Turn #111:

Ah. Seems like I'm getting a good chance in Shinano, but losing Mino meanwhile. They're attacking Mino from Hida and Mikawa. It's 140 vs. 383. I have 120 skirmishers and 20 thunderbombers. I can't win, I guess, but I'll see if I can take some heads. Will deploy very close to the border to make a very short retreat possible.
Crap! Loads of Ashigaru crossbowmen. Perhaps I should retreat right away. I'll wait some longer, maybe their Yari's will advance along.
Yes. Mission accomplished. Killed 44 YS of them, lost 0. Lost battle of course, though.

Now Shinano. If I loose all these men die, which would bring me great trouble. 300 vs. 351. I'm curious.
Attacking in thick fog. (not intentional) Find the enemy at the big hill in the back of the map. I move to their side, micro-manage a nice attack on the flank of their YS-units, and most of them rout within seconds. Killed 308, lost 13.

Lol. I must have conquered Shinano before. Nothing there. (something though, but not as much as expected.) My mistake. Since that army is now cut loose too, I'm moving it to/attacking Hida. No attack yet in Kaga, I might come in time to reinforce. However, same time Hojo has cut trough to Mino and can take other regions. I simply don't have much of an army left after so many years of fighting.

Turn #112:

Hojo Daimyo presses on to Echizen from Mino. Again, my 120 skirmishers and 20 thunderbombers may give it a try, knowing though that victory is nearly impossible.
Lol. They actually won! After a long wait the enemy finally approached. Thunderbombers once again were no use. (weather... crap!) But after a short ranged engagement I killed 42 and lost only 3, so their ashigaru's had seen enough and went home. Nice.

Now then more important: Defending Kaga. You could call this outnumbered: 515 vs. 1024. However, I've done it before. I'll do my best.
Ha. Another nice victory. Killed 653, lost 41. My Light Cavalry and Skirmishers got some nice volleys, and after that they soon broke to a massive cavalry charge. The chase afterwards didn't go too well, apparantly. Still happy about this one though. The rest of their army is trapped in the castle! Very nice. A pointless death for all of them.

They gave up on Hida. Destroying the stuff there. 73 men in the castle, yet I can't stay, because it will probably cause a revolt. (=more men for Hojo) So, moving on to Etchu. (There's 100% farming there etc.)

Turn #113:

This 'trip' to Shinano, Hida & Etchu gave us thousands more koku. Still wondering where all those thousands of reinforcements are...

Moving the army in Etchu back to Kaga. (loyalty there was BAD, so I'm trying to save it now.) Same time, I try to stop Hojo's moving back into my territory. Sent some of the '60-men-loyalty-garrisons' to the front line regions bordering Mino.

Turn #114:

Nothing special happening. Hojo isn't attacking, but gathering forces. It's just damn plain now. I need reinforcements, otherwise he'll slowly continue breaking my territory down. I don't have any idea what to do about it. I'll just wait and pray.
Loyalty in Kaga is better now. In the backland it seems working still too.

Turn #115:

Same story.

Turn #116:

Attacked in Owari. 108 vs. 1001. I retreat. There's now hope in such battles.

Time for another screenshot.



As you see, the army in Kaga is my last 'significant' army. I don't know what to do with it though. You can also see I'm using more and more of those '60-men-loyalty-garrisons' in the line of defense. Won't help though. Hojo can bring up big numbers in no time, and my army is only decreasing and decreasing...

Turn #117:

No changes.

Turn #118:

Hojo armies rapidly growing. No further changes.

Turn #119:

No changes.

Turn #120:

No changes.

Turn #121:

No changes.
Surpising loyalty in the backland. (Where the small loyalty-garrisons left all's still ok.)

Turn #122:

No changes.

Screenshot:



Huge army in Noto as you see. An attack will come. Even if I win, there's no hope. They will eventually break through. Only a going stream of reinforcements on my side could conquer Japan.

That's it for tonight. Kinda hopeless situation. :(

Turn #123:

No changes really.
Going to reduce the amount of units in the backland significantly. Have to try to minimize Hojo progress westwards, while waiting for reinforcements.

Might take that 'big' army in Kaga to push into enemy terrority one last time. (Send them towards Kozuke/Shimotsuke/Hitachi/Shimosa/Musashi/Kai/Kazusa/Sagami etc.) Would be nice if I defended Kaga once before that, so that these huge armies are decreased. If my army would walk away now they'd walk over my leftover garrisons in no time.

Turn #124:

No changes.

Turn #125:

No changes.

Turn #126:

Finally, there they come. Attacking Omi. I have only few Korean units. 240 vs. 720 it is. Again I will see what they can do before retreating.
Good result again. Shot quite some YS with my skirmishers. Killed 174, lost 13.

Also, they attack Kaga. At last. 680 vs. 2383. Let's kick some ass.

