Takeda campaign

[zyxophoj]

(Takeda, Expert, Sengoku Jidai, Warlord edition)

I'm trying this to see if I can use cavalry effectively. I don't normally use them much, but this campaign will be different. Takeda starts with a horse dojo, and his armies can be very nasty if the enemy is not prepared for them.

Let Total War begin.


Summer 1530



I will attack Suruga and Musashi. Musashi is the main objective here because it is high-income and easy to defend. It will also be tough to take unless I take it early.
Kai isn't really undefended because it is building something. In the western provinces, I abandon Bitchu and move the garrison there to Bingo.

Mori attacks Bingo and Bitchu at the end of the turn. I can't say I blame him - that's what I would do.

Bingo

Mori attacks Bingo with 300 men - 1 archer, 1 YA, and 3 YS.



My cavalry archers harass the enemy from high ground. The presence of enemy archers makes this difficult. I take the cavalry archers off skirmish mode and skirmish manually, to keep them out of enemy archer range. This works until...



My archers mysteriously rout. I think I tripped the Benny Hill detection code.
I really don't see a way to win this now. (And to be honest, there wasn't much of a chance before.) So I send the rest of the army running off as well.



As defeats go, this wasn't too bad.

Musashi

Lord Takeda himself leads this attack, suported by cavalry archers and 2 groups of yari samurai.
The defenders are led by Lord Hojo. He has 3 infantry groups with him: archers, yari samurai, and yari ashigaru. The numbers are exactly equal. Our force is of higher quality, but the bridge gives the defenders an advantage. The weather is unpredictable: rain with bright patches.



Running the archers up to the bridge lets me get a few cheap shots off at the enemy YS. Due to the rain, they don't get many kills.



Maybe this rain can work to our advantage, then: Lord Takeda charges across the bridge and runs off to the right. He is chased by the enemy daimyo, the YS and the YA. (The ashigaru unit is the one barely visible behind the map). With the majority of the enemy distracted, the cavalry archers run across the bridge, closely followed by the two yari units.



No plan survives contact with the enemy. The cavalry got across, but Hojo ran his own unit back to the bridge. Hojo and his giant red umbrella now block the path of my yari units. Hojo's unit is "winning" at this point. To make matters worse, Hojo's ashigaru now pile onto the bridge as well.
Still, it's not all bad. The more dangerous YS is nowhere near the action, and the enemy archers are now sandwiched between two cavalry units. I hit the archers in the back with one, then as they turn round, I hit them in the back with the other one. They take massive casualties and rout in seconds. There are no survivors.



I park the CA behind the enemy, and then charge the daimyo unit into the back of the ashigaru. When the status goes down from "winning easily" to merely "winning", I pull the daimyo back, change to wedge formation, and charge again. The picture is from between the two charges. The ashigaru unit doesn't like this treatment and soon routs. Hojo fights on for a while, but he can't defend against two YS at the front and Takeda's unit at the back. Soon he runs too.



One of the yari samurai stabs him through the back as he tries to flee. All that remains is this one enemy YS. I shoot it until it routs (which really doesn't take very long), then give chase.



Out of 191 enemies, only 7 got away with their lives.

Suruga
The enemy retrated without a fight. Perhaps I should have attacked with fewer men.

Summary

Killed 246, lost 42. The Hojo clan is no more and their remaining lands go rebel. I also get the legendary swordsman event. This was probably caused by one of the cavalry units backstabbing numerous fleeing enemies in a totally legendary manner. In the west, all my forces are stacked in Aki (some of them moved twice in one turn thanks to a feature).

Shinano is next on the target list. That will be in the next post.

[zyxophoj]

Autumn 1530




Lord Imagawa insults me by leaving Totomi undefended. He will pay for his insolence. I send one unit (CA) to attack.
The real purpose of this is to reduce his forces in Shinano.
I'm also making an opportunistic attack on Inaba with one unit (CA). Mori left it undefended. I'd like to grab it at the end of the year when taxes are calcualted; he can have it back after that.

Totomi

The plan was to make Imagawa send more than 60 units into Totomi or to take it for 1 turn and pillage everything. It looks like I will get both results: Imagawa defends with 1 YA and 1 YS.


