Rise of the Samurai: Yashima Taira strategy

Post your tips, hints and strategies for the Rise of the Samurai clan, Yashima Taira.

So I beat a long/hard Yashima Taira campaign today and thought I'd post how I did it. On the screenshot below only the 2 bright green provinces still belong to the Fujiwara, the rest is mine or belongs to my vassals.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/93...3F12572AAC919/

First thing I did was fortify my town on the mainland (Harima) and conquer the rest of Shikoku. I thought that would form a nice and relatively safe base to work from. Also I tried to grab some trade nodes, in the early game I managed to get the two south most ones (and didn't loose them for the rest of the game). After that it became a bit boring because I was at peace and trading with everyone and didn't want to take a rep hit. After some time I had enough of this and declared war on the other Taira clan(!) Maybe not the best move but the campaign objectives lie in the east and I had Harima fortified so I figured it would be a nice buffer to attacks from the west (which it proved it did).

I blitzkrieged the other Taira clan by taking 4 of it's 5 provinces in one turn (2 by requesting allegiance and 2 by force). Of course I took a rep hit, but I had invested in honor improving arts and behaved myself beforehand, so it wasn't that bad. After that I continued to grab provinces in the middle of the map slowly working my way eastwards. Some clans declared war on me but nothing I couldn't handle and I made sure to have domination on sea (also grabbing more trade nodes). Right before realm divide I made alliances with everyone that would accept them (using payments if necessary). All the clans with allegiance to Taira accepted after some persuasion. They all stayed with me for a long time, pretty funny, for a while it was all the Taira clans vs the rest of Japan.

After realm divide I made a lot of vassals to keep trade income going. My income never went below 8k. When my previous allies one by one started to declare war on me I actually had a lot of help from my vassals. Funny thing is my vassals in the east send numerous naval invasion invasions against my enemies in the west and in the end conquered all of it (the Shiba took all but one provinces on Kyushu for example). Pretty interesting to see. Maybe this is due to the trade agreements they had with me which gave them a nice income. Also, I sometimes helped my vassals with some extra money or with my agents and fleets.

After that it was pretty much a matter of time before the rest of Japan was conquered. The allegiance thingy slows thing down quite a bit, you have to leave a big garrison of wait a while to keep the populace happy, so next time I will probably opt for a short campaign.

Hope this is of help, if you have questions or remarks, fire away :bow:

It appears that according to the Tale of the Heike, the Yashima Taira indeed turned against their allies, marching to Kyoto in 1179 and imprisoning retired emperor Go-Shirakawa. So the account above seems possible.

Nonetheless, I do not think that the clan’s direction is east. There is only one province in Eastern Japan they have to capture. Their faction’s qualities – superior sailors, master shipbuilders, master traders – distinctly call for a campaign of establishing a maritime power centered in the Inland Sea. I am in the early part of the campaign and so far these traits seem to make the Yashima Taira a very strong faction. I cannot see how this campaign can be a hard one, but perhaps there are surprises not easy to foresee.

The issue for the early part of the campaign is not whether to go east or west – with the cousin Taira clan on one side providing a defense against all enemies and with the naval skills of the Yashima Taira, the direction of expansion can only be westward, towards the islands and the trade nodes. The issue is how to divide your goals. The original historical heartland appears to have been northern Shikoku. But Akashi (a.k.a. Harima) is an attractive settlement and nearby Okayama (a.k.a. Bizen) and Tsuyama (a.k.a. Mimasaka) are perfect for raising armies. Moreover, if the Yashima Taira are to hold onto the trade nodes, they probably need at least one settlement with a port on Kyushu. Of the three directions, at first one can at most pursue two, one with an army and the other through gaining allegiances with the use of the Junsatsushi, in which endeavour the Yashima Taira seem to have a distinct advantage.

I am mystified about the way some clans are not open to allegiance, although relatively friendly while other clans are open to diplomatic approaches (trade agreement and even an alliance) though unfriendly. My personal preference currently tends to be to use the army to control the three mainland provinces (known in the original Shogun 2 as Harima, Bizen and Mimasaka) that after all are good in building armies. And use the diplomat to win over the allegiance of either Tokushima (a.k.a. Awa) in Shikoku or one of the clans in Kyushu. That is a tough decision because by the time you have worked out a scheme for Kyushu, Tokushima (a.k.a. Awa) seems to have become problematic, threatening open war when requesting allegiance. Similarly if you first opt for the allegiance of Tokushima (a.k.a. Awa) for greater control on Shikoku, all settlements with ports on Kyushu, including the Taira vassals become unavailable for allegiance missions, by the time the diplomat can get there from Tokushima (a.k.a. Awa).

As for the later stages, the moral of the Tale of the Heike appears to be that the Yashima Taira fell because of their transgression against their supporters in Kyoto and especially the retired Emperor. So, at least in short campaigns, I would certainly heed that lesson from history and stay out of trouble with the fellow Taira for as long as I can. After all they are watching our backs and let us conquer western Japan unmolested. That one settlement in Eastern Japan, Sagami, that the Yashima Taira need to capture to fulfill the victory conditions, can wait until the Yashima Taira are the masters of the seas and can launch a naval invasion from a position of strength late in the campaign. In fact, even if war with the Fukuhara Taira breaks out around the time of realm divide, I would probably opt to make them vassals to maintain trade for as long as possible, since they would be the least prone to cause trouble among all potential vassals. Even if they stayed on board reluctantly and intermittently, it would be preferable to having to deal with constant war on the eastern front. But war with the Fukuhara Taira is eventually unavoidable and destroying them as a clan perhaps inevitable in the long campaign.

Wow! Nice!