12 days of the Shogun (2)

This blog is about me trying to complete Total War: Shogun 2 for the first time, as someone who generally likes strategy games but is not really good at them, and has never finished a Total War game before. The game utilizes Adobe Flash, so with the Flash support ending this year, I figure this is the last opportunity I will have with this game. 12 days, with a Christmas break where I have nothing planned, a couple of hours every day, it should be doable. I have played the game a little bit before so I’m at least familiar with the basics. Here is my diary about my attempt to rule Japan (in 12 days).

Starting positions

I have set up a short campaign, with a game difficulty of Normal. As a common man myself, I selected the Oda clan, masters of peasantry that have improved morale and lower cost of all ashigaru (peasant) units, led by daimyo Oda Nobuhide. They start at the center of Japan with just one province (Owari), and have a hard initial challenge. I like the idea of big armies of peasants running through Japan, and if the initial challenge proves too difficult, I’d rather fail early so that I have time for a restart before the end of the year. But when has waging war on two or three fronts ever failed?

I started by easily quenching a rebellion and building better irrigation for my farms, a harbor, and more ashigaru soldiers as I look towards my neighboring provinces. I also started researching The Way of the Chi, eventually enabling markets and providing an economic backbone of my early military. This peasant army will be expensive to maintain and I want to stay focused on the long game here. I also debated about increasing taxes to get a faster start to the game, but decided against it so as to not take any risks with unhappiness in my capital.

First battle - Nobuhide's ambition

I had planned to attack the feeble Saito clan at first, however the moderately powerful Tokugawa to my east had other plans and invaded my territory, led by their daimyo. I sent my own daimyo, Oda Nobuhide, to meet him with superior numbers, in the hopes of improving his honor early in the game. This battle turned out to be an utter brawl over a hill, and probably because of their daimyo and his son being on the battlefield my enemy refused to retreat. Their daimyo died honorably in battle, but still their men continued to fight under the daimyo’s son, and then it was Nobuhide that ran away (perhaps he shouldn’t have been at the front lines, but I needed every man to take that hill). With their daimyo dead and mine having tactically retreated, the hill littered with bodies and a few remaining living soldiers, my archers were the only units who still had morale to keep fighting. They were just about able to take out the rest of the enemy melee troops with their bows before they could close out the distance, resulting in victory. Nobuhide is still alive, and since history is written by the victors, we can say that it was him who was the last man fighting on that hill, and not a few peasant archers.

The remaining few dozens of Tokugawa troops retreated to their castle at Mikawa, and I am within an arm’s reach of taking their province. With my troops equally in short supply, I decided to wait out the winter for reinforcements, and I also started building better roads to improve replenishment rates. Their castle will surely fall tomorrow, I am only worried that another nearby opportunistic clan will take it first.

Loving this thread. Total war is one of my favorite franchises and Shogun 2 is my favorite of the bunch. Keep at it and enjoy your time. A glorious victory will soon be yours!

Day 2

The Mikawa province was ready to fall. Tokugawa, perhaps sensing their impending doom, sent out their daimyo outside their castle walls to fight an impossible battle, which I could not resist taking despite my army still recovering from the previous battle. Was it a trap, did he sacrifice himself for some greater good? Apparently not since the Mikawa castle fell quite easily on that same turn before winter. They didn’t have any ranged units and my archers were able to kill most of them as they just stood there, and I only lost 13 men who I sent in to kill the rest. I must commend them for their honor, dying rather than surrendering or even trying to fight back. Surely it’s not just the AI being bad at this game?

I now have to choose where to attack next, there is no shortage of warring clans in central Japan. The feeble Saito clan to my north is the obvious next target. But I decide to wait a few turns to replenish my men, though again I fear that another clan might take Saito’s weakly defended province before me if I wait too long.

Imagawa’s gambit

Scratch that. The Imagawa clan came in to my newly conquered territory to lay siege to my castle, and with 300 men, I could not hope to defend it against 1,200. Time to revert to an earlier save and not be so quick to send my men towards Saito’s border. I had my troops turn around and met Imagawa in battle, and decisively defeated him with my superior archers, having just enough spearmen to keep them away from my ranged units. Wait, was that his whole army, including their daimyo and his brother? I move forward with my depleted army to capture the Totomi province that was undefended save for a few retainers who again valiantly but needlessly died under a barrage of arrows.

