Ugh, way too long with no update.

Update 3

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


The mighty Daimyo of the Shimazu is bored. Many seasons have passed by without a battle. His land is ringed in by a greedy ally who swooped in and took land he had been eyeing (quite unlike the glorious expansion of his own territory in the meantime). Even worse, they had joined a foreign religion and made enemies of all of Japan. Surely it was a matter of time before someone else conquered them. Perhaps we ought to relieve them of their territory, so that it would fall to a friend and not an enemy that would misuse their land and people?





Having made his decision, the Daimyo cancels his alliance with Sagara and declares war, quickly striking at their southern territory.



Having recently opened trade relations with the barbaric Chosokabe, the Daimyo has heard they rely on archers to win their battles. Perhaps that could work here?



Hmmm, perhaps their enemies are also not bright enough to seek shelter from a hail of arrows.



Once the opposing forces have been whittled to nearly nothing, spear ashigaru burn and storm one of the gates. While their willingness to run through a burning gate does not speak well of his troops' intelligence, at least it does of their enthusiasm.
The few remaining defenders are quckly overrun.





Reclining in the main hall of his new castle, the Daimyo receives shocking news. One of his sons, on a scouting mission, ran into a huge Sagara army. He did not survive the ensuing battle.



Knowing he could not face down this army but unwilling to relinquish a chance for vengeance, he sends his other son Yoshisasa to come in on the Sagara capital from the north and bait their main force away so it can be taken. He is successful in this, but perhaps too much. The Sagara leader persues him relentlessly and catches up to his large but ill equipped army. It does not go well.

Yoshisasa sets his men up on a wooded hill in hopes of taking advantage of his archer superiority. The Sagara general will have none of this and shortly orders a charge. The Shimazu peasant army is massacred and another Shimazu heir falls.











The plan succeeds but even after doubling Shimazu territory for the second time in a few years the victory feels hollow.