The Shimazu Campaign Guide

[Belisarius]

Post yours here

[bbad89]

When you start off, defend against the Oti(I think) fellows to the east, as they will soon send a couple troops your way(Glad to say it's not just one unit, but a medium size army) so regroup after you defeat them, research the way of the sword, and defeat them. I'll give more tips when i get farther.

[murder_mayhem]

Just to build on what he said, if you can get a trading port quickly, do so. I was able to get the 2nd closest, 3rd closest, and 4th closest trade nodes under my control. The closest was already under someone else's control. Since you start in a relatively good position with the other clans, they shouldn't declare war on you and own your trade ships giving you a lot of money. Try to be best buds with clans with powerful navies to secure these nodes further. Make good use of your katana samurai.

Once you beat the Oti, if that is their name, try to take out the clan directly to the north of your starting province. Now, consolidate your losses and get ready to own the entire mini island you start on. I choose to own all the states here as it is a good base of operations, make vassals on mainland japan where you will have enemies, these will keep your borders safe. It is not necessary to own the entire mini island but I chose to as it should allow me to pick and choose my fights better on mainland japan. I'll let you guys know how it turns out for me later.

Also, just make good use of ninjas, lvl 1 up on other agents, then go for generals, ninjas really can own all in this game. Also, try to keep some territories for economic stuff and others for military. This way you can take full advantage of all kinds of cavalry by having a sword school, bow school, etc with your stables to get katana cavalry, bow cavalry, etc.

[gord96]

what are you guys using for army builds? I am using 6 units of katana samurai. 2 units of cav. 3-4 units of spear (to deal with cav) and 4 units of ranged (usually 2 bow and 2 musket).

[Sir Robin]

Shimazu

Description

The Shimazu are a proud clan, with a long history worthy of their pride. To the Shimazu, loyalty is everything, and their generals are less likely to develop ambitions of their own. Shimazu katana samurai are cheaper to recruit and maintain in the field than those of other clans; they can also recruit superior katana-armed samurai. The clan can trace its ancestry back to Minamoto Yoritomo, the founder and first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate. In 1187, Yoritomo appointed his son, Tadahisa, as military governor of southern Kyushu. The young man took the name of Shimazu in Hyuga province, his seat of government, as his own. Thanks to a well-organised army and administration, abundant local resources, and a certain distance between Kyushu and the Kamakura court, the Shimazu clan became rich and powerful. They did not, however, become hidebound: when their vassals in Tanegashima met a strange, shipwrecked people from the other side of the world, the Shimazu were quick to see that trade with these nanban Europeans might be worthwhile. Now, under the daimyo Shimazu Takahisa, the clan has a chance for true greatness. Their home province of Satsuma is secure, and they are at peace with the Sagara of Higo province to the north. Higo, however, is a tempting target for expansion because of the warhorses to be found there. There is the small matter of a war with the Ito clan in the provinces of Osumi and Hyuga, but once these local difficulties are resolved the distance from Kyushu to the shogun's palace is not so great after all

Clan Traits

• Increased loyalty for all generals
• Reduced recruitment costs and upkeep for katana samurai
• Can recruit superior katana heroes
• Can recruit superior katana samurai

1. Osumi
For me its head east immediately. Beat the army and assault the castle in Osumi. Another army will be coming soon so don't take a break to build up your economy yet. Your Shimazu Samurai are pretty good and one of the better units early on, so use them.

2. Hyuga
After going east you'll want to head north to take the Ito's last province, Hyuga, facing another semi-stack along the way. Now you'll get the option to vassalize them but I advise against it. You need the money and castle production slots too much.

3. Higo or Bungo
Now we hit the first tough call as the Shimazu. Attack the Sagara of Higo or keep going north against the Otomo of Bungo. I suggest turning on the Sagara instead of attacking the Otomo for one major reason, Christianity. Bungo is a heavily Christian province and even has a Nanban Trade Port. Also while the Sagara will still likely own Higo, the Otomo's fate is much less clear. As Christians they are not popular and a lot of fighting goes on in northeastern Kyushu provinces.

