 gold.

In order to win a siege, you need double what the other side has in terms of troop numbers. The tunnels make numbers irrelevant, so the Sanada clan had a chance. The tunnel was flooded and before that, the Hojo clan filled the tunnels with traps. Neither side had a unit, but the Sanada clan had only 2 ronin against 5 highly trained ones and 1 highly trained ninja. If the siege was long, the Hojo clan would have outlasted the Sanada by one month and the Sanada didn't have enough gold for more supplies.

In terms of writing, both writer's tied—12.9. Both made it feel like 1560 Japan, in very different ways. Ren had better descriptions and blending of that with emotions and action. Naoki had sound strategies and made being a leader/strategist realistic.

The winner of Battle Task 4 Ren Sanada attacking Naoki Hojo is...

Naoki Hojo...congratulations.

music1or1books you did such a beautiful job and I really hate seeing you go. It breaks my heart, but you had such a great run. You grew so much and learned to write Japanese samurai warfare and every entry was enjoyable to read. I loved Ren's character and her story was such a tragic and truly heroic tale. Please, please, please feel free to write how she came to meet her end! I think we all need one last entry to tie up loose ends! Especially me, so do it! :) 

Clan 2: Kyou Asai attacking Clan 8: Hirotei Imagawa

Kyou, perfect score, perfect entry. For the past several tasks and battle tasks, I'd missed the close combat, but in this one... you absolutely blew me away. The details about the techniques along with all the Japanese terms not only made me feel like I was right there with him, in a battle in 1560 Japan, but it really showed me all the research and hard work you put into this. No emotions were directly mentioned, but I love this because you SHOWED me what he was feeling in the brutal way he fought. Somehow that made for a more enjoyable read than if you had done it the other way. Even though he was a total bad-a... you still had him struggle toward the end, and made the entire situation realistic and still managed to leave me on a cliff hanger (yes it's my own fault) so that no one knows how it will end up and you still left it open, like it could go anywhere. I'm anxious to find out what happens next, either way no matter how this turns out.

Hirotei, perfect score, perfect entry. I didn't see any mistakes at all. Your descriptions were absolutely beautiful... so vivid I was right there inside the story itself. Hirotei's emotions definitely gave me the feels. The ending with the Japanese poem was also good, ending on a perfect cliff hanger. I did feel like the Japanese letters threw it off... I couldn't read it, so the first time, it felt like the entire ending was thrown off. But then I translated it and re-read the whole thing and it really added so much to the ending itself. The events that took place made much more sense when I had the English version, although I did like how Japanese it all felt. The idea of a little scary children's story giving Hirotei his amazing strategy was extremely genius, so much so that I'm not sure if anyone could have beaten him. The ending itself was just several paragraphs with minimal details. I felt like you could have taken out a lot of the beginning drama and focused more on the battle itself, adding in more details to really make this an even better entry than it already was. With that being said, it was perfectly written and very beautiful with your vocabulary use. You did such a great job!

Here are both of their stats:

Kyou has 4700 soldiers, 600 riflemen, two level 2 castles (irrelevant, since he's attacking instead of defending), 8 ronin, 3 months of supplies and 800 gold.

Hirotei has 1,450 soldiers, level 2 castle, 3 ronin, 3 months of supplies and 200 gold.

Kyou has just enough soldiers to make a successful siege with a chance of winning, however the use of tunnels makes that irrelevant. The castle is a level 2, but Kyou also has rifleman at his side. Both sides have enough supplies to last a siege of 3 months and each has just enough gold to possibly provide a little more, although Hirotei doesn't have too much more gold to spare. Hirotei's 3 ronin would be outnumbered against Kyou's 8.

In terms of numbers, they're both fairly equal.

In terms of writing, they're completely equal.

In the terms of the task itself... Kyou Asai had gunmen, along with a unit of ninjas that had turned against Hirotei and deflected to the Asai army. Hirotei's strategy with placing cannons at the entrances, along with poisonous centipedes definitely gave him the upper hand.

Kyou and his army might have been able to stand against Hirotei, but not without extremely heavy losses on their side.

So... this is all left up to... my personal opinion. Great (sarcastic).

Kyou's entry focused entirely on the battle task, summarizing what had happened to lead up to it in only a few sentences. The entire entry was just one big fight scene, well researched, intense and raw, SHOWING me his emotions.

Hirotei's entry was beautifully written and described, tying up loose ends from the last task, giving me feels for Hirotei himself, tightening the bonds between he and his brother. The battle started about three-forths of the way through the entry, jumping straight to the battle, which was separated by a beautiful Japanese poem.

Nope. I can't choose. They BOTH deserve to go on.

So... now... only one option left. Let's logically walk our way through the outcome, based off all their supplies information, and the strategies both planned to use.

Kyou had over four thousand troops and he planned to take the tunnels. He had his riflemen, along with a unit of gunmen by his side. Halfway through, Hirotei's unit of ninja turned and fought alongside Kyou. While Hirotei and his samurai used poisonous centepedes and also placed up cannons along the entrances to the tunnels. The first wave of Kyou's samurai would have been utterly destroyed and the tunnels would have probably collapsed, killing thousands of Kyou's men, probably some of Hirotei's as well. After that, Kyou's army would have had to regroup and think of a new strategy, the only one being to actually siege the castle. Both sides had enough supplies for a three month long siege. Kyou wouldn't have had the numbers after all the losses and maybe a few failed attempts to siege the castle. He would have had to retreat and leave the Imagawa clan, with both suffering huge losses.

Okay. This is impossible. Just totally impossible. There isn't a winner. Writing says they're equal, numbers say they're equal, my opinion says they're equal and even logically thinking through the outcome says they're equal. So how do we choose a winner here?

Hirotei was late handing in, but that wasn't her fault because she got mixed up with the times (and she doesn't live in central time zone I'm pretty sure).

Due to a punishment, Hirotei had a word count of 1,250 and it was 1,902. Hirotei also had another punishment where his unit of men was supposed to deflect to Kyou's side, which was never mentioned in the entry.

So Kyou included all aspects of the task in his entry whereas Hirotei forgot one and went over his word count.

The winner of battle task 4 Kyou Asai attacking Hirotei Imagawa is...

Kyou Asai...just barely.

ZSB2000, I love your writing. Your style is so beautiful, I just can't stop reading your entries no matter what they are. Every single entry you wrote wasn't an entry in a competition but a story. Hirotei was a strong story, the epitome of a true samurai warrior and like all samurai, it ended in tragedy. Now, we all need this samurai's story's ending. I need it desperately, so I do hope you decide to write it. Like music1or1books's, I'll include it in Samurai.