Date Campaign Guide

[Chedric]

Carth,

He has his army on the Border of Kaga, ready to take it. Taking Kaga and Echizen still yields a front to his south, but now instead of it being a bitter rival, it'll be some clan he hasn't met yet, which means it could be more trade and a neutrality of sorts- plus he can get ride of the Ikko temples that are surely causing unrest in his provinces(and of course one accuracy prov and one smithy prov with fertile fields). I don't think he should turn on Hatakeyama at this point. He is already at war with 3 clans. Hata is his ally and currently a distraction for Takeda. Allowing Hata to remain that distraction while finishing off Ikko(and possibly Kiso) makes much more sense. He should easily be able to take down to Echizen, start building accurate/armored armies there and at the same time build up a strong army out of Iwate.

Then he can crush the Takeda from the backside through Shinano. And then when Takeda is broken, his armies will be in position to vice Hatakeya. Then he can scrape those 2-3 armies down the east coast while still building more armies in a prime spot on the west.

[Carthago]

Yeah I think you're maybe right because now he is in that position and can't change it anymore
But next time dear Avatar you should try to conquer the Hatakeyama territories first before expanding west

[nonja121]

Yeah, conquering, consolidating, and strengthening the northern provinces of Honshu as you can before entering into battle against the Takeda is really key. I took the time to fully conquer the nothernmost 5 or 6 provinces, then built up and specialized (two or three troop centers and the rest lvl 2 or 3 cities with a Sake Den and Market and those structures' upgrades). By the time I was ready to go on the defensive as the Takeda, I had enough revenue to build up 3 good sized armies and successfully defend against enemy incursions while maintaining my initiative, which was easy because all I had to do was work my way instead of having to worry about a long border to defend.

The one mistake I've made was to neglect my navy. Right now, I have 27+ provinces and 5 army stacks (4 of which are currently embroiled in a multifront war and pushing towards Kyoto) and one rearguard army that I had to build to push back constant amphibious assaults by the Chosokabe. I can probably build a 6th stack (Lord knows it'd be useful in Central Honshu atm) but I don't want to overtax my economy. Then again, I *AM* raking in about 8K/turn...

[Gen.Japu]

Is this normal ?? i'm on turn 42 playing as very hard and then hojos daimyo arrives via sea with 2 huge stacks.









And also for some reason .. almost every other clan except one ally(hattori) and my two vassals ( uesugi and the province beneath it) have declared war on me. This may have been due to not ordering one of my generals to commit seppuku ..i was already at war with ikko ikki and maybe that diplomatic penalty eventually turned hojo , takeda and the other clans against me. I can see ikko ikkis another of these huge stacks advancing against my vassal uesugi :S .. I don't think i can continue if all further attacking armies are of this huge size.

[fws2468]

I think the key to the early game is to avoid war with Takeda, Hatakeyama, and Sado. They are allied in my campaign, so that's left me to take out Aishina's 3 settlements. Not sure who's next on the hit list for me. I was thinking Sado but their stack is getting alrger by the turn - perhaps Takeda. We'll see tonight once the kids are in bed.

I found that securing a couple of trade nodes is beneficial, and I haven't had problems finding trade partners on the far side of Japan (I won't be going to war with them anytime soon, so it's strategic trading).

You can attack Hatakeyama because it is the shorter route to the last enemy city you start at war with by default (can't remember name). There's a risk they'll attack your northern province next to the capital but if your timing is right, capturing their last city will erase their army from the map if they're in your territory. Hatakeyama is also too spread out to be of much threat to you, so attacking them early is a good option. Once you control all four northernmost provinces, immediately head north again to capture Sado. The gold mine is well worth the effort and pays back financially many times over. Meanwhile, build up a decent cheap ashigaru garrison while your main army is in Sado to discourage any opportunistic attacks from Saito or Hojo.

[CptAustus]

-text-

That may have happened because of poor honour, dishounoring treaties (like declaring war on someone you have some kind of treaty with) or territorial expansion (which I find highly unlikely since you have 4 or 5 provinces). Ikko Ikki usually are unfriendly/hostile unless you get a trade agreement and alliance with them, no matter what clan you're playing as.

[AlexCouceiro]

It seems really impossible to keep alliances playing as Date on hard mode. I use some of Radious´ mods, which will turn off Ream Divide hit. So, after Realm Divide breaks, I am usually capable of keeping my ally with me until the end of the game.

I had a wonderful time playing as Shimazu. After Realm Divide, my allies and I had about 26 territories, and together we fought everybody till the end. Great campaign.
However, playing as Date seems just impossible to have one single ally after Realm Divide comes forth, even if you play with mods on, the reason being the computer will always find a way to trick you and let you down, doesn´t matter what you do.

