Campaign Features Overview and 'Information and Guides' Forum Index

[Akaie]

The Sekigahara Campaign - The Information and Guides Index





Prelude

I must thank Shabby_Ronin for bringing this issue to light. The Sekigahara Campaign has very little documentation, which may lead to confusion or even a lack of interest in the project. As such, this overview will attempt to cover the features of the campaign in as little words as possible. Throughout what I have already written, I have linked Wikipedia and Samurai Archives entries to help you understand the idea of the new campaign.

This index is a heavy work in progress, as I would like to be very comprehensive.

The Context!

“The Sekigahara Campaign” is an entirely new campaign for Shogun 2. In comparison to the vanilla campaign, 'The Sekigahara Campaign' takes us beyond the Warring States period, which the vanilla Shogun 2 campaign depicts, and into the Azuchi-Momoyama and, to a lesser extent, Edo periods. It introduces new clans that appear during the 1590's Japan and represents the attitudes of prominent clans and personalities that brought about the Battle of Sekigahara, a decisive battle that helped the Tokugawa overwrite the Toyotomi. How these two key points are reflected in the game will be explained below.

The new campaign starts at 1591. This allows the campaign to conclude at around the time of The Battle of Sekigahara, as well as capitalizing on where clans were in the early 1590's.

Starting up the Game!

After you have installed the .pack file – more documentation on how to do that here – you can start up the game just as you do with the original game. At the main menu, you’ll notice the new background – the plains of Sekigahara. Fitting, isn’t it ? Beyond the cosmetic changes, there are three key options to note.

Hovering your mouse over the “Single Player” circle reveals single player-related options. The “New Campaign” option will reveal “The Sekigahara Campaign”, above “Rise of the Samurai” and "Fall of the Samurai". Selecting "The Sekigahara Campaign" takes you to the clan selection menu where you can choose whatever faction you want to play as.

The “Custom Battles” option showcases all the units available in The Sekigahara Campaign, and allows you to play custom battles with any faction in the campaign.

I have not explored just how the multiplayer campaign works with this modification, but there shouldn't be any major issue. In case it is not implied, you should not enter multiplayer avatar if you value your avatar's progress; the game's anti-cheat mechanism will reset your avatar.

The remaining options are as they are in the vanilla game.

[Akaie]

Choosing your Clan!

Faction Pack #1

There are eleven factions in the first faction pack: the Toyotomi, Ukita, Tokugawa, Ishida, Ii, Date, Shinano-no-Sanada, Honda, Naoe, Higo-no-Kato and the Kuroda.

Each of the major clans has unique characteristics, as detailed in the spoiler box below. Clan names and clan leaders are linked to Wikipedia and Samurai Archives pages to help you acquire a quick understanding of these historical clans and personalities.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-The Toyotomi are led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. They control Settsu, Awaji and Awa provinces. Their Yari Ashigaru are slightly superior to their standard counterparts. The Kasuya in Harima province are the Toyotomi’s vassal. They have an excellent standing with the Go-Bugyo, Ishida and the Hatakeyama. They are at war with the Ikoma and Yamaouchi.

-The Ukita are led by Ukita Hideie. They control Bizen and Mimasaka. Their Bow Ashigaru and Katana Ashigaru are larger than their standard counterparts. Bizen and Mimasaka have unique fort chains, providing an extra recruitment slot per turn. The Akashi in Bitchu province are the Ukita’s vassal. They have an excellent standing with the Sugihara. They are at war with the Kikkawa.

-The Tokugawa are led by Tokugawa Ieyasu. They control Sagami and Izu. Their Yari Ashigaru are slightly superior to their standard counterparts and can produce better artillery pieces. They have an excellent standing with the Yamaouchi, Ii and Honda. They are at war with the Shinano-no-Sanada.

-The Ishida are led by Ishida Mitsunari. They control Omi. They produce superior swordsmen. They have an excellent standing with the Toyotomi and Go-Bugyo. They are allied with the Otani. They are on a terrible standing with the Iga-Ikki.

-The Ii are led by Ii Naomasa. They control Musashi. They can recruit the fabled akazonae – superior cavalry. They have an excellent standing with the Tokugawa and Honda. They are at war with the Hatakeyama, and have an army deployed in Noto.

-The Date are led by Date Masamune. They control Iwate. They can recruit superior teppo – matchlock – units. They are allied with the Mogami. They are at war with the Hatakeyama, and have an army deployed near the Iwate-Miyagi border.

-The Shinano-no-Sanada are led by Sanada Masayuki. They control Shinano. They can recruit akazonae – superior cavalry – but not as well as the Ii. They can, however, recruit the all-around powerful Sanada Juyushi – the Sanada Ten Braves – who are a superior ninja unit. They are at war with the Kanamori of Hida province, and have a detachment inside Hida. They are on bad standing with the Kyogoku, Asano, Kozuke-no-Sanada and Echigo-no-Murakami.

-The Honda are led by Honda Tadakatsu. They control Shimosa and Kazusa. They can recruit superior spear units. They are on good standing with the Ii, Tokugawa and Kozuka-no-Sanada. They are on a bad standing with the Naoe of Shimotsuke and Hitachi.

-The Naoe are led by Naoe Kanetsugu. They control Shimotsuke and Hitachi. They are on an excellent standing with the Uesugi. They are on a bad standing with the Honda of Shimosa and Kazusa.

-The Higo-no-Kato are led by Kato Kiyomasa. They control Higo. They can recruit superior spear units. They are allied with the Kuroda. They are on bad standing with the Kobayakawa and Shimazu.

