The Shimazu Campaign Guide

[Condottiere 40K]

In such situations, ou have to help out (and take advantage of the distractions caused by those conflicts) your allies; when the Shoni went after one clan about to get Shogunized and didn't invite me, I was hurt, but decided to join them anyway.

Mosey up your stack(s) to theirs, so that when a battle occurs, your alliance has overwhelming force; in the meantime, drop in for dinner while the Oda stacks are concentrated in the front. While Samurai women are fierce, with their six accompanying units, usually no match for a full army.

[Steamloller]

Welcome to Steamloller Guide on how to steamroll the map in Shogun 2 with Shimazu Clan.

Background: Starting in the Kyushu, the richest of the main islands you are surrounded by mediocre clans who you need to tactically and diplomatically outmaneuver. The rich trade spots are nearby. Your clan bonus is useless but it doesn't matter. With your back to the sea you are a classic steamroller.

Try to use your troops wisely and don't get into a war at two fronts. Ally and betray without hesitation. You will get a great profit and advantage from retarded clans converted to Christianity. The rebels will make them weak. You may keep a conquered nanban port if you like. Conquer all of Kyushu and camp.

Dominate all the trade spots near Kyushu as soon as you can. Then build fleets. Lots of them. Dominate all the trade routes and trade spots. End of fun enter the boring clicking. Build up, boring tech trees, boring armies making. Conquer Shikoku. Build up even more. Spam stacks and invade from all directions. Steamroll rest of the map.

Shimazu is an orthodox TW clan. If you want to experience good old steamrolling again it is your primary choice. The campaign may be difficult at first and then very easy later. Autocalc till the very end.

[For England Men]

That don't sound too bad goose , just spam some units near by the quality won't matter because you will be defending and the Oda army will be mainly ashigaru, meanwhile you should be able to hammer their provinces and come up behind a very scint daimyo.

Also don't worry about losing a province or two you can always take them back, in this time period some towns were owned by several clans in a matter of a few years. Play the long game and good luck mate.

[Jaxin]

Key for Shimazu (VH at least) is Christianity.
With the Namban Trade Ships you can destroy everyone at sea and grab all the trade posts.

Try to keep the other clans off your back at the start, then steamroll the island with Katana Samurai. Upgrade the blacksmith with armourer and also have armour encampment upgrade for arrowproof samurai with 10 armour Laugh as your helpless enemy's arrows bounce off your samurai!

Alliance with Sagara is usually good. They are an excellent buffer state on the western edge of the island early in the game.

The Shoni will normally attack you after the Ito are gone. Thats cool, wipe them out.

Spawn trade ships and grab the western spots before Myoshi gets them.

If you bloackade the main island's crossing to your island, it's safe. Use your superior navy to Wipe Out the Chosokabe and take their island.

Realm Divide-wise, storming up each coast of the main island's western peninsular works well. Just keep the men flowing. Of course, if you have a RELIABLE ally on that side, then just sail in and grab the Kyoto area. But watch your back. Remember, a front line of 2/3 provinces is much better than 5+, especially with the swarms you'll be dealing with post RD.

Good luck

[Rasta]

I didn't read all posts here, but I am about 1/3 of the way through a campaign as Shimazu. I am playing on normal difficulty, but this clan seems to be an easy one (large island with at least 2 very fertile provinces, very close to most trade hubs).

So far I have taken all provinces except Higo (they are long time trading partners, and currently my only good friends), and control 3 or 4 trade ports. Income is ~7-8k gold/turn and I have 7 territories. I am trying to build my economy on wealth/taxes, versus depending on trade, because of realm divide that will come later in the game. Last time I just barely won as Choko because I depended so heavily on trade income, and after realm divide my income got very low very fast.

[Spiderbong]

Its the most boring of campaigns since you have the luxury of only having one front which you slowly advance till you reach Kyoto.

[CyrusII]

I'm a few turns away from victory now in a normal difficulty long campaign. It's 1572 and I spent nearly 10 years without any wars thanks to trade agreements with every clan I could make one with. I grew my empire only through rebellions in that time. That allowed me to build up the infrastructure to survive without the trade, plus it got me a 500k war chest to spend my way through RD.

As Shimazu the western trade nodes are so easy to get and keep it's nearly free money. So what if it collapses after RD? You just use the money to build up your empire, not to maintain expensive army stacks at a time when ashigaru will do fine.

After RD I found that trade with the one clan I managed to bribe into staying with me paid for all my fleets and that naval domination keeps my home provinces safe. That's still a good deal in my book.

