How is your first campaign going?

[The_Emperor]

My second stab at a Shimazu campaign is going well.

I have just taken complete control of Kyushu, it was made easy by the sargara actually going to war with another clan nearby! I now have 3 of the main trade routes with a healthy stack of trade ships on each so money is flowing in. The trouble is diplomacy is awkward for me with so many clans being indifferent and also refusing to accept trade agreements. Still have more to learn but I seem to be in a strong position to expand.

So now I am pondering my next step.

[Monk]

My second stab at a Shimazu campaign is going well.

I have just taken complete control of Kyushu, it was made easy by the sargara actually going to war with another clan nearby! I now have 3 of the main trade routes with a healthy stack of trade ships on each so money is flowing in. The trouble is diplomacy is awkward for me with so many clans being indifferent and also refusing to accept trade agreements. Still have more to learn but I seem to be in a strong position to expand.

So now I am pondering my next step.

An invasion of Shikoku!

It'll be a hard fought campaign but if you can manage to secure the island, it's very easy to defend. Provided you have a strong navy of course.

My Mori campaign slowly grinds on. I picked the short campaign and have 10 years, 10 provinces and Kyoto to go. Tonight I managed to get realm divide and I really sweated it out because of my Ouchi allies. They have been my ally from the beginning but have gone Christian and our relationship went from "very friendly" to "friendly" to "indifferent". Plus we share a rather awkwardly divided Kyushu - with me having the "awkward" part. Miraculously, they stayed with me along with my Chokosabe in-laws, so it is western Japan vs eastern Japan. In my first battle at the top of the Shogunate's "Most Wanted" list, I managed to snatch defeat fromt the jaws of victory defending in a bridge/ford battle. I mauled not only the whole army but my only heir of age.

Don't for a second think your allies won't betray you if you're not wholly ontop of it! Eventually, as you win greater victories against the Shogunate, they will come to fear your power and will strike!

Keep them happy with gifts, 500-700 koku per turn usually is enough to keep them from switching sides. If not then a half stack sitting on the boarder for insurance will go a long way, if they strike, you may as well be prepared.

[Leptomeninges]

My second stab at a Shimazu campaign is going well.

I have just taken complete control of Kyushu, it was made easy by the sargara actually going to war with another clan nearby! I now have 3 of the main trade routes with a healthy stack of trade ships on each so money is flowing in. The trouble is diplomacy is awkward for me with so many clans being indifferent and also refusing to accept trade agreements. Still have more to learn but I seem to be in a strong position to expand.

So now I am pondering my next step.

I may post an AAR when I'm done with my current long/hard Shimazu campaign. I've done several "sandbox-style" reloads trying different things and have a much better sense of what works as Shimazu (for me anyway).

As it relates to getting people to accept trade agreements, I'd recommend paying them. Sometimes their attitudes towards you will mellow over time and it's possible that they'll ask you for trade agreements that they won't accept now, but bear in mind that there is also an economic benefit also to having longer-term trade agreements as well as the opportunity cost of unused trade capacity. They may also get their own trade capacity locked up by smaller players if you miss your window. I'd just pay up front to get agreements with the bigger players.

As it relates to the question of "where to?" I'll offer the following two cents:

First of all, I'd try to maintain a land bridge to your expansion next expansion. Or minimally, you want a short naval hop. I think the realm divide is difficult with remote empire outposts.

The most important province types on the mainland are crafts and smithing. If you look at a resource map, you'll see that the developers likely agree. In distinction to other resource types which are scattered almost haphazardly around the map, crafts and smithing in particular have an almost geometric symmetry to their placement. There are two key reasons why these provinces are so important. One is that ultimately, these are the troop production provinces. And troops obviously win wars. The other reason is that these provinces will end up as defensive strong points by virtue of development. There is really no reason to build large cities in other provinces. You can't really build an, "economic powerhouse" city by making your castle bigger, and defensive cities built for no other purpose than to boast a large castle are typically wasted expenditures.

To sum up: you want to look at Bizen, Hoki, and Iwami (the greatest wealth capacity province in the game.) Depending on the length of the campaign you're playing you may or may not be able to get these before realm divide. In a long campaign (divide generally around 18 provinces) it's easy to get them all. In a short campaign (divide generally around 15 provinces) you'll have to develop a more creative patchwork of provinces.

[Leptomeninges]

In case anyone is interested, I started an AAR of my Shimazu game in the AAR forum.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...post2053292713

[Gregoshi]

In case anyone is interested, I started an AAR of my Shimazu game in the AAR forum.

I've added a link to your AAR in the stickied Shogun 2 AAR thread. Thank you for doing this.

[Leptomeninges]

Thank you!

I posted a second installment. I'm certainly no Shogun expert, but I've had a fun game and it's enjoyable to play a bit of show and tell ;)

[Rothe]

A few days ago I just won my first campaign (long H/H) with the Chosokabe. The endgame was pretty easy, although the beginning and just after the divide were a bit tough.

I managed to keep the Date as my ally for the whole game, which helped a lot since I could trade with them.
I am not sure if I can get the statistics back from the game, but I remember my total earned koku was about 3 million, of which over 2.5M went to unit upkeep :)

My final tax collection was around 27000 koku per turn, trade was something like 8k if I remember it right. I played the "surplus" tactic on economy, and my food surplus was 39 at game end.

Next I am going to play as the Shimazu and see if I can play without using too many archers. My "house rule" will be that I don't use samurai/monk archers at all, but lets see if that works out.

[AussieGiant]

I'm 50 odd turns into a Date campaign on N/N. I'm struggling. I just go beaten in a straight fight with a half stack on half stack open plain battle. My economy is only producing about 1000 koku per turn surplus. I have 4 provinces and about 4 trade agreements. I'm finding the sea battles easier than the land battles!! 12 years of a Total War games and I really feel like I'm missing something in how I'm handling the Clan!! :) LOVE IT!!