Please, post your strategies, hints and tips for playing with the Shimazu clan here.
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Please, post your strategies, hints and tips for playing with the Shimazu clan here.
Bonuses:
Increased loyalty for all generalsQuote:
The Shimazu are a proud clan, with a long history worthy of their pride. To the Shimazu, loyalty is everything, and their generals are less likely to develop ambitions of their own. Shimazu katana samurai are cheaper to recruit and maintain in the field than those of other clans; they can also recruit superior katana-armed samurai. The clan can trace its ancestry back to Minamoto Yoritomo, the founder and first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate. In 1187, Yoritomo appointed his son, Tadahisa, as military governor of southern Kyushu. The young man took the name of Shimazu in Hyuga province, his seat of government, as his own. Thanks to a well-organised army and administration, abundant local resources, and a certain distance between Kyushu and the Kamakura court, the Shimazu clan became rich and powerful. They did not, however, become hidebound: when their vassals in Tanegashima met a strange, shipwrecked people from the other side of the world, the Shimazu were quick to see that trade with these nanban Europeans might be worthwhile. Now, under the daimyo Shimazu Takahisa, the clan has a chance for true greatness. Their home province of Satsuma is secure, and they are at peace with the Sagara of Higo province to the north. Higo, however, is a tempting target for expansion because of the warhorses to be found there. There is the small matter of a war with the Ito clan in the provinces of Osumi and Hyuga, but once these local difficulties are resolved the distance from Kyushu to the shogun's palace is not so great after all
Reduced recruitment costs and upkeep for katana samurai
Can recruit superior katana heroes
Can recruit superior katana samurai
Setup:
The Shimazu start on Kyushu. They initially control only one province, Satsuma, in the Southwest corner of Kyushu. Satsuma starts with a level 1 castle, and a Sword School. As the Shimazu, it is obvious that your goal must be to secure Kyushu before spreading elsewhere and triggering Realm Divide. Fortunately, securing Kyushu is the hardest part of the campaign, and the island will be a very secure base to fall back upon. Kyushu consists of eight provinces, split between five clans. However, there are six major players in the fate of Kyushu, and potentially also eight if Christian rebels and Buddhist rebels enter the fray, which is very likely. In terms of province specialization, Kyushu is the most strategic location in all of Japan.
Satsuma province, your starting province, has a smithing specialization. This starts out as a Blacksmith, which gives a small bonus to all Samurai recruited here. However, in the early game this still does not make Samurai worth recruiting over Ashigaru. Later on, you will be wealthy enough and secure enough to upgrade this Blacksmith to either an Armourer or a Weaponsmith. An Armourer gives a bonus to armour for all units recruited in the province. Alternatively, you could upgrade to a Weaponsmith, which gives a bonus to the melee attack of all units recruited in the province. Early in to the campaign, before uniting Kyushu, an Armourer is definitely more valuable than a Weaponsmith, because an armour bonus is helpful to all units, whereas a melee bonus is hardly going to useful for Bow Ashigaru. However, Bizen province has a Crafts specialization that makes superior bowmen, so after uniting Kyushu you are not going to be training any bow units in Satsuma. Therefore, you could consider demolishing your Armourer and building a Weaponsmith instead. It depends on your personal preferences.
Higo province on the West coast of Kyushu has a Warhorses specialization, and is also fertile. Therefore, this will be your cavalry province. Also be sure to prioritize upgrading the farms there if they have not been already, for they will very productive. One thing to note about the Stables is that they are very likely to be at the basic level when you capture the province. This is because Higo is owned by a one-province clan with a peaceful temperament, so they are poor and never expand to fix that. You will most likely have to upgrade the Stables, Pastures, and castle (in order to build a Sword School, Yari Drill Yard, or Archery Range to train up some Katana Cavalry, Yari Cavalry, or Bow cavalry respectively) yourself - quite an expensive undertaking, and the cavalry you will be able to train certainly is not cheap.