[Chedric]

I have a hard level game going. I built a nanban port. I plan on converting to christianity. There is also a nanban port in Bungo. Do I...

1. Wait to attack Bungo, convert to christianity myself and build a nanban quarter while hoping the AI also builds a quarter in Bungo? Or...

2. Hit Bungo now, convert and just build the quarter there? I figure Bungo is good for a quarter considering it has so many borders and ship xp bonus.

I'm kinda leaning toward number 2 because that province was recently taken by shintos. So I'd have to wait long enough for Shoni to take it back if he can. Then again... Since Shoni now has no nanban port, if I take that province he may be forced to build a new one elsewhere. Hmmm...

[rakenan]

I have a hard level game going. I built a nanban port. I plan on converting to christianity. There is also a nanban port in Bungo. Do I...

1. Wait to attack Bungo, convert to christianity myself and build a nanban quarter while hoping the AI also builds a quarter in Bungo? Or...

2. Hit Bungo now, convert and just build the quarter there? I figure Bungo is good for a quarter considering it has so many borders and ship xp bonus.

I'm kinda leaning toward number 2 because that province was recently taken by shintos. So I'd have to wait long enough for Shoni to take it back if he can. Then again... Since Shoni now has no nanban port, if I take that province he may be forced to build a new one elsewhere. Hmmm...

Ship xp bonuses as a Christian faction are almost entirely irrelevant - completely green Nanban Trade Ships obliterate pretty much anything except more experienced Nanban Trade Ships, and the AI hardly builds them at all. Accuracy bonuses for your imported matchlocks, however, are quite nice - so if you can manage it, take Buzen for its artisans and build your Nanban Trade Port there. And hope the AI will build you a second Nanban Quarter in Bungo.

Or just take Bungo now, and tech up to matchlock ashigaru the normal way, then recruit them from Buzen.

[Chedric]

Excellent point about Buzen. I took Bungo, which gave me two nanban ports. But I then went ahead and took Buzen too(before coming back and reading this). So I guess I'm going to pull my troops back out of Buzen, let it fall- hopefully back to Shoni, and then focus elsewhere for a bit. Thanks for the ideas.

Edit: So I pulled out my army from Buzen. Ouchi took the province instead of Shoni. He then came into Bungo and I killed his daimyo. I ended up just deciding to finish Shoni off at that point in the hopes that Ouchi would convert and upgrade the Buzen port, but then Ouchi apparently reinforced and brought another full stack down to Bungo- I only had a half-stack and a couple sons in that area. What I ended up doing is pulling my troops out of Bungo and letting Ouchi take that as well. I also let my other nanban port province rebel(Osumi). I took Buzen from the other side with my good troops.

Ouchi went after my two sons and I killed his daimyo again(and most of his stack) in a crazy battle. I seriously thought he was gonna crush me and just roll on through my backside. But that all tied up, I started a new port in Buzen, then retook the two provinces I'd lost and everything is rolling along.

[The High King of Ireland]

Started a normal campaign. Spent cash on economy first turn and moved everything but my daimyo into the field army. Ito attacked and i won, then took the nearest province. Built up my forces in both brovinces and advanced until i bordered bungo. waited, then launched a full scale war on everyone on Kyushu. Took Bungo and the sagara capital within 3 turns, winning 2 decicive victories against superior enemy forces (though I had my Katanas against the Much larger Sagara). Had to demolish the Nanban port and left an army there for 5 turns.
Got a mission to take the capital of the northern Kyushu clan (Otomi?), and did so. Left enough units to keep PO even in Bungo. Their other provinces had been invaded by a clan from Honshu (Satana or somtheing) but they moved 2 3/4 stacks just over the land brideg to deal with a Hatano 1/2 stack that had kicked them off Honshu. SO I invaded and took both provinces in 2 turns before they could respond.
Fortified the settlement across the land brisge, built an encampment and sailed my 3 star Daimyo with 4 (3 upgraded) Kat Sams, 1 Bow sam, 5 Yari Ashigaru and 3 Bow ashigaru, all 2 xp (3-4 for the ashis) to Shikoku. Left my 3 star general + 3Yaris and 2 Bow ashigaru to hold the land bridge. So now at war with chokosabe. Seiging 1 of ther 2 regions which has all their army in it. (they have lik 5 Bow sam, 4 generals and a few ashis) If i win this I can walk into their capital and should easily deal with their allies on the rest of the island.

