Request for help with my Oda Campaign

[RakeinWaiting]

Hello all!

Well like everyone else, i played and was disappointed by Rome 2, so ive dived back into Shogun until a good mod comes out.

Im currently playing as the Oda, 40 turns in playing on Hard. Ive taken much of central Honshu, but my economy is being taxed by a number of large armies i have arrayed against the huge Takeda and Hojo clans. Relations with them were never good, but war has just been annonced and im anxious not to see my good campaign ruined by cheating AI.

What should i expect in the turns ahead? Any tips to take down these factions?

Also, if anyone has any strategies they used to claim victory in their campaign I would be happy to hear.

Peace!

Rake.

[Merchant of Venice]

Luckily for you, Oda armies, with superior and cheaper ashigaru are definitely at an advantage against the cav heavy Takeda armies. The Hojo AI doesn't really field any type of army just a normal ashigaru with some samurai type army.

If you have the Sengoku Jidai DLC unit pack then life will be forever easy as the Oda. Just spam long yard ashigaru and combine with Katana cav(when available) to form the Japanese version of Alexander's hammer and anvil.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

You should use concentration of numbers. Send two armies to face their one army and you should win easily and after you have hunted down and destroyed their armies in this manner you an just run around and grab as many provinces as you want.

[Homusubi]

In the short term, do what Lord Nobunaga said. As for the campaign itself, Owari is a good defensive location if all of your attacks are from the east. I'm assuming you have been playing in the traditional Oda manner, expanding north and west, and that Takeda and Hojo control al of Kanto and the central mountains between them. If you have Suruga, then move all your armies down there and take out the Hojo strongholds in Kanto, then move on to Kai. Otherwise, build up your fortifications in Owari.

The important thing with any campaign is to make castles quickly. Oda is in a great location for that. Upgrade your castle in Owari until it's actually a "castle". If you don't have stone, then take South Shinano and make sure to hold on to it for 6 turns. Alternatively, just make a trade deal with whoever owns Sanuki (or Ugo, if you have expanded to the north coast).

It gets even better for Oda as you can then just spam ashigaru out of the castle in Owari (four recruitment slots, so you can make a whole army of Oda ashigaru in just five turns!). Then overrun the eastern territories with them.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Yeah, I would build full castles in Owari, Omi and Mino. If you did kill the Imagawa and Tokugawa then just do what Homusubi said. Since those clans are gone your only choice is to go on the attack and wipe out the Hojo and Takeda. If you haven't already taken the home provinces (the provinces that surround Kyoto; like Omi, Yamato, Kii etc) then you should do so in one massive campaign and with several armies. Capturing those provinces will give you a defensive network and I suggest you build castles in those areas as well, but you seriously should get them all in one go so have like 3 armies or more in that area when the time comes.

[Homusubi]

@Lord Nobunaga: Is it that wise to build castles right next to each other? I tend to put them far away from each other, e.g. if my main castle is Settsu, I wouldn't put my second one in Harima, it would be Aki or somewhere far west. Otherwise you're squandering food resources and have to go way down the civil tech tree. For this scenario, I'd build one in Owari and then occupy Sagami/Kai and use one of those as my second castle.

Hojo are good at leaving castles for you to use once you wipe them out. Signed, Takeda Shingen.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

It depends, in tight spaces the enemy needs to take that castle and then go after the one next to it and it tends to wear them out. In provinces which are really close to each other it tends to work. Especially around Kyoto where you could use that area as your power base. Sort of like in WW1 when they would retreat into trenches that were already prepared behind them. But instead of Owari then he can build one in Suruga or Mikawa and it would work just as well I suppose.

[IrishBlood]

Spam peasent armies, and make sure you select the general abilities that favour such armies, there is one thrait that gives a massive morale bonus to asigaru troops!

Know when fight defensively as well. If an AI army of mixed samurai asigaru troops see's your virtually all asigaru army they will not hesitate to attack it. As a result, wait for them at river crossings and you should win pretty easily. Losses might be heavy, but ashigaru units replenish the fastest and 2 or 3 turns later your army should be back to full strength.

This tactic also applys when you are invading enemy lands. Invade their territory and hold a river crossing before they can.They will attack you to try and drive you out and you get to fight a nice defensive battle!

Also do not bother building any ships ever. I only built ships after I had ten over the entire Japanese mainland and needed to invade Kyshu to deal with the Satsuma. Ships are a massive drain on your economy and you really don't need them as Oda.

Speaking of navies, once realm divide occurs, there will be a few provinces that the likes of satsuma and chokesabie will attack via the sea. One in particular, just south of Owari provence will be attacked a helll of a lot, so upgrade the castle as high as possible and leave at least a half stack of troops to guard it.

Also focus on an agricultural economy because trade income will dwindle to nothing once the realm divide happens.

[Homusubi]

What he says is true regarding naval landing chokepoints. I find that when the enemy invades Shikoku, for example, they alway land in Sanuki. Southern Higo is also a killer. Ugo and Fukushima are attacked far more often than any of the other northern provinces. Suo is another likely target. As far as the Tokaido provinces go, Suruga seems the most common landing point. Strange - it makes far more sense to land on provinces like Awaji or Kazusa, but the AI never do.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Both of them are correct, you would not believe how many Chosokabe and Shimazu invasions of Ise and Mikawa I had to endure. Also the Honma (on Sado Island) will constantly invade Echigo and Kaga.

[klc123]

Can you give us some more information?
For example, how many provinces do you have?

The simple reality is that there isn't a lot of time to turtle in shogun when playing hard or above, because the AI gets so much monetary cheats, you have to keep expanding just to ensure that your bank keeps growing to continue to match their armies.

Luckily with Oda, they are the cheapest to field armies, as your will use predominantly ashigaru troops for the entirety of the campaign. The best advice I can give, is to just make sure that you use spear wall on the main battle line, and then have more troops running around the flanks without spear wall activated to get extra flanking speed and crash into behind them. Even if you only bother to get light cavalry, using them properly will be devastating.

Besides that, try and get trade nodes, they are quite overpowering for your economy.