There is a madness in his method

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Bad news--Lord Uesugi has lost a battle and was forced to commit seppuku. The Hojo are becoming very powerful.



It takes a couple years to get Shingen's army ready because of the size of Hojo's forces in Musashi.


Easy as pie.


After the siege is done Shingen invades Kozuke.


And then Mutsu to take away the troop production and link up with the monk producing facilities in Aki.


The Hojo have other plans! Nobutora will have to rouse himself for battle...


The hojo general is an idiot...instead of heading right up the hill into the cover of the woods he circles the base of the cliff while getting torn apart by arrows. A commendation for Hiraga Nobuharu, I believe each man in his unit killed enough to be considered a legendary swordsman...


Raiders are sent to raize Musashi and then Shimosa...they will finish up by destroying kazusa, burning the port behind them as the leave. The loss of the hojo army in the attack on Kai has crippled them.

The shimazu make an attempt on suo but are thrown back easily.


Kozuke is conquered, Dewa is destroyed, and Shingen is preparing an army for the attack on Mino...just 4 provinces left to slice honshu in half.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Invasion time! I really have no idea what kind of forces the Oda have.


Shingen moves quickly to grab the high ground in the middle of the map and the Oda army retreats to a ridge at the back.


Unfortunately for them this position is not a strong one and Shingen outflanks them


Seeing this the Oda taisho withdraws his troops


Not quite quickly enough however...the two naginata units were especially easy to chase down.


After years of getting plenty of koku I am struggling...the high cost of garrisons in east is hurting me. I build improved farmland in mutsu.


The Oda interior seems to be deserted. Shingen will wait to finish the siege but the invasion of tamba can begin now.


Perfect! Mino is one of the easiest provinces to defend. They bring 1500 to my 800. The Oda general in Tamba retreats in the face of my army and the Shimazu attack on Harima is beaten back with no trouble


I deploy up close, and hide two naginata cavalry in the woods to the right. Have just about the perfect army for this map--perhaps a CA in place of one of the yari sams.


Hmm, it seems lord imagawa has taken the opportunity to invade as well...they don't seem to be very coordinated though!


Imagawa has moved around to the flank, but oda has marched in two quickly and been destroyed by arrow fire.


The monks charge down one side of the hill and rout the oda...


Then down the other to route the imagawa...half my cavalry chase down the oda and deal with some archer reinforcements while the other half come out of hiding. One of those units distracts some imagawa infantry while the other hits the archers.



A crushing defeat for the enemy...about half my casualties came from carelessly chasing down a unit of withdrawing yari samurai with my cavalry. Seems they still wanted to fight.



So, two decisive battles in mino plus a castle siege end up costing the enemy 2000 men...really eases the pressure on my garrisons.