My empire has now risen to three provinces. I am a little worried about unrest with the recently captured ones, and enemy movement around my borders. But the remaining Imagawa province, Suruga, is also undefended, how could I not keep marching forward? So Nobuhide and a skeleton crew of 300 ashigaru spearmen and archers go on and capture it, again without any resistance, just letting the archers do the work and not even setting foot inside their castle. I’m not sure how this slaughter from afar is increasing Nobuhide’s honor, but it does and he reaches rank three. Imagawa is defeated, and finally I can let my men rest and recover for a few turns. That is, unless another clan decides to send their army to my lands.

Have to say this about Imagawa, that was a bold move to risk it all on a surprise attack when I was recovering from battle with Tokugawa, and it absolutely would have worked if it weren’t for a quick save-and-reload maneuver, but all is fair in war. My fame has now been noted by the reigning Shogun in Kyoto.

@noobsauce: Thanks for the encouragement!

Ah, yes, Total War historical! I remember you like it was yesterday!

Also, remember to not rush for the capital too earlier or otherwise risk getting screwed over by Realm Divide.

keep posting and i'll keep reading

We are all the Oda.

Playing Total War 3 Kingdoms right now and the ranged units are totally messing up the Enemy AI on normal difficulty. Really have an army of mostly strategists right now.

Keep up the good work in Japan.

Day 3 - Friendships come and go

My day started with a visit by both the Takeda and Hattori clans, but they were not looking to fight, but rather one to propose trade and another a military alliance. I accepted both, especially as the Hattori had just wiped out my previous trade partner. Having friends seems odd in a Total War game, but I don’t mind having an ally to my west, which is also where the Shogun’s armies reside. I forgot to tell Hattori that in order to win the game I will eventually have to capture some of his provinces.

I trust that my new friends will not immediately stab me in the back, so I feel good about leaving a few of my provinces lightly defended and moving towards Saito in the north, who with his one province is strangely still in the game. How is his daimyo hanging out outside of his castle with barely any protection? He is now easy pickings, and his castle falls on the same turn. This Mino province in the heart of Japan will likely be the point of many battles later in the game. But in the meantime, I start building a sake den in my original province to finally get some ninja action into the game. With no immediate action visible, I work on my infrastructure for a few turns.

War with Takeda seems inevitable, but for now I’m happy to profit from trade with him. The only logical route of expansion then is the Hojo clan to the southeast, and from there I can surround Takeda and attack him from both sides. Hojo’s provinces will also open a route for the entire east of Japan to be conquered.

Waging war on two fronts

Hojo controls three provinces, two of which are weakly defended. I start to move my units there but the travel from my capital takes several turns. Eventually Nobuhide makes a move and captures Sagami, and my newly appointed general sieges Izu, not having enough troops to risk taking it outright. I have my ninja wreak havoc behind enemy lines, sabotaging one of their armies and going twice on failed assassination missions, but luckily escaping capture both times. Hojo’s army moves in to retake Sagami, but Nobuhide’s troops are able to hold the fort in an epic battle of some 4,000 men total. Hojo is driven away with heavy losses. He no longer has enough men to defend his last remaining province and his downfall is near.

Apparently, declaring war against Hojo caused Takeda to lose his respect for me, so he cancelled our trade agreement. Looks like I’ll get that war with him sooner rather than later. My metsuke (non-combat agent unit) scouts ahead and spots South Shinano undefended, with his nearest troops far away. So I declare war on him as well and move my northern units in position to capture South Shinano. This may have been a mistake as my metsuke soon spots that he has big fricking stacks of units, much bigger and more advanced than any I’ve faced so far. My ashigaru units are starting to seem inadequate against the much stronger samurai that are popping up. With more than half of my army still engaged with Hojo, the challenge now will be to stop or at least delay Takeda’s revenge, or it may be game over soon.

