Ikko Ikki Campaign Guides

[homefry]

Money is hard to come by and my armies are mainly composed of ashigaru and yari men.

Not fun at all.

[kronpas]

Read other posts in this thread, it might help you out.

[Charsi]

1. Don't expand northwards. Kaga should remain your northern border. Fortify it heavily. Forge trade agreements on turn 1 with Jinbo so they don't pick a fight.

2. Move southwards. Set up a trade agreement with Sakai so they dont pester you for now, note that they will declare on you once they have a full stack and Echizen looks weak. Take Omi from the Asai clan or (neat trick i've pulled) pay Asai for military access and take Mino province off Saito before Hattori can destroy Asai and void the access. Whoever wins between Tokugawa and Oda should be your next target.

3. Take Oda and Tokugawa. Vassalize Tokugawa after capturing Mikawa province. They will spend a while fighting Imagawa for you.

4. Expand southwest. Take all the ninja provinces. Try to arrange things so that you don't fight Hattori directly. They will wreck you 1v1 in a stand up fight.

Your goal should be to have a northern chokepoint at Kaga, eastern chokepoints at Mino and Owari provinces with a Tokugawa vassal as a obstacle, and western chokepoints at Wakasa and Settsu. Hopefully you can pay the Ashikaga clan to not hate you.

Build Ronin units and win. Don't try and tech for monks and don't lean on Ashigaru. Monks take too long and Ashigaru lose, particularly Ikko Ikki Bow Ashigaru are 10 times worse than the normal kind. Go look at their reload rate sometime - it's truly awful. You need to get Bow Ronin in the field asap.

Whoever becomes dominant to the east you should consider trade agreements, marriage, etc to forge an alliance which will keep them busy fighting clans to the east of them, and out of your hair. Otherwise prepare for some epic siege defense at Kaga.

[Awake]

Doesn't seem to matter what I do, or which way I try to expand, on VH I end up getting ganged up on by like 5 clans at once.

Even without playing aggressively early on in my first attempt, the Hattori allied with the Oda within like 3 turns, and declared war on me a few turns after they took Omi. When I moved my stack into Omi to try to take the province after beating a Hattori stack further north, the Sakai immediately declared war on me the next turn.

I pulled back to go defense mode, but low and behold, a few turns later, the Uesegi, who had allied with the Takeda, declared war on me and sent a stack to Kaga. Having to face the Hattori with Oda allies to the south, Sakai with their two allies to the West, and the Uesegi with Takeda allies to the East, I just said screw it and restarted anew.

On my second attempt I blitzed Omi from the Asai before the Hattori got there, and actually to my suprise, got the Hattori to Ally with me. After a few turns of build up and whatnot, I took on the Sakai to spread along the coast. Low and behold again, as soon as I took out the Sakai, the Oda, who had wiped out the Saito and tokugawa in like 3 turns, decided to declare war on me. After I had beaten back an Oda stack and gone back up north to defend against the two clans I was still at war with to the west, the Hattori betrayed me. I said screw this again and quit.

Does the Ikko campaign play out like this for everyone else too? For the life of me I can't seem to keep myself from getting teamed up on, no matter how nice I am to everyone around me.

[kronpas]

At least AI did the same for me in every single ikko Ikki campaign I played. The only way to get out of it was to pillage every single province surrounding starting area, level all buildings down then leave them for rebels, then back to turtling. At least this way you wont have to worry about immediate enemies, only occasional naval invasion. The bigger clans like Takeda usually are too busy expanding themselves until they hit your border (at war with you or not), so you will have sufficient time to prepare for it. Even better if you manage to make friend/trade with them early on.

Btw, dont bother trying to ignite rebel with monks. Its costly as hell and you are not likely to hold these newly gained provinces early in the game anyway.

[Chedric]

I haven't played a full Ikko campaign on VH yet(only Normal), so take this for what it's worth... I had good success with monks starting rebellions. If nothing else, it is a nice way to distract enemies away from your main provinces and soften them up battling over land they used to possess. And the koku you spent gives you troops- sometimes behind opposing armies. If you can hold the province- great. If you can't, consider taking the army out of that keep and attacking another province that is close and weak. I also try to get temples up asap for the extra unit and discontent it sows.