[_anomaly]

Ah, the Shimazu. I played through a campaign with these guys on Legendary/Domination a month or so ago, and lost in the final turn. I had 59/60 provinces and was Shogun, and was attacking the final province in Winter of 1600 (I owned from Satsuma up to past the Takeda lands). It was an impossible battle and even though I tried several times I could see it was never going to work, so I rage quit that campaign and have been avoiding the Shimazu up until a few days ago. Last time, I converted to Christianity and focused on the Way of Chi and spamming ashigaru and katana samurai, and that went extremely well, but this time I decided to try out focusing more on military (partly thanks to being enticed by the recently purchased Shimazu Heavy Gunners). Put simply, this time I'm struggling a lot more, and have ~15 years remaining and only have 25 provinces (although I decided to play a Long Campaign this time), with a much smaller income. It seems obvious to me now that if you want to go Christian, you should really just focus on the Way of Chi: you get guns and galleons without having to research some of the Bushido skills with long training times. Basically now I've just bum-rushed Kyoto with a massive army consisting of pretty much just katana samurai (the best army the Shimazu can field) and I'm slowly turtling across with another army to secure and convert the rest, but it's taking ages because my Way of Chi is pretty average.

Every time I start as the Shimazu now, I siege Osumi on the first turn, build a Trading Port as soon as possible, and make the Ito my Vassals. On Legendary, the CPU players get some ridiculous recruitment slot and economic bonuses, so the Ito can pretty much cover the right flank while you fight off the Sagara and Shoni on the left. Also, establishing a Vassal improves your Honour, which helps soften the conversion penalty. Get a Nanban Quarter, and control the seas around Kyushu with Nanban Trade Ships. You don't even need to stack them, they can solo anything provided you can dodge their fire arrows.

[gbatemper]

Playing shimazu as hard.
I have 4 provinces, but my bungo was captured by ouchi. All of army was devasted by ouchi too (They have 5 provinces and a near full stack army). Currently I am trying to hold on a build a decent army, but it will take up a whopping 12 turns just to rebuild my army.

What do you recommend I do?

Edit: Managed to take back Bungo as it was unguarded.
Edit: Going bankrupt trying to keep armies that can defend -_-

[eXistenZ]

Playing shimazu as hard.
I have 4 provinces, but my bungo was captured by ouchi. All of army was devasted by ouchi too (They have 5 provinces and a near full stack army). Currently I am trying to hold on a build a decent army, but it will take up a whopping 12 turns just to rebuild my army.

What do you recommend I do?

Edit: Managed to take back Bungo as it was unguarded.
Edit: Going bankrupt trying to keep armies that can defend -_-

yes some tips on hard would be nice. i only played shimazu on my first try on easy (which was offcours walkover), but on hard it seems impossible. Ito is swiftly dealth with, but then 4province shoni declare war on you as soon as ito is dead, and then sagara joins the frame, who for some reason can support 1 whole stack with 1 town.

With two neigbours declaring war on you, you dont have any trade partners, unless you wanna pay 700 for a trade agreement with chosokabe

[eXistenZ]

Had a second try as shimazu on hard. The key is to ally yourself with sagara (and maybe even marry) before shoni does. When Ito is dealth with, shoni wil declare war on you. Together with Sagara you can witstand them. Ouchi will help Shoni, so when you have defeated shoni you have an excuse to cross to the mainland. There it depends a bit on how the game develops. Matsuda conquered mori, so i allied with Amako when they became a bit aggresive. So i defeated a few armies and they begged for peace.
in the meanwhile i had troubles getting the trade nodes unde rmy control (with ouchi/matsuda/wako ships raiding), but i managed to get 4 trade nodes (3 west of me and the one with horses halfway japan)

then i assembled my forces and wennt for sagara. With 3 stacks on 2 settlements (conquering one at a turn) the losses were minimal. Strangely enough i didnt get a -1honour for termainating the alliance and attacking in the same turn. i didnt got -1 honour for breaking the alliance with amako, cause they got attacked by Terryfiying Takeda. They almost got destroyed, and because they had the trade node, i eventually declared war and took the trade node. (so now i got 5, great income boost)

Matsuda got aggresive, so i took a few provinces and they made peace. then i landed an invasion on chosokabe island, with first destroying a navy with a full stack of them. Ive learned from previous games that the AI likes to invade beyond the lines, and i have to defend my trade nodes, so i have quite a few navies. Also usefull against the Wako

After i got the whole of chosokabe island i was close to realm divide, so i brought everyone back to the minland border with matsuda, and rearranged my forces to get 4.5 stacks. When i conquered a rebel settlement, realm divide hit, and although takeda joined me for a 10 turns, they declared war too., but now ive conquered everything west of tokyo so im close to victory.

