ODA ~ From Such Humble Beginnings

[Wishazu]

Cheers Adam, welcome to the Dojo friend

No worries though guys, I have gotten past the bug and will most likely post the next update tomorrow. I`m just too tired now.......

[Wishazu]

ODA ~ 3rd Battle of Kawachi

Autumn, 1584 Reports had been coming in for weeks before the battle, all describing the massive build up of troops in Yamashiro, Yamato and Kii. It was obvious that Lord Hojo was preparing an attack against Kawachi, it is the linchpin of my defence. Any assault upon my territories in Honshu will not succeed without Kawachi first pacified. I deliberately divided my forces along my frontier so as to make Kawachi appear soft. My intent was to make Kawachi the anvil upon which I would smash the Hojo clan. The attack finally came in the last week before Winter, one of Lord Hojo`s underlings commanding over 5000 men, more than double my own force.




The weather was surprisingly mild for this time of year. It was about midday by the time my army was fully deployed and the Hojo warriors came into view.



I positioned myself where I believed would be the critical position on the field, directly behind my Naginata holding the bridge crossing. I had with me at the front two units of Samurai Archers ready to rain death on any Hojo trying to cross. Behind these were some Warrior Monks ready to counter-attack if the front line began to waver. The Hojo commander ordered the attack and sent his No-Dachi into the fray.



My Archers took a murderous toll on the No-Dachi but still they kept on coming untill like a wave crashing against a cliff they hit my defensive line. My Naginata, in their heavier armour stood immovable like rocks, fixing the Hojo attackers in place whilst my Archers fired over their heads into the mass of purple armoured bodies. By this time though, the Hojo Archers had formed up on the other side of the river and began to support the attack with fire of their own. I found myself within range but dared not leave this important position, besides almost all the fire was directed at my Naginata. How many of their own troops they shot in the back was hard to tell but it must have been substantial. Eventually however, the pressure at the front began to grow as more and more Hojo warriors poured across the bridge, the enemy commander himself joining the attack to spur them on. My men slowly began to give ground.



As the casualties began to mount in my front line I judged it was time to launch the counter-attack with the Monks, they ran forward and made contact with the Hojo, the impetus of their charge throwing back the enemy advance allowing the Naginata to disengage and reform.



The fanatic Warrior Monks completely threw back the assault and cut down the enemy commander. In their attempts to escape many Hojo warriors were drowned as their comrades knocked them into the river.



Despite the stunning success so far I ordered the Monks to cease their attack, I didn`t want them isolated on the other bank in the event of the enemy rallying. We had slaughtered a big chunk of their army but they were not done yet, that was just the first wave. I ordered the Monks to the rear to rest them before the next attack. There followed a long pause in the fighting, the Hojo reinforcements moving into sight ready for their next push. Almost at the same time, runners from either flank of my army reported sightings of enemy cavalry on both the left and right flanks, they must of found other crossings we were unaware of and been attempting to strike us in the rear. Their timing however was poor, they were unable to support the initial surge across the bridge and now launched into a premature attack against my rear.




Both of these attacks were swiftly dealt with by Yari Spearmen supported by the Samurai Archers I had held in reserve. A few brave but deluded Hojo warriors attempted to attack the crossing whilst this was going on but were easily blocked off and sent running for their lives, their moment of bravery forgotten.



By now my Archers were all out of ammunition so I gave the order for them to withdraw. There was no sense risking any casualties amongst them when there was little they could add to the battle now, besides I had men in reserve ready to call to the front if they were required.



It was shortly after my Archers had quit the field that a few more small elements of the Hojo army began to appear in our rear, probably the infantry sent with the cavalry that attacked earlier. They probably realised too late that the warriors they were sent to assist were dead and they themselves had no escape. My Monks were now fully rested and I ordered them to deal with these interlopers. The melee was short and brutal.



It was now late in the day and with the light leaving us swiftly the Hojo launched a last desperate foray onto the bridge. My Yari Samurai were able to hold them long enough for the Naginata to regain their former positions defending the crossing.