Besides that I don't like burning buildings down early on and I can't afford enough monks & temples, or spare the troops to keep Bungo peaceful yet. Whichever one you choose you'll be going after the other soon after so I suggest letting one of them be vassals. Unless you don't get the option of course because they have other provinces by then.

You may notice that Higo's horse provincial special isn't that big of a deal to me. Why? Well because in the early game cavalry isn't that important. You'll mostly face infantry armies and you'll be assaulting, plus defending, castles a lot. In those scenarios it is better to have swords, spears, and bows then light cavalry prancing about. Later on cavalry can become hugely important. They just aren't for the first few dozen turns.

4. Triumvirate
You've now passed the magic "three provinces" rule. As in Satsuma, Osumi, and Hyuga so there is less pressure to have to personally control every province. The three province rule refers to the building triumvirate. Having three provinces lets you have sword, spear, and bow plus metsuke, monk, and ninja. Of course you still need food so you'll need more provinces under your thumb.

Remember each level of castle upgrade needs another point of food and you can only upgrade farms to two points without going down the appropriate branch of Arts. Time that could be better spent on the militaristic side of advancements. So you'll only be upgrading your "Forts" to "Strongholds" in the short term.

5. Northern Exposure
The "northern" half of Kyushu, as in Hizen, Tsukushi, Buzen, and Bungo can be pretty crazy. The back and forth of not only clans but also religions can leave the area ripe for uprisings. Don't forget the "bridge" between Buzen and the main island which makes it a very strategic province.

How you go about taking the northern half of Kyushu is really up to you but I recommend saving Buzen for last. While you're dealing with Kyushu's northern half is also when you should start building up your economy. Getting trade ships to hop on the Incense and Silk trade posts will start bringing in a lot of cash. Don't forget to send one ship up the southern side of the main island for getting diplomatic links to many clans. You'll need them to trade with so you can really start raking it in.

Another thing to mention is that Tsukushi's provincial special favors Metsuke agents so plan on using one of the castle slots there for a market.

6. Consolidation
Once you have Kyushu sewn up, you get an achievement for doing it too, its time to take a much closer look at your economy. Now is when I would recommend taking a torch to many castle slots to start other buildings there. It will help a lot for assembling better stacks to deal with the superpowers on the main island.

One last word of advise is to keep at least ten warships lurking around your eastern and northern coasts. Naval invasions do happen in Shogun 2 and the last thing you want to have happen is having all your stacks on the main island and letting an enemy stack land in Tsukushi or Buzen.

7. Onward and Upward
From there its time to storm the main island. Don't forget that vassal provinces do count towards your victory conditions so "resurrecting" them is a good way of reducing your micromanagement needs plus getting allies to help watch your back. Also remember to ask for trade routes after resurrecting a clan as a vassal. You don't get a trade agreement automatically. Hope this helps.

As one of the "Easy" difficulty clans, the Shimazu are a great way to "learn the ropes" of Shogun 2 before moving up to the harder clans.

SHOURI!

[-iceblade^]

thank you for that .

i first tried Shimazu on Normal, then Chosokabe, but i got beaten left, right, up and down, despite what i would have thought is a healthy amount of experience in TW, so i've decided to cop out, play Chosokabe on Easy and learn the ropes.

i still want a playthrough as Shimazu though, so they'll be my next port of call - hopefully this guide will prove wonders and give some idea of what to do.

thanks for the post

do you suggest changing to Christianity once Kyushu is yours, or beforehand then? i'd thought it'd be a good idea for the matchlock infantry and given that the Shoni and Sagara both ended up being Christian in my playthrough

[Sir Robin]

what are you guys using for army builds? I am using 6 units of katana samurai. 2 units of cav. 3-4 units of spear (to deal with cav) and 4 units of ranged (usually 2 bow and 2 musket).

Early on I don't worry about it too much. Numbers matter more. So I usually end up about half spear and half bow with a couple of sword for flanking. Hardly bother with cavalry at all. Later on I end up with better mixes of more advanced units.

[Sir Robin]

do you suggest changing to Christianity once Kyushu is yours, or beforehand then? i'd thought it'd be a good idea for the matchlock infantry and given that the Shoni and Sagara both ended up being Christian in my playthrough

I suggest not converting to Christianity. Once I had the southern half of Kyushu controlled, I could spare enough troops to keep a 100% Christian Bungo peaceful. Didn't even need to burn down the Nanban port. The other three "northern" provinces are not nearly as far gone as Bungo, so I was able to slowly turn them back to the Shinto side of the church with two monks and two temples in the right places.

