Pagans' Requiem: Shimazu (Domination, Legendary)

[Maltz]

Now we have two new provinces... it is time to slow down and spread the word of nanban god. Mori is severly weakened - it is in their best interest to sign the peace treaty, too. (We can't turn them into a vassal until they have only one province left.)



In the peace treaty they agreed to break their alliance and trade with Yamana, and resume trade with us. Hopefully this finds both Mori and Yamana a new enemy, and they won't bother us for a while.

We are again trading with everybody but the very hostile Ikko-Ikki clan and the land-locked Ashikaga Shogunate. It might be a good time to disband a few under experienced/upgraded units and replace them with better ones. We are already experience some difficulties fighting Samurai-rich armies.

After beating Japan's most powerful Mori navy, we have established ourselves as the undisputed naval power. We already have four Nanban Trade ships in two fleets. In total we hope to have at least 6 ships in three fleets, so we can afford to defend our western trade nodes, while properly patrolling both shores should any hostile fleet approaches - Imagawa's two full stacks are still lingering just outside Shikoku. It would be a pleasure to sink their ships before they can land!

This concludes chapter 8 of our story.

[Peasant Phill]

Great read so far.

[Maltz]

Chapter 09. Long shot to redemption

Welcome back, daimyos! I am Shimazu Takahisa.

After taking care of Chosokabe and Mori's invasion, we can resume our slow but steady conversion/expansion toward the province limit before Realm-Divide. Here are our priorities:

(1) Minimize army upkeep. So far, we have enough units for more than 4 full-stacks of army. We hope to slim down to 3 functional full-stacks plus spare parts for special purposes (more spears against cavalry, more guns against infantry, etc.)

After some counting and planning, we will shape our 3 functional armies into:

- General
- 8 units of spears (Yari Ashigaru/Yari Samurai)
- 9 units of Bow Ashigaru
- 4 units of Imported Matchlock Ashigaru
- 1 unit of Katana Samurai
- 1 unit of Light Cavalry
- 1 unit of European Cannon (follows army)

This gives us 25 units per army (5 spare units), allowing some unit swapping according to the enemy's composition (ranged beats light infantry and other ranged units, spear beats cavalry, gun beats heavy infantry, etc.) Having spare parts will increase our upkeep, but there are units that we do not want to disband, as they were hired during special "promotion" events with +2 experience. And there are sensational units like the European Cannon.

(2) Upgrade all farms to the highest level (Land Consolidation). We might not have enough savings to upgrade all farms at once. But after trimming down the expenses, we should be able to afford them in a stretch of several years. This will provide us with the solid tax income required for post Realm-Divide).

(3) Weaken other clans with agents. We have to minimize expensive agent activites such as reciting rebellion until we have all farms upgraded. It is probably better to keep the missionaries home to accelerate conversion anyway. Then, our Metsuke can be freed up to manage rich provinces (right now all 5 of them are on the field), or train on enemy agents (such as from the constant string of monks in Kyoto).

(4) Prepare an elite army. This is the last thing to do before we march on Kyoto. This army will look completely different from the three Ashigaru armies. It will be an army rich in Heavy Gunners and Fire Rockets. The building requirement of Armoury, an upgrade of Encampment, means that we have to rebuild the Encampment line in Buzen and lose 5% accuracy bonus, but gain a couple points of armor.



Back to present. My force in Shikoku's Sanuki is ready to take the sally of the fortress's defenders! I took a look at the layout of the Fortress and decided to wait for the sally that takes place later in the season, because there is very little exploitable vulnerability. The European Canon may help, but it will costs us one more season.

[Maltz]

I chose a mild hill to camp. There is a little cliff on the hill that allowed me to deploy the Matchlocks directly above it.



From hindsight, I should have guarded them with a unit Yari Ashigaru reserve. I did have one reserve, but it is on the other flank.

[Maltz]

The rebels sent their spear units charging uphill. Naturally that ended very poorly for them. We stopped the Light Cavalry coming to the right flank with a reserve unit. But there was no reserve to stop the Light Cavalry coming to the left flank. I over-estimated the usefulness of the small cliff.



I was waiting for the guns to fire at them, but the Light Cavalry were simply too fast compared to our Matchlock's reload rate. So they had no problem charging into our guys before taking any casualty.

Lesson learned: Always protect an exposed flank. The cavalry will come no matter what.

