How is your first campaign going?

[Leptomeninges]

My second stab at a Shimazu campaign is going well.

I have just taken complete control of Kyushu, it was made easy by the sargara actually going to war with another clan nearby! I now have 3 of the main trade routes with a healthy stack of trade ships on each so money is flowing in. The trouble is diplomacy is awkward for me with so many clans being indifferent and also refusing to accept trade agreements. Still have more to learn but I seem to be in a strong position to expand.

So now I am pondering my next step.

I may post an AAR when I'm done with my current long/hard Shimazu campaign. I've done several "sandbox-style" reloads trying different things and have a much better sense of what works as Shimazu (for me anyway).

As it relates to getting people to accept trade agreements, I'd recommend paying them. Sometimes their attitudes towards you will mellow over time and it's possible that they'll ask you for trade agreements that they won't accept now, but bear in mind that there is also an economic benefit also to having longer-term trade agreements as well as the opportunity cost of unused trade capacity. They may also get their own trade capacity locked up by smaller players if you miss your window. I'd just pay up front to get agreements with the bigger players.

As it relates to the question of "where to?" I'll offer the following two cents:

First of all, I'd try to maintain a land bridge to your expansion next expansion. Or minimally, you want a short naval hop. I think the realm divide is difficult with remote empire outposts.

The most important province types on the mainland are crafts and smithing. If you look at a resource map, you'll see that the developers likely agree. In distinction to other resource types which are scattered almost haphazardly around the map, crafts and smithing in particular have an almost geometric symmetry to their placement. There are two key reasons why these provinces are so important. One is that ultimately, these are the troop production provinces. And troops obviously win wars. The other reason is that these provinces will end up as defensive strong points by virtue of development. There is really no reason to build large cities in other provinces. You can't really build an, "economic powerhouse" city by making your castle bigger, and defensive cities built for no other purpose than to boast a large castle are typically wasted expenditures.

To sum up: you want to look at Bizen, Hoki, and Iwami (the greatest wealth capacity province in the game.) Depending on the length of the campaign you're playing you may or may not be able to get these before realm divide. In a long campaign (divide generally around 18 provinces) it's easy to get them all. In a short campaign (divide generally around 15 provinces) you'll have to develop a more creative patchwork of provinces.

[Leptomeninges]

In case anyone is interested, I started an AAR of my Shimazu game in the AAR forum.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...post2053292713

[Gregoshi]

In case anyone is interested, I started an AAR of my Shimazu game in the AAR forum.

I've added a link to your AAR in the stickied Shogun 2 AAR thread. Thank you for doing this.

[Leptomeninges]

Thank you!

I posted a second installment. I'm certainly no Shogun expert, but I've had a fun game and it's enjoyable to play a bit of show and tell ;)

[Rothe]

A few days ago I just won my first campaign (long H/H) with the Chosokabe. The endgame was pretty easy, although the beginning and just after the divide were a bit tough.

I managed to keep the Date as my ally for the whole game, which helped a lot since I could trade with them.
I am not sure if I can get the statistics back from the game, but I remember my total earned koku was about 3 million, of which over 2.5M went to unit upkeep :)

My final tax collection was around 27000 koku per turn, trade was something like 8k if I remember it right. I played the "surplus" tactic on economy, and my food surplus was 39 at game end.

Next I am going to play as the Shimazu and see if I can play without using too many archers. My "house rule" will be that I don't use samurai/monk archers at all, but lets see if that works out.

[AussieGiant]

I'm 50 odd turns into a Date campaign on N/N. I'm struggling. I just go beaten in a straight fight with a half stack on half stack open plain battle. My economy is only producing about 1000 koku per turn surplus. I have 4 provinces and about 4 trade agreements. I'm finding the sea battles easier than the land battles!! 12 years of a Total War games and I really feel like I'm missing something in how I'm handling the Clan!! :) LOVE IT!!

[Ituralde]

Don't worry about it. My first land battle on N/N with even numbers was an unmitigated disaster, which eventually cost me my home province. But I stayed in the game and am now on the cusp of grabbing the title of Shogun. Just hadn't had any time to play further yet. Love the challenge as well!

[AussieGiant]

Don't worry about it. My first land battle on N/N with even numbers was an unmitigated disaster, which eventually cost me my home province. But I stayed in the game and am now on the cusp of grabbing the title of Shogun. Just hadn't had any time to play further yet. Love the challenge as well!

