How is your first campaign going?

[Ituralde]

Started my first campaign as the Uesugi on Normal and it's given me enough of a challenge that I can't complain. Fought the first battle against the Rebels and sustained way more losses than I had anticipated. Ashigaru just whittle away under concentrated Arrow fire. After that I began a slow build up. With the provinces so large I needed enough troops to stay with my Damyo and also muster a second expansion force. You start with your southern neighbours as vassals and I got friendly with all my other neighbours as well except for the Benji to the East whom you start at war with. My Damyos brother took an invasion force to the Benji homeland.

One turn away from their castle another clan comes in and destroys the Benji. Guess that's why they offered me a peace treaty and some money earlier. Next turn the Benji reappear and take their castle, but now their army is really large and they try to oust me from their province. I retreat back into my lands and the next turn Rebels take over the Benji province and they loose their army as it was in my territory. I have no problem to take my second province from the Rebels. I take my eyes on the peninsula just to the north of the Benji province and to the small island off the mainland, that has the gold mine on it. But my preparations for war are interrupted.

The Hojo have been busy in the South and now have 6 provinces, they're allied with the Takeda who own 4 provinces and the Date have crushed my buffer clans to the north and are now up to 4 provinces as well. Since the Takeda and Hojo attack my vassal, and my allies of Ashina I find myself at war with both of them. Luckily my allies take the worst of the beating and Takeda neglects to guard Hida province properly. I rush in from the north and take out his under defended castle. I then advance towards North Shinano, where it's touch and go for a while. His garrison is too large so I retreat back to Hida, where the Takeda follow and try to storm the castle. I beat them off soundly, but still have to defeat their remnants in a field battle next turn. After that the road to the North Shinano stronghold is open, but it is still heavily guarded. The fighting is fierce and I loose my Uesugi Warrior Monks, but I'm up to 4 provinces as well.

I have focused on the Chi path to get to the Warrior Monks, but I neglected to build a Naginata Dojo or Foot Archery Range in my capital so I can't recruit any Warrior Monks yet. Down the Bushido path it is then. Of course the Date have now also declared war on me. So I'm facing off against three major clans and my one ally (not the vassal) has been beaten and reappeared several times. Now the Hojo are at my doorstep and the Takeda are ready for a counteroffensive. Also the Ikko-Ikko muster their forces near my Benjo province, which is sorely undefended and I want to take that gold island asap, but it is heavily garrisoned.

I'll see what the future brings, but it looks to get interesting!

[Daveybaby]

I lost my first campaign after 4 or 5 turns. Second campaign as chosokabe (i think) on normal difficulty level is actually going surprisingly peacefully. Took over the whole of the Shikoku (for a total of 5 provinces) in the first 20-ish turns, at which point i was broke from fielding a pretty large army. Decided to sit back, disband a sizable chunk of my army and trade & turtle for a bit and build up my economy, which seems to be going pretty well. Nobody is at war with me, i managed to nab 2 of the trade posts (which i'm busily spamming with trade ships).

Currently have a market in every province, with a metsuke keeping the peace, raking in over 3k per turn, should be much more when the bulk of my trade fleet reach the trade posts and i upgrade the markets. Upgrading roads, farms & harbours like there's no tomorrow. However, if someone dumps a full stack anywhere on the island i'm buggered.

Planning to take over kyushu next, as they all seem to hate me over there (for no apparent reason) and it might give me an excuse to nab some more trade posts. Need to build up my army + navy first, but every turn there seems to be something to build that pulls in yet more money. Seems I'm getting greedy.

[knoddy]

Lost my first campaign as Date on Hard.

did fairly well before i ran outta money and only had 1 field army which couldnt compete with hojo's 4-5 full stacks, i held my own for a while but it was a futile effort.

Second campaign is going well, shimazu on hard, slowly taking control of the island u start on, had some good fights with the minor factions on the island, own about half the island atm and most of the trading posts currently working on building some better troop training facilities and feilding a large army to take the rest of the island.

