Shogun Total War: The Rise of the Mori Shogunate

[Buccaneer]

I haven’t done a dynasty in a long time and of course we haven’t seen a Shogun dynasty, at least not since Medieval came out. I recently got Shogun to work again on an old box and while the game is less complex than Medieval, Shogun presents its own unique history as well as interesting and fun strategic and tactical decisions. I have chosen to play the Mori clan (red) on the Hard level. The goal is to make the Mori clan into the Shogunate by having all other clans eliminated. This dynasty details the rise of the Mori clan, from an impoverished beginning to (hopefully) the Shogunate.

[Groundhog]

Wow, what a coincidence... I just dragged this game out last nite and was playing with the Oda clan on expert. It was going swimmingly until about 1580 when the Usuegi to the East and Imagawa to the West both decided to gang rape me simultaneously. I was defeated in 1584 - 2 years after the Oda were wiped out in real life.

I'll be reading!

[Buccaneer]

The Way of the Warrior


"If you know your enemy and know yourself, you will not be imperilled by a hundred battles. If you do not know the others but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one. If you do not know the enemy and do not know yourselves you will be in danger in every battle."


The Mori starts with eight provinces in the southern half of Japan. Immediately to the south (my left) are the Shimazu provinces (green). Some of the southern provinces (off the map) are held by Rebel and Ronin forces, as well as the ones off the coast to the east (Sanuki, etc.). Immediately to the north (my right) are the Oda provinces (gold). Beyond them are Hojo (purple), Imagawa (cyan) and Uesugi (dark blue). And then there are the Takeda (black) provinces, one part way to the north and the other part tucked right next to the Mori provinces. Clearly Mori only have a few options to expand – take the few rebel provinces or declare war early on Takeda or Shimazu. But before we decide what to do, here’s a list of where Mori stands in the Spring of 1530 (from left to right):

Province	Income	Buildings	Resources
Suo	139		iron
Iwami	120		iron
Izumo	143		iron
Hoki	103		iron
Mimasaka	123	Castle, Archery, Spear,	iron
		Tranquil Gardens
Bizen	190		harbor
Inaba	125		iron
Harima	220		silver, harbor

The Mori provinces are situated in the highlands of Southern Japan, with good sources of iron deposits, access to the coast (and ports) but very little in the way of agriculture (farming income or koku). This is the challenge for the Mori clan: significantly behind all other clans in income producing provinces.

But more importantly, here are the units (each about 60 men) of the Mori clan:

The Mori Daimyo’s Honor Guard (Heavy Cavalry)
(5) units of Samurai Archers
(5) units of Yari Samurai (professional spearmen)
(4) units of Yari Ashigaru (peasant spearmen)

Combined, they would form a power army in the early game but multiple fronts to defend and unpredictable actions from neighboring clans, they start dispersed throughout the mountainous provinces.

[Buccaneer]

Spring, Summer and Autumn 1530: The Way of Producing Revenues

With only 2000 koku in the treasury and a starting net revenue of only 443 koku annually, we have to look to finding more revenues quickly. Any units built this year will increase the expenses and thus, lower the net revenues. The amount of koku in the treasury gets added only after the harvest at the beginning of the Winter season. It is from the treasury where you construct buildings and they are deducted at the beginning of the project, even though they may take many seasons to complete. Therefore, the amount in the treasury has to get us through the year of four seasons before it is replenished – and it can only be replenished if revenues exceed expenses. So how to spend what little we have to increase revenues and look to conquer neighboring provinces (which would add to revenues)?

See the rebel province (Tajima) just to the right of Mimasaka? That appears to be lightly defended but it would not be worth it because it would yield only 94 koku in revenues. That’s less than the cost of annual maintenance for one Samurai Archers unit. Going across the bay to Sanuki would be a good choice since that province is quite valuable (over 450 koku) but I am not sure what’s around them yet. Besides, the Rebel and Ronin provinces typically we leave you alone as long as you have good defenses and not stretched too thin.

