Nobunaga's Ambition Dynasty

[Groundhog]

I was a huge fan of the old PC game ‘Nobunaga’s Ambition’ back in the day, and had been trying to get it to work on my current PC for awhile until someone suggested I grab the SNES ROM version, which is graphically miles ahead of the version I used to play on my old 386 and has (from what I remember of the old version) quite a few new additions. So while I try and learn the game all over again, I thought I’d bore you all with a dynasty

For those of you who have never heard of ‘Nobunaga’s Ambition’ it’s a strategy game in the same style as ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, except it’s based in medieval Japan during the 16th century, the ‘warring states’ period where civil war amongst the many samurai warlords ravaged the country. This is period of history I’ve got a fair bit of interest in, so please excuse me if I have a tendency to ramble on when describing historical characters in this dynasty!

At the beginning of the game, you are asked to choose which year to start in, which difficulty level and which clan. I chose the year 1555, which puts me in the most fragmented era of the game, where no major players have really risen above the rest. I decided to choose the middle difficulty level over hard both because I’m re-learning the game and because I remember it being pretty difficult back in the day. As for clan, I chose the Satomi clan, who are based in the East of Japan. They were never major players in real life… a fact I intend to try and change in this game!

A map of Japan during this period, including where all the clans were located, check the following link (the Saito can be seen on pretty much the most Eastern point of the map): http://www.samurai-archives.com/1560.html

The major clans surrounding me are the Hojo, who historically were my clan’s greatest enemy, the Takeda (if you’ve seen Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Kagemusha’ you know these guys), the Imagawa, the Oda & the Uesugi. It will be these guys that I will concentrate on as they will likely rise to be the most powerful as the game progresses.

[condors]

i have fond memories of this game (although i played bandit kings more often)

[Groundhog]

The Satomi Clan
(note: I’m guessing what some of the attributes stand for based on the icons and a foggy memory…)

Daimyo: Satomi Yoshitaka. Leader of the clan.

Age: 34
Leadership: 54
Combat: 53
Charm: 72
Luck: 66
Knowledge: 57

Pretty poor overall… little wonder the Satomi never amounted to much!

Heir 1: Satomi Yoshihiro

Age: 25
Leadership: 50
Combat: 58
Loyalty: 89
Charm: 62
Luck: 54
Knowledge: 52

The military leader of the clan… which says more about the Satomi clan than it does about Yoshihiro’s ability!

Heir 2: Satomi Yoshiyori

Age: 17
Leadership: 46
Combat: 48
Loyalty: 88
Charm: 66
Luck: 48
Knowledge: 49

General: Masaki Tokitada

Age: 27
Leadership: 57
Combat: 36
Loyalty: 83
Charm: 52
Luck: 38
Knowledge: 48

Yeesh, this guy is terrible, but at least he’s unlikely to ever stab me in the back…

[Groundhog]

Province Stats

Home Province - Awa - 1555

Army Size: 6,000
Army Loyalty: 63
Army Skill: 61
Commanders in Province: 4
Castle Strength: 251
Rifles: 1,000
Crops: 254
Flood Protection: 52
Economy: 172
Happiness: 60
Culture: 51
Skill: 0

[Groundhog]

1555

March: With our enemies the Hojo sitting on our Western border, we decided to attempt to make alliances with our other neighbors in the hope that they will come to our aid should the Hojo make a move against us. We send Satomi Yoshihiro to meet with the Yuki clan daimyo, Yuki Masakatsu, whose land lies on our North border. Despite relatively friendly relations with this minor clan already, they decline our offer of allegiance and we arrive home empty handed.

August: In an attempt to improve relations between ourselves and the Hojo we send a messenger carrying 100 gold... the messenger is refused and returns home with the gold! It would appear the rift between the Hojo and my clan is beyond repair...

