Yee-Yee-Oh!: Mori (Legendary, Domination)

[Peasant Phill]

And here I was hoping for a naval focused campaign.

[Maltz]

No worry, there is some Imagawa fleet coming, and our navy and first dedicated naval commander is almost ready.

[Maltz]

Chapter 06. First-time boarding

Motoharu: "Yurinobu san! I heard you are leaving us to lead the navy. What's your task?"
Yorinobu: "There is an Imagawa fleet approaching, and my job is to sink it! Strickly speaking, our navy is not ready yet - we are still waiting for a Sengoku Bune and two Fire-bomb Kobaya. But what we have should be an overkill already."
Motoharu: "Soga... (I see). I just got a report that our Metsuke in Kyoto has intercepted an Imagawa Metsuke. It seems that Imagawa's ambition did not end!"



Note: This looks awefully similar to what happened in the previous Shimazu story. Imagawa declares war with a full-stack army via ship, followed by a Metsuke travelling on land. If the first wave is defeated, they might send the second, bigger wave. The existence of this clan is simply to annoy us. MUST KILL!

[Maltz]

Takakage: "Father, as you ordered, we produced superior (level 3) Metsuke from Tsukushi thanks to their superior school system. Together with their mafia (Yakuza) background and some extra skills in Town Supervising, they have amazing town management skills (6-stars)! We plan to have 4 of them and let them supervise our 4 richest towns."



Motonari: "Hm... but I remember hearing some legendary Metsuke who could supervise towns like giant sweat shops in Indonesia... that's why we get our incense from them practically free, right?"
Takakage: "Indeed. The best and most practically attainable town management comes at level 4, with 3 additional points into town supervision for a total of 10 stars. But that requires either 15 years town-supervision experience (60 turns = 60 EXP), or 1 year of intensive training in agent arresting (15 EXP x 4)."
Motonari: "Too bad, there is no agent nearby for us to catch. Oh wait, the Ashikaga Shogun in Kyoto nontheless hires a new monk every time we arrested the old one."
Takakage: "That seems to be best source of agents. We already sent one Metsuke there to train, but that is our 5th Metsuke, aiming to become a bribery specialist."
Motonari: "Hm, we need some extra manpower to quiet down the Christian populations in the rich provinces in Northern Kyushu anyway. So let's delay the intense training until they can be called away."

[Maltz]

Motonari: "Hm... so how are the stars the Metsuke wear convert to the actual extra tax we collect?"
Takakage: "For a six-star Metsuke, they make an effect of 33% additional tax, subject to administration cost. The admin cost rises with our province count. Currently our admin cost is about 40%."



Motonari: "So... er... What's the actual extra tax we collect?"
Takakage: "33% x 0.6 x total production. In this particular case (Iwami's production = 4313), we get more than 800 koku per season!"
Motonari: "Can't wait to see what a 10-star Metsuke does on Iwami!"

[Maltz]

Motoharu: "Harima taken from rebels! We are getting close to Kyoto!"
Yorinobu: "Lord Motonari's instruction has arrived - the second army is to push east just one more step to Settsu and stop."
Motoharu: "Hm... that could be problematic - the Hatakeyama clan has a huge army like two stacks and half in Settsu. And their base is all the way in the northeast. So there is no easy peace with them if we declare war."
Yorinobu: "Must find a way to distract them..."



Note: This part of the game was completely quite a while ago, and now I really regret not luring out Hatakeyama's army using the rebel's Harima castle (and then turn Settsu into rebel while it is undefended).

[Maltz]

Takakage: "Father, we now have Bungo. Like Buzen it has a huge Catholic population..."
Motonari: "That's why we brought 3 monks here. One for Buzen, one for Bungo, and one extra for incite rebels."
Takakage: "So what do we do with the Nanban Trade Port here?"
Motonari: "This thing spreads the Nanban religion and increases our upkeep cost. What's the benefit of the port?"



Takakage: "Imported Matchlock Ashigaru. There is also a little town growth bonus. But ce can't make use of its trading function as our base Aki is not connected via land route. Plus we are pretty much trading with every costal clan anyway."
Motonari: "Bah. We will recruit much better ranged units than Matchlock Ashigaru. Let's burn it!"
Takakage: "Yeah, burn it!"

[Maltz]

Takakage: "Father, you gotta hear this. The Imagawa clan again asks for peace, if we pay..."
Motonari: "Wait, let me guess. Last time they want us to pay 2700 koku. This time... 5000 koku?"
Takakage: "More."
Motonari: "Hm, they seem to be more stupid than I thought. 8000 koku?"
Takakage: "More."
Motonari: "So they are both stupid and crazy. 10000 koku?"
Takakage: "More."
Motonari: "No way! 12000 koku?"