Important note: because of the reinforcements system, i often autoresolve with 2 or 3 stacks. makes for minimal losses

[LXClusive]

Play the SHIMAZU with maximum fun:

I just completed the shimazu campaign on hard.

- First step is to conquer the province on the east (use your starting army) and also kill the ITO-Army there. After about 2-3 turns the Ito send an larger Army to you -> best defeat theam by defending your new province.
- After that your way through ITO-Territory is free. Train somr Katana (3 should be enough) and some Ashi and Go for it!
- when u got your 3rd province, there is no matter to be hectic! You should start to build a trade harbour in your capital.
- Try not go to war with sagara too early (they are a good trade partner and they will fight SHONI in the north.
- get control of the trade nodes (best would be the one in south an west of your capital)
- Now u got the income to improve your cities!!!
- Next Target is the 100% christian province (forgot it's name).
- Notice: SHONI have no chance against your Katana-Samurai! An Army of 4-5 Katana + 8 Ashigaru will crush every Army of them!
- Your Next Target is the city of BUZEN (think it's the name, north-eastern province of this island).
This could get a little tricky, because maybe you have to declare war on MORI (what would be no bigger Problem, because once u have conquered it you build that castle to maximum and can be easily defended) or you face SAGARA there.
- If it's possesed by SAGARA u got the problem that if u declare war on them you face an army at Buzen and also in the South! So in that case you have to proceed a bit more careful (remember: don't get too hectic! Wait for the best opportunity to attack! You got a good income because of the Tradenodes!)
- The Plot is to posses BUZEN, because of it's archer-Upgrade! First train about 6 Archer-Samurai and 2 Bow-Ashigaru and you will be able to defend the city against a full Stack!

- Once you conquered the whole island (once again, be careful with attacking SAGARA, because of the minimum 2 fronts!) turn to CHRISTIANITY!!!
-> in result of doing this you must handle some christian rebell armies, but hey: Nice opportunity to level your generals (theese armies have no chance against your katanas and your Archers!)

- now build churches (they also convert provinces, next to the province you build it!) and train missionaries! --> Spread the word!!!

Meanwhile you should have an excellent income because of your tradenodes and you only need 2 3/4 stack-armies (one in the north, one in the south to crush rebell armies)

- Now you focus on BUZEN (build at least an Bow-Dojo, an Hunters camp (dont know the english word for it) and the most important building here is the Arrow-Smith (again i dont know the english word )
and also build the building for Bombers and catapults and get a NAMBAN-Port there!!!

Now you are able to recruit Archers, bombers (later in combination with the namban-port powerful Cannons) and fireweapon-ashigaru (dunno the english word ^^) with very high accuracy in BUZEN
and recruit very strong Katanas and Yaris in your Capital.

This in combination with your missionaries (who are, in my oppinion, much more stronger than monks) you can create unstopable armies!!! MUCH FUN
Plus you can recruit Cannon-Tradeships at BUZEN who will blast every opponent to the ground of the ocean! ALSO MUCH FUN
Plus you can recruit a powerful cavallery in the province, north to your Capital!

From there on it's your decision how to make your way to the Shogun's Capital...
From this point on, no one will beat you!!!

Wish you a lot of fun!

(remember:the only tricky point is to declare war on SAGARA at the right moment!)

[ForGreatJustice]

A week ago I decided to go back to playing a Christian Shimazu on VH/VH and it still felt easy for me. Regarding the opening, Hyuga CAN be taken during Fall 1545, turn 3. IIRC...

Turn 1 attacked Osumi nonautoresolve so I can recruit a bow from there on turn 1. Ito had supporting army in the field which I routed easily since I deployed where I thought they would appear to prevent the enemy from forming up. Lost just over 100 men. Post sacking of Osumi I took army to kill the routed units, auto resolve decisive victory, no losses. This pushed my army into Hyuga territory and left me a little off the road. Sowed alliance with Sagara which I planned to end within 15 turns. Recruited 2 bow ashi in Satsuma. Started Sake Den build to prevent rebellion on turn 3.