The choice would have to be to go after the three Takeda provinces for they would get a total of nearly 800 koku (and a neighboring rival clan is always worrisome). From using my Emissary to look at the Takeda forces in Bitchu and comparing to the other Takeda forces, it appears they have about 120 (two units) in each of the provinces. It would take a little time to get my units together under the Daimyo, a General with 3 Honor points but I cannot take too much time to allow Takeda to build up their forces. Takeda has three additional provinces far to the north next to the Hojo clan and hopefully they will be too busy to reinforce through their port in Aki.

Since the Mori Daimyo is in Mimasaka and that’s the only province we can build new units (through the presence of the Archery and Spear Dojos), the army will be assembled there and we will attack from the north, starting with Bitchu. I would like to have started on the other end in Aki and capture Takeda’s port, but that will take a few extra seasons to move the army to Iwami. With a total, at present estimation, of 360 men under Takeda, I would like to go in with at least 600 (10 units). That will require building some new units as well as taking some units out of their current provinces. So…we begin by building another Yari Samurai unit in Mimasaka and start shuffling around units to concentrate in that province.

The Summer and Autumn seasons saw the building of two Samurai Archers units and the assembly of 10 units in Mimasaka to attack Bitchu before the winter snows set in. In the Autumn of 1530, we started the production of a Mine in Harima to take advantage of the rich silver deposits there. It will take 8 seasons before we start seeing income from the Mine but at an income of 400 koku annually, it wouldn’t take long before it can pay for itself. Meanwhile, we got to start clobbering Takeda’s men.

[Buccaneer]

Winter of 1530: Life’s a Bitchu

The Takeda province of Bitchu lies in a coastal plains beneath the highlands of the Mori clan. It is a rich agricultural land with revenues over 300 koku in a good harvest. A very good province to capture but we’re going to have to cross a small bridge on the Bitchu River to reach Takeda’s forces in a cold, winter rain. However, we gather on one side with a 600-men army while they defend with 120-men consisting of Cavalry Archers and Yari Samurai. The General of the Takeda forces saw what he was up against and decide to pull back a little from the bridge but still within range with their archers to defend the bridge. This will allow then to settle on slightly higher ground for as we stream across the bridge under fire, we would have a slight climb out of the river banks to reach them. Behind the Takeda forces are some woods on top of a hill and we would need to strike them hard, not allowing them to rally on the high ground.



We start by positioning a couple of Samurai Archers on our side of the river but found that we were not in range of their units. Next, we sent three Yari Samurai units across the bridge in succession followed by one of the archers units. As soon as one of the Yari Samurai units were across, they immediately charged against Takeda’s forces to hold them until the other two Yari Samurai units made it across. We took some losses on the bridge but under our General with good (+3) Honor, our units kept up the attack without wavering and struck at them fairly hard, holding them in position during the melee. Once the Samurai Archers unit made it across and fanned out within range, the enemy started to rout and took off in various directions over the hills. With a nice victory, our army sets its sights on Bingo.

Army	Units	Total	Casualties
Mori	Sam Archers, Yari Sam	611	57
Takeda	Cav Archers, Yari Sam	120	70

Results: Mori Victory, Bitchu Province (314 koku)

The Autumn harvest was good so farm revenues were up 25% from average. Our treasury, down from building 4 units during the year plus the start of a Mine, sits at 813 koku. This will prevent us from starting any new building projects in the upcoming year but enough to build a couple more units to help hold the captured province.

[Buccaneer]

Thanks, Groundhog, that is amazing considering I don't think anyone here has played this game in years.

[Groundhog]

Well done in your first battle!

Bridge battles can be brutal when you are an attacker, so it's a good spot of fortune they just had the 120 men, and that only half of those were yari troops.

[Warhammer]

I always preferred this game to Medieval TW. Both were good games, and Medieval had the better combat, but the strategic game in Shogun was better, and the battles seemed to be more fun.

[Buccaneer]

I should have quite a bit more written up and posted tonight. Lots of interesting strategies and some great battles coming up.

[Buccaneer]

Spring of 1531: I got BINGO!