Motonari: "Wahahaha! Oh I am going to choke on my tea! This is... I don't have any word to describe this!"
Takakage: "Let's show them the reality!"
Motonari: "Yeah. Once Hoki and Bizen gets all their good upgrades, we are going to use our best fleet to ship our best stack to Imagawa and kick their ass! And then we see how much they want to pay us!"
Takakage: "Yes! I will tell admiral Kuchiba to gain some more experience on navy."

[Maltz]

Takakage: "Admiral Kuchiba, an Imagawa fleet is coming your way!"
Yurinobu: "Backed to a shore? So they would not even attempt to escape!"



Note: After controlling the nearby straits with Bow Kobaya, the Imagawa fleet, which was probably tasked to blockade our ports, got stuck in the shore outside Settsu (probably waiting for our Bow Kobaya to sail away).

[Maltz]

Yorinobu: "Just four trade ships? That's easy... can I use a stunt double?"
Takakage: "Please take this as a practice to find good tactics to master naval battle!"
Yorinobu: "Ok!"

[Maltz]

Captain Jaku Subalo: "Admiral Yorinobu! From now on I will be your second-in-command in naval battles. My name is Jaku Subalo."
Yorinobu: "I like your pirate name!"
Jaku: "(In style) You forget one very important thing mate, I am captain Jaku Subalo."
Yorinobu: "... Nice. So Jaku, what can you teach me about piracy, I mean naval battles?"
Jaku: "First, we need to know that the enemy will always come to us under any circumstance."
Yorinobu: "That's silly."
Jaku: "A little. But they tend to find the gaps in our formation and sails behind us, probably in an attempt to surround us."
Yorinobu: "I see."
Jaku: "So that gives us lots of potential ideas we can experiment one by one."
Yorinobu: "Good. So what's our ultimate goal in naval battles?"
Jaku: "Capture or sink every single ship, letting none escape."
Yorinobu: "Great! OK here is an idea. If I line up my Medium Bune in a flat line, but leave spaces in between, wouldn't Imagawa's trade ship inevitably travel through the gaps between our ships... then we can start boarding them?"
Jaku: "Let's try it out!"



Yorinobu: "They get close! Board now! Go go go! Darn, Why are you not going?"
Jaku: "Admiral, I am afraid your method failed. The Imagawa fleet passed through your gap and is now at our back."
Yorinobu: "So what should we do?"
Jaku: "Just break up from the formation and capture it!"

[Maltz]

Yorinobu: "Darn, what a chaos. The Imagawa fleet were everywhere, and we broke up our formation to board random targets..."
Jaku: "But since they are so weak and slow... we still managed to capture all of them! We won!"
Sailors: "Yee-Yee-Oh!"

[Maltz]

Yorinobu: "My trap idea did not pan out. Any suggestions, Jaku?"



Jaku: "I actually like your idea. All we want is to capture enemy ships, so they do not get to flee. So any tactics that focuses on "capture them as soon as possible" is a good one. But Imagawa's fleet was a little too fast, and you issued the board command a little too slow..."
Yorinobu: "I can issue the board command sooner next time, but Imagawa's fleet was already the slowest possible - they are trade ships!"
Jaku: "So we need some thing to really slow them down..."

[Maltz]

Takakage: "Father, Sagara and Ito have finally started to fight. Ito foolishly kept bumping its one full stack into Sagara's two stacks - inside Sagara's territory. It looks like Sagara is going to win this one."
Motonari: "Hm... is Sagara smart enough to counterattack? Maybe not."
Takakage: "If they are stuck, we are stuck, too."
Motonari: "Indeed. Now our monks have arrived to preach in Bungo - our army can move out! Let's interfere and break this stupid stalemate!"



Takakage: "So which side are we on?"
Motonari: "Sagara is winning, so we have to help Ito. They will certainly pay us to fight Sagara."
Takakage: "And just before that, Sagara would pay us for infinite military access. Wow, 5080 koku! And we already sold 5 turns for almost 1000 koku last season."
Motonari: "That's so mean, but I like it!"

[Maltz]

Takakage: "And Ito pays 1970 koku for declaring war on Sagara!"
Motonari: "Good! Let's fight a good one!"

[Maltz]

Takakage: "Father, Ito's damaged full-stack joined the battle as expected."
Motonari: "Good. You don't get this kind of help very often. Let's see how the battle plays out!"
Takakage: "It is going to be an easy victory. No nap?"
Motonari: "We want to deplete Ito's army in this battle as well. Better see it ourselves."
Takakage: "Sure!"

