Hojo campaign: "Half a campaign: Half a Japan"

[patdj]

Seems like there is nothing else we could talk about so I'll just let those interested participate in the interesting phase of my Hojo campain.

I started 1530 on expert. I already talked about what happend in other threads, so I'll spare the retrospective here. After I conquered Central Japan an build a strong border towards the Shimazu empire in the West I tackled the remaining Oda forces in the East in a rather minimalistic war. Oda seemed to have financial or infrastructural problems there and hardly had any troops. The biggest problem was a rather big rebel army, smashed into the mud by now.

So I start throwing all my forces to the Western frontier. Shimazu owns the one half of Japan (excluding tiny little Bitchu, where the last Oda forces await there fait with a amount of men) and I am owning the other half (apart from little rebel Kazusa, which I'm invading at the moment). Oda asked me for a ceasefire AND an alliance. Could be useful, perhaps he draws some Shimazu troops attention, if he is not allied to them.

I have a strong income (oh wonder) and am training rather qualitative then quantitative troops. Essentially I fight with archers, all three types of cavalry, No Dachi and some Kensai.

Because of its strategic importance (port and strong income there) I'm invading Owari first. Could be tough one, I'm way better at defending rather than attacking, but I fear that the Shimazu break into mass troop production and build a wall of 3k armies. This could make the campain last some years longer... <- Wall.




Hm, obviously they are preparing the invasion of Wakasa. Quite smart, since it the least defendable province at the moment.

[Wasp]

Well, you have the Kwanto, so I think money-wise, you're having the upperhand. Just slowly crush the Shimazu with your superior troops?

[patdj]

Mass attack on Mino. Shimazus 3rd attempt to win this province. And his armies get bigger and bigger. Same map, fortunately. Unfortunately, I missmanaged my army-composition when choosing the invading troops for Owari, so I have 50% archers.
Considering the hill, it is nice, but they are outnumbering me 3000 to 1000... Anyway, I have a decent slope and I inmediately reach his troops with my arrows. He sends a unit of Arquebusiers, the try to get to my bowies and I have to waste loads of arrows on them till they finally rout. Thought of crashing them with my single cavalry unit but they were way to near the enemy lines.
Then the enemy approaches. 6 archer units give them a piercing welcome, the kill ratio is exploding. He rushes my archers with his Naginata Cavalry (General). My Yari Cav bashes into his flank while my No Dachi and a Kensai take his front with a nice slope advantage. The fall like crazy and rout after one minute of encounter. Mass routing at the enemy. They seem to recognize some bodies on the grass, I demolished 2 whole armies 2 and 3 years before.
I try to chase them as good as I can with my single cavalry and the No Dachi. I try to withdraw in time, cause I'm expecting some more of those, a bit to early though. They regroup and form a small 2nd wave which routs after one volley of (my last) arrows and a charge of my cavalry.
The 3rd wave isn't to keen on fighting either, seems like they are hardly able to walk with all the bodies and arrows around...
As always, the reinforcements come from all sides. It gets sticky. My units are tiring, a lot now. fortunately the enemy routs constantly, even if he's majority. Still, I have hardly any horses left and Cavalry Archers are driving me crazy.
Finally they give up. I have hardly anything but archers left and the site looks terrible:



Anyway:
- 1550 heads taken, 250 lost. I'm fine with that.
- AI is lame, how on earth is it possible to send his reinforcements from all sides. It's not realistic, it's not really clever but it is very annoying for me. (Especially in bridge defense. Didn't believe when suddenly cavalry was charging me from behind )
- Archers rule. They are twice as strong as the MW Archers...


Afterwards I'm allowed to attack Owari. But I cancel. Don't like cancelling, but they were suddenly outnumbering me. (Damned port they have there...) Not much, but too much to achieve an easy victory. I can wait.


Invading the rebel province:
Easy win. He has mainly Archers, I charge him from multiple sides. After some chasing, they rout one by one.

[patdj]

Hm, obviously they are preparing the invasion of Wakasa. Quite smart, since it the least defendable province at the moment.

Sorry, for mistake. I mean Echizo FROM Wakasa.

Talking of Wakasa: I'm regrouping for defense and launch a counterattack on Wakasa. He has not more than 1k of troops and no good general there. Am doing this one tomorrow though.

Rebel castle lasts 2 seasons, I am starting to send my garrisons towards the Western frontier, need infantry.


Yeah, Wasp, that's what I thought, too. But I wasn't sure whether Shimazu's income could still be higher. He's friendly with the Portugese, while I'm refusing to let those Christians in. Additionally, he keeps sending thousands of troops to Owari, nearly every turn and from all over the country as it seems. A fast mass production of troops could run me over, since he is being rich for quite a long time now, while I just finished securing my borders to the East. Let's see what happens. Maybe I have to deal with some more of this mass attacks till he runs out of money.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I recall them fixing reinforcements in a patch so that they only came from your opponents end of the field. Regarldess, it's best not to chase the routing enemy too much...

Mino and Mikawa are very easy to defend which should work to your advantage. Would be good to take owari though, if you can.

[Wasp]

Would you know where to find that patch, Sasaki? Or is it already in the Gold edition?

[patdj]

I have the Gold Edition and ran the current patch... at least I think so.

It ocurred to me, that invading Wakasa is a more or less useless thing. The province is rather poor and quite hard to defend. The main advantage is that a victory there would put some pressure on the issue because I would brake his defense line. A lot more provinces to attack while only defending three.

Still I'm launching. As I could see before the troops there are mainly those that survived their attacks on Mino. Many units of 30 or less. If he doesn't regroup then he will be quite a minority on battlefield. See if he is that stupid.

I'm approaching hin slowly, can see some peasants in the forest, 48 men. I want to tickle them out there because I have 4 units of cavalry I'm placing on my right flank. I approach them fast with my archer, without rushing my infantry. First volley of arrows gets some movement into the woods archers appear, but suddenly fall back, followed by the peasants and his general, 10 naginata cavs. His other cavalry, mainly with bow approach from far behind the forest while his units (indeed, 3 to 5 small ones with <40 men) run right into my cavalry that comes chasing from the right side. My No Dachi approach from behind, including a Kensai. Mass rout, including general. Kensai seem to be ugly or so because the regularily convince my enemies of routing.
I chase them down with my cavalry while drawing my archers and infantry to a hill for possible defense.
He seems to have shown up with half his army (due to the small units) so I await the reinforcements. The ones I see rout as soon as they spawn, but the battle isn't over...
Is I thought. The troops spawn at all sites of the (huge) map. I start sending my troups all over the field, all by themselves, what else could I do?
Noone, nowhere... wait!
A little unit of peasants, backed up by some archers came wobbeling out of the forest, right into the arms of two of my archers. No Dachi are near as well and I'm approaching from two sides. Little brave peasants. 2 volleys and they are half, as soon as the No Dachi touch them they rout, and die. The archers, same story. As the last one dies, battle is over:




Additionally, it seems like attacking Wakasa was not such a bad idea at all:



His provinces are rather empty (like would be mine if he broke through ). Should start a mass invasion, attacking 4 or 5 provinces at a time?

[patdj]

"Is I thought." -> As I thought.

Still can't edit my posts, so I'm sorry for doubleposting. I'm rather against invading all the provinces, could make a hard defense, once he strikes back. I would rather wait till he distributes his troops, so I can tackle Owari. As soon as Owari falls I hold his in my hands.