Shinano

Oopps, sorry to launch a new thread about Shinano... Ok, I remember a long time ago, there has been a discussion about how it is important for Imagawa to take Shinano in the first turns of the game if it wants to expand in the eastern of the Japan. This was for the Singoku Jidai in the original Shogun. However I have played the campaign starting in 1580 (in Mongol Invasion extension). I was playing Tokugawa (who replaces Imagawa at that time) in expert. I won the campaign by grabing Owari from the Oda in the first turn and defending 2 river provinces in the east while I was expending from the west (from Kyushu). I found it impossible to expand in the eastern part of Japan early in the game. Takeda is very powerful and agressive. I had an early alliance with him against Oda (I grad Owari), but the next turn Takeda back-stabbed me and kicked me out of Totomi. In this campaign, unlike in the SJ campaign, everone starts with a full tech tree, and all the factions start with huge armies (that makes the campaign much more interesting that the one starting in 1530, where you can complete the campaign without seing anything more challenging than YC and YS armies). The Tokugawa army in the eastern part is relatively weak compared to the others. So grabing Shinano in the first few turns and keeping it is in my opinion almost impossible for Tokugawa. I would bi nterested to hear other people strategy for that campaign.

if you imagawa.. Shinobi is your best tool.


Build at least 10 shinobi as fast as you can in one of your empty provinces. Once they done send them to incite revolts in Owari and Sagami. In short give Oda and Hojo a headache.

When the rebels take over the province, you can attack and take the province for yourself. I've won this campaign using shinobi as my main offensive weapons.. they are extremely useful.

I agree with tac..use vast numbers of shinobi to incite uprisings then bribe the rebel armies

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Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your toops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical......Sun Tzu the Art of War

well..BN could be useful; one time i made an army of this kinda warriors and an YS i think and i send them in Shihano; i put them really fast in a forest; Takeda`s cavalry charged in the woods and..u imagine what happend; clan Takeda seems to me the main enemy so i think is a priority to eliminate them; even if u loose with those BN u slaughter a lot from his army; and in the campaign from 1580 u have a lot of BN; leavin Hizen ( i guess this is the name of ur western province surrounded by Shimazu ) is very necessary;anyway u`ll loose it ;Shihano or Kai are ur main priorities

Shinano is nice, but not essential for Imagawa. You have other options at your disposal. All enemies in the Kwanto will fight you for Shinano. Whoever owns it will be under constant attack, and if koku is low, this will turn this meatgrinder into a drain on your manpower.

Instead, you can focus on taking Kyushu from the Shimazu and then expand eastward from there like a blue tsunami.

Or, you can make a move on central Japan and remove Oda from Owari. The Owari-Mikawa "line" is critical to any eastern power if they want to advance towards the west. Thus, you can use this line to draw the stronger Takeda into a deathtrap -- one where he will lose the lives of his sons, and maybe even his own, trying to cross those wretched bridges. And taking Owari has another benefit: it amounts to cuting the country in half (not entirely, but effectively). You can then squeeze the lands between Owari and Kyushu to unite your domains before heading east to face Takeda.

Or you can opt to bypass Shinano and try for Musashi, another river province. But you must time your attack to match Hojo's bid for Shinano. Or you will fail for sure. Taking Musashi puts you at the footholds of the richest lands under the rising sun.

Thanks guys for your advice. I usually don't use too much Shinobi or BNs. I will try to do that.

Vanya, I won by taking Owari and extending eastward from there as you said, but I found this a bit too easy. My main problem for expending eastward was first Takeda, whose army is far superior to Imagawa's in 1580. The problem too is that behind Takeda, there is the Uesugi who crushes Hojo quite early in the game and becomes very powerful in this campaign. A bit later in the games it crushes Takeda. So if you take Shinano, you have to face in the beginning of the game a very powerful Takeda, and a bit later a horde of Uesugi. So expending eastward for Imagawa is not as easy as in the SJ campaign, and taking Shinano too early in the game is probably not an option, unless using Shinobis or BNs.