The ashigaru unit attacks first. I shoot it, it takes huge losses, and routs.
The samurai unit is next. I just put the archers on skirmish and watch for a while. I briefly take control to stop them getting caught at the edge of the map. Once it takes about 50% casualties, it goes to "Marching quickly". Away from me. Towards the rout point.
I don't have many arrows left, so I just follow them. Sure enough, they run all the way off the map. If they had chosen to stand and fight, I would have had no chance.


Flawless victory!

Inaba
Mori gets it right. He defends with 2 units: archers and spearmen. Trees and rain make matters worse. I am unable to take a shot without return fire from the archers. Killed 6, lost 3. Kill ratio is unacceptable, so I withdraw.

Shinano


That is... considerably more resistance than I was expecting. We are facing 3 Yari samurai, 2 samurai archers, and the daimyo's unit.



I climb up the hill on the right. Imagawa's army goes up the other one. Except for these bozos. The archers make use of the massive height advantage.



Aww, this almost makes me feel guilty. The AI is having trouble with impassable terrain. But it eventually figures it out, and sends the 3 yari units up the side of the mountain. My side of the mountain, in fact.



I charge my yari troops down into them. The daimyo hits them from the side. This will not be enough, so I take the 2 archers and run them around the fighting so that they are behind the first enemy yaris.



The first yari unit is surrounded. It routs, taking the other two with it. But my problems are not over. Imagawa is marching himself and his archers up the other side of the mountain!
So now my cavalry runs back the way they came, up to the top of the hill again.
Imagawa's daimyo unit charges down into my yaris. The yaris are tired, depleted, and their formation is messed up. They take losses, but they hold.
My three cavalry units form up, ready to charge. The daimyo unit will go for its opposite number, and the rest will hit the archers.


For great justice.

The enemy archers take horrible losses and soon rout.



...leaving the daimyo on his own. He tries to run, but he's totally surrounded with nowhere to go.



301 more heads to add to our collection.



Totomi is under siege. I pillage everything except the port.
Even at the lowest tax rate, I'm pretty unpopular. The peasants have revolted in Musashi.

Summary

Killed 381, lost 68. Imagawa is dead. He didn't have time to ally with anyone so his lands go rebel as well.
Uesugi is my only real opponent in the west.
All that pillaging gives me a reasonable budget for next year.

[patdj]

Very nice report, I think I can learn a lot here. You are being really "effective". Looking forward to more.

[Wishazu]

Blitzkrieg is definately the way to go with Takeda. Their cavalry gives them a great advantage early in the game which you are taking excellent advantage of. A pity about Hiraga Genshin fleeing from battle. He was a great hero in my Oda campaign lol.

Good report so far.

[zyxophoj]

Their cavalry gives them a great advantage early in the game which you are taking excellent advantage of.

Caralry archers are particulary nasty. The proper counter is yari cavalry - but nobody can build them yet(except me of course) because you need a large castle and a horse dojo. Even in warlord edition, building those two takes a while.

The bad side of Takeda is the awkward starting position: two groups of provinces, both stuck in the middle of things.

Good report so far.

Thanks. More craziness is coming, especially on the western side of the map.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Nice report zyxo

[zyxophoj]

Winter 1530


It's time to do something about the situation in the west. Conventional wisdom is that Takeda should abandon the west on turn 2, and use the extra troops to crush the rebellions and then kill off Uesugi. That is sensible, conservative and safe.

And boring.

The emissary is trying to make peace with Mori, and the army is heading west. Mori will surely grab Aki soon. I see no reason to grant him the port income.

In the east, I withdraw from Totomi. The besieged rebels will auto-recapture, which means no revolt. (Loyalty in Totomi was 27%; the other 3 disloyal provinces were at about 70-90%)

Suo
I attack with 235, Mori defends with 118.
It's nice to have superior numbers for a change. My main objective in this battle is to keep it that way. I don't really care about damaging Mori right now; I just want to win with as few casualties as possible.


Spot the enemy taisho. (Or just look at the map). Taisho is 58 archers. My YS are moving to positions on either side of it.
But where's the other unit?


Oh, there it is. An enemy ashigaru runs out... into the middle of my YS units. Ashigaru do not have the training and discipline of the true samurai. These guys also do not have the common sense of the samurai.


The ashigaru unit is hit from both sides and shot at by 2 archer units. The result is predictable. I let it go and try to get the YS units to either side of the enemy archers. They fight bravely for a bit and then run for it.




Musashi
The cowardly rebels run away without a fight.

Loyalty remains troublesome. I get a peasants' revolt in Suruga and then this happens in Shinano. Ouch.



