Discharge the Honourable: Chosokabe (Legendary, Domination)

[Maltz]

Chapter 10. A daughter for a son

Welcome back, great daimyos.

Just as we expect to enjoy some peaceful development, we heard rumors (which means prophecies from a parallel universe) that the Ouchi clan will suddenly betray us and declare war on us! We are their ally and trust them enough to give our military access to them! And it is my brother's last hostage season! They must do this on purpose! Treacherous dogs!

Well, we give our military access to them because they paid a lot for it.



Well, luckily this is just a prophecy for the next season. Let's see what we can prepare now...

[Maltz]

Since Ouchi still has one and half stack of soldiers in Buzen (our production base of bow units), if we allow the war to break out during their turn, they will be able to take Buzen from us. This will create a lot of trouble for us since our total army is only about one and half stack, in addition to the execution of my brother. My father will be heart broken.

After trials and errors, there is only ONE way to prevent war and save my brother - making them like us a lot more through marriage. Unfortunately, great daimyos, this will be my last chapter to narrate this story for you, as I will be married to some dog in that Ouchi clan. I will personally supervise their downfall and see their provinces transferred to Chosokabe!



We also bundled the marriage deal with infinite military access to Ouchi, so that they would agree to break up with their other ally and trade partner, the Kikkawa clan (which is actually one of our trade partners). At this moment, Ouchi is allied to both its neighbors. So they might think that in order to expand, they will have to break up with one neighbor. So instead of breaking alliance with us, this arragement will encourage Ouchi to break up with the other unlucky partner.

Farewell, great daimyos!

[Maltz]

Greetings, uncles and aunties. My name is Chosokabe Motochica, the heir of the Chosokabe clan. I am 10 years old.

A few days ago, I returned from a two-year student exchange program in the Ouchi clan in Chugoku. The Ouchi clan used to be a very good friend of our clan. Our reationship climaxed last winter, when my sister was married to their clan's heir, who was not particularly handsome. I was there at their wedding!

However, the night before their wedding, my sister secretly told me that the Ouchi clan was actually plotting against us. She said they would betray us in the earliest opportunity. She said she would make sure that when the destined day came, the Chosokabe clan would make them regret.

I also promised my sister that I would continue her story of our clan. So here I am! Yoroshiku Gozaimasu!

First, let's see what's the news for the new year of nanban's 1549...



Oh right, I am back... What the... I was a hostage? How come nobody told me that?

[Maltz]

At least Ouchi treated me pretty nicely when I was there until the last month... but then they were nice again when they knew about the marriage proposal.

Let's look at the next news... our dogged pursuit of knowledge has improved our capacity for mastering both military and civil arts by 50% for 2 years.



So our clan will soon master both the method to shoot Fire Arrows (Way of the Bow) and carry 50% more ammunition, in addition to building Encampments that can be upgraded to wonderful structures (Heaven and Earth). Both are very good arts.

[Maltz]

Let's see the next news. The Ito clan, who had become our ally and bought our military access has... what, broken our alliance?! How come we did not receive any notice about that? Is that a feature or something?



Maybe another clan bribed them to break alliance with us? Is that the Ouchi clan's secret pan? That realy spells "we want to declare war on you" all over the place. We are now their only neighbor, so if they do not want to sit and rot, war is the only way out for them. We sympathize with them. So we will shorten their pain when that day comes.

[Maltz]

Now let's take a look at the Ochi clan. What the... Broken alliance? Threats of attack? Of course we did not threaten them... did they threaten us? How come we never received any message about that? What did they say?



Is there another evil clan controlling both our friends to betray us at the same time? So now my sister is the only way standing between a war between us and the Ouchi clan...

But soon the Ouchi clan pulled their army back from Buzen... is this my sister's work?

[Maltz]

So my father held an urgent clan meeting and decided to try to repair our relationship with the Ito clan. They agreed to restore our alliance, and offered a good price for our door pass in the next 5 years. (Military access can be sold for more if the buyer has a more friendy relationship with us.)



Now that we have successfuly delayed Ito and Ouchi's war. Let's quickly prepare. We have been working on the following:

- Two full-stack army with about 50% Bow Ashigaru in each. The Bow Ashigaru units are exclusively trained in Buzen for 10% extra accuracy.

- One full-stack fleet to repel Wako pirates with 8 Medium Bune. The Wako pirates are really getting out of control in the sea northwest of Hizen. This fleet will certainly kick them between the nuts.

- Five Monks. Before we ask them to convert Buzen and Bungo back to the good old Buddhism, we should to train them on the field. They charge nothing when they tell other clans' soldiers about the greatness and peaceful of Buddha. After we have 5 monks, we can demolish most temples to build Sake Dens.

