Mori Guide

[Drisos]

What I do get though, is no reinforcements showing up until almost all of your army is off the field. That's not supposed to happen, is it? I'm not sure. But it's annoying, I'll hold off the first waves and then Withdraw like 6-8 units of archers. But nothing shows up, and I would've been better off keeping the archers to use in melee instead. I'd almost consider trying to Withdraw much more (even units who don't need to), just to try and trigger the reinforcements, but that only becomes useful when I have double stacks (2000+), not so much with armies of like 1.500.

Ok, after playing a bit more with battle timer off, I think I realize now how the reinforcements work. It's not based on time (i.e. a random amount of time is chosen for your reinforcements to show up after you drop below 15 units), instead there is a chance to trigger reinforcements every time one of your units leaves the field. It might be predetermined (i.e. the random choice is "this game, after your first 5 units leave, reinforcements will show up"). Or it might be a fixed chance per unit (i.e. every unit leaving the field will have 10% chance to trigger reinforcements). I wouldn't know.

So, rather than simply withdrawing units (empty archers mostly) and waiting for reinforcements, I've learned to withdraw more units to trigger the reinforcements, if nothing shows up right away. Choose whichever are heavily damaged or very tired, or otherwise least useful in your situation. If any unit you withdraw is a big loss, withdraw one at a time, so you don't end up withdrawing more than necessary.

[edyzmedieval]

Good to see you around Drisos.

[Drisos]

I was discussing Mori campaigns with Khan of Steppe, and we agreed it's awkward to try and go for Warrior Monks early (e.g. go Large Castle + Bhuddist Temple in Mimasaka). That's 1250, or 1525 for your first unit of WM. Now usually I just ignored the WM discount for quite a while, and expanded into Shikoku and Central Japan without them. I came up with an alternative opening, or at least alternative from our perspective, we both used to go Takeda -> Shikoku -> Kyushu (maybe taking Tajima and Kawachi from the Rebels on the other front). The plan is to forget about Shikoku for now, and rush for Kii after dealing with Takeda. Also, I spent almost nothing on Troops or Troop Production, spent almost everything on Economy (Mines in Harima and Aki, Ports in Harima, Bizen, Tajima). Only trained a few units of YA to deal with early population loyalty early, and Tea House in Tajima plus a couple Shinobi. This sets me up for teching up in Kii and starting WM production.

I think it's been a success. This is this situation in Winter 1533 (after 10 turns):



Note the Koku, I was below 100 in Autumn(!). Here's the Southern front:



Seems like I triggered some kind of butterfly effect: Imagawa has conquered Bungo and Iyo, which I have never seen in what must be a 100 campaigns by now. Also, Oda is split into 4 separate territories. Now, the Oda always implode in Sengoku Jidai campaigns, but I gotta say, this one is a masterpiece.



Edit: Ok, this campaign is just bananas. Hojo reigns supreme, until he gets assassinated (wasn't me!), both Uesugi and Takeda survive on 1 region, Imagawa is split across 3 territories.



Edit 2: Yet more craziness! Hojo left some serious armies behind, the Rebels actually conquered and killed off Takeda. When I pushed into Shinano (from Mino), I was attacked by over 5.000 (!). I don't think I've ever seen that. At most I've seen 2K-3K in the lategame vs. the horde. I have battle timer off, so I actually got to fight 5 full stacks. It was surprisingly easy, though, after the first +/- 2K, morale on the remaining reinforcements seemed to be very low. Many units routed without taking casualties (just being charged/surrounded). It turned out to be an exercise in fatigue management, more than anything.



Battlefield absolutely littered:

[Khan of Steppe]

Damn I've been missing out on some quality stuff! That's an interesting observation regarding the reinforcements Drisos, you may have talked me into trying out a battle timer off campaign...it's still pretty wack if that's how it works but just knowing how trigger them could be encouraging enough to try it out.

Also I love that campaign, it's so wacky. Did you wait to conquer Kyushu and Shikoku until after you defeated the north?