Mongol Invasion Campaign

[Drisos]

Turn #33:

They give up in Awa.
Loyalty in Kyushu is staying perfectly fine.
And my army in Nagato has grown. I don't think it'll be easy to conquer anymore.

Turn #34:

Kyushu is now cleared of all armies. Because of that, I have quite some troops in Shikoku. Moving some korean inf. into Awa, and attacking Sanuki with my 'elite army'.

[Drisos]

Turn #35:

They give up in Sanuki. Conquered Shikoku in very few time, and loyalty is 'Green' as you can you see. Seems like the campaign's progress is going lots faster now. I still don't dare to move my Iwami army though.
I'm now thinking of invading Iga. They have a castle there and at least 1 dojo, because they're training troops. I don't want to devide my 'Central-Japan-Army' into too small parts, but they don't seem to bring in reinforcements anyway.

Turn #36:

Nothing happens, except for:
Attacking Iga now:

[Drisos]

Turn #37:

Wicked! Reinforcements in Noto and Dewa. In Dewa a 180-men Rebel army decides to defend. Hopeless. I have 240 Heavy Cavalry, and easily defeat the with a simple frontal charge. Lost only 1, killed 178. Dewa's mine.
In Noto it's only thunderbombers and 'Korean Naginata'. Too few to keep loyalty high enough. So, I have them all move to Sado, and send in some reinforcements from Dewa. Sado has no army, but I just want to have enough men to keep up the loyalty. So, I'll have Dewa and Sado in the north, Wakasa, Yamashiro in Central Japan, and the entire islands Kyushu and Shikoku.

Iga loyalty is questionable. However, revolts are unlikely. I hope the Hojo/Rebels attack Noto, btw. Otherwise revolts will give Hojo more troops.

[Drisos]

Turn #38:

Loyalties in Shikoku are high enough... I'm lowering armies from 180 men to 120 men. Attacking Bizen with my 'elite army' now.

As you can see, Noto is still mine. Though loyalty is below 50%, no revolt yet. Probably next turn.
Iga, Sado and Dewa are all 'yellow'.

[Drisos]

Turn #39:

They gave up on Bizen.
Still no revolt in Noto. For a moment I considered moving in some troops to ensure loyalty. But that might bring Sado/Dewa in danger. Best not try.
No further movements/events.

Turn #40:

Iga, Sado and Dewa are 'Green' now. The Hojo attacked Noto so I actually lost it without revolt. Good.
No further movements/events.

Turn #41:

More good news, more reinforcements arrived in Chikuezen en Hizen.

Wow! Their second big attack on Iwami! Quite similar to the last one: 720 vs. 2140. Let's hope my best is good enough, once again.

My deploy, roughly similar to the first big battle in Iwami:



...

They move to my flank, instead of attacking from the front. I rotate to keep facing them. So, we're about to engage here:



...

On the right flank I used 3 units of HC to sandwich a unit of YC and a unit of CA. Here, the YC are already routing. The CA will soon follow. But enemy YS are closing in. I will have to hurry. Even worse, I may be too late to avoid engagement already.



...

Gah, I wasn't paying attention. Got caught on the right flank anyway. However, their YS are routing now, and the rest of his army is exposed to my 3 units of HC. Hehe.

Left flank, a unit of YC closed in. I caught them with a unit of 'Korean Naginata'(Someone please tell me the correct name for those! ) and attacked them in the rear with a unit of HC. They rout. Here too, YS are engaging. I rush in a unit of Light Cavalry to finish them soon. Don't want to take too much cavalry losses.



Feeling like a great charge now would rout all remaining enemies. They won't get within shooting range of my Skirmishers anymore anyway.

...

Some of his ranged units already started to rout.. time for a mass charge:



...

Soon enough, their entire army routs. Soon later, most of them are killed. More good news: I trap the Hojo Daimyo, and he also is killed in battle.

Chasing the last infantry down with some HC:



...

Totally destroyed 1st wave. I'm regrouping on the same hill, while Hojo reinforcements appear on the edges of the map.



...

Their reinforcements are simply slaughtered one by one. Too bad though, time runs out before I can slaughter most. Still got a lot of kills though:



Ah. This gives my some breath in the West.

