How is your first campaign going?

Chosokabe long campaign on hard.

So so, and then there appear to be two difficulty levels above that. :jumping:

The first runs were more focussed on 'browsing' around, than really playing hard. But still, the AI keeps you on your toes in the campaign and it's doing quite well on the batlefield too. I'm not uncapable on the battlefield, yet the autocalc is doing a better job at times. Finally, it got some nasty surprises in the combination of those two parts (maybe I overlooked something, but it pays to be really cautious).

Cautious, that's how I'm used to play these games. But the overdose I use, doesn't seem to work here. When I consolidate too much/long or forget about developping a branch, the AI is going to take advantage of that (that's how it feels). And I have to adjust my play style a lot.

I'm around 1570 now and I'm stuck with an ally on Shikoku who has a huge army in his single province, but hasn't assisted me in any battle despite numerous requests. A few years before that the Ito on Kyushu declared war upon me. Luckily for me they also got a run in with the Tuitsui during their attempt to get a foot on Honda. Luckily as their navy vast vastly superior to mine and my landforces were a bit too weak and scattered. So I got some time to build my own navy. The Tuitsui were very friendly towards me, they are strong and keep the Ito's busy. I assembled an army of ashi yari and yumi, complemented with three samurai and a young general and launched a naval in Ito's centre (I expected it would be their weakest spot). It was and I could also easily get the 2nd province, which split Ito's territory in two pieces. There was no serious Ito payback, what I overlooked though was that they were allied with Mori. It seemed an insignificant clan, surrounded by the powerful and ambitious Tuitsui. A probe on the landing army learned me that Mori was serious: three taisho and loads of samurai, mounted too. My army was a little bigger, but wouldn't stand much change against it because of it being 75% or more ashi. The Mori also had a huge fleet, choosing sea with my army was risky. To get something good out of the attack, I decided to move away from the Mori, to the south were Ito was and destroy as much of that clan as possible. Mori was on my tail to the south, but a small rearguard diverted them and my mainarmy could destroy Ito armies, once deep south I went north again with massive mountains between me and Mori. I looted another city of Ito, gained loads of money and could return to my homeland by sea.

The looting allowed me to finally construct a naginata dojo, as well as cavalry and samurai archer producing facilities. I used a few turns to rearange my invading army with tougher units and launched a naval on Mori homeland. That was succesfull too. The powerful Tuitsui there would probably not like me, so I also just looted the place and moved away. Back to Kyushu. The new army is too much for Mori and the last of Ito. Then the religion problem popped up.

Nice challenges. But then came a shock. I was thing I had to conquer the whole of Shikoku and 1-2 provinces in Honda to win the game before 1600. Upon checking the requirements again, I noticed 40!

Both Shikoku and Kyusha are poor, so I will develop slowly
I have religion and rebel problems in Kyushu
While friendly, Tuitsui is a huge and ambitious power, who's virtually everywhere on my 'border' and very close to Kyoto
It's way into the 70's, with only 100 more turns to go it will be hard to conquer 30 more provinces
To win the game, I have to get rid of the Sogo, the unhelpfull ally with the huge army near my homeprovince

Hey, Tosa-sama. Nice story, especially your unintended looting run was definitely smart. :bow:

Having been playing on Kyushu for the 5th time, the best part of residing there is definitely the trade nodes comparably closer to you than anybody else. Especially two of them, being both sources of incense, are almost dedicated to who is living on the western part of the island. Hyuga is especially a great province, very fertile soil while the town is itself a choke point, making it a naturally-defended one. Higo is yet another rich one but more vulnerable to assaults whereas it's oddly bordered in the north by the province to its east and that makes step-by-step conquest harder.

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Originally Posted by Lemur

Just made an epic mistake. After the realm divide, I wanted to pick at the edges of the massive alliance against me, so I ran around the diplomatic screen, tossing out gold and hostages to divide (and conquer). In the end I passed out ever under-ten member of my clan as a hostage to secure a bunch of ceasefires. Bad idea. Really, truly bad idea. Don't do this. Ever.

Every single ceasefire I secured has been broken. Every little girl and boy has been executed. I single-handedly wiped out a generation with my foolishness. Now I'm adopting generals to replenish the gene pool. Stupid lemur!

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Yep, I did the same thing last night.
AI seemed more than willing to make peace and trade deals in exchange for a hostage.
Next turn the kids get the chop.
To top it all, I've now got a bunch of heart-broken generals as they have all seen their first born murdered.

Don't know if this is the AI being cunning and deceiving me, or a bit of a bug/exploit

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Originally Posted by Satsuma

Don't know if this is the AI being cunning and deceiving me, or a bit of a bug/exploit

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I've now ran several times into a weird situation where some factions are LESS likely to accept a deal if I offer a hostage to them. And this sure is not because they intend to betray me, because it's very early in campaign.
Also, has anyone had "moderate" rated diplomatic deal pass? ever? without threatening? I can't seem to hammer out deal if they're just moderately likely to succeed.
I actually tried this by offering a trade deal, other party wanted money to sweeten the deal so I offered 250 which turned the likelihood of success to high, then I dropped the offer by 50 koku so that it became moderate and they turned it down...