Bungo province the East coast of Kyushu is. This province has a Naval Tradition, and also an upgraded port to boot. One might jump with joy at this, after all it is a high level port that one gets for free (except for a pile of dead bodies, of course). But do not be fooled: Bungo province is a House of Horrors for whomever holds it! This is because Bungo has a Nanban Trade Port, and on top of that the clan that holds Bungo is Christian, and there is a Missionary located there to boot. If Bungo is not 100% Christian by the start of the game, it certainly will be by the time you reach it, along with almost all of Northern Kyushu. Therefore, Bungo should not be on priorities. When you do capture it, its Naval Tradition specialization will be worth naught as you will be forced to tear down the Nanban Trade Port (unless you plan on going Christian in you campaign, in which case keep it), reducing the port back down to a level 1 Coastal Village. I would recommend turning Bungo into your religious province. You will be forced to build a Monastery anyways in order to contain the Christian problem, and you certainly can train up some excellent Monks off of those pesky Kirishitans. It is almost inevitable that when you turn to conquer Northern Kyushu that the majority of the populous will be Christian, but Bungo is always the worst, so holding on to this province is always tricky for quite a while.
Buzen province is at the Northeastern tip of Kyushu, and has a Craftwork specialization. This makes Buzen your province for churning out high quality bowmen. Most of the time Buzen will have already been upgraded from a Fort to a Stronghold by the time you reach it, so there will be an extra building slot there. I would recommend tearing down whatever was built there previously and instead throw up a Monastery, for Buzen is another one of the troublesome Christian provinces. Be sure to upgrade the Artisans to a Fletchers if you want the archery bonus! Paper Mills give more income but no accuracy bonus.
Tsukushi province takes up the North-central part of Kyushu . This province has a Philosophical Tradition specialization, which is arguably the second-best specialization in the game after Smithing. Philosophical Tradition provides several hefty bonuses. First of all, the basic level 1 School by default will train Metsukes that are already leveled up 1 rank. These can be developed any which way you want, and if you are smart and build Markets in almost every empty building slot then you will be able to churn out Metsukes from Tsukushi, each one specialized for a cetain task: apprehending, managing, bribing, etc. But there is even more to Philosophical Tradition than this. You also get a default 10% increase to mastery of the arts, which will dramatically increase the rate you move through the tech tree and enable you to reach farther down the tech tree in game. By developing your School into a Library you get an even larger bonus to mastery of the arts, and if you upgrade even further to a Confucian Academy the bonus to mastery of the arts is an astounding 33%. However, if you choose to go down the other fork by developing the School to a Magistrate, you enable Metsukes with even more XP to be trained. A tough choice, but I would suggest upgrading to a Library. This is because a Library is almost the only way to get such a large mastery bonus, but you can train better Metsuke anyways by upgrading the Market in Tsukushi to a Rice Exchange. In fact, this would be the only province I would recommend doing so in.
Hizen province is in the Northwest coast of Kyushu. This is an interesting province, because it is A) almost almost always 100% Christian because B) the clan than starts with Hizen almost always conquers all of Northern Kyushu before converting to Christianity, leading them to C) construct a Nanban Trade Port and D) upgrade the castle massively, even up to the level of Fortress! To put it simply: Hizen wins. It will always be your richest province. But unfortunately, that Nanban Trade Port and the whole Christian thing really make Hizen a pain in the backside. Often time they get pretty enthusiastic with their Christianity and build a Missionary, then train up loads of Missionaries, whose effects are highly irritating to deal with. Nevertheless, Hizen is worth all the effort poured into keeping it. But that there is only half the story: Hizen also has a Naval Tradition specialization, and if you capture Hizen soon enough, before the previous clan can build a Nanban Trade Port, you will be able to keep their Military Port. Yes, you will be able to churn out everything you could possibly need for a complete and balanced navy right there in Buzen. But things go from great to awesome if you upgrade your Merchant Colony to a Pirate Lair, because then all your ships come with a hefty XP bonus. From Hizen shall come forth the navy that will conquer seas of Japan. I would strongly recommend not upgrading to a Warehouse, as although the income bonus may be tempting, you have four or five Kyushu trade nodes that will explode your income. The better navy is the best option in this case.