Spring 1531

I decide to withdraw from Shinano and tackle the revolt in Suruga first.


Nagato


Shimazu has 1 archer unit and 2 ashigaru units. My own yari samurai move forward to tackle the ashigaru. The cavalry waits out of range... they will move when the enemy archers pick a target.


I don't know why they routed, but they did. H0 ashigaru can be pretty flaky, although normally you have to put at least one unit somewhere near them to make them run. The one thing they are good at is running away - their superior speed exposed the backs of the more valuable archer unit.
This battle was over before it really began.


All casualties here are from the enemy archers.

Suruga


And so the stage is set for an epic battle. Lord Takeda himself arrives to defend his land against the horde of three hundred rebels. Here we will be tested like never before. Both strength and skill will be needed to defeat this numerically superior force.


Or not. The revolt consisted entirely of H0 ashigaru, led by a H0 general.

Summer 1531


The revolting peasants have been dealt with and loyalty is back at reasonable levels. It's time to take back Shinano.


In the west, the crusade continues.

Shimazu is badly outnumbered in Buzen. His army retreats.

Shinano

This is the first good look I get at the Uesugi army. He's deployed very strangely: the cowardly archer taisho hangs back while the rest of his 300-man army climbs a hill. The enemy has 2 archers and 3 ashigarus.


..so I send 2 units around the left side to ambush the taisho. The rest of my army goes up the hill on the right.


View from the "ambushing" cavalry. But the sneaky taisho has moved next to his yari units. The ambush won't work now. I guess we just shoot at them then. The height advantage really helps - even cav archers can shoot at foot archers without taking any return fire.


Bizarrely, the taisho continues to advance. He's there at the right edge of the picture. Lord Takeda has run around him and is waiting behind him. Who is the sneaky taisho now?
I have 2 full cavalry units just offscreen to the right. They are the ones getting shot at.


Another sandwich. The ashigarus follow their leader's example and rout along with him. The rest is mop-up.


These archers are the last remaining unrouted unit. The rest of my cavalry is chasing the routers.


Uesugi gets 16 free men off the revolt, and he kills 2 of mine.

Events

The Uesugi clan is now the richest. I really need to do something about that.
The emperor now backs the Oda clan. This message generaly indicates that Oda has finished expanding inwards and will soon start expanding outwards. I'd like to take Mikawa off the rebels before he does.

Summary

Killed 706, lost 38.
This is nowhere near as good as it looks, because 600 of those guys were free reinforcements generated by revolts. Still, I have dealt with the revolts and can concentrate on Uesugi now.

[caravel]

You should probably train up some Shinobi to stabilise your recently conquered provinces.

[Thermal]

Great campaign, easy to read and suits my preferences of lots of pictures without excessive text, I'll be following this

[zyxophoj]

Autumn 1531



I attack Totomi and Kozuke.
I want to keep Totomi. I don't care much about the province of kozuke, I just want to kill off some of Uesugi's forces.

At the end of the turn, Mori grabs Aki. Finally. I really needed him to do that before I ally with him, so he won't be tempted to break the alliance over it.
Good newsin Totomi: The rebels abandon it without a fight. So I get it immediately without having to waste a turn on siege.


Chikuzen
The crusade hits a problem: the rebels combine their forces from two provinces here to stop me.

There's no turning back now. We'll fight them.


2 YA and 1 archer group advance on my position. The rebels have 2 more archer groups - they are barely visible here, hiding near the trees. I'll try to rout the taisho unit first.


View from the back. The rebels very helpfully put their taisho unit in front. My 2 yari groups are going for the sides, and the cavalry goes at the back.
I'm taking a risk here charging cavalry archers into non-routing YS.


They rout when the cavalry hits. Now I need to sort out my units before the next YS arrives.


I am nearly sorted out here. One Ys is holding, the other is moving to flank. The cavalry is disentangled and ready to go round the back of the archers. In fact, they rout before the cavalry gets there.


The first part of the enemy army has been dealt with. Now it's time to regroup and deal with the remaining archers.


The archers in the foreground have been wrapped up and are now running. The other group is still trying to skirmish.


Only 8 rebels got out of this battle in one piece.


Kozuke

I attacked with 103 men: 92 cavalry archers and Takeda's own unit. Imagawa had 120 Yari samurai.
There's really not much to report here. It took me a while to find the enemy, and when I did, they were already leaving. Since they were withdrawing and not routing, the best I could do was shoot some arrows in them as they left.
I only got 6 of them.