My simple deploy:



I get in some very nice shots with the skirmishers and thunderbombers. Their infantry is decimated. I take quite a few losses by their ranged fire meanwhile though. When most of their infantry was dead or routing I gave them the heavy cavalry charge... of course that routed all the rest. Chasing them down now.



Again, rest of battle wasn't really intresting. One by one killing off groups of enemies with my cavalry. Went well.



Leaving Kaga now... and attacking Hida. Planning to go to Shinano-Mikawa-Totomi-Suruga-Kai-Sagami-Musashi, etc. (Quite ambitious eh )
Also attacking Omi. Who'd expect that? It's meanly Korean infantry what I have. It might prove a total mistake to even try this... but who knows?

Turn #127:

Lol! They assasinate a general of mine in Echizen. He was rank -1. Why on earth would they want to do that?

They attacking Ise from Omi and Owari... few men remained in Omi, so they gave up on that. Ise is 300 vs. 386. (Including their Daimyo) *I realise all of a sudden that eliminating their family would be VERY useful at this point, may want to try killing their Daimyo in this battle. I recall killing loads of generals in battle, so who knows how few heirs he has left*

Hmmm, not a chance. Still won though. Killed 178, lost 60. (Bad result, I know, I was too busy with luring his daimyo) Lost quite some by ranged fire. Anything that came near was killed by my skirmishers.

They gave up on Hida. 400 men in that castle. After a great doubt I decide to stay there for a while. Almost all of my cavalry is in that army. Only 1 unit (a 4 star general) is sent to Echizen.
I'm also in doubt about an eventual attempt to wipe out the Hojo family. I'm attacking Owari. (Daimyo's there now... who knows)

Sceenshot:

Turn #128:

Attack on Owari. 451 vs. 426. Don't feel confident about this.
Hmm, simple victory. Crossed both bridges same time, he was defending further backward. Came to me and opened fire. Skirmishers soon scared them off. Suprisingly soon they routed. Chased some of them down with my single cavalry unit. Killed 199, lost 13.

One second I had the hope that his daimyo was trapped in the castle... but sadly not. He's in Mino. Ghehe, another plan: surround Mino and then conquer it. Would be hard though. I'm attacking Shinano now with my 'roaming' army from Hida. Moving some other troops into Hida to let those men in the castle die. Also keeping a garrison at Owari for that purpose.
Loyalty is still ok, everywhere. Keeps surprising me.

Turn # 129:

They give up on Shinano. 100 men in castle, but I can't wait, because his 'Huge Noto army' is now in Etchu. They may take Shinano back anyway. So, moving on to Mikawa now. I give up the plan of surrounding the enemy Daimyo, for now.
The castle in Hida was conquered... so I retreat back to echizen, moving more troops back to my line of defense. (Echizen/Wakasa/Omi/Owari)
The conquering of Omi, Owari, Hida and Shinano already gave me another load of koku.

Turn #130:

Ouch, they're defending Mikawa. 526 vs. 370. And I have to win, for Shinano is conquered back by them behind me. Let's hope I don't take too many losses.
Ah, good enough, I guess. Killed 264, lost 31. The first unit to cross lost lots, but when they broke through I could kill many in the chase.
Moving on to Totomi right away.

I'm leaving Echizen now too. Turning my 4-regions line of defense into one of 3 regions.

Turn #131:

Crap, didn't work. They moved so many troops into Mino that I didn't even bother trying. Retreating to the Wakasa/Omi/Owari line.

They gave up on Suruga. Moving my troops to Kai now. I notice that Izu is well advanced as well. May move there after Kai.

Turn #132:

Crap... second defense against my roaming army already. 495 vs. 480. No doubt that I might win, but if this continues I won't get very far.
Ok, nice. They routed at the start of battle. Another victory for my general, and no losses on this quest.
Moving on to Izu now. Sadly I have to leave the castle with 480 men alone... Still a full stack in Shinano and I don't want to do that battle.

Screenshot:

Turn #133:

Conquered Izu, now moving to Sagami.
No further changes.

Turn #134:

Awww, they probably thought they gathered enough troops now to continue taking territory back... they attack Wakasa. It's 440 vs. 753. Will be hard.
Hmm, only had to shoot some infantry off with thunderbombers (they killed 16 of their own, pity) and counter some cavalry with korean infantry. Wen well. 183-30.

Crap, they moved a big part of their Shinano army to Kai. Let's hope they don't block my roaming army in time. Also, they moved some troops to Sagami. Still gave up though. Moving on to Musashi. (had to leave yet another big army trapped in a castle alone... too bad)

Turn #135:

Crappy! Again I'm forced to attack a river. 495 vs. 480 in Musashi.
Use the same unit as bait, and same method. Shot down his yari's a bit, when shot down enough, I engaged them, they soon routed, and I could rush my cavalry to his ranged units, routing the entire army. Chase wasn't super effective, but still killed 299. Lost 19.

Moving on to Kozuke.

No further changes.