Peeling off a couple less than full strengths units from the Daimyo’s army and adding a fresh unit of Yari Samurai, we move into neighboring Bingo. The remainder of Takeda’s forces from Bitchu added to the 120 that were already there. Bingo is not a rich province (only 130 koku) but it is the next stepping stone to Aki. As it turned out, the Takeda forces decided not fight there but instead went into Aki where it could garrison in its castle, if needed. Bingo, like most of the nearby provinces, does have iron deposits but it’s likely that nothing will be developed in this province. The reason is that these interior provinces (Bingo, Bitchu, Iwami, Izumo, Hoki) can only be accessed from the outside through the defended border provinces. It would pay to develop units in border provinces, as well as those with port facilities so units can be closer to the action. For this reason, they do not even need to have troops present except for newly conquered provinces that need to keep the peace while building up loyalty. We backfill in Bingo while we move the army to its final goal in this early war – Aki with its castle and port facility.

[Buccaneer]

Summer of 1531: The Battle for Aki

The military goal in attacking the three Takeda provinces quickly was to prevent Takeda from reinforcing Aki through their port in Aki. It appears to have worked since in addition to the 168-men fled from Bingo, we face only an additional 60-men Samurai Archers unit in Aki. The battle takes place in the summer with the fields and hillsides lush with the crops. Aki is surprisingly quite hilly, which provides numerous advantages to both the defender and attacker. With an open field of battle in front of us, we choose to start in the formation of the Bird, allowing us to lead with our four units of Samurai Archers.



Even though the day was overcast with a light wind, it enough visibility to locate the enemy forces early on. As we moved forward, we see Takeda’s four units near one of the hills, fairly bunched up. We decided to keep our spread out formation putting one unit of Samurai Archers on each of the flanks and two in the middle. But not surprisingly, the Takeda forces started backing up to find more favorable ground to defend. This continued on for quite some time, all the while our archers were hitting some targets. We kept at them for quite some distance when we told our Yari Samurai units to charge at their center. The Takeda forces were already wavering from a continuous attack from our arrows and the charge from our spearmen sent them fleeing from the battlefield. What units remained went into their castle, providing the last measure of defense. Even though we outnumbered them more than two to one, the difference was in the quality of the Commanding Generals. Our Daimyo General is not only of high Honor but instills additional Honor and Morale boosts to all other units. The Takeda General had no such bonuses. Practically speaking, this means that we could push our units into the attack and sustain the attacks without much fear of withdrawing. And with the enemy at little or no honor and morale points, they would waver and then run away much more easily.

Army	Units	Total	Casualties
Mori	Sam Archers, Yari Sam	537	68
Takeda	Cav Archers, Yari Sam, Sam Archers	228	162

Results: Mori Victory, Aki province under siege for two seasons

Because of the successful attacks of our Yari Samurai, we have acquired the skills of a Legendary Swordsman, allowing us to build a Sword Dojo which trains the valuable No-Dachi (swordsmen) units.

[Buccaneer]

August and Winter of 1531: The Siege of Aki

With enough men to prosecute the siege against the Aki Castle in only two seasons, we begin to look beyond our borders and to grow the peace with our newfound revenues streams. As planned, the winter season saw the final conquest of the Aki Castle and with that, 353 koku were added to our revenues which includes a port. Aki also has some iron deposits which like most of the other provinces, allows us to smelt the iron in an Armoury to improve the armour of any units build in that province. We could also build a Mine which adds to the revenues.

The harvest came in at average but with the addition of nearly 800 koku in revenues, our treasury increased to 1366 koku. Since we are not planning on building additional units in the near future and to let our men rest, we use most of the treasury to start a Mine in Aki and this will be done in two years.

After the successful siege, our Daimyo General goes to Harima to contemplate the next campaign and to watch the actions of the Oda clan across the border. He left behind some men behind in each of the three conquered provinces to increase their loyalties to the Mori clan and to prevent rebellion.

[Buccaneer]

1532 and 1533: The Years of Peaces

1532 saw the completion of the Mine in Harima, adding 400 koku to the annual revenues. After another average harvest, our treasury increased to 1459 koku which was put to use in building a Large Castle in Mimasaka, which will open up the ability to build one of many different types of military, religious and espionage buildings.