Winter 1531


The daimyo moves back to Shinano, in preparation for an attack on Hida. Hida has a castle, and hopefully the rich Uesugi has been spending his koku on something I can pillage.


Hizen


The crusade finally reaches its destination.


It turns out that those 127 men are 60 YS, 60 YA(taisho) and 7 archers. I'm shooting at the taisho here; my Yari units are trying to flank the enemy YS.


The enemy charges into the space between my two units.


They get badly mangled.


The horses run down the fleeing ashigaru. In fact, they get every last one of them. All that remains is to mop up the tiny archer unit.


Mopping successful! Every last rebel is dead, which means no siege.


Kozuke
Uesugi wants to take this province back. Since he's attacking, there will be no revolt here. Lord Uesugi really has no idea how much he's helping me.

Uesugi has 3 archers and one YS unit. The YS is the taisho, and it hangs back while the archers advance. I get a few shots off as they approach.

Once the enemy starts shooting, my cavalry runs round to the back of the enemy taisho.


The first group is in position and the second will arrive soon. The AI now makes a fatal mistake, by chasing after my horses. It should have moved the yaris and archers towards each other.


The taisho's position is now hopeless, stuck between 2 groups of cavalry archers. I just leave them both on skirmish and watch the fun. The enemy unit routs, rallies, and routs again, permanently this time.


I now go for the archers. This won't be pretty, but I just can't pass up the chance to kill off 3 groups of archers.


I was expecting to lose and leave Uesugi with a pathetically small garrison... he'd probably get a revolt if that happened. But now Kozuke is my problem.

Summary
Killed 628, lost 96.
The crusade has succeeded, thanks to AI stupidity in Chikuzen. Hizen has decent farmland and a port. The plan is to hold it for a while, reinforce it through the port, and then expand from there. This has to be better than trying the same thing starting from Aki.
Now I need to focus on weakening Uesugi.

[zyxophoj]

You should probably train up some Shinobi to stabilise your recently conquered provinces.

I will do. In fact I made a mistake here: starting income is 1000 koku. I thought that would be exactly enough for 2 cavalry archers in the first year - but I forgot about the takeda discount! I could have built 2 cav archers *and a castle* in the first year, which would have given me shinobi 2 turns earlier.

[Adam99]

Unlucky frgetting about the castle, but a great blitz, Hojo and Imagawa gone out the game nice and early. Very novel idea of going for Hizen, not thought of going that way before.

[Drisos]

Godlike campaign! You risk a lot with the mini-garrisons you find enough, but it's paying off very well since you keep pulling it off on the battlefield! A few intresting moves in battles... So it's an intresting story!

I also never played with the idea of making the southern part of the Takeda army a crusaders/roaming army. I think it was a good move!

Oh, and, I never came of the idea of catching a region before the end of the year, then in the new year abandoning it again, and in that way, getting the tax money.

So, thanks for intresting ideas... Nice story so far!

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Crusade is an interesting idea...holding on to the top 3 provinces over there would more than half shimazu's income I reckon.

[zyxophoj]

Spring 1532


I attack Hida and abandon Kozuke. Hopefully, someone will grab Kozuke, which will prevent a revolt.

Hida

Archers are hiding in the trees. But I only spot 2 units. There are 240 defenders, so where is everyone else? I send my cavalry to the sides to look for them.


An ashigaru unit comes out of the forest on the right. Takeda runs across the battlefield to help out the cavalry archers. The ashis rout when takeda gets behind them - he didn't even have to charge!
The morale effect of cavalry behind a unit is often much more dangerous than any attack the cavalry might make.


On the other side of the map, a third archer unit comes out to play. With seconds to spare, I remember to put the cavalry back in close formation before it hits.
My timing is bad here. The Yari unit is moving to hit the archers in the back, but it will take a long time and the cavalry will suffer losses.


With the stray units taken care of, it's time to deal with the taisho camped in the trees.


Cavalry may be unable to fight well in trees, but morale penalties still work normally.


1 man got away :(. My army autopillages, giving me 300 koku and depriving Uesugi of 2 buildings.

Summer 1532

What troops?

