Takeda campaign-with replays

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I thought it might be fun to have a campaign where I uploaded all the battle replay files. Taking screenshots in the campaign is time consuming, and replays keep me focused, can't hide the mistakes like I can with screenshots. Of course I made several in my first few battles

http://s17.quicksharing.com/v/871240...set_1.zip.html

Contains 3 battles, about 4 KB. Put them in your "dumplog" folder and rename them one at a time to "replay". To watch them:

Create a shortcut for Shogun
Right click on properties
In the target box add a space and mEP outside the quotes

For recording battles create another shortcut and add ER outside the quotes.


Takeda--Sengoku Jidai Period

Difficulty: Expert, Stats: 1.02

My first decision to make was to abandon the western provinces. They aren't very valuable and it's hard to expand on 2 fronts, especially in the Mori territory with it's high hills and rebellious population, where each province you take has to be defended. I begin transporting my troops back and make an attack on Musashi with all available troops. I start building a gold mine and train a Samurai Archer unit.

Watch battle 1: Defence of Bingo

Takeda:

1 Cavalry Archer

Mori:

1 Samurai Archer
1 Yari Samurai
1 Yari Ashigaru


The Mori try to stop me from leaving, a bit pointless since I'm giving them the provinces for free anyway. Easy victory.

Watch battle 2: Assault on Musashi

Takeda:

1 Hatamato
2 Yari Samurai
2 Cavalry Archers

Hojo

1 Hatamato
1 Samurai Archer
1 Yari Samurai
1 Yari Ashigaru






I fudged the assault on Musashi a bit, should've used the pause key. Victory is mine however, and in Autumn of 1530 we have this:



Next turn I continue to move troops back east, attack Shimosa, and move troops in to defend Musashi.

Watch battle 3: Assault on Shimosa

Takeda:

1 Hatamato
2 Yari Samurai
2 Cavalry Archers

Hojo:

1 Samura Archer
2 Yari Ashigaru




This battle goes well, they have very poor troops, though I don't kill as many as I would have liked. I get all the archers though, so the castle assault will be a breeze.

I move the last of the troops over from the west and burn the port, giving me an extra 375 koku. I'll train some cavalry and build some castles this year.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

http://s17.quicksharing.com/v/473724...set_2.zip.html

Spring 1531

My emissary is off in Kyushu trying to get an alliance with the Shimazu...for monetary purposes only of course.

My Daimyo in Shimosa has to assault the castle so I have the garrison from Musashi attack Hojo in Kozuke.

Watch Battle 1: Assault on Kozuke

Takeda:

2 Samurai Archers
1 Yari Samurai

Hojo
1 Hatamato
2 Samurai archers
a few scraps


An interesting battle, my archers defeated the opposing archers quite easily but my Yari Samurai proved wholly incapable of dealing the the Hatamato. The bodyguard only started dying when I ordered one of my units to fire on it. Eventually he routs and his army flees with him, he survives however.



The castle assault in Shimosa was very boring, they had no archers so I had my CA shoot them all. I've ordered the training of 4 cavalry this year, 2 ca and 2 yc. Even with takeda discount this is 1500 koku, however my gold mine will be finished soon and hojo's lands are rich. I will upgrade to a large castle after finishing it. Began a spear dojo in Shimosa for garrisons.

Summer 1531

Well now, this was a fun turn. Mori take Bingo, My Daimyo attacks Hitachi, Hojo attacks Shimosa And the Uesugi declare war on my and invade Kozuke, outnumbering me 2:1.

Watch Battle 2: Defence of Kozuke

Takeda
2/3 + 2/3 Samurai Archer
1/2 Yari Samurai

Uesugi
1 Samurai Archer
1 Yari Ashigaru
2 Yari Samurai


This battle was the nicest one so far. My archers manage to take the ashi unit out of the picture and severely weaken one of the Yari sam. With some maneuvering I flank both yari sam, the ashi flees at the first sign of combat and the rest soon follow. If the AI would learn to use loose formation and send their archers into battle I would have lost.

Hojo decides he cannot win either of the next two battles and so I take Hitachi uncontested. A pity, I need one more battle to get 4 stars for my taisho. With the victory in Kozuke I now have two 2 star generals. Since the Uesugi have proven themselves untrustworthy I can assume that the Imagawa will as well, especially since I have just killed a lot of their opposition. They may not be willing to abandon Shinano, but I can't risk them taking Kai with all of my troop ability. I'll hold back a few seasons until I can get that spear dojo built and begin churning out troops.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

http://s17.quicksharing.com/v/495282...set_3.zip.html

Autumn 1531

Eeee, my sit back and let them attack me strategy almost backfired here. The Hojo attacked Shimosa, my least well defended province.