The diplomacy sure seems nice, more reliable than in the past, but there are still some flaws...

At this point in my Chosokabe campaign, I am Shogun and realm divide has been going on for a while. The biggest other clan is the Shoni, who has regions dotted about my lands on the main island and the western island. When they declare war (currently allies), I'm in for some major pain. As it stands now, I've formed two choke points southeast of Kyoto to wards the east, one in the mountains and one on the southern coast.

What annoys me to no end though is the AI's constant insistence on walking straight past my armies and going to some fort way behind the lines and take that. The most recent thing that happened to me was after I had advanced a region against the Tokugawa, then a full stack pops out of the forest behind me and takes the region I moved from. Argh. An Uesugi stack suddenly walked out of Shoni lands north west of Kyoto and laid siege. They don't have territory anywhere near that.

I guess the AI needs to cheat a bit, but how many stacks does it have? I've won solid victories time and time again against the very same clan, I must have killed off five Tokugawa stacks, but it does't feel like I'm getting anywhere, more full stacks seem to appear out of nowhere, and soon four more fronts are about to open up!

Whine whine... Anyway, I had the same pet peeve with Empire, armies frequently just ran around your army there too. I though Japans geography would limit this but it still happens. Got to spam more bow ashigeru I guess.

My Mori campaign continues. I'm building up the economy and gradually increasing the army. A relative peace has reigned for several years. My staunch ally the Ouchi and I are in the process of carving up Kyushu from the belligerent minor clans (Shone, Sagara and Ito) who declared war on us. Shone and Sagara are gone. Ito holds 3 provinces but is weak and has no economy. Thanks to this situation, I have managed to grab 3 of the trade nodes off the shores of Kyushu, which has helped my bottom line. I'm bringing in about 3500 a turn, which is the best shape I've been in all game. Unfortunately that is just enough for one building upgrade and maybe a unit or two - depending upon the which building is being upgraded.

On Shikoku, the Chokosabi and Miyoshi have been idle for years. My major concern (and the Shogun's too) is the Asai. Though they are indifferent to me and we have a trade agreement, they dominate the center of Honshu with 19 provinces. The buffer clans are gone and I'm rubbing shoulders with a giant. Fortunately, they appear preoccupied with things to the east ("east" as in the way the campaign map is oriented). I'm also a little nervous about the Ouchi. They went Christian and our relationship went from "very friendly" to "friendly", they are as strong, if not a little stronger than I am, and my provinces on Kyushu is separated from my core group of provinces. Not the best position to be in should the Ouchi turn on me. Aside from the Asai and Ouchi, I'm concerned that I'm lagging behind in tech as well. But, hey, I'm still alive and kicking.

BTW, the Shone had captured the Black Ship. One of my fleets had the honour of fleeing from the Shone fleet of which it was a part. :bow:

My campaign continues to be a rollercoaster ride!

With North Shinano conquered my heartland lay wide open and Tokugawa took a second province from me: Hida. I hastily assembled some troops in Etchu province to act as a small deterrant, but shoudl Tokugawa come for me in froce my western holdings are lost. Meanwhile my Damyo enters North Shinano from the North and my heir repels an Imagawa attack on Kai. Another Imagawa stack is coming in from the South though and the Hojo joi in the fun by committing a full stack towards Kai themselves. My heir flees back towards North Shinano. Luckily Tokugawa has moved out from the castle in North Shinano to engage my Damyo in battle. The castle is empty so my heir strolls in with ease! My northern forces also manage to reclaim an undefended Hida. Next turn the Hojo take Kai.

Two steps forward one step back. Or rather two steps back. Fukushima has rebelled and the Shina have reappeared and taken the province from me. The Tokugawa main army is loath to engage me and moves east of the mointain range. We maneuver back and forth and I finally manage to defeat their army in an open field battle. Many Tokugawa leaders are slain and their grasp on their lands seem to falter. In the West my Northern Army took to ship and skipped over the rebellious Kaga province to claim the province south of it from Tokugawa. Seems like the force in Northern Shinano was their only strike force! Next turn they loose South Shinano to Kiso rebels and are eager to sign for peace.

With the Tokugawa repelled my Damyo can return to Echizen, just in time to repell an attack from the Shino, they have used their momentum to plunder my province. They only have ashigaru so my damyo beats them soundly in battle twice. The Hojo reappear in force from the South and have a huge stack aimed at North Shinano. What about my third enemy the Date? They seem to have had a change of heart and offer me an alliance out of the blue. I can't refuse such an offer and happily agree. One clan less to worry about for now. The Hojo bypass my army in North Shinano and go for my allies the Yamanouchi. They stand no chance and are obliterated!