[crpcarrot]

started first campaign on hard with Date and i'm now stangnant. i dont see how i can win. i'm hemmed in by strongly allied factions i hold only two provinces not much income and not a large enough army to carry out a sustained war. unless war breaks out among my neighburs and i can pick of the weakned provinces i might have to start a new campaign soon on normal. unfortunately all my neighburs are strongly allied. battles wise its been excellent. 90% of my battles have been large ones and you dont see une unit armies running about all over the map, the AI also attacks only in force. i think what everyone emans by the battles ebing fast is the kill rates. i ahve no problems with movement speeds. kill rates could be slower so we can have those epic battles of STW and MTW but they are not as bad as RTW. terrain makes a real difference again and most of the battle is spent out manouvering each other (good old days ) i managed to outfalnk the enemy last night by waking 4 units thought woods. i havent seen much higher ground advantage yet but thats cos i have had to defend/attach a hill. once battle is joined its bit hard to differenciate units becasue they all seem o be dressed the same but i guess we can put that down to battlefeild confusion.

all in all i might fall in love with TW again :D

[therother]

Rather enjoying my first campaign, I have to say. Uesugi was my favourite clan from STW, but they didn't start at the end of the map, so plumped for Shimazu at the other end for a change.

CAI is much more aggressive than the last few games, handles naval invasions well, doesn't fight to the death, sticks broadly with alliances where it makes sense, handles its agents effectively, armies appear balanced and well proportioned, etc. I'd say the CAI is pretty good from what I've seen on normal. I'm not one for playing the battles that much, only play crucial or interesting battles (eg where I just have ninjas - that was fun!), so I don't really have that much experience of the BAI (plus my first campaign was on normal difficulty). Still seems a little susceptible to tricks, eg I intentionally routed one of my light cav units when the AI assaulted one of my castles. The AI had half its army, and all its infantry, chasing after them for a good few minutes. In that time, I sallied out to destroy his archers and spear his general, leaving just the now exhausted and demoralised peasant spearmen to face my balanced army. Was a massacre.

I have few little interface gripes, but they are just minor annoyances that I'm sure can be taken care of (like selecting an agent from the agent list and it selects the army he's overseeing).

I'm Shogun and have 52/60 provinces now, so will win soon. Just mopping up Takeda in the East. I'll be move on to top level difficulty and see how I get on... Looking forward to it!

[Gregoshi]

I'm Shogun and have 52/60 provinces now, so will win soon. Just mopping up Takeda in the East. I'll be move on to top level difficulty and see how I get on... Looking forward to it!

I'm impressed.

[DisruptorX]

Lost my first campaign as Oda, because my vassal started realm divide by taking a town, then turned on me. I didn't know they could do that, but I don't make vassals anymore.

Second game is corrupted and crashes whenever I click anything. I was close to winning it.

I will not be starting another single player game until there is a patch. I do not feel comfortable playing any game that corrupts save files this easily. Its only happened to me once before, in the hundreds of hours I've played total war games. I think it was as France in MTW 2. Having it happen the second campaign here is not a good sign.

[Daveybaby]

I think it was as France in MTW 2.

Heh, could just as easily have been RTW, or more likely ETW, that had savegame corruptions as a feature listed on the box IIRC.

Ah well, almost comforting to know some of CAs signature features are still alive and well. :-)

[Lord Benihana]

Currently playing first campaign as Shimazu on normal - seems to be the most enjoyable version of TW since MTW.

I took over the faction that Shimazu starts at war with, captured all 3 trade nodes to the west, and then sent my faction heir to the Island where the Choksabe clan lives because my island is peaceful (for now) I'm a little over 20 turns in and only have 4 regions... which is probably the least I have ever had in a TW game 20 turns in

2 thumbs up

[d1ng0d0g]

I started my first campaign on Normal as the Hojo, and after dispatching the ones I start at war with, I was 'betrayed' by the ones on the left. They took the town to the north of the capital the Hojo start with, and with a two flanked attack I managed to retake it. Right at that moment, I got the campaign bonus for finishing the art of attack and I got the mangonel.

With that, and a steady stream of replacement Ashigurai I totally crushed that foe, while at the same time I was focusing on creating trade agreements. And that seemed to be enough to stop people from going to war with me, allowing me to tech up, and actually afford about 2 stacks consisting of 4 Yari Ashigaru and 4 Bow Ashigaru together with a few scraps of Samurai (and the mangonel).

The Date to the North and the Tokugawa to my West were really growing very fast, and considering I was allies with the Tokugawa, it seemed I was waiting for my own destruction. Then the Tokugawa finally went to war against the Date (it did require some Hojo money to convince the Date an alliance with the Tokugawa wasn't wise).