Ituralde, good to see you again and thanks for the information.

[GeneralHankerchief]

I have a paper due in 7 hours. So naturally here I am talking about my campaign.

First one I took a crack at was a Hojo, N/N. About ten turns in and both my daimyo and general are dead. I now have zero army leaders. Didn't feel like waiting around and getting slaughtered, so I reset.

My next/current campaign is a N/N Shimazu effort that I went nice and easy with. Unified my island without any major problems, though I probably could have done it faster. Spent about 10 turns building up armies and I eventually made a simultaneous push to get a toehold onto Honshu as well as send an army out to conquer Shikoku. The good news is, since the Chosukabe were also making a push onto the mainland, Shikoku was relatively undefended and I was able to take several cities without much of a problem. The bad news is... the Chosukabe were focused on Honshu. After I took two of their Honshu cities, they sent this massive archer-heavy army out at me and summarily took one of their cities back without much of a problem, never mind that I had my highest-quality army inside that city. This was easily the worst city-defense loss I have ever experienced in my Total War career when I had some semblance of an army inside.

I was able to regroup and push the Chosukabe back, finally defeating them without having to face that super-army of theirs again. But that war was a costly one, and as it happens the last city I conquered was my 16th province, hence the Shogun finally getting fed up with me and declaring war. I now face a situation where all of Japan is bearing down upon on me, with slightly less than two battle-ready armies, and I still haven't even unified all of Shikoku yet. Oh, and my starting island isn't even a troop factory yet, because I set it up to be economy-based and that did me a lot of good considering how I'm only breaking even. This is going to be a grind, but I'm pumped for it.

...on second thought, I may just eschew sleep tonight and keep playing as soon as I finish that paper.

[Monk]

...on second thought, I may just eschew sleep tonight and keep playing as soon as I finish that paper.

Just like the old days huh? That's the spirit!

Don't worry about it. My first land battle on N/N with even numbers was an unmitigated disaster, which eventually cost me my home province. But I stayed in the game and am now on the cusp of grabbing the title of Shogun. Just hadn't had any time to play further yet. Love the challenge as well!

Heh, i'm almost afraid N/N will feel too easy after so long on H/H. I dont want to lose that intense challenge, but i just might have to downgrade. Some of the eastern Honshu clans are down right murderous in difficulty.

[Zim]

Not my first campaign, but the first to get anywhere. After having one game where I ran out of time while being nowhere near becoming Shogun (Chosokabe N/N), a couple non starters (Oda and Date, the latter on H/H, not sure about former's difficulty) I started with the Hojo on N/N. It's been a bumpy ride. After some initial expansion against minor clans (and an alliance with the Togugawa and Takeda) I ended up way over my head in a war against two of the northern minors, having to pay a hefty tribute to keep from being destroyed. One of those minors then proceeded to be cut apart by the Togugawa and Takeda, and after a hostage I sent the minor had returned, I grabbed a few provinces off of them.

Since then I've been laying low, getting provinces when I can and trading as much as I can (although I only grabbed two nodes in time). Twice I've been threatened by much bigger clans. First the Tokugawa (who paid for their treachery when they gained a few two many enemies) and much more recently by the Hattori who had replaced them. I ground a couple of their armies against my castles (with very heavy losses) and managed to take territory from them and secure a favorable peace deal.

Here's a slightly out of date map. I now also own the two Hattori provinces west of my border with them. I'm at 12 provinces and starting to worry about the Realm Divide. I've only managed so far because my enemies have bitten off more than they could chew. If I hit the Realm Divide anytime soon I'll be in trouble, being surrounded on all but my sea side by large clans. I also made some early mistakes. I didn't get most of the trade nodes in time and I built up my castles not thinking of how important surplus food was. Right now I have no surplus and I'm working on researching terraced fields, and trading with almost everybody while I prepare.



Most frightening surprise of the game: When the Hattori first went to war with me they struck at one of my vulnerable provinces behind our border. Not by sea (although I've seen AI factions do that to eachother this game) but by marching right around my heavily defended border castle. I was barely able to hold them off (their army was high on yaris, low on bowmen) but it was quite a shock.