The 1533 harvest was poor, our first one. Farm revenues went down 25% but enough was added to the treasury to start building a Castle in Harima due to the completion of the Mine in Aki.

So where do we go from here? On our lightly defended southern border sits the Shimazu province of Nagato. Fortunately there have been very little build-up of units into Nagato even though we have not heard from a Shimazu Emissary. They appear to be interested in the Rebel and Ronin provinces off our coast in both the south and east. On our northern borders sit the powerful Oda clan. They are aggressive in nature and they continuously shuffle units in and out of their provinces, although none of the forces grow large enough to represent an immediate threat. To find out what’s on Oda’s mind, we send our Emissary to find the Oda Daimyo and offer an alliance. Meanwhile to ensure that our southern borders remain peaceful, we train another Emissary in Mimasaka with the mission of offering an alliance to the Shimazu.

We need to buy some time for with the Large Castle now underway in Mimasaka, that will allow us to build a Buddhist Temple since we already have a Tranquil Gardens there. Mimasaka provides one advantage of all of the Mori provinces – the training of the awesome Monk Warriors for 25% less (375 koku vs 500). However with the Large Castle scheduled to be completed in late 1534 and then the Buddhist Temple 2 ½ years after that, it will be a while before we see our first trained Monk Warriors, the most powerful foot soldiers in Shogun.

The long term goal is to go after the mighty Hojo clan and the way is through the Oda clan. We need to be content now to live life in peace while the other clans fight among themselves. But the Oda clan had other ideas and we should have been suspicious when our Emissary received not answer to our proposal for an alliance.

[Buccaneer]

Spring of 1534: Oda the Arrogant

From Kawachi and Tamba came an unwanted war, for the golden-clad forces of Oda invaded our valuable Harima province. I do not believe they have plans for an assault against Mori but they do lust after Harima with its Mine and fine harbor. Fortunately our Daimyo was already there but he has only one unit of Samurai Archers and two units of Yari Samurai with him to defend against a 300-men army.

Harima has a landscape of gently rolling hills but fortunately behind us are some higher hills overlooking a valley. The Oda General, in his arrogance, decided to attack us in later Winter/early Spring and while the ground is covered in snow, a thaw will slow down any movements.

Seeing that the Oda army will be slowly coming up the farmlands below our position, we quickly deployed our Samurai Archers on a higher slope in the center, with a unit of Yari Samurai to support them. To our left was a higher ground where we placed our other Yari Samurai unit. On our right atop of another small hill are some woods where we placed our General and his small yet powerful unit of Heavy Cavalry. That was a risky placement since the General is our Daimyo and his two sons have not come of age yet. The death of our Daimyo will signify the end of the Mori clan.

Slowly we watched the Oda archers and foot soldiers trudge toward our position. Once within range, our Samurai Archers fired at will causing them to spread out and stop their advance. A detachment of Yari Ashigaru broke off and headed towards the woods on our right. Not wanting to send the Heavy Cavalry down into the melee yet, we ordered the two Yari Samurai units to charge down the hill into their poorly trained units. Their Yari Ashigaru unit that was coming up the hill towards the woods stopped and turned to meet the advances and that was when we sent our General and his Heavy Cavalry into the Ashigaru causing widespread panic and the rout of the invading Oda army was on. A crisis of losing Harima was adverted and from Mimasaka, Inaba and Bizen came reinforcements to bolster the defenses of Harima.

[Buccaneer]

1534 and 1535: Winter of Our Discontent

With the Oda clan back on their side of the border, we still attempted to gain an audience with the Oda Daimyo to offer an alliance. It would be a little while before we were able to meet with him. Meanwhile, tragic news hit the Mori lands for the harvest of 1534 proved to be terrible. What little koku we have in our treasury will go towards building additional units of Yari Samurai and Samurai Archers to help in the defenses of Harima and elsewhere. Plans for the Buddhist Temple in Mimasaka would be put on hold until a good harvest. The only good news coming out of this period were the completion of the Large Castle in Mimasaka and in a matter of good timing, the Castle in Harima was completed as well.