[Maltz]

Takakage: "Father, Ito's daimyo and his son are chickens. They sat in the back and let their soldiers attack the castle..."
Motonari: "That's only slightly better than throwing themselves to the spears. Is there anyway to take a closer look?"

[Maltz]

Takakage: "Our ninja already opened the gates for them, and they still chose to climb the walls!"
Motonari: "I don't get it..."

[Maltz]

Takakage: "Everything is going well... hey wait a second, father, there is some Sagara Light Cavalry coming your way!"
Motonari: "Nope. I don't see anything."
Takakage: "They are coming! At least the replay shows they are coming..."



Takakage: "Watch out! Our general is in grave danger, my lord! Your bodyguards are dying!"
Motonari: "Nope. Nothing came. We finished the battle without losing a single bodyguard."
Takakage: "What the... is this the wrong replay?"
maltz: "This is the right replay."
Motonari: "... so... hm..."
Takakage: "Er..."

[Maltz]

Note: The faulty replay is a known issue when reinforcements are involved. So we will have to cover the battle with words. Please use your imagination.

Takakage: "Father, Ito's soldiers were killed off at the bottom of the wall. They failed."
Motonari: "Not surprising. But they did good works for us. Sagara's defenders are weakened, and they have much less arrows than us."

- Please imagine: Ito soldiers were defeated by Sagara defenders and were routing off the field. -

Takakge: "Look, the Sagara reinforcement have arrived."
Motonari: "And we are very well prepared for it. Let's finish them!"

- Please imagine: Sagara's weak reinforcement were slaughtered by Mori army. -

Takakge: "No more reinforcement. Now what do we do?"
Motonari: "If we want to minimize casualty, we can move up our Bow Ashigaru one by one and shoot their melee units. But that's very time consuming."
Takakage: "Yeah. This kind of micro-managing is only required in the beginning. Let's do the macro-managing."
Motonari: "So we storm the castle all together!"

- Please imagine: Mori's army split into three, one for each opened gate. -

Motonari: "Bow Ashigaru in loose formation - march forward and shoot!"
Takakage: "After Heaven and Earth we have so many arrows - certainly we can outlast them."

- Please imagine: Mori's Bow Ashigaru march forward and start firing at defenders inside the castle. -

Motonari: "The west gate bow units are under return fire, but the east gates are lightly defended. Yari Asghiaru on the east gate - charge into the castle!"
Takakage: "Sagara's melee units swarmed to east gate! Now left gate is undefended!"
Motonari: "Yari Asshigaru outside the south gate, charge!"

- Please imagine: Mori's Yari Ashigaru started to enter the castle. Some of them met heavy resistance. -

Takakage: "Sagara's Bow Ashigaru in west gate run out of arrows! No one is defending west gate!"
Motonari: "Yari Asshigaru outside the west gate, charge in and take the town center! Hold it at all cost!"

- Please imagine: Mori's Yari Ashigaru engaged in fierce fighting in east and south gate, while those entering from the west gate successfully occupied the undefended the town center. Some Sagara units returned to defended, but it was too late. The Count down clock goes... 3 - 2 - 1 - 0... injury time... Victory! -

[Maltz]

Takakage: "That was a good fight! Can't forget how silly those Ito soldiers when they rushed up the wall when the gate was wide open 20 steps from them."
Motonari: "Sigh. Their commander is not much better thatn that. They just sat there and did nothing after their men fled. Ito lost almost all of their men from gross incompetence."

[Maltz]

Yorinobu: "General Motoharu, be careful, the Hatakeyama clan just shipped a full stack army to this area."
Motoharu: "Yeah it scared me, too. But they landed in Miyoshi clan's Awaji island. The two clans are enemies."
Yorinobu: "That's good. Why don't Hatakeyama just build a Bow Kobaya in Settsu and ship a full stack from there? That's much faster than shipping all the way from the northeast."
Motoharu: "My father would say, would you prefer to fight a genius or a moron?"
Yorinobu: "...ok. Let's just keep our mouth shut."
Motoharu: "But once Hatakeyama or Chosokabe defeat Miyoshi, they would both run out of enemies. Maybe we need to do something so they do not turn onto Mori at the same time..."

[Maltz]

Takakage: "Father, it is checkmate for Ito. Rebels in range, and all their mobile armies and recruiting castles are sabotaged. They can only watch the rebels taking both their castles."
Motonari: "Good job. Our work in Kyushu is almost complete! But we have a lot of diplomatic work after this. The risky invasion on Imagawa, the manuever between Chosokabe and Hatakeyama, and the breaking up of the Takeda-Hojo super alliance... We have to plan carefully."
Takakage: "Certainly!"



This concludes chapter 6 of our story.