Most pleasant surprise so far: I had a Daimyo's widow as regent for some time and didn't think anything of it. Finally, when my best general was getting delusions of grandeur and his loyalty hit rock bottom I decided to name him heir. Instant Daimyo with honor through the roof from so many heroic victories. Most of my generals are above full loyalty now and Daimyo honor is +4.

[Marshall Louis-Nicolas Davout]

I've had the most epic campagin ever,playing as the Takeda on H/H.

Right now,I've conqerued all the lands,well Kyoto is in my hands,Uesgai are gone,Noto,echizen,and many others are now under my rule,But I need help,My allies the Hojo dont like me,since they destroyed my enemies the Date,and they will declare war on me,and take my provinces,I dont have enough armies in Kai and other places,And the imagawa are crushed by The Tokugawa,Whom I have been winning battles excellently,could someone help me out here?

[Leptomeninges]

I started a Uesugi VH/VH/L game over the weekend and pretty much stopped playing my Shimazu H/H/L game. Mopping up the victory provinces got boring once I had realm divide under control. The Uesugi campaign has been pretty crazy so far. If it starts to seem like I have a shot at a win or even if it just maintains its current interest level for a while I may post an AAR. It has been a wild ride. Unfortunately work is busier than ever and is putting a serious crimp on my gaming time!

[Monk]

I started a Uesugi VH/VH/L game over the weekend and pretty much stopped playing my Shimazu H/H/L game. Mopping up the victory provinces got boring once I had realm divide under control. The Uesugi campaign has been pretty crazy so far. If it starts to seem like I have a shot at a win or even if it just maintains its current interest level for a while I may post an AAR. It has been a wild ride. Unfortunately work is busier than ever and is putting a serious crimp on my gaming time!

Ah a shame! In any event, looking forward to hearing more about the Uesugi. I've not had the courage to make it out of turn 10 with them yet. Hopefully you've done much better than I

Right now,I've conqerued all the lands,well Kyoto is in my hands,Uesgai are gone,Noto,echizen,and many others are now under my rule,But I need help,My allies the Hojo dont like me,since they destroyed my enemies the Date,and they will declare war on me,and take my provinces,I dont have enough armies in Kai and other places,And the imagawa are crushed by The Tokugawa,Whom I have been winning battles excellently,could someone help me out here?

Sounds like a great campaign Takeda, don't think you require any help at all!

[Marshall Louis-Nicolas Davout]

Ah a shame! In any event, looking forward to hearing more about the Uesugi. I've not had the courage to make it out of turn 10 with them yet. Hopefully you've done much better than I



Sounds like a great campaign Takeda, don't think you require any help at all!

You dont understand,the Hojo rule a vast amount of land,Date is destroyed,Kai does not have enough armies,neither does Shinano province.

How to face the Hojo,I dont know..

I'll get a screenshot to show you,once I know how to put it here

[GeneralHankerchief]

Update on my Shimazu N/N effort: The grind is finished. Kyoto was taken on Turn 103; the game ended on Turn 107. This was a short campaign, mind you. Basically I just kept hammering away - take a province, hold it, bleed out the nearest enemy, resupply, and then move forward one province. Repeat as necessary. Eventually I was able to get financially above water enough to construct a third army, and I worked it so that all three armies would converge upon Kyoto for the final battle. It was... really bloody, to say the least.

I aim to put this campaign very much behind me - if I can barely survive a short campaign on Normal difficulty with one of the easiest factions in the game, it's clear that I have a bit of work to do mastering this game. May start my next campaign with a more centralized province.

[jackie_fish]

my first campaing was on vh and i was out within the 15 turns was expecting the new Ai but now i have come to learn more about it, its not so hard

[Azi Tohak]

Kicking ass and taking names, playing as the Shimazu (N/N). I did my homework before the game so I know the importance of farms, and I've never been in negative revenue. Realm Divide surprised me with when it hit, but thanks to the few turns it took for it to matter, I was able to prepare. The Mori finally stabbed me in the back by attacking one of my vassals, but I've been crushing them ever since, with two and a half full strength field armies in and around Owari keeping the Takeda at bay. I haven't taken Kyoto yet, but I will soon. I love it.

