The Takeda Campaign Guide

[flashy01]

Can anyone give any tips for Legendary? Trying to get a decent army to move south so I can wipe the Hojo; but I have little funds and getting pestered by the north every turn I have to fight another battle, then Uesugi comes down with a huge stack. How do you manage to hold on to Kai until you got a second army taking Iso and the Hojo lands? Again this is on Legendary.

Thanks for the tips.

[Pinky333]

I always kill hojo at the start. Ally with who ever takes n shiano and get imagawa to break ally with hojo and give me millatary access. Then just go from behind, take both cities on the same turn and defend off their remaining forces. Ally with satomi

[StormtrooperDan]

In my current 8th try on Takeda Legendary I'm actually doing quite well. I have 14 provinces with good economy +$4000 per turn with about 2.5 stacks of samurai / katana cav/ archers. I also have a stack of navy.

Here are some key things that helped me in my current campaign:

1. Getting as much money out of diplomacy as I can. Selling hostages, selling trade agreements, selling military access, selling alliances, selling marriages.

2. Making vassals in diplomacy instead of capturing provinces. In the beginning this seems to be the best opinion and has several advantages:

a. They'll gift you a unit
b. In diplomacy, you can demand tons of money when you've beat them on the battlefield and they are left with only 1 province. I get somewhere between $500 - $1000
c. They'll have a small army and will be a good buffer against other nations. They may get killed but at least they took some of the enemy with them.
d. You will get tribute and trade income from them.

3. In the beginning, I've always keep that North Shinano place a vassal state no matter who took it and focused on the east (not Hojo btw) In fact, my alliance with Hojo saved me when they send a half stack and attacked with me against a doom stack of Uesugi.

4. I build up Kai to Castle and used it as the key point to repel aggression. I fought against the Uesugi stacks from the North and eventually Hojo stacks from the east.

5. Letting the enemy take my provinces if I can't hold them. I've lost multiple provinces to Uesugi and Hojo but once I defeated their armies I was able to quickly take them back.

6. I allied with Date, gave them infinite military access and sided with them when they attacked my vassals. Date was the strongest in the northeast and letting them takeover one or two vassals was far better than fighting them. And since I gave them free access to my lands, they simply walked across to make war on my neighbors to the west. I think the fact that the Date clan is "dependable" helped a lot.

Although I've made a lot of vassals in the past, I currently have zero vassals. They mainly served as buffers and when an enemy took over the province, I eventually took it back and peacefully occupied the land if I felt I could defend it.

[Empyrean]

Turn one, declare war on the Hojo. This is crucial, and it seems like almost nobody does this. Imagawa are your allies and will join you in the war, and you don't even share a border with the Hojo yet. If you wait a couple of turns the Hojo will ally with the Imagawa, and when the crap hits the fan the Imagawa are going to side with them over you. An early declaration of war will push the Imagawa to your side and keep them both busy while you deal with North Shinano.

Basically your choices are to have the Hojo and Imagawa fight each other by declaring war on them at turn one, or fight them both yourself at some point. You don't even have to send armies to fight them right away. They'll focus on the minor clan to their east, and you can fight them there after you've deal with North Shinano. You'll want to keep a respectable force in North Shinano even if it makes fighting the Hojo a lot more difficult, since North Shinano borders a lot of different clans and provinces, and if you don't want them to try sucker punching you then you'll need a deterrent. Keep them peaceful with you, trade with everybody, make no new allies. Let them fight each other. If you can't keep them from attacking you at North Shinano, you're fighting a two front war with two income-mediocre provinces against several factions, and are screwed. Don't let that happen, even at the cost of dragging out the war against the Hojo longer than you otherwise would. You can't afford to look weak to the mess of clans in the North, or they'll attack you and make things far more difficult.

Even if the Imagawa take a few of those great Hojo provinces, don't break your alliance with them. A betrayer has a hard time diplomatically, and you don't want to mess up your Diamyo's honor both for diplomatic reasons and for the bonuses to domestic happiness. You can take those provinces back from the Imagawa through rebellions if you really want them, or just focus on taking out the minor clans to the east. With your southern side covered by the Imagawa, you can push hard against whoever. Conquer everything east of Kai if you want, and get ready for Realm Divide.

