No Gun Shogun: A Self-Proclaimed Suicidal Campaign in Futility

[Yesugey]

I don't want to look like a guy talking with himself by posting over and over, (Like our helpful friend Druzhina from Medieval 2 Total War forum.) But I must put a screenshot to show the situation.



As you can see, my realm is divided by too. At west, I am keeping Satsuma at bay with my navy (I just lost a 202 men ship, but she took 8 enemy ships to bottom of the sea with her.) Yoko still bombards my docks brutally, but I am holding them too. They have no intention to send an invasion army so far. That's good news.

In the east, things look more promising. I beat 3 armies of the strongest clans around, by swarming with spearmen and cut down with swordsmen. Their pressure is high, but my new units are arrived to the field and soon I will advance again. It's only a matter of time that I take few more cities and become Vanguard. Only problem is the casualties. But I switch the units about to be depleted with the fresh ones close by. And I always send garrison riflemen as a cannon fodder.
I am disbanding Parrott Guns I captured. Don't want to lose my honor by using gunpowder.

Units trained from the Master Dojo starts with +5 Experience, which is an insane advantage. Before that I thought modern armies were extremely imbalanced because they have a foreign trainer. Moreover, I get %15 speed bonus trait for my general, I think it's an insane advantage too, since my army rely on getting close to the enemy as soon as possible.

Interestingly, Yari Kachi is more expensive than Katana Kachi. Looks like their morale is almost equal, armor difference is only one point. And better attack point of Katanas doesn't matter, since they will be slicing riflemen wearing coats instead of armor anyway. Is it possible that Yari Kachi is better? It's the same for Shogitai, their upkeep definitely doesn't worth the attack advantage.

Anyway that's all for now. I will continue playing whenever I have time.

[Gregoshi]

I'm reading. I don't have FotS (yet), so I can't comment. Which colour is your faction on the screen print?

[Yesugey]

I'm reading. I don't have FotS (yet), so I can't comment. Which colour is your faction on the screen print?

Thanks for being my audience mate. I hope frogbeastegg is ok with me taking over his topic. (Somehow I was reading it "FrostBeatEgg" the whole time)

I am black, Aizu. I started at Fukushima, one of the north-eastern regions. Only the Shogunate clans were left around me after few turns, then I migrated to invade Tosa (Red, which is my vassal now). Then Edo (White) converted to Imperial. I returned all the way back to invade him. I defeated Edo and made peace, but still figting with dark blue and light yellow neighbors of him. (All are Shogunate). During this whole conflict, the light blue at the the east invaded my beloved Aizu. It was Shogunate too. I am planning to not forgive him and not take him to my Vanguard team.

The other one turned allegiance is the big light blue at the center of the map. You can see how annoying this is They have direct passage from island to island, so I shouldn't make any mistakes on naval combat or else they will march into my almost undefended islands.

[Gregoshi]

You are in an unenviable position to be sure. Good luck - and stay true to tradition!

[Yesugey]

You are in an unenviable position to be sure. Good luck - and stay true to tradition!

Thanks mate! I guess I am holding well so far, thanks to the diplomacy screen that gives a brief idea about any clan's army strength.

If I manage to hold firm against incoming Satsuma invasion, I will be fine. Then again, you never know: One landing would send me back to the stone age. We'll see.

[Yesugey]

I think I am around turn 100 now. The battle on sea didn't went well, and in the land doesn't look promising, despite several victories.

My western area is still quiet, no invasion fleet on the horizon. I see from the map that Satsuma is busy invading the mainland.

On the eastern area; I hold against the assault of the last army threatens my western flank. It was a Shogunate army of Odawara, consists of 5-6 "armored" Shogitai, 2 Kisho Ninjas and several Line Infantry, and Bow ki, etc. Yes they all were +2 armored, thanks to their province trained. I was almost sure that I will lose the battle, even I have only slight numerical advantage (1400 to 1700). My army was consists of only 2 Katana Samurai, a Bow Samurai and lots of Spearmen, because I was gambled and sent my brute force to invade Sampu (Light Green) and trusted the garrison levies in the castle to hold off an attack. (I have 9 garrison units there in total, and remember my riflemen swings their rifles like a club only.)

Here is the replay of the battle:
ArmoredShogitai.zip

I think only "Stand & Fight" ability and very good defense bonuses on my General won the day. Here is the end of battle screenshot.




All 6 units I lost are the Garrison levies. That's good news. Then I marched towards lord Odawara and took his province. He is now my Vassal too. My general also provides %15 speed to my men, so I was able to run them down before they flee.

Sampu also lost one more decisive battle and now I am assaulting him. My army is Half Katana-Half Spearmen and I have good numerical advantage. But my general is inexperienced, and the enemy has deadly Shogitai, Kisho Ninjas and 2 Parrot Guns which can change the fate of the battle.



I haven't decide to assault the castle yet though. I can march through Odawara to take Sampu settlements from behind. Then they might be surrendered anyway.

At the northern flank, Edo, which was still hostile to me, declared war again, as soon as he gathered a stack. No surprise there. Good thing he is getting invaded from the north so he will not give me a headache. But the dark green which was my last ally, also broke his alliance, and declared war next turn. Funny thing is, he was Shogunate and "Very Friendly" with me. After just 2 turns, he is now hostile and at war. Ridiculous! Now I have officially no strong allies left. Let's hope no deadly strong stack appears on my front before I become Vanguard.

On sea, the enemies comes with stacks now. I was able to deal with them 1 against 3 or 4, but with that many ships bombing at the same time... My several ships exploded in half. I was downed to 3 ships in total, and my economy been hit hard. Good thing I always made the right economical decisions so I still have reasonable income. I have 4 or 5 ships now.

I get an event for "Modernization Level 3". Which probably means there is no chance holding yourself from advancing in the tech tree. Annoying to see my generals bodyguard downed from 30 to 12, since they will be holding their revolvers in their holster.

I noticed that I am not able to train +5 Honored samurai anymore. I wonder which general was providing such a trait? I would love to keep him in there.

[Yesugey]

Good news: I become Vanguard. Bad news. That didn't bring any sympathy.

On the west, land is still quiet but naval pressure is getting higher because they run away from my ships and blocking my ports in the next turn. It badly affects my income, but I will hold.

On the east, the thing I was dreading become reality: Turns out Edo was abandoned his own settlement to the enemy only to attack me. They easily took Shimosa. Moreover, an enemy stack landed on Kazusa, in order to assault next turn.

Then I got angry, and to get my only chance to become vanguard, risk all the rebellions and pushed to the west. I invaded Kai, Suruga and Totomi, forced light green to become my Vassal. and now I am officially become Vanguard.

But, so what? All Shogunate clans are still hostile. In legendary, they don't bargain before they lose all their armies. Plus there are 2 rebellions on my lands. I should be asking my vassals to attack my enemies though.

There is only one good news: The Edo marched on Kazusa, and captured it too. This sent back the landed army to his homeland I am delaying Edo with my Geisha to take my time building another army to hold him at bay.

The army of the dark green doesn't look so scary though. Only levies and spearmen. But I don't know what else is waiting as a surprise.

If I won't be able manage to hold the line, I will go frenzy and try to hold only a small portion of the map, and destroy all other clans by crushing their cities and left them to rebellion. We will see what happens.

On the sea, I am still losing ships. In 7-8 turn I will have armor piercing shells which will bring naval superiority and another window of opportunity until they catch up.

I am still fighting Shogunate more than Imperial. God, that's such a turmoil!