I'm hanging on and make the best of the Date alliance to swing the tide of battle. My damyo pushes into Ashina lands and conquers Fukushima province. Luckily a large Hojo host is up north taking a province from my Date ally. My heir rushes from North Shinano all the way to Kai castle in one turn. Gotta love the strategist trait maxed out. My Ninja has shown me that the castle is undefended. Knowing I couldn't hold on to it I sack the province for 17000 koku. I'm RICH! The new cash helps me in finally upgrading my infrastructure. Next season my heir rushes back just in time to catch the Hojo army coming from the Yamanouchi lands. My damyo moves south and enters the Kanto plains from the East, while far in the West my former Norther army has swollen enough in size to take Kaga proivince from the Rebels.

So I went from being down to four province to being up to nine currently and I am poised to take over the Kanto plain from the Hojo. Their armies are scattered and their castles lie undefended in front of me. An alliance with the Kiso secures my southern border in North Shinano and I am ready to strike. Wonder what will go wrong this time, but somehow the title of Shogun doesn't seem that far away anymore.

I lost my first campaign 12 turns in! Takeda on VH campaign, Normal Battles. First time I've lost a vanilla TW campaign since WRE in BI I think...

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Originally Posted by phonicsmonkey

I lost my first campaign 12 turns in! Takeda on VH campaign, Normal Battles. First time I've lost a vanilla TW campaign since WRE in BI I think...

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Hehe, that's brave. Right in the middle of the brawl on VH.

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Originally Posted by quadalpha

Hehe, that's brave. Right in the middle of the brawl on VH.

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I decided to go for the toughest option first up so I can see how much challenge there might be in the game. Actually I started on Legendary but restarted immediatlely when I realised I couldn't save inside the turn.

I am pleasantly surprised!

Seems like I'm on top for now. Increased my holdings to 14 provinces by sweeping through undefended Hojo lands. They tried to hold me back with a full stack of Samurai (Archer, Yari, Katana), but I was able to hold them off during a bridge battle where they got totally swamped. The Shogun is now irritated at me, which means that I'm already gathering forces in Fukushima for the eventual Date treachery.

The Hojo are down to two provinces, even lost one to rebellion. The Imagawa have taken Kai and together with the Tokugawa they are probably my next target. The other real problem is the Amakawa clan, which controls most of Southern Honshu and parts of Kyushu. Realm Divide will kill me, but it's not far off and I have only 8 more years to become Shogun. Serves me right for choosing a Short Campaign to get started!

I lost my second campaign too - Takeda on VH/N again...20ish turns this time. I need to get a lot better at battles if I'm going to succeed with this one..

Haven't lost yet! I simply re-started 3 times :p

Should be a ton of re-play value; different starting points => different threats=> different priorities

Present campaign might get finished; doesn't look like I'll win but no huge mistakes...yet :)

I actually lost a campaign. More like I gave up after realizing there's no way I'm bouncing back from this. And this was on normal!!!
Uesugi, the situation with all the provinces to my south was so messed up that I didn't have the guts to declare war on anyone there, leaving me with just expanding east/west options. This then backfired when I was declared war on and within 2 turns would have lost my capital and other most developed province.

Uesugi are really hard just for that you don't know where to expand with them.

Started my first game on Normal as Chosokabe. It's been pretty challenging so far. I took most of my starting island (with Myoshi reduced to a single province vassal and keeping Iwa as an ally) then invaded Kyushu, only to find a very large Mori was eating it from the other end. The Shogun decided Mori was getting too big and requested they be attacked, but I preferred allying with them to split up the Shoni...

So far I'm very impressed. Even on Normal the game has been a challenge from time to time. I suppose now I have to up the difficulty and try someone on the mainland.

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Originally Posted by Zarky

I actually lost a campaign. More like I gave up after realizing there's no way I'm bouncing back from this. And this was on normal!!!
Uesugi, the situation with all the provinces to my south was so messed up that I didn't have the guts to declare war on anyone there, leaving me with just expanding east/west options. This then backfired when I was declared war on and within 2 turns would have lost my capital and other most developed province.

Uesugi are really hard just for that you don't know where to expand with them.

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As Uesugi i have come to a conclusion that you have to go after Takeda just like what happened in history. I have a campaign now going pretty well, when i dealt Jinbo quickly and then immediately turned against Takeda, while making alliances with Ashina, Mogami and bit later Ikko Ikki. If Takeda or anyone in the South grows too powerful playing Uesugi can turn into a nightmare. I have now destroyed Jinbo and Takeda, while Takeda destroyed Anegakoji before i could intervene. It was not easy to take out Takeda, but after destroying Takeda i secured an alliance with Imagawa and took Noto from Hatakeyama and destroyed Kiso while my allied Ikko Ikki declared war on their allies the Saito. Now i am balancing my economy with several options for invasions bit later.

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Originally Posted by Kagemusha

As Uesugi i have come to a conclusion that you have to go after Takeda just like what happened in history. I have a campaign now going pretty well, when i dealt Jinbo quickly and then immediately turned against Takeda, while making alliances with Ashina, Mogami and bit later Ikko Ikki. If Takeda or anyone in the South grows too powerful palying Uesugi can turn into a nightmare. I have now destroyed Jinbo and Takeda, while Takeda destroyed Anegakoji before i could intervene. It was not easy to take out Takeda, but after destroying Takeda i secured an alliance with Imagawa and took Noto from Hatakeyama and destroyed Kiso while my allied Ikko Ikki declared war on their allies the Saito. Now i am balancing my economy with several options for invasions bit later.