Turn 2 marched to Hyuga while building more ashigaru units, then switched commissions to finance. I didn't merge any Satsuma units with main army, however Osumi bow ashi I had attached to my daimyo while my general + army charged forward. Didn't encounter Ito army in the field and I was like hmm... he's staying in Hyuga. Sold 5 turn access to Sagara for 1000 gold.

Turn 3 marched main army (starting units with general) and was just short of the town for siege. Sieged instead with the general, defenders consisted of 1 general, retainers, 2 yari ash, 1 bow ash. Assaulted and won close victory. Key was to lock the enemy bow into targeting my yari sam, pulled them back, which kept them out of range barely but forced stupid AI to keep their aim locked on the yari sam. This allowed my 2 bows to position to the sides away from enemy bow firing range and rained hell on their general and retainers. I charged up the walls with everyone including both general and daimyo on foot.

The rest was pretty standard Shimazu stuff you would expect. Otomo was gone, Shoni killed him, Sagara allied with Shoni. Break that alliance, declare war and drag Sagara in with you. He pushed up on the west while I pushed up on the east coast line. I also broke our alliance/trade agreements/access after a turn into the war, because I wanted to see if I can avoid the "dishonoring treaties" -25 permapenalty. I did accomplish this after having take Buzen by turn 9 YET had to wait almost 10 more turns for the penalties (started at -40, jesus) to go up to over -20. Then I declared and the rest was steamroll style, Christian influenced no less. Best of all, FINALLY AVOIDED THE -25 DISHONORING TREATIES PERMAPENALTY!

[CptAustus]

I actually find the beginning of the shimazu campaign quite hard: I always get attacked by everyone in Kyushu at the same time, so I end up with my Daimyo destroying the Shoni, but my capital being assaulted by a Sagara full stack. The only time that didnt happen was when I did a campaign where I would sit in Kyushu the whole game just to see if someone would take Kyoto, but the Sagara had one province with two stacks in it, my buddhist rebels never cause any sort of damage )=

[ForGreatJustice]

I actually find the beginning of the shimazu campaign quite hard: I always get attacked by everyone in Kyushu at the same time, so I end up with my Daimyo destroying the Shoni, but my capital being assaulted by a Sagara full stack. The only time that didnt happen was when I did a campaign where I would sit in Kyushu the whole game just to see if someone would take Kyoto, but the Sagara had one province with two stacks in it, my buddhist rebels never cause any sort of damage )=

I can't stress the importance of first allying then ending the alliance with Sagara. Higo is a wealthy province (though no port) and can easily become one of your top five economic provinces. To leave it in the hands of Sagara is not recommended. As soon as he's in the war with Shoni, end your alliance, allow the (-) modifier for dishonoring alliances to grow back to somewhere greater than -20, then declare. Hopefully you would have been building lots and lots of units by that point.

[Arakorn]

I'm playing a short Shimazu campaign, I don't know which year I'm currently in but it should be suffice to complete the goal. I now control all of the island I start on, Kyushu?, and all of Chosokabe's lands because they declared war on me. My fame is quite to the right, I think it is one step from RD but I am not sure, I've never had RD hit before, just once but that was because I took Kyoto and became shogun. The thing is, I don't know what to do next. I see three possible options:

• Annex Miyoshi (2 provinces left on their island). I don't want their provinces so I could make one of them a vassal, but then they'd backstab me when RD hits, so annexation would eliminate them. I don't know if RD hits if I do this though.
• Attack Hattori who surrounds Kyoto. This would put me into a good position to take Kyoto as soon as RD hits and then start making vassals. Hattori has quite large lands though so I would be surrounded, would need at least 2-3 stacks here and one on Kyushu, to protect me from the threat of:
• Mori. They control vast lands in west Honshu, plus they have a strong fleet. I am quite afraid of them. It wouldn't be a small fight, I couldn't conquer them in like 2 turns like I did with Shoni, or even a year or so like with Chosokabe, because they have huge lands, and quite a strong navy. I would probably need to build a better navy myself, I control 4 trade posts, (Mori has got one of the incenses as Wako attacked me while I held it and Mori took it when I ran away from Wako). Attacking Mori would surely also trigger RD, they have at least 10 provinces I believe.

Whatever I do, I think I need to research the arts first. All of my ninjas suck, not a single one of them has ever succesfully completed any action, not even with a 50% chance. I am not you. In Tsukushi, I can recruit lvl 2 metsukes, so that helps it. I am still converting the former 4 Shoni provinces into proper Buddhists, so might grab some experience for my monks from there, although 4 building slots are occupied with monasteries currently.