Date Campaign Guide

[Belisarius]

Reserved - Post your Strategies Here.

[nameless]

Well played it on Hard and I got demolished by the Takeda. Turtled wayyy too long.

Replayed on Normal and the AI is a bit more reasonable.

First off, your up in the north east sector and there's a nice trade node at the top which you should take immediately.

You also get Katana units so getting those would give you a big advantage over the other clans at the moment.

Research Way of the Sword first and build up some sword units and immediately go on the attack and conquer the province to the west.

If you go quickly, you can also go south and conquer the southern province before the other clans take it and this leaves you with 3 provinces in hand. Generally speaking, I was able to make an alliance with both the Usegui and Hayatok (My memory is poor in regards to these clans) and with the three we are beating the Takeda (which was gobbling everyone up before in Hard) back.

I did not want to break my alliances so I took a boat and conquered an Island off the western coast which actually holds a gold mine. Afterwards, I used that as a springboard to attack the Takeda provinces and establish a foothold in central japan so I can continue attacking.

All of this up to turn 40ish.

[Gaizokubanou]

There may be a bug where your main province eats one more food than your castle size, which is pretty crippling to your tech research path and economy growth.

[Creaky]

There may be a bug where your main province eats one more food than your castle size, which is pretty crippling to your tech research path and economy growth.

I had a similar thing in my Hattori campaign. Where a previously stable castle with the right farms suddenly looses a food point.

To be honest, I'm not sure if it's a bug, or an undocumented 'feature' with a random trigger (bad harverst?).

[MonkeyD]

That's what killed me on my second play through. I got to a pretty good position around turn 40, I got the Takeda to break their alliance with Hojo, captured about 5 provences, built one really good stack and was just about to go to town on Hojo when I was hit with all these food shortages. I was rushing to put down rebels which drained my treasury and was overwhelmed by a recovered hojo!

Playing as Date I noticed every time Takeda and Hojo would team up and take over central Japan. Hojo destroyed me every time.

[Sir Robin]

Are you sure its not because you're building Rice Exchanges or over building your castles? The part about Rice Exchanges consuming food caught me completely off guard the first time.

[Gaizokubanou]

Are you sure its not because you're building Rice Exchanges or over building your castles? The part about Rice Exchanges consuming food caught me completely off guard the first time.

This is probably it. I did rush build Rice Exchange on my Date game without compensating it with farm upgrade. I realized that Rice Exchange used up a food on my next game as different faction.

[nameless]

Yeah me too, was about to go on a blitzkrieg and I'm hit with -2 food supply but I do know I was building rice exchanges. However I am currently researching the next food supply upgrades within a few turns and have captured a new city and am upgrading that food supply as well.

[-iceblade^]

you know how you get more food after building a farm's upgrade?

does capturing a castle town do the same thing?

[KristianSax]

Capturing a region can increase or decrese your food supply. I captured a region with a high level castle and a low levelfarm andmy food supply went from 0 to -2. So before taking a region, you should have extra supply or you must detrmine what the region has in store for you.

[Oxus]

I'm having a lot of fun playing as Date. I like the idea of my army sweeping down from the North to the surprise of the rest of Japan. Be careful against Takeda though on harder difficulties, they seem to always be the strong opposition.

[aeoleron9]

I'm sad Uesugi and Takeda both died off so early in my Date campaign; weakened themselves fighting each other. Now the only real players in East Japan are Hojo and Satomi, who are much more boring lol.

I'm planning to revive Uesugi and Takeda both as vassals later off.

[Foos56]

I started a Date campaign on Normal and have had great success. First move should be to kill those rebels before they can burn your farms. If that happens, the people get pissed off and you have to lower taxes or risk a second uprising.

As for the arts, I suspended researching military (although I did grab the Bushido) and teched down the right side of the Arts. This enabled a bunch of farm and economic buildings. I spent 12 turns to get the tech required for Land Consolidation, but it was worth the wait. As soon as the Land Consolidation farms kicked in, I could finally raise taxes and start making 4K a turn. At that point I switched almost entirely to military Arts, having the money now to fund them.

