u/MnkeDug

The 3 bows on the lower wall never fired a single volley and never left the wall.

I was expecting them to pop off when I climbed into the tenshu from the "right", but they never did. I came in from the side and just let the timer run out instead of bothering with them.

If you look at the minimap you can see the units I have "pinning" the bows to the wall. It doesn't take that many, but I didn't need them to win after chewing up a the defense with my bows.

Here's my situation... (sort of following my recent update)

I succeeded in goading Ito into war after splitting them from Yamana. Ito is the light purple from Kyushu to Kyoto (basically). Yamana is the light yellow along the coast above them. Ito holds a good chunk of territory and I would like him weakened before RD. Or at least pushed away from me.

To that end, I took Harima off of him, raized the upgrades to the ground and have left it to rebel. That would become a buffer of sorts. Ito sent me a peace deal, so I could get "white peace" with him. That tells me I currently have the military upper hand. This means I could take more provinces off him, or get more to rebel. Either way.

Additionally I've allied with Yamana. My intent would be for him to join me against Ito so that I weaken both of them while I pivot to the end-game goals vs Kyoto.

Here's my problems:

1. Ito has 20 ships en route- 2 turns from hitting my main fleet and horse trade post. He has another 10 ships right behind them. I only have 20 ships in the area (not counting traders).

2. Yamana wants 11k koku to join the war against Ito. I have the money, but I don't know if it's worth it. He does have at least 16 ships near my horses. That would even the battle in the water.

3. Kitabatake is allied with Kyoto. This means if I push into RD against Kyoto I'll face an additional 2.5 armies that are already in a bad position for me. It'll cost me 3k to break them up. Kitabatake would ally with me for free, but I have a vassal right next to him. We know allies tend to ignore our ties to vassals. That said- I've already maxed my "betrayed allies" honour penalty.

If I take peace with Ito right now, he probably turns his ships around. But that doesn't leave him weak. I think I'd like him weaker. I don't know it's worth the 11k to get Yamana involved though. That's a lot of koku that could be spent on boats temporarily and more men to flood the zone around Kyoto. But you can see Yamana has an army in Wakasa right by my two main military provs. So getting him involved likely means his army moves away from my border.

My income per turn at this point is not exceptional (<3k), but Chonindo finishes next turn. I pull about 1500 in tarriffs, so that'll be a decent boost. I'd consider "Land Consolidation" farms, but those will take ~30 to BE in my VF 11* metsuke province.

I plan on being done in about 20 turns unless my war against Satomi in the North goes bad. I have ~7 armies that will surely take losses. That'll bring my income up while I recruit more men. I'm sitting on ~49k unless I pay Yamana to go to war.

A question may arise- why end the war with Ito right now? Why not push and rebel more provs, take Bizen for a smithy, etc? My plan was to pivot and smash Imagawa out of Kii and set Kawachi back to being rebel held. This would keep my armies around Kyoto so I could bring them in for that fight and then flood them back out at whoever is closest at that point to blitz to 25 provs.

In other words, I don't need his lands to win. If I have to potentially fight Kitabatake, I want my armies there.

This is in part my own analysis of the situation and wondering what others would do.

Thanks for reading!

Part 2 is here. The first set of pics is from Ito's "surprise" attack on my fort. My army was outside and that's why they are all tired. Got them in, yari wall walked over the flag til they mass routed. General got >500 kills. The heroic victory is probably because we were outnumbered- particularly the garisson. This was a refight. I could have taken the timer loss with my outside army intact, but I wanted to prove to myself I could beat their main/second armies to the fort and win.

The last 2 pics have most of the update info. Summer of 1561. I'm 2 turns from finishing the Nanban port in Echizen. I have no intention of converting, but hey... guns amirite? I'll have enough buddha and monk to keep them in line.

I have ~6.5 army stacks plus 3.5 vassal armies. Vassaled Takeda- I cornered him into Kozuke (need it to win). Not sure how long that will last with the -150ish relations. I dropped my alliance with Date so I could make more vassals on the northern front and not worry about conflict of interest.

Income is okay. It dropped ~1k/turn as I've got a half-dozen bow monks to spread to my armies and a few gold armour warrior monks on the way. Capital is still in Kaga. I was trying to support a vassal taking Echigo (also need), but I'll have to fight 2 Satomi stacks at a bridge waiting on his ass. (last pic)

I'm getting close to tipping over fame Realm Divide (80-85ish). I'm trying to weaken some of the surrounding clans first so I don't have quite the flood of enemies. I also want to be in position to blitz to getting 25 provinces once RD starts happening.

May your armies sweep across the land!

(this is from my first Leg win almost 15 years ago!)

Background: This is the campaign I've been updating along the way.

I've been off and on war with Takeda a few times now. Each time I've beaten him down, I've taken his money and gone about my business. I have 1-2 vassals that he has to get through to get to me and I chose to defend them. Usually. Basically it's an excuse to get xp on my units and money out of Takeda.

This time I decided to see if he'd agree to be my vassal and he does.

To be clear: I don't want this. I don't want his lands. I just want him to keep paying out like a chump. I'm sure Hojo/Imagawa would declare war on him in a heartbeat if he became my vassal. This also would take him out of war with Date for a hot minute.

I'm allied with Date. This goes against my own advice about NOT mixing vassals with clan allies btw, but since I haven't done it for a decade or so, I figured why not experience the pain again... Date gives zero f*cks about whether someone is my vassal. It is what it is.

Maybe some day I'll go back in time and not ally with Date- if I have a save that makes sense.

Anyway. I probably won't take Takeda on as a vassal. I just thought I would share.

This is on VH- only mods are kisho fix, and cosmetics/camera (ie nothing that matters). I ended up not wiping out this army- even though I thought it would. Luckily they didn't run far. This allowed me to take Kenshin and a couple units and get a star.

Here's the choice... +1 morale on all units under command, or +2 happiness in provinces where he is. Normally I would take the morale, but I could see how +2 happiness could help at least short term when cleaning up Ikko's mess.

On the other hand, +1 morale (on top of his +1 for Enjoys a Drink) makes for a pretty solid boost to ashigaru early on until I get tech and building upgrades to rank/morale rolling. I usually take this and probably will again.

I haven't actually played a real game in a while beyond doing a bunch of testing and review, so it was nice to bang out an opening battle.