Being "Christian" will make you more vulnerable to uprisings and also hurt your diplomatic relations with clans you'll want to trade and or ally with.

[-iceblade^]

I suggest not converting to Christianity. Once I have the southern half of Kyushu controlled I could afford to spare the troops to keep a 100% Christian Bungo peaceful. Have not had to burn down the Nanban port either. The other three "northern" are not nearly as far gone as Bungo so I was able to slowly turn them back to the Shinto side of the church with a two monks and two temples in the right places.

Being "Christian" will end up making more vulnerable to uprisings while also hurting your diplomatic relations with clans you'll want to trade and or ally with.

ah.

here i was thinking you should, since the advisor says so LOL.

[Sir Robin]

ah.

here i was thinking you should, since the advisor says so LOL.

Hehe... I remember that too and wondering "WTF are you thinking?"

If we started as the Otomo maybe, but by the time we get the option as the Shimazu we are pretty much committed to Shinto already. Now converting to Christianity will make your campaign as the Shimazu harder. So if you want the extra challenge, then go for it. Will be interesting to see if modders can open up the Otomo for us.

[RazAlgul]

Hmm.....first game around..I took up Takeda...but miserably got beaten...thus decided to pick up a different clan......coudn't decide between Date, Hatori and Shimazu.....finally decided for Shimazu due to starting out on Kyushu Island...relativelly safe from the mainland frenzy......thx for all the info...hope more is coming.

Also the Shimazu are most desirable for me due to bonuses towards Samurai (Katana, Bow, Cavalry)....although Date has the 2h Samurai (might be a good choice next time around).

[Becephalus]

Yeah I couldn't find a reason to convert. I dominated trade, took both islands, and then got into the end war as I was taking out the Mori lands. Got into a huge war I nearly lost (I autoresolve all battles), but eventually I prevailed. Had about 3 full stacks when the war was started. Probably went through 7 or 8 total.

Make sure to have some vassals as Shimazu as your economy will be very trade dependent and you will lose your other trading partners at realm divide.

[hitokiri2486]

Hehe... I remember that too and wondering "WTF are you thinking?"

If we started as the Otomo maybe, but by the time we get the option as the Shimazu we are pretty much committed to Shinto already. Now converting to Christianity will make your campaign as the Shimazu harder. So if you want the extra challenge, then go for it. Will be interesting to see if modders can open up the Otomo for us.

I have to disagree here, I converted to Christianity in my Shimazu campaign and although the next few turns were difficult financially, once I got my population happy again things were smooth sailing. I had to keep my taxes low for about 8 turns, but my trade agreements and trade ships kept me at 3000 koku per turn regardless so I didn't feel ~1000 koku difference too badly.

Since the Shimazu can get pretty early access to the Nanban port buildings, switching to Christianity makes cannon and musket ashigaru much, much cheaper, meaning you can wield more at earlier dates than running down the tech tree. And both are powerful units. Just make sure you build a missionary or two in order to quickly convert the population.

I also found that having Christian missionaries can really make conquests easier for the Shimazu; you can incite uprisings in neighboring cities that tend to have small garrisons, let the rebels take over, and then swoop in with your army without having to go to war with another clan. You can do the same with Buddhist monks too, I'm sure, but it makes for easy conquest without the headache of all-out war

[kommandant]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. Osumi
For me its head east immediately. Beat the army and assault the castle in Osumi. Another army will be coming soon so don't take a break to build up your economy yet. Your Shimazu Samurai are pretty good and one of the better units early on, so use them.

2. Hyuga
After going east you'll want to head north to take the Ito's last province, Hyuga, facing another semi-stack along the way. Now you'll get the option to vassalize them but I advise against it. You need the money and castle production slots too much.

3. Higo or Bungo
Now we hit the first tough call as the Shimazu. Attack the Sagara of Higo or keep going north against the Otomo of Bungo. I suggest turning on the Sagara instead of attacking the Otomo for one major reason, Christianity. Bungo is a heavily Christian province and even has a Nanban Trade Port. Also while the Sagara will still likely own Higo, the Otomo's fate is much less clear. As Christians they are not popular and a lot of fighting goes on in northeastern Kyushu provinces.

