Imagawa Campaign

[Sasaki Kojiro]

My takeda campaign really renewed my interest in shogun. Playing with out intending to conquer all the provinces is very refreshing. I enjoyed a Mori campaign where I just defended one province until all the other clans died out so I've decided to do something similar with the Imagawa. Starting in Sengoku Jidai, I'll start by abandoning totomi etc and moving into oda territory, with the eventual goal of holding on to yamashiro, iga, omi, and yamato. All fun provinces to defend which is key. I'll build up my technology until I can field armies of kensai, battlefield ninja and warrior monks and then try and outlast whoever conquers the rest of the provinces. Since I don't think I'll be able to get enough money from those 4 I'll conquer kyushu as well. As fitting for imagawa I'll make the best use I can of ninja, emissaries and shinobi.

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The start: sending my ninja's after emissaries, my emissary to Lord Takeda, and moving en mass to owari.



Invasion of Owari goes well, he lets me shoot him up from my side of the river. Kill 123, lose 33.



After taking Higo without a fight I move on to satsuma to knock out their troop production. Kill 114 lose 25. General is now rank two, going well.



Things are looking promising in the east, oda is weak.



First bit of bad luck--my emissaries head returned to me. Takeda must intend war. Sure enough he invades Suruga. I burn the buildings in totomi.



No point in lingering in Satsuma, I head back north to take on the daimyo, stopping in Higo to put out a rebellion. Killed 120 lost 2. Next turn I attack bungo and after a brief skirmish there Lord Shimazu decides to withdraw. Probably smart of him since I could easily have crushed him...



Omi is empty so I invade. Might as well get a quick start on building here, I plan on having citadels in all four of these provinces. Maybe not yamato.



Ok, this will be trickier than I thought...

[LittleGrizzly]

Yeah that stack was always a problem in Oda games... I think its usually WM and SA as well

are you just weakening shimazu before you abandon left side of the board or are you setting up a base there as well ?

2 Enjoyable campaigns! hard to do something different with Shogun but this is....

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I'm going to conquer kyushu and use it as a money making base...ports in every province, improved farmland in my starting 3.

Stack will be a problem for sure, I'm much shorter on manpower than I would be as oda.

[Wishazu]

Maybe try making peace with Oda, a long shot as you need a new emmissary but if oda agree you can grab Ise(good farm income) and you can probably then leave the bigger ronin stacks for him to deal with.

[Adam99]

Another interesting campaign, i'm interested in seeing if this works. Shame you got rid of everything in Totomi, some reinforcements might have come in handy.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

In the west all is well. Shimazu is on the run and my ninja is killing every emissary that crosses his path.



Oda has decided to take Mikawa and the rebels are building troops in Ise. I decide to nip that in the bud. Omi will be vulnerable but that can't be helped.



The AI always seems to maneuver too much for their own good. Starting in the middle and then running for the woods and then turning back? Reciped for disaster. The monks rout from archer fire alone and my daimyo and yari sams kill the taisho. I get the legendary swordsman event.



Ok, I missed a couple years here. Shimazu invaded from Nagato and I had to pull back from southern kyushu. I can't afford to leave an army in buzen so I will have to destroy the force in nagato first. The AI runs most of their army across the map but leaves their taisho in the woods to die. Archers destroy the ashigaru. Kill 333 lose 56. No more threat from nagato.

Meanwhile Oda sends his army from Iga against me. It's one of those ashigaru/archer armies though, I rout all the ashigaru with arrows, damage the archers enough to weaken their morale and then charge. Mass rout.



Here's the situation. With the Iga army destroyed I don't have to defend Ise as much (Kii and yamato are both empty). I move back to Omi where I've built a spear dojo. In the west I'm ready to invade Satsuma and put an end to the shimazu.

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And now I'm going to skip ahead a bit:



The time has come! My army is not that big but Mori has invaded yamashiro and then decided against it a couple times and I can't let him have the honor. I have 551 troops to their 648.



I choose fog! Fog can be fun. I maneuver my army to the side as you can often outflank the AI pretty easy in the fog. The upper half troops in this pic are the ghost image of where my units are heading.



