The Shimazu Campaign Guide

[ElementUK]

Just finished first Campaign as Shimazu. Stayed Buddhist and took the two island's first. Instead of going north and working my way along through the Mori Clan (Who were allied with the Takeda), I took a full stack with Matsuke/Ninja and Monk on 10 ships to the South East until I found the province with the Gold Mine! (Just East of the Oda clan). Fortunately it was owned by Rebels at the time and so it caused no unwanted conflicts. A very useful 2,500 worth every turn. Had a message about having a seperated province but quickly took another and held it until a reinforcing army went and took the province just west of the Oda clan and slowly took anything that wasn't Takeda. Oda eventually declared war on me but with an army west and east of them, I was able to squeeze them until they popped.

The Shogun grew wary of me until he called for all the clans to stop me. So Takeda forced me towards Kyoto by declaring war on me and not liking their provinces as neighbour's, I took them. Noticed that Kyoto wasn't well stacked and just went for it. Mori had luckily broken their alliance with Takeda by then and allied with me. Had some problems with Pirate fleets messing with my trade routes and had to rush some ships back to keep the money coming in. Nice suprise about having to hold Kyoto for a year! Mori eventually stabbed me in the back but by then I had a third stack led by my legendary Daimyo aged 74! and a Legendary Katana Samurai. Aftr a couple of tough battles with Mori and taking half their lands off them, I won. Nice to have to rank 5 Ashiguru from Kyoto.

Saving that save game for later after exploring other clans.

[billydilly]

Good report Sir Robin. I had actually done step 1 and 2 before I read your guide. So now I have to deicide which faction to go for next.

[MrChris]

good report by Sir Robin ha, mirrors a lot of things I did in my campaign

you have a lot of good resources close, so eventually you need to specialise your settlements, satsuma for infantry, warhorses settlement for cav, region to the very north for arches, can even get good metsuke going and good naval experience

then you have the ability to go after pretty much anyone with high quality stacks

[SonOfOdin]

I captured the island that the Shimazu start on(don't know Japanese geography, sorry) by eliminating the Shino and Sagakura(or something, the red guys).
So I started having Christian unrest in my regions with nanmba trade ports and so I converted to Christianity. THEN I got two regions with Buddhist revolts(seriously? I thought Buddhists were peaceful dudes ) What should I do?!?!?! Can't I just convert to Atheism or something to get rid of these religious problems?

[Sir Robin]

I captured the island that the Shimazu start on(don't know Japanese geography, sorry) by eliminating the Shino and Sagakura(or something, the red guys).
So I started having Christian unrest in my regions with nanmba trade ports and so I converted to Christianity. THEN I got two regions with Buddhist revolts(seriously? I thought Buddhists were peaceful dudes ) What should I do?!?!?! Can't I just convert to Atheism or something to get rid of these religious problems?

Uprisings are part and parcel of the whole conversion scenario. Its sort of an undocumented feature of Shimazu campaigns. You either deal with Christian unrest or convert and deal with Shinto-Buddhist unrest. The main thing is to have a couple of monks/missionaries to help convert unhappy peasants to "your" way of thinking and enough Ashigaru to garrison your way through the rough spots.

[SonOfOdin]

Uprisings are part and parcel of the whole conversion scenario. Its sort of an undocumented feature of Shimazu campaigns. You either deal with Christian unrest or convert and deal with Shinto-Buddhist unrest. The main thing is to have a couple of monks/missionaries to help convert unhappy peasants to "your" way of thinking and enough Ashigaru to garrison your way through the rough spots.

arrghh damn garrisons are taking up my whole income. Looks like I need to stop fighting against other clans and deal with these damn rebels for now. Can't fight against outsiders when I have trouble with insiders

[Hohenlohe]

arrghh damn garrisons are taking up my whole income. Looks like I need to stop fighting against other clans and deal with these damn rebels for now. Can't fight against outsiders when I have trouble with insiders

You should consider what to do in the right manner before eventually change your religion. First the advantage to stay Buddhist is sometimes very clear. You get some of the best Battlefield units if you will have access to the warrior monks. But if you declare yourself a true christian you can only upgrade one of your Nanban ports if you own more of them due to conquests. To become christian you should build a Nanban port in your home province until there will be the option to become christain in your clan overview.

You therefore can increase your income with churches and you get access to european artillery and your musket ashigarus became available after two turns instead of four if you build the Nanban Quarter. And then you can build European Merchant Ships with a better Hull and such else and you will get in middle-game the info that the Black Ship is near. And if you can capture it you will have a very mighty ship which can help you defeating enemy fleets decisively with his guns and big crew.

To make the right decision belonging to which religion is up on your gameplay style. As a Hattori I will prefer to be a Buddhist...

Something to add to the game. I would prefer to see some warrior monk cavalry or warrior monk No-Dachi units although the historical prefered weapons of the most monks were the Naginata and the bow.