[Wasp]

Almost there, Drisos!

[Drisos]

Turn #42:

His last family memeber appears to be in Harima.
No really important/exciting events/movements.

Turn #43:

I decrease the army size in the Shikoku Regions, move some infantry into Buzen, and attack Mimasaka with the army from Buzen. Mimasaka has a large castle and at least a few dojo's. (The Hojo starts with that.) It'll be a nice and easy target.

[Drisos]

Turn #44:

A Ninja makes an attempt on my rank1 general in Dewa. Failed.
The Hojo give up on Mimasaka. Another 1K+ Koku for me.

Their armies in the north and centre are increasing. (Echigo, Noto, Omi, Mino, etc) I hope they don't grow large enough to attack before I can get some reinforcements to back my armies up.

Turn #45:

No really important/exciting events/movements at all.

Turn #46:

No really important/exciting events/movements at all.

Turn #47:

Intresting. Another Ninja appeared in Dewa. This time succes, my general was murderder. But weird is: I got the movie for an ordinary general being killed in a field camp. (You're supposed to get a movie with a mongolian field camp where the ninja kills the general that's sleeping in a chair?)

Furthermore, no intresting events/movements...

Turn #48:

No really important/exciting events/movements at all.
The Hojo's armies are growing and growing while I keep waiting for those blasted reinforcements..

Turn #49:

Gathering my Shikoku troops(korean infantry) for an attack on Awaji.
Furthermore.. nothing intresting.

Turn #50:

About time for some action. Invading Harima and Awaji now.

[Drisos]

Turn #51:

They give up in both regions.
Time for more action. Attacking Suo from Iwami, with my entire army.

[Drisos]

Turn #52:

Suo: 781 vs. 1045.
Light Rain.

Got my army into order and moved forward. Both armies on a hill now, neither dares to move, I guess.



He's moving forward 1 unit of SA. Weird. I'll be able to destroy it with some cav if it keeps closing in. On my right flank there's also a 1-man unit of Cavalry. that one might be useful in messing up their situation/position/formation.

...

Killed that unit. Yet, I lay under heavy fire. Killed 1 unit of SA, lost 9 cavalry. I'm not sure if that's a good deal.

He's moving more archers forward now. Might go for a charge with my light cavalry this time.



...

As said, I used the light cavalry this time. Couldn't chase those archers down to the last man, as his YS were close behind. I'm rushing back. Battle will be easy when the enemy has no ranged.



...

Their yari's went after my cavalry, soon to be shot down. My skirmishers got in a few shots as well.

The rest of their army seems to be retreating. Time for a charge.



...

Gah! Timing wasn't good. Lost too many in short engagement. Winning battle though.



...

After a lucrative chase, battle was over. No sign of their reinforcements. Victory.



So, the rest of them is trapped in the castle and will die soon. Severe blom to their troop amount in Southern Honshu.
Looks like the ball is rolling now... attacking Aki this turn:

[Martok]

Interesting, Drisos. What's the overall composition of the enemy's army?

[Drisos]

Hey Martok,

They had it organised well, two main lines, first one SA and Ashigaru Crossbowmen, second one mainly YS. (they had one unit of YA)

However, instead of staying on the hill, waiting for me, he had his archers butchered, and then messed up formation of the rest of his army, so it was an easy target for a Cavalry-Sandwich.

*****

Turn #53:

They didn't give up on Aki. Some reinforcements showed up by the port(they had rebuilt it), and it was about 360 vs. 330. Easy though. I had only cavalry. Enemy was hiding in a forest, yet, moving my units in and out of their range, the SA come out and I could engage them outside of the forest. Then, the rest of his army came to attack me, but the cavalry was too fast. Their main position was 'sandwiched' and soon routed. The rest routed along pretty soon. Killed 280, lost 28.

No further movements/events.

Turn #54:

Gah! All of a sudden, Awa, Iyo, and Satsuma have turned yellow. Seems unlikely that this is the work of Shinobi, since I have no ports in Kyushu. (I don't have any ports, of course) And the surrounding regions aren't affected. I should keep an eye on this. Moving 60 men into Awa for now.