And I profited most from that war, by utterly destroying the Date (and vassalizing everything to the north and east of my position). Then I rolled back and conquered a few rebel provinces, remnants of the Tokugawa Date war.

At that point I had 4 of those aforementioned armies (although my generals sure were dishonorable, I had to order them to commit seppuku a lot).

So I decided to go with the proverb 'There is no dishonor in victory' and struck against the Tokugawa's allies. And they broke their alliance with me. However, upon destroying that ally (I think it was the Satai with just two provinces), the Shogun decided I was a threat and I got the Country Divided event. Everybody that wasn't an vassal of mine came at me. One of my vassals actually was very successful and rolled up the Tokugawa, while I got some scraps too. And then I decided to try and capture Kyoto, with two full stacks only to be horribly surprised that it was guarded by an army unlike any I had ever seen fielded by the AI.

With two of my four armies destroyed, no fleet to speak off, the my Clan soon fell to the combined might of the other clans. Leaving me with exactly what I started with. I was almost begging for peace, and fortunately for my vassals, I was still fairly well in the income. And it was only a matter of time (3 turns or so) before those vassals realized the mighty Hojo had fallen, and they came at me for revenge.

End game.

And all in all, I have to say, this Total War is perhaps the most enjoyable straight out of the box of them all.

[antisocialmunky]

Legendary Shimazu. They zerg Ashigaru at me until I die on both the times I've tried it.

[Ituralde]

Rolling with the punches on my Normal Uesugi campaign. I made peace with Takeda and secured the trade node up north without Date interference.
Hojo showed up with one and a half stack in my home province though and besieged me. I had the brilliant idea to sally forth, and although I had only slightly fewer units the Hojo completely wiped the floor with me. Next season I sit in my two tier Castle Town without anyone to defend it.

My second army that rushes up is too late and so I loos my home province and my Damyo. But that's not all. With the half-stack reinforcement they immediatelly go after the reinforcing army, which is also crushed by the superior troops. I loose my second general who has become Damyo in the meantime. With my home province gone and all of my generals dead I think this is game over! I lost on Normal!

But no, there's more. Some distant relative claims to be Damyo and I have even managed to conquer my home province back with a little support from my vassal. Due to a rebellion and the following battle I got a Man of the Hour general, so five years later I'm back where I started from. No progress. This is really the most intense campaign I've ever had on normal.

[Naughtius Maximus]

Playing as the Tokugawa on N/N.

The war with the Oda was brief; after a closely won victory over the Oda army that began the campaign in our territory, the Oda sent a fresh army into our province and we were besieged. A narrow and phyrric victory was won but our faithful general Matsudaira Hidenaga was killed. The Oda intended to follow up a couple of turns later but they were overthrown by the Saito who invaded from their home province. This has allowed us to build up our trade and infrastucture - we commissioned the construction of a Buddhist temple in lieu of a spear/katana/archery dojo which we hop will facilitate a speedy our acquisition of new capabilities. Our clan is strengthened by the addition of the Ii clan, and their leader Ii Michinaga. He has since proved his loyalty and is providing invaluable service to us.

Being a vassal state, it has limited us to small things. Fortunately, the Tsutsui, alarmed by the expansion of the Saito attacked them and killed their Daimyo. They drove north even to the borders of the Takeda clan. They apparently overextended themselves and were preparing plans to attack us; declaring war, but the Tokugawa Daimyo, leading a strengthened army of Mikawa troops, defeated them and took Owari. The Imagawa have sent a large army to our aid and we are now considering our next move. Ships are traveling the coasts and securing trade routes which will hopefully bear fruit soon.

Once our lands are extended toward Kyoto we will carefully consider the future of our arrangement with the Imagawa.

[Cecil XIX]

This isn't my first campaign, but I've been making succesive attempts at a Legendary Chosokabe campaign. First two tries I couldn't take a single province, third try I conquered the Kono but went against the Miyoshi too early and got crushed by two succesive near-full stacks.

I'm on my fourth try now, took down the Kono again and bided my time before taking on the Miyoshi. The Miyoshi lost Settsu, and the Sogo took Awa from them, so they were reduced to Awaji and smartly accepted peace with me. The Sogo kept all their army in Awa province, so I took the iniative and seized Sanuki province before fighting their main army in a climactic battle for control of Shikoku. I was finally able to unify the province, and the Miyoshi even sent an army to help me! I was worried they were going to stab me in the back, so I let them do all the fighting in the second battle. But they were perfectly faithful, and returned to Awaji once I unified Shikoku. I decided to let them be, since I was worried that if I conquered Awaji I'd come into contact with a big clan that would then declare war on me. So I disbanded my inexperienced ashigaru and set about investing in infastructure.