[econ21]

My Oda campaign is progressing well. Realm divide broke out with my realm scattered into three parts - the main part centred on the Oda heartlands, a coastal strip covering the old Mori starting area (wanted a smith) and a toehold in the Shimazu starting province (got a mission to beat up Christians and anyway wanted a port to help secure the trade nodes there). I wasn't sure I could survive with such a ridiculously divided realm, but it looks like I may.

In part thanks to monks fermenting unrest, Kyushu is neutralised and my army there is trying to backfill west from my holdings of previously Mori lands.

Enemy armies are rampaging around my central homelands, but not in large stacks yet. The eastern tip of those lands - the gold rich Izu - heroically held, leading to a peasant joining the ranks of my generals, and I will retake my Confucian academy at Suruga.

But the flashpoint is just west of Kyoto. Three Ashina armies are besieging Settsu, defended by a full stack of peasants and a 5 star general of questionable loyalty. He is a night fighter and I have a mission to beat the Ashina daimyo in battle, but even if my peasants can attack and defeat his Samurai in open battle (highly questionable), they won't be enough left to hold Settsu against the other two stacks. My Daimyo's army is also west of Kyoto, but has been conquering the provinces north of my coastal strip. He probably should turn south to try to get to Settsu but I am not sure he will make it. If not relieved, it will fall in two turns.

This is the best single player TW campaign I have ever fought - normally, I give up mid-game as it gets too easy and/or tedious.

[HopAlongBunny]

First Black Screen o'Death.

2 full stacks of mine vs a half stack of foes + a "surprise" half stack of reinforcements.

First off, what a mess! I've got so many Icons on the bottom of the screen that they are meaningless.

I move my first army; grp and start my second army in motion; all good so far. Some of mine appeared on map but not in my organizing space, nm click on them grp them, when i let game run again => BSD; first time with that on a TW title.

Just as well in any case...I hate large battles :p

[Ituralde]

Sounds like you're having a blast econ21. How did you manage to get so many diverse and interesting missions. I can't remember when I got my last one in the current campaign. I think it was in the beginning and asked me to conquer any province. Maybe they'll crop up more often in a Long campaign. I'll find out once the Uesuge have become Shogun!

[Azi Tohak]

First campaign was really easy. The 2nd has been a real pain. I didn't blitz fast enough to conquer Shikoku quickly and the Sanuki tribe gutted my clan, killing my Daimyo and another general in open battle. It's been hard, but rewarding.

[Ituralde]

For those interested. I finally finished my very first campaign!

Yeah I know, RL is a b**** and I got sidetracked a little by playing Multiplayer instead of finishing up my campaign.
In the end it was quite easy to conquer Kyoto. My earlier investment in infrastructure had paid off and I was making 3000 to 5000 koku while maintaining roughly four decent armies. The Date betrayed me in the end, but since I had prepared for it I could hold them in the North. The Ashikaga were helpful enough in attacking my besieging forces, so that I met minimal resistance when finally conquering Kyoto. The following year saw three defences of Kyoto, but nothing serious.

Liked the end movie by the way.
Now on to my Chosokabe campaign. Only question remaining: Hard or Very Hard Difficulty?

[econ21]

Congratulations on the victory, Ituralde!

In the end it was quite easy to conquer Kyoto. My earlier investment in infrastructure had paid off ...

Yes, my first campaign (Oda) ended similarly - because I had spent quite some time with my empire just below the realm event trigger, building up infrastructure, I could ride it out surprisingly easy. Only a strong faction near Kyoto was able to challenge me with about 4 full stacks grouped together but having a night fighter general and using ninjas sabotaging armies, I was able to dismember the army group. I think it would have been much more challenging (probably impossible) if I had not paused prior to realm divide as my lands were very disperse and my military small.

The conclusion was a little anticlimatic, as I had Kyoto and almost all the provinces I neeed, was militarily supreme in Japan and thought the game over. But then incrementally, my new (post RD) vassals started defecting and my ally Chosokabe turned on me, so my provinces started slipping through my fingers. My armies had to run round Japan stamping out fires, rather than waging war and I confess I started to autoresolve to get to see the end movie. (I do like how autoresolve seems "fair" this time and not punitive on the player.)

Now on to my Chosokabe campaign. Only question remaining: Hard or Very Hard Difficulty?