I accept a cease-fire from Shimazu. Nothing really exciting happens in summer. I abandon Hida to avoid having to deal with the inevitable revolt.
This is a little bit dirty. Revolts depend on (among other things) how long the previous owner had the province. Conquering, abandoning and reconquering appears to reset the count. Still, my main reason for hitting Hida was the killing and the pillaging, so I do have a legitimate reason for this as well as a dirty one.

Autumn 1532

My attempt to weaken Uesugi is working: he's now under siege by rebels in Hida and Etchu. I'm invading Kozuke (again) and Shimosa

Shimosa

Yari troops go across as bait.


..and soon they come back. That was pretty dumb - one unit would have done just as well. Still, both side's archers were shooting into that mess, and the rebels have taken some casualties.


Some of the rebels try to cross the bridge. They get shot up and rout. Here, the enemy archers are trying to pick a fight with all 3 of my CA groups.


Ugh. I can't think of a way to make more progress, so I withdraw.


Kozuke
The rebels leave without a fight.


Winter 1532

Mutsu
This was another stupid battle in which the enemy (all yaris) just walks away.
Killed 45, lost 0.
My army autopillages... something, for 125 koku. Probably a dojo. I manually pillage the port in Mutsu as well.

Hizen

Shimazu isn't very good at keeping his promises. He invades Hizen with 225 men. I have 184. (I replaced the damaged CA here with a fresh one, which shows how much I trust Shimazu's word.)

I deploy on a hill with CA out in front.


Shimazu has his own daimyo unit, 2 archers, a YS and a YA. The ashigaru unit comes out in front, gets shot at, and routs. It will rally once it's behind the rest of the army.


Here I am about to strike. One archer unit is badly shot up and is ready to rout. My cavalry is just offscreen to the right.


Splat! Everything except the daimyo routed at once.


Rather annoyingly, Lord Shimazu gets away. He is the first daimyo to ever survive a battle with Takeda's forces.

Events


What?? I suppose the good news is that my emissary gained honour.


Summary

Killed 753, lost 135. About 60 of those losses were stupid and unnecessary.
Good harvest this year. Harvest income is 2824.
Pillaging income is 800. That's 2 more cavalry archers, all paid for by Uesugi!
Uesugi is now wrecked, probably because I killed most of his army. All of his forces that I can see are under siege. I'll probably abandon the siege in Mutsu, but I'm happy to let the rebels continue the siege for me in the other provinces. They are so helpful!
Shimazu has been badly weakened by the failed attack on Hizen. His garrisons are pathetically small, and I'm seriously thinking about expending from Hizen next year.

The rebels are weak and I am in a great position to gobble up all the rebel lands to the east. I just need to win at Shimosa.

[Thermal]

alot of fights, very entertaining

[Wishazu]

Nice and fast, at this rate you`ll be finished before 1540 lol I don`t know how you do it but I can never leave freshly conquered provinces empty, they constantly revolt.

[Magraev]

Very interesting - I'm tempted to reinstall Shogun.

[zyxophoj]

I don`t know how you do it but I can never leave freshly conquered provinces empty, they constantly revolt.

Leaving them empty is often better than trying to keep them under control. If there is a castle, the besieged forces will auto-recapture, so there is no revolt. If there isn't a castle, then the AI will probably grab the undefended province. This is a bit of an exploit: the AI only knows the province will be empty because it cheats by looking at your moves.

The other thing about capturing and abandoning is that it resets loyalty. Revolts depend on how long the previous owner had the province. If I capture, abandon, and then retake the province on the next turn, then the previous owner only counts as having held the province for 1 turn so revolts are much less of a problem.

Very interesting - I'm tempted to reinstall Shogun.

Do it .. do it ... do it ... doooo iiiit......

[patdj]

I am flabbergasted because of this total effectiveness . I take Wishazu's bet and say you're finished before 1539!

[zyxophoj]

Spring 1533


Takeda moves back, preparing to take Shimosa next turn. Going back via Shimotsuke will hopefully prevent a revolt. Mutsu won't revolt because of teh castle.

On the other side of the map, Chikugo is weak. I invade now, since this will be a pain to take later if Shimazu reinforces it.

Chikugo


Weather forecast is rain with bright patches. If they have spears, I'll wait for the rain to stop, and then shoot. If they have archers, I'll wait for rain and then hit them with the cavalry.


It's archers. My cavalry goes across first.


The cavalry circles around and waits for the yaris to get into position. The enemy archers' loose formation is really not going to help once the charge hits.


They all die.