I made my first mistake when I decided to attack the Hatakeyama before finishing off the Miyoshi. Once you're at war with other clans Awaji Island isn't useful as a buffer. My second mistake was to be overconfident when the Hatakeyama left their castles in Kii, Kawachi and Settsu provinces were all forts guarded by one regiment of samurai retainers. I sent my Daimyo over without recruiting new soldiers, so he only had 15 regiments. The Hatakeyama Daimyo led a full stack against me after I had taken Kii and Kawachi, so I retreat to Kii's castle and hoped their superior numbers would convince them to assault.

Well they didn't, and next turn I saw two more full stacks approaching. I decided I needed to sally, but gotten beaten badly because my so-called "courageous" Daimyo fled in terror from some arrow fire after he lost 80% of his bodyguard. But by a stroke of luck, Kii province had a ninja village outside the castle. I was able to upgrade it, and it turns out you can recruit agents from a castle that's undersiege! I started out with two levels, and so I put them all into assassination. Then I sent him after the the Hatakeyama Daimyo... And he killed him. Another sally later, and my Daimyo was free! There was a second army to the south blocking off his retreat, but I had another ninja sabotage him and we was able to get away. I sent a fleet over to pick up my Daimyo, soldiers and ninja, but before they could leave the coast they were attacked by a Hatakeyama fleet! They had two Medium Bunes and two Bow Kobaya, while I had one and three of the same, plus an general on board. I did terribly though, lost all ships but one. Then the next turn I discovered that if you stray too far from the coast, your ships take attrition. I should have known, that's why I had to manually tell the ship to go that way instead of simply ordering it directly to port. The ship sunk taking everybody with it.

I didn't have any generals or navy, and had barely begun retraining my army. Then the Hatakeyama landed an army in Awa and took the castle! Their army was small though, so I though if I sabotaged the gates, I could take advantage of my superior number of bowmen and shoot them out. Unfortunately my archers didn't do too well, and even though I outnumbered them my samurai got beaten back rather pitfully by the ashigaru when they rushed the three gates. What's worse is that it seems if you lose a castle assault, you don't retreat away long enough to be safe. The enemy sallied and attacked before my turn came up again, so I couldn't retreat. Some of my unit survived this battle, but the Hatakeyama were still able to reach them again! This time they got destroyed. I tried this again using a different strategy for assaulting. But it still didn't work. Eventually I was able to take the castle back, but by then the enemy landed a full stack at Sanuki province! Fortunately by now Motochika Chosokabe has come of age, and I was able to get a ninja to sabotage the invading army and delay it for two seasons. Now they're finally attacking the castle, but it's a Fortress so I think I can get rid of quite a few of them, especially since I recruited two units of Rank 3 Bow Ashigaru. The enemy army is all Ashigaru with no general, and Motochika's got 15 regiments with some samurai, so between taking the Castle and having to fave my Daimyo I'm confident I can repel this invasion. I think I'm fortunate in that the Hatakeyama's southern provinces don't have ports, the have to sail to Shikoku all the way from Noto. Then again, I'm also at war with two other clans that are much closer and they haven't done anything.

...My, that's a lot of text. Apologies if it's too long, but this is easily the best campaign experience I've ever had in a TW game, and I've been playing since the original. Every time you move an army it can cause a complete disaster, and I'm loving it.

[Gregoshi]

I'm loving these campaign reports. I'm thinking this game will generate some fantastic AARs.

[Keptin]

Once our lands are extended toward Kyoto we will carefully consider the future of our arrangement with the Imagawa.

I've been playing legendary as Tokugawa and, just as a note, beware Imagawa. A couple of campaigns I've played(and lost) because I grew too comfortable with Imagawa and then they turned on me... which was strange since I was their vassal.