Besides that I don't like burning buildings down early on and I can't afford enough monks & temples, or spare the troops to keep Bungo peaceful yet. Whichever one you choose you'll be going after the other soon after so I suggest letting one of them be vassals. Unless you don't get the option of course because they have other provinces by then.

You may notice that Higo's horse provincial special isn't that big of a deal to me. Why? Well because in the early game cavalry isn't that important. You'll mostly face infantry armies and you'll be assaulting, plus defending, castles a lot. In those scenarios it is better to have swords, spears, and bows then light cavalry prancing about. Later on cavalry can become hugely important. They just aren't for the first few dozen turns.

4. Triumvirate
You've now passed the magic "three provinces" rule. As in Satsuma, Osumi, and Hyuga so there is less pressure to have to personally control every province. The three province rule refers to the building triumvirate. Having three provinces lets you have sword, spear, and bow plus metsuke, monk, and ninja. Of course you still need food so you'll need more provinces under your thumb.

Remember each level of castle upgrade needs another point of food and you can only upgrade farms to two points without going down the appropriate branch of Arts. Time that could be better spent on the militaristic side of advancements. So you'll only be upgrading your "Forts" to "Strongholds" in the short term.

5. Northern Exposure
The "northern" half of Kyushu, as in Hizen, Tsukushi, Buzen, and Bungo can be pretty crazy. The back and forth of not only clans but also religions can leave the area ripe for uprisings. Don't forget the "bridge" between Buzen and the main island which makes it a very strategic province.

How you go about taking the northern half of Kyushu is really up to you but I recommend saving Buzen for last. While you're dealing with Kyushu's northern half is also when you should start building up your economy. Getting trade ships to hop on the Incense and Silk trade posts will start bringing in a lot of cash. Don't forget to send one ship up the southern side of the main island for getting diplomatic links to many clans. You'll need them to trade with so you can really start raking it in.

Another thing to mention is that Tsukushi's provincial special favors Metsuke agents so plan on using one of the castle slots there for a market.

6. Consolidation
Once you have Kyushu sewn up, you get an achievement for doing it too, its time to take a much closer look at your economy. Now is when I would recommend taking a torch to many castle slots to start other buildings there. It will help a lot for assembling better stacks to deal with the superpowers on the main island.

One last word of advise is to keep at least ten warships lurking around your eastern and northern coasts. Naval invasions do happen in Shogun 2 and the last thing you want to have happen is having all your stacks on the main island and letting an enemy stack land in Tsukushi or Buzen.

7. Onward and Upward
From there its time to storm the main island. Don't forget that vassal provinces do count towards your victory conditions so "resurrecting" them is a good way of reducing your micromanagement needs plus getting allies to help watch your back. Also remember to ask for trade routes after resurrecting a clan as a vassal. You don't get a trade agreement automatically. Hope this helps.

As one of the "Easy" difficulty clans, the Shimazu are a great way to "learn the ropes" of Shogun 2 before moving up to the harder clans.

SHOURI!

well sir you have made up my mind for me, when i get my game next week this is going to be
the first faction i play great job on explaining

i really can't wait to play this game what so ever

Please use spoilers for large articles and pictures

[-iceblade^]

well sir you have made up my mind for me, when i get my game next week this is going to be
the first faction i play great job on explaining

i really can't wait to play this game what so ever

oh it's an awesome title . IMO it's starting to edge out Rome as my favourite TW.

[The Sweeper]

Good guide Sir Robin. The dangers of Christianity as the Shimazu are large. I did the same as you did, defeating the Ito at Osumi and Hyuga, but had allied with the Sagara early on. I realise this sort of stops me from actually achieving the victory conditions unless I turn on them or they turn on me, but it made sense at the time because they have such quick access to Satsuma. Also I had a report pop up that suggested the Otomo were preparing to declare war, and I wanted an ally on Kyushu. The report was correct and the Otomo declared war that year, though since Sagara got to Bungo before me, I had them as a buffer between my provinces of Hyuga, Osumi and Satsuma and Otomo territory. At this point I realised if I let the Sagara take the northern part of Kyushu I'd be the weak one on the island, so I quickly regrouped my forces and sent them north by way of ship. My army landed on the sands near Hizen and attacked next turn. Once Hizen was taken I marched straight into the next coastal territory (the name eludes me atm). Hizen was important as it seems to be the most profitable castle town on Kyushu, at least in my game. Anyway, by now the Otomo were in flight and their only army was trapped between mine and a Sagara force. I took their last province and *poof* they disappeared somewhere.