- Five Ninjas. Right now we already have two pretty good Ninjas. We will send them to Ito's territory and continuely sabotage their castle. This will keep their army small. After we have 5 ninjas, we will demolish most Sake Dens to build Markets.

- Five Metsuke. They will be trained exclusively from Tsukushi, so they start more experienced than newbies. Three of them will permenantly manage the three most fertile provinces of ours. The other two will accompany our army to arrest enemy agents and bribe enemy troops.

[Maltz]

Training agents is a dangerous business. If they fail, they might be caught and executed. I heard that if we are at war and is laying siege at a castle, all of our agents will mysteriously succeed in all their missions. But now we are not at war with any clan...



But everybody is at war with the Wako pirates!

Exploit #13. Wako pirates for lucky agents

Legendary game, not at war with anybody, not even the rebels? Hopefully you have some pirates in sight. You can use any navy unit to fight the pirates but then select retreat. The unit will still have lots of movement left, while you get one free auto-save! In the above picture, the unit is actually stuck with the pirates, providing infinite save points like in a castle siege!

Fighting (but not fighting) pirates is never so enjoyable.

[Maltz]

My father heard of the pirates, so he wished to meet them personally. All he needs is one Bow Kabuya, and the pirates chase him in circles like idiots.



Heroic victory for him! But unfortunately he does not get any extra honor for scoring a heroic victory. Maybe that feature has been removed from this world. He still gained a lot of battle experience from it, though.

Exploit #14. Wako pirates for experienced generals

Since using a Bow Kabuya gaurantees a heroic victory against the Wako pirates, it is possible to quickly level up a general for 15 experience every season. This will improve a brand new 1-star general to a 4-star general in just two years.

[Maltz]

Soon my father was able to hire a second retainer, and he chose a Waka poet, who recite poems when my father meets his guests. This makes him look slightly more honorable. My father also learned to bow down more often. So he is now as honorable as a Daimyo could be (6 points)!



Unfortunately, now not many clans like to see honorable daimyos like the world we used to know before (the unpatched version), so our clan is not really better received by others. My father is still well-liked by his loyal generals and people (2 extra points of happiness).

[Maltz]

While enjoying hard-earned peace, our clan's power steadily grows. Our ninja burn down Ito clan's castle gate every season. Finally, the Ito family could not take it anymore! They declared war on us!



We did fail the sabotage once, so they probably guessed it was our work.

One year can make a big difference - Ouchi's one and half stack had returned to their land! We are not afraid of pouring everything to southern Kyushu anymore.

This concludes Chapter 10 of our story.

[Maltz]

Chapter 11. Ito, Kamizake warriors

Welcome back, uncles and aunts. This is Chosokabe Motochika reporting our clan's story.

Last time we mentioned that Ito declared war on us, but we were quite prepared for it already. We almost have two full stacks of soldiers, and we can pour it to Ito since Ouchi's attention has shifted. It might be my sister's infuence.



While Ito and our relationship has deteriorated to rock bottom, the rest of Nihon do not think highly about Ito. For someone who backstabs their ally and who sold them door tickets, this is what they deserve. Maybe they are just committing Kamizake, suicide attacks since they realize there is no future for them.

[Maltz]

Since we wil have six trading sea ports after relocating to Kyushu, we must look for other rich trade partners. A few years ago we hooked up with the Hojo clan, which has controlled much of Kanto region.



Now our Bow Kabuya has reached the northern tip of Honshu. This trade node of iron was owned by Satake, but now they have been defeated by Hojo. So we will gladly take it. It might take a long time until any of our trade ships arrive.

Now we have four out of six trade nodes. The other two are controlled by the Miyoshi clan (the western incense node) and the Honma clan of Sado island (the northern war horse node). None of them are very powerful. We might take care of Miyoshi ourselves after the relocation. Honma's isolated position might enable them to survive a little longer.

[Maltz]

Our full-stack navy has sailed to northwest Kyushu and is ready to deal with the Wako pirates! The Wako pirates also had one full stack.



But the Wako immediately called help from their headquarter. A half-stack fleet suddenly dropped from the sky. We must defeat them before they merge!

Thoughts #13: Wako Pirates, Blessing not Curse on Legendary

Wako pirates' spawn at a fixed spot in northern Kyushu - which is the Wako fleet on the right in the above picture. Their spawn is randomly determined at the end turn. So if you do not want to see a Wako spawn, simply reload a save file before the end turn until they fail to spawn.

At the early stage of the game, a fleet of Medium Bune plus a few Bow Kabyua can easily defeat Wako pirates, which comes with just two varieties, Wako Medium Bunes and Wako Trade Ships. Wako Medium Bunes has 20 less bowmen compared to regular Japanese Medium Bunes. So if we capture any of them, we better sink them on the spot or they are just a waste of space in the stack. Wako Trade Ships are identical to Japanese trade ships and can't fight properly. Their movement on the water can be heavily slowed by the wind, and so can be captured quite easiy.