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I actually woke up early today and am now 70 turns or so into 2nd campaign as Uesugi. I allied Takeda and managed to deal with everyone around them, they got North Shinano and went to South Shinano and then west, eventually (with me pressuring them) declaring war on Imagawa and circling back to Kai from south.
Everything went fine so far, starting to enjoy warrior monks and then I realized that when Realm Divide hits I need to take North Shinano when Takeda betrays me and I'd only need to hold 3 choke points to prevent any incursions from west and defend 2 cities from Date who I probably could trust for a few more turns. Unfortunately my reputation was very near full and I started preparing for the inevitable, when my fresh puppet Hojo captures a rebel held province triggering Realm Divide (didn't know this could happen!!!) and then promptly declaring war on me... Of course Takeda join in on the fun and 2 turns later Shingen and 2 stacks with largely Samurai composition assault Uesugi Kenshin at Echizen. The battle could have been epic but it was just a massacre on both sides, yet the ending was obvious from the start.

I haven't had so much fun with a faction in any TW, ever. And these are from losing experiences. Hardest clan so far.

Uesugi are so complicated to play. Victory conditions point you south, wanting to fight a single front war points you to east before else and wanting proximity to Kyoto before Realm Divide points you to west.

On my fourth campaign now: Chokosabe H/H going for long victory conditions.

This was also the campaign i mentioned in another thread, and have shown screenshots about, but i haven't had the chance to talk about it much. Basically i wanted to try surviving a little longer than normal, and instead for pushing toward Kyoto and Honshu (after securing Shikoku) I decided to go in the opposite direction and subjugate Kyushu. It proved to be a very hard fought battle, not the least of which because nearly the entire island had converted to Christianity. Town by town Chokosabe Motochika converted the people back to the one true faith, just as town by town he liberated the island and added it to his own domain.

This campaign was relatively slow and reasonably entertaining. Once i'd managed to unite Kyushu I sorta felt like my daimyo was a bit of a hero. He'd driven gaijin influences from the Western Japanese islands and united the clans under his banner for the greater good. Food surplus was up to 12 and the Chokosabe enjoyed immense wealth thanks to their many trade connections - if you were a kingdom in the east that traded with Japan, you dealt with the Chokosabe. Motochika even secured an alliance with the powerful Oda daimyo, Oda Nobuhide, two years before the later declared himself Shogun and effectively brought all of the eastern clans under his control.

By 1570 warfare in the Japanese islands at ceased, but an interesting schism was emerging. Motochika ruled in the western islands from his capital at Tosa and held parts of the west tip of Honshu, there he had brought a number of clans under his protection who now served as his vassals. The Oda Shogunate had suceeded in bringing down every major clan. Except the Chokosabe.. in 1571 a dispute with the Hatorri clan lead the Chokosabe to declare war. At first the Shogunate supported Motochika's right of conquest, but as tales of the Chokosabe heroism spread through Honshu, whispers of jealousy surfaced in Kyoto. The Shogunate was unhappy with the control of the Chokosabe, indeed, he ruled nearly all of Honshu, why should Kyushu and Shikoku be different?

When the Chokosabe captured a number of hattori provinces in west Honshu, provinces which had long served as trading stops for Oda merchants, the Shogunate declared war on the Chokosabe, bringing with him his Yamana and Uesugi allies..

It's been seven years since the declaration of war and what started as a realm divide event has exploded into full on East vs West civil war. I'd love to claim that this has been one sided and i've been whooping Oda behind, but that just isn't the case. Fighting has bogged down in western Honshu between my alliance (Chokosabe, Oushi, and a few other small vassals) and those loyal to the Shogunate. Every time one side gets a big victory they capture 1-3 provinces, only for the counter attack to dislodge them and return to the status quoe. Thousands of samurai are dead in what is turning out to be the final culmination of the Sengoku Jidai.

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Originally Posted by Monk

On my fourth campaign now: Chokosabe H/H going for long victory conditions.

This was also the campaign i mentioned in another thread, and have shown screenshots about, but i haven't had the chance to talk about it much. Basically i wanted to try surviving a little longer than normal, and instead for pushing toward Kyoto and Honshu (after securing Shikoku) I decided to go in the opposite direction and subjugate Kyushu. It proved to be a very hard fought battle, not the least of which because nearly the entire island had converted to Christianity. Town by town Chokosabe Motochika converted the people back to the one true faith, just as town by town he liberated the island and added it to his own domain.

