Tokugawa guides, hints and tips

[Jacobin]

First tip is don't immediately attack the Oda army that is just within your borders - instead move your army between it and the castle.

At least in my first campaign at legendary the Oda army then moved east to join another big Oda army in the forest NE of your castle.

This left their Owari castle undefended and I took it easily in Turn 2.

Exempt Owari from taxes and move your Metsuke and more troops recruited in turn 1 up there and the unrest problem will disappear without a rebellion.

However you then find yourself in exactly the same position as the Oda are in after they've taken Mikawa - there is a big Imagawa army amassing at Totomi which will attack you in another couple of turns and you can't possibly build enough troops to hold it when they do attack without weakening your hold on Owari.

And unlike the Oda you have too pay full price for bog-standard Ashigaru and your special Ninja units and diplomacy advantages are useless in the early game.

About the only strategy I can think of is sending a force (2 or 3 yari ashigaru will do if its undefended) to take Suruga before the Imagawa attack you first.

They might then abort their plan to attack Mikawa and Owari and give you a few turns to build an army there big enough to beat them when they do come back (looting and abandoning rather than defending Suruga might also be a good idea - if you try and hold it then the Takeda or Hojo will attack you there anyway - whereas if a rebel army takes it instead they can form a buffer for long enough to beat the Imagawa at Totomi.

But even if you do destroy the Imagawa you will still be in the same position as the Oda would at the same point in the game - for some reason the Takeda and Hojo would much rather attack you than each other and in the north either the Hattori or Ikko Ikki will start sending armies against you soon enough.

[Madae]

I'll throw in my 2 cents on this one too since I started playing again...

I rarely used Metsuke until I played Tokugawa, and I've found that they are amazing agents, and would be better than Ninja's if it weren't for the latters' sabotage army. Apprehending is just as effective as assassinate, and better because it doesn't cost anything, but has the same results (wounding/death vs. jail/death).

Diplomacy has been my strongest ally with the Tokugawa (and is something the Tokugawa excel with). The only downside is that your Daimyo has a negative honor penalty vs. other clans, which kind of offsets the bonuses you receive. You will be stuck with this penalty until Ieyasu comes of age and your current Daimyo dies off or gets killed in battle. The problem with sacrificing him is one that many clans face - he doesn't start with many children, and it may take awhile for them to come of age. If you do get rid of him, you'll be spending money that isn't necassarily easy for the Tokugawa to get. Rushing trade posts is a good idea, but only if you're secure in your position, which leads to...

They are in a slightly better position than the Oda, but they will ultimately suffer from the same problems once the Oda are dealt with. You only have one avenue of expansion at the start, which puts you in Oda's precarious position right after that. I would recommend against expanding past Imagawa, as you will want to give them a reason to attack something other than you. They also provide a good buffer against Sagara, Hojo and Takeda. Takeda is almost always the powerhouse of the games I play, and Sagara, depending on what happens, can be powerful in their own right. Being stuck with Oda's position and having to worry about the western clans can mean a quick end if you anger the east. Whatever you decide to do, foster relations with one side or the other, and expand in the appropriate direction, taking care to not make more than one or two enemies at a time. I leave Takeda with their own business until I'm forced to deal with them, and I was able to keep them from attacking me after a few threatens by just giving them gifts. It won't work forever, though, so be prepared. If you keep good relations with Imagawa (which isn't really that hard, it just takes time to lose that 'past grievances' thing), you'll find that they are more than willing to assist you. Unfortunately, if they get pounded enough on the east end, they'll eventually turn into a backwater with no army. However, they are still useful for ship defense of my borders, which is practically the only thing that kept me from taking their lands.

Back to Metsuke... Bribery is an amazing ability that I've put to use quite often in my campaign. It has often been the deciding factor against my enemies, as I was able to bribe and recruit some of their forces that consisted of troops that were otherwise more experienced than mine, or simply a type of unit that I did not focus on building. I went the route of defense with spears and didn't build a sword school or archery range for quite a long time, so being able to snag katana's and bow samurai was a very useful thing. Unfortunately, it will require a lot of money to use this ability effectively, so be sure to make an attempt at those trade posts soon before they are taken by other clans. I grabbed cotton (for the yari building upgrades) and silk (for future ninja upgrades, and it just so happened to be the most expensive at the time) before the rest were taken.

In the mid game, I've taken over much of that area south of Kyoto, but I've left the Hatakeyama to their own devices. They will probably turn on me eventually, but I've, so far, kept them relatively content by watching my expansion penalties on diplomacy and giving them some money every now and then. At this stage in the game, however, I've finally been pulled into war with the Takeda. They had expanded all the way to the doorstep of the Date, and eventually took everything on the eastern end. But fortunately, their armies were very spread out and likely up in the north, and their border provinces were left quite undefended. It was very easy to steamroll North and South Shinano, and then grabbing whatever was left on the west to keep from being attacked on both sides. With North Shinano, I've effectively made only one avenue for them to come at me, which has proven to be quite a relief. If it weren't for the many full stacks of armies they're throwing at me, I would say I was in a pretty good position.

The unfortunate reality of letting Takeda have free reign in the early game has set in at this point - their armies are experienced and not easy wins. I was able to take out a few larger stacks, but it required some very tactical gameplay with my ninjas and metsuke, as well as slideshow battles (half speed) to make sure I'm responding to gaps and morale drops in my front line, and keeping an eye out for sneaky horses moving in for flanks. Most battles with the Takeda have been very costly, but victories nonetheless. Keeping many ninjas on the front has allowed me to sabotage multiple armies so that I can funnel them in one by one. I've often let full stacks of armies stay stuck in my territory (through army sabotage) for 10+ turns, and the winter attrition softens them up a bit before I move in for the kill.

