Just won Legendary Ikko-Ikki vanilla campaign

[Auditor]

It took me more than 15 days and some 20 to 25 fail tries till I finally managed to finish this at year 1595... It was the hardest campagn I've ever had in TW games. I am really impressed with CAI as it did great job to make this campagn so crazy hard.

I know you all guys play FOTS these days -but note that last big patch that was released with FOTS did great things to vanilla shogun and it is polished and just much better game over all.

If somebody interested - I will post my strategy and tips on Ikko legendary campaign.

[DeliCiousTZM]

Its the hardest Shogun 2 campaign you can have you should be proud. There is not easy way to win it you just have to develop the skill needed to make it.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=531157

Legendary Republic challenge for FOTS, Which is even harder then the Ikko ikki Legendary campaign.

[Elitewolf]

Ooohhhh, I might try that! How did you do that?

[Ferdiad]

It took me more than 15 days and some 20 to 25 fail tries till I finally managed to finish this at year 1595... It was the hardest campagn I've ever had in TW games. I am really impressed with CAI as it did great job to make this campagn so crazy hard.

I know you all guys play FOTS these days -but note that last big patch that was released with FOTS did great things to vanilla shogun and it is polished and just much better game over all.

If somebody interested - I will post my strategy and tips on Ikko legendary campaign.

Pics please.

[The Nameless One]

Sorry, I posted this in the wrong thread.

Anyway, good job; I doubt I could do the same.

[Humble Warrior]

Sorry, I posted this in the wrong thread.

Anyway, good job; I doubt I could do the same.

It ain`t easy. Well done to the OP.

[Vayze]

Yes please give some details and screens of your campaign!

[Lazarus]

If you want to ramp up the difficulty, try Uesugi

I enjoyed the Ikko campaign, even on Legendary when things were rip-the-mouse-out-of-the-computer-and-throw-it-out-the-window levels of hard. Having such an Ashigaru based force that was bolstered by 4 or 5 Ronin per stack... And the revolts! Great campaign.

[DeliCiousTZM]

If you want to ramp up the difficulty, try Uesugi

I enjoyed the Ikko campaign, even on Legendary when things were rip-the-mouse-out-of-the-computer-and-throw-it-out-the-window levels of hard. Having such an Ashigaru based force that was bolstered by 4 or 5 Ronin per stack... And the revolts! Great campaign.

False Uesugi is alot easier then ikko ikki. He would not be "ramping up" difficulty but rather decreasing it.

[Lazarus]

Uesugi? The guy next to that utter psychopath Takeda?

Ikko Ikki is hard, but starting with a blacksmith and defendable castles isn't what I would call a handicap.

[Auditor]

Ok here are some pictures:
First one is a winning screen and second one is an example of insane battle - there were many like those through the campaign.

I will post later my strategy and some tips on Ikko. I won legendary campaigns with hojo, date, shimazu and uesgi and believe me - ikko much harder than those.

[Lazarus]

Really? Barring Shimazu with all those delicious trade goodies, I find Ikko Ikki to be the easiest campaign... (Still painfully difficult on legendary mind you, so I'm not trying to belittle your accomplishment!)

Never been able to handle Uesugi on Legendary. If Takeda doesn't stomp me to death, Hojo and the rest of Northern Japan does.

[DeliCiousTZM]

Really? Barring Shimazu with all those delicious trade goodies, I find Ikko Ikki to be the easiest campaign... (Still painfully difficult on legendary mind you, so I'm not trying to belittle your accomplishment!)

Never been able to handle Uesugi on Legendary. If Takeda doesn't stomp me to death, Hojo and the rest of Northern Japan does.

Ikko ikki has one handicap and thats their religion sure they get the ikko ikki monks and they make a little up for it but the global hate you will recieve. Everyone hates ikko ikki and nobody fears you.

But to be fair i could see uesugi being the hardest faction after ikko ikki.

[Cruzz]

Ikko ikki has one handicap and thats their religion sure they get the ikko ikki monks and they make a little up for it but the global hate you will recieve. Everyone hates ikko ikki and nobody fears you.

But to be fair i could see uesugi being the hardest faction after ikko ikki.

Everyone hates you anyway on Legendary. The only way you can reliably keep a clan that has a land connection to you from attacking you is by bribing them constantly. I haven't actually ever played a legendary campaign with Ikko Ikki but considering all the bonuses they have over Uesugi (or Hattori, the other hideously hard legendary faction) I can't see how they could possibly be harder.

[DeliCiousTZM]

Everyone hates you anyway on Legendary. The only way you can reliably keep a clan that has a land connection to you from attacking you is by bribing them constantly. I haven't actually ever played a legendary campaign with Ikko Ikki but considering all the bonuses they have over Uesugi (or Hattori, the other hideously hard legendary faction) I can't see how they could possibly be harder.

it can be hard to see for someone who never had any experience doing it. Like a person that havent seen the colour green argue with someone who has about what it looks like.

If you dont have extensive Legendary campaign knowledge you cant tell. But to clarify for some of you scrubies why ikko ikki is harder here are some pointers that seperate them from other factions negativly.