This campaign was relatively slow and reasonably entertaining. Once i'd managed to unite Kyushu I sorta felt like my daimyo was a bit of a hero. He'd driven gaijin influences from the Western Japanese islands and united the clans under his banner for the greater good. Food surplus was up to 12 and the Chokosabe enjoyed immense wealth thanks to their many trade connections - if you were a kingdom in the east that traded with Japan, you dealt with the Chokosabe. Motochika even secured an alliance with the powerful Oda daimyo, Oda Nobuhide, two years before the later declared himself Shogun and effectively brought all of the eastern clans under his control.

By 1570 warfare in the Japanese islands at ceased, but an interesting schism was emerging. Motochika ruled in the western islands from his capital at Tosa and held parts of the west tip of Honshu, there he had brought a number of clans under his protection who now served as his vassals. The Oda Shogunate had suceeded in bringing down every major clan. Except the Chokosabe.. in 1571 a dispute with the Hatorri clan lead the Chokosabe to declare war. At first the Shogunate supported Motochika's right of conquest, but as tales of the Chokosabe heroism spread through Honshu, whispers of jealousy surfaced in Kyoto. The Shogunate was unhappy with the control of the Chokosabe, indeed, he ruled nearly all of Honshu, why should Kyushu and Shikoku be different?

When the Chokosabe captured a number of hattori provinces in west Honshu, provinces which had long served as trading stops for Oda merchants, the Shogunate declared war on the Chokosabe, bringing with him his Yamana and Uesegi allies..

It's been seven years since the declaration of war and what started as a realm divide event has exploded into full on East vs West civil war. I'd love to claim that this has been one sided and i've been whooping Oda behind, but that just isn't the case. Fighting has bogged down in western Honshu between my alliance (Chokosabe, Oushi, and a few other small vassals) and those loyal to the Shogunate. Every time one side gets a big victory they capture 1-3 provinces, only for the counter attack to dislodge them and return to the status quoe. Thousands of samurai are dead in what is turning out to be the final culmination of the Sengoku Jidai.

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I guess you are playing sort of Segikahara campaign, the differnce being that not half of your "western" forces are not turncoats really loyal to "East".

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Originally Posted by Kagemusha

I guess you are playing sort of Segikahara campaign, the differnce being that not half of your "western" forces are not turncoats really loyal to "East".

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The historical parallels haven't escaped me and is half of what makes the fight against the shogunate so fun. ~D

I have the Realm Divide mod which softens the blow of the event, but pretty much all of my eastern allies (I was allied to Uesugi and a few minors) abandoned me. Likely because they didn't want to cross Oda, who was also allied to them also. It was like Oda sent a message when he declared war, choose your side! :laugh4:

Date H/H campaign. I've got to the point where Useugi and Takeda are sending full stacks ever 2 turns to the 2 different stacks that I have hidden inside a fortress. Currently saving enough money for a 3rd stack so I can start turning the tide a bit, as right now it's just siege siege siege.

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Originally Posted by HopAlongBunny

Haven't lost yet! I simply re-started 3 times :p

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to be fair I haven't seen the losing video either - I just quit when I believe the campaign is lost (ie. I have no troops left, just two provinces and massive stacks are coming from all sides)

Not officially my 1st campaign more like 3rd, but so far it's proving to be a hoot; Japan is utterly perfect for TW, it's like having a mass brawl in a telephone box. Finally went with Hojo, (only n/n), having to whack my 5 star gen. came as something of a horrifying shock, I've had my proverbial handed to me in a battle I thought would be a cake walk, held a castle against overwhelming odds, lost & regained territories, (not a biggy but can't remember it happening much in earlier versions of TW).

My only concern atm is that the clan's conquests have happened so fast that currently it feels like winning is simply logistics rather than any great challenge. Planning on restarting with a "hard" clan on h/h and see if that maintains the mid/late game pressure.

Load times aside, it's great, the AI seems immensely improved, lvl progression's a great addition, the constant twists in clan development keep me worried that a false move will wreck everything, and the diplomacy works.

All in all a very worthy successor to the original STW, they've not sullied its memory & that's about the highest praise I can think of.

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Originally Posted by Monk

The historical parallels haven't escaped me and is half of what makes the fight against the shogunate so fun. ~D

I have the Realm Divide mod which softens the blow of the event, but pretty much all of my eastern allies (I was allied to Uesugi and a few minors) abandoned me. Likely because they didn't want to cross Oda, who was also allied to them also. It was like Oda sent a message when he declared war, choose your side! :laugh4:

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I am also playing the Chosokabe campaign (H/H) and I also first conquered Shikoku and then went west to attack Shoni and the others on Kyushu. It seems natural to secure trade nodes by going that way. Also, you can keep the two isles all to yourself without still triggering the divide.

After that, I started to go to Honshu and eat it up from the western end, only to stop right before the divide to gather forces and money.

I am actually liking the divide event. It gives you a new challenge once you get to be a major force. Without the event, I would just eat up all of Japan easily.
I already now have 130k koku and my income is 12k/season and the year is still 1568.

I kind of decided that 1570 is when I just go berzerk and start going for Kioto no matter what. I try to keep Date as my ally as long as possible (with diplomacy tech and payments) to keep a trade partner. Currently my army costs 12k/season and my tax is 13k/season, so I should be able to hold on long enough with my huge "slush fund".

