Ikko-ikki and other Sohei

[Thousandth Whisper]

I just had a suggestion. I know that you have been developing the Ikko-ikki sohei as a group that can be hired as mercenaries if you have a Buddhist temple in a province, but have you considered having the Ikko-ikki as a playable faction? They are not samurai like the rest of the playable factions, but could provide an interesting variant to play which is historically accurate because they did exert a great deal of influence during the Shengoku period. After all it took Oda Nobunaga about eleven years (if my memory serves me) to finally rout them out. According to Stephen Turnbull, the Ikko-ikki at Ishiyama Hongan-ji had originally planned to march on the capital and make their commander Shimotsum Nakayuki, Shogun. And they did hold Kaga province for quite some time from 1488 after overthrowing samurai rule their (I am not absolutely positive, but they may have controlled the province until around 1576-77). Obviously their armies would be somewhat different from the samurai, consisting of large numbers of peasants, sohei with naginata, archers and matchlock men.

I had also wondered if the Buddhist temples (if you can build them that is) are going to be generic Buddhist temples are can use assign a specific sect to them similar to how you can chose a temple to a certain god in Rome: Total War. For instance, could you chose to build a temple of the Jōdo Shinshū sect (Ikko-ikki), Nichiren sect (Buddhists focusing on the Lotus Satra), Tendai sect (such as the sohei of the Enryakuji temple of Mt. Hiei) etc.

[Kagemusha]

The rebels will be playable in custom battles so you get to field.Ikko Ikki armies there.On the first version they wont be playable in the main campaign.But when we get the first version out im thinking of creating provincial campaigns and its highly possible that in a provincial campaign the Ikko Ikki faction could be present.About the religious buildings i will come back to this later. :wink:

[Thousandth Whisper]

Sounds great.