The Shimazu Campaign Guide

[Condottiere 40K]

The best you can do with the Sagara is turn them into vassels, since you can emphasize an infantry army and you get that extra honour point.

[Menumorut]

so much talk about tactics....I think they used enough and often a single tactic which can be expressed in one word, Banzaai!!!!

[Menumorut]

[sabi]

This is the sure fire way to beat the Oti within the first few turns taking advantage of the trait you get when you take their first settlement to your immediate right. Send your stack to take the first Oti province which is easy to take with what you are given in the first turn so you shouldn't have any troubles doing this. Now your faction will get a trait that adds one additional recruiting slot. This is a huge benefit which you can use to spam ashigaru spearmen and within 3 turns you'll have a full stack. I don't build anything the first couple of turns and just concentrate on building a nice sized army. Take that army to Oti's last settlement and after you beat them you have secured the southern part of the island and should now concentrate on building ports to take the nodes and farms and markets.

[oqvist]

Started my first Shimazu campaign on hard. Much harder then I anticipated. Ito is destroyed but by Shoni. I got the first province but then later on I focused more on trying to build economy first afraid of upkeep costs so when after some recuperation I went with a half stack I found Ito marching on me with a bit superior troop. Decided to play safe and a defensive battle instead. But when I won that loosing half my army Shoni took Itos last province

Shoni was then going after me so I decided to alli with them. Wonder if that was really stupid since I probably would need this Island since I am not getting anywhere anyway... Sagara then backstabbed me and I got a big penalty for not honoring treaties????? Game seem to think you should ally with Sagara or something. So if Shoni decide to attack me I will get an even bigger penalty for being both ally and having trade agreement?

I captured all five trade nodes but just built a few bow ships for scouting desperately trying to get trade agreements which don´t go all that well since I don´t have any money to bribe with.
I got post roads in my two provinces. Currently building terrass farming. Have a market and two trade ports. If I manage to secure more trade partners I guess I have to upgrade the ports to military or Nanban. Wonder what is better. I got the option for foreign trading and took that over the second alternative. Then I am supposed to clear some pirates that cost me 2000 gold. What does that mean the gold solve the pirate problem or do I have to defeat them? They went away into fog of war but they may still raid my trade route???

[oqvist]

I chickened out on the hard campaign and went to normal. What a difference that made.

Quickly took out Ito. Then going after Shoni was a non brainer. Didn´t think twice about declaring war on them lol.
I allied with Sagarra this time as well coldly calculating they would backstab me anyway and they sure did after I took all provinces surrounding them. Seems I still got some penalty for them declaring war on me but nothing major.
Not a very interesting campaign everything just went my way. Nobody raided my 4 trade ports. Ikko got to the fifth before me in this campaign. I only built a handful of bow kobayas for exploration hunting trade partners. Really reluctant until I built up enough trade ports and sent enough trade fleets it appeared.

As for tech I focused on getting terrass farming first then some upgrade to diplomatic relations and then way of the sword and after that fire arrows an naval tech. In hindsight I believe I got it quite right. Not man provinces except for Bungo of course I had to garrisson much if any at all.

As for expansion strategy I decided to leave the island alone. Thinking I could maintain it with my fleet I would be better of expanding on the mainland? Right or wrong? The way it turned out after realm divide I did sink three full stacked chosokabe fleets so in that sense it did pay off I could contain them.

I hit realm divide when I had some 20 provinces upgraded fully regarding infrastructure and never had much problem. Was a bit scary to loose the trading income but I still had enough to go plus with 5 full stacked armies. And making vassals with them made the trade income come back decently.

I am lucky I decided to start spamming bow kobayas all I could as realm divide hit since then it certainly appeared all the clans was targeting me with their fleets. But they never got close to my trade nodes I was slowly but steadilly working my way eastwards. A bit dissapointed regarding my statistics though. I had lost about as many ships as I sunk but then I just about only made the chepest onces and auto resolve so that is okay I suppose.

[zhiphius]

I chickened out on the hard campaign and went to normal. What a difference that made.