Turn #136:

Ha! They give up on Kozuke, another nice amount of Koku. (I deliver 10.000 in one year this time, just to give some numbers)
Rebellion in Musashi. Non-Hojo, so I'm only happy with that. Hojo's enemy is my friend.

Moving into Echigo now. Watchtowers in Kozuke told me that it has rebuilt some expensive buildings.

Turn #137:

No resistance in Echigo. Dewa shows 'mine income', so I'll move by there too.

The rebels now own Musashi.
No further changes.

Turn #138:

No resitance in Dewa. Moving on to Mutsu.
No further changes.

Turn #139:

No resistance in Mutsu, much koku from there. Moving on to Shimotsuke.
No further changes.

Turn #140:

Next attack on Wakasa. 410 vs. 1198. Going to deploy close to the border...
Hmmm, another simple victory. They routed pretty soon. killed 531, lost 68 or so.

Pretty much resistance in Shimotsuke, 476 vs. 817.
Simple case of micromanaging in a mayor engagment. Killed 638, lost 40.

Moving on to Hitachi now.
This year I brought in 10.000 again. Just to be sure I'm giving numbers.

Enough for today.

I've been watching for heirs with my 'roaming army'. Haven't found any. I might give killing that Daimyo a few more chances.
But with the current amount of troops I have left, I can't defeat the remaining armies on the map, I think. Not even if they turn Rebel and no new enemy troops are made.

Turn #141:

They give up on Hitachi. 5000 koku from that. Moving on to Shimosa.
No further changes.

Turn #142:

They move in some men to Shimosa... have to attack. 436 vs. 420.
They start to retreat when I cross the bridge. Chase them of course. Killed 172, lost 5.

Move 2 units into Kazusa. Don't dare to go there with my entire army, because the Hojo might then retake Shimosa and I would have only one way out: trough attacking a full stack behind a river. I hope to hold Shimosa 2 turns and then move back westward.

Turn #143:

Aw. Major attack in Shimosa. 431 vs. 1548. Most men sent in my port.
Lol. Shogun: Total Slaughter.
First wave was drama! Shot down dozens of ND, then blocked the bridge with 2 units of Heavy Cavalry. Lost few, killed loads, especially because they were so many that they could easily run away from the bridge. After that, slaughtered some individual units here and there, and voila
Killed 994, lost 16.

My Kazusa-attack was automatically cancelled. Trying again now.

Turn #144:

Lol! Once again. Now: 415 against 1607. (Gah, my Kazusa-attack is cancelled again )
Same story. Killed 1110, lost 23.

Trying Kazusa for the third time now...

Turn #145:

Finally. Kazusa. 112 vs. 120.
Simple. Killed 114, lost 3.

Moving the units back to Shimosa. New harbours are emerging already. I think I'll take my army and go back westward, towards his daimyo.

Turn #146:

Moving into Musashi

Turn #147:

Resistance in musashi. 389 vs. 180.
They retreat when I cross the bridge. Lose 4 in the chase sadly, but kill 99.

Moving to Sagami.

Turn #148:

They gave up on Sagami. Moving to Kai. (Izu has nothing to pillage, Kai has mines, and Sagami had harbour)

Turn #149:

Major attack on Omi. 446 vs. 1078. With only 2 skirmisher units and for the rest weak infantry I don't know if it's winnable. I'll go for it though.
Tough battle. Killed 435, lost 189. Their reinforcements killed a lot. The first wave was pretty easy with a few volleys and a charge. (they even rout from a infantry charge )

The give up on Kai. Invading Shinano now.

Turn #150:

Resistance in Shinano: 385 vs. 397.
Enemy retreats when I come close. Manage to chase some down still. 81 kills.

Going to give surrounding his Daimyo a try. Attacking Mino bigtime, and leaving my army in Shinano at the defense. Will be hard to get this done, but maybe it'll payoff.

I played on for many more turns after this. Yet, the last stages of campaign were very boring, so much that I didn't even finish it, and last dozens of turns weren't as intresting to read.
Two tings went 'wrong'.
- No reinforcements. While I sent tens of thousands of Koku. This is not normal. Bug?
- Infinite Hojo Family. As said, I made plans to start killing off their family. And I went to execute that plan. I killed his Daimyo in battle 9 times. While I kill the enemy general in battle like 2/3 times, so lots of heirs should've already been dead. It became clear that those heirs just 'appeared' when the Daimyo died. Probably because it's better for this campaign that the Hojo family does not die out. Feature?

At my line of defense I was pushed backward step by step. The Hojo kept making huge armies in no time. My kill ratio was awesome throughout the campaign, but even if it is 10:1, you can't win if you don't have any source of new troops and the enemy makes hundreds each turn. It was quite intresting though, struggling with very few troops to hold them off long as possible. Something I haven't done in a campaign before, I guess. I might have hold out of 10 more years or so, I wouldn't know. But the Hojo would've won. That's clear.
Very enjoyable campaign though. Most battles were too easy, but on the strategical map it was all quite intresting.

Thanks for reading! I'm sorry that I couldn't finish the story.