[Buccaneer]

Winter of 1535: Good Tidings of Great Joy

After enduring an invasion into Harima and two years of bad harvests and a low treasury, we saw joy brought back to the lands of the Mori clan. The tallying of the autumn harvest showed that it was a good one and with a healthy profit of nearly 2000 koku, our treasury stood at 2291 koku allowing us to start the much-anticipated building of the Buddhist Temple in Mimasaka.

On the diplomatic front, we were able to meet with the Shimazu Daimyo and he readily agreed to an alliance. This relieved any pressure on our southern borders. However, as expected, Shimazu did capture the valuable Rebel province of Sanuki across the bay from Bizen.

The other good news was that we finally gained an audience with the Oda Daimyo sitting indecisively in Kawachi watching the build-up of Mori forces in Harima. The Oda Daimyo agreed to a cease fire.

[Buccaneer]

Sorry about the mixed tenses, I always have problems with those and I still don't know whether to write in the past or present tense.

[TonyR]

Cool Dynasty. I'll be reading along too.

[Buccaneer]

1536 and 1537: Back to the Future

The southern island of Kyushu (south of the Mori provinces) were not only the base for the Shimazu clan but also a number of rebel provinces as well. We did not have an emissary in that region but it was supposed that Shimazu and the Rebels had been engaging in a series of battle over the many provinces, we saw when Shimazu captured Sanuki. However, this probably had stretched Shimazu too thin and therefore, saw them abandoned the valuable Sanuki province soon after they captured it.

With only a couple of Rebel units re-taking Sanuki when Shimazu left, it proved to be too enticing not to have that province under Mori control. With the Mori Daimyo’s army holding the Oda forces at bay in Harima, we took six units under our new Heir and invaded Sanuki. Fortunately, the Rebel forces fled to the south into Awa, allowing us to grab Sanuki. That province, with an improved farm, added 456 koku to our annual revenues while we maintained a small force of 180-men there to keep the peace. However, this potentially opened up another front in which we could be attacked, not from the Rebels, but by Oda coming out Kawachi through Awaji. But the value of Sanuki was too good to pass up.

With an average harvest and over 2700 koku in the treasury (we did not build any units in 1536), we started building a Large Castle in Harima. The goal is to build a Sword Dojo to complement the Warrior Monks that will begin generating in 1538.

The year 1537 passed quietly with word that the Oda clan was the strongest in the land. Hopefully that will change soon. Another average harvest in 1537 saw our treasury increase to 3703 koku, which apart from starting a Castle in Bizen to protect our Eastern flanks, was saved for the production of the Monks and future building projects.

[Buccaneer]

1538: The Fanatical Monks

The Warrior Monks are the most powerful infantry units in the game, motivated as it is by religious devotion. It also uses a "portable shrine" in place of a battle flag as its standard. The presence of this shrine makes other troops reluctant to attack them, if only because of the potential sacrilege.

We set the production in Mimasaka to continuously build these great units and feed them to the front lines in Harima. The goal was to have a large yet strong army under the Daimyo of veteran Samurai Archers and Yari Samurai units plus half the army of these Warrior Monks. The goal was obviously to repay Oda back for his treachery in attacking Harima in 1534. To help improve the Warrior Monks even further, we started a Swordsmith in Mimasaka which, when complete, will provide improved weapons to the Warrior Monks.

With a good harvest in late 1538, we immediately started a Large Castle in Bizen as soon as their Castle was completed. Additionally, with the completion of the Large Castle in Harima on the front lines, we started the long planned building of the Sword Dojo which will train the wonderful No-Dachi (swordsmen) units.

We also received news that the huge Hojo clan were the richest in the land, an empire of about 15 provinces covering most of the northern half of Japan.

[Buccaneer]

Whenever I get access to my personal webspace, I'll get more images.

[Buccaneer]

1539: The Way of the World

The army under the Daimyo in Harima progressed nicely with the addition of several units of Warrior Monks. This proved to be good timing for Oda captured the weakly defended, but pivotal, province of Awaji. Now, as feared, there were two fronts, not only opening up a third point of attack into Harima, but a backdoor behind the lines through Sanuki. Here was what our part of the world looked like in 1539:



One of the interesting things to notice was how Oda had split its forces to go into Awaji, leaving Kawachi and Tamba with less units. However, we could not see into Yamashkio or Wasaka to know how many units Oda could move to the fronts. But the time was here to attack while the Daimyo sat in Awaji.