Shinano

Bad news. I've left Shinano poorly defended. Rebels atack with 120 men.


I shoot until the enemy gets close.


Charge!


That was probably winnable, but not the way I tried to do it.
The rebels take Shinano and burn down my spear dojo!



Summer 1533


Shimazu's garrisons are a joke. How can I not invade here?


It's time to hit Shimosa. This is the only place in the west with any real resistance. I'm also retaking Shinano.

Chikuzen
Shimazu retreats without a fight.

Shimosa
I have 301 vs 291 rebels. Weather is rain with bright patches.


Once again, I get some cheap shots in before the rebels sort themselves out.


Under cover of rain, Takeda gets across without taking casualties.


Takeda is chased by 2 spear groups and this depleted archer unit. He manages to dodge the spears and hit the archers.


Enemy spears are too close to the bridge. I send my spears out first. In retrospect, should have tried sending 1 as bait instead of 2 to hold.


Takeda disengages just in time.


The fight at the bridge is taking its toll. Charging the daimyo unit into the back should finish this.


The enemy at the bridge routs and my cavalry surges across. The spears that Takeda managed to distract are still miles away.


As the weather clears, the enemy heads for the trees.


The archers don't quite make it in time.


One YS is mobbed by my mini-units. It is routing here. The taisho unit is disposed of in the same way.


Every least rebel is dead. My army autopillages 2 buildings for 325 koku. A single spear dojo survives the orgy of destruction.


Shimotsuke?

I'm not quite sure where this little scrap was fought.
I deploy my archers on the side of a hill. The archers come up to me.


I shoot at them. They get into range and shoot back.
I go loose formation to reduce the damage. They do the same.
Big mistake.


SPLAT!!
Archers in loose formation are absolutely hopeless at stopping a cavalry charge. Notice the neat line of corpses here - the entire front row died on impact, with the exception of the taisho.
They rout immediately. Killed 53 (all of them), lost 0. My first perfect score.
That's what I should have done at Shinano.

Shinano
I take this back without a fight. Since I hadn't started construction of the large castle, losing this isn't a disaster, but it's still annoying.


Autumn 1533


With the rebels defeated, it's time to mop up.
I invade Echigo, Hitachi, Mutsu, and Kazusa. Two of these are empty, and the others are very weakly defended.


Mutsu
I have 89 vs 107 of Uesigi's forces.
Uesugi has all spears, I have all cav archers. This is a repeat of the previous stupid "battle" in Mutsu. Killed 23, lost 0.
...and I gain another 100 from pillaging.

Hitachi
I have 88 vs 60 rebels.


...and it's archers. They have no chance. Killed 60, lost 11 archers. Sloppy. I should have let the daimyo absorb the arrows.


..and now the western part of the map turns black. My shinobi are doing a great job keeping loyalty up.
In other news, Oda has lost Owari!


Position at the end of the turn.
Those red provinces are only barely red. I deploy the shinobi and troops to the problem areas and hope for the best.
Shimosa is building ashigaru to keep the revolting peasants happy.

Summary

Killed 574, lost 127.
This is going very well. I'm sitting on most of the rich provinces on each side of the map. Dewa is empty and so I'll take it when I can deal with the loyalty problem.
Shimazu is really, really weak.

[caravel]

STW has a way of surprising you with sudden drops in provincial happiness which are invisible to you as they occur between turns. I've had my entire realm go into revolt once or twice and I had to click through about 20 revolt messages once and lost most of my provinces. This usually occurs when your Daimyo dies in battle.

It's a good idea to have at least an Ashigaru garisson, a castle and 1 or two Shinobi to hold the provinces down. Your yellow and red provinces are vulnerable to factions reappearances so I wouldn't go wiping out Uesugi just yet. Any reappearance force will run all over your unmanned provinces. A reappearance by Hojo may be still a possibility however as he may have had an under age heir at the time.

[patdj]

Killed 53 (all of them), lost 0. My first perfect score.

"perfect" means all enemies dead, no loss? because you already had a 0-loss-fight in Totomi in Autumn 1530. You see, I'm literally absorbing your descriptions.

[Adam99]

Brilliant campaign so far, think some shinobi/ ashigaru to stabilise the conquered regions is a must, as is smashing Shimazu off Kyushu. looking forward to the rest of is.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Nice progress! Watch out for the terrible (-50%) harvest though, that can really damage loyalty...