Watch battle 1: Defense of Shimosa

Takeda
1 Hatamato
1 Cavalry Archer

Hojo
1 Hatamato
2 Samurai Archer
1 Yari Sam


The Daimyos duked it out head to head and Hojo was killed. Uesugi inherited Kazusa and Shimotsuke. I got the legendary swordsman--one of my men had 10 kills, I wonder if that's what triggers it?

Winter 1532

Lots of money. Training 4 cavalry in Kai and 4 Yari Samurai in Shimosa. Building improved farmland in Musashi, Hitachi, and Sagami. Invade Kazusa

Watch battle 2: Attack on Kazusa

Takeda
1 Hatamato
1/2 CA
1 Ashigaru


Uesugi
1 Yari Ashigaru
1 Yari Samurai


Easy win, though the Yari Sam took a surprisingly long time to rout.

Spring 1532



Mutsu and Shimotsuke invaded, it's time to deal with the Uesugi.

Watch battle 3: Attack on Mutsu

Takeda
1 Samurai Archer
2 Yari Samurai
1/2 Cavalry archer

Uesugi
2 Samurai Archer

AI is foolish again with archers, skirmish mode is not always a good idea. I leave a few survivors.

Watch battle 4: attack on Shimotsuke

Takeda
1 Yari Cavalry
1 Cavalry Archer

Uesugi
2 Samurai Archer
a few scraps


Icky battle. My cavalry get stuck on the "few scraps" and I can't get them to disengage. The archer unit kills 66 with their arrows in the mean time. Lose over 600 koku worth of soldiers.

Summer 1532

I take the castle in Mutsu and move my men northwards.




Autumn 1532



With the castle in Mutsu taken, Sanada Banzan (the guy I've trained up to rank 3, he's almost rank 4 now) is free to invade Echigo. The money from sacking Mutsu is enough to purchase improved farmland in Kozuke.

Watch battle 4: attack on Echigo

Takeda
1.5 Cavalry Archer
1 Samurai Archer
2 Yari Samurai

Uesugi
4 Samurai Archer


I don't know what troops they have (my emissary is wasting his time in Kyushu when I should have him here spying) but I figure it would be wise to choose heavy rain. Sure enough they have 4 archers. Their Arrows are practically useless however. The battle is easily won.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

http://s17.quicksharing.com/v/893244...set_4.zip.html

Jesus, I'd forgotten how tedious this can get. My armies are mostly archers now and every battle involves me making pincushions out of them and riding them down when they route. Most of the battles I didn't bother to include, just the attack on totomi that was mildly interesting and the attack on suruga which was my first defeat this campaign, Imagawa routed my 2 units, personally killing 17. Of course he died next season, this time personally killing 39. Quite a guy.



The season after taking Echigo I took Shinano and Dewa.



The following season I invaded the remaining 3 Imagawa provinces. 2 of these battles are in the replay pack.



Since I'd failed to take Suruga the previous season I had to backtrack a bit; just as well since I don't really have the manpower yet to take on oda. I've built an archery dojo in Mutsu, I'll be building another in Totomi. The plan is to pump out 8 archers and 4 cavalry archers each year. The farm upgrades and mines should allow me to do that. I also invaded Sado.



The Uesugi and Imagawa clans met their end. Uesugi's province went to the Oda, and Imagawas went to Mori. The Oda also took Mikawa, which I did not contest.



Err, I don't quite remember what happened to the Oda army. Anyway, I invade Mino and Mikawa. Sanada reached rank 4, the guy in totomi will next turn.



I invade Owari. The Oda attack Mino with almost 500 troops. It should have been an epic battle but I had 4 ranged units and he had mostly ashi. Turned out a boring massacre.





I've taken Omi and Hida. I'll have to deal with the monks and then with the mori. With all the archers I have neither will be any trouble. The only interesting battle all campaign has been the defense of Kozuke. Depressing. Once you get enough archers any AI army is toast. Don't know if I'll continue this one.

[Drisos]

Very intresting, Sasaki. I enjoy reading this

Not had time to play the replays yet though.. will be fun to see someone else deal with the AI..

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Arrg I finally had another really nice battle and forgot to save it. Very annoying. The Kaga monks were a breeze because they split themselves into 3 and cavalry archers pwn monks.




I've come to the conclusion that the game is unbalanced in favor of archers. Of course they're good on defense but even on offense they are the unit to have. They're more valuable than they should be given their price. I've suspected it for a while, but this campaign has proved it for me. Having cavalry and regular archers in your army makes it invincible on all but a few maps. I think I'll leave this campaign for a while and persue an all h2h unit campaign.

[Martok]

Interesting. I've never found samurai archers to be that unbalanced, but perhaps that's because I'm more used to Medieval's archers (who are woefully underpowered). Whenever I jump back to Shogun, I always think to myself, "Yes! This is how archers *should* be!"

I would advocate nerfing SA's melee abilities, but that wouldn't be terribly realistic. Perhaps they should be more expensive to recruit instead?