Stalemates

[A Nerd]

That's an interesting technique...I'll have to try it. I assumed if there was a border fort in the province, which there was in my situation, the shinobi would be caught. On an aside, Shimazu beat me in a campaign once using naval landings, I was shocked. He moved and army behind my lands via ports to an undefended 'troop producer' province I had, wiping it out. I moved a nearby army into it to take it back and on the next turn before we engaged, he moved that same army into another 'troop producer' wiping that out too! I gave up on frustration! The dumb AI beat me! Next campaign I had ninja and shinobi in all my port cities in preparation though!

[ReluctantSamurai]

I assumed if there was a border fort in the province, which there was in my situation, the shinobi would be caught.

Some do. That's the point of using 6 or more at one time. Some will survive. If you have control of Yamashiro and the other province that produces shinobi with +1 honor bonus (can't recall the name off-hand...it's the coastal province just south of Wakasa) and have the highest level dojo for shinobi, then you can produce shinobi with +3 honor which have a greater chance at survival. The longer they survive in enemy territory, creating rebellions, the more honor they gain. I've gotten lvl 6 shinobi out of such ventures.........

I will stress again that you need to get several adjacent provinces, at once, to rebel, preferably ones that do not have ports. This makes the AI have to take more than one turn to put down a rebellion, and gives you the opportunity to slip in a port-raiding army of your own. You might also want to have several ninjas at hand to assassinate generals, as the autocalc almost always gives a clan the victory over ronin, even at very poor odds for the clan, so those generals putting down rebellions gain levels....which you certainly don't want.......

I always keep a token force in important port provinces. You can retreat to the castle, giving you time to get a siege-breaker army to the rescue. I learned the same way you did..........

One other thing to note: use feint attacks at selected points or all along your border to assist your "Shadow War" efforts. I'm sure you've experienced the AI doing this......invading a province, and calling off the attack. It's a good technique....use it!! There is no loss of honor for your Taisho, and no battle even need be fought.

The AI makes its' moves after you do when you hit the end turn button, so it already knows where you are moving troops. However...........

.....if you've created several rebellions in rear areas, move an army or two to port raid, AND you deliver a series of feints all along the battlefront, it's now faced with a dilemma of which threat is real and which is a feint. Often times it makes very bad decisions as to where to move troops and one of your front-line feints comes against an empty province (allowing you to just walk in) or one severely weakened such that it falls easily. It's often not a bad idea to wage a "Shadow War" against another clan who is rapidly gaining power, but whom you are not yet at war with (even an ally...hehehe) to slow their progress.

A battle of wits, so-to-speak. Keep the AI off balance and guessing as to your true intent!

[A Nerd]

I'll try that, if anything it sounds like it will add some fun and dimension to the campaign. I had always used shinobi as pieces to quell rebellion in my own territories. Rebellions though, very interesting, probably best if his holdings are more than one or two provinces though, correct? Multiple attacks, your armies (well not all of them) could probably were somewhat smaller than the enemy too. My 'turteling' technique has taught me to always invade with a larger army, guess I'm going to have to rethink things. Ah yes, my newly loved and previously under appreciated shinobmiesters!

[Jef Costello]

That's an interesting technique...I'll have to try it. I assumed if there was a border fort in the province, which there was in my situation, the shinobi would be caught. On an aside, Shimazu beat me in a campaign once using naval landings, I was shocked. He moved and army behind my lands via ports to an undefended 'troop producer' province I had, wiping it out. I moved a nearby army into it to take it back and on the next turn before we engaged, he moved that same army into another 'troop producer' wiping that out too! I gave up on frustration! The dumb AI beat me! Next campaign I had ninja and shinobi in all my port cities in preparation though!

I find the AI rarely if ever uses port provinces. When I moved up to expert level I started leaving garrisons in all port provinces but I still find the enemy rearely attacks through the port unless it also has a land frontier.

Usually I like to have a powerful province in my rear with a port and the best troop building facilities that I can afford. When the borders with other clans start to look too troop heavy then I like to build up a force to hit as many enemy port provinces as possible in one move. Even if you don't hold the provinces you can burn down enough infrastructure to give yourself thousands of koku and leave your enemy with a long and expensive rebuilding programme as well as troop shortages. Swarming shinobi into provinces to cause rebellions is always fun. I like to try to get a clan to reemerge but they rarely last.

[chaouki]

up to now the AI never attacked my port provinces, since i usually build ports in every possible province for shipping armys and the koku income this would have been devastating

[Togakure]

On very rare occasions on Expert (so rare that they might as well never do it), the western clans (Mori and Shimazu I remember clearly) will send very small armies (3-5 units tops) via a port to port attack (usually Kawachi or Owari), particularly if their front is approaching central Japan and they have no port yet to land troops near the front. It doesn't happen often, and the attack is almost never effective unless the port is undefended or garrisoned with only an ashigaru or two.

Because the AI rarely uses them, I use port attacks only if the alternative is a long, un-fun grind to finish a game that I have pretty much won. But, they are there and this is single-player, so if you enjoy the game using them, I say use them.

[gollum]

The single time the AI port raided me, was during a Shimazu campaign in expert. I had just swept the Imagawa from Kyushu and had decided i would turtle and build up in MI. Out of the blue Mori landed a smallish but able stack in Chikuzen(or is it Chikugo? - the Kyushu province with the river), that gave me a shock and a headache as i hadn't rushed too quickly the Imagawa and it took quite a while and a few bloody battles to kick them out. By the time i had won, and upon receiving the attack, i was very short on troops and so the attack did infact had chances of suceeding or producing undesired side effects like say an attack from Mori through the weakened Nagato route.

So yes, very rare, but in MI it can happen. Never saw it in the original version.