[Awake]

Yeah, I'm a fan of using monks as well. I typically build up a jodo shinshu temple in every province, for the conversion rate to nearby provinces, plus the additional monks. It's common for me to run around with 6-7 or more monks in groups to convert territories and sow unrest without even having to declare war on anyone.

On normal on my first go at Ikko a while back, I threw out cash for rebellions quite often. But on VH, you can't afford to blow that kind of money early on, they are just way too expensive until later on when you have a sufficient cash flow and a large standing army already.

The main problem on VH is that from turn 1, everyone already doesn't like you from the negative diplomatic relations hit you take from religious differences. Even when trading with every neighbor around me, it seems that clans tend to make alliances all around you and then gang up on you. They don't give you enough time to stabilize a good relationship and alliances with other clans before hits the fan.

5 years into the campaign on VH I feel like every time I look at the diplomacy screen, all I see is red. No allies, and no trade partners since you are at war with everyone bordering you.

[Protector]

Yeah, I'm a fan of using monks as well. I typically build up a jodo shinshu temple in every province, for the conversion rate to nearby provinces, plus the additional monks. It's common for me to run around with 6-7 or more monks in groups to convert territories and sow unrest without even having to declare war on anyone.

On normal on my first go at Ikko a while back, I threw out cash for rebellions quite often. But on VH, you can't afford to blow that kind of money early on, they are just way too expensive until later on when you have a sufficient cash flow and a large standing army already.

The main problem on VH is that from turn 1, everyone already doesn't like you from the negative diplomatic relations hit you take from religious differences. Even when trading with every neighbor around me, it seems that clans tend to make alliances all around you and then gang up on you. They don't give you enough time to stabilize a good relationship and alliances with other clans before hits the fan.

5 years into the campaign on VH I feel like every time I look at the diplomacy screen, all I see is red. No allies, and no trade partners since you are at war with everyone bordering you.

Yes, Ikko Ikki is tough.

The religious diversity to your neighbors is one of the main reason why the Ikko Ikki campaign is so challenging.

So lots of them will declare war on you sooner or later and you are surrounded by enemies even if you're not aggressive.

[valky]

Yes, Ikko Ikki is tough.

The religious diversity to your neighbors is one of the main reason why the Ikko Ikki campaign is so challenging.

So lots of them will declare war on you sooner or later and you are surrounded by enemies even if you're not aggressive.

Oh yes! Recently started Ikko Ikko on legendary and it does gave me quite a headache - good for me I back-uped several auto savegames every now and then and went several times back to some save, where I advanced only 10-15 turns. One tiny mistake and you'll be pretty much *f-word*.

Biggest problem was/is always Hattori, you can ally/trade/whatever with them, but he is programmed to finish you off. It's not funny anymore to see your own agents getting killed and your armies stalled (not to mention the sabotaged buildings). Getting 1 or 2 well-trained Ninjas early on will help you to survive .. a lot!

And I found it necessary to reload an 'easy' automated battle, where your Daimyo gets your first retrainer - whatever it takes, I tried to get the +15 diplomatic stuff (which finally works since patch 9.0!) and my research went into the +10 bonus as well. With that boost several clans negate that penalty of having a different religion.

But once you can finally train 'better' armored monks it starts to become more or less easy Though some might prefer to give them all the melee advancements but an additional +5 armor (encampment + armorsmith) makes them very (very..!) resilient against enemy archers. They do hit hard and don't need more melee-power and thanks to their warcry.

(and while I used the rebellion feature quite a lot in my hard-campaign, I barely uses it now. I ended up several times getting bankrupt cause you don't know what army will spawn. At least at the beginning; later on I'll guess I might abuse it again )

Oh, and I used ambush early on very often; it give you a big advantage and you can intercept several armies which'd otherwise block your income/castle - and thats the last thing you want!

[Darth Pooh]

The Ikko Ikki are my favourite faction (I like underdogs), so I was looking forward to playing them after the new patch, especially because it unlocked Loan Sword Ashigaru, but somehow hard difficulty is really hard with them now Before the patch I was able to kick ass on hard, now I can barely survive and my monks keep dying from enemy ninjas, not to mention that everybody attack me just after few turns. It´s a real challenge.

[valky]

There seem to be new +diplomatic retainer since the patch, got 1 in my Tairo campaign with +40 (!) - I guess trying to get it in the Ikko Ikki campaign 'd be kinda insane You should be friendly with most of the factions/clans, even if some declare war nonetheless, it should give you a boost to negotiate with others.