Day 4 – Confused Takeda

Okay, so how do we deal with Takeda’s massive stack? It would probably take him 4 turns to march to my capital. I need 5 turns to build a bigger fort in there to better defend it. Anyway, he has one province in between us so I capture and loot South Shinano for fast money instead of peacefully occupying it, since I don’t believe I can hold it for too many turns. But what’s this? He is not coming for me, instead a smaller force attacks one my provinces south, which suits me just fine as I have more troops there and can more easily take his attack.

Well, you loot one province, you might as well loot a couple. Iza in the south has a gold mine in it so there is a lot of money to be taken, and being a peninsula it’s not of much strategic importance even if we have to scrap with some rebels there. Yeah, I'll sell some honor in exchange for cash.

Eventually Takeda makes his way to South Shinano, but he’s too late. I’ve brought in a lot of cheap ashigaru spearmen and archers. Though I am worried that his army has more samurai soldiers who have better weapons, better armor and better morale. Is the era of ashigaru drawing to a close soon?

The siege was a tough one. My archers shot their arrows until they ran out of ammunition, and still they kept coming over the walls, and my melee units are depleting rapidly. Do their samurai archers ever run out of arrows? I couldn’t sit in the arrow storm forever (have some experience in that) so I opened the castle gates and sent my troops outside to fight their archers before they could do any more damage. Unfortunately, some of my troops saw that as an opportunity to escape. In the end, all I had was four units of ashigaru archers without ammunition, so I had to send them to melee combat (something they’re terrible at), but it was enough to convince Takeda’s remaining troops to retreat. In the aftermath of the battle, I had my metsuke bribe some of their troops to join my side, as more of an insult to injury than for any practical reason. By the way, sorry about all the looting, looks like I’ll hold on to this province after all!

In the south, Takeda’s Musashi and Kai provinces fall without too much trouble. I spy a bit ahead and he doesn’t have too many troops remaining, since he’s apparently also fighting another clan to the east. How silly of me to assume that I was his only enemy!

I’m now up to 10 provinces (out of 25 required). The game hasn’t felt too difficult so far, although a few of the big battles could have gone either way. This is looking promising!

Day 5

I keep rolling forward and take Kai and North Shinano from Takeda. Unfortunately my ally, Hattori interferes and takes Hida from my path, and now the terrain prevents me from finishing Takeda off, and now I can't take those provinces either. My ninja fails at a yet another assassination, he's now 0-for-3 yet strangely hasn't been captured or killed in the process. I'm no expert on Japanese culture but I understand that failure is sort of frowned upon over there, at what point do I hire another ninja to take him out?

Hattori’s empire is starting to be pretty impressive. I notice that my alliance to him has lasted for 20 turns, which means that wars can now be declared again without loss of honor. I also see that my looting and aggressive expansion has rubbed him the wrong way and he’s not quite as friendly to me as he once was. I start to casually move my units to the provinces near him just in case. A few turns pass again without any action, and I’m happy to spent some money on my infrastructure again. I then have to think about where to invade next. The upkeep on my ashigaru army is starting to be pretty expensive. When do you get guns in this game again?

Not much of an update today, but the game’s been getting a bit stale and maybe that’s one of the reasons I’ve never gotten too far in these games. I’ve also been sipping a bit of the bubbly today, and we all know that you don’t drink and warmonger. Merry Christmas!

Day 6

I declare war to the Satomi clan and capture Shimosa, not realizing that he is allied with Uesugi, who in return declare war to me. So much for thinking about who to fight first. Satomi’s army proves no match for mine, and so I also add Kazusa and Hitachi to my empire, while I am laying siege to Echigo in the north. I feel like I have a pretty good pincer on Uesugi and Satomi now. Uesugi has two stacks of armies in my vicinity, I decide to ambush the lesser of them to hurt him, taking out some 1,500 ashigaru with few losses. He’ll still attack me next turn, but I’m not worried even if I have to retreat a bit. What’s important that my alliance to Hattori in the west holds for a few more turns. I gradually start to add more advances samurai and cavalry troops instead of the ashigaru.