• Lack of efficient anti archer
• No metsuke(Which good players use to boost economy by 30/50%)
• Massive unrest due to religious unhappiness(Makes money even tighter)
• vulnerable position
• Diplomacy penalties which through legendary can be hard as it is
• necessity to make ikko ikki temples in almost every province

All of this adds up to a pretty fast realm divide without the event, A skilled player can avoid war before RD in legendary with any other faction with Ikko ikki you cant.

[Lazarus]

• Lack of efficient anti archer I found Bow Ronin to be more then adequate to remove enemy bow units - even the Ikko Bowshigaru if you were able to get them to level up enough to account for their abysmal reload skill.
• No metsuke(Which good players use to boost economy by 30/50%) - Agreed on this
• Massive unrest due to religious unhappiness(Makes money even tighter) - Semi agreed. Religious unrest makes naval invasions almost impossible, but as long as you're going to areas connected by land, your temples/monks should have converted most by the time you take the city.
• vulnerable position No way no how. You build up the castle at Kaga and you can completely and totally discount any threat that Northern Japan could possibly pose. It's possibly the easiest place I've ever had to defend. Add on top of that Monk retainers - you barely even have to garrison it. Defending Echizen and your South/West is a little harder, but as long as you expand smart it's nothing too daunting.
• necessity to make ikko ikki temples in almost every province I can't say this is a handicap. You wont need it in every province - you can still get away with several economic provinces. You just have to build up temples towards the edges of your Pre-RD Empire. As the added bonus, the higher the temple level, the more awesome Monk retainers you get, which IMO, make the castle undefeatable to anything other than archer spam
• Diplomacy penalties which through legendary can be hard as it is - Semi agreed. Diplomacy is broken anyway on legendary, so I wouldn't say this is a unique challenge to Ikko

[CptAustus]

Guys, there is this one little reason Uesugi are harder than Ikko Ikki: Ikko Ikki can revolt most castles in Japan and get those regions pretty much for free.

[Dirty Harry]

I haven't tried Uesegi but Ikko campaign on VH was more difficult (lost it about a half dozen times before making any headway and gaining a 10 province kingdom) than Shimazu on Legendary, so congrats.

[Lazarus]

I find that I can get away with not using the Encampment unless I want to late game (it's helpful). For my armor needs though, the blacksmith in Kaga is just fine. But believe me, I'm a min/maxer too, and I feel your pain when I see all those silvers running around.

When I did my Ikko campaign, it was still a 20 unit limit, so here was my composition. Assume all Melee units are wearing upgraded armor.

Early game
5 archers (depending on economic circumstances and talent available, this was a mixture of Bow Ashigaru and Ronin. Minimum 2 Ronin per army though).
6 Yari (4 Ashigaru, 2 Ronin)
5 Loan Swords
General

As far as fighting goes, as long as you pick your battles well (ambushes are ideal for this set up) this stack 3/4 stack can take any single stack that comes at you - and that's the worst you should face early game.

My ideal army composition (assuming I have infinite resources, access to whatever I need, etc.) is as follows.

2 Matchlock Monk (gold armor)
2 bow ronin (gold accuracy) 3 bow monks (gold armor)
4 Naginata Monks (gold armor) 2 Yari ronin (gold armor)
5 Katana (2 Ronin, 3 Loan Swords)
General

and the final slot either gets filled by Fire rockets or Nag Monk cav. Depending on if I think this army will do lots of field battles or lots of sieges (usually go with the cav. The fire rockets are just for giggles).

The trick to using the Ikko is to use their Ashigaru to the maximum possible potential. The only problem with this, is Ikko Ashigaru are rubbish. You pit Yari against Yari, non-Ikko will win every single time. The extra armor helps to circumvent this, and also protects you from bow spam to a degree.

An army of Ronin and Monks will be unbeatable, but in a Legendary Campaign (especially short) that's not really feasible - so you've got to have Ashigaru stand in as the meat of your forces. Upgraded correctly, they fill this role extremely well.

[Lazarus]

I never said 1 unit of Bow Ronin could take on 4 units of Bow Ashigaru. If you look at my composition, I said, minimum of 2 Bow Ronin - 200 vs 480 is a much better set of odds. Put them on loose formation, inspire one, and you're good - even better if you can shoot from trees. That's before you consider you'll have Ashigaru support.

It's not difficult to understand my play style is different from yours - and I found it easier to play as the Ikko Ikki because there's no 1 way to play as a clan. You mentioned teching up before, so I imagine that the way you tech up is what makes playing the Ikko difficult for you. The fact that I have access to an armory, fertile starting provinces, very defendable positions, monk garrisons, and powerful units from the get go when protected by armor is ideal for my style - because it allows me to spend all my focus on getting rich.

Takeda isn't a problem for the Ikko - because he's pretty much the only "unstoppable force" you face as the Ikko - and if he wants a piece of you, he's coming through Kaga - the single most defendable (possibly even untakeable) castle in the game, and it usually takes a while for him to get to that point anyways. This is different to fighting Takeda as Uesugi - you're usually at war from the very get go unless you pretty much constantly bribe Takeda. Even in this event, you'll still end up facing Hojo who, while not as bad as Takeda, is certainly a tough cookie to crack as Uesugi (The massive space between all the castles is really what shoots Uesugi in the foot, for me.)

If you're finding Legendary Ikko Ikki campaigns too hard, feel free to read the tips I've left in the Ikko Ikki guide in the gameplay and strategy sections and try them out.