September: The past few months have seen no major conflicts take place. We spent the time recruiting and training our military. Our army is now 8,000 strong – not strong enough to repel the Hojo should they attempt an invasion, but still a step in the right direction. A black market merchant visited our province and met with the clan regarding a very enticing offer: 800 rifles for a mere 49 gold. A bargain considering the usual cost of rifles, we quickly snap them up and send our general Masaki Tokitada to collect the goods. Upon inspection of the rifles however Tokitada discovers that the majority are rusted through and unusable! Of the 800 rifles, only 200 are fit for use, and the merchant has managed to escape with our money… most embarrassing!

October: Despite our earlier attempt at peace being denied by the Yuki clan, we trade a portion of our rice harvest for gold and send some of this to the Yuki to improve relations, using the rest of it to improve the farming conditions and marketplaces of our home province.

November: We hear rumors of a smallpox epidemic in the Kyushu region, to the far West of Japan. Despite being on the opposite side of the country this is worrying news. Combined with the Earthquake that also hit that region in August of this year we find ourselves wondering if such disasters will also effect us in the near future?

December: Considering the times, it had been a relatively peaceful year and looked as if 1556 might come without any major conflicts taking place. The Takeda clan had other ideas however, sending an army of 13,800 men led by prized Takeda general Yamamato Kansuke in to the Uesugi clan’s home province of Musashi, which shares my Northern border with the Yuki… most troubling indeed! With the battle taking place so close to my home province we had shinobi spies report back to us the details of the battle. What follows is their account:

Takeda invasion of Uesugi home province, Musashi

On the morning of the 1st of December the Takeda, bolstered by an allied Hojo infantry contingent, marched in to Musashi province with an army 13,800 strong, comprised solely of spearmen, in an attempt to seize the Uesugi domain. The Uesugi army, despite containing several hundred rifles and mounted soldiers, had a combined force of just 5,300 men. The Takeda and Hojo forces moved toward the Uesugi castle in the early morning, using the mountainous terrain as cover, and began their assault on the defenders just before nightfall.

The Uesugi rifle contingent, led by Uesugi general Ota Sukemasa, were caught by surprise while attempting to lay an ambush in a valley North of their castle and found themselves heavily outnumbered. Dropping their rifles they drew their swords and spears and rushed in to close combat with the attackers, but outnumbered 10 to 1 they stand little chance and were soon decimated. Sukemasa was slain in the battle.

Meanwhile on the Western side of the castle the Uesugi cavalry, led by General Ueda Tomonao, charged in to combat against the Hojo infantry. Heavily outnumbered, they succeed in reducing the Hojo numbers slightly, but it is a hopeless conflict and with no chance of victory Ueda Tomonao attempted to retreat with his much reduced force, but is captured and brought back to the Takeda camp.

It was now night time and the Uesugi only had one more force remaining outside their castle, 800 infantry led by clan heir Uesugi Norimori. 6,100 Takeda infantry charged in to combat with the Uesugi force, and a short while later a Takeda soldier returned to the Takeda camp with Uesugi Norimori’s head. It was now approaching midnight, and the attackers lit their camp fires outside the Uesugi castle and slept for a few hours.

At 3AM the attack on the castle commenced. Uesugi Daimyo Norikata’s force inside the castle was only 2,000 strong, and was soon defeated. Uesugi Norikata was forced to commit sepukku (ritual suicide). The battle is over.

The captured Uesugi general, Ueda Tomonao, decides to join with the Takeda rather than end his life.

A very troubling end to the year… an army the size of the Takeda’s on my border is bad news - especially with them having formed a military allegiance with the Hojo! We pay our soldiers an increased wage to increase loyalty amongst our forces, but loyalty will be among the least of our worries if the Takeda and Hojo move on us in the near future.

[Raven Hawk]

Watch out for Asukura. They're a bunch of bastards, just like Takeda.

[Neon_Chaos]

Wow. Pretty old school. I'm currently still playing ROTK VIII, which IMHO is the best of the entire series (I am yet to get my hands on an english version of ROTK X).

I'll be reading.

[Izulde]

RotK X is too much like IX for me to like it much, just so you know Neon Chaos.

Nobunga's Ambition I only played on the NES, not the SNES. Cool game but it was rigged in favour of the most powerful warlords. Not good at all in that regard.