Attacking, Bingo, btw. The men in the Suo castle are already dead.

[Drisos]

Turn #55:

It may be a shinobi after all. Now Bungo turned yellow. Iyo and Awa are back Green.

In Bingo, another small fight. However, they retreat at the start of battle. My cav get in there fast enough to chase some down, however, they also take a few losses. killed 128, lost 8. Good news though, the general is now 4 star. I have a Light Cavalry unit with honour 6 now.

Btw, where are all those reinforcements I should get? I've been conquering and earning money a lot lately...

Turn #56:

Gah, another death in the north. Now my general in Sado was killed. He was 0 star anyway.. but annoying still.

More attacks... Now invading Bitchu and Kawachi.

Turn #57:

W00t. Reinforcements. Few though. I don't understand one bit of this system.

First battle, Hoki, 120 (reinforcements) vs. 120 Hojo.
Easy. They only have AC. I simply charge with my 60 light cavalry. killed 113, lost 14.

Second battle, Bitchu. Another very easy one. They have ranged only.. I simply cross the bridge and engage. Killed 215, lost 4.

The Hojo attacked Bizen... and I had nothing there. Lost the region. I should take it back right away to prevent them from walking into Shikoku. Btw, I abandoned it because I thought Bitchu was begin conquered, so there were no neighbouring Hojo regions anymore.

Third battle, Inaba. 100 (reinforcements) vs. 114 Hojo.
Once again, AC only. One unit of HC does the job. Killed 93, lost 7.

Fourth battle, Kawachi. 300 vs. 271. May be hard.
First I try the 'bait' trick with a unit of korean infantry. Yet, his YS don't come to chase me away. The ranged fire does so instead. gah. Then I simply crossed the bridge with my cav. Easy win, but their YS killed quite some. Killed 240, lost 53.

Fifth battle, Wakasa. They're attacking from Mino and Omi. 200 vs. 600.
Damn, this will be hard. Koreans only. 1 unit of all four kinds. May be intresting. I pick a minor hill far away from their deploy area... they'll be tired when they get here.
Gah. Too many AC. I managed to destroy a unit of YC and a unit of YS. (love the thunderbombers. ) But then I was almost surrounded by AC. In attempt to pull off a mass rout on them I actually pulled a mass rout on myself, lol. Good kills ratio still though, 125 vs. 53.
So, my forces retreat to Yamashiro. I should be able to hold on to that, now.

Furthermore, I'm moving 60 men into Sanuki from Awaji, to block the Hojo in Bizen. And I'm attacking them with 120 Light Cavalry from Bitchu. Moving some troops around in an attempt to keep loyalty everywhere. (Inaba and Hoki are red now)

See for yourself

[Martok]

Yikes! I see you've been busy. You're going to try and retake Bizen, then?

[Drisos]

Turn #58:

Bizen was easy, of course. Killed 82, lost 10.

Hard to keep all regions happy. I hope I won't get any revolts...

Turn #59:

Can't say that I'm satisfied with the way things are going. Conquering a lot, but barely have enough men to keep the loyalty up. I haven't had any proper reinforcements in ages.
Can't do more right now than keep armies moving to the right places to prevent revolts or attacks from Hojo... it's hard though.

Turn #60:

Things start looking better. No red anymore. Any help at all from Mongolia would be appreciated though.

Btw, the Rebels and Hojo are in a tough war in the North! Seems like the Rebels are causing them serious trouble, and probably they're really decreasing their income this way. Rebels control Echigo and Mutsu now, and as far as I can know, I think they have at least Kozuke and Hitachi as well.

[Drisos]

Turn #61:

Good news and bad news. Finally some reinforcements. Not as much as would be logic. (I got more with less conquered money earlier in the game... weird) But, still good news. They arrived in Inaba.

Bad news... they're attacking Yamashiro. I should've known. Well, I'll make the best of it. it's 360 vs. 681. Not even 2 to 1... should be doable. Hehe.

Wow. Went well. Shot down their 2 units of YS with my skirmishers, and then created a mass rout of hundreds of AC with only three units of light cavalry. Chased down almost all. Killed 675, lost 23.

