The Tokugawa Clan

[Didz]

I am about to start a new campaign playing as Tokugawa and was intrigued to discover that in Shogun 2 this clan begins it's campaign as a vassal of the Imagawa Clan to the south, and thus unable to declare war on any clan which it's master are not already at war with. I was curious as to how and why the Tokugawa clan had become vassals of the Imagawa. According to the briefing this came about as a result of the murder of the clans Diamyo Matsudaira Kiyoyasu by Abe Sadayoshi one of his retainers .

Matsudaira Kiyoyasu

This led to a civil war within the clan though I'm still not clear how this eventually led to the Tokugawa Clan becoming vassals of the Imagawa, but we are told in the briefing that it did. The result of this left the Tokugawa clan facing constant threats and raids from the Oda clan to the north and being forced to shed it's blood to help protect the Imagawa from the ambitions of Lord Oda.

What I did discover was this wonderful Japanese film about the trials and tribulations of the Tokugawa Clan which sets the scene quite nicely for the opening of the campaign.

[Destin Faroda]

Tokugawa Ieyasu can also be seen in the excellent movie Kagemusha:
http://tulipclaymore.files.wordpress...ill4.png?w=450
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a better picture, so you can only admire his back. The man in the background is Oda Nobunaga (drinking Western wine) and the boy to the left is his attendant.

[Didz]

Tokugawa Ieyasu is just a child at the moment in my campaign, although he is the son and heir of our 19 year old Diamyo. I'll have to try and find a copy of Kagemusha to watch.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Yeah, he served Oda Nobunaga directly in the Battle of Anegawa 1570, Battle of Nagashino 1575 and the final campaign against the Takeda 1582.
Nobunaga's daughter was married to Ieyasu's first son and after seemingly discovering a conspiracy against the Oda, Ieyasu ordered the deaths of his son and wife. Many see this as motive for his participation in the Honnoji incident in 1582 when he was on tour of Kyoto and of course met Akechi Mitsuhide there. The problem with that is Ieyasu had to escape from Akechi persecution and built up an army to fight the Akechi Shogunate. So it seems more likely that he was not interested in killing Oda Nobunaga at all. In fact young Ieyasu was a hostage to Nobunaga's father, Oda Nobuhide.

The one time Oda Nobunaga ever even faced Tokugawa Ieyasu was when Ieyasu was still an Imagawa vassal. Suffice to say despite the Tokugawa (or the Matsudaira as they were called then) proving themselves as strong combatants the campaign was very much a stalemate and the Tokugawa-Imagawa made no headway against the Oda.

[Didz]

Finished my Tokugawa campaign last night and the young Ieyasu had just come of age and taken command of his first army.

I was a bit flummoxed at the start as I had never played a clan which was vassaled before and having dealt with the immediate Oda threat I found I couldn't declare war on anyone, or make any alliances without the permission of Lord Imagawa. The simple solution would have been to betray the Imagawa clan and rebel against their rule, but that would have created a legacy of dishonor which I didn't want to haunt my clan for the rest of the game.

Instead I played the loyal vassal and declared war on the Hojo clan who were attacking Imagawa's eastern borders. At the time the Imagawa were at war with both the Hojo and Takeda, and did not seem to be able to pursue either clan with any real aggression. It had already lost Saruga to the Hojo and instead of attacking it's army was huddling like frightened rabbits in Totomi castle.

The Tokugawa army marched proudly through Totomi province and into Saruga liberating it from Hojo oppression and adding it to the growing Tokugawa lands. Shamed by this bold and heroic action by their vassals, and perhaps concerned at our growing strength, the Imagawa Army finally stirred itself into life and advanced into Saruga bound for Izu which now that the Hojo Army had been destroyed was ripe for the plucking.

However, it was a dumb move. No sooner had the Imagawa left Totomi than the Takeda clan struck from the north and captured it. With that being their last province the Imagawa clan were eliminated and the Tokugawa Clan were liberated from their oppression.

Tokugawa invaded Izu eliminating the Hojo clan next turn, but did not declare war on Takeda immediately as it needed to consolidate it's new provinces. Sarunga had good iron deposits and was a centre for armor production, so it was worth waiting until the army had been restored and improved.

Later Takeda would find itself ar war with the Uesugi, and Hatakeyama Clans, and the Tokugawa clan allied itself with both these clans against the Takeda in order to acquire the additional victory provinces it needed. However, it was never to manage to seize Totomi province as the Uesugi Clan captured it first, and the coalition formed early in the game between the Uesugi, Hatakeyama and Tokugawa was to be sustained for the rest of the game and see Lord Tokugawa safely seating in his rightful place as Shogun of Japan.

The Uesugi clearly were not completely happy with this outcome, and at one point they made a bold attempt to capture Kyoto before the Tokugawa could reach it, even cancelling military access across their lands to block the Tokugawa armies route across Omi so that their army could attack alone. However, this devious action proved their undoing as unknown to them a large Hattori Army was hidden in Kyoto which pounced and destroyed their army and then captured Omi. This allowed the Tokugawa waiting in Owari to advance and capture both Omi and Kyoto before they could recover their strength and secure the Shogunate.

The war then developed into a battle between the Tokugawa, Uesugi and Hatakeyama coalition and the Hattori Clan and their allies. The coalition was joined by the Ito clan in this war adding a fourth member to the coalition although this was clearly a marriage of convenience on their part as they were a Christian clan and had their sights set on the Shogunate and spreading the true faith across the entire island.

What with the not so hidden agenda of the Ito Clan , and the sulking of the Uesugi clan over their failure to grab the Kyoto throne, the Tokugawa had to use all their diplomatic skills, and distribute a lot of rice, to hold the coalition together. However, it did stick together for the rest of the game though at times relations were a little strained.

In fact, this is the one and only time I've seen the game report that another clan was becoming too powerful and may be a threat to the Shogun. At the time the Ito Clan had captured all of the Western Island and were steadily advancing eastwards across the main island rolling up the Hattori provinces as far as the former Mori province of Aki. Suddenly I got a message pop up warning me that the Ito Clan were becoming much too powerful and could be a threat to the Shogunate.

However, I simply bolstered my gift appreciation to make sure their relationship with me didn't go negative and they remained loyal until the end of the game.

Bingo was the last province captured and gave the Tokugawa victory.