My ninja failed yet another assassination, so I gave him a pity assassination on some low-level general that was not really a threat to anyone, which he finally managed. He then failed another mission. That’s 1-for-6 for my ninja. Elsewhere my metsuke gets taken out. I see quite a lot of enemy spy activity on my land, so I add a few more metsuke and ninja to my troops to make sure there’s no funny business around my capitol. I also hire a buddhist priest, though I’m not quite sure what for.

I learn that one of my generals was accused of treason. I could either give him another chance, or have him commit seppuku. Seppuku it is, because that will allow my daimyo to not lose any more honor which he is already lacking. One of my pet peeves in strategy games (Civilization for example) is when they prompt you to make a decision without letting you take a look at the map first. My general, let’s call him Takeshi because I had already forgotten his name, is on trial of treason. I have probably 30,000 men under my command, how am I supposed to know which Takeshi they’re talking about? Only after his seppuku, I find one of my armies lacking a general and realize “oh, that Takeshi”. I think he had quite a few level-ups under his belt. Well, Nobuhide’s honor is the most important thing. Without honor, what are we?

After I finish off Satomi and Uesugi in the East, I should have enough provinces on this front, and can start to look West to my dear ally Hattori and Kyoto, the residence of the shogun.

Day 7 – Reaching legendary status

I complete my campaign in the east, taking Uesugi’s final province of Kozuke, putting my total at 17 provinces. Again the AI has left his castle undefended, while his army hangs out in the open. I don’t understand why he refuses the protection of his own walls that would have at least given him a fighting chance. This makes my clan reach legendary status and a small cutscene plays, telling me that the reigning shogun has had enough of my exploits and will be coming for me shortly. I get a few turns to prepare.

The east is not done with me though, as Hatakeyama and Date clans declare war on me on the Shogun’s request. What should I do? I don’t need these provinces, but they don’t want to trade with me either. Should I attack them anyway, now that most of my army is still here at the eastern front? At least the Fukushima province would be of strategic importance, providing a nice buffer from this side. Meanwhile, my alliance to Hattori stays firm. What a great guy, won’t attack me even at the request of the shogun.

My main ninja, who I believe is now 2-for-8, gets a mission to kill the Hatakeyama daimyo. If successful, this would greatly boost my ninja operations for 8 turns. All this ninja action just makes me want another Tenchu game.

I’ve completely neglected building any type of a navy so far, I don’t remember the naval combat in this game being any fun. But I do spot quite a lot of enemy vessels in my waters. I have decent defenses at every border town, but if anyone were to invade from the sea, they could do a lot of damage.

Day 8 – The fight for Fukushima

I have an active war in the east, but a bigger threat in the west so I have no choice but to split my army between the west and the east. I need a resolution to the eastern front quickly so that I can focus on capturing the Shogunate. The capture of Fukushima in the east as a buffer state is integral in this plan.

My ninja reaches his target, daimyo Hatakeyama Kanetane (who has already amassed an army at my border). His chance of assassination – 41%. I won’t be reloading a save if you fail and get killed. He gets it! My ninja units get a 10% boost for all their operations for the next 8 turns, which I use to wreak havoc behind enemy lines. Their metsuke tries to apprehend my guy, unsuccessfully. And so it is the metsuke who is next to feel my ninja’s blade on his throat.

I decide to fight Hatakeyama’s daimyo-less forces on an open field in the hopes of ending this war quickly. Despite having a numbers and a leadership advantage, my ashigaru are no match for his samurai… And it is a loss, with a lot of dead men, my general being one of them. It is impossible to say if my order to withdraw came in too late, or if he willingly fought to the death.

Yet I achieved my goal of cutting down his troops (while simultaneously reducing my ashigaru upkeep costs). Without a general, he cannot regenerate his troops either. So I move in my second, stronger squad and take him out. A few turns later, I capture Fukushima with a flanking army that met minimal resistance. Meanwhile Honma, the easternmost of clans, is starting to make moves towards me. I will have a few more turns of fighting on this front.