Quickly took out Ito. Then going after Shoni was a non brainer. Didn´t think twice about declaring war on them lol.
I allied with Sagarra this time as well coldly calculating they would backstab me anyway and they sure did after I took all provinces surrounding them. Seems I still got some penalty for them declaring war on me but nothing major.
Not a very interesting campaign everything just went my way. Nobody raided my 4 trade ports. Ikko got to the fifth before me in this campaign. I only built a handful of bow kobayas for exploration hunting trade partners. Really reluctant until I built up enough trade ports and sent enough trade fleets it appeared.

As for tech I focused on getting terrass farming first then some upgrade to diplomatic relations and then way of the sword and after that fire arrows an naval tech. In hindsight I believe I got it quite right. Not man provinces except for Bungo of course I had to garrisson much if any at all.

As for expansion strategy I decided to leave the island alone. Thinking I could maintain it with my fleet I would be better of expanding on the mainland? Right or wrong? The way it turned out after realm divide I did sink three full stacked chosokabe fleets so in that sense it did pay off I could contain them.

I hit realm divide when I had some 20 provinces upgraded fully regarding infrastructure and never had much problem. Was a bit scary to loose the trading income but I still had enough to go plus with 5 full stacked armies. And making vassals with them made the trade income come back decently.

I am lucky I decided to start spamming bow kobayas all I could as realm divide hit since then it certainly appeared all the clans was targeting me with their fleets. But they never got close to my trade nodes I was slowly but steadilly working my way eastwards. A bit dissapointed regarding my statistics though. I had lost about as many ships as I sunk but then I just about only made the chepest onces and auto resolve so that is okay I suppose.

the most difficult part with shimazu is the part when you have to clash with shoni (who generally dominate the northern half of kyushu). But if you can cope with that and the christian influence, you're pretty safe to develope your domain and army as the only land route is through buzen, and you can easily guard the coast with a few ships.

Shimazu can take both kyushu and shikoku + a few more prov's without hitting RD on long/domination, giving them a excellent defensive position.


On hard as shimazu i relied on mass ashigaru, tossing ito down to hell first, before quickly ousting otome.
Shoni was a hard fought opponent but with sagara alive and me controlling Bungo it was easier to defend against them. Once shoni was dead, i just poured all units exept for christian pacifiers against sagara and turtles up for a decade developing my domain, nabbing trade routes and sending 1 advances army with a ashigaru army to take shikoku.

Problem as shimazu is if shoni goes crazy and wipe out both otome and sagara. then they can attack you from 2 directions which sucks. You also have to deal with christian influence bogging you down, but focusing on military first and you should have the might to overcome those problems quickly, uniting kyushu. From there you pretty much won the campaign though.

edit: i forgot......make use of agents, seriously. High invader resistance without agents will bog you down severely. Screw sake dens. go for market/temples for monks and metsuke. Yes sake den give higher happiness than temples and markets. But temples convert religion and both their agents give more happiness than a single sake den anyway when specced for it. Go for ninjaes once you got kysuhu under control and happy. You'll need em to counter high ranked generals and enemy agents later anyway with your metsuke busy increasing your tax rate

[oqvist]

Oh boy I never even noticed there could be a christianity problem on Kyushu. Shoni is christian or?

On my normal campaign only Bungo with it´s nan ban port was an issue.

[zhiphius]

Oh boy I never even noticed there could be a christianity problem on Kyushu. Shoni is christian or?

On my normal campaign only Bungo with it´s nan ban port was an issue.

nah, its Otome who's christian.

But shoni start at war with otome and usually wipe them out, the christian influence in Bungo and Buzen usually causes shoni to convert to christianity too sooner or later which further spreads christianity.

If otome manage to expand that will cause christianity to spread too, aswell as any churches they build.
once you discover otome as a faction you can check their religion in the diplomacy UI. they are the only clan in the game starting as christian. (this also allows you to convert to christianity early as shimazu or mori if im not mistaken.)