Another good harvest, our third in five years, will provide the necessary koku for building more and more Warrior Monks in addition to the future No-Dachi units.

[Buccaneer]

Springs of 1540: Tango in Tamba

We moved into Tamba with a 651-men army under the 3-star Daimyo. To no surprise, Oda quickly moved in several units from the neighboring provinces and we faced an army of 530-men under an inexperienced general.

The battle started in the late winter snows of Tamba, a hilly province with some good high ground. However, visibility was low due to a dense fog (the screenshot was taken later but you get an idea of the terrain).



Not knowing exactly where they were, I wanted to follow the high ground that you see on the right, as well as the left. The fog worked both ways in that while we could not arrange our units for attack, they would not be able to see us coming either. As we moved a couple units of Samurai Archers to the peak on the right followed by Monk Warriors, we started to do the same on the right. That was when we saw them coming up the valley. Why were they on the offense? So immediately we poured arrows into them from our Archers into their left and center. By this time, a couple units of Warrior Monks got around to their right flank and that was when we sent an order to attack them from three sides including coming down on them from the high hill right into their left flank. Being an inexperienced general, he could not hold the formation together and the rout was on. However, we could not give chase too well in the snow and let them retreat from the battlefield with only 20% losses.

Army	Units	Total	Casualties
Mori	Sam Archers, Warrior Monks	651	60
Oda	Cav Archers, Yari Sam, Sam Archers	530	106

Results: Mori Victory, Tamba Province (264 koku with an improved farmland and a watch tower).

This now made a precarious situation worse in having to defend three provinces. Fortunately, we have enough units Tamba and Harima to defend well, while Sanuki had a moderate sized army. And that was were they attacked…

[Buccaneer]

Summer of 1540: The Defense of Sanuki

The Oda Daimyo, smarting from the attack into Tamba, decided to go around our armies and into Sanuki. This would open the door for them directly into the Mori heartland while drawing our forces away from the Northern Front to protect the gateway of Bizen.

Unfortunately for us, our Heir decided to move some of his units to defend Harima before his father, the Daimyo, could take over the defenses after leaving some units to tenuously hold onto to Tamba. In Sanuki, we have an inexperienced general to face the Oda Daimyo but at least he has a good mix of Warrior Monks, Samurai Archers and Yari Samurai units. The terrain was rolling farmlands in a late spring rain. Fortunately behind us are some high hills with a few woods on the flanks. We places a unit of Warrior Monks in the woods on the right flank but some distance from where the Oda forces would be coming up. In front of the woods and closer to the enemy, we placed a unit a Yari Samurai. The other Yari Samurai unit was placed behind a hill on the left flank. In the center, we could only place a unit of Samurai Archers and…wait. The Oda Daimyo came with a larger force and our archers could not do much damage while they spread out to attack our flanks and center. The Yari Samurai units charged into them from the flanks but were quickly driven back. Even the Warrior Monks could not make a difference for before they were engaged, our General fled the battlefield and our units lost their fighting spirit after losing half of our men.

Army	Units	Total	Casualties
Mori	Sam Archers, Yari Sam, Warrior Monks	240	115
Oda	Cav Archers, Yari Sam, Sam Archers	317	89

Results: Oda Victory, loss of Sanuki Province and 456 koku in annual revenues

Now Bizen and our Mori heartland was threatened and the only good news to come out of this season was the completion of the Swordsmith in Mimasaka, allowing our Warrior Monks units to have better weapons – and they will need them.

