Iga Ninjutsu is Good (Hattori: Legendary, Domination, V5445)

[Maltz]

Sandayu: "Tosa is taken! Not a single door is damaged! Except we still have to hire janitors to pull out arrows on the wall."
Chisato: "Chosokabe must be steaming learning that the Hattori army did march to Tosa. "

[Maltz]

Video for Chisato's 2nd Assassination mission and Momochi's sneak attack on Tosa is now availabe!



End of Chapter 8

[Maltz]

Chapter 9. Dishonourable Bastards

(in the meantime, Omi province)



Urakami clan's emissary: "Lord Yasunaga, I repeat - if your clan does not aid us again, we will have to consider to declare war on you."
Hattori Yasunaga: "But we are not even bordered... is this a rogue-clan "I-don't-give-a-darn" threat?"
Emissary: "We can declare war on our former ally Bessho in an eye-blink. We can do that to anybody."
Hattori: "... For now, take these 1000 koku..."
Emissary: "Good. We will be back later this year."

[Maltz]

(on the shore of Bewa Lake...)

Yasunaga's Bodyguard A: "You look worried, my lord. I know Omi rebels have been chasing our back for a few years now... other than that, is there anything troubling your mind?"
Yasunaga: "Such an arrogant emissary... Why does Urakami treat a friend this way?"
Yasunaga's Bodyguard A: "Who says we are Urakami's friend?"
Yasunaga: "Their attitude is friendly..."

[Maltz]

Bodyguard A: "Nope. Not anymore"
Yasunaga: "WHAT THE... why they are suddenly unfriendly?"
Bodyguard A: "It comes from a Dishonouring Treaties penalty."
Yasunaga: "Huh? They did not dishonor any of our treaties..."
Bodyguard A: "I get it! Didn't the emissary mention that they declare war on Bessho? Bessho was their ally not very long ago."
Yasunaga: "What does that have to do with us?"
Bodyguard A: "Obviously my lord did not study criminal psychology. People who feel overwhelming shame and guilt about their behavior often protects their ego and sanity with an extremely aggressive and arrogant attitude in order to avoid facing their conscience. I am sure inside the Urakami emissary's mind there is deep insecurity and low self-esteem."
Yasunaga:

[Maltz]

Yasunaga: "How about we take the Urakami emissary and... break his mental defence?"
Bodyguard A: "Sure?..."

***

Yasunaga: "He committed Seppuku, and the replacement is equally arrogant and annoying..."
Bodyguard A: "Looks like there is nothing we can do about Urakami."
Yasunaga: "I get anohter idea. Maybe we can sign alliance deals with Takaoka and Bessho. So Urakami will have to deal with them first before turning to us?"
Bodyguard A: "They are already enemies with Bessho, so it makes no difference. But grabbing Takaoka is a good idea. They are the only two clans left in the Chugoku region anyway."
Yasunaga: "And just in case they will gain infinite military access to us from the alliance, why don't well sell it to them first?"
Bodyguard A:

[Maltz]

Yasunaga: "Now Hattori has two allies in the west! This should stablize the situation quite a bit."
Bodyguard A: "Bessho seems to be nice fella, but Takaoka betrayed its ally Hanato in the past and gained bad fame."
Yasunaga: "There seems to be few dependable clans in the west..."

[Maltz]

Chisato: "Goemon, I heard that Hattori has signed military alliance with Takaoka and Bessho. Why?"
Goemon: "Take a guess by looking at the map."
Chisato: "Hm, Urakami has expanded rapidly over the last few years. The alliance looks like some kind of "Realm Divide" of western Japan against Urakami."
Goemon: "Exactly. The Hattori clan aims to control the entire western Japan. Chosokabe is going down in Shigoku. It is time to plan for the next step - the Chugoku region. If we can put Takaoka and Urakami against each other, there will be lots of opportunities for Hattori."
Chisato: "Hm... does that mean that I will be called to Chugoku to join the action?"
Goemon: "Very likely~"

[Maltz]

Chisato: "But our work in Shigoku has not been completed. Chosokabe still holds Awa and Awaji."
Goemon: "Last time I checked, our monk has incited rebels in both provinces."
Chisato:

Note: Here are a few tips to make sure the incited rebels do accomplish their task:

(1) The size of incited rebellion has a weak positive correlation with the size of army in the province. If there is more than half a stack of defenders, the rebellion is usually doomed to fail. Rebel army is usually very fragile.