A new clan, Mogami, rises in the east to replace the weak Date clan. They don’t yet have reason to hate me, so I take the opportunity to strike a trade deal and military alliance with them. Assuming they honor our alliance, this is a huge boon for us as it’s one less province that I have to worry about, and finally someone to buy my goods.

Western traders have found my lands and offer to trade their firearms, at the expense of bringing their Christian influences which could lead to unrest. Strategically I feel I should decline and not risk it, with my unhappiness already teetering, but the allure of guns is too much for me to deny.

Hattori remains a loyal ally, choosing to fight by my side the entire rest of Japan, despite having lost almost half of his provinces. What an amazing guy he is. It’s been a few turns since the Shogun and western Japan declared war on me, but I’ve yet to see any troops on my borders. Which suits me fine, as I slowly replace my ashigaru with samurai troops. It seems the Kikkawa clan from far away is the first one who wants to take a shot at the future shogun. Their army is one turn away, but I’m not impressed with what they’re bringing.

That certainly was a lot of action for just one province. But the war for the Shogunate is brewing and soon the fate of Japan will be decided.

Day 9 - Day of defeat

What a terrible day. Daimyo Nobuhide is dead. Many of my generals are dead. My legendary ninja is dead, and other agents keep being converted or killed as well. Hattori has ended our alliance and is now at war with me. Rebellions are popping up here and there. Turns out trying to fight half of Japan is a pretty big deal. I have lost count how many invaders came to my lands. They bring their entire families (daimyos, brothers and sons) and are filled with skilled samurai soldiers that make their way through my ashigaru like nothing. Many I have killed, but many keep coming. I can’t hold on to all my provinces and have to force tactical retreats. Fixing damaged buildings and replacing armies costs a fortune each turn.

New daimyo Oda Nobunaga (the name sounds familiar) has a mountain to climb if he is to rule Japan. The good news is that there is still plenty of turns left on the game, and I imagine soon I will have fought every powerful family in Japan, and they can’t keep coming forever, can they? And at least the upkeep cost of my army has gone down significantly.

Tomorrow, my first order of business is to stop the bleeding and establish some sort of defence on at least my most important provinces. Tomorrow we will see if Nobunaga can stand up to the name.

Day 10 – Rise of Oda Nobunaga

The night is always darkest before the dawn. Oda Nobunaga, the only living member of the Oda clan along with his 5-year old brother, takes the reigns as our new daimyo, and sets out to restore order within his lands.

I have pulled all of my troops from my eastern provinces as I can’t hope to hold them with skeleton crews, but the Chosokabe were never that smart, or maybe it was arrogance, as their invading forces head towards my capital and encounters a garrison that fights back and kills the invaders. Strangely the ashigaru seem to fight better without a general, when they know that withdrawal is not an option. There is still life on these peasants and with the lack of leadership across the empire, field promotions are given to anyone that asks.

I’ve found a very effective tactic of running cavalry across the map. This forces the enemy to send men chasing them, which reduces their overall threat. I suppose they have to, since leaving their backlines exposed to cavalry charges isn’t smart either.

Slowly but surely the invading forces become less threatening, and we are able to drive them out of our lands. Rebellions get culled and lost provinces retaken. Enemy agents are assassinated, imprisoned or get a talking to by a buddhist monk which makes them rethink their life choices. Boy does it cost a lot of money to hire new ninjas, metsukes and monks. 500 to hire a metsuke, only for him to be converted the next turn, then I pay 600 to have the monk assassinated, and instead it’s my ninja who dies in the process and that’s another 500 for a new ninja. Destroyed buildings are fixed and slowly armies are being built again. Without any children, Nobunaga adopts one of his generals in case a successor is needed.

The game has gotten a lot more enjoyable in these past few hours, with big fights that have a lot on the line almost every turn. I’ve yet to make any moves towards Kyoto, but a storm is brewing. Or maybe a tsunami would be more appropriate.

Day 11 – Victory draws near

It was the day before Oda Nobunaga’s ascension to the Shogunate, and he could barely contain himself.