With a strong 300-men army in Sanuki, a smaller force in Awaji and another 300-men army in Kawachi, Oda could have struck back – unless we struck first but it would be risky. By this season, enough units were placed in Tamba to hold that province from an attacks. The Daimyo and his Heir have 10+ units between them in Harima and new units of Warrior Monks were diverted to Bizen for its defense. We decided to gamble…

[Buccaneer]

Autumn of 1540: To Make a Trap

What we decided to do was to split the forces in Harima and attack both Kawachi and Awaji at the same time! If the attacks proved unsuccessful, Harima would be vulnerable and/or Tamba would be lost and the Oda Daimyo would have the momentum to gather his forces and press an attack at any one of the weaker provinces on our border.

The Heir took six units of Warrior Monks and Samurai Archers and moved from Harima into Oda-held Awaji. The Daimyo meanwhile took about eight veteran units and moved from Harima into Kawachi. The goal of this risky strategy was to prevent the Oda Daimyo from attacking Bizen while protecting the rear preventing reinforcements from Kawachi.

The first part of the strategy worked in that the 240-men force under the Heir proved to be too much for the Oda forces in Awaji to engage but those units moved into Sanuki to strengthen the Oda Daimyo’s army there to almost 500 men.

In Kawachi, the Damiyo with his 474-men army of Warrior Monks and Samurai Archers faced an army of 300-men consisting of Samurai Archers and Yari Samurai across the Kawachi River. Using a slightly different tactics than the one we used against Takeda in Bitchu, we sent one unit of Warrior Monks charging across the bridge followed by a units of Samurai Archers and then two more units of Warrior Monks. What we counted on was the strength of our Daimyo, now a 4-star General, as well as the ferocity of the Warrior Monks to scare the holy hell out of them. It worked perfectly for only these four units were engaged and caused them to rout when their general fled. We did not pursue them and was content for those units to retreat to Kii east of Kawachi and away from the front lines.

Army	Units	Total	Casualties
Mori	Sam Archers, Warrior Monks	474	52
Oda	Yari Sam, Sam Archers	375	72

Results: Mori Victory, Kawachi Province (727 koku with an exceptional farmland).

What a great move that was for not only have we trapped the Oda Daimyo but also gained an extremely valuable province in Kawachi and its superb farmlands. But there were dangers all around us for there were two large Oda armies, one in Wasaka to the north of Tamba and of course, the army under the Oda Daimyo trapped in Sanuki. The goal was to go after Oda and pray that the other provinces would hold.

And they held for Tamba was attacked from the north. With only two units of Warrior Monks and a Samurai Archers unit, the Oda General decided not to risk battle and retreated back to Wasaka. This was what we feared but the presence of the Warrior Monks proved to be the deterrent, I believe.

[Buccaneer]

Winter of 1540: To Only Feed an Army

The harvest of 1540 was poor but with the addition of the rich Kawachi province, our treasury increased to a healthy 2448 koku, enough to keep building the valuable Warrior Monks in Mimasaka and to start building No-Dachi units in Harima for the Sword Dojo there was just timely completed. The peasants and garrisoned units in the older Mori provinces would have to without much grain and fish for they knew the forces on the hungry front lines smell blood. In this season, the Mori Daimyo moved into Awaji and with Harima protected on all sides, the forces there moved to join the Daimyo while the Heir took some men to defend Kawachi.

[Buccaneer]

Spring of 1541: Springing the Trap

As the Mori Daimyo crossed the cold waters into Sanuki with his 674-men army, they faced not only the strong army under the Oda Daimyo but nature as well for the battle would be fought in the frozen fog of the Sanuki Highlands. As we slowly moved across the snowy fields, all we could see was a small abandoned village and no sign of the Oda army. Where were they? Were they fortified along the same high hills that we could not defend last summer?



Knowing that we needed to stay high, I slowly moved the army over to the left staying on top or back of the hills and using the woods whenever possible. I did not anticipate that I would have snuck up on them but I didn’t want them to engage us before we had our forces in position. As we got closer to the high ridgeline that I knew from last summer, I saw that they were not there but actually below us and facing towards the direction we started from. Using the high ground to our advantage, we managed to get a unit of Samurai Archers and Warrior Monks behind their line of archers close to the base of the ridgeline. Then I let loose, attacking from the rear and their right flank. They quickly started to run toward the hills to their left and re-formed some of the units in the woods. We gave chase knowing that the Oda Daimyo was nearby and our units were still fresh despite the initial assault. We managed to attack them in the woods and on the slopes but in the distance, we saw the banner of the Oda clan riding away. With a fresh unit of Warrior Monks on our right flank, we started after them. But it was getting late in the day and the Oda Daimyo was on horseback surrounded by a few of his elite Heavy Cavalry. Just before dusk settled in, they managed to get away to fight another day.