As discussed before, on Legendary, the Wako pirates provides valuable save points during a turn. And they also offer trade ships for us to capture. So whenever our navy has nothing to do, Wako pirates might be a welcoming sight, especially when our navy has been waiting for them nearby, as we can easily learn their exact spawn spots.

For trade fleets unprotected by a nearby fighting fleet, it is a good idea to use one Bow Kabuya to protect them in the stack, or right on the side. As soon as the battle begins, retreat all trade ships. Then simply use the Bow Kabuya to run in a big circle. When you win the heroic victory, the trade ships will not run away but remain in the stack on the spot.

Likewise, when you dispatch trade fleets to some trade nodes far away, bunch them up and escort them with a Bow Kabuya. They will never sink.

[Maltz]

So my father, who is in command of this formidable Chosokabe fleet but with his name wrongly written , decided to work on the harder target first, as they do not run away probably because they already have a full stack. That would be a big mistake for them, for we not only have a superior full stack of 10, but also various minor reinforcement nearby!

[Maltz]

As our combined fleet vastly outnumber the Wakos, we did not bother with the details of the massacre (auto-resolve). While both sides lost two ships, we captured all their rest - 4 wako medium bune and 4 wako trade ships!



The four Wako Medium Bune will be sunk to the bottom of the sea immediately for their inferior quality, but we will keep the trade ships for the Chinese silk node nearby.

[Maltz]

After we dispatched the full stack Wako, we can turn our attention to the half stack Wako which just spawned. If we attempt to fight them with our main fleet, they will certainly run away and then harass our trade fleets.



What we can do is to "house arrest" these Wako pirates by using the zone of control (the red circle) of our fleets. As shown in the picture above, with just two fleets, we made a prison of the Wako pirates. So we can deal with them in the next turn, when we have full movement points.

What the pirates do not know is that if they attack us and choose to retreat, they can break this house arrest. But they probably can't retreat far enough to survive our main fleet's attack anyway.

Thoughts #14: Extending the Zone of control

Checking the Zone of control of armies are quite useful in certain situations. By splitting out minor units to extend the zone of control, we can sometimes completely restrict enemy's movement on the campaign map. In the above example, we only need to split out one Bow Kabuya to arrest the Wako pirate fleet. The jailed Wako fleet can then serve as an infinite save point in the future.

[Maltz]

But since we are fighting Ito at this moment, we don't need other save point opportunities. In the next season, my father, whose name was again wrong (it is probably the name of the captain of his boat), commanded his main fleet and nailed down the retreating Wako pirates on the open water. We easiy defeated them (auto-resolved). The battle marks the debut of our Sengoku Bune (1000-koku boat), which is a suitable flagship for its large melee crew and high mobility.



Our trade income greatly increased thanks to the Wako trade ships. The three western trade nodes together nets more than 9000 koku per turn! We will still build more trade ships for the distant northeastern Iron trade node.

[Maltz]

No more Wako for now! Let's pull back one season and see how our war with Ito goes. We used two armies to attack Ito's territory from both northwest and northeast. Ito apparantly has decided to abandon its western provinces, bu concentrate all their forces to the northeast in the Hyuga province.



That's also where the weaker Chosokabe force is. We do not have the time to develop a full stack there yet, and we are a little lacking in melee, with just four units of Yari Ashigaru. However, our ramen general, with his 10% bonus to bow accuracy, is perfecty suited for leading an bow army.

The Ito's force came in a string, and that is their big mistake. So we can defeat them one by one without suffering significant losses. Our first encounter is against 10 units of infantry without a general!

[Maltz]

With a superior ranged force and inferior melee, the ramen general adapted the same formation that my father used in the Sagara battle (the one that left a landmark), knowing that the enemy will probably actively approach us since we have a ranged advantage.

Our ramen general found a good hill to camp on, and spread his four units of Yari Ashigaru to a thin spear wall only 3 men deep. Behind the spear wal was two layers of loosely formed sea of Bow Ashigaru. He also hid a unit of Light Cavalry in a forest nearby, waiting for their chances to charge unprotected Ito Bow Ashigaru.



By this time we have already researched the art to shoot Fire Arrows. So we gladly opened the battle with it. The Ito army sent its Yari Samurai first, but their added morale did not last when thousands of fire arrows poured on them!

[Maltz]

Ito's Yari Ashigaru charged uphill, and was stopped by our spear wall. Soon turned their back on us as well.



Soon the battle was reduced to an Bow Ashigaru's duel. But even before our Light Cavalry left the forest, they started fleeing, too!

[Maltz]

Since all the enemy started fleeing, we let the battle resolve itself (end battle) without manually directing our units to give chase. (Note: Ending the battle in the first opportunity actually gives way better outcome than continue the battle then manually chase the routing army, as many of the fleeing soldiers will reach the exit especially with restricted camera and lack of radar map on Legendary.)