[Jackie Chan's Brother Wang...]

So far the only advice I can give after playing about ten failed Takeda campaigns is to not regard Kai as a vital province.

I know it's the Takeda's starting province, but in all honesty it's just more trouble than it's worth. You're under constant attack from a far superior Uesegi from the north.

My advice is to declare war on the Hojo on your first turn and then with the help of the Imagawa, either take their provinces or conquer the provinces to the east of the Hojo. This will give you not only quick and easy provinces, but also provinces in far safer locations than Kai. From then on you can make your way north east and conquer the lesser defended clans.

[StormtrooperDan]

So far the only advice I can give after playing about ten failed Takeda campaigns is to not regard Kai as a vital province.

I know it's the Takeda's starting province, but in all honesty it's just more trouble than it's worth. You're under constant attack from a far superior Uesegi from the north.

My advice is to declare war on the Hojo on your first turn and then with the help of the Imagawa, either take their provinces or conquer the provinces to the east of the Hojo. This will give you not only quick and easy provinces, but also provinces in far safer locations than Kai. From then on you can make your way north east and conquer the lesser defended clans.

Do you still hold on to Kai though? I find it to be a great bottle neck province to hold off aggression from either Useugi or Hojo.

[Devodians]

I started my Takeda Campaign on VH/VH, and I think I am doing quite well (six provinces, noted imperial status, earning 2k per turn, etc). I actually used quite a different strategy from what has been suggested. My primary focus for the first steps of the campaign was not the Hojo clan, but the Uesugi. Not only will this strategy eliminate a soon to be powerful enemy, but also fulfills one of your province objectives by taking the Uesugi home province of Echigo.

First of all, destroy the enemy clan to the north and take (not vassalize) North Shimono. Take a few turns to recruit troops and stabilize the region (make sure you have some Takeda light cavalry with you, as they are the best cheap horse troops in the game). I suggest allying yourself with every clan possible, including the Hojo to provide stability and protection on your southern front.

When you have at least a full stack army of mixed yari ashigaru, archers, and light cavalry troops, declare war on the Uesugi and head straight to the Echigo province. It is vital that you declare war as soon as possible, before the Uesugi have adequate time to develop their full military potential, otherwise you will lose the chance to wipe them off the map. Take their home province, which hopefully was their only one (it was the case for me), and the Uesugi will cease to be such a pain in the ass.

When I declared war on the Uesugi, their main armies were apparently busy engaging their enemy to the east (I think it was the Satake clan). By the time I invaded Echigo, the Uesugi only possessed one province, which was only guarded by a half stack army. Was I lucky? I have heard some horror stories of everyone encountering hordes of immensely powerful Uesugi forces when they tried to take Echigo.

After the Uesugi were eliminated, I took the majority of my forces (leaving about four units to quell unrest in Echigo) and returned them to North Shimono. One of my allies, the light blue clan (Anaegkojili?) possessed one of my objective provinces. I broke my alliance with them (make sure you do this first before attacking them) and declared war. I took the objective province (which was only lightly garrisoned), and forced that clan to become my vassal. I then attacked their former allies, the Ikko-Ikki, and took two of their provinces.

I admit that I probably had some degree of luck in my campaign. But I think that if you take the route I took, the campaign will be more comfortable and easier in the long run. My little empire is stretched a little thin, but I still have strong garrisons at every point, except in the south at Kai, and the revenue gained from taxes from the provinces are more than enough to maintain a large standing military force. I was afraid that the Hojo would attack me while I was pre-occupied in the north, but they had problems of their own. By the time I finished off the Uesugi, they were reduced to only one province, and were virtually overrun by some enemy minor clan. The Hattori seem to be my biggest threat from the West, but as soon as I made a trade agreement with them, they withdrew their armies back to their home provinces.

Any comments, questions, or suggestions?

[E.K]

Do you still hold on to Kai though? I find it to be a great bottle neck province to hold off aggression from either Useugi or Hojo.

IMO hang onto Kai. It can be very useful to fall back on if all goes crazy.