Some people mentioned the desire for more units but I hope only for some units like the Super Duper Katana Hero "Musashi" and something else. I think I should take a deeper look in some books of Steven Turnbull to see what the modding community could add to the game in terms of new units.

Perhaps CA could add the Wakou pirates as an own NPC clan which could be eventually hired for some tasks or some different European factions like the Portugese or the Spaniards and the Dutchmen with some different battlefield units. I am still missing the usual Merchant agents which should have the possibilit to develop some ressources with some buildings. And I am missing the opportunity to build some field camps or forts or small castles like in former TW games. Historically great japanese Daimyos like Hidetyoshi Toyotomi or Oda Nobunaga built some castles in strategic locations to take control of an certain area and to prevent enemy clans easily attacking/invading their fiefdom. There could have been some more opportunities which were not taken ingame but okay alone this game offers more than I had mentioned some months before due to some former bad experiences.

I think that CA will offer us in some months the opportunity to either invading Korea or to defend Japan against the Mongols. But what the most interesting thing will be for me are the usual upcoming mods from the community with some fantasy inside.
Simply think about the historical fact that at the time of the Sengoku Jidai the Japanes had worldwide the greatest Armies under weapons(around 1.2 million soldiers) and around 1600 worldwide the most lockgun muskets in use equivalent to Europe. What would have happened to our kind of World if the Tokugawa Shogun had not decided to go for isolation but simply expand the Japanese Empire and Shogunate to Korea and China with the available knowledge about powder weapons. Mention simply for yourself what would have happened if a buddhist Nippon had decided to twarth most of the european colonies in Southern Asia like the Philippines and Indonesia.

You should also know that the Portugese used many christian japanese Ronin mercenaries in their colonial possessions in Asian waters. What would have happened if the Shogunate had expanded even to India?
Due to the long and rich war experiences and their fighting style and tactics the Japanese would have been unbeatable by most of the european troops in that age.

In my personal opinion it was very interesting that in around three centuries two main asian Empires decided in both cases to go for isolation. The first were the chinese Ming dynasty around 1450 and in this case the Japanese around 1600. Alone the Ming dynasty would have been very successful due to their technical prowess and knowledge and might. Simply remember the great chinese Fleet expedition of the great Admiral Zhong He with his big fleet of giant ships which visited India, Arabia,Africa and Madagascar and Indonesia around 1450 long time before any Portugese appeared on the historical scene with their simply very small ships equivalent to the former Ming fleet ships.

And take a simple look how the Chinese progress today...

But simply for game terms I am missing recruitable Wakou pirates, Ronin mercenaries, Ainu soldiers, European mercenaries, Dutchmen Guns, Jesuit missionaries, Merchant agents and so on...

Sofar my personal opinions...

Hohenlohe

[OTZ]

The key to a strong economy is to go Harbour > Trading Port ASAP in your starting province and the one to the East. Getting the trade nodes early is a huge boon to your coffers.

[familyguy1]

Haha, interesting time. Took out the Ito, then made them a vassal. The Sagara have been a reliable ally after 20 or so years. Next attacked the Shoni while they were busy with the Mori. Took most of the northern islands. The Mori then sent a fairly large stack to take Buzen after I had taken it from Christian Rebels. Beat that back and now poised to advance to the mainland. Next turn after defeating the Mori, they propose a peace treaty. So far thats all I have. After I took Buzen I was able to have a Nanban Trade Ship as my fleet and I am currently dominating the seas, still have to watch out for the Chokosabe, the Miyoshi and the Hatekayama(?). Chokosabe have the black ship in its position.

Reason I did not take out the Sagara is because they have a high amount of troops between their two cities.

[Aeneas Veneratio]

With the Shimazu I found a clever way to deal with the alliance with the Shoni and the Sagara to the North.

Turn 1 - 3: Get a tradeport, build up your army and ally with the Sagara, use a hostage to convince them.

Turn 4: Attack the Ito and start sending trade ships to the trade node to your West and one ship ready to take the trade node to the South, when that clan is wiped out in a few turns.

Turn 5: Replenish lost troops. Mess up the Alliance between the Sagara and Shoni by "Demanding break of Alliance" and "Demanding break of trade agreement" in exchange for a hostage (by this time the Shoni has probably switched to Christianity granting an extra -25 in relations to other factions)

Turn 5-10: Continue building tradeships and kill the Ito (at this time the Shoni will have killed the clan holding the trade node to the South of Satmasu, so remember to take it).

Turn 11: Either the Shoni will declare war on you or you should now declare war on them. The Sagara will assist you in this endeavour, however, they will get wiped out by the Shoni (if you dont assist them, which I strongly recommend that you don't)

Turn 12 - 20: Take control of Kyushu. After killing the Shoni, remember to take all trade nodes hold by them,


Remember to value farms and farming techs over military techs (bushido) at first, as it will benefit you in the long run.