Ito's Kamizake attack on both the campaign map and the battlefield was a disaster. They only slightly scratched us when almost 1200 of their men threw their lives away.



To the Hyuga castle!

[Maltz]

In the fall, our two armies have made significant advance on Ito. The first army, led by our youn commissioner of finance, has taken over a completely undefended Satsuma, and is on his way to conquer a completely undefended Osumi. They are Ito's gift for us.

Our second army, led by the ramen general (the commissioner of development), will be able to lay siege on the Hyuga castle this season.

All Ito wants is to have a great fight around Hyuga castle. Essentially, the current garrison army in Hyuga is from Osumi, while the reinforcement on the road is from Satsuma. Our monks pretty much followed them all the way, demoralizing them non-stop. They must know they are about to lose this war.



But why do we want to attack the Hyuga castle with its reinforcement nearby? Our 4-star Ninja, who had burned down Ito's castle gates season after season, promptly sabotaged that reinforcement army led by Ito's daimyo, so they have to sit and watch our attack on Hyuga castle helpessly.

Also, if we take Hyuga then Osumi, Ito's final army will be considered outside its last province, and will vanish forever. We don't even have to fight them.

[Maltz]

What a gathering of agents at Hyuga castle. Ito has an army with plenty of Samurai. But they only had two units of Bow Ashigaru, which is all that matters for a castle defender.

[Maltz]

Ito has two units of Bow Ashigaru. They assigned one unit to defend the wall facing the bulk of our army. The other unit remains mobile, which has to be dealt with first.

We marched up two of our Bow Ashigaru to shoot this mobile unit (unfortuantey it did not take the bait to chase outside the castle. After patches this extremely exploitable behavior is quite rare). They were down to 8 men when they ran out of arrows. We lost 40 something men.



Now we can comforrtably shoot the other 1000 defenders.

[Maltz]

Every Ito man in the caste died from arrow wounds. We did not lose anymore man after that. Good job to the ramen general! Too bad there was no chance to show the power of our new matchlock units, which we only get one every year.



When the other army led by our finance commissioner easily took over Ito last caste, Ito's leftover army in Hyuga rapidly dissolved. What a rapid end of their kamizake attack.

[Maltz]

Kyushu is ours! The power of Chosokabe reaches historic high! We are currently the biggest clan in Japan, and our trade income is second to none.

Our advance against Kono, Shoni, Sagara, and Ito over the past years have really alerted the rest of Japan, so the other clans are now more or less unfriendly with us. Strangely, the other powerful clans who have gained similar territory did not suffer such penalty in diplomacy. I heard we are the only possible candidate to become the public enemy of the rest of Japan. So we have to be really careful from now on.



In order to stay successful in diplomatically, we should start making reliable friends, and stay low for a while to let rumors Chosokabe threat cool down. Actually, we do have something important to do, and that involves cutting our powers by a bit. That's right - the relocation of our capital to Kyushu.

This concludes Chapter 11 of our story.

[Maltz]

Chapter 12. To lose is to gain

Welcome back, uncles and aunts. I am Chosokabe Motochika. Soon I will be 12 years old.



Our stable recruitment of Bow Ashigaru in Buzen has earned us the folk title of Ashigaru Master. From now on for two years, we will be able to recruit experienced Ashigaru units (level 2). We should really cherish this opportunity and form the backbone of our army.

[Maltz]

We have been actively preparing for the relocation to Kyushu. If we wait for Miyoshi or Kono to attack us, it could take forever. So we decide to enlist the help of peasants, or Operation Shigoku Spring.

Starting in Spring 1551, we raise the clan-wide tax rate to High, but exempting the taxes in the three southern provinces as the local resistance to invasion is stil high.



The people in Tosa and Iyo was of course unhappy, as their happiness dropped just below the neutral mark (to -1). They protested in front of the caste. But there was no one coming out to greet them - because we simply did not have any garrison there!

[Maltz]

After two seasons of high tax rate, the people in Iyo and Tosa decided to rebel. Interestingly, the rebellion in Iyo was led by the Kono clan. Everybody thought they were long gone. What a dramatic come back!



Their come back will not last - our Ramen general has docked in Iyo's port with his full-stack army, which will be responsible for taking all Shigoku province except Tosa in the future. We don't want to make a landing before the rebellion takes place, because...

Thoughts #15. Controlling the size of rebellion

The size of the rebel increases with the number of current units in the province. So in order to make the recapturing of Iyo more managable, it is better to land the counter-attack army after the rebellion takes place.

Our timing is a little off, as the rebellion spawned too far away from the castle. So they couldn't take the castle in the fall. We will have to wait until winter. Unfortunately, our army will have to suffer from winter attrition.