[Thermal]

Most daring and exposed campaign ever, only a military genius can pull that off, it's quite insulting that you still have very little money though, seeing as you have so many territories and quite a small army.

[zyxophoj]

Autumn 1534
I'll skip ahead a season or two because nothing interesting happened.


In the east, my vast empire is finally turning green. I might even be able to raise taxes soon.


Last season, I invaded bungo, and Shimazu retreated without a fight. It's time to finish the job.


Bungo


The enemy taisho was extremely tough and killed 7 of my men! This is the first battle with a kill ratio of less than 1:1. Sanada Banzan got rank 4 off this.


It's harvest time, and my economy is starting to make a difference.

Winter 1534

Hojo's lands are now green, which means no chance of a reemergence.
I invade Mikawa and Etchu. Etchu keeps getting invaded by monks from Kaga. I usually shoot them full of arrows and then retreat, then I have to take it back.


My shinobi are dong a fine job here as well. I'm sending small army to Satsuma.

Higo
Shimazu retreats.

Buzen
60 foot archers vs 60 of my horse archers. Once they go into loose formation, I charge. They fight for a bit then rout. Killed 60, lost 6.

Mikawa
I have 338 vs 137 defenders.
The rebels have mostly archers, some spearmen, and 4 monks.


Once again, running the CA up to the bridge lets me get some free shots in.


I aleady sent Takeda over the bridge and off to rhe right. Now the rest of the cavalry runs to the left.


I hit the smaller archer group.
This was not a great idea, as the spears in the centre are now going to hit my cavalry in the back.


The spears do a lot of damage, until I hit them in the back with the daimyo unit. The last of my forces arrive on the rebels' side of the river and hit the taisho unit. Once it routs, everything else goes with it.


One got away. Those CA took an avoidable beating.


Etchu
The cowardly monks retreat.

Spring 1535

Time to hit Satsuma.

In the east, a watch tower in Mikawa gives me some valuable intelligence: Oda has a huge stack of archers in Mino. The rebels in Owari have almost all spears.

Satsuma
I attack with 221 vs 180.


Shimazu defends with 2 archers and 1 Yari samurai. I'm winning the archery duel here.


I'd like to hit these guys in the back with my cavalry, but trees and enemy spears are a bit too close for comfort.


What do they think they're doing? The enemy army marches past mine and gets shot at. My CA are set to skirmish with the spears, so they'll be fine if the taisho decides to attack them.


...but they just walk off the map, getting shot in the back the whole time.


My army turns itself invisible and trashes Sarsuma.
I don't think Shimazu can recover from this.


Summer 1535


Rookies continue the siege in satsuma while ranked generals go after what's left of Shimazu's army.

In the east, I invade Owari with a big pile of archers.

Satsuma
Shimazu wastes everyone's time by sallying and then retreating before combat.

Hyuga
Mop-up continues. I invade with 79 vs 109. Enemy is all spears, I have cavalry archers. Killed 41, lost 0.

Buzen
I have 54 CA vs 60 archers.


Don't try this against a human player. The AI leaves its archers on skirmish, so I can safely approach through the trees.

They refuse to go into loose formation but I charge anyway.
The victory screen says I killed 59 and lost 12. There were definitely 60, so one must have shot one of his buddies in the back of the head.

Owari
I attack with 269 vs 429.


They have 26 archers. The other 403 are spears and monks. My foot archers can even get a shot at the enemy from my side of the river!


They just sit there and take it. I was enjoying myself tremendously here.


So many corpses. I run out of arrows before I run out of targets. It was probably possible to rout the remnants but I didn't want to risk it.

Position in Autumn 1535:

Lord Shimazu is feeling very lonely. I don't really want to attack him because his unit regenerates, and I'm not quite ready to kill him.

Summary
Killed 706, lost 83
Shimazu is badly messed up, but he has very large garrisons in Nagato and Iyo. I have no idea why he didn't use them to defend his home provinces. Mori is weak in the west and he's going to get a nasty surprise very soon.

The blitz is slowing down a bit as I run into large garrisons in the centre of the map. But I have built a few dojos with my large income.. a second wave is coming.
It looks like my main oppenent now is Oda. He has a large army, and that's just what I can see in Mino!

[Adam99]

Going well so far. Shimazu is looking like he's on his way out, maybe a few reinforcements might be an idea though if he has troops waiting elsewhere.

[zyxophoj]

Autumn 1535

Oda splits his stack in Mino. This is the perfect chance to invade.

