Best Shimazu Strategies? Tried the Board Game?

[RemusAvenged]

Anyone have any luck with these guys consistently? Is there a way to avoid being crushed in the end by the Hojo/Uesegi horde?

I use the port cheat by sending an emisary to a northern port and then send an ermy or two behind enemy lines to slash/burn and run just to get enough cash and keep them off my front.


Oh yeah and has anyone played the board game?
Is it as good as Axis n Allies?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I didn't like the boardgame much *shrugs*


Best way to avoid the Hojo Horde is to get there fast. If you don't get there fast enough and don't feel like slugging it out you can always train a geisha.

[Wilbo]

What are the board game comments about...?

[matteus the inbred]

i think Sasaki Kojiro is referring to the fact that Shogun was originally a strategic boardgame loosely based on the novel by James Clavell...

with Shimazu (and i didn't play them much cos i found them too easy until you reached the 'Hojo Horde' point, then i found the attritional warfare boring) you should use a lot of shinobi (preferably from Tajima for the honour bonus) to destabilise and invade eastern Japan while your western armies are around the Yamashiro/Shikoku area. Start as soon as you can, concentrate on invading lightly defended provinces by sea and wiping out or appropriating heavily teched up Hojo (or former Hojo and now in the hands of other clans) provinces. This will remove the threat of meeting nastily teched up Hojo/Uesegi armies coming the other way, and will also remove the threat of a high honour Geisha turning up and wiping you out. Shimazu get lots of good heirs, but i hated having my best generals systematically hunted down.
It does lead to a war on two fronts, but your economy should be nicely built up by now, try fomenting rebellions and then bribing rebels. slash and burn to get the initial money, but then try to conquer and keep the pressure up on both fronts. good luck!

[Drisos]

Anyone have any luck with these guys consistently? Is there a way to avoid being crushed in the end by the Hojo/Uesegi horde?

I use the port cheat by sending an emisary to a northern port and then send an ermy or two behind enemy lines to slash/burn and run just to get enough cash and keep them off my front.

Well, I think there's four ways. One: Practice and practice and practice or be trained by someone, until you are able to defeat the huge uesugi/hojo armies that appear at the far stages of a shimazu campaign. Two: Do a very campaign. conquerat least one or two regions each turn. Then the uesugi/hojo don't have time to grow that strong. Three: Train Geisha. Rebels never become so good. Four: Get an emissary in one of their port regions, preferably one with big income. (echigo, dewa, mutsu, hitachi, musashi, satsuma) And place a 960-men defensive army over there. Preferably with lots of Ranged units(preferably musketeers, with if you don't have them archers) and some yari samurai or naginata and 1 or two units of cav. You should be able to keep that region and don't need to burn farms or mines. (I would burn the military buildings though.. if you need more men send them via the port.) Of course you could also do this with several regions.

board game?? sounds intresting..

[matteus the inbred]

the board game was ok...i guess. like any other small boy would, i took all the soldier gaming pieces out of the box (there were something like 500) and fought battles with them instead of playing the actual boardgame, but i remember having some good games using the proper rules!

the attrition solution is good if you can keep picking off heirs and daimyos in battle...eventually they'll run out and the clan will collapse. the Shimazu are good for this as they have lots of talented heirs.

if you're using the emissary/invasion route, try to bribe the army in one of the river provinces(can't remember which those are, Drisos looks like a man who knows!), then send in defensive reinforcements instead of invading the province and having to fight an attacking river battle...the AI will never be able to take it back off you if you stick naginata, archers and gunners behind a river and put a very good general in command.

geishas...i always regarded spamming them as cheesy, but use 'em anyway! they can still be stopped by high valour ninja...build these in Iga for the valour bonus.

[Drisos]

the attrition solution is good if you can keep picking off heirs and daimyos in battle...eventually they'll run out and the clan will collapse. the Shimazu are good for this as they have lots of talented heirs.

are you sure? I don't remember that good but what I do remember that the heirs weren't really good.. at least I thought. (all rank 5 and 6 heirs are with oda, imagawa, takeda, mori, hojo and uesugi, I thought.)

geishas...i always regarded spamming them as cheesy, but use 'em anyway! they can still be stopped by high valour ninja...build these in Iga for the valour bonus.

Or Yamashiro. With Shimazu you'll probably reach that first..

[Maeda Toshiie]

1. I don't like to use the Geisha. Feels cheaty.

2. I don't like to use the port raid "function". Feels cheaty (also).

3. A less cheesy way is to use guns. Still considered to be cheesy by some though.

Shimazu economics, WE/MI version:
Build ports, in every province. Not only are they good at moving troops, they provide quite a bit of income (200 per turn per province). Even if you do not use guns, accept trade and build portugese trading posts (200 per turn per province). Next is to get churches out and a cathedral. The tithes add to your income.

There are only 3 provinces on Kyushu worth building farmland improvements (and they are in Imagawa hands initially).

Troops:
Smash the Imagawa as quickly as possible before turning onto the Mori. Ignore Shikoku first. Appropriate the iron sands provinces of the Mori and train troops from there.

[Ordani]

Once you consolidate Kyuushuu there really isn't too much to the game. Push up through Iyo/Tosa to Kawachi, then go after whichever of Oda or Mori you aren't allied with. The key to beating Hojo or Uesugi holding key mountain provinces like Omi or Shinano and using those as fulcrums to push their forces back. It will be bloody, but as long as you're fighting in their breadbasket the outcome is almost inevitable.

For example, a large army in Shinano pins troops in something like 5 northern provinces that can not be used to defend the eastern river lowlands. Taking it should be a priority.