In my campaign, I've pushed west to the provinces east of Kyoto and tried to solidify my alliances and economy. Unfortunately, it seems legendary has made the other factions uber aggressive. Hojo turned on Imagawa and crushed him with three stacks and then besieged my capital. I turned my forces (I've got a 3 star Daimyo with maxed out campaign movement) and reached them just in time to fight on even footing between two of his stacks and two of mine. Their forces were more upgraded with samurai bowmen, bowmen cavalry, and katana samurai. I defeated the two stacks but only had about 600 men left when he attacked me with the third stack of about 1200. This battle literally came down to one man, I saved the replay because it was so ridiculous. I defended the fort and managed to whittle him down just enough but I saw the writing on the wall when, hope against hope, I saw the enemy begin to waver. So, I charged them with what I had left except for my lone minister(the rest of his unit had been slaughtered in the previous battle) who sat back to provide morale support. Unfortunately, katana samurai just cut through my ashigaru bowmen like butter and they rout. The katana samurai were still wavering and all I have left is my single minister with +3 defence who I send charging in. He manages to cause them to run and I win the battle.

I have 4 provinces and a severely depleted military. The Hojo to my east have 8 provinces but their army is destroyed. The Hattori to my west have declared war due to my weakened state and have moved half a stack to siege one of my towns. Takeda to the north is friendly, but an ally of the Hojo and mighty. Based on what I've played before, I might as well restart because the Hattori are going to obliterate me. I can't bring myself to quit though because this is still the strongest and longest I've managed to stay in while playing as Legendary.

This is the first Total War I've ever actually lost a campaign. It is hard as nails and I love it.

[Naughtius Maximus]

The war with the Oda was brief; after a closely won victory over the Oda army that began the campaign in our territory, the Oda sent a fresh army into our province and we were besieged. A narrow and phyrric victory was won but our faithful general Matsudaira Hidenaga was killed. The Oda intended to follow up a couple of turns later but they were overthrown by the Saito who invaded from their home province. This has allowed us to build up our trade and infrastucture - we commissioned the construction of a Buddhist temple in lieu of a spear/katana/archery dojo which we hop will facilitate a speedy our acquisition of new capabilities. Our clan is strengthened by the addition of the Ii clan, and their leader Ii Michinaga. He has since proved his loyalty and is providing invaluable service to us.

Being a vassal state, it has limited us to small things. Fortunately, the Tsutsui, alarmed by the expansion of the Saito attacked them and killed their Daimyo. They drove north even to the borders of the Takeda clan. They apparently overextended themselves and were preparing plans to attack us; declaring war, but the Tokugawa Daimyo, leading a strengthened army of Mikawa troops, defeated them and took Owari. The Imagawa have sent a large army to our aid and we are now considering our next move. Ships are traveling the coasts and securing trade routes which will hopefully bear fruit soon.

Once our lands are extended toward Kyoto we will carefully consider the future of our arrangement with the Imagawa.

Part II

We are at war with the Tsutsui, and our overlords, the Imagawa prosecute their war with them and a seesaw battle for Ise province ensues. The Imagawa prevail but only briefly. This is probably because our lord orders our armies to hold a defensive line at the river crossing to Owari and not to aid the Imagawa directly. We concentrate on strengthening our trade networks and before long our merchants report that we have a monopoly on the incense and silk trades. This appears to make other clans, particularly those in the west of the country eager for our trade. The Hojo declare war on us; and they overrun the Imagawa lands to the the East. Not since the invasion of the Oda has there been such a threat. Almost simultaneously the Tsutsui prevail in Ise and the Imagawa are quickly wiped out. This comes as something of a mixed blessing that while we are released from the constraints of our vassal status we are beset upon on both sides by sworn enemies. Amazingly, the Tsutsui offer an alliance to which our lord wisely assents. At the same time the Takeda declare war, allying themselves with the Hojo. Lord Tokugawa and our best army then quickly moved east to counter the Hojo threat. The Hojo overrun Suruga, Totomi and, shockingly our home province of Mikawa, but have brought insufficient reserves to prevent us from taking it back. There are two great battles in Mikawa and the Hojo are annihilated. We drive east, taking Suruga and Totomi, deaf to the repeated entreaties of the Hojo emissaries. Soon our men are hammering at the gates of Odawara, and a second army drives up through Shinano and takes Kai from the Takeda. The Tokugawa heir, Ieyasu, assumes command of the army attacking Odawara. More good news follows; the Date offer an alliance and they are driving south, taking Hojo and Takeda provinces in their stride. Between us is the Satake clan, who, though they had been up til this time been neutral, decide to ally themselves with the Takeda. This is unacceptable to our lord and he launches an immediate attack on them. Our bold action pays off and Izu is added to our conquests.