Now I have the three provinces in the north to go with my southern territories. Obviously have had some trouble with Christian uprisings, particularly in Hizen and the province directly east. I've now allied with the Chosokabe and Miyoshi and look to make a mark on the mainland, where two clans dominate the western side of Kyoto.

Little tip for your economy, as Robin said do your best to secure those trade routes ASAP and then defend them because they are a significant source of income at a relatively low cost. There's a lot of competition for these routes and you'll have to keep a fleet to defend them. Opening up trade via the sea with the other island to your east is a good idea, or perhaps a faction on the mainland.

[King of Kings]

Just won as Shimazu on normal after converting to Christianity early on. I would advice against for the fact the your relations with all other clans is mostly as hostile, and as soon as realm divided hits it's extremely hard to conquer without spending lots of money on garrisons and fighting rebellions.

[Hohenlohe]

Thanks for some good advice about the Shimazu. I have started my first two games with the Hattori and I was two times nearly shattered by some overwhelming odds against me. So I had to reload an earlier savegame, but in a multiplayer campaign that is impossible.

Due to that facts I restarted as the Shimazu Daimyo and now after some heavy struggling I own Kyushu and Shikoku and now I set my foot on the mainland and conquered Kii,Yamato and Iga. Now I am in some big trouble. I made the mistake that I set my best fleet to an exploration expedition into the northern japanes sea coast to block the mighty ASAi whose provinces were separated by the Tokugawa fiefdom in two parts and I am trying to conquer the western part. I am in good terms with Tokugawa and have some friendly status with Hatano in the western mainland. But now the Wakou appeared the first time in some strength at my Bungo Nanban Port and blockade it so I loose every turn about 3000 gold and I am now down in my fiscal balance and somehow bancrupted...

The only next fleet I had at Hizen was simply a trading one. Oh, I forget to mention that I got all four western trading ports. But I have now some strong army stacks even a Koshu Ninja one. Very costly indeed.
In my personal opinion I have the simple feeling that the AI can again cheat with money during the campaign...that really sucks, but in another way most of us are able to defeat the AI. I am playing now on normal and in relation to my former experiences the AI is really formidable and even uses sea invasions but this belongs to AI behaviour. YOu can see that more or less in the diplomatic screen if you take a look to the descriptions of your counterpart on the top right beneath the other sides faction name.

SOfar I have played this game it looks really stable, but the only strange thing I got was the installation process. For what reason I would need a retail version of a game if it will be installed only after downloading the whole data from Steam. That is for me a little bit freaky...

Sofar some of my personal impressions, but for now I have still a mission to fullfill: the Shimazu has to become SHOGUN as soon as possible. And now there are only three main factions left besides the Ashikaga. SO it will be time to prepare the following campaign on the mainland...
Time will decisive...

greetings

Hohenlohe

[JuggernautX15]

For being one of the "easy" clans it sure seems brutal to start with sometimes. Most of the advice that has been said already doesn't take into account the possibility of Sagara going nuts after just a few turns, declaring war on you and shoving an almost full stack of units outside your main.

This was on normal .

One way around this is to make an alliance with Sagara early on and then focus entirely on the Ito clan. However, when you turn on Sagara people will hate you for about 30 turns it seems, so I had to make sure I was making enough money on my own without any trade agreements. Kind of a bad way around it, but it works (so far).

[Sir Robin]

Yeah, early on can be really touch and go for a while. In over half my campaigns with other clans the Shimazu get wiped out pretty quickly. A lot seems to hinge on the Sagara. Yet I didn't want to get too cozy with them. I wanted to minimize the diplomatic penalty when I eventually stabbed them in the back.