I still don't have much of a defensive force on Shikoku, but I have slowly been importing matchlocks to get a cheap castle defense force to a few of the provinces, and I am prepared to move one of my three major armies (probably the ashigaru heavy one) to there if someone tries to attack me there.

Just had the divide event on my second game (shimazu, hard, 40 provinces). I knew it was close, so i'd turtled up to reinforce my economy and troops before the onslaught. To my surprise it occurred anyway due to me winning a *defensive* battle. I'd assumed it was purely down to number of provinces owned but it seems there are other factors involved.

Happily my three allies (chokosabe, amako and mori) and three vassals decided to stick by me. There's about 120 turns to go and i've got 25 provinces (including kyoto) left to capture, should be doable, as long as my vassals dont get there before me.

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Originally Posted by Daveybaby

Just had the divide event on my second game (shimazu, hard, 40 provinces). I knew it was close, so i'd turtled up to reinforce my economy and troops before the onslaught. To my surprise it occurred anyway due to me winning a *defensive* battle. I'd assumed it was purely down to number of provinces owned but it seems there are other factors involved.

Happily my three allies (chokosabe, amako and mori) and three vassals decided to stick by me. There's about 120 turns to go and i've got 25 provinces (including kyoto) left to capture, should be doable.

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Heroic victories also contribute to your clan fame if i recall, although not as much as taking provinces.

My Uesugi campaing is nearing the end.

Despite loosing my home province and all may generals early on I have made a successful recovery. The Kanto is mine! After that I paused a little bit and tried to get my farm infrastructure going as I was raking in 4k a turn from trade. I wanted to have a good economy before Realm Divide hits. I couldn't hold off my offensive too long, as I could see the Hojo home province empty and the Imagawa lands undefended. I couldnt' resist and have torn through the Southern provinces all the way to Realm Divide!

My Date allies in the North are still faithful, but barely. I have an army in the region, which just conquered Sado. That gold mine, plus the one in the Hojo home province is financing my war efforts. My main enemies are the Shokugawa, which hold South Shinano and all the provinces between me and Kyoto, and the Amakawa, which control all of Western Japan except the islands. There some smaller clans are also busy fighting against me. I only need three more provinces including Kyoto. Hope I'll make it, before my undefended hinterland gets pillaged and burned!

I've been doing something interesting in my latest Hojo campaign. I wanted to maintain trade with some smaller factions but I also wanted to take their provinces. So, I have been using monks to incite rebellions and when the rebels take the castle, I then take the castle from the rebels. More territories and I maintain trade with the other clan. I've taken a number of castles that way thus far. Despite the success precentage being around 30%, they still seem to incite rebellions quite often. It might affect relations though, I am not sure, but most of the other clans are hostile toward me.

Only failed agent actions affect relations. It should be under "Sabotage Attempts" or "Hostile Agent Actions" in the diplo tooltip.

Nearing the end of my Chokosabe campaign. A hard push and a capture of Kyoto, back and forth fighting (kyoto exchanged hands 3 times) and my Daimyo is now officially Shogun. The Oda are reeling from the loss of power and are on their heels, scrambling for defense. Their army quality is steadily dropping as they lost the ability top field heavy hitters. I'm up to 37 provinces, 3 away from victory.

All i have to say is what a game. When realm divide hit and the game turned into East vs West I didn't think I'd ever be able to finish, we were completely deadlocked. However, a few acts of heroism from my generals, key assasinations, a well placed uprising from a Monk and a couple allied armies to my rescue gave me the upper hand. I really don't like using the word, but the only way I can describe the ending of the game is epic.

Tens of thousands of men died in the war for Kyoto, the heroes of the Kyushu campaign among them. Even Chokosabe Motochika was counted among those who fell. Oda Nobuhide and Nobunaga both met their ends in the disaserous war for control of the Shogunate. New heroes arose for the Chokosabe time and time again, even when things were at their darkest and i'd been pushed back three or four provinces, there was always a chance to rebound. My vassals even surprised me, riding to my defense numerous times when the fighting reached its apex around Kyoto and the former lands of the Asai. I even began to dread certain generals on the other side, trying to out manourver them rather than fight them. Osaka became littered with the dead, as I fought six battles near the city. I can only imagine that locals are now telling tales of the angry spirits of the dead, roaming the countryside at night and continuing the battle fought in life.

All in all.. i think i'll need a break from Shogun 2 once this is all done. Not because I'm tired of the game, but because this one campaign has given me so many vivid memories, i'd like time to reflect on them all.

I started as Chosokabe on N/N. I conquered Shikoku and then started with Kii on the mainland. I didn't know this at the time but that was a good choice since this area is one of the most fertile in the game.

I hit realm divide when one of my trade partners in southern Kyushu declared war on me and I started conquering their provinces. Eventually, I vassaled them, hit realm divide, then had them turn on me immediately. Everybody except my allies, the Shoni, turned on me. They had roughly 11 provinces and I had 2 stacks tied up on my borders with them for their eventual betrayal.