Word reaches our lord from friends at the Imperial Court of fears in the Ashikaga Shogunate of our recent expansion. Upon hearing this, our lord orders more troops and fortifications in Owari and Mino provinces.

The barbarians offer trade several times, but, our lord having built an important monastery in Mikawa declines the offer as he apparently does not want to alienate our Buddhist followers as the monks have provided invaluable services in our victories over the Hojo and Satake. The Namban will have to seek their profits elsewhere.

Most recently, there is evidence of the cooling of the alliance with the Tsutsui. They have refused a modest request for military access. This is, perhaps, a harbinger of a future conflict.

[Diamondeye]

My first campaign is going fantastic so far! I play Chosokabe, and I started by taking over the entire island I started on (Shikoku?), destroying two minor clans and vassalizing a third who only owns the small island just east of me where you can cross the strait without ships. I've got a murderous general who I've now sent onto the Shimazu island (the Shimazu are long gone themselves); I've killed the Ito and now, I'm facing my first really challenging opponent, a really large clan who originates from the northwestern part of the main island but who've taken almost all of the Shikoku island. Luckily, they are also at war with the Matsuda clan, who own four provinces on their eastern front, so I hope they will be distracted so I can conquer the Shimazu island completely - I only just took Kagoshima from them, my first conquest in this war.

I am probably going to post some fluff text about how I see the game (in-universe fiction, or whatever you want to call it) in this forum. Just, fragments from my campaign so far.

[sassbarman]

Second go as the Mori on legendary and am loving it. I have carved out a nice little 6 province empire and am banking about $3500 a turn right now. I'm about 40 turns in and have been on the brink of defeat twice but managed to hang on by the skin of my teeth and claw my way back. It's just such a different and more rewarding experience with this game over previous CA offerings. I mean to feel a sense of accomplishment after conquering only 6 regions forty turns in says it all. Oh ya and the game looks ridiculously good. Playing a night battle during a rain storm...

[Napoleon The Emperor Of Europe]

I wonder if anyone has done the Takeda Campagin?

If so,I would love to defeat you,to stop your influence spreading on my lands.

Takeda vs Others.

[A Nerd]

I just started my first campaign as Shimazu, on easy, I know, I stink! But in reality, I just wanted to get a feel for the game before I attempt a more difficult level. I took my first castle. The siege was much more fun than in M2TW. I leveled up my first general and enjoy the rpg options available to increase his aptitude. Scouting north with a ninja to see how I will plan my next invasion. The game runs amazingly smooth on my older PC, all settings on high. All in all I am really pleased, I haven't had this much fun in quite some time. We will see how things go when I acquire a few more enemies!

[aimlesswanderer]

I started a Date campaign on H/H on fri night as soon as I installed the game.

I must say, money is a serious problem, and the 2 turns needed to train the better units makes it challenging to build up a decent army fast.

I got rid of the rebels after about 3 turns as I trained some reinforcements. A few more ashigaru and it was off to the northern Mogami province, which fell after a siege where they ran around in circles.

By this time the economy was struggling badly, and for the next 5 or so years I couldn't build a decent sized army to take on the Hatakeyama to the south. I eventually managed to take them out, then it was war with the Satake, the Hojo and the Uesugi. Struggled to defeat the large and numerous Hojo and Uesugi stacks, but gradually made my way to the Kanto.

Meanwhile, the Ito had taken Kyushu, the Amako the western third of Honshu, the Hattori the area around Kyoto, the Uesugi had 5, the Hojo 6, and the Takeda 7.

I think it's about 1568 or so, and I've managed to mostly kill off the Hojo, and the Satake and Uesugi are gone. The Takeda lost their core provinces to a new clan and moved north and west. Once I killed the new clan's main army they had 3 provinces with hardly any defenses. I've got 11 provinces, and 3 single province vassals, and 3 trade ships. Now I have enough money to field nearly 3 full stacks of good troops. I only make about 3k a turn though, and I trade with everyone who I can and am not at war with. The Amako are at Kyoto, the Ito are still on Kyushu, the Takeda, Imagawa, Tokugawa, Hojo, and Kiso are fighting over the land between me and Kyoto. Shikoku is divided amongst 3. Looks like it'll be a huge fight between me and the Amako when we eventually kill off everyone in between us.

