Just curious but how do you think that battle would have turned out had the army facing the samurai had not been peasants but were the an army of the British, American, French or Spanish.
i.e. If the peasants were instead very skilled on par with the armies of dominant world powers.
How do you think the battle would of ended up?
The Samurai would have been whiped out. Larger force, betterr equipment and equal training? What would you expect.
In the REAL Satsuma rebellion, less well trained (than regular British etc) Imperial Army convinsingly beat the Samurai.
SpiltPersonality
well if they use the cover of the fog and try some encircling maneuvers and caught them on surprise they might stand a chance...armies in that time and well portrayed in the movie was slow and not flexible maneuverable...build to engage equally bulk armies.
but if they engaged them head on as in the movie.they will be 100% guaranteed massacred as the skilled armies would be much better in keeping discipline, holding ranks, accurate shooting, faster reloading etc
We won't have a movie.
Katsumoto and his faith in the old ways was destined to lose against modern warfare. The imperial army's inexperience was the only thing that helped him.