It was just a matter of slowly pushing east, consolidating, then beating the Shoni when they betrayed me. It also helped that the other power is the Date. They didn't bother me for a while after I beat the initial armies they sent after realm divide.

Right now, I'm just turtling at 59 provinces trying to fully explore the tech tree.

I'm really enjoying Shogun 2 also. This is my second try as Shimazu/Hard/Long and after a lucky set of AI decisions I was able to roll up the starting island and get a foothold on the mainland fairly quickly where the Mori and (green tree faction -- name forgotten) had split the peninsula along the mountain line. The Shoni have typically been a big headache in my Shimazu games, but in this case they inexplicably headed to the mainland leaving a Christian Sagara (they had conquered Bungo) to face me alone. Not sure why the Shoni never joined the alliance war unless the diplo hit from Sargera's conversion contributed to it. Regardless, the power vacuum allowed me to roll up the island and pick up all four trade resources. I was quickly running a huge trade surplus which allowed me to build big armies and upgrade the island's economy.

There were essentially two main alliance blocks in my game -- Mori/Green Tree in the south (the map rotation is confusing) and Jinbo/small clans in the north. These two blocs were linked together with a Mori/Jinbo alliance. Initially I ignored the alliances and declared war on Mori, but when my trade income fell apart, I selectively reloaded and noticed that the Jinbo were willing to abandon the alliance for some cash. With significant although reduced trade revenues still coming in, I stayed up until around 2:00 am last night and pushed to a Hoki/Aki line with some room remaining in my reputation bar before deciding that I needed to go to bed or I'd be a wreck today. My plan is to pick up Mimasaka and possibly Bizen also before declaring peace and turtling for a bit before realm divide.

I agree that realm divide is a little "gamey." Stopping conquest specifically to plan around it seems unnatural, but the mechanic has the huge saving grace of making the end game interesting which often disappoints in empire building games like these.

The far north (Date/Uesugi) seems to have really fallen apart. The provinces are rebel controlled (Jinbo is now rolling them up) but I'm not sure why they just disintigrated. Jinbo will be the big player in the north together with some medium sized factions (Hattori, Hojo, and a couple minor clans that expanded to 3-5).

Thinking of trying Uesugi next although I may not finish this game until later this weekend. The monk focus and complicated starting position seem interesting. I'd be very interested in any tips people have from their Uesugi campaigns.

Hi guys.

I recently got the Shogun 2 bug as well.
My first campaign is Shimazu Normal and my god I feel like I have been away for too long, I started off strong taking out the enemy clan in the first few turns and then getting an economy going by pushing trade spots. Right afterwards the Sagara to the north allied with the Shoni in addition to me. Sadly war broke out between me and the Shoni and the Sargara chose to side with them. As you can guess my war economy has tanked while the Sagara has a very large stack within striking distance of Satsuma.

Doesn't bode well for my first try playing a TW game since MTW:2. :oops:

Welcome back The_Emperor. :bow: Good to see you posting again. S2 is a welcome return to form, yes?

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Originally Posted by Leptomeninges

Thinking of trying Uesugi next although I may not finish this game until later this weekend. The monk focus and complicated starting position seem interesting. I'd be very interested in any tips people have from their Uesugi campaigns.

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Complicated doesn't say the half of it! But if you can survive those first few turns it becomes very interesting. Sadly i've not been able to make it out of the first 15 turns as Uesugi yet. A sad fact considering they are my all time favorite right back to S1.

I'm having a blast as Oda. I had an ashigaru fuelled breakout from the initial position. But then I ran into a lack of nearby enemies. Being a decent sort of daimyo, I did not want to start a fight for the sake of it with my amicable neighbours. So I sailed over to Bungo and Bizen to liberate a smith and a naval tradition province from an AI faction described as aggressive and ruthless (hey, it could not have happened to a nicer guy!).

It was a big mistake. I am now positioned like Takeda in STW1 - divided lands, with half my holdings in the west, half in the east. Realm divide is approaching and the prospect terrifies me. It's not a question of fighting a war on two fronts. It's fighting two wars, each on two fronts.

I'm trying to consolidate and also making a play for the trade nodes. I have three, which may not be smart given that Oda is probably the worst placest faction to hold on to them.

I have no allies, no financial surplus, almost no samurai.

But heck, is it fun.

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Welcome back The_Emperor. Good to see you posting again. S2 is a welcome return to form, yes?

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Hey Monk, yes I agree it is a cracking return to form. Talk about a challenge, I went in half cocked expecting it to be like Rome or Medieval 2 without reading up.

I am going to try again with the Shimazu, I think I should focus on building a bloody good economy but I know that the Shoni and sargara can build up a decent sized force if left unchecked. (I guess their provinces must be rich)

Interesting stuff!