[Maltz]

I ordered the two Matchlock units to either attack or fire at the Light Cavalry. Can't really complain about their damage output at close range - as long as that bullets are fired, they kill! The Light Cavalry unit was shattered quickly when it made a second charge attempt by temporarily pulling out of the melee.



And we managed to rout all of the rebel's spear units. The rebels have nothing but ranged units left.

[Maltz]

So we charged all of our Yari Ashigaru forward, while our ranged units kept pouring arrows on the rebels' Bow Cavalry and Bow Ashigaru. The rebels started fleeing soon after.

[Maltz]

The battle did not go as well as I wanted, but it gets the job done! Er... actually, there was one Light Cavalry unit who fled the battlefield, so we had to assault the castle in the next season anyway.



Fortunately, we have no time pressure dealing with the rebels.

[Maltz]

Since conversion is very slow for provinces that do not have a lot of borders (to recieve Christian influence), we have to take our time moving on Mori's former provinces (turned to rebel by us). We pulled three Metsuke from home to help, losing about 1000 koku of tax income. But maybe we save more on temporary garrison in those unstable provinces and gain more income from accelerated expansion.

[Maltz]

The Date clan bumped away Honma's trading fleet, but did not bother to replace with their own (yet). We are the only one in line!



It will be a while until our trade fleet arrives, though.

[Maltz]

We have decided to stop hiring and start cutting military, but we probably just hired enough to trigger the Clan Might event. In total, this event gave us exactly 1 extra unit of +2 experience Imported Matchlock Ashigaru.

[Maltz]

Here I continued to push forth in Shikoku. The rebels are so weak here that I actually forgot how we won this one (auto-resolved).

[Maltz]

Imagawa's two full stacks have finally got out of their circular logical loop south of Shikoku island. They realized that there is another... circular logical loop! When they sail to Settsu, I thought they are defintely going to surprise attack Hattori, which is their ally!



But maybe they too realized that, so they immediately sailed down again. Another two turns wasted! A few seasons later, they finally sailed back to their home provinces. I almost felt happy for them.

[Maltz]

Imagawa lost their trading provinces to Hojo, but got it right back in the same season.



Strangely this still broke our trade agreement, so we have to restablish it. Can't complain if they offer to pay us again! Please break it every season!

[Maltz]

My youngest son is finally mature enough to join the service. Somehow after converting to the nanban religion, my sons tend to mature late.



Let me force him into adulthood by giving him a suitable wife. Let's see who has a daughter... oh yeah, Takeda's daughter is only one year younger than him. This is a good match! And Takeda only charges us 140 koku.

In fact, this is quite an important diplomatic move. Right now, the rest of Japan is divided into three major groups. (Please refer to the map two pictures above.)

(1) Takeda + Hojo + Ikko-Ikki

Takeda has alliance with Hojo and Ikko-Ikki, together owning about 18 provinces. This is the most powerful group in Japan right now, although they pretty much made enemies with everyone else. The team makes steady advances on their enemies. Takeda is beating up Hattori (which puzzles us, as Hattori's military ranking is higher than Takeda's); Hojo is beating up on Imagawa; Ikko-ikki is holding well on their own. It is reasonable to assume that this team will end up controlling the rest of Japan if they do not go mad and turn against each other half-way through.

Takeda's daughter is our entry ticket to tear apart this team later.

(2) Hattori + Imagawa + Ashikaga Shogunate

Hattori signed alliance with Imagawa and Ashikaga; together they own about 13 provinces. Hattori is a powerful clan in central Japan, battling Ikko-Ikki but without any noticable progress. Imagawa has mysteriously survived with all of their army far away on the sea. Recently, Imagawa has taken an offensive push toward west, but they are losing provinces to Hojo on the east. Takeda then launched a powerful invasion on Hattori and took two Hattori's heart provinces.

Any clan allying with the Ashikaga Shogunate will become our enemy (as we have to declare war on Ashikaga later).

(3) Date + Ashina

These two allied clans, which control just 5-6 provinces, are battling Hojo and Takeda, neither winning or losing. Date is also fighting Honma (from Sado island), which still holds one of their north-eastern provinces. They are not really making any advances.

My oldest son is married to Date daimyo's daughter. My second son is married to Ashina daimyo's daughter.

(4) Yamana

Mori's old friend, controlling 6 provinces. They are among the numerous enemies of Ikko-Ikki. But just like the others, they were not making any progress. This will be the only clan that will border us in the near future. If they declare war on us, we should be able to easily beat them down and (force them to) continue trading with us. Either way, they will continue to trade with us, and eventually become the next victim of our missionaries.