With the day all but over the Hojo realised the hopelessness of their situation and began too withdraw. My men were too tired to pursue and besides, I liked effective cavalry to conduct an effective mopping up. The day was mine. Me and my retainers counted nearly 2,000 enemy slain at the head viewing and they reported to me the loss of 600 brave samurai. The only major loss to me was Nishio Naotaka, killed during the Hojo raid on my right flank.



Acceptable casualties as far as I`m concerned as I still had more than enough troops to hold two or even three more such attacks. My only hope is that Lord Hojo will come again. If I can destroy his major armies here in Kawachi then Shibata Katsuie will be able to launch an invasion into Hojo occupied lands further north from Tamba province which he was able to take unopposed as the garrison had left to join the attack against me in Kawachi.

Winter, 1584 Construction has began on the foreign trading post in Aki. The guns I will be able to acquire now will probably be too late to have much of an impact on the war but I am curious as to their usefulness. My spies have reported the possible location of the last of the woman assassins working for the Hojo clan. They believe her to have recently been in Awa province, I have dispatched my agents to pick up her trail, find her and kill her.

Summer, 1585 My men sent to kill the Hojo assassin have sent me her head. They tracked her down in Tosa and ambushed her in a small farmhouse, she did not go quietly and fourmy men were slain. I feel I can sleep a little easier at night knowing all those vicious bitches are now dead. I am also reliably informed that my armies now outnumber those of the Hojo. I feel one more decisive battle will settle this war.

Autumn, 1585 The trading post has been completed in Aki and I have placed my first order for Muskets. The traders inform me that the first consignment will arrive by ship in the Spring of next year.

Winter, 1585 Sad news has reached me today, Li Kurosawa, my fathers most trusted retainer and my teacher from childhood has passed away. I must confess to a tremendous sense of loss, the man was as close to me as my father. Kurosawa has been a fixture in my life since I was born and I did not really believe he would ever die despite his extreme age. I will honour him with a shrine in Iga when I control the province again. Afterall he was the greatest warrior I ever knew and Iga was the scene of his greatest glory in the service of our clan.
Katsuie has been forced to give up Tamba after a surprise attack, he has joined Hidetsugu in Tajima and will retake Tamba in the Spring.

Spring, 1586 As planned, Katsuie and Hidetsugu have joined forces and attacked Tamba. Once again the province fell without a sword being drawn. Another massive assault by Lord Hojo himself has taken place upon Kawachi. Strangely, the battle played out almost identically to the previous encounter though I was unable to take Lord Hojo`s head. A small enemy force consisting entirely of light Cavalry Archers was able to get across the border from Tamba into Harima and ambush most of the garrison whilst it was on patrol. I have ordered Hidetsugu to despatch some troops next season to deal with them.

Summer, 1586 Hidetsugu`s troops report success in Harima, Hidetsugu himself has remained in Tamba to cover Katsuie`s supply line Katsuie himself has defeated a Hojo garrison in Wakasa and taken the province. The Hojo appear to be entirely on the backfoot now.

Overview
Well my startegy to sit back and let the Hojo break himself upon me seems to have worked wonderfully. I am now getting a steady stream of cash aswel as reinforcements to the front. My Daimyo will remain in Kawachi whilst Katsuie and Hidetsugu launch attacks into his more lightly defended provinces.

[Wishazu]

ODA ~ Seii Tai Shogun Summer, 1587

Spring, 1587 A port has been completed in Kawachi. I can now transport reinforcements from Kyushu directly to the frontline here. Katsuie and Hidetsugu have attacked and taken Yamashiro, the Emperor has been liberated from his Hojo jailors and has once again declared his support for me. Lord Hojo launched an abortive attack upon Kawachi.

Summer, 1587 I have achieved the fate laid out for me when my father first placed his feet upon the path to the Shogunate. Hidetsugu was engaged by Lord Hojo who was attempting to retake Yamashiro.