You really need to wait till the province you want is undefended because they've sent their army off or just got attacked, as otherwise you struggle to come up with sufficient troops with your limited income.

I must say though, my family has only 5 male members, including 2 adopted, for 11 provinces. And no generals. Haven't been able to adopt one for ages. I can't even distribute all the clan offices! All good so far, but it's a bit clunky at times. Scrolling around the campaign map is slow and difficult.

[Gregoshi]

I mean to feel a sense of accomplishment after conquering only 6 regions forty turns in says it all.

In my Mori campaign I have only 4 provinces and I feel the same way. I've a sense that I will not be uniting Japan under the Mori banner, but I think I've managed to earn a line or two in the history books and that is enough for this first campaign.

[therother]

I'm Shogun and have 52/60 provinces now, so will win soon. Just mopping up Takeda in the East. I'll be moving on to top level difficulty and see how I get on... Looking forward to it!

I'm impressed.

Thanks, was quite lucky a few times, and had more than a few sticky moments (including a very impressive long range, behind the lines naval invasion of Shikoku by Imagawa after Realm Divide). Plus I think Shimazu are easier than most.

My new Very Hard (non-legendary) Shimazu game is proving even more of a challenge, and even more fun, forcing me to be more creative. Was very hard pressed at the start: thought it would be easy to take Osumi and Hyuga from Ito as it had been in the normal game, but it was a real fight: had a fair few battles where I was badly outnumbered. Managed to finally finish them off, then started some diplomatic tricks to take Higo and Bungo: got the Shoni to cut ties with the Sagara, isolating them. Declared war, having positioned my main army offshore, poised to invade. The Sagara sent two armies south to attack Satsuma, leaving Higo relatively unprotected. I sabotaged the main army led by their Daimyo, landed my army on the beach just north of Higo. The 2nd smaller army moved to intercept, but I defeated them on the beach and took the town easily. The main army then turned into Rebels, which I destroyed a couple of turns later, when my reinforcements arrived.

In the meantime, my monk had been hassling Bungo, causing two uprisings. The first was defeated, but at a heavy cost. The Shoni appeared preoccupied with their war with the Ouchi, so no reinforcements came, and when I seeded a second uprising it was successful. The rebels, however, were easy pickings. I took the province losing a couple of dozen men. Doing it this way allowed my to retain my relations with the Shoni, giving me time to make preparations to blitz them with three armies, two from Higo to take Hizen and Tsukushi, one from Bungo to take Buzen. With my agents and ships spying on their armies, I waited until their main force was out of the way so I could sabotage it and then nip in and take their provinces. Worked a charm: took Hizen and Tsukushi without much of a fight, Buzen was more tricky but I won the battle. I could then concentrate all three armies on their main force, which was outnumbered 2 to 1, they were mostly Ashigaru whereas I had mainly Samauri. Wasn't a fair fight.

They still have a couple of stacks in Suo and Nagato, so they aren't beaten yet. Currently I'm building up my armies and consolidating my gains. My plan is to mount a naval invasion of Suo and take that for myself (has horse breeders: good cavalry), then try to make the Shoni a vassal in Nagato (although it's got good soil and a port, so not quite sure yet). I'll see what my agents can do about Iwami (gold) and Aki (Hallowed Ground: good monks) but then big campaign is to take Shikoku and use that to launch an invasion of the mainland near Kyoto (good monks and ninja around there!) plus a research bonus in Settsu. Now if only I didn't have work to do!

[Wozzle]

My first campaign was on Hard with the Chokosabe (please excuse my spelling of the Japanese names. My knowledge of Japanese history before the first World War is embarrassingly low) and I had to concede defeat fairly quickly. Like others, hard campaign AI is, uh, hard!

I'm trying again on normal with a different clan (who's name escapes me at the moment. The clan with the superior Katana's) and it seems like it could go either way at the moment.

All this brings up my biggest SP complaint so far: why is there no seperate option for difficulty between campaign and battles? Hard battles and normal campaign would probably be the perfect challenge for me at this point, since I have a far better grasp on the battles than I do on the campaign.

[Gregoshi]

Wozzle, according to Jack Lusted from CA, you can change the battle AI difficulty via the game setting once you start the campaign.

[vladiator]

Playing Shimazu on Hard/Hard.