[Maltz]

As usual Takeda's daughter is instantly shipped to us! Let's take a good look at her... hm, she definitely possesses better-than-average reproductive parts, let's keep it this way.



Now I have found wives for all my three sons! Good luck, boys!

[Maltz]

Another Mori's province turned to rebel. It is hard for Mori to hire any new army if their castles are constantly covered in smokes.

[Maltz]

The Ashikaga Shogunate has become increasingly nervous about our expansion!



Compared to the other clans who fight everyone like crazy dogs, we are actually keeping a low key. Whoever declares war on us takes a good beating, and then we allow them to plead for peace and resume trading. We are a model clan for all Japan!

[Maltz]

There was a sudden surge of Wako pirates, so we had to fight a group with just one Nanban Trade ship.



It took a lot longer... but it was still easy! Their arrows almost had no effect on our sailors. How come? They must be wondering about that, too.

[Maltz]

Another province peacefully transferred from the crippled Mori (auto-resolved).

[Maltz]

Another province (indirectly) from Mori (auto-resolved). At this moment we were experimenting with the idea of the 4th full stack that carries all the spare parts. So we had the rare oppurtunity to have almost two full stacks against these poor rebels.

[Maltz]

This is the Awaji island! Now we have controlled all Shikoku. Maybe during the peace time I can take some time off and train with my sons somewhere else. So I can reach the top level when the tough battles begin.

[Maltz]

Suddenly Ikko-Ikki agreed to trade with us!



But we soon learned that this is a mistake! Our traders were blocked outside Ikko-Ikki's port, because it was under blockade of the Hattori clan, which quickly learned that we would start trading with them! So we actually LOSE trade income by signing this deal because we had to first allocate some goods to ship to Ikko-Ikki.

Let's hope Hattori's fleet will be mysteriously removed or Ikko-Ikki's trade port to us will mysteriously relocate. From experience, though, this will never happen. That blockade fleet will be parking there like rocks. There is nothing we can do unless we incite a rebellion in Ikko-Ikki's port province to break the trade.

[Maltz]

There is a good news for the clan! A son is born! Let's see which of my son has the good news...



What?! It is my son?! I don't even remember the last time... (cough). My youngest son is even younger by my oldest grandson. That really sounds strange.

[Maltz]

We are actually losing a lot of trade income from our trade partners' fighting:

- Hattori is blocking Ikko-Ikki's trade port to us.

- Ikko-Ikki is blocking Yamana's trade port to us. What a bunch of morons - why don't you pull your fleet and lift the blockade of your own port?!

- Hattori's trade is interrupted because their capital is under siege by Takeda. Assault that darn castle - there is nobody defending it! Idiot!

[Maltz]

We also lost Takeda's trade as they have lost their only port. Anyway, we better don't rely on the others. By the helps of our Metsuke and Missionaries, we have quickly expanded over Mori's old province. Their last castle just fell to the rebels.

Our new neighbor Yanama has been gathering a good (mostly samurai) army close to our borders. This could be interesting! Since we have almost two full stacks there, we actually hope them to declare war. We have not had any serious actions for a few years!



This concludes chapter 9 of our story.

[Maltz]

Book 3 - In Paradisum

Chapter 10. Prosper in heavenly peace

Welcome back daimyos! I am Shimazu Takahisa.

At the end of the last chapter we noted a large Yamana samurai army approaching us. However, after taking out all of their generals, the soldiers remained almost stationary in Hoki, their border province. We were reluctant to declare war, as we were rapidly approaching the province count for Realm Divide.



So we decided to give up Hoki's northern route but to expand on the southern route, taking Harima and Settsu. Here is the siege of Harima. Nothing special (auto-resolved).

[Maltz]

That's our first 6-star Ninja! Since we are short on money, we have followed him on the path of... MacGyver. He can always improvise. He uses free herbal sedatives. He makes bumbs from soaps. We do not have give him any budget to operate.



And of course, he is just like as lucky as MacGyver. He may get occasionally injured, but he will always make it.

[Maltz]

That's Settsu, the 22nd and last province! We have established a direct land-route to Kyoto. We can also resume trade with Hattori and Yamana. Things are a little tricky for Yamana, since we need to somehow harmlessly cancel our trade over the sea (currently the port is under Ikko-Ikki's blockade).

[Maltz]

Let's trade with the Shogunate first. The Ashikaga Shogun belongs to the Hattori-Imagawa team, which is not doing so well recently.