Uh oh! The enemy general is very aggressive and charges right forward. They must have deployed up in the front of their zone. I scramble to back up and form a line but my troops aren't really in position. No screenshots of this part obviously :)



I killed some monks with arrows but not nearly as many as I would like. That's always the case though :)
My yari samurai are taking a beating, but I've ganged up on one monk unit with my daimyo and have my archers charging into the back of another though. The yari samurai continue to fall like flies and soon my entire line is wavering. I charge more archer units in for support, leaving one to fire into the back of the unit my daimyo is fighting.




Yes! I rout a couple key units on either end of the line and the monks rout. Just archers and ashigaru left. They soon rout as well. My yari samurai got absolutely slaughtered. Turns out I forgot to put them on hold formation A nearly fatal error.



The archers and ashi's rout quickly.



Hah, exactly equal kills. Never seen that before. Fitting.

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Now, that battle was very enjoyable, and that made the next 10 or so years of play where I followed my original plan to build citadels in some central provinces and see how long I could hold out much too boring. Basically I dug in and built up my economy along with a bunch of shinobi that I used to make half of mori's territory revolt. I got to the point where I was training honor 5 monks and battlefield ninja and quit for the time being anyway.

Went back to this save:



With the plan to continue on offense. Trying to conquer kyushu and the oda territories at the same time as imagawa is quite interesting on it's own.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Invasion of Satsuma, summer 1533. Should pretty much be the death knell of the Shimazu. 400 of my men versus 350 of theirs.



Having invaded Satsuma before I know how this goes, and immediately charge up the hill at double time, managing to reach the top before the enemy. Take some losses due to arrow fire early, but you can see here I'm about to roll up their right flank...



...like this. Kill 134 lose 114, hard to get a good kill ratio when you can't chase down the enemy



This should finish of the Shimazu clan.



And it does. I put my army in the woods at the back and Lord Shimazu charges straight into my spears. His army flees and is trapped in the castle.



Faction eliminated! I have a feeling that I'll have to deal with unrest for some time. Indeed I have rebellions in Satsuma and Osumi, and the ronin invade bungo. Now I have two rank three generals to defend kyushu. I plan on training nodachi in satsuma so I send my ninja to open the gates, he fails unfortunately.



With Kyushu taken care of it's back to yamashiro. This time I end up with an extra SA and YS unit somehow, I think I bought less Shinobi. Will also remember to use hold formation this time

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Battle for Yamashiro



This time I choose no fog, and make sure I spot the enemy at the start of the battle. They are in the back this time so I move to take the hills in the center.



Lord Imagawa surveys his troops as they move to outflank the enemy.



The Imagawa army moves to so that half of it is occupying the high ground. The enemy responds by shifting away, however they send a few units of archers down to face mine. The Imagawa archers could have shot them down easily but Lord Imagawa wanted to save his arrows for the monks. He charges into the woods to take on the archer units and is chased by a warrior monk unit, which kills two of his hatamato. The enemy send more archers and some ashigaru, the rest of the monks are still in back allowing our archers to focus on this one.



The lone monk unit soon routes, along with the ashigaru at the top of the screen.



A nice view of the battlefield. The monk unit that bravely charged out into the open was lost 80% of its men. The monks that stay in the trees take fewer losses. Battle was going pretty fast for me, you can see I don't quite have my yari samurai in position.



Close up view. Monks arrive in a straggle due to the trees and are met with a mass of yari samurai. Soon the all rout.



Only the archers left. They don't last long.



Most of my yari samurai weren't even used. It's a lot easier when they don't get the jump on you, lol.



Hmm, the Mori have quite a few troops now.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

A few seasons later. The Mori army keeps growing and their daimyo has taken kii. However I am spending all my money on troops + farmland in owari, leaving kyushu in stasis for now. The oda attacked owari but had their minds blown by the existence of not one but two bridges and couldn't choose which one to cross, oh well it gave me a two star general for free. I assaulted the castle in yamashiro to save it and to get a win for my daimyo, killed 78 lost 74. Now attacking Iga.



Not good, the Mori outnumber me badly in Nagato. I'll have to pull my troops out of rebellion squashing duty.