Started with a war against a minor clan, Ito, and quickly took Osumi province. Soon, they were joined by Sakara (their ally) and Shoni (another clan on the same island, which attacked me, Ito and Sakara!), and I was soon fighting against three clans. Although I was winning battles, I could not take any other provinces. Shoni, another clan on the same island (or is it a peninsula?), was, however, more agressive than me and soon took over all provinces from Ito and Sakara, destroying them in the process.

Owing to Shoni's might, I thought it would not be prudent of me to continue fighting them. I offered them peace and trade agreement. Since I was actually winning battles against them and was giving them a lot of grief, and because they had another war going against Mori, they accepted my proposals.

So there I was, sitting with two provinces at the bottom of Japan, cut off from the rest of the world by mighty Shoni clan. For a number of years, I simply developed my provinces, my arts and my strength. I concluded a number of trade agreements, but had no allies.

All these years, Shoni's strenght have only been increasing. They were extending north and took a number of provinces from Mori. Their attitude towards me was "friendly".

Since they were stronger and more prosperous than me, I was a bit worried about attacking them. However, I finally saw my chance when most of their armies were committed against Mori outside my island (peninsula?) and their towns were left badly protected.

Hence, after all these years of waiting, I finally backstabbed Shoni by declaring war and taking Hogi. Unfortunately, I did not take advantage of their forces being so stretched and did not blitz through their territory. This gave Shoni time to destroy Mori and concentrate on me. We fought great many battles with great losses of lives on both sides. It took me many years to take another 3 territories from them.

By that time, 2 other minor clans ('minor' only in name -- their respective strengths are "terrifying" and "mighty") declared war on me. Not willing to be too stretched out, I offered Shoni peace, my alliance and trade agreement, and Shoni happily accepted it. By that time, Shoni lost almost all its territories, and only had 2 provinces remaining on my island/peninsula.

So far, I only fought 2 defensive battles against those new enemies, and I won both of them.

Everything was looking well, until Chosokabe, a mightly clan which was in war with Shoni, suddenly landed a full stack of troops on my island and destroyed Shoni in 2-3 turns by taking the remaining 2 provinces from them. At first Chosokabe were "very friendly" to me, but recently I received a message saying that it is possible that they will attempt to use my current situation and attack me. Their attitude towards me has changed to "indifferent", and I consider the war to be imminent.

So, it looks like soon I will be fighting against 3 very strong enemies. I need an additional army to fight Chosokabe, and I need to think hard about its composition (I looked at Chosokabe's full stack and it consists almost entirely of Bow Samurais). The future looks very uncertain and very interesting.

Oh, and I haven't lost a single battle in my whole campaign yet! :)

BTW, now is a year 1570.

[Wozzle]

Wozzle, according to Jack Lusted from CA, you can change the battle AI difficulty via the game setting once you start the campaign.

!!! Now that is good news! That is my biggest issue with single player right now! Yay! Still, not sure why they would hide it away, but as long as it's there. I'm off to change my campaign right now! Thanks!

[knoddy]

Second campaign,

Shimazu on H/H

Took all of the island i start on, allied with chosokabe(sp) who own their whole island. took my war to the mainland, took out a few minor clans, kept spreading forward with some full stacks of upgraded units. conqoured all the way to kyoto, and took it im now shogun, bout 100 turns thru my camp, have like 25 provinces. its a domination campaign so ive still got a long way to go.

Im liking it very much so far, had my fully ranked up ninja assassin roamin the land slaughtering generals, and now im ranking up a metsuke who is 1 rank off max. i like that the agents change appearance, when they get to the higher ranks.

the main powers left in my camp, are me, the chosokabe, the hojo, the hattori, and the tuistuis( or w/e that minor clan is) im allied to hojo and chosokabe and havnt had the realm divide event yet.

i like the fact that the AI is much more open to negotiations if they are getting thouroughly beaten, altho this can be exploited. if found it was possible to declare war, steal a few provinces then get them to agree to peace a few turns later before they can muster any real force in opposition.

all in all tho im very happy with the game.

[Naughtius Maximus]

Won the game as the Tokugawa, summer of 1598. I have much to learn with this game; looking forward to some good reality-based mods.

I thought that the arts took too long to accumulate; I didn't even get to the point where I had Teppo Ashigaru. All in all, it was a very challenging campaign, even on N/N. We are pleased.