Ainu faction?

[Little Turtle]

The Ainu people of Hokkaido (a completely different ethnicity and language from the Japanse) held out against Japanse rule until 1899. During the Tokugawa period, they where in extensive trade with the Japanese who own the southern portion of the island. I think this is a very realistic possibility for a another faction with it's own culture, traditions, beliefs and military fighting style completely different from the rest of Japan. Being coloured all grey and being named "Ainu rebels" will do them no justice, no justice at all.

[Elyrioth]

Well given the drive in ETW to try and eliminate the rebel factions especially having none starting will hopefully follow through and there will be no rebel or Ronin factions as such in S2TW

[Juggernaut]

Is Hokkaido even going to be in the game?

[Los San Patricios]

It would be great to have at least a little bit of variation, since all the other factions will be mostly the same.

If Hokkaido will be in-game one (or maybe a few?) Ainu faction(s) would be nice

(Or modding tools so Hokkaido and the Ainu can be added to the main game by modders )

[Elyrioth]

I am using the terminoligy from the games, in STW any factions other than the main playable, so the "grey" factions were called Ronin along with any peasent revolts. In M2TW, MTW and RTW they were simply called rebels. So in STW any of the smaller independent factions were all lumped together as "Ronin". In both MTW games a number of factions such as Ireland were simply "Rebels".

My point is ETW and NTW show a move away from this to more detail and more factions, both playable and unplayable (unmodded) with a removal of that "Grey" faction (rebels or Ronin) from the starting map. In ETW all factions were present on the map and no Grey rebel areas. So I would assume CA will follow this line and remove the grey Ronin faction from S2TW and represent the Smaller independent factions more accurately this time round. It would also give us smaller factions to mod to make playable to enhance replayability and give us a better challenge.

[Mithiras]

Hokkaido will probably not be in the game. Seeing as the samurai did not start their conquests in their till after they consolidated their power under one shogun.

[Little Turtle]

Was Hokkaido in the first game? Also, what are people's thoughts on European factions, such as the Dutch and Portoguese? Did they have any significant power at this time? Even the English had a trade factory in Hirado (IIRC).

[Elyrioth]

Was Hokkaido in the first game?

No it was not:


The factions were:
-Hōjō (Purple)
-Imagawa (Light Blue)
-Mori (Red)
-Oda (Gold)
-Takeda (Black)
-Shimazu (Green)
-Uesugi (Dark Blue)

And of course the White "Ronin faction". They did hold a lot of regions.

Hopefully for this game we have a more detailed larger map, more factions and no generic white Ronan

[Little Turtle]

I do have a source indeed for the trade factoy:



A brilliant book, I read it about a year ago now, it centered around William Adam of course and another English trader named Richard Cocks (half of the book is infact about him) and detailed the Portoguese Jesuits trying to murder him, allying with Dutch and Cocks' near brotherhood with Ieyasu, a brilliant book, I'd recommend anyone to read it.

[Little Turtle]

I'd be happy with Cocks just popping up as a retinue for Ieyasu (although I'm almost positive this won't come about, modding it is ) there was no were near enough of them to represent a whole faction anyway, only about 15 of them (many of whom starting to die for various reasons, very quickly). As for the Dutch and Portoguese, I don't know how they could be represented?

[James the Red]

I would love it if Okinawa and Hokkaido (Edo) were in the game, as it would allow more diversity in the game, having a playable Ainu faction would rock. Gotta kill those stinkin samurai!

[HIC SVNT LEONES]

I don't think its so impossible to have a Western Faction in Japan, and sure, at first they were just given small island areas as ports of interest for trade: Why not give them that, areas with little area for defense despite a preset defense force: (This would probably be Portuguese only because the Dutch come later), with room to later through stronger trade to set something up like they did in Macao and have garrisons of auxiliary forces from across their empire, Goa Indians, Malaccans, Chinese, etc, etc given a -possibility- to go military if the player or ai are able to involve themselves properly in Intrigue and trade to negotiate a better foothold.

This would be supported through the spread of Christianity and Gunpowder.

I think it'd be a cool take, and offer another fun aspect of the game and a delicious what-if scenario.