Army	Units	Total	Casualties
Mori	Sam Archers, Warrior Monks	674	134
Oda	Yari Sam, Sam Archers	467	184

Results: Draw. Oda Daimyo got away at dusk.

[Buccaneer]

Summer of 1541: The End of the Golden Clan

With nowhere to go, the significantly reduced forces under the Oda Daimyo regrouped in Sanuki but no reinforcements could come in. With a new and fresh Warrior Monks unit coming down from Bizen, we attacked Sanuki again.

This time in spring green with a light rainfall, we used the same tactics as we did in the winter except that we sent a veteran unit of Warrior Monks and Yari Samurai towards the center-right of the valley to head off any escape of the Oda Daimyo. Their forces were better situated since they had more time to react due to the increased visibility. However, they were outnumbered by more than 2 to 1 and when they saw a massive assault coming in after a barrage of arrows, they did not even stand to fight. As before, we saw the banner of the Oda clan escape to the woods and beyond but this time we headed them off with two units and despite a tough battle against the 11-men Heavy Cavalry unit, the Oda Daimyo was killed. Meanwhile, our ferocious Warrior Monks were chasing about 200 men through the woods and beyond without having to engage in hand-to-hand combat. The end result was a decisive victory that eliminated the golden Oda clan from Japan for the Oda Daimyo had no heir.

Army	Units	Total	Casualties
Mori	Sam Archers, Warrior Monks	600	12
Oda	Yari Sam, Sam Archers	289	110

Results: Mori Victory, Sanuki province recaptured (456 koku)

The remaining Oda forces became Ronin and most of the former Oda provinces that were not captured by Mori became rebel provinces. Three provinces to the north went to the Hojo clan as former allies of the Oda clan.

In the process of retaking Sanuki, we abandoned the Awaji province for it held no economic value to us.

[Buccaneer]

Rest of 1541 and 1542: Survival of the Fittest

After an average harvest, our treasury grew to 3218 koku and we started the building of a Fortress in Mimasaka, with the plan of generating Superior Warrior Monks which could be unbeatable on the battlefield.

Militarily, the Mori Heir combined his forces in Kawachi with those in Tamba and attacked Rebel-backed Yamashiro. With a 771-men army, the Ronin leader of that province fled but the following season, a huge 1000-men army of Rebels and Ronin forces confronted us in Yamashiro and we quickly abandoned that province.

What we attempted to gain by force, we gained by karma. In the Summer of 1542, a rebel force killed the Shimazu Daimyo somewhere to the south and like the Oda Daimyo, he left no heir and thus the Shimazu clan was eliminated. With the Mori clan being former allies of the Shimazu clan, we gained two distant provinces from them: Satsuma (380 koku plus an Archery Dojo, Spear Dojo and a Port) and Osumi (175 koku). These provinces are located on the southern tip of Japan and while distant, they are connected to our ports in Aki and Bizen. This left us with no neighboring clans, only rebel provinces that will not attack unless attacked first.

Here was how our part of the world looked in late 1542:



Economically, we planned on starting up the production of horsemen in Kawachi with the goal of building a sizable force of Heavy Cavalry units.

In the Spring of 1542, we received news that the Emperor of Japan has backed the Mori clan and implored the remaining clans to unite behind our banner. But the mighty Hojo clan decided to become our rival for the Shogunate and we knew that sometime in the future, there will be a tremendous clash of arms.

And then the foreigners came to our shores…

[daedalus]

Outstanding! Eagerly awaiting future adventures.

I wanted to play this game badly but when it came out, I did not have the computer for it. Maybe I can find this game soon and try it.

[Buccaneer]

I got the pictures up for the recent writeups so you can see what the heck I was talking about.