[YassirX]

Little trick by myself, use the general unit at kai at the first turn and move it to the eastern border. Next turn declare war against this clan and move your general to assault its castle, before you end turn ask hojo for ally, they will accept 100%. When you end turn hojo will be first in ai turns line and will move its army to your general, helping him with the assault. Next turn you have the settlement with only one used unit (your general).

After that there are two ways to contiune:
1. You can use your army to kill the northern clan. This can be done in the first 3 turns. So you own 3 provinces after 3 turns.
2. You can use your army to kill the satomi (this is what I did).
-> You kill the army stationed in your capital zone and after that you move east and while you are doing this you recruit cavalary at kai (more movement points, will reach your army in time) and yari at the eastern province. You do this while your army moves there (takes 2 turns). Means 4 Light cav and 2 yari ash, now you move with your combined army to the first satomi settlement. After you took it leave it abandoned at capture the other two. In the next turn, one will be heavily guarded, one will have only garisson. Use 1 Bow-Ashigaru unit to kill the garisson and the rest of the army to kill the satomi.

After 10 turns you hold 5 provinces. Now you can ally with "everyone" at your borders except the northern clan (i guess that not inteded by CA, but thats possbile). Your goal now it so destroy the northern clan (if he has not been destroyed yet).

This was on legendary.

[Galdred]

After 5 botched tries on legendary, I did the following:

I declared war to Hojo in the first turn and crushed the northern minor clan army on turn 2 without marching to North Shinano. I went south and crushed the Hojo, then helped my Imagawa allies in the West against the Hatori, restored the Oda as a vassal clan, then I moved against the Uesugi(down to their starting province) and the Date. I am now on turn 60 with 15 provinces, and I have yet to take North Shinano: this province is harder to defend than Kai and doesn t have anything special. I hope finishing the Date won t trigger Realm Divide for I am not ready for that yet.

Concerning battles, I autoresolved most of them lately, because I mostly used 2 full stacks of Ashigarus and the reinforcement system is crappy in STW2 (waiting for a unit to withdraw to allow a reinforcing one to enter), before switching to cavalry recently.

I gave poet 3 to all my generals to allow me to get legendary horse dojos quickly (then I plan to research spear, then teppo).

I m now "modernizing" my army (replacing yari ashigarus with +3 armor Ashigarus and bow ashigarus with +accuracy ashigarus). Should I try to get a crushing defeat against Date in order to lose some fame and delay RD instead of disbanding outdated units?

[rosejhon]

Has anyone managed to get past turn 20 on VH? i am worried about it

[DoggyStyled]

Just finished it on Legendary and it was a LEGENDARY one! Very entertaining.

[iMohedon]

After 5 botched tries on legendary, I did the following:

I declared war to Hojo in the first turn and crushed the northern minor clan army on turn 2 without marching to North Shinano. I went south and crushed the Hojo, then helped my Imagawa allies in the West against the Hatori, restored the Oda as a vassal clan, then I moved against the Uesugi(down to their starting province) and the Date. I am now on turn 60 with 15 provinces, and I have yet to take North Shinano: this province is harder to defend than Kai and doesn t have anything special. I hope finishing the Date won t trigger Realm Divide for I am not ready for that yet.

Concerning battles, I autoresolved most of them lately, because I mostly used 2 full stacks of Ashigarus and the reinforcement system is crappy in STW2 (waiting for a unit to withdraw to allow a reinforcing one to enter), before switching to cavalry recently.

I gave poet 3 to all my generals to allow me to get legendary horse dojos quickly (then I plan to research spear, then teppo).

I m now "modernizing" my army (replacing yari ashigarus with +3 armor Ashigarus and bow ashigarus with +accuracy ashigarus). Should I try to get a crushing defeat against Date in order to lose some fame and delay RD instead of disbanding outdated units?

Do you actually loose fame when you get defeated ??

[iMohedon]

First things first: make peace and alliances with Hojo and Imagawa. As a one province faction, you need three things: single front wars, more land, and more money. You need to maintain your alliances with Hojo and Imagawa at all cost. Expanding upwards into Shinano (Murakami, Aesomething, Kiso) and then Uesugi is not only the historical way but also the prudent way to go. IMHO anyways.