This is why you always assault the castle in Iga, it's not really on much of a hill and your archers can shoot over the side easily.



Recent victories have brought lord imagawa to rank 5. Leveling up generals is one of my favorite things in shogun, I'd like to get him to rank 6 and the two guys on kyushu to rank 4. My massive troop recruitment has paid off and I now have decent size armies...



Big enough to wipe out the oda for good. This should secure my border, mino and mikawa are both easy to defend and I'll send my daimyo west. Should be interesting to try and crush the Mori from both sides at once.



As usual, I rush to gain the high ground and the AI ends up attacking me uphill. Why they didn't deploy there in the first place I don't know. I suspect the programmer wasn't that good of a tactician.



A rain of arrows falls upon the oda as the charge up the hill. Many ashigaru die.



They rout before even reaching my line, how disappointing.



Killed 396 lost 48. Lord Oda commits seppuku. Mikawa is an easy victory as well. Eastern border secure!



Sort of...

Apparently taking out the Oda, the Shimazu, and the yamashiro monks creates super-mori. They haven't shown me any aggression yet but their in my way. The Uesugi army in Shinano is also one that could give me trouble. Much more difficult than the ashigaru and archer armies, especially since I don't have any cavalry. Luckily I just finished the horse dojo in yamashiro.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

War with the Mori



Good news, Mori has moved his big army out of Wakasa and into Echizen to mount an attack on Kaga. He seems to be treating me as an ally. Well, that will change.



Perfect! Mori has taken Yamato. Now he is within striking range. I send a tiny force to take Kii, my heir to take on Lord Mori, and 4 yari samurai + one of my new yari cavalry to take kawachi. Should have some spring rain and I can send the cavalry over to distract the enemy while my infantry charge. The elimination of Lord Mori will deprive them of their best general and might send their interior into revolt.



In the west the situation is dire. I have a limited capacity for troop training with only one province even having a castle. The Mori armies grow larger by the day. If one of my guardian armies break I stand to lose the whole of kyushu to the wretched Mori.

Kawachi



No good at all. The AI deploys right up on the bridge, something they do in bad weather at times. I shouldn't have chosen heavy rain, now my yari cavalry is useless instead of being a battle winner.



Still, 4 yari samurai should be able to take out an ashi and 1 ys.



More like "wannabe hideaki"!

My hope is to kill Lord mori in battle but he retreats after losing 60 men to archer fire. Kii is defended by a 45 man yari sam unit and is taken after a tough little battle.



Lord Mori is free of the trap and my lines are looking thin. The defeat in kawachi could be very costly. I have to take it now.

2nd battle for Kawachi



Lord Mori invades yamashiro and leaves a small garrison. I was very happy to see these nodachi...my archers get them down to 2 men and then we charge across. Anticlimactic, but I'm just happy to have the province. Killed 63 lost 71. Mori decides not to press his luck in yamashiro.

Battle for Buzen



Mori invades with his full strength. He has 700 men to my 460. And he actually has a substantial number of yari samurai.



He sends two ashigaru on a flanking maneuver, however I have yari samurai hidden in those woods so they are no threat. I order my archers to fire first at the ashigaru, then at the enemy taisho.



Even before I outflank the enemy line their taisho flees from a combination of archer fire and fleeing ashigaru. Rather cowardly in any case. I kill 374 and lose 68.



However, my situation is hardly improved. There is still a large army in nagato and an even larger one in Iyo, under a four star general no less. I begin making plans for if my armies should fall.



In the east the situation is not much better. I have 5 provinces on my front and am outnumbered by the Uesugi and Mori. Troop training will be a priority next year. Unfortunately I am still forced at this time to keep my taxes on lowest due to not training many shinobi and being forces to defend kyushu.

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This is one of my favorite campaigns so far--usually in shogun the first couple years are challenging and then you get on a roll and no one threatens you. Not so here!

[Adam99]

Looks like Mori could be an issue. Time to use those ninjas/ shinobi perhaps? Give him some internal trouble to focus on whilst you build up a little?

[ReluctantSamurai]

In the east the situation is not much better. I have 5 provinces on my front and am outnumbered by the Uesugi and Mori. Troop training will be a priority next year. Unfortunately I am still forced at this time to keep my taxes on lowest due to not training many shinobi and being forces to defend kyushu.