I feel I have to go to VH campaigns but confess it seems too daunting for me as Takeda (the faction I want to try next). However, I've been inspired by S2TW to try to get RTW and M2TW working on my new computer (one with Windows 7) and finally managed it (installing outside of program_files and cleaning the registery of failed installs seems to have been the key), so I am now distracted by EB. (That mod used to CTD too much for me, but my new computer seems to have solved that as well as get rid of the slowdown during the AI turns.) I will have to man up and get back to STW2, but my heart will always be with the Romans.

[thirdangletheory]

Playing N/N with the Shimazu. I took the province directly east of me like my advisor recommended, though I was bloodied a bit more than I'd have liked. Spent several turns rebuilding my forces, training new soldiers for a further push into Ito lands to the north, and encouraging my economy. Got a couple of trade ships going but was a bit suprised that the port directly to my south was already claimed by another clan located somewhere to the center of the Japan. Ito counterattacked during this downtime which increased my retraining time slightly but they were easily defeated. Eventually, I was ready to conquer Ito once and for all and started marching north. About halfway there the province I was marching on was captured by another clan to the north and my forces were sent back to my territory.

Now I had a choice: declare war on this new clan (who were ambitious and unfriendly, according to their info panel) or continue to build my forces. My economy was decent, however the fairly large army I was fielding drained a significant portion, so I decided to put them to use. Unfortunately this new clan was easily able to defeat my forces during the resulting seige, and I am stuck with just 2 provinces, and army in shambles, and an aggressive clan to the north. Not a good situation.

I think I will restart the campaign and be a little more aggressive with Ito instead of holding back for so long.

[Gregoshi]

Don't give up thirdangletheory! See if you can salvage the situation. Just think how glorious the campaign victory will be if you can turn things around.

[thirdangletheory]

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm still learning Shogun 2 and some of the replies in this thread seem to indicate expansion is a lot harder in this game than others in the series. I would probably learn the most if I just sit down and power through it. Maybe some browsing of the strategy section would help too. :)

[Gregoshi]

That's the fightin' spirit!

[Andres]

Well, my first campagin was as the Chosokabe, N/N. It went well and it didn't take me too long to conquer the island I started on and a few provinces on the mainland. Then I got this crazy idea to build up castles and to build a large army to march on Kyoto. Who said that doing that with only 6 or 7 provinces is a bad idea? I never got to it, since all my provinces started to rebel, because of lack of food. Apparently, the bigger the castle, the more food needed. I was broke, my large army was expensive, so no money to build farms. In short: I wasted a lot of time. I could have disbanded about half of my armies, oppress the rebellions and slowly started to build farm upgrades, but I didn't want to go through the hassle, so I started again as the Date.

So far, it has been great fun. Early on, I lost my daimyo and all my generals, except for one brother (my best general) in an epic battle against a minor clan (Satomi?). My daimyo's wife became regent. The one remaining brother had "delusions of grandeur", so I decided to send his army to finish of those Satomi. He was seriously outnumbered, but managed to win the battle. He died an heroic death. That'll teach him! Delusions of grandeur, ha!

After that battle, I got a message that some low samurai had distinguished himself and blahblahblah. I promoted the man to general and he conquered province after province for the Date clan. In the meanwhile, I got opportunities to hire some more generals. The late Daimyo's son still didn't come of age when he was 19. His mother was doing a great job and managed to establish peace with all clans and to form an alliance with the Takeda, the Hojo and a minor clan (Sagetake?). The Hojo broke their alliance and I used the opportunity to declare war on them and to destroy them (and to take that province of theirs with that shiny gold mine). The general leading the campaign against the Hojo was again the man who started as a low samurai.

Then I remembered how Toyotomi Hideyoshi took power after his master Oda Nobunaga had died and I figured, why not do something similar? The low samurai who got promoted to general when our clan was without leaders, was now a four star general. Half of my empire consist of provinces conquered by him. I made him my heir and he instantly became the new daimyo. Thanks to his 4 command stars, he has high honour and my generals suddenly became much more loyal.

I'm now very close to the Realm Divide event and am building up my armies and developping my provinces how I want them to be.

If things go well, the former lowly samurai will soon become shogun.

I've never written an AAR, but this campaign has been so interesting with lots of drama, that I might write an AAR about it one day.

A pity RL doesn't allow me to play more. It's been ages since I've had so much fun with a game.