-The Kuroda are led by Kuroda Nagamasa. They control Bungo and Buzen. They can recruit superior Yumi-Naginata Ashigaru (V0.85 unit). They are allied with the Higo-no-Kato. They are on a bad standing with the Hongo.

Faction Pack #2

There are eleven factions in the second faction pack: Kawachi-no-Maeda, Shimazu, Shima, Kobayakawa, Fukushima, Kozuke-no-Sanada, Hosokawa, Ikeda, Uesugi, Iga-Ikki and the Otani.

For more information regarding the starting scenario of these major clans, have a look at the Campaign Introduction Mini-Guides thread.

The default campaign length is dubbed "The Sekigahara Campaign", which gives you until 1600 to complete your objectives. There are two more campaign lengths: "The Osaka Campaign", which gives you until 1615 to complete additional objectives and "The Edo Campaign", which gives you until 1700 to complete a few extra objectives.

'The Sekigahara Campaign' length is good for those who do not have much time for gaming. 'The Osaka Campaign' length provides a campaign length similar to the vanilla game's short campaign. 'The Edo Campaign' is perfect for hermits that like to build up their territories and expand slowly.

The Starting Positions and Alignments of the clans of 'The Sekigahara Campaign'

The following map makes note of all factions in the campaign and their political alignment - more on that feature here (WIP).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Newer map. - Edited/added by Rommel. Map made by Hayabusa Sushi.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Akaie]

The Key Features

Over time, there will be dedicated threads to explain these points in more depth. For now, here is an overview of certain features.

Units

In this thread, you can find a list of all units. In the second post of the same thread, you can find where units are recruited.

As the list linked above suggests, the unit roster for the vanilla campaign are the basis for the unit roster for 'The Sekigahara Campaign'. We have, however, made two major additions. The units of the Sengoku Jidai Unit Pack - found here on Steam - can all be recruited in a single campaign, provided you've bought it through Steam. On top of all the vanilla units, there is a set of custom units, covering all types of units. There are over 100 units in total.

Battles in 'The Sekigahara Campaign' are slightly different from the vanilla game. In the vanilla game, there was a clear paper-scissors-rock setup, which meant that cavalry could destroy swordsmen, swordsmen could destroy spearmen, and spearmen could destroy cavalry. In 'The Sekigahara Campaign', this is numbed quite a bit.

Spearmen should be treated as the bedrock of your armies. As you progress, there will be superior spear units available that outdo the Yari Ashigaru. Nevertheless, the Yari Ashigaru are frequently an economically viable military unit.

Swordsmen should be used as flanking units to help collapse the enemy line. Try to sandwich units with the swordsmen for maximum effect.

Cavalry can be effective against both spearmen and swordsmen, but using them like a spear unit will not bode well. They are most effective against units weak in melee, like bowmen and gunmen, or anywhere where a unit is already engaged in combat and/or is low in morale.


As of the v0.85d trial, another unique feature has been introduced to the campaign. It places an initial unit cap on all units that should be unique (samurai, ronin, warrior monks, ninja, wako, bandits and so forth) and allows each building to increase those caps. To exemplify this change, let's say you want to recruit a Katana Samurai. From the beginning of the campaign, you will only be able to recruit one Katana Samurai. If you build one sword building, that unit cap will increase by one. So, if you have three sword chains, you will be able to own a total of four Katana Samurai. It doesn't seem like much, but remember there are more than just Katana Samurai in the sword chain!

Political Alignment

Political alignment replaces religion. It works in the same way religion does, with clans and provinces starting with a declared alignment. Every clan and province will have one of two alignments at the beginning: Toyotomi or Tokugawa. This is why I mentioned political attitudes under the "The Context!" heading above.

Political alignment is not tied to the Toyotomi and Tokugawa factions in the campaign, so destroying either one does not remove the respective alignment.

Instead of monks and missionaries, you can recruit 'dairinin'. These dairinin are your political agents, and they work in exactly the same way as monks and missionaries do in the vanilla campaign.

[Akaie]

Buildings

In this thread, you can find a list of all buildings and their effects.

Many of the building chains found in 'The Sekigahara Campaign' are heavily derived from vanilla buildings. Such a comparison gives us one important distinction: the building chains in the new campaign are bigger! The farm chain, for example, offers you the choice between koku yield, food yield and horses. These three sub-chains are spread across 17 buildings, in comparison to the vanilla game's four! Building choices are abundant in the campaign, and make each campaign unique.

In addition to choosing what sub-chain you would like to follow in a particular building chain, taking over a developed province also brings choices. Do you leave the province as it as and save time and money, or do you destroy everything and optimize the province to your liking?

Building Your Empire: Buildings and Technology

A unique feature of 'The Sekigahara Campaign' is one of two simple effects applied to every building in the campaign. If a building is classed as a civil building (i.e. farms, markets, non-military related buildings, etc) it will have a research bonus to the Chi technology tree. If a building is classed as a military building (i.e. yari, sword, cavalry, fortresses, encampments, etc) it will have a research bonus to the Bushido technology tree. Progressing through the game means conquering provinces, each providing up to five building slots each. These effects stack, so having a total of five military buildings will bring a sizable research bonus.

What does a research bonus do, exactly? It determines how many turns it will take you to research a technology. As your empire expands, you hasten research and unlock buildings.

In short, the idea forces you to pay more attention to each of your buildings and strike a balance between Chi and Bushido for the betterment of your empire.

Maintaining Your Empire: Public Order

The Sekigahara Campaign does not overhaul the public order system, though it does add new factors, such as political alignment and new and redesigned building chains. In this thread, you can find documentation on public order factors and how to effectively overcome it.