Weird. Almost all of Kyushu and Shikoku turned yellow now. I'm rushing in some Korean Spear Infantry.

While my lands in Honshu were suddenly green... loyalty is shifting back and forth...

Ahem. On the attack, once again. Izumo, Tajima and Tamba all in the same turn.

Turn #62:

First battle: Izumo - 420 vs. 301.
Easy one. They have ranged inf and YC only. My HC charges in and routes most of their ranged. They YC manage to get a few kills with a good flanking move, yet they're soon overrun. (I actually used korean spear infantry in this battle! I rarely do. )
Killed 279, lost 14.

Second battle: Tajima - 420 vs. 420.
Gah. Took too many losses, my own fault. My growing arrogance is causing problems. I thought some YS in the forest would rout when I'd attack them from all sides, but no. They killed quite a lot. I made it up though by killing them to the last man. Killed 420, lost 60.

There was no army in Tamba, so, that's mine too.

Unfortunately, the Hojo Daimyo fled into Wakasa. He must have foreseen this.

Hehe. I'm going to use all those Korean Spear Infantry to get 60 men in all regions I conquered so far. I wonder if I even had enough of those. Well, if I even get close, I can move them around now and then, I'll get more insurance that the lands I leave behind will stay mine...

Attacking Wakasa now... let's keep pressure on the Hojo.

[Drisos]

Turn #63:

They give up on Wakasa.
Moving around a lot to keep loyalty... but no important events...

Turn #64:

Loyalty in Kyushu is really becoming threatening. I don't understand. What could trigger this? It was perfectly fine for a while, then starting decreasing again?

Nothing interesting happening, btw...

Turn #65:

In Kyushu regions are yellow even with 60 men in each region. Frustrating.

Also, some more reinforcements would be nice.

I can't do anything but move around and prevent revolts... Hojo is gaining more strength again, of course.

Turn #66:

Ok, things are improving. No more red. Still, I'm not going to conquer more. Again, where are those blasted reinforcements?

Turn #67:

Nothing intresting/important happening.

Turn #68:

Nothing intresting/important happening.

Turn #69:

Reinforcements in Wakasa. Yet, only 3 units. That won't help much. But I'm on the attack again. Omi is my next target.

[Drisos]

Turn #70:

Small fight in Omi. Yet again, they have AC only. Easy win. Killed 240 (all), lost 6.

Attacking on... I'm invading Yamato now.

Turn #71:

Yet another easy battle in Yamato. I have Light Cavalry only. The enemy hides in a forest, and fires at me when I get in range. I fire at their YS, which has it's effect. They come out of the forest. I sandwich them, and then soon charge the rest of his units, causing a mass rout. I don't recall the kill ratio, but it was as usual.

Attacking Kii now.

I wonder is there's some sort of cyclus in this loyalty stuff.. Entire Kyushu turned from Green last turn to entirely Yellow this turn. Too much coincedence.

[Drisos]

Turn #72:

Battle in Kii, the enemy retreat soon after the start of battle. I catch a few before they reach the border. Killed 31, lost 0.

That's all...

Turn #73:

Waiting, waiting, waiting... fine though, Hojo's are starving, trapped in their castles.

Turn #74:

Nothing happening...

Turn #75:

Same story...

Turn #76:

All regions not neighbouring the Hojo have a 60 men army now. All korean Spear and Naginata units are used up for that. I might even need to start sacrificing my skimishers.

Those Ninja's are causing me a serious headache. A two star general was killed in Omi. I hope that my two 4 star guys will survive for a while..

Attacking Ise now.

Turn #77:

Easy win in Ise. Again, they retreat at the start of battle. I catch most of them. Killed 399, lost 17.

[Drisos]

Turn #78:

Nothing happening...

Turn #79:

Loyalty is ok everywhere... time to attack. Next target: Mino. Their daimyo is there. Would be nice to kill him. I have 80 thunderbombers, so I'm attacking in Sunny weather.

Turn #80:

Gah. Didn't get a chance to use my thunderbombers, sadly. Very easy battle though. Created an early mass rout of his ranged infantry, and then his Daimyo got caught up in battle and was surrounded and killed. Killed about 400, lost two dozens or so.