If you're having trouble with the Hojo Hordes, try suckering the AI into bloody river battles to thin out his numbers by leaving small garrisons of naginata and lots of archers. You might lose the province, but that's fine if he's taking 3-4x losses to make it happen.

I believe my best Hojo defanging happened in Musashi (playing as Takeda) wherein I managed to kill on the order of five thousand troops, Lord Hojo and two heirs over the autumn and winter campaigns. I lost most of my own army to do it, but the Hojo fell and I cleaned up the rest of the clans within the next 10 years.


As for the boardgame, if it's the same thing as Samuari Swords with a different name, it's quite good and I had a lot of fun with it in college before some jerk ninja'd my box.

[Drisos]

Shimazu economics, WE/MI version:
Build ports, in every province. Not only are they good at moving troops, they provide quite a bit of income (200 per turn per province). Even if you do not use guns, accept trade and build portugese trading posts (200 per turn per province). Next is to get churches out and a cathedral. The tithes add to your income.

There are only 3 provinces on Kyushu worth building farmland improvements (and they are in Imagawa hands initially).

Troops:
Smash the Imagawa as quickly as possible before turning onto the Mori. Ignore Shikoku first. Appropriate the iron sands provinces of the Mori and train troops from there.

I would say, conquer the Imagawa lands, create improved farmlands in Hizen. Conquer Shikoku, build mine in Iyo and improved farmlands in Sanuki. And I would then go for the Mori conquering. (I used nagato as 2nd hq.. train naginata and heavy cav out there - not naginata's anymore since I patched to 1.02 though..) but that's just me.

And one thing about Cathedrals: you can only build one, normally. Gather a lot of cash and a few citadels, and start a few cathedrals the same turn. Doing this you will be able to create two or even more cathedrals, which will deliver some nice koku

[matteus the inbred]

are you sure? I don't remember that good but what I do remember that the heirs weren't really good.. at least I thought. (all rank 5 and 6 heirs are with oda, imagawa, takeda, mori, hojo and uesugi, I thought.)
Or Yamashiro. With Shimazu you'll probably reach that first..

you're right, they don't get super-talented 6 star Kenshin type heirs, but they get a regular supply (about half a dozen) of 3-4 star heirs...it's hard to kill the clan off by wiping out heirs. some of the other clans get few and far between and can't really afford to lose many.

true, i forgot the bonus in Yamashiro.

oh yeah...
you leave my ashigaru alone! <throws something pointy at Drisos>

[Quietus]

Anyone have any luck with these guys consistently? Is there a way to avoid being crushed in the end by the Hojo/Uesegi horde?

I use the port cheat by sending an emisary to a northern port and then send an ermy or two behind enemy lines to slash/burn and run just to get enough cash and keep them off my front.

The Shimazu is the easiest faction IMO.

The key here is to totally ignore the small island where the rebels reside. Just plug the province with one or so unit and the rebels won't invade at all.

Just kick out Imagawa, then beat Mori, Takeda and Oda as fast as you can. Also set your unit production lines up so that reinforcements are continuous.

[Drisos]

Intresting that you say that - I think many people find Shimazu one of the harder campaigns... You must be a good economic tactician. I always had too few koku with the shimazu and ended up against a Hojo horde in the center of Japan.

[Quietus]

Intresting that you say that - I think many people find Shimazu one of the harder campaigns... You must be a good economic tactician. I always had too few koku with the shimazu and ended up against a Hojo horde in the center of Japan.

Dris, just some simple points:

1) Low casualty rate.
2) Continue attacking (so you can fund more troops).
3) Continue reinforcements (so you can continue attacking).
Note: 2 & 3 feed each other.

4) Upgrade the rich provinces first.

:)

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Intresting that you say that - I think many people find Shimazu one of the harder campaigns... You must be a good economic tactician. I always had too few koku with the shimazu and ended up against a Hojo horde in the center of Japan.

It's all in the speed...

If you start off attacking fast you will be going against smaller armies since your opponents won't have had time to build them. This means you need smaller armies, and thus you spend less on upkeep. You will come across less castles, which will also help you on time.

If you try and focus on economics you will make the game much harder. A year spent "building your economy" will add many years to your campaign.

[Just A Girl]

How do you guys manage to build gun factorys and geishas and stuff so easily and say there essential?

Ive always taken over the whole map before i can build any of those.

and ive never built a cathedral,
And i dont even build churches.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

you can get arbusquiters wihout them,
just by agreeing to the barberian demands then building a trading post "WE" i think its a mistake becous in the origional shogun I was sure i had to build a Church before i could build a trading post

Any way I dont see why you need to buld a church or a gun factory.
Theres adequate money in the land without needing churches.
and if you play the game agressivley,
the game will be won before you manage to build a gun factory or geisha house.

[matteus the inbred]

I like using ninja and spies, it adds flavour, and i miss the cutscenes too! after all, the AI certainly uses them, and there's nothing more annoying than having a campaign wrecked by a rampant high honour Geisha which you can't do anything about cos you haven't bothered to build any yourself.

How do you guys manage to build gun factorys and geishas and stuff so easily and say there essential?

The farming income you get from having conquered nearly half of Japan before you come face to face with a big eastern clan means you can easily tech up to these things if you get them going fairly early on. But i agree with Sasaki, a fast start with Shimazu is very possible as all the clans you face early on are weak and divided (Imagawa, Takeda) or at war with one another (Mori/Takeda, Oda with someone, usually Mori). Don't usually bother with guns, archers are good enough, and churches are a waste of money you could spend on better troops.