(2) Use Ninja to sabotage a large defending army on the field. The sabotaged army must not have its red influence circle touching the castle, or it WILL join the defence when the incited rebellion attack the castle at the end of the turn. This is because that army sabotage expires at the end of the clan's next action instead of at the end of the turn. So by the time the rebel acts, the sabotaged AI army can again join a battle.

(3) If a certain castle is recruiting new soldiers, sabotage the castle first, then incite rebellion. The new soldiers could become available and shifts the balance. If the castle is defendeded by a capable military commander, incite the rebellion first, then assassinate the general so the rebel army is bigger.

(4) Sometimes the AI parks a large stack incide the castle. This makes it almost impossible for rebels to take over. We have to wait until the army splits or moves. It is possible to call up a rebel far enough from the castle, so the defenders cannot return to defend the castle after beating the first wave. The second rebel + army sabotage will get the job done.

(5) The size of the rebel is not affected by the damage received by the defender's unit. It is possible to incite a large rebel to wipe out a heavily depleted army even if they are in the castle. The AI usually move the army away from the castle to avoid elimination.

(6) Incited rebels could take more than one turn to travel to its destination. In the above picture, it will take 2 turns for the Awaji rebel to take the castle.

(7) The incited rebel army could spawn right on top of our agent who has not acted. Then there is no way for our agent to act. The solution is to let our agent move away before inciting the rebellion.

(8) Each save file has a random seed associated with it, so merely loading the same save will not change the outcome of an agent's action. Loading a NEW save file works. The easiest way under any circumstance is to press End Turn and load the automatically generated autosave. Another way to get new random seed is to move units such as ships and armies. The fastest way to generate autosaves at any time is to lay siege on a castle but choose to maintain siege.

[Maltz]

Chisato: "Here I am, Chugoku! There seems to be a lot of Urakami activities going on. Look, there is a rebel army incited in Aki already. Nice work."
Goemon: "There is a small Urakami army in the west. Go sabotage it!"

[Maltz]

Chisato: "How about Chosokabe's army? That full stack with bow samurai is still a serious threat."
Goemon: "Sanetomo is taking it over from us. No worries."
Chisato: "But if that stacks remains parked on the road, Master's army cannot pass..."
Goemon: "Yeah. Momochi will have to wait until the Chosokabe's army dissolves before he can work on the rebel-controlled provinces in eastern Shigoku. ".
Chisato: "Hm... I remember seeing a tiny stack of Chosokabe army somewhere. Where did it go?"
Goemon: "There is a free army roaming nearby?"

[Maltz]

Goemon: "There is a free Chosokabe army? I must tell Momochi about it right away!"

***

Goemon: "Momochi said he already took care of it. That's why he is now a level-3 general. Nice."
Chisato: "But now I remember there is another tiny free army..."
Goemon: "Why don't you tell me about it just now?!"
Chisato: "So what will happen?"
Goemon: "The tiny free army is laying siege on Iyo castle!"
Chisato: "Do we have defenders in Iyo?"
Goemon: "No! Only janitors from the contracted cleaning company. They also dress like samurais for people to take pictures..."

[Maltz]

(In the meantime, in Iyo...)

Samurai Retainers: "Captain, we are being attacked by Chosokabe Yari Ashigaru! There are a couple hundreds of them. We only have 45... What should we do?"
Samurai Captain: "What do you think? We fight to the death! Our contract includes that castle defence! We have been trained for this!"
Samurai Retainers: "Let's show them what samurais are made of!"
Samurai Retainer A: "Take that, Ashigaru Captain!"

Note: Chosokabe Ashigaru Captain wears blue.

[Maltz]

Samurai Retainer A: "Argh... I was over-cofident..."
Samurai Retainer B: "I will revenge for you!"