[oqvist]

I see. I never encountered Otumi on my abandoned shimazu campaign on hard. I believe they must have died pretty much instantly in my normal campaign as well and shoni didn´t live long either.
Is there any benefit going christianity. Feels like everybody would be against you pretty much. However they all backstab you sooner then later anyway in vanilla Shogun 2 so I guess it don´t matter much.

[zhiphius]

I see. I never encountered Otumi on my abandoned shimazu campaign on hard. I believe they must have died pretty much instantly in my normal campaign as well and shoni didn´t live long either.
Is there any benefit going christianity. Feels like everybody would be against you pretty much. However they all backstab you sooner then later anyway in vanilla Shogun 2 so I guess it don´t matter much.

lets see if i remember:

Gains:
Churches (more economic growth from buildings that gives it, better chi research too i think compared to buddhist temples)
missionaries: easier access to cheap incite revolts than monks. (2nd tier i believe in their talent tree)
imported matchlock ashigaru.
Nanban trade quarter (good economy, gives you access to nanban trade ships, mini black ships kinda).

Basically you get better economy if you pull it off right, you can easily use missionaries to reduce other clans territory through incite revolt. and you get a really powerful fleet with the nanban trade ships boosting it.
Top it of with your territories being a pain for the other clans to conquer due to christianity. Mind their buddhism works against you.

Disadvantages/losses:
Monks: you cant recruit monk agents or warrior monk units. (you gain missionaries as agents though).
Honor: -2 honor penalty upon converting
Diplomacy: -40 penalty to diplomatic relationships. -80 with ikko ikki (unless they changed that).

basically, unless you delve into tea ceremony and calligraphy, everyone and their grandmother will hate you. You're more prone to being declared war on as a result. You'll have to suffer having a dishonourable daimyo aswell unless you counter it with tea ceremony, retainers, general talents or vassaling.
You'll loose warrior monks, no big deal tbh. Plenty of strong units left.
Monk agents well.....missionaries are stronger due to dominance of buddhism and their talent tree anyway (just note that shrines are useless for them.)
You're forced to spend years stabilising your domain, converting it to christianity before you can effectily expand again.


Summary:
Its fun, missionaries are strong so is churches. Economy is ridicelous if pulled of right. However you are prone to war declarations from other clans unless you have a strong force to make them think twice.
denied access to warrior monks hurt abit too, but you can do just fine without them.
Imported matchlock ashigaru is interesting but in the end you gain far stronger matchlock unit by researching it. But hell, gaining access to them without research is always a bonus too. Just make sure you build the nanban docks in a fletcher province

[zhiphius]

Just as a sidenote: If sagara declares war, the easiest is to lure them to bungo (out of their province) while having a small army ninja their capital. That will eliminate their forces. ^^

This shouldnt be a problem unless they decide to join the party while you fight shoni.

[oqvist]

lets see if i remember:

Gains:
Churches (more economic growth from buildings that gives it, better chi research too i think compared to buddhist temples)
missionaries: easier access to cheap incite revolts than monks. (2nd tier i believe in their talent tree)
imported matchlock ashigaru.
Nanban trade quarter (good economy, gives you access to nanban trade ships, mini black ships kinda).

Basically you get better economy if you pull it off right, you can easily use missionaries to reduce other clans territory through incite revolt. and you get a really powerful fleet with the nanban trade ships boosting it.
Top it of with your territories being a pain for the other clans to conquer due to christianity. Mind their buddhism works against you.

Disadvantages/losses:
Monks: you cant recruit monk agents or warrior monk units. (you gain missionaries as agents though).
Honor: -2 honor penalty upon converting
Diplomacy: -40 penalty to diplomatic relationships. -80 with ikko ikki (unless they changed that).

basically, unless you delve into tea ceremony and calligraphy, everyone and their grandmother will hate you. You're more prone to being declared war on as a result. You'll have to suffer having a dishonourable daimyo aswell unless you counter it with tea ceremony, retainers, general talents or vassaling.
You'll loose warrior monks, no big deal tbh. Plenty of strong units left.
Monk agents well.....missionaries are stronger due to dominance of buddhism and their talent tree anyway (just note that shrines are useless for them.)
You're forced to spend years stabilising your domain, converting it to christianity before you can effectily expand again.


