STW Shimazu

'fixme: insert in-game description here

Geography & Economics

The Shimazu Clan starts at Kyushu, the southermost island of Nippon, sharing it with the Imagawa. Once the Imagawa have been driven off the island, the place can be kept with comparatively little troops. Mid-term, advances into Honshu ("mainland Japan") will provide you with plenty of iron-sand provinces, while still allowing for a narrow border. The bad news is that most of these provinces yield little income: if you don't pay attention, soon enough the maintenance cost for you troops will soak up all your funds. Playing the Shimazu Clan can be a challenging and fun game, but it's definitely not recommended for beginners.

Gameplay Advice

Of course, unifying the whole island of Kyushu is the first objective. You're lucky insofar as you don't need to worry about your exterior borders: in Bungo, one unit of any kind will suffice to deter a rebel attack for the time being. Likewise, as long as the Lords Mori and Takeda are warring among themselves on Honshu the small garrison in Nagato needs no reinforcements.

Immediate measures

Immediately invade the river province of Chikugo, maybe even in turn one. You may be weak, but so is the enemy. Don't enter into an arms race: it will be many years until you can eventually overrun that province at heavy casualties. However, in the very beginning of the game you may fight about Chikugo with like three vs. three units, which almost plays out like any ordinary battle in open terrain. Just be sure to bring some archers yourself (so the enemy will stand back from the bridge) and try to attack in stormy weather (to mitigate the enemy archers).

Holding the river province yourself, you may have the chance to defend it against several counterattacks, each time incurring heavy losses.

It will still take a while to squeeze the Imagawa out, three or four years isn't uncommon, depending on the quality of your harvest and how many reinforcements the Imagawa send into Hizen. You should consider an early sally into Hizen if at all possible, even if you cannot afford the garrison to hold the place. The point is that by taking the province you will raze any Dojo and/or interrupt ongoing construction, ensuring that the place won't produce any troops for another four seasons.

Mid-Term

In the beginning you'll get along with token garrisons on your borders, but soon enough you'll have to stack up actual armies. Every Samurai in your service expects one Koku per year; our initial provinces provide about 1200 Koku, after seizing the Imagawa lands you'll have a nominal income of two grand. That's barely enough to maintain two full armies, and God forbid you should have a bad harvest.

You will need harbors, many of them. Building harbors is a good idea for any faction, but in case of the Shimazu it's madatory. You shouldn't totally neglect troops and other infrastructure, of course, so some balance has to be met. As a rule of thumb, commissioning one harbour every year seems to work rather well. This will eventually double the income you get from Kyushu island, and besides, trade income isn't subject to luck.

As for conquest, the rebel lands on Shikoku (the small island) may seem to be easy prey; however, maintaining peace will again tie up a large force for years to come. All things considered, advancing in the north or south will require similar amounts of troops, so really it's a matter of taste.

Long Term

No matter whether you go north or south, most provinces are rather poor. Conquest can't secure your income. Once the Portugese show up, embracing the new faith should be seriously considered if only for the trade income. After all, every trading post will yield another 200 Koku per year! No Dachi maybe cannot fully replace Warrior Monks, but getting them at a discount you're in a better position to lead a monk-free campaign than any other Daimyo.