On my last campaign, I was allied to Oda Shogunate - my relationship number being +316, right before Realm Divide broke, my Damio honour with that clan being +50, due to repeatedly supporting and being supported by them in battle. Then I paid Oda to break their alliance with Mori, which they did. Unfortunately, next turn Oda Shogunate was magically allied to Mori again and betrayed me right the next turn.

My plans were that Oda would remain my ally and yet lose Kyoto to some western faction. Actually, I would prefer to have a fun time and lose my campaign to Oda, because they had become Shogun and conquered 25 territories (short campaign), than being forced to break the alliance and then having a very boring campaign fighting the whole Japan by myself. In my opinion, it would be a lot better, for good or for worse, if the AI would be completely impartial and unprejudiced - whatever end should the campaign be led to.

[O'Hea]

I'm just a couple turns away from finishing my first Date campaign on normal, and I don't want to beat a dead horse so I'll just leave a few pointers here.
1) Attack the Mogami ASAP.
2) Don't be afraid of the Hatakeyama- they only have one province in Tohoku (Sendai) and they often lose their territory in Kansai (Kii province). I recommend attacking them as soon as you're done with the Mogami, or sooner if you've got the manpower.
3) The Honma (on Sado) are a good target if you invade early, but if they've already got a strong defense it's best to buddy up with them and spend the troops fighting the Hojo or Takeda instead.
4) Spend as little time turtling as possible until you've broken the Hojo and Takeda. Your large provinces can give you the illusion of being a major empire when you're actually dwarfed by some big western or central clan.

Also, this is partly a role-playing thing on my part, but when you start making your push for the capitol I recommend releasing a lot of those provinces as vassals. It's a long way to Kyoto and vassalization saves you all the time and money wasted on repairs and garrisons and lets you focus on winning battles.

[grumph]

I'm just a couple turns away from finishing my first Date campaign on normal, and I don't want to beat a dead horse so I'll just leave a few pointers here.
1) Attack the Mogami ASAP.
2) Don't be afraid of the Hatakeyama- they only have one province in Tohoku (Sendai) and they often lose their territory in Kansai (Kii province). I recommend attacking them as soon as you're done with the Mogami, or sooner if you've got the manpower.
3) The Honma (on Sado) are a good target if you invade early, but if they've already got a strong defense it's best to buddy up with them and spend the troops fighting the Hojo or Takeda instead.
4) Spend as little time turtling as possible until you've broken the Hojo and Takeda. Your large provinces can give you the illusion of being a major empire when you're actually dwarfed by some big western or central clan.

Also, this is partly a role-playing thing on my part, but when you start making your push for the capitol I recommend releasing a lot of those provinces as vassals. It's a long way to Kyoto and vassalization saves you all the time and money wasted on repairs and garrisons and lets you focus on winning battles.

1&2, couldnt agree more!

3 buddy up with them, yes, and crush them when you ahve the manpower to spare

4date prrovinces ARE risch, but its best to expand into central japan till around kai befor you start to turtle.

[bakat8]

The Date start in a very defensible position on the map. Just build up your economy before you set out

[joeman_0]

I just finished a game with Date, playing only playing hard mode and short campaign since I am not too familiar with them. I had a slow start but things pick up and I just steam role the western half of Japan.

Nobody in this thread has mentioned this.

Basically what I did was I build master weapon smith ASAP, upgrade my castle to level 3, and went almost straight for heaven and earth. I was able to build ashigaru with +4 Melee and +5 charging bonus on top of the +2 charging bonus from the art of attack and +2 from clan bonus. I built 19 of them per army and was unstoppable. All m battles are super short because AI units route in no time. I don't even have time for flanking maneuver and all that stuff. Even when I run into a full stack with half of them being samurai, I still kicked their butt. I basically built 2 stacks of these, one sweeping through the north, and the other sweeping through the south. I had a half stack at home just in case something happens. Also I had 2 half stack navies on both north side and south side of the island.

But in a previous game with Date, I progress so slowly that I got frustrated and quite. I had many clans declaring war on me and got harrasedly constantly. The difference was that I went for master armor smith in combination with armor encampment instead of master weapon smith in combination with proving ground. I think you gotta go with proving ground since charging bonus is the thing for this clan, but weapon upgrade for encampment probably works as good.

To prevent hill camp, after researching heaven and earth, I researched the attack by fire to get catapault. That way, when AI sees catapault, they do not hill camp and charge at you. This is what you want.

I won the short campaign at turn 70 something. So Date is basically quite easy. Just go for all infantry and charge. I am gonna try very hard mode, but I suspect the same strategy works too.