Still, looking forward to this.

My favourite in the series was definitely Genghis Khan (the original) for the NES though.

[Raven Hawk]

Dammit, you bastard. After following the link to the map, I find myself getting the itch to play a little Nobunaga. The SNES gets plugged in tonight!

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Izulde

RotK X is too much like IX for me to like it much, just so you know Neon Chaos.

Nobunga's Ambition I only played on the NES, not the SNES. Cool game but it was rigged in favour of the most powerful warlords. Not good at all in that regard.

Still, looking forward to this.

My favourite in the series was definitely Genghis Khan (the original) for the NES though.

I've only played the very early versions of RotK's on the SNES and that was quite a while ago, but I'll have to try some of the later versions... are they on PC, or console?

Over in Japan they are still releasing new versions of 'Nobunaga's Ambition', I believe they are up to NA X. Unfortunately the SNES version is probably the last we'll ever see translated.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

I've only played the very early versions of RotK's on the SNES and that was quite a while ago, but I'll have to try some of the later versions... are they on PC, or console?

Over in Japan they are still releasing new versions of 'Nobunaga's Ambition', I believe they are up to NA X. Unfortunately the SNES version is probably the last we'll ever see translated.

I never saw the SNES version of Nobunga's Ambition. I'll have to pick it up on EBay.

RotK 1 for the NES was good, RotK 2 for the SNES was the third best in the series. IV, V, and VI were all SOC for the PS.

VII and VIII are the two best in the series for the PS2.

IX sucked it and X isn't all that much better than IX.

It's a real tossup between VII and VIII as to which is the best in the series. You can really go either way on that. II is clear third-best IMO though.

[Franklinnoble]

Awesome... I used to play this game on the old NES when I was a kid... I loved it.

Do you have the files handy (emulater, rom, etc) that you might be able to share?

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

Awesome... I used to play this game on the old NES when I was a kid... I loved it.

Do you have the files handy (emulater, rom, etc) that you might be able to share?

Sure do. I'll upload them to my website when I get home and post the link in this thread.

[Groundhog]

Snes9x Emulator: hxxp://www.ipherswipsite.com/files/snes9x/snes9x-1.43-win32.zip

Nobunaga's Ambition - Lord of Darkness Rom: hxxp://www.goosejuice.com/NA-LD.zip

[Franklinnoble]

Nice! Thanks.

[Groundhog]

1556 Province Stats

Home Province - Awa

Army Size: 8,000 (+2,000)
Army Loyalty: 59 (-4)
Army Skill: 89 (+28)
Commanders in Province: 4
Castle Strength: 251
Rifles: 1,200 (+200)
Crops: 258 (+4)
Flood Protection: 51 (-1)
Economy: 182 (+10)
Happiness: 58 (-2)
Culture: 51
Skill: 3 (+3)

[the_meanstrosity]

Good luck in your dynasty Groundhog. Like some of the others, I'm an old school KOEI fan having played Nobunaga, ROTK, Genghis Khan, and even Gemfire on the NES. I look forward to reading your dynasty.

[Groundhog]

1556

January: Set the year's tax rate at 55%... a little higher than I normally would, but we will need the gold. Hopefully in a few years I'll be able to drop this down to increase happiness of my peasants. We further our recruiting efforts, bringing in an extra 500 men, and also put 29 gold in to opening up new land for rice paddies.

February: Disaster strikes Awa as a massive earthquake ravages our province! Our castle is partially destroyed and thousands die. Our new province stats (BOLD indicates a loss):

Army Size: 7,800
Army Loyalty: 57
Army Skill: 92
Commanders in Province: 4
Castle Strength: 233
Rifles: 1,200
Crops: 263
Flood Protection: 50
Economy: 163
Happiness: 59
Culture: 51
Skill: 3

We recruit men to cover our losses, taking us up to 8,800 men.