Hidetsugu informed me that the battle was a confused and scrappy affair fought in thick fog. Hidetsugu was outnumbered but used the fog to his advantage by deploying half of his cavalry on the extreme right edge of the battlefield, screened by both the fog and dense woodland. Our troops deployed on the left of the Hojo advance where they could just make out the enemy troops in the myst.



The hidden element of Yari cavalry began to move forward through the trees so as to be in a position to hit the enemy from the rear. The rest of the Yari cavalry moved into the flat plain ahead of the enemy advance. That was when Hatano Yoshihiro, Hidetsugu`s cavalry Commander spotted his chance for glory. Lord Hojo had joined his scouting party ahead of the main force not realising he was blundering directly into the path of a huge formation of cavalry, Yoshihiro seized his chance and called a charge, all the cavalry with him heading directly for Lord Hojo`s personal banner.



The enemy scouting party had an elite unit of Yari infantry with them that took a vicious account of Yoshihiro`s men, however Yoshihiro was undaunted and pushed on. He fought his way through Lord Hojo`s personal guard and personally engaged him in combat. Both men were thrown from their horses and engaged each other on foot. Survivors tell me that both men exchanged blows and wounded one another but that Yoshihiro swiftly killed Lord Hojo with a thrust through the throat.



The fight here however was turning badly against Yoshihiro`s men who decided to withdraw leaving their commander behind. I do not blame them for leaving, Lord Hojo was dead and there was no reason for them to waste their lives. With their Lord and Master dead all order in the enemy army completely evaporated as they were now hit in the rear by the rest of the cavalry and my Muskets on their exposed flank opened up. The battle now became a series of mopping up exercises with isolated groups of enemy warriors being surrounded and destroyed.





A few Hojo Samurai managed to escape but it will make no difference. Lord Hojo is dead, he has no surviving heirs and all effective opposition to me has ceased. How fitting that the final battle for control of the islands was fought in the proximity of the Emperors Palace. I have accepted the Emperors invitation to become Shogun, I am now the dominant force in Japan and all the minor clans have been forced to subjugate themselves to me. The journey is over.



Victory Achieved
Well guys here it is, the end result. It looked like I was going to have a premature end early on but somehow managed to scrape through, probably more due to luck than strategic skill I think lol. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed playing it. Thankyou to Caravel and Patdj for their advice, it was very helpful, cheers guys

[caravel]

Well done, you deserve a medal for finishing that one.

[ReluctantSamurai]

This is tricky. The Geisha has killed all my heirs brothers but one and his own sons are still babies. My wars are going fine but I don`t think the Geisha will let me live long enough to win.

Gentlemen....I'm not going to try to tell you how to play the game, but I know one thing......I would simply hate to have invested hours in a campaign, fought epic multi-stack battles, managed my empire through all the lean poor harvest years, only to have the game ended in such a cheesy manner.

I've seen folks give up playing because they couldn't get past the uber-powered geisha. I'd hate to see that happen here for want of a simple editing solution that, if you so desired, will effectively eliminate the geisha as a factor, and let the Shogunate be decided on the battlefield as it should.

Just my 2cents

[caravel]

Yes, I'm aware of how to edit the building choices to elminate the Geisha house, but some of us prefer to just play the game and live with the consequences. I personally no longer play STW simply to win, as I've been playing too long. If one were only playing to win, then a campaign involving a lot of blitzing, assassination, Monks and auto resolved battles would do the job. So once the Geisha show up I'm usually ready to give up anyway. Thanks for the advice but I'm not overly worried about always winning a 100% victory every time. For me, the campaign I just played was all about the taking part, though I cannot of course speak for Wishazu. Once I'd got to the stage where the Geishas were wreaking havoc it had begun to get rather predictable anyway.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I know the sentiment as I do the same thing when playing RTW.....I don't necessarily play to win, but to have fun playing the campaign. When it stops being fun, I end it.