[Maltz]

Chapter 07. Closing the trap

Motoharu: "Admiral Kuchiba, good news for you!"
Yorinobu: "Yes?"
Motoharu: "OK this is top secret - so don't tell anybody. You have been assigned to lead a surprise assault on Imagawa's home province!"
Yorinobu: "Am... am I good enough?"
Motoharu: "You are the only naval general we have got. So it has to be you..."
Yorinobu: "Okay... that's... kinda encouraging."



Motoharu: "We are now working on a good army for you. Looks like that you will lead a mixture of Bow Ashigaru, Naginata Samurai, and eeewww... Wako Raiders. Not sure why they deserve to fight along with our samurais! (furious)"
Yorinobu: "Okay! I must train myself better to prepare for that day!"
Motoharu: "Indeed, there is a fleet of Wako pirates just south of Aki. That's yours!"
Yorinobu: "Right away!"

[Maltz]

Jaku Subalo: "Good to see you again, admiral Kuchiba!"
Yorinobu: "Let's kick some hairy wako butt!... if we can figure out a way to board ships efficiently."
Jaku: "Yes. And actually I have an idea!"
Yorinobu: "Let's hear it!"
Jaku: "If we use a ship, any ship, in the back of our Medium Bune line, and use them to block the advance of enemy ships once they enter the gaps of our Medium Bune..."
Yorinobu: "Good idea! Let's try it out. And I will issue the board command a little earlier."



Yorinobu: "Here comes a Wako Medium Bune!"
Jaku: "Now, block their exit!"
Yorinobu: "Initiate boarding sequence! Rope out! Gocha!"

[Maltz]

Jaku Subalo: "Nice! We caught their first ship in no time! And some of their following ships stepped onto our mines!"
Yorinobu: "Nice! So are they going to sink right away?"
Jaku: "They just suffer only minor crew damage and morale penalty. Strange, the ships are usually unaffected."
Yorinobu: "Doesn't sound much..."
Jaku: "We have to keep the pressure with arrows anyway, nice, this one immediately surrendered after stepping on the mine!"

[Maltz]

Norinobu: "Our trapping method worked! It would be great if we can lure more of their ships forward."
Jaku: "Unfortunatey, the rest of them just remain still and shoot."
Yorinobu: "How about let's try luring them with a small ship?"
Jaku: "Worth a try!"



Yorinobu: "OK! it... did not work."
Jaku: "It looks like that we have no choice but to sail forward and board them."
Yorinobu: "But our formation might fall into chaos again."
Jaku: "We do not want to break the formation in the fear that they will be divided and conquered. But if we still stay relatively close, we should be fine."
Yorinobu: "Indeed. Let the chaotic stage begin!"

[Maltz]

Norinobu: "Once our sailors jumped to their ship from the Sengoku Bune, that's the end for them!"
Jaku: "Indeed. But it seems to be a balanced match! Let's just add the warcry anyway."
Norinobu: "Sure! Walalalala~"



Jaku: "Admiral, I have been wondering for a long time..."
Yorinobu: "Yes?"
Jaku: "You are on that Sengoku Bune, right?"
Yorinobu: "Right."
Jaku: "So where were you when the boarding took place?"
Yorinobu: "I was... er, playing poker in the bottom deck. Somehow the land armies are kept away from naval battles. And let's not investigate why thousands of people can fit in the underdeck of a Bow Kobaya."

[Maltz]

Yorinobu: "Hm, strange. None of the Wako ships escaped that night, but we still let two escape..."
Jaku: "It seems that there are two kinds of surrender. If the ship is boarded and then surrounder, the ship is captured. If the ship is too damaged/morale broken and then surrounder, the ship actually will escape."



Yorinobu: "So that means we have to make sure every ship is boarded before they get too broken?"
Jaku: "Unfortunately, yes."
Yorinobu: "OK... so we just have to board them with better efficiency!"

[Maltz]

Takakge: "Father! We receive a promotion - superior Ashigaru recruits for 2 years!"
Motonari: "That's great! Our best armor upgrade will be available very soon. We can definitely use this to train some good Ashigaru."
Takakage: "Great! I will place the orders on Hoki and Bizen. Hm... somehow I think I have some memory about this. Did this promotion happen before?"
Motonari: "I have that Deja Vu feeling, too. But apparently our clan log did not show..."
maltz: "We actually have canceled more than 10 Ashigaru Master events just to wait for the armor upgrade buildings to complete in Bizen..."
Motonari: "What are you talking about? Are you that crazy retainer?"



Note: It works! That means we can dodge almost every negative random event and delay any positive random event by loading the auto-save file at the beginning of the turn (only available in Legendary). But this also cancels any son/daughter born.
Motonari: "No wonder I tried so hard but could not get another son or daughter (blush)."