Early on it may be tempting to crank out a bunch of Katana's, but their upkeep is 150 compared to the 50 for spears or archer peasants. I trained two of the Katana's, but mostly used peasants to capture Ugo. After Iwate becomes stable, you will have plenty of cash for the Date No-Dachi.

In the opening movie, the narrator mentions that the Date have just come out of a civil war, so I think that's why there is turmoil in the capital to begin with. Once Iwate and Ugo have a surplus of food, just keep conquering and upgrading farms and markets.

It's year 1563 and I've got 10 provinces, 2-4K in gold a turn, and 4 major armies comprised of mostly heavy infantry (No-Dachi samurai and Naginata). It's also a good idea to level up a good ninja assassin.

[KillaJules]

I failed my first Date campaign as every single one of my cities got cpatured in a single turn.

On my second attempt I have 10 provinces and I am allies with the Takeda. I really do not want to go to war with them because I have such a long border with them.

Earlire in my campaign I was unable to advance at all because I was surrounded by allies. However, these allies were weakened by losing territory allowing me to advance along the northern coast. I then confronted the Tsutsui clan. They were allies with the Takeda and many other clans meaning I couldn't attack them right away but they were the only enemy province on my border. I bribed the Takeda into breaking their alliance with the Tsutsui, they accepted and I then attacked the Tsutsui province straight away. They had a huge army and 4 family members in that city. I wiped them out completely and I can now advance south as I please. Most of my territory is immune to attack because of the Takeda are in the way. I am worried though that the Takeda might attack when I take Kyoto.

[Ruskian]

I played on hard but steamrolled into all the lands available to me. I have had on and off wars with the Uesugi and the Takeda, at the moment I'm holding both off as I have a frontier city that is between two moutains and it acts as a chokepoint. Men are dying relatively quickly as attacks are often and frequent. But at the moment I'm recruiting 4 or 5 units per turn as I am currently getting 4000 gold form my amazing infrastructure. Hoping to gather ana rmy and take out one of my enemies soon but at the moment the enemy has effectively put me on the defensive.

[Inhuman One]

I just finished my first campaign with the Date, a long campaign.

That charge bonus has meant the difference for me in many battles. In one battle I fought a large asigaru army consisting mostly out of yari spearmen, archers and flintlock gunners. I was standing on quite a steap hill with my 5 units of ashigaru archers raining death on the approaching enemies. When they ran up the hill, my two units of katana samurai and 1 unit of ashigaru spearmen charged down. It was a massacre, my two katana samurai units had almost 400 kills each, with about 25 men remaining out of 120 for each unit.

They did get some cavalry support since they where pretty much swarmed by yari spearmen, but that powerfull charge really helped a lot.

Furthermore I allied myself with the Hoyo. They became powerfull and formed a great barrier for me after I took over some northern provinces. After that I sailed with an army to the other side, allied myself with the Takeda as well (which where also allied with the Hoyo.) and the three of us pretty much whiped out all the other clans. It was a powerfull alliance which kept my enemies very distracted since they where usually attacked from several sides.

Once I had a firm foothold on the left and right sides of the map, I send a large army to the shogunate and declared war, hoping to lure them out, I didnt besiege them. The Hoyo fought against the Shogunate too and captured Kyoto, I expected they wouldnt win but they did. After that I convinced the Takeda to break their alliance with the Hoyo and I captured Kyoto while the Hoyo army was very weak from the battle still.

After that I quickly secured many of their provinces together with the Takeda, they werent a challenge anymore since their strongest army was at Kyoto, it consisted out of elite troops.

Once the Hoyo werent a threat anymore, the Takeda declared war on me as well. It never got to any serious battle though, and my border towns where well defended. I managed to secure 40 provinces pretty soon since I caught several undefended, mostly from the broken down Hoyo who I attacked from all sides.