The one caveat with allowing geisha for 'games sake' is playing campaigns that start at the 1580 date. You will see geisha very early on, and from more than one faction. A campaign can end before it really ever starts, and that would be a shame because several of STW's most challenging campaigns (IMHO) start in 1580........

[Wishazu]

Hi Reluctant Samurai, thanks for your comments. Can I just ask if you have read the whole report? It`s just that your first post gives the impression that this is not the case. I was able to deal with the Geisha with a few Ninja. I do agree that losing to Geisha is cheesey and would annoy me if I had invested much time and effort in a game. However I also share Caravel`s sentiments about taking part. Besides if everyone who attempted to write a campaign story or report was always victorious it would not be very interesting to the rest of us. As you can see if you have read my whole report, the campaign wasn`t ruined as I went on to win.

[zyxophoj]

[
Victory Achieved

Nice. Thanks for posting this campaign, especially those last two battles.

[patdj]

Congratulations mate!

Definitely the most thrilling campain report I've read so far, despite the rather early end. But this way way, we will get the next masterpice some weeks sooner. :D

[ReluctantSamurai]

Can I just ask if you have read the whole report?

Actually, I did. Good writing, and fun to read.

My apologies for not being more clear. The lost campaign was your Mori one.

Besides if everyone who attempted to write a campaign story or report was always victorious it would not be very interesting to the rest of us.

Aye, true enough. But there are many ways to go wrong on the battlefield and lord knows I've had my butt handed to me more than once even sans the geisha

As you can see if you have read my whole report, the campaign wasn`t ruined as I went on to win.

And my apologies for the second time....I did read every post. I just forgot to mention I was referring to your Mori campaign...................

I do agree that losing to Geisha is cheesey and would annoy me if I had invested much time and effort in a game.

My point, which I won't rehash. I only brought up the topic because there were questions raised about the possibility of removing them from the game, and I wasn't necessarily directing my comments towards you. Everyone has their own personal style, and I meant no disrespect because you choose to play with geisha in the game. For those who are following your campaigns that might not be aware of how removing geisha is done, was really where my comments were directed.

[Wishazu]

No need to apologise Reluctant Samurai. I`m glad you enjoyed the campaign as it was my first report. You are mistaken about one thing though, the Mori campaign you have been referring to was not mine but Caravel`s. :)

Thanks Patdj and Zyxophoj for your comments. I`m currently trying to decide what campaign to do next and whether to record it in the same style. I may actually start a new one tonight as winning this Oda one has definitely given me the itch to play more.

[ReluctantSamurai]

You are mistaken about one thing though, the Mori campaign you have been referring to was not mine but Caravel`s.

Blind in one eye, and can't see out the other

[caravel]

Perhaps someone needs to do a Uesugi/1530 campaign, I haven't seen one of those in quite a while.

[Wishazu]

Well I`ve just started a new Oda campaign on the same settings as my reported campaign, I just fancied playing Oda without having to take loads of notes and screenies etc. Afterwards I plan on doing an Uesugi playthrough/report.

[Thermal]

amazing, if the HoF was still open i would have nominated this
I would like to do one but
1: I'm not that good at shogun
2: I don't know how to take screenshots
3: I'm not sure which factions have already been done lots and which ones which may bore people

[Wishazu]

amazing, if the HoF was still open i would have nominated this

Cheers mate.

I would like to do one but
1: I'm not that good at shogun

I`m sure that won`t be a problem. It would be interesting to see how you might adapt to difficult situations, and like I`ve said before, you don`t need to win the game for the campaign to be interesting.

2: I don't know how to take screenshots

When you want to take a screenshot press the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard, then pause the game. Press "Alt+Tab" to take you to desktop and open up "Paint". When in paint press "Ctrl+V", your screenshot will appear in Paint. Save the screenshot to desktop. After that you need to upload your screenshot to a site like Photobucket or Imageshack. From their you can put the screenies into your posts here. I hope that helps.