[never seen that retainer again, tried to reload several times after he died and his son only got the +30 diplo retainer]

IMO getting it for the daimyo is really worth it, independent which faction one plays.

[Allch Chcar]

I just finished a normal campaign with the Ikko Ikki for my first campaign. I pushed North(east on the map) out of Kaga, never bothering to upgrade the armory. I left Omi until I was almost done with the campaign. I ended up constantly fighting off stacks at Echizen and Kaga and after RM the only way to make any money was to cap provinces and turn them into Vassals, I did this before and after RM and those vassals eventually turned on me because the RM still affects them. I built a decent navy but never teched, it came in handy dealing with Honma, Hatano, and Asai later and I did use the trade nodes. My favored stacks tended to be a few yari ashigaru, a ronin unit or two, two units of bow monks, a few units of katana ashigaru since the Ai tends to use yari, two units of light calvary, and a naginata monk or two.

All in all it wasn't easy. I lost Echizen and Kaga on several occasions and I was almost always using huge ashigaru armies without generals due to lack of funds. I had one time where an army marched on Echizen, vastly inferior Samurai to the mostly Ashigaru garrison too , and they assassinated the general . I still slaughtered them but I was livid. I didn't get a single province flip, incite revolt was always too expensive and keeping provinces happy and monks alive was always a problem but only for me . The Hattori were eliminated before I moved into Omi so they didn't bother me .

I think I'll try an easier clan until I can get a handle on the gameplay. I haven't played much of the Total war games since Medieval I and a couple days worth of Medieval II. But I started with Shogun so I'm glad to be playing the new one. I am very disappointed in MY performance , Diplomacy didn't appear "bugged" but it was very easy to get on everyone's bad side and I couldn't get more than a few to break diplomacy since I was always low on funds. 500 koku isn't a cheap amount when that's half a season's profit! I had to pay a couple clans for a trade agreement and the amount was usually 2-3 times the seasonal trade amount. I was yelling at the scree, "why am I paying YOU to trade with ME fool!?"

I spent a bunch of time teching to gunpowder mastery and by then I was tired of swapping provinces back and forth and recapturing vassals, so I took Kyoto. Then I waited until I became Shogun and took Settsu and two other provinces with the free yari cows for the victory. wee

Great stuff in here. This will help when I retry Ikko Ikki.

[crzyrndm]

@^^

You seem to have been having some serious economic problems. That's normally a sign that you did the bushido techs (military) before Chi. Economy is tight in this game, and getting atleast the first farming tech (enables terrace farming) quickly really helps.

[valky]

@^^

You seem to have been having some serious economic problems. That's normally a sign that you did the bushido techs (military) before Chi. Economy is tight in this game, and getting atleast the first farming tech (enables terrace farming) quickly really helps.

aye getting only up to additional bow ammo, Fire arrows and encampment - and maybe (!) later +1 exp for spear units (but very very late). The other stuff is pretty much useless, as your fleets are usually only light bow ships using fire-arrows of doom. Chi stuff gives you a nasty boost to your economy and other "useless" stuff, like monk-unit exp and so on.

And I wouldn't necessary go for northern/eastern provinces at the beginning or vh/legendary, Kaga is one hell of a defensive province - and as you usually want to build your main units there, you'll have a castle as well. That 'baby' can hold out on its own without additional units against a full stack with ease; put some monk archers inside = insanity!

[Robin de Bodemloze]

After multiple failed attempts at VH I stepped down one. Currently have Kaga, Echizen, Wakasa, Omi, Iga and Mino with the Hattori my vassal at Yamato. Two 3/4-stacks of vetted ashigaru with the odd yari ronin/warrior monk, 4 3/4-star ninjas and 4 monks. Married to Jinbo who have Hida and Etchu, and at war with Takaoka who have Hoki to Tango and Imagawa who have Owari to Suruga. Have 3k per turn income so starting to feel like I'm on my way now. Fingers crossed.

H seems a LOT slower than VH for the II. This is generally the case but the difference seems to be much more significant in my current campaign. In my VH games Takaoka / Hatano / Sakai / Hattori (or Asai) would always ally with each other and all declare on me in successive turns. I would always be attacked by multiple full stacks by turn 20..

[valky]

After multiple failed attempts at VH I stepped down one.