Summary:
Its fun, missionaries are strong so is churches. Economy is ridicelous if pulled of right. However you are prone to war declarations from other clans unless you have a strong force to make them think twice.
denied access to warrior monks hurt abit too, but you can do just fine without them.
Imported matchlock ashigaru is interesting but in the end you gain far stronger matchlock unit by researching it. But hell, gaining access to them without research is always a bonus too. Just make sure you build the nanban docks in a fletcher province

Golden. I suppose the right time is just about when you are going to hit realm divide then. Then just turtle until it´s all in order and make life hell by sending out missionaries when you set up your multi target strike attack. As realm divide hits you are going to war with everyone anyway so the diplomatic penalty shouldn´t be felt at all?

However I can´t say I had any issues with the economy at that point but well I can see the advantages. How much of the economy advantage do you feel is wasted by the need for garrison more troops generally when you are on the conquering side of things?. Trading if you make vassals they should still accept trading I suppose so the daymio dishonour shouldn´t hurt trade so much after realms divide? Even though they will backstab you a bit sooner then they do anyway lol. But I read somewhere if you defeat a vassal twice you will loose the invasion penalty? In my campaign if they backstabbed me I would not give them a second chance.

[zhiphius]

Golden. I suppose the right time is just about when you are going to hit realm divide then. Then just turtle until it´s all in order and make life hell by sending out missionaries when you set up your multi target strike attack. As realm divide hits you are going to war with everyone anyway so the diplomatic penalty shouldn´t be felt at all?

However I can´t say I had any issues with the economy at that point but well I can see the advantages. How much of the economy advantage do you feel is wasted by the need for garrison more troops generally when you are on the conquering side of things?. Trading if you make vassals they should still accept trading I suppose so the daymio dishonour shouldn´t hurt trade so much after realms divide? Even though they will backstab you a bit sooner then they do anyway lol. But I read somewhere if you defeat a vassal twice you will loose the invasion penalty? In my campaign if they backstabbed me I would not give them a second chance.

actually, the earlier you convert the better. The strength of christian economy is economic growth which needs time to become truly strong. You also want time to train up missionaries to talent em up for incite revolt and character converting.

The 2 points of dishonor is easily countered with tea ceremony and vassaling.

For garrison troops to stabilise things, i find that 5~ ashigaru is enough at the worst. But you'll grab some arts that help on happiness anyway (+ agents).

I'd say unite kyushu, then convert while you build up your provinces. Grab tea ceremony and calligraphy along with the religious arts to keep other clans happy and you should be fine. Just field a strong army too (but dont let it swallow your income) (btw spam churches everywhere, so neat at economy and chi research bonus. spam markets with em too so the markets benefit from the bonus growth)

edit: meh ill mention it straight out. Artwise get heaven and earth, fire arrows and sword arts from bushido. Chi go down to chonindo, and get the religious arts with tea ceremony/calligraphy on the way. If you want even better eco, beeline for kinza mint and epic arcitecture after you've got a decent amount of upgraded churches otherwise focus military. banzai sword ability with heaven and earth for encampment and fire arrows is usually enough though.

[Charsi]

Playing Shimazu recently (normal difficulty thus far) I found it easier to simply declare war on and immediately take Higo province. The army in Osumi province to the west is small and you can delay taking that province for a turn or two. I've found if you don't take Higo and wipe out the Sagara, they come at you with a full stack - often of Samurai - and are a real pain. Kill them before they can build up.

Whoever wins out of the Shoni/Otomo scuffle (usually Shoni) - spend the turns while they convert to Christianity in securing all the trade nodes. Then build a Buddhist temple, produce a monk, and incite revolts. Take all the provinces off the successful rebels.

[Maestor Roth]

I almost always take Osumi and take out Ito when I start as Shimazu. I've never thought to take our Sagara at first, probably because in all my playthroughs they have never attacked me and Ito I'm already at war with. Normally by the turns 5-10, Shoni has already wiped out Otomo and gun for sagara. Never have I see Otomo or Sagara becoming the dominant north faction. From there I move upwards. I then move up the coast and take Bungo (since I'm usually already at war with Shoni) and cut across and take Higo(usually Shoni already has it, poor Sagara.) Then from there I move north, then east again and then I have Kyushu under my control.