That's something I haven't mentioned yet; Ninja's. I'm making very good use of the Tokugawa bonuses, which is contrary to what the guy above said (at least for the early game). I've found Ninja's and Metsuke to be incredibly valuable. With Iga under my control, as well as the province next to it, I'm able to create skilled ninja, and even though my Metsuke are not quite up to par yet, the free apprehension attempts and the chance of bribing extra units to bolster my side is invaluable on the front. Monks have not had much use in my game, or at least until I was able to capture the two provinces nearby with monk bonuses. Still, they have turned the tide in a few battles as well by demoralising more experienced and stronger armies, and that tiny bonus to morale can easily tip the scale what with the way most of these battles have gone so far (neck to neck slaughter houses).

Speaking of slaughter houses; I had very interesting experience with the Shoni in my game. For some reason, and even though they are on the other side of the map and out of my threat range, they decided to declare war on me, and, in that very same turn, drop a massive stack on one of my isolated provinces (Hojo home province that Imagawa had taken but lost to Sagara, and then was taken by me right after for that gold mine). I had a small force of 3 ashigaru spears, 4 ashigaru bows, and 2 naginata's - about 700 men vs. his 2200. The battle was very, very tough, but I somehow managed to almost completely wipe them out with such a small force. I had a good laugh from it and a "valiant defeat", where close to 2000 of Shoni's men fell in the battle, with all 700 of mine being killed outright. If that isn't a brave and noble samurai death, I don't know what is. Bushimonten was pleased, I think.

[Jungle Rhino]

I'm just wrapping up a 40 province legendary campaign with Tokugawa and my experience has been nearly identical to Madae's - Embrace the Metsuke and Ninja's in order to keep dangerous situations under control as you expand Westwards to capture the rich provinces around Kyoto. I never actually broke free of my vassalage with Imagawa until quite late in the piece so was able to enjoy good diplomatic relations with most clans and also kept Imagawa as a solid ally for the entire game allowing me to focus on an Westwards push. Trouble is that you cannnot declare war on people which caused a massive problem for me as I went spears but Honma had nabbed the cotton node and refused to trade with me for love nor money. This left me unable to progress by building Master Yari dojo which was somewhat frustrating!! Other than that I just went slow and steady in the opening phases - by keeping my army quite small initially I was able to goad my immediate neighbours into attacking me before nabbing all their troops with my bribery upgraded Metsuke :) Be careful though always have at least two Metsuke for key bribes in case it fails and remember you can't bribe a Daimyo!!

I never really went for the trade nodes because they were all gone and I couldn't/didn't want to declare war to free them up, so instead I focussed on building a strong tax economy and also monastaries for tech. I also nabbed the Hojo home province with the gold mine which I held all game :) I also made a conscious effort to keep a few thousand koku in the bank at all times as a 'bribery slush fund' for emergencies. I finally broke my vassalage with Imagawa when he declared war on somebody and I refused to support him - this didn't seem to give me any massive diplo penalty. Afte this you become master of your own destiny and you need to build up your military mid game or you will suffer from 'threats to attack' as you are perceived as an easy target (happened to me with Hatekayama and another clan). My expansion pre-realm divide was Westwards to Bizen for the smith there. Northwards to Echizen & Kaga for the crafts/smith there, and into South Shinano to knock up a big Castle as a chokepoint. I then established 3 key Castles in the East (Mikawa, South Shinano, Kaga) with relatively cheap garrisons to keep the Ikko Ikki at bay (who were rampaging) and prevent Imagawa from backstabbing (battling with Hojo/Takeda). I then devastated Ikko Ikki with massed rebeliions fueled by monks before initialising realm divide. During this phase of the game I was also trading with almost everybody (despite having no trade nodes) and was able to save up approx 100k Koku in the bank.

Before realm divide I had outstanding relations with almost everybody on the map except for Honma (I attacked them for Cotton node), Shoni (Christian - they dec war me), Mori (ongoing fighting but they were toasted by Shoni/Hatekayama). To initialise RD I actually launched a naval invasion of Kyushu, trying to gut the Shoni's powerbase but at the same time Chosokabe attacked my ally Hatekayama and I made the terrible mistake of forsaking my alliance (as I was intending to attack Hatekayam at some point) which led to Hat declaring war on me, but then Chos ALSO declared war on me for no good reason the same turn I had refused to go to war agianst them!! So now I was commited to Kyushu with a stack, the seas were all of a sudden swarming with enemy ships and I had Chos & Hat bearing down on my lands around Kyoto with avengence. Pretty much what saved me then was my massive tax income as trade had almost completely dried up, I also reached gunpowder mastery just in time and matchlock ashigaru defending castles beat off the Choskabe & Honma naval invaisions aswell as countless Hat stacks. My uber Naginata Sams out of Bizen/Kaga also helped immensely so I was glad I had developed the smiths in those provinces.

By the time I wrapped the game up (by betraying Imagawa to nab the alst two victory provinces) my 100k slush fund was gone despite having positive income the entire time through RD (yay bribery! :D)

So anyway to summarise I:

> Played a heavy agent game with full complement of Monk/Ninja/Metsuke
> Expanded West/North to access fertile provinces and key resources incl. smiths/ninja's
> Waited quite a long time for the oppurtunity to break my vassalage with minimal diplo penalties
> Teched for spears and gunpowder - armies consisted of 4-8 heavily upg./vetted Nag/Yari Sam, 4-8 heavily upg. Yari Ashi, 1-2 high charge Kat Cav from Miyawa, 2-4 skirmishing ranged units either ashi bow or later matchlock ashigaru
> Focused heavily on maintaining good diplomatic relations - expanded slowly to avoid diplo penalties
> Build up a nice slush fund prior to RD to maintain bribery capabilities before your trade income goes