Don't ask about legendary Did a emergency backup of a save after 10 or 12 turns, which I further could re-use; it even took several tries to get a decent start anyway ^^
Every tiny mistake, or misplaced unit ended most likely in a full-scale war, sometimes just having in Kaga 2 or 3 units + General in town prevented attacks from northern stuff. And stupid Hattori always wanted peace, after beating the *** out of him. Should've known better, while his Ninjas 'invaded' me already 2-3 turns later and every turn repair-costs of at least 400+ isn't doable for a long time or several lost agents or sabotaged armies... while he was already gathering at least 2 stacks >> reload

Tried later some odd thing, as Oda advanced very quickly (just changed my trade-partners^^) I allied with him! Best thing I've done in the campaign, he sticked to me even after the RD...I didn't cared about the province I needed for victory he already had.

Army-composition is also strange, while the Ronin troops have tremendous upkeep, they can easily face a army twice the size at the beginning, as you'll usually encounter Ashigaru troops. But hurried to get at least some monks too - even without upgrades.
Though after I got the Hattori territories, several trade-nodes (+guarded) and 3 well-trained Ninja, things settled down and it was more or less the good old upgrade/conquer business.
(sometimes even demoralizing one army prevents their movement or attack! sounds strange...but did this a lot)

[the biggest impact was getting the +30 diplo retainer at the beginning! Cause you can reload in the battle overview screen, without having a newly created auto-save]

[baolb]

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[sevushka]

Finally, after 20+ starts, won a legendary campaign with Ikko-Ikki. It was the most difficult campaign by far.

Those loaners made a huge difference after the update. With an upkeep of 50 something koku and high attack rating, it makes them by far the best ashigaru unit in the game. En masse, they make early AI armies run for cover and, with some experience, they hold the line well even against katana samurai. My earlier armies had this composition: 10 loaners, 6 bow ronin, 2/3 yari ronin/ashigaru, and 1/2 generals. With 5+ levels of experience by late game, they still were kicking ass even against all-samurai armies.

In early game, take Omi ASAP (declare on Asai 1st turn). That province is a must. You need an upgraded ninja to protect your monks, and rich soil gives you a good income. Ally with whatever major clans you can, but remember, they will backstab you if they grow too powerful. Also, ensure that faraway clans like Shoni that grow too powerful are always at war with someone, otherwise you might get an invasion fleet landing in Echizen. For some reason, I noticed that clans that are at peace tend to attack the player.

By my midgame, Honma (LOL) came out of his little island and took all Northeastern Japan (15+ provinces). He was really annoying cause he had a powerful fleet and kept landing invasion forces near Echizen. That forced me to keep one of my armies at home. After Takeda died, I had some epic battles with Honma for former Hojo lands, but by that time I had a 5 star Daimyo's son leading an all monk fully upgraded accuracy / armored army. That one army took out 3 stacks in a row at one point after my fully upgraded ninja sabotaged the reinforcements. On the western flank, Ouchi became my good friend and took 15+ western provinces. He stuck with me well after RD and kept my enemy Shoni busy. After he finally declared on me, I had 30 provinces and the game was pretty much over.

[sanguin]

Finally, after 20+ starts, won a legendary campaign with Ikko-Ikki. It was the most difficult campaign by far.

Those loaners made a huge difference after the update. With an upkeep of 50 something koku and high attack rating, it makes them by far the best ashigaru unit in the game. En masse, they make early AI armies run for cover and, with some experience, they hold the line well even against katana samurai. My earlier armies had this composition: 10 loaners, 6 bow ronin, 2/3 yari ronin/ashigaru, and 1/2 generals. With 5+ levels of experience by late game, they still were kicking ass even against all-samurai armies.

What? Ikko ashigaru got buffed? lol. I haven't played S2 recently so i'm not really up to date


my advice: turtle/expand cautiously early game, try to avoid war with multiple factions at the same time -will be almost mission impossible lol. focus teching to warrior monks. army compsotion after you have monks: 1 general, 2-4 monk naganita cav, 2-3 bow monk, rest: warrior monk. and roflstomp everyone.
only real danger would be mass archer (especially chosokabe ) but they got nerfed so you can deal with with- probably lol

[Charsi]

They allowed Ikko Ikki to build Loan Sword Ashigaru in the campaign at long last! That was the major change in the last patch. I literally haven't played vanilla since the patch, but it sounds like it would be a blast. LS spam hoooooooooooooooooooo