[Maltz]

Samurai Retainer B: "Taste my blade!"
Chosokabe Ashigaru Captain: "Argh..."

[Maltz]

Samurai Retainer C: "Ommmph!"
Chosokabe Ashigaru Captain B: "Er..."

Note 1: Killing the captain of a unit apparently has no effect on its morale. There is no "taisho" assigned to any particular soldier in the captain unit.

Note 2: The battle is rather straight forward. The samurai retainers charge the weaker Ashigaru unit first, rout it, then charge the second unit and fight to the death.

[Maltz]

Samurai Retainer D: "Captain, we are down to the last 12 men!"
Samurai Captain: "We fight until the last man!"
Chosokabe Ashigaru: "We can't beat these monsters! We are losing! Run for your lives~"

[Maltz]

Momochi Sandayu: "Such an heroic battle... I must present medal of honors to these two samurai and all those who fell. Go to Iyo and collect their names!"

***

Ninja Sanetomo: "Master, the cleaning company said these are just contractors... when I visited Iyo, there were another 45 randomly selected janitors working there..."
Sandayu:

[Maltz]

(In the meantime...)

Hojo Emissary: "Great Hattori daimyo! I represent the most powerful clan in eastern Japan, Hojo. It would be a great pleasure if Hojo and Hattori establish a trade relationship. Together we provide much stability and prosperity for Japan."
Hattori Yasunaga: "Hm... what does Hojo wish to gain from this trade?"
Emissary: "Much. Hattori holds various resources that are of core interests of the Hojo clan. We are willing to pay all our accumulated fortune for it."
Yasunaga: " All? You mean everything?"
Emissary: "Yep."
Yasunaga: "Sounds too good to be true. Are you going to ask for my account number and PIN?"
Emissary: "Well, some resources are really important for us. Our heavenly rich income will take us back there in no time anyway."
Yasunaga: :exhausted: "You had my admiration. Please take this 6633 koku as gift~"
Emissary: "We certainly feel your sincerity. But we are giving them all back to you anyway~"
Yasunaga:

Note: Here comes another valued trade partner and an oppurtunity to present a free, fat gift. Hojo currently has about 17000 koku, which they are willing to ship every koku to Hattori. (It is crazy, I know.) But instead of signing the trade deal right away, we first give 6633 koku to Hojo for a large boost of relationship of +100. Then we sign a trade deal to gain 23128 koku from Hojo (all their cash). We instantly get the 6633 koku back, but with extra good feelings from Hojo. It is unlikely that the extra relationship points really mean anything, and it will drop back down to 0 after 20 turns.

[Maltz]

Chisato: "Goemon, I heard Wako pirates have appeared in southern Kyushu. What are they upto?"
Goemon: "They are supposed to raid our trade route and give us headaches. But due to a glitch in their ship factory, all they could make was trade ships. So they are here to give us trade ships."
Chisato:

[Maltz]

Chisato: "I heard Chosokabe has lost their last province to rebels! So master Momochi can finally proceed. I wonder what will be the First army's next mission?"
Goemon: "I heard that the HQ is considering having a second port province connected to Iga. Right now we can only make ONE sea trade partner, which is Hojo. We still have a lot of potential customers. If there are more like Hojo... "
Chisato: "Only two port province are available, Ise and Harima."
Goemon: "Ise's Kitabatake is a good buffer between Hattori and the eastern clans. The First army will go after Harima's Bessho then."
Chisato: "Isn't Bessho our new ally?"
Goemon: "Yeah."
Chisato: "Does that mean we will betray our ally, making Hattori one of the dishonorable bastards of western Japan?"
Goemon: "We do not betray our ally! Not literally. "

[Maltz]

Chisato: "How about the Second army? What have they been doing after taking Buzen?"
Goemon: "I heard they were still recruiting local Ashigaru, and waiting for a chance to expand to Chugoku."
Chisato: "Yeah. Now the rebels have taken Urakami's Aki. There is no better timing than this. But Aki used to be Mori's home province, and the resistance there would be fierce."
Goemon: "I heard that the HQ has reassigned the commissions. The commander of the Second army, Minamoto Tomokata, is the new development commissioner. He should be able to calm down the Mori followers better."
Chisato: "How?"
Goemon: "By promising them that their farms will be rezoned to become commercial zones?"