Then I normally launch navel invasions on Shikoku and take over that island. I've never converted to Christianity.

[Condottiere 40K]

Decided I wanted to finish collecting all those campaign awards (though I doubt I'll get the one about being top player on the list).

Working on Shimazu Hard Domination Christian, so decided to ignore the economic side and went full steam on horse and sword mastery, while collecting trade nexuses. Anyone notice that once you achieve Legendary Schools for Sword and Horse, first, develop Master Armourer and Armoury, that Katana Cavalry becomes a super unit superior even to the Shimazu Katana Samurai?

I think it comes down to the strategic choices you have to make at the beginning. Developing the martial side of the equation, can not only create super troopers, but since the cost of the cannon fodder doesn't increase in fact decreases., you can have well armoured archers, pointy stick shakers and in my case, imported matchlocks, that allow you to fight an attritional battle, and post bellum, make the retention of these cheap units easier, since your recruitment centre is in a very far corner of the map so you aren't tempted to disband them on budgetary concerns.

Going Christian means that you don't have to develop the gunpowder chain, the admiralty chain nor the archery chain. Spears are optional, though having mastery will make the pointy stick shakers even more formidable, and give you access to another Hero unit, or two, if you count the Great Guard.

The problem with Christianity is that it's such a dishonourable religion, which means I actively have to find three provinces to vassalize, though what happens is that I can count on the Ito to make it two, since they'll revolt sooner rather than later, their province being an economic backwater which serves neatly as a buffer state to Bungo.

So troop choices come down to:

Run of the mill spearmen, to make up the numbers on the continent, recruited when and where needed.

Run of the mill archers, to provide some sting during siege operations and some extent on the battlefield, again ad hoc.

Heavily armoured spearmen as line units.

Heavily armoured musketeers as line units.

Heavily armoured light cavalry as a reaction force, mostly rear areas.

Heavily armoured katana cavalry as shock troops, to dismount when faced with spear units.

Hero units, Generals and Great Guard to act as force multipliers.

European Cannon as door knockers without having to risk climbing over the wall.

Shimazu Heavy Gunners - would like to recruit, especially heavily armoured, but doubt I'll be able to get around to it.

Frankly, for a Christian clan with Shimazu's resources, this seems the best configuration.

Haven't seen if Bow Cavalry can make a significant contribution, though your neighbours will have developed the training centres for them, you you can only squeeze in so many buildings in Satsuma.

[vish1990]

thanks

[samerthegreat]

I played almost all total war games byt theres not campaign that I liked more than the shimazu I allied with sagara and built a stable economy before dealing with ito i made war with the clans on my territory and by then most clans were reduced because hojo and bessho(i think) controled more territory I fought bessho and managed to force a truce then I subjugated the chosokabe and even the shogunate became my vasal im still dealing with bessho and two of there allies but im losing food

[joeman_0]

I have tried staying Buddhist and becoming Christian. The warrior monks are the best units in this game. I like to use the war cry and whistling arrows to break morale toward the end of the battle. By becoming Christian, you give up much more than just warrior monks. When I stayed Buddhist, I vasselized as many provinces as possible, and my vassels stayed with me a lot more longer even the treachous ones. But when I played Christian, I always got backstabbed very fast. The nice thing about being Christian is that I don't have to worry about developing the navy tree, but that is about it. The imported ashigaru has less men than native matchlock ashigaru, and matchlock samurai is awesome in this game and much better than the imported ashigaru. Also, I always seem to make more money when staying Buddhist for some reason.

For this clan, I don't actually try to develop the sword tree at all because that is overkill. The melee units are already more than good enough and would win any unit vs unit battle against AI. I mainly research the left side of technology tree to get superior spear and matchlock units to support the melee units. Naginata is very versatile in this game and can take arrows while leading the charge.