So, I thought, Hojo gone, but no, appears that he had produced another son. I haven't been paying attention to messages about that, I guess.

Attacking Echizen now.

Turn #81:

They give up in Echizen.

Attacking Owari now. Important region for them. 1K+ income, + troop training abilities.

[Drisos]

Turn #82:

Easy win in Owari. They decided to deploy at the riverbank betwee the two bridges... not good plan. I crossed both, then sandwiched them. Mass rout, and chased down most of them. Killed 597, lost 15.

The Hojo attacked Sado. I had only 120 korean infantry there, so I retreated to Dewa. I hadn't been paying attention to the size of the army in Noto, I guess.

Turn #83:

Nothing happening...

Turn #84:

Attacking Kaga now.

Turn #85:

Nice battle in Kaga. I took the high ground and made sure they attacked me, instead of the other way around. However, I was too optimistic about an attack on their flank with my HC, and his YC killed quite a few. When my main army charged it was soon over, though.
Killed 386, lost 64.

I can finally get the Hojo's southern border and Dewa in one screenshot now.

[Drisos]

Turn #86:

They attacked Dewa. That was logical, seen the huge army in Mutsu.
About 500 vs. 1200.
Luckily, it's good weather. My deploy is on a small hill..



They keep closing in... and as I feared, mostly AC. They will run away from my thunderbombers. I have fire at a unit of YS. And they gave them hell.





This one volley caused a mass rout among his AC. So I charged with all my cav, starting a long, long chase. Hehe, it was very far for them to walk back to the border. After chasing them down I used my tired cav to do the same to some reinforcements and the few units that hadn't routed.

Easy win, after all. Killed 1164, lost 116.

Gah! My first revolt, I believe? In Kaga. And it's a quite an army. I'm retreating to Echizen, that was red too. So it'll stick to one revolt. Bad enough though...

Where are all those reinforcements that should've come long ago?

Turn #87:

Another attack in Dewa. Less than 400 vs. over 1100.
Went even better this time. They had more YS, which were a nice target for my thunderbombers. Another mass rout, another long chase. Similar to the first battle in Dewa. Killed 987, lost 56.

Turn #88:

Nothing happening.

[Gregoshi]

Hojo's really got to be sweating it out now.

It is weird that you haven't been getting much in the way of reinforcements Drisos. I checked the MI manual and it really doesn't have much in the way of detailed information on Mongol reinforcements.

[Martok]

Yeah, it would sure be nice to know what -- if anything -- triggers reinforcements to appear. Is it conquering a certain number of provinces? Do they appear at certain times? Is it random? This is why I never liked the Mongol campaign.

Still, I do enjoy reading about it. Keep on, Drisos!

[Drisos]

Hojo's really got to be sweating it out now.

Yeah. But me too, without reinforcements I can't keep attacking. I'm running running out of warriors, no matter how few I loose.

[Gregoshi]

Drisos, are you destroying buildings in the provinces as you conquer them? Granted, it has been a few years since I last played a Mongol campaign, but I don't remember reinforcements being so few.

I recall when I last played as the Mongols, I made up a raiding army and just went from province to province destroying everything that I could - be it armies or buildings. The raiding army held no provinces other than the one it was in. This was just to keep the army intact and concentrated. In my feeble memory of that campaign, I think I was about where you are now with the southern half of Japan conquered.

[Drisos]

Any building are automatically detroyed. Except for border forts, I destroy those myself though.

I think the arrival of reinforcements must partially be based on luck, at least. That's the only way my 'bad luck' can be explained...

[Gregoshi]

Any building are automatically detroyed. Except for border forts, I destroy those myself though.

Aren't the border forts your only defense against shinobi and ninjas? Maybe that is why you've been having problems with loyalty in the rear areas and the assassination of a few of your generals.

[Drisos]

Yeah, I've been wondering for a while if what I was doing with them was the smartest thing... I might try rebuilding those.

My money's just disppearing now, anyway

[Gregoshi]

I don't think you'll be able to rebuilt anything. I suspect that is why border forts are the only building not automatically destroyed when you take a province.