Note: Swapping commission is easy. For example, originally we have:

General A: Commission A
General B: Commission B

When we click on General A's portrait and click on Commission B, General A will be reassigned to Commission B, while General B will automatically be reassigned to Commission A.

Although such swapping seems harmless to the generals' feelings, frequently this still lowers the subjects' loyalty. Two negative modifiers are possible: (1) Commission lost to an inferior general; (2) stripped off a comission.

The first penalty can be easily avoided by swapping two generals of equal level. The second penalty is obviously a bug, and it sometimes cannot be avoided. The penalty is always applied on the general who is the subject of the operation (in the above example, General A). Therefore, we should always "strip off" the commission from the general with higher loyalty (who joins the clan later) in order to avoid getting dangerously low loyalty on a veteran general.

By the way, I find that AI's metsuke can easily bribe away our 6-loyalty general (about 50% success rate). That really sucks.

[Maltz]

Chisato: "Welcome to Chugoku, general Minamoto. The Aki castle is that way!"
Tomotaka: "Thanks. What's the situation with Urakami?"
Chisato: "I heard a large Urakami army is in the north, attacking Ouchi clan in Nagato. Every season they assault the castle, every season they lost. "
Tomotaka: "Please keep a close eye on them. My order is to go north next."
Chisato: "Sure!"

[Maltz]

Tomokata: "Ha, that was easy!" (manual fighting to cut down casualty)
Chisato: "I heard the second army is huge. How come we do not have everyone here?"
Tomokata: "Indeed, I am only leading half of the second army. The other half is under the command of general Sawada Takamochi. Somebody has to defend Buzen from Ouchi, right?"
Chisato: "Sorry, I forgot about them..."
Tomokata: "But soon we will join force! If Ouchi remains hiding in their castle, we will storm that castle!"

[Maltz]

Goemon: "Oh? It seems that Kitabatake is getting destroyed by Oda, again."
Chisato: "I was wondering why Oda took this long. Kitabatake has almost no army thanks to my colleague."
Goemon: "Yep. Now the HQ has to worry about Oda again. Their impolite daimyo is leading the invasion himself. I wonder whether that means war with Hattori next? How would the HQ respond to the new threat?"

[Maltz]

Goemon: "One thing is certain - we can use Kitabatake's unspend koku~"
Chisato: "Let's hope they come back again~"

[Maltz]

(In the meantime, Omi province)

Ninja Masakata: "My Lord, there is no chance that Kitabatake can survive Oda's attack. What's your order?"
Hattori Yasunaga: "We do not entirely object to Oda's return, as long as they are willing to maintain peace with Hattori and trade with us."
Masakata: "It could be difficult to deal with Oda's daimyo Nobuhide. People call him the last impolite samurai of Japan."
Yasunaga: "It would be nice if we can deal with a nicer Oda. "
Masakata: "I understand my Lord's wishes."



Masakata: "My Lord, Oda Nobuhide suffered from a terrible diarrhea after his dinner noodle. Then, while he was in the outhouse he again suffered from a terrible stroke. Then, while he was struggling to stay afloat in the pool of..., he again suffered a terrible spasm. Oda Nobuhide's wife resumes commands the clan until her son Oda Nobunaga becomes an adult."
Yasunaga: "Now let's restore trades with Oda~"

[Maltz]

Chisato: "Goemon, how does the Hattori clan support all the construction projects and ninja missions? From selling military access and trade deals?"
Goemon: "They look fancinating, but only make up about 5% of the clan's total income in the end. The clan stays afloat mainly from taxing its people."
Chisato: "Yeah. It sucks that when I namely get a 15% discount from stores, after tax the amount even goes over the marked price by 15%. I have heard so much complain. If the tax is hiked one bit higher, many will either starve to death or take a chance and revolt."
Goemon: "From a government's point of view, the ideal tax level IS the threshold before people start revolting."
Chisato: "Can't we put higher tax on the rich people? Those who hire hundreds of peasants working on their very fertile farms? They don't need to revolt to stay alive..."