Here is a tip: try and obtain the small island consisting out of a single province. It has a gold mine, but the ruling clan is quite strong. Worth the effort though since it gives such a good boost to your income. When I captured it, they already developed the goldmine fully.

[aeoleron9]

So I just hit the realm divide threshold, and fortunately 6 of my allies/vassals stayed on board. Especially Tokugawa and Hatakeyama, my trusted allies, each have 6 provinces and pretty much held off all enemies for me while I teched up for monks and matchlocks. Was a pretty easy late game

Also after relaoding I found out I could avoid the blunt by preemptively taking Kyoto before the event triggers. Bye Ashikaga, say hello to Date Shogunate.

[Foos56]

Yeah, that realm divide is killer. I didn't know it was coming, had no allies, and suddenly I was at war with everyone. Haha, we'll see how it plays out.

"That charge bonus has meant the difference for me in many battles."
Most definitely.

[KillaJules]

Several turns previously in my campaign, I had a flock of doves fly above my capital. This was interpreted as an omen and so all my units got a permanent morale boost. I probably should have chosen the 50% naval trade bonus instead, but +2 morale is nice. Has anyone else had this or something similar?

Also, I have not reached the realm divide stage of my campaign but something very odd happened. I made an alliance with the Takeda, the very next turn theyr broke it and then i asked them for an alliance again. They accepted and kept it. Very strange.

[erebrus]

1st Go for Ugo and Uzen. These two and Iwate will be the first core of your realm. Iwate should be develop for military, I try to swords, horses, spears and bows, with the smiths make for very powerful soldiers. I chose armor bonus so that swords, bows and cavalry can last more in melee.+3 armour is quite a bonus! Ugo will give you stone and is very rich. Build market, ninjas and focus on stimulating your economy there. Usen will allow mixing am monastery, with spears and specially bows to get the warriors monks. Try to get the trade node, its not a great trade node, but every cent counts.

Your goal will be to have a 3 region border consisting of Echigo, Kosuke and Musashi. This will keep you below the realm divide and will be an very defensible border due to the terrain. Provinces here are huge and mountain ranges provide few options for penetrating your borders. Keep in mind that you will take time to get units across and some places are really tricky. For instance, From the border of Uzen to the town in Echigo, it will take you about 6 turns, cos you have to cross the forest. On the other hand, from Kozuke in the east, Echigo can be quickly reached. Being so, its clear that you supply lines should run through the east, which fits very well with keeping Ugo as an economy base.

I find this to be the most complicated TW game to plan for in terms of enemies/allies and attack routes, because minor factions can become very powerful and games can be very very different. Still, Takeda is a natural ally, because they are just outside your 13 region zone and they are in a mountain range which will mean. Everything until Takeda must fall. Im a major fan of vassals in previous TWs, but in this game vassals become a problem with realm divide. You just can't trust them. Therefore, if you can, conquer the 13 provinces the old fashioned way. If you can't, be sure that you get Kozuke (library) and Sado (gold). Sado you can leave for last.

Once you are get those 13 provinces, you can definitely take your time to build up. The only resource you don't have and will have to trade for is Horses. Specialize. In this game its more important than ever. Trade is frail (real divide) and Date is on the opposite side of the rich trade nodes. Later try to steal 1 or two there, but don't focus on it. Your economy should be tax based, so choose military centers, and everywhere be sure to build markets. Also, build tons of temples, since these will keep ppl happy and will most of all help out in research!

Once you are strong enough, its time to move one. The route is easy, keep going through the east coast, the mountain range will keep you safe and while you go through Sagami, Izu, Suroga, Totomi and Mikawa you won't need to worry about more than one front. After that Oawari, Mino and Omi should be the core for you to prepare the attack on Kyoto. While you advance, take your time once in a while to reorganize the towns you conquer. Don't be afraid to destroy existing buildings. Make sure you have 1-2 options to get every major type of unit within a reasonable amount of turns, but other than that, towns should have markets, and maybe even temples.
When you get to Omi, you should be strong enough to take Kyoto easily.