In Osumi and Hyuga provinces in the Southeast, there are no province specializations. Therefore, these will probably be your two least valuable provinces. To expound this, Hyuga province is barren, making it less useful for agriculture as welll. Use them to build whatever it is you are lacking. For instance, there are no Ninja specializing provinces in Kyushu, so you can feel free to build your Sake Den wherever you please. You can never go wrong with a Market, either, so long as you do not upgrade it to a Rice Exchange.
Kyushu is an island divided. The clans on Kyushu are as follows:
The Shimazu clan. This is you, the player (duh!). You start out with one province in Southwest Kyushu, Satsuma province. Satsuma province contains a Smithing specialization that makes it strategic for you as a troop production center. The Shimazu start out as your standard "great" clan in most respects: they hold one province, are Shinto-Buddhist, have moderate power and moderate prosperity, and have one starting enemy. Diplomatically, you start out with a border with two clans: the Sagara and the Ito clans. As the Shimazu you start at war with the Ito and are neutral with all other clans, including no trade rights. It is possible to sign a trade agreement with the Sagara, but not worth it as you will probably be at war with them by the time the four-turn waiting period before the "Dishonouring Treaties" penalty goes away.
The Ito clan. They are your starting enemy. The Ito have moderate strength and moderate prosperity like any other clan, but start with two provinces: Hyuga and Osumi. This makes them dangerous to you, as they have a two province economy to your one. Fortunately the Shimazu are there to relieve the Ito of their provinces. Also, Hyuga and Osumi have no province specializations, so are fairly impoverished. The Ito also start out with an alliance with the Otomo clan to their North in Bungo and Bizen provinces.
The Sagara clan. They start neutral with all clans, and also have a Peaceful temperament and Trustworthy reliability. However, the Sagara will always sign an alliance with the Shoni in the first turn or two. Always, every time, no exceptions. This is what gives the Shimazu campaign its challenge, the devastating Shoni-Sagara alliance. The Shoni always do the brunt work while Sagara sit in their province forcing you go to war with the two of them if you intend to go anywhere. The Sagara start with one province, Higo, which specializes in Warhorses. However, due to the Peaceful temperament of the Sagara, they never expand at all. This means that they remain without a big food supply to enable building up their castle to the point that they can build the extra slot for cavalry. Therefore, Higo province is left to you to develop on your own.
The Otomo clan. It can be said of the Otomo that they hold the fate of all Kyushu in their hands. But they just don't get to live to see it. Their critical influence on the politics of the region in particular derives from two things, one temporary and one long lasting. The Otomo can decide whether you live or die in the critical Kyushu stage of your campaign based upon when they choose to die. They are caught in an unfortunate sandwich between the powerful Shoni and Ouchi clans. The Otomo, with their two provinces, are woefully outnumbered by 2:1 against the Shoni, with two provinces, and the Ouchi, also with two provinces. The Ouchi provide the anvil, starting in the extreme Western promontory of Honshu. With their navy they cannibalize Otomo's trade routes and bankrupt them. The Ouchi never get anything out the war against Otomo because they are already at war on Honshu and the movement points required to cross the land bridge between Honshu and Kyushu makes it impossible to capture anything there on time. However, the Otomo not having a brain but rather a sequence of code, they pay an inordinate amount of attention to the Ouchi and then are caught by the massive, deadly hammer that is the Shoni clan as it comes swinging down upon the hapless glass vase of the Otomo. The end result is that you have a four province Shoni superpower in Northern Kyushu, as well as their one province Sagara allies, facing off against you, the Shimazu, with a measly three provinces. The long term affect of the Otomo is their religion: Christianity. Bungo province starts with a Nanban Trade Port and the Otomo are Christian. This spreads the Word of Christ like crazy through their territory, so that even though they only live for a few turns the provinces they held are almost entirely Chrisitian. These provinces are a pain to hold, to be sure.