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Originally Posted by econ21

I'm having a blast as Oda. I had an ashigaru fuelled breakout from the initial position. But then I ran into a lack of nearby enemies. Being a decent sort of daimyo, I did not want to start a fight for the sake of it with my amicable neighbours. So I sailed over to Bungo and Bizen to liberate a smith and a naval tradition province from an AI faction described as aggressive and ruthless (hey, it could not have happened to a nicer guy!).

It was a big mistake. I am now positioned like Takeda in STW1 - divided lands, with half my holdings in the west, half in the east. Realm divide is approaching and the prospect terrifies me. It's not a question of fighting a war on two fronts. It's fighting two wars, each on two fronts.

I'm trying to consolidate and also making a play for the trade nodes. I have three, which may not be smart given that Oda is probably the worst placest faction to hold on to them.

I have no allies, no financial surplus, almost no samurai.

But heck, is it fun.

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That sounds like some great fun Econ! Maybe offer up some gold in exchange for a few alliances to soften the blow of realm divide? If you can get one position decently secure you might be able to fight off the hordes. :yes:

My Mori campaign slowly grinds on. I picked the short campaign and have 10 years, 10 provinces and Kyoto to go. Tonight I managed to get realm divide and I really sweated it out because of my Ouchi allies. They have been my ally from the beginning but have gone Christian and our relationship went from "very friendly" to "friendly" to "indifferent". Plus we share a rather awkwardly divided Kyushu - with me having the "awkward" part. Miraculously, they stayed with me along with my Chokosabe in-laws, so it is western Japan vs eastern Japan. In my first battle at the top of the Shogunate's "Most Wanted" list, I managed to snatch defeat fromt the jaws of victory defending in a bridge/ford battle. I mauled not only the whole army but my only heir of age.

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Mori Daimyo "Capital" Takakage - son of the late Mori Motonari (KIA), younger brother of the late Mori Motoharu (KIAed with dad) and father of the very late adopted Mori Tomonari (KIA) - surveyed his three remaining generals. It pained him to think he'd have to adopt again but he had little choice if he wanted to insure the Mori clan's survival should he ever decide to step foot outside the capital of Aki. It was indeed getting dangerous out there. His eldest true son too far from manhood and too concerned with what is inside his nose to leave the clan to him. So that left him here, pacing back and forth, studying his generals. While the Mori Daimyo paced, the generals sweated. "Please, not me - I don't wanna die", was the mantra that ran through their head. That "honourable death" crap was for the common soldier...

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I also fought a full fleet vs full fleet naval battle. What a mess. It was like a traffic jam and bumper cars combined and somehow in this fiasco I won an overwhelming victory. Go figure. I am presently rebuilding another large army for the meat grinder in the provinces around Kyoto. Oh, and Mori Amsterdam, er, Iemitsu was the unluck general to be adopted. He was last seen hiding in Kyushu...

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.

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Originally Posted by The_Emperor

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.

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An invasion of Shikoku! :yes:

It'll be a hard fought campaign but if you can manage to secure the island, it's very easy to defend. Provided you have a strong navy of course. ~D

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Originally Posted by Gregoshi

My Mori campaign slowly grinds on. I picked the short campaign and have 10 years, 10 provinces and Kyoto to go. Tonight I managed to get realm divide and I really sweated it out because of my Ouchi allies. They have been my ally from the beginning but have gone Christian and our relationship went from "very friendly" to "friendly" to "indifferent". Plus we share a rather awkwardly divided Kyushu - with me having the "awkward" part. Miraculously, they stayed with me along with my Chokosabe in-laws, so it is western Japan vs eastern Japan. In my first battle at the top of the Shogunate's "Most Wanted" list, I managed to snatch defeat fromt the jaws of victory defending in a bridge/ford battle. I mauled not only the whole army but my only heir of age.

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Don't for a second think your allies won't betray you if you're not wholly ontop of it! Eventually, as you win greater victories against the Shogunate, they will come to fear your power and will strike! :yes:

Keep them happy with gifts, 500-700 koku per turn usually is enough to keep them from switching sides. If not then a half stack sitting on the boarder for insurance will go a long way, if they strike, you may as well be prepared.

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Originally Posted by The_Emperor

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.

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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.

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

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

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Originally Posted by Leptomeninges

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

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

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 ;)

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.

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!!

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!

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Originally Posted by 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!

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

I have a paper due in 7 hours. So naturally here I am talking about my campaign. :laugh4:

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. :laugh4:

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Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief

...on second thought, I may just eschew sleep tonight and keep playing as soon as I finish that paper. :laugh4:

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

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Originally Posted by 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!

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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.

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.

https://img194.imageshack.us/img194/2993/hojomap.jpg

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.

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?

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!

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Originally Posted by 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!

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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 :laugh4:

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Originally Posted by Takeda

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?

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

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Originally Posted by Monk

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 :laugh4:



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

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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

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. :laugh4: May start my next campaign with a more centralized province.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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?

Congratulations on the victory, Ituralde!

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Originally Posted by Ituralde

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

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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.)

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

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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.

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.

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. :bow:

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. :)

That's the fightin' spirit! :boxing:

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.

:2thumbsup: