Sengoku Jidai Manual

Strategy in Sengoku Jidai

Shimazu Hojo Mori Oda Imagawa Takeda Uesugi

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Shimazu

     Clan Shimazu is a very capable clan for those who love a more defensive game just like the Uesugi clan. There is a big difference between the two clans, Koku. Clan Shimazu starts of in the southwestern part of Japan. They are surrounded by water, which makes for a great starting position.

     Clan Shimazu only has to share the island with one potential enemy: Imagawa. However, without any other factions to worry about early on, Shimazu can focus all their energy on clan Imagawa. To further help the Shimazu quest for Shogun they can train paradigm No-Dachi Samurai. This gives them a punch that can prove to be a turning point in any battle for expansion.

     One thing to worry about is if Mori or Imagawa decide to concentrate their forces and expand into your territory you not only lose some of that valuable Koku input but your also going lose some of your initially small army.

Initial Strategy

     First and foremost always take care of the negative aspects facing your clan at the start. For Shimazu the answer is easy, get more Koku. But How? Attack Imagawa as soon as you can. By taking out Chikugo as soon as possible you can add a high Koku province to your income. That can provide a tremendous boost to troop output. At this time you should be building archers and samurai in your capital and spending money on nothing else. You don't have any need to tech up right now and even if you had a need you wouldn't have the Koku. So the next target would be Hizen. The reason is that it has a natural harbor and is being supplied with troops from the eastern Imagawa territories. And in the process you have cut off Chikuzen from any troop support so they are just sitting ducks. And you can take them out at your leisure at this point. So if you need to rest and build some troops do so now because you have bigger things to tend to soon after you take Chikuzen.

     Now you are safely isolated on your own island. Keep in mind that the Imagawa still have a hold on the island of Tsushima.

Hojo

     The Hojo clan is one of the strongest starting clans in the scenario. It has probably the richest provinces in the whole Japan (Musashi and Hitachi) and copper deposits in Shimotsuke. It borders only two clans: Uesugi and Takeda, which makes it easier to start the game. Hojo's provinces are all in one pool and not divided like Takeda's lands which makes it easier to plan the strategy.

     One help Hojo has is that all cities start with castles which helps greatly in the long run financially. It allows Hojo to add a defensive strategy (wait and develop) to the arsenal of offensives. Hojo is more of fighting clan which is in excellent position to take everything by force without a resort to diplomacy and the dark side.

Initial Strategy

     Two negatives which Hojo faces is their neighbours: Uesugi and Takeda are arguably the two of the strongest clans in the scenario, therefore, unless certain steps are taken, Hojo will have hard time fending off the greedy enemies.

     As mentioned before, Hojo has two strategies available: defensive and offensive. The defensive strategy is basically contained in reinforcing as the first move Musashi and (as the second move) Hitachi. Put some extra Samurai Archers and Yari Samurai in Musashi and they can greet Takeda cavalry. Unless Uesugi turns wise and attacks Hitachi in the first season, you will have more than enough time to do all things necessary hold this province. Talk to both Uesugi and Takeda and make peace with them (although Takeda is likely to attach Musashi anyway).

     So there you are developing your provinces in peace. You can watch Takeda, Imagawa and Uesugi fight and drain their resources and when you feel comfortable, attack and crash the winner. The attack can be directed at Echigo to divide and conquer Uesugi, or Mutsu to take the rich province, or Kai to enjoy gold deposits of Takeda.

     Another possible and probably more challenging strategy for Hojo is the offensive strategy. All it takes a precise calculation and speed in making your first move. I suggest attacking Uesugi's home province of Mutsu as the first move. For doing this, in the first season you move your Daimyo to Hitachi. Then you attack Mutsu in the second season with all forces from Hitachi and Shimotsuke (you can also add one unit from Kozuke) and propose an alliance to Takeda. If you are lucky, you will kill Uesugi daimyo in the battle. If not, you will have to hunt him down painstakingly.

     Now Takeda is likely to attack you notwithstanding your alliance/peace with him. So while holding Mutsu, you quickly move all available troops to Musashi and attack Kai with full force. You can take this province from Takeda, but unlikely to hold. Holding Kai is not the goal, the goal is to put back Takeda in his development of the clan. You just take the province, sell the buildings and retreat. After that, Takeda is not a threat for years to come.

     Don't forget to make an alliance with Imagawa while attacking Kai. As soon as you ally with the Imagawa, go to Oda lands and make peace with him. Your peace with Imagawa is not likely to stay for a long time since you will fight with him over the leftovers shortly.

     Now you have weakened Takeda, reinforce Musashi and Kozuke and swallow the lands of Uesugi. That will give the a great boost in koku income and your clan will quickly become unrivalled in economic development. What provinces to develop? Well, I would devote a lot of investments to Hitachi which would gradually become my home province. Echigo has silver deposits. Mutsu has rich farmlands which dictate their development. In Shimosa I would develop unarmoured units. It could be monks, yari cavalry or archers. In Kazusa I would develop the production of special units. You take Echigo, you can either take Shinano or attack Takeda lands of Sagami and Kai. If you take Shinano, you more or less control all of Eastern Japan. You can divide and conquer Imagawa with no sweat and effort at all and when you take Totomi, you will have even more wonders under your control.

     Further your conquest is more of rolling over the remaining clans to the South. Oda by this time is likely to be at war with Mori, so it helps greatly to your cause. So ally with Mori and attack Oda. By this time, your clan will have unrivalled level of economic and military development and your intuition and skill will lead you to conquering all Japan.

Mori

     The Mori clan is very intimidating when you consider their favorite unit to use is the paradigm Warrior Monk. However, the best part about playing Mori is that you do not have to face them on the field of battle. The Mori clan starts off in the western part of Japan. Its not the greatest of starting positions with 3 enemy clans on its borders (Takeda, Shimazu, Oda) as well as a rebel contingent to the south. The Takeda are stuck right to your underside to start as well making it an immediate threat to all your territories.

     Koku is scarce for the Mori clan to start. The region is not good for farming so the average yield from a territory is low. Once the starting Koku allowance is used up Mori is in trouble. They do have Silver deposits in Harima. One strength the Mori clan possesses is the abundance of Iron and Prime Timber in their realm.

     To help out Lord Mori's war effort the clan can recruit and maintain the best foot soldier in the game paradigm Warrior Monks. Warrior Monks can take out any of the ground troops in the game with little to no problem. The Mori clan starts with 2 very bad things working against them. One is the Koku production of their lands. The poor income is not enough to maintain the army needed to even defend you existing territories. The second problem is the Takeda clan has 3 territories right in the middle of your empire. These 3 territories force you to post a garrison in almost every territory you own putting an even bigger strain on your economy.

Initial Strategy

Always start by taking care of the negatives that face your clan. The 2 problems stated above can be killed with one stone. Take out the 3 Takeda held lands in your realm in the first few years! Yes, in the first years they will not have time to reinforce or attack you. First, take an Archer unit from Suo and another from Iwami and attack Aki. This is the key battle to win. If you take out Aki, Takeda loses a nautral harbor so reinforcements will be impossible from the East. You also take the castle they have in the west, preventing any retreat and holdout.

     In the same year, take 2 Yari Samurai from Izumo and siege Bingo. This will prevent them from diverting forces from Bingo to help in Aki. Then take your forces in Mimasaka and Hoki and attack Bitchu. This will keep Takeda from moving reinforcements into Bitchu to help that attack. The first battle is a must win in Aki. Once you win that you can fight the battle in Bingo. Should be a fairly easy win with help from your Daimyo, if not don't worry. There will be no support coming to these territories so you can always go back at them next round.

     Now you have taken care of your starting koku problem by adding three provinces to your income. You have also taken one of your enemies out of the way. Now you have Shimazu in the west and Oda in the east. You also do not need an army in all your provinces now to defend yourself. You can concentrate them at the borders and start building.

     Your initial solidifying strategy is not done however. It is wise to never fight on two fronts at once. Since Shimazu usually keeps his alliances and is busy fighting Imagawa its best to ally with him and expand into the east. Besides, there is more koku in the east then the west. So talk to Lord Shimazu and make peace with him, but before you do take Nagato from him. You will then control the entry point to the mainland. Shimazu will no longer have a foothold on your soil.

     Again, it is critical to win the battle at Aki. If you do not, the Takeda may just transport their Daimyo into the battle, and then the potential for gain is negligible.

Oda

     Clan Oda starts smack dab in the middle of Japan. To your west is Mori, and to the east are Imagawa, Uesugi, and Takeda and Hojo if their strategy early is to expand. Sprinkle in Ronin in the heart of your lands and to your north and you have a lot of enemies with many borders to defend. Basically I think you have to take a "eat or be eaten" approach with Oda. Clans like Hojo, Shimazu, and Uesugi have the option to tech up initially because they don't have too many defensible borders… for Oda this isn't really an option.

     Initially, and unknown to many players, Oda has a large koku output this is great for a quick and crippling attack to your enemies so you can expand your borders and gain a solid foothold in enemy lands early on.

     Paradigm Yari Ashigaru can be built cheaper with this clan and the longer the game drags on the less effective these units will be especially against naginata, no-dachi, and warrior monks. This is all the more reason to attack early and use the Ashi's to your advantage.

Initial Strategy

     First step I did with Oda was attack Imagawa's province of Mikawa. Taking this province early allows you to do two things: (1) You push Imagawa back and get the defensive advantage early on by controlling this territory. (2) You isolate your capital city of Owari by surrounding it with friendly territories. Move your Daimyo to 132,182. Fortify the province with Paradigm Yari Ashigaru, when their Daimyo comes to claim the province back, you can keep him outside Mikawa whitling away at the meat inside. Then simply attack the Daimyo with your Daimyo when he's out in the open. This will keep Imagawa out of your hair for a long time.

     At the same time I began to build castles in several provinces. Here's where I built the castles and why: (b1.) Mino - I plan to build an armory here later so this is a no brainer really. It's on my eastern front so I can attack northern and eastern provinces. (b2.) Kii - I plan to send troops westward to push Mori back and get their wonders. I also chose Kii because it has access to the sea which means I can build ships here later to take the Ronin island of Shikoku. Some may ask why I didn't choose Kawachi… my reasoning for this was because it is very close to Mori's borders thus the possibility of losing it early on was increased significantly.

     Build Samurai Archers now to compliment your abundant Ashigaru forces.

     While your castles are in production start moving your remaining forces to the western borders of Harima. Don't worry too much about the Ronin, they don't ever become expansion minded. Leaving one unit per province internally will suffice. I started loading up both Kawachi and Tamba with troops, this way I give Mori two targets to look at and if he decides to get greedy I'll drop in the back door and take Harima while he advances forward.

Imagawa

To all of the naysayers who claimed that this clan is no good… you should go back to playing Hojo and Shimazu where the strategy is simpler and where thinking is not a real necessity. Imagawa starts off split with decent koku producing provinces so they have several strategies that they can explore.

Initial Strategy

     With your eastern force attack Oda (Gold) almost immediately, because if you don't Oda will.

     Owari is a very koku rich province. Like all castled territories it is tough to take, especially if the attack-minded Oda is allowed to build up forces here. This was the first province that I attacked. From there I took out Mino, this is another area that is tough to take and easy to defend but Oda's Ashigaru should be no match for your Samurai.

     At this point you can hold these two areas and Oda should not be able to penetrate, slowly push him back. While attacking Oda try to make peace with Uesugi (Blue) and Takeda (Black). Takeda will most likely attack you anyway so go to Uesugi first with your offer. Either way, I suggest you take up defensive positions on your eastern front against both clans and wait for Hojo.

     On your western front build castles in your two starting provinces without castles so you can supply troops from here to your battle on the mainland.

     Shimazu (Green) will most likely start off making war on you especially since he has you surrounded and outnumbered. Build up forces here for several years and don't garrison any troops in the port city (Hizen) since it cannot be attacked unless one of the other two provinces fall or Shimazu brings in a boat. This is where Tsushima comes in. Have Tsushima build boats to protect Hizen from a rear attack.

     Once you build up enough forces split the Shimazu forces in half by attacking Bungo and Hizo. If you're fortunate enough they will try to take your province of Chikugo and then when they retreat you can take Bungo and Hizo almost at the same time. If they don't attack, take out whichever city looks most vulnerable first.

     After splitting these forces tighten the screws on green and simply divide and conquer the entire island. After you conquer Shimazu, defend the Northeast corner from Mori or Takeda and take over the "Australian looking" island Shikoku occupied by Ronin mostly. By this time your forces should sandwich Oda and you can concentrate on Mori, and Hojo most likely. At least you'll have the koku to be competitive.

Takeda

     No Bones about it, Clan Takeda is a warring clan. They love to fight and they are good at it. They have great generals and like to crush their enemies with there powerful cavalry. That's enough to scare me. Clan Takeda starts with a split empire. They have 3 territories in the west on the underside of the Mori Empire (Aki, Bingo, Bitchu). The other three territories lie in the highly contested eastern side of Japan (Kai, Izu, Sagami).

     Koku is a problem from the beginning for the Takeda Clan. This isn't that bad until you realize you need a sizable army to defend your split empire. However, Aki has silver deposits and Kai has gold deposits so that has the potential to add and extra koku per year, which is great.

     One thing you are given to help you with the split empire setup is 2 natural harbors, one in Aki and one in Sagami. They allow you to transport troops over seas between your territories in the west and the east. This takes the pressure off of needing to build up troop production in the west right off the bat.

     To help the army, Takeda gets to recruit and maintain cavalry right away, before the other clans. Cavalry is one of the most powerful units on the battlefield. The Yari Cavalry are the fastest unit in the game which is good for quick blitzes into thinly held territories. Cavalry archers make great defenders and Heavy Cavalry are the equivalent of tanks.

     The tough part about playing Takeda is the starting position. You have a split empire and no defensible territories. Every one of your territories has a hostile enemy clan on its border. Your starting army contains Cavalry which no other clan starts with so you have some power advantage there but you hardly have enough time or koku to build any more. Cavalry are not cheap. Your yearly income is not that spectacular to support the size army you will need.

Initial Strategy

     As always, start by trying to sure up some of the negatives just discussed. First is the split empire problem. You can try to maintain your entire empire if you want but I would not recommend it. So you should consolidate one of your 2 empires into a smaller area and just maintain it while you expand on the other front. Which to expand and which to consolidate is a tricky question in itself. However, capitalism should prevail in your thinking and you should choose to expand in the east and consolidate the west. The Mori lands in the west are worth very few koku each. This is not spectacular and will not even cover the cost of Yari Cavalry units spent taking it. So take your troops from Bitchu and move them to Bingo. Once Bingo is attacked move the troops there to Aki. This will be the western outpost you keep alive. It has a silver mine and Iron and Sand deposits for an armory.

     Although not an option in the singleplayer, in multiplayer PBEM it may be to your advantage to sell your western lands to Mori and transport your troops into your eastern lands. This will give you two things: 1) extra koku to spend on defending your new terrirtory 2)a consolidated and extremely strong army to advance with.

     Reguardless, you must take care of the koku problem facing your clan. Lord Takeda is a skilled general and his men are very powerful. Needless to say the best defense is a good offense when it comes to playing this clan. So attack and take what you need to survive. The best territory to take is Musashi without a doubt. It has the highest koku output in the game for a single territory. It is also a river province. This means 2 things: 1) it is very easy to keep once you have it and 2) it will be very hard to conquer if you don't do it in the first season. So there it is, take Musashi in the first season no matter what it takes. Take in all your force from Sagami and an extra Yari Samurai from Kai. Hojo defense in the start of the game is very weak despite their castles. So do it early and your set.

Uesugi

     Clan Uesugi is often described as a mediocre clan with a tough starting position and a long treacherous road ahead of them. This isn't true in the slightest bit. Uesugi starts off in the northeastern corner of Japan with what looks like the largest stretch of land out of all the clans. Their backs are against the coast, which is a great defensive position. Koku is also not a problem to start with as Uesugi lands are among the best farming lands in the country. Not to mention they sport a nice gold deposit in Dewa, which starts off completely isolated from enemies, and a silver deposit in Echigo which is easily defensible. Add to that a free 10 koku income per turn, you can see why they can get rich quick.

     A hidden treasure that most will overlook is the island of Sado. It can be used to build up a navy in secret and transport troops from the mainland of Uesugi to Ronin lands. Uesugi can grab the Ronin lands from the rear and surprise Oda with 4 more territories.

     To bolster their army Uesugi get a lot of samurai archers to begin with. The archer is no slouch on the battlefield.

     Now the one and only downfall I see with this clan is its starting land is so vast they do not have a big enough army to defend it at first. Hida and Shinano have Hojo, Takeda, Imagawa, Oda, and rebel states bordering it. With that kind of land to defend it would seem the Uesugi would spend most of the game defending the territory and building an army every turn they have. However, this need not be the case. First things first, take care of the negatives that face the Clan. Hida is an outlying territory for Uesugi and contributes only 120 Koku a season. 120 is not worth spreading your forces thin enough to save Hida. Shinano on the other hand produces 340 Koku and gets a +1 honor bonus to Cavalry units built there. However, it does have 9 borders to defend against 4 enemies, most of which you don't even need to be fighting now. So, I let Hida and Shinano go, abandoned them completely. This left me with 1580 Koku per year and a silver and gold mine bringing the total Koku to 2580! And the threat of having 4 different clans attacking your initial small army has now vanished. You have two real borders to defend, Mutsu and Echigo. Remember, Sado has very un-ambitious rebels on its border so only a few units will be needed to keep them at bay in the beginning. Echigo is a river territory so taking it from you will require a big army so that is a plus now.

Initial Strategy

     What to build with all the money? With out a doubt you will need to work those deposits in Dewa and Echigo. Moving extra peasants to these provinces is an excellent start.

     Shoot up and get the ability to build naginata. The naginata in my opinion are the best troop for this clan next to archers. They are cheap and good defenders early on. During these years however you need to produce Yari samurai and Archers in Mutsu to bolster your defenses in Echigo and especially Mutsu. In a few short years Hojo may start attacking Mutsu. Probably because of the pressure he is receiving from Takeda in the southwest.

     After the mines are built and you are producing naginata, you now have a clear picture of what you should build where. In Mutsu I produced nothing but Archers.

     From here start building up the structures in Mutsu. By getting the Ninja at this point you have the ability to start assassinating units. Being able to assassinate any high-level units such as Cavalry will make the game much easier. Shinobi are in valuable as my spies in Hojo territory. I always knew what he had in the surrounding provinces and what he was coming with when he was about to attack.

     At this point you can sit and wait while your army gets big and your enemies start killing each other, your ninja can always help in that role. Offensively speaking you don't have a lot, if you chose at this point you can start producing a few monk units. Or you could try to specialize in cavalry. When you start your expansion crusade you will need a few of these offensive units. Monks are the better choice than No-Dachi, however they are more expensive to get, but that may not be an issue with the income you will have from your farmlands and mineral deposits.