[DeMolay]

The key to a strong economy is to go Harbour > Trading Port ASAP in your starting province and the one to the East. Getting the trade nodes early is a huge boon to your coffers.

i have to agree with that , trade is absolutely crucial , i had fun trying to build up a monster economy with the fewest regions as possible and finally managed to get more than 10.000 gold per season with just 4 territories .


The key is to constantly build trading ships until you get at least 30 of them , send 10 ships in each trade spot , and meanwhile train the arts of Zen and Noh for having high reputation which will help setting trade agreements (cause AI is reluctant to trade with you as Shimazu ) , when you managed to get a few of them , you become filthy rich

The hardest thing in the Shimazu campaign is to capture Higo from the Sagara while finding the money to upgrade your ports at the beggining , this is very difficult , especially in hard difficulty , but once you achieve that , Shimazu becomes a mighty commercial force to be reckoned with :

[OTZ]

You may also get the mission to capture Imawa(sp?) - the region with the gold mine. That, plus trade node monopoly = more money than you know what to do with.

[For Victory]

I chose to start out as the Shimazu and have been reading the forum for advice. If I have this correctly, I should immediately conquer the province to the east and at the same time build trading ports at the starting province as well as the new one? Or is the pacing/order of those steps different?

[sillyfrenchman]

I chose to start out as the Shimazu and have been reading the forum for advice. If I have this correctly, I should immediately conquer the province to the east and at the same time build trading ports at the starting province as well as the new one? Or is the pacing/order of those steps different?

Yes, go east and grab provinces there.

After that, you can wait until someone attacks the Sagura. I had the Shoni clan wipe them out and just mopped up their 4 provinces afterward when they were exhausted.

Assassination works very well too.

[For Victory]

Yes, go east and grab provinces there.

After that, you can wait until someone attacks the Sagura. I had the Shoni clan wipe them out and just mopped up their 4 provinces afterward when they were exhausted.

Assassination works very well too.

I don't have the ability to train Ninja yet. The steps that I listed in my previous post are a number of seasons apart in game time. What should I do in the mean time, and what should I ALWAYS be doing? I end a lot of turns without doing much if anything.

[sillyfrenchman]

I don't have the ability to train Ninja yet. The steps that I listed in my previous post are a number of seasons apart in game time. What should I do in the mean time, and what should I ALWAYS be doing? I end a lot of turns without doing much if anything.

Race to grab those resources out at sea. Trade ships are cheap, so quickly grab the 3 resources closest to Kyushu. If you can, grab the incense and silk ones first. One is below Satsuma, one is just left of Satsuma, and the third (silk) next to your ally's province.

Then try to race for the cotton (next to Korea) and horses (next to Taiwan or Manchuria I think, it's the Jurchen horses spot). Get those early because Honshu clans will try to snap them up.

[For Victory]

Race to grab those resources out at sea. Trade ships are cheap, so quickly grab the 3 resources closest to Kyushu. If you can, grab the incense and silk ones first. One is below Satsuma, one is just left of Satsuma, and the third (silk) next to your ally's province.

Then try to race for the cotton (next to Korea) and horses (next to Taiwan or Manchuria I think, it's the Jurchen trading spot). Get those early because Honshu clans will try to snap them up.

Do I need to send troops with a trade ship? Thank you.

[sillyfrenchman]

Do I need to send troops with a trade ship? Thank you.

No, focus on just getting there first. Most clans will not attack you immediately on the lower difficulties.

The main thing is to secure each with at least one ship, then later you can build up to 10 per resource and support them with a navy when you have money. Send out at least one per resource and then build a few bow kobaya to protect them, then just start spamming trade ship galore with Satsuma and the one to the east of Satsuma (Osumi?).

[For Victory]

Yeah, Osumi. Speaking of which, how quickly do I want to take Osumi castle and defeat the Ito? I usually rush the castle in the first or second turn (if I wait until turn 2, it's to have a larger army), but then the Ito troops counter attack and kill my general every time. Here's the embarassing part, I keep using auto resolve for battles. I tried playing a battle myself last night when I first got the game and it was really hard for me. I feel like I can lose less troops if I do it myself, but I need to learn how to move around the field properly first. I tried to focus on recruiting more troops for the inevitable Ito counter offensive, but I don't get enough of them in time.

[Gulatr]

My tactic for taking Osumi: Siege the fort at turn one, but don't assult, end round. The Ito will try to sally out of the fort using the small army they have as reinforcmnets, you will fight in an open field. Your troops should be enough to win this fight with not to many losses.

Use Ashigaru for Yari and Bow roles, only use your special Katana Samurai as shock troops, this will save you lots of money and will help you overcome the initial hard years.