The Shoni clan. They are your primary competitors for dominance in Kyushu, their inevitable victory against the Otomo cementing their authority in Northern Kyushu and strengthening their power. Starting off with Tsukushi province and Hizen province, they hold four by the time they are finished with the Otomo. Then, they have a habit of converting to Christianity - every time. I theorize that this is due to the benefits of the Nanban Trade Port in Bungo being too much to warrant it being torn down. But leaving it up would spread too much Christianity to contain, and the Shoni already would be in dire straights trying to control the Christian provinces they captured. Solution: convert! Then there is even more Christianity in Kyushu. The strength of the Shoni is not without benefits, though. With all their wealth, you will find that Northern Kyushu is extremely well developed, with plenty of upgraded castles and developed infrastructure. The Shoni start out with Moderate power and Moderate prosperity, have two provinces to start, are at war with the Otomo, and are allied with Ouchi.
Opening moves:
I guess Shimazu is simply too easy so nobody follows up with questions.
Shimazu has the fastest access to Christianity among all playable Great Clans, and has the rare luxury to build a Nanban Trade Port in Buzen (wait until you capture that province) for accuracy bonuses on Imported Matchlock Ashigaru and European Cannons.
Please find more discussions on Shimazu strategies in my Shimazu story.
My first three goes at legendary ended in disaster within a few turns.
The problem is that the statutory enemy clan has two provinces rather than one and while you can easily take Osumi in turn one if you then head for Hyuga castle you'll take several turns to get there and be met en route by a much larger Ito army.
And then the Sagara will descend upon you from the north with another large army.
What worked for me was an alliance with the Sagara, waiting till turn 2 to attack Osumi so that I can add some reinforcements to my starting army, then waiting in Osumi until the Ito stack appears - given the AI's stupidity in sieges you can generally wipe out that army completely and have enough left troops left to head for Hyuga and take it before they can build a second big army.
Hyuga itself however is pretty worthless - the key to Shimazu success is the three rich NW provinces of Kyushu.
The situation in Northern Kyushu seems much more fluid than the main island and its quite unlikely that your Sagara allies will hold on to Higo and block your expansion North for very long - and if they do you can take a ship and land an army in Hizen.
I also found Buddhist monks very useful in prompting revolts in poorly garrisoned provinces which the AI then never seems to take back and which you can therefore pick off later at your leisure.
Having taken all of Kyushu you can then build farms and markets everywhere other than Buzen and Satsuma and build up a decent economy while the situation on the main island develops - unlike in the centre and east you rarely seem to get a single superpower arising as most of the little provinces are too poor to generate much income for the AI.
When you do attack the main island it is a good idea to simultaneously attack Aki and Iwami by sea first (assuming they are held by the same clan) as these are the two richest provinces there and depriving your enemies of their resources is more important than slowly and systematically advancing along the peninsula - as long as you garrison Aki and Iwami properly and block off the land bridge to Buzen with a fleet you can probably ignore Nagato and Suo.
Then if the diplomatic situation allows it I go for Hoki, Bizen, Bingo and Mimasaka for their resources - Hoki and Bizen need to be developed into your main island recruitment centres as quickly as possible as shuttling troops from Bizen and Satsuma is far too time consuming.
I then advance along the north coast of the main island as far as Kaga and Echizen which will be your recruitment centres for the war in the centre and east.
With Bizen and Hoki and Kaga and Echizen all churning out troops you can then deal with whoever is holding Omi, Iga, Yamato etc
Fun fact: On Hard Difficulty Level i did observe Sagara to take a military action against Ottomo... Unfortunatly it came as an and to this peaceful clan, as i attacked thier abandoned fort right away (i mean after 2 turns when i was in reach), and as they tried to take it over from me and assembled army in order to reclaim it, later saboutaged by my trustworthy ninja, Ottomo lived for once to see some impact they made - they reclaimed province, which was held by my enemies, thus making Ottomo dissapear.