March: A new year, and a new invasion. Honganji Kosa invades the Hatakeyama clan of Noto, to the North-West of our province. The battle did not contain any clans that directly border us or are considered major threats in the near future, so we did not get a detailed report of the battle, though the attacking Honganji force heavily outnumbered the Hatakeyama and made short work of them. Daimyo Hatakeyama was forced to commit sepukku, while his generals Cho Tsugutsura & Yusa Tsugumitsu both join the Honganji clan.

May: We meet with the Yuki daimyo Yuki Masakatsu to discuss marrying a daughter of our clan off to one of his heirs. Masakatsu informs us that he currently is not interested, though this may change.

July: We set the tribute rate to 55%; higher than I'd like again, but we need to at this point. We receive a high amount from this year's tribute, and sell a large percentage to a merchant for gold, some of which we use in recruiting a futher 1,200 men to our army, giving us a total force of 10,000 men; enough to holdout against anything but a major invasion.

August: A European Jesuit named Louis Frois arrives in our province and requests a meeting with our daimyo Satomi Yoshitaka. He talks with us about the advantages of exposing our people to Western learning, and our clan is very much impressed. We agree to let him open up schools in our province, understanding that these schools will no doubt also be used as a place to recruit new followers to their Christian religion. The impact of these skills is immediate, and the Skill level of our province climbs up considerably. We also try and send a 100 gold tribute to the Takeda but are denied... damn. We really need these guys on our side.

To close out the month we have another invasion, this time it's over in the West, where the Ukita clan attempt to take over the province of Sanuki, which is governed by the Miyoshi clan. A Satomi merchant who was staying in Sanuki castle during the attack gave us the following account (note: even though this is on the other side of the map, it was a siege, so I watched the battle anyhow):

When news reached the castle that the Ukita were invading, Miyoshi general Iwanari Tomomichi (general of this Miyoshi province, and commander of the castle) pulled all his forces back in to the inner keep of the castle. The Ukita force was rumoured to be at 5,400 men - all of whom were spearmen. The Miyoshi forces in the keep numbered 3,500, with 2,000 of those being riflemen, so it was clear that a field-battle would not prove a wise decision.

On the morning of the 1st of August the Ukita forces began to assault the outside gate. It took two days before the walls were breached, and the 5,400 strong Ukita force began to secure the outer walls. Meanwhile the Miyoshi forces had stationed their rifles in the castle's towers, and were raining fire upon the attackers, picking them off slowly, but the Ukita had no rifles and could not return fire.

The siege had been going for a further thirteen days while the Ukita forces secured the outer walls and began their assault on the gate to the inner keep, all the while being treated to rifle fire from the Miyoshi. Four days later the inner gate had fallen, and the Ukita moved their spearmen through the gates - now finding themselves outnumbered 3,200 men to Miyoshi's 3,300!

The Ukita spearmen rushed forward but were crippled by riflefire. They managed to get in to close-combat with the rifles but it was too late - their numbers had already been heavily reduced and soon all Ukita squads had been defeated, with two Ukita generals, Togawa Hideyasu & Ukita Naoie, captured. The few remaining attackers under a third Ukita general retreated and made it back to their home province.

Miyoshi general Iwanari Tomomichi showed uncommon kindness by releasing Ukita Naoie. Togawa Hideyasu chose to join the Miyoshi.

October: After spending 100 gold on increasing our troops loyalty last month, we try to once again send 100 more gold to the Takeda in the hopes of improving relations, but once more are refused. Our neighbouring clan, the Yuki, suffer the death of their daimyo, Yuki Masakatsu, due to illness at the age of 47. Yuki Haratomo is promoted to Daimyo.

December: December and November are spent building up our economy, expanding our rice paddies, increasing flood safety and training our military.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by the_meanstrosity

Good luck in your dynasty Groundhog. Like some of the others, I'm an old school KOEI fan having played Nobunaga, ROTK, Genghis Khan, and even Gemfire on the NES. I look forward to reading your dynasty.

Gemfire on the SNES had a lot prettier graphics, though.

And who can't forget the great two-game classic series of Uncharted Waters?

[Izulde]

Nice start you've got going here, and it looks like this version of NA is a lot more in-depth than the NES original.