Nobunaga and his adopted son keep hold of Mino and Owari provinces near Kyoto, while another strike force advances in the north, behind the mountains, killing the traitorous snake Hattori province by province. I even built my first navy fleet and went on to capture the small island of Sado just for fun. Okay, I intended to loot their gold mine, but they didn’t have any money.

The attacks on my lands have become less frequent and less threatening. I scout ahead with my ninjas, and don’t spot any significant armies with the exception to Kyoto. I could have probably launched an attack already, but I don't want to risk it. The provinces near Kyoto are small and susceptible for attacks from many directions, so I don’t want to put my men there before they have backup.

The plan for tomorrow is simple. I will strike Kyoto from three directions, capturing the final provinces needed for victory along the way. I am very curious to see if the shogun puts up a fight, as I suspect his allies have already given up.

Day 12 – Glorious victory

Oda Nobunaga (23 June 1534 – 21 June 1582) was a Japanese daimyō and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other daimyo's to unify Japan in the 1560s. Nobunaga emerged as the most powerful daimyō in Japan, overthrowing the nominally ruling shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiaki and dissolved the Ashikaga Shogunate in 1573... Nobunaga's rule was noted for innovative military tactics, fostering free trade, reform of Japan's civil government, and encouraging the start of the Momoyama historical art period, but also the brutal suppression of opponents, eliminating those who refused to cooperate or yield to his demands. Source: Wikipedia

I pursued my three-pronged attack on Tokyo, with one unit attacking north from Tango and Tamba provinces, one from the south from Yamato and Iga, and Nobunaga himself attacking directly from the east. The shogun did put up a good fight. I had the option to siege him for 7 turns and force him out of his castle, but it seemed dangerous to give him a chance. When my ninja succeeded in a 25% chance to unlock the castle gates, a direct assault was the obvious way to go.

Nobunaga’s army was the first one to try, but he failed to get far beyond the castle gates. It was a good effort though, cutting his troops down from about 2,200 men to half of that. I sent in my adopted son to finish the job that same turn, yet somehow the shogun had replenished back to 2,100 men on that same turn. Surely the AI wouldn’t cheat? On the battlefield, much like my previous attempt, I attacked the castle from three directions. Despite the castle gates being opened, on two of these fronts I faced too much opposition and had to withdraw the men. But on the third front, I broke though and set up a perimeter inside his castle. I could then attack his archers from behind, eliminating the ranged opposition and bringing in all my remaining men through the gates, this time without them being shot full of arrows. From there, I had superior numbers and without the walls to protect his remaining men, victory was at hand.

Elsewhere, the Chosokabe launched another invasion on my land, capturing a few provinces. His timing could not have been worse, as I was struggling to hold on to the capitol. The provinces he conquered dealt a blow to my finances and food supply, but as it was not a critical province to win the game, I simply contained him there.

After the capture of Kyoto, you have to hold on to it for four turns. With three armies in the vicinity, I was able to swap out troops so that those most hurting could go to a nearby city to recover. The shogun’s allies launched a few unconvincing attacks, but I was able to hold them in nearby provinces without them even getting close to Kyoto. And so, four turns passed without too much drama, and victory was in my hands.

And so ends our journey of the 12 days of the Shogun. I have completed a Total War game, the one I hold most dear. I will for sure play another entry in the series soon. Maybe Warhammer or Three Kingdoms. Would be very interesting to see if much has changed in the past 10 years.

Thank you all who took this journey with me, and a happy new year! May 2021 be as triumphant to you as 1566 was for me!

Notes:

This was fun. The game became a bit of a slog in the middle, with most battles playing out the same way each time, but powering through that the end game was really fun, it really felt like a lot was riding on each turn.

I may have gone to war too eagerly in my playthrough, not putting too much resources into the economy and research. As a result, my tech tree was about half full when I finished the campaign, and a lot of cool-sounding units were never to be seen. Having military training facilities in most of my provinces didn’t do much for me since I did most of my trainings in a few dedicated cities. I should have put in markets, sake dens, monasteries and libraries there instead. I’d love to see the gatling gun in the Fall of the Samurai campaign...