3: I'm not sure which factions have already been done lots and which ones which may bore people

I think the only boring faction to play as, and this is only for experienced players mind, is Shimazu. They have it fairly easy at the start and if you don`t have any problems their whole campaign is just a straight sweep across the map. It would probably be cool/interesting to see a new player using Shimazu.

[patdj]

When you want to take a screenshot press the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard, then pause the game. Press "Alt+Tab" to take you to desktop and open up "Paint". When in paint press "Ctrl+V", your screenshot will appear in Paint. Save the screenshot to desktop. After that you need to upload your screenshot to a site like Photobucket or Imageshack. From their you can put the screenies into your posts here. I hope that helps.

Only one thing to add: if you want to take screens more often, then use the JPEG format when you save them by Paint. This saves disk space and speeds up up- and downloading. Just in case you did not know that already. :)


Apart from that: I am a rather poor STW player. Campain reports are a perfect opportunity to get advise from experienced players and learn from mistakes. Give it a try. :)

[caravel]

Regarding screenshots: Hit F2 when you need to take one and it will save the file as a .TGA in the Shogun - Total War\TGAs\ directory. You can then open these up using the gimp or whatever paint program you use and save them as .jpgs. This is considerably easier than using print screen and alt tabbing.

-Edit: You can also use Irfanview which is free and can convert pretty much anything to anything else.

[Wishazu]

ah ha! I knew there was a quicker way. Thanks for that Caravel.

[Adam99]

Wow gerat battele in Kawachi, good end to the campaign, shame Hojo got killed when he did, good luck in the next one.

[patdj]

Concerning screenshots, there are also programs that directly give you JPEGs into the desired folder on a custm hotkey. They are usually also able to record short to medium movies. I used to have gamecam, but not installed atm.

Didn't know about the F2 possibility, saves some time, thanks!
Can't you use the TGA format for displaying it as well?

Sorry for thread abuse. :(

[Thermal]

Thanks Wishazu and caravel, i do have irfanview, i will test it and if the method for taking screen shots works, i may start a Hojo campaign at 1530, which should be more than challenging enough for me.


@Patdj
Your no un-experienced player, you had some amazing battles on the hojo-half a campaign you did.

[Drisos]

In short: Thanks a lot Wishazu. Amazing campaign & story.

(btw; I wasn't expecting the victory proclamation yet. I guess the northern regions are generally a lot bigger so even if you were only half way topografically, you had reached the 40-region point already. )

Btw, Caravel, I wrote on a Uesugi 1530 campaign a while back iirc. It's somewhere in Sword Dojo.

[Wishazu]

Cheers Drisos

The campaign was over a little quicker than usual as I only play to "Eliminate All Other Clans" as it saves the tedium of mopping up masses of rebebls at the end.

[Wishazu]

Regarding screenshots: Hit F2 when you need to take one and it will save the file as a .TGA in the Shogun - Total War\TGAs\ directory. You can then open these up using the gimp or whatever paint program you use and save them as .jpgs. This is considerably easier than using print screen and alt tabbing.

-Edit: You can also use Irfanview which is free and can convert pretty much anything to anything else.

Are you sure it`s F2 mate? I have just started my Uesugi campaign and tried hitting F2 for screenies but when I check the TGA`s folder it`s empty...

[Thermal]

Are you sure it`s F2 mate? I have just started my Uesugi campaign and tried hitting F2 for screenies but when I check the TGA`s folder it`s empty...

F2 worked for me, though i found that some of my battle pictures weren't in the TGA's, make sure you press F2 firmly, and a few times to hopefully ensure it saves in the TGA's, unless your computer is programed differently, would the shogun controls not tell you which button it is for you?

[Wishazu]

Still not working

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Well...try the other f#'s and check in options where you can assign keys.

[Wishazu]

*slaps forehead* - *HARD!* I`m such a n00b lol. I`ll give it a try.