Expert Victory: Check-List

[BlackWatch McKenna]

[x] Takeda!

WooHoo! Takeda victory for old Black.

EARLY GAME:
I declared war on Hojo (purple) and the Light and Dark blue guys. Also, Mori (red) was on me like a bad suit. Ok - so i am a wild Celt at heart. My Emassary was working over-time.

MIDDLE GAME:
Things were always sketchy, being at war on four fronts. Especially when Mori freakin' showed up with Naganita. All of a sudden, my archers and samurai were having a harder time... I switched all resources to getting Monks as soon as possible and, after 10 years, i had them. Of course, it took another 10 years to build enough and get em where i needed them.

I held the East and West (north and south??) the entire game. Having the one territory in Mori's back yard was handy when it came time to clean up in the end game....

END GAME
Purple, Dark Blue and Light Blue died off in the Middle game (dont be sending your Taisho out after me, boyos). Green disappeared on his own accord. At the end, it was me and Red Mori.

Mori had gone Horde Mode and had me blocked off in Central Japan. I defended my Four Province front with three armies of about 900 guys. Shinano held about 2,000 guys who served as the 4th 900 man army as well as a 1,100 man replacements army.

Defense is too easy. Never really had to replace any units except about every Fourth battle. He could not knock me out - but i just did not have enough to push him back, either.

So, I came in thru his back yard and started cleaning him out from Western Japan (south japan). Eventually, he got desparate, sent his Taisho after me, and promptly went Ronin.

After that, it was just clean-up mode.

THE END

p.s. Lets see if i can't avenge Shimazu in my next campaign. Mr. Green owes Mr. Purple some big time Pay Back in expert mode.


------------------
// Black
// "Did we win?"

[Doragon_Ajidrik]

Takeda, Hojo, Usegui, Oda and Imagawa for me.

------------------
RUN, to live to run another day!

Honor to Clan Doragon
www.doragon.cjb.net

[hecose]

All clans on expert. Imagawa and Oda were toughest for me.

[kaltes]

Takeda was by far the easiest for me to beat the game on expert in the shortest time possible.

My basic strategy was to get an enemy daimyo into a battle, get yari cav behind him, then literally flood him with yari cavs. Since he has no escape he will eventually die. If you win in the traditional manner (via a rout) you can still kill the enemy daimyo easily if you block his escape with yari cav in his rear.

I started the game with an all out attack on Hojo lands, holding Imagawa at bay with ashigaru until his sieges provoked a loyalist revolt, then I garrisoned Suruga then Shinano. In the east I used my daimyo to personally kill both Hojo and Usegui (literally, I used Takeda to personally cut both down). With the Daimyos dead I started pumping out shinobi and repositioning troops to mop up and take ronin lands before setting myself up to crush Oda in the center.

In the west, however, I did not fair as well in the beginning. Hard pressed to conquer the rich eastern lands as early as possible, I did not want to shift troops to the west, but I did plan to keep Aki at least and was loathe to give up the easily defensible Bitchu (its a bitchu to have to re-take). Bingo was a lost cause however, and it was a constant struggle to reinforce Bitchu from Aki (which had built a spear dojo). Luckily I had managed to build a castle in Bingo and was content to constantly relieve besieged troops. The tide turned dramatically when, during one siege, an enormous (8+ unit) loyalist rebellion drove out the Mori. The fresh troops allowed me to immediately go on the offensive. At the 5-year mark I was poised to take Nagato in the west, Mimasaka in the center, and a push from Suruga/Shinano/Echigo/Sado in the east. I had already begun to use large numbers of shinobi to prevent revolts and allow the bulk of my troops to remain on the front lines instead of garrisoning backwater provinces.

In the east I pushed for and took Owari and Mino after finally killing off Imagawa. Meanwhile I held shimazu at bay and finished off Mori, then pushed for Yamashiro in the center. By now I was mass-manufacturing Yari Samurai, and putting every last one of them to use. I dont like archers, and the combination of yari cav and yari samurai worked well enough for me that soon the 2 halves of my empire joined in Yamashiro.

Oda was crushed quickly, but finishing off Shimazu was more of a challenge. Using Odas ports to ship the bulk of my men to Aki and Bizen, I poured the bloated mass of my army into the final 2 islands. I killed Shimazu and laid siege to Satsuma, Osumi, Hyuga, Bungo, and Tosa.

It was Winter 1539.

All castles fell on the next turn.

My goal was to win in 10 years, just think that in 39 turns, any slight screwup on my part or any extra delay, and I wouldnt have done it! Whew! Actually I did this before the patch, it is probably easier now (they weakened the AI's cheat power) but I still have the save games I saved at intervals so I was able to load those to retell the story .

[Conquistador]

My guide to Takeda.

At the beginning

It's probably the most challenging period for Takeda. You have to consecutively strike Hojo, equalze with Mori and ally with Imagawa and/or Uesugi. Thus I have to detail out.


Do's
To take Musashi from Hojo,
1. in the first season, deploy all your troops from Sagami and Kai to Musashi.

(Do not worry the loss of Kai, as Imagawa is preparing to capture Shinano, while Useugi is defending in Shinano against Imagawa, Oda, Hojo and then Takeda in priority.)
To protect Kai,
1. train yari/ archer in Kai
2. deploy all your troops from Izu to Kai and train archers in Kai.

(This will provide enough security yet allow Imagawa to focus his troops on Shinano. After all, Izu only worths 70 koku and is surrounded by your provinces.)

(Rule 1: CPU is less likely to invade province owned by X bounded by provinces owned by X)

To survive at the west,
1. exchange part of the troops between Aki and Bingo once each season. This will lower the possibility of Mori's Invasion.

( Rule 2: CPU's intention is always affected by deployment along its boundary.)

2. If Bingo is invaded, abandon to Aki, while leaving Bitchu in orginal. It's more beneficial to receive income from Bitchu and to loss it afterwards then to receive income from Bingo twice and then loss it. There's higher possibilty of a loyalist revolt in Bingo than in Bitchu.

(Rule 3: The conquered province previously owned by X bounded by more number of provinces owned by X is more likely to revolt)

To inhibit the development of Hojo,
1. Invade Shimotzuke as to destroy its facilities.

Don'ts
1. Involve in Shinano's business.

Until the first harvest, you will make your day if you live with common sense.

Middle-game
On expansion, crush Hojo as soon as possible, then replace Mori, push Uesugi to between Imagawa/Oda and you. On the other hand, Shimazu would be crushed by Imagawa, while Oda takes his remains. Takeda should ally with Imagawa as long as you have built a geisha house.

Method:
1. Build mine in Kai quickly after the first harvest
2. set-up amouries in Mori's home and produce
yari troops
3. Upgrade to fortress in Kai and then pump monks
4. Build No-dachi from Mori's home while upgrade to better armor.
5. Be ware of Imagawa as he has high honor ninja and keep allied with him. Otherwise, crush him in the west and take Shimazu.

Eng-game
Use the infamous geisha technique to crush your opponents.

------------------
I ride to fire to conquer.