Still, if you can buy a few years time to consolidate, you are not sitting that badly. I would say Kyushu is at the critical stage.....if either army has to give way..................

[Wishazu]

Loving this campaign so far, I may have to start playing full sengoku jidai campaigns.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Under Attack



I shift a couple units to Bungu, thinking that the Mori will invade with their big army. But noooo, they attack Buzen again, this time it's 500 vs 300. They don't have enough yari samurai and they don't wait and make use of their archers. My men defeat them in the woods. Only kill 190 though.



Back in the east, the Uesugi attack Mikawa with 500 to my 250. My archers wreak havoc with their bows and then their swords. 400 Uesugi dead.



The threat from nagato appears to be neutralized for the time being. We had a good harvest this year, our expansion has paid of. Yoshimoto orders the training of an entire army, almost 1000 men.



The Uesugi try again in Mikawa. This time it is 780 to 260. 500 of them meet their death.

Striking Back



The troop training goes well, and soon we have enough men to strike back at the mori.



Over 1000 mori soldiers die. The backbone of their army has been crushed and the road into their heartland is open. It was a good year. Nearly 3000 of the enemy were killed and our own troop recruitment more than made up for our losses.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I believe the sequence of screens tells the story sufficiently:













The Mori are all but wiped out. I'm not in a hurry to finish them off however, it will take time to gather my troops together. The Shinobi are doing a good job. I am now the richest clan in all japan and and have used the thousands of koku in loot I got to build ports in satsuma and owari and armories in aki and mimasaka.



The focus now shifts to the east where I am sending all my troops. What shall my plan of attack be?

[Wishazu]

I`d go for a massive battle against that army in Shinano, but then I do favour large scale engagements. Good job against the mori, I`m a little disappointed with their poor performance. I hate it when my opponents just roll over and die, hopefully the uesugi with their money and armies will be more challenging. Well played so far though mate. I swear everyone here plays these games with about 10x more energy than me. Most of the other campaigns I`m reading here seem to progress alot faster than mine lol.

[patdj]

Hm, I am just thinking and maybe a tactical idiot. Still the Uesugi army in Shinano requires a 0-Error-Policy to be beaten. I would first distract them with Shinobi in their backlands OR, and for me it would be fun to try out, send a roaming army via port or even Noto and Sado into his rich provinces. This way you would avoid this "Shinano"-called wall and just let them crush against your defense.

[zyxophoj]

The focus now shifts to the east where I am sending all my troops. What shall my plan of attack be?

I'd go for Shinano, mostly because it is a great place to raid from. Uesugi will suddenly find himself with 6 extra border provinces to defend, and he'll probably go nuts trying to take Shinano back.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Two things, AFAIK........the AI tends to put most of its troops at the front, so what you're looking at in Shinano is likely to be the bulk of Uesugi forces. Defeat them and your expansion into Uesugi territory should go much quicker.

The other is that given Uesugi's cost reduction for archers, it's a good bet that a lot of those troops in Shinano are archers........not a good thing if the AI deploys in one of the alternate spots other than rear-center...................

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Sad to say, this is how it ended:






I just couldn't bring myself to slog through a few dozen battles when my victory was already certain. Especially not when I had a much more fun campaign that I was itching to start.

[Drisos]

Wow. :) Another nice idea campaign. I don't think I ever turned into Oda territory with the Imagawa. At least not until I was filthy rich and Oda & Rebels had destroyed each other for a while. This sounds hard but possible. :)

Nice battles in Yamashiro! :)
Very nice move on the Mori daimyo. Too bad the Kawachi battle failed. :(
Also nice to see the difficult situation in Kyushu! Intresting as hell, what Shogun is so good for. :) Good thing that Uesugi failed bigtime by invading Mikawa. :)

Quite an anti-climax, lol. But indeed, victory was pretty certain by then. Weird to see Hojo armies. Did they get those from the death of Uesugi? Weird, because Hojo & Uesugi rarely become allies, logically.

- PS: Outflanking the AI in fog? Didn't think it was possible, as I never pulled it off, -nice!