I normally try to react to what others are doing but yes that route is what tends to happen in my games.

[iMohedon]

Glad your campaign is working out better than mine

I got to turn 54 on VH/H. I had a nice clan going (3 provinces, allied to Kiso, and 2 vassals) but then Date/Uesugi started taking everything. I held on for about 10 turns by fighting in the opposite direction of Date and made a stronghold at Ise but I lost.

Pic:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Was pretty fun though.

You need to expand much faster than this. If you want to play it slow and turtle then at least make sure your the biggest faction in your area.

[iMohedon]

On very hard i let it be to conquer north shiano and attack the hojo after their takes losts by taking musashi. So i get easy 3 Good and Provinces with only on boarder to defend which was also foward my boarder of kai. In kai i left only my brother with first 2 than 4 than 6 ashigaru. 2 Armys of the North broke their neck on my little walls Lucky me that the Ai attacks not all on once.

Attacking the hojo can do wonders to your economy, they have a gold mine and also there are a blacksmith and a paper mill in the area. But imo you want to save that till later and focus north first. Not attacking the hojo will keep the entire south east occupied till you are ready to expand there.

[iMohedon]

Well on VH/N I managed to get to 11 provinces and I'm winning most battles easily now. The key, for me, was to keep good relations with the other clans and then turn on them when they were weakened. For instance, Hojo and Date were at war, so I broke my alliance with Hojo and allied with Date. Do whatever you can to stay on the winning side, give away brides, hostages, money, etc

I'd recommend not having any vassals unless your territory completely surrounds them. The AI doesn't seem to recognize that a clan is your vassal, so your allies will regularly attack vassals, which hurts your honor

I tend to use vassals as a defense buffer. If someone needs to attack me then he has to go thru my difficulty adjusted vassals.

[kommandant]

this clan is by far the best one i've played so far, and i've started a campaign for every clan in
the game to see how they feel

i've manage to get 4 providence's but at a high cost, my daimyo perished in a
failed invasion of the Hojo home providences after pushing them out of the Musashi
providence and holding several invasion attempts of my home providence of Kai.
while his brother(the starting general) has managed to take North Shinano and the take over the clan
to the northwest of it that starts with an "A" and in the process making him my best General.

after loosing my daimyo in a moment of ignorance thinking the Hojo were done and all i
had to do was to push into enemy homeland, but i was wrong and my army was wiped out
with him included, he got hunted down

also i've had a total of 3 ninjas, the first two were killed by the Hojo clan, third one is acting
solely as a scout for the late Daimyo's youngest brother who has taken over the 4th providence
Musashi and is looking to invade the Hojo's home lands when the time is right, hopefully unlike his brother

the Imagawa refused to join either side of the conflict while i was able to secure Kenshin as an
ally, which has proven very useful in fighting the Satomi and keeping them busy as they are the Hojo's
allies, although i do have a trade agreement with them

all in all this is the most fun i've had in a while with a total war game, when it seems i'm about to
overrun them i get pushed back, and vice-versa, the Hojo are a major pain in my rear end right now as
they seem to just keep sending more and more, hopefully they will be annihilated soon enough

and i'm using Swiss' mod, man i love those units, especially the Katana ronin, although i can't recruit
them at the moment i wait patiently till the day i can

[Datek]

Playing H/H; everyone stabbed me in the back and attacked from all sides except the Immagawa. So I stabbed them in the back when they were down to 1 province and about to be snuffed out by another clan. I defended and then counterattacked with ashigaru armys and agents. I have hardly upgraded anything and have trained no samarai and I have about 15 provinces. Hopefully thing will settle down for a few turns so I can get my economy in order and get ready for realm divide.

[Anjin-San]

I'm now about 21 turns in (H/H) and have captured 3 provinces (so I have total of 4), but I'm quite unsatisfied... Hojo already own 6 provinces, most of them with more, up to 3 times more income than my own, and even though playing with dms, which makes my alliance with them rather secure, I fear the hojho becoming too strong. What would you do? Take them on while they have many enemies or stay allied with them until they're the only enemy left? Maybe I should have mentioned that right now I can't concentrate one hojo since saito and kiso still keep my occupied, oh and uesugi as well. Damn.