Goemon: "Indeed! That's why we have Metsuke. By stationing them in the richest province, they will squeeze a lot of extra koku from the rich."
Chisato: "How does a Metsuke do that?"
Goemon: "Holding charity dinners, accepting bribes, running VIP golf clubs..."
Chisato: "Nice!"
Goemon: "Actually we have been training our Metsuke in Kinki. In average, Monks in Kyoto get arrested within the first two months of their graduation from the Buddhist school."

Note: With the ideal retainers, a level-4 Metsuke could achieve 11 green stars in Town Overseeing, bringing in 55% extra taxable income, which is later subject to admin cost. For example, if a town earns 5000 koku of taxable income at 30% tax rate and under 40% admin cost, the leve-4 Metsuke earns 55% x 5000 x (1-40%) = 1650 koku per turn for the clan. When all five Metsukes are in action, the clan's income is usually boosted by more than 5000 koku per turn.

[Maltz]

Hattori Ninja: "Master, Bessho's army has finally left its castle!"
Momochi Sandayu: "Finally our chance has come! Proceed with our plan!"
Hattori Ninja: "I will put up detour signs on the road so the Bessho army travels slowly!
Hattori Monk: "I will incite a rebel army!"
Sandayu: "Boys, prepare to sail back to Honshu!"

Note: The Awaji island had terrible farming output and was left to rebels. There is a limit on the number of provinces we can rule before triggering Realm Divide. Skipping poor provinces not only increases our power to face the Realm Divide, but also leaves less provinces for the future enemies.

[Maltz]

Hattori Yasunaga: "Trusted and respected generals and agents, welcome to Hattori clan's spring festival general meeting of 1551! Your hard works have certainly been noted and appreciated. Happy New Year!"
Everyone: "Happy New Year!"
Yasunaga: "I am pleased to announce that the Hattori clan has finally figured out what's happening in the rest of Japan. Let's take a good look."

(1) Eastern Japan

After six years of cruel warfare, four clans emerged victorious in eastern Japan: Hojo, Takeda, Oda, and Date. The four clans are currently friendly with each other, which is very rare considering how much war has been going on.

Hojo-Takeda Alliance
The Hojo-Takeda Alliance is the most powerful force of eastern Japan, or the entire Japan. The Hojo clan is currently very friendly with Hattori due to the well-publized twenty-thousand-koku trade agreement. It is likely that Hojo and Takeda's friendship will last longer, because each of them still has other clans to fight.

[B]Hojo vs. Date
Hojo, while currently is at war with no one, will certainly face Date, who has no other place to expand except into Hojo. However, Date is also at war with Honma, which is famous for its tireless and shameless sea invasion. It is safe to predict that Hojo and Honma will eventually eliminate Date.

Oda's expansion
Takeda is also allied with Oda. This leaves Oda two options (1) expand west and attack Hattori (2) expand east and attack Hojo. If Oda declares wars on Hojo, there is a good chance that Takeda will side with Hojo. So it is more likely that Oda will expand west. We have to keep a close eye on Oda's intention.

(2) Western Japan

We the Hattori clan has been steadily expanding in western Japan, among a bunch of dishonourable oppurtunists. Chosokabe, Urakami, Takaoka have all violated samurai's code and suffered from nation-wide hit in reputation.

Urakami
Urakami has become a public enemy in the region. In the next year or so, they will be taken out by the surrounding clans. Our second army, commanded by general Minamoto and Sawada, will play an important role there.

Minamoto Tomokata: "Do we have permission to declare war on Ouchi? Their full stack has been parking inside the castle of Nagato."
Yasunaga: "Go ahead!"

Takaoka
Takaoka will be our primary competitor in Western Japan. War is inevitable, although clash before the fall of Urakami is unlikely. Agents, please direct your effort to Takaoka afterwards.

Chisato & others: "Yes!"