Satsuma, castle assaut
I attack with 129 vs 60. This is not going to be pretty but I need the castle and I need it quickly.


My archers shoot ineffectively through the open door while the enemy archers shoot through the wall with great accuracy.


The first yari group arrives, and gets beaten up pretty badly. But at least now it's possible to flank the enemy.


We make some progress but now the enemy archers draw their swords and attack.




...
But they rally! I shoot at the remnants of the enemy yaris. They fall one by one until only one remains.



That one man has hundreds of arrows sticking out of him but he's still standing.


Kryptonite-tipped spears are always a good investment. Finally, he goes down.
Ugh. I take the castle and spear dojo. I can build some replacement yari samurai now.

Osumi
I corner some stragglers. They have nowhere to go and will disappear if I can beat them. Which I do. Killed 68, lost 16.

Buzen
Shimazu attacks my CA with the daimyo and some archers. I withdraw.

Mino
Oda retreats without a fight. 600 koku pillaged.



Winter 1535



Here's the reason he retreated. He sent half his force from Mino to grab Owari, following my "defeat" there. What was left behind had no chance.
Bah! I'll fight them in Owari then.


At the end of the turn, he invades Mino, and then retreats from there to Omi, which he has just grabbed.


...and this has the hugely irritating side-effect of pushing *my* invasion force back to Mino!! All that is left is an archer unit that invaded from Mikawa.
They fire off all their arrows but it isn't enough. Killed 26, lost 0, defeated.
Oda completely outmaneuvered me this time.

Hida
The rebels walk away while getting shot at. Killed 67, lost 1. Friendly fire?

Spring 1536

Shimazu's goal of reunification of Kyushu will soon be realised.

There is no resistance at Bungo. At Buzen, he puts up a fight.

Buzen

Yet another demonstration of the perils of loose formation. They never learn. Kiled 60, lost 2.

Omi


I nearly called this off. I'm so glad I didn't.


Oda's force is huge. He ignores my tiny army and advances on the rebels, I take up position behind him. These half-ashigaru units on the hill are easily routed.


This looks like a good spot to watch Oda and the rebels fight. A sneaky ashigaru rallies and charges. It routs again before it hits.


The rebels have monks, and they are really giving Oda a hard time. Monks' big weakness is archers. Let's see if I can distract some of Oda's archers.


The archers chase me for a bit. Once they go loose, I charge and kill them all. In the background, the monks have routed most of Oda's army.


I shoot at what's left of the rebels but don't have enough arrows to finish them. I should have chased after Oda's army when it routed; I'd have got a lot more kills that way.
What's not shown here is the massive damage that Oda and the rebels did to each other.


Owari
Finally, I take owari. The rebels are massively outnumbered so they retreat into the castle.

The Emperor backs the Oda clan. Again. I'm starting to think that Oda hasn't quite dealt with the problems inside his borders.

Summer 1536

This is what we're up against in Iyo. Why did Shimazu let me take over with my tiny armies?
Still, this army isn't that scary... Massive cavalry archer spam is probably the correct strategy here. Wait, isn't that my only strategy?

On the other side of the map, Uesugi moves to Echizen. (He's been holed up in the island of Sado up until now). A great opportunity for me to grab Sado and the port that just got built there.

Sado

I'm pretty sure this is winnable. Killed 50, lost 2, pillaged 200 koku.

Buzen
Yet again, Shimazu attacks with 1 unit of archers. Yet again, I kill it with minimal losses. Killed 60, lost 6.

Mori takes Wakasa off Oda. Maybe I should just build watch towers and watch my enemies kill each other.
Rebels retreat from Omi and Ise. 875 koku pillaged at Ise.


Autumn 1536


With Owari taken, reinforcements can come in through the port.

Rebels retreat from Iga without a fight. 425 koku pillaged.


There's a big difference between farm income and total income. Pillaging income for this year is over 2000 koku.



Summary

Oda is sneaky and repeatedly avoids a big fight. It costs him a few provinces, though. This is really annoying, because my strategy so far has been to attack armies and pick up the provinces later. I decide to go after Mori and Uesugi, since their armies can't retreat so easily.
Oda is not the great threat that I thought he was. He's fighting Mori and Mori appears to be winning. He is also having a hard time with the rebels.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

heh, the AI and their love of ashigaru/archer armies never gets old. So much fun when you have a couple cavalry archers.