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Let's Play Total War: Shogun 2

C#1 Chosokabe Spring 1545 1.1

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The year is 1545 and the major clans of Japan are locked in near constant conflict to determine who will dominate the nation with the Ashikaga shogunate in decline. It will become known as the Sengoku Jidai or otherwise known as the Age of Warring States. A conflict that in OTL that lasted from 1467 to 1600. Though perhaps in this Let's Play it will end early. Well hopefully.


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Anyway, on with the show! So first I got three choices to make. Which clan I want to play as, difficulty and length of campaign. For difficulty I pick Easy, as I haven't played a game like this in a long time and well I need to git gud again. For length of campaign I decided to go for Domination campaign both for its length and to balance out a little bit me choosing an Easy difficulty. For clan I pick Chosokabe not for any reason besides their first option available and also an easy beginning. They also have benefits like the other clans. These include reduced recruitment costs and upkeep for bow infantry, the ability to recruit superior bow infantry and as well increased income from farms.


So with those choices made, now a little info about the Chosokabe clan. The clan claims descent the Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Though despite such a lofty claimed lineage the clan fell onto hard times and had to seek protection under the Ichijo family. That time weakness is over under the rule of Chosokabe Kunichika who rebuilt the clan and rose up against the Ichijo clan and driving them west claiming the province of Tosa. Though the remains of the Ichijo are not the only threat to the Chosokabe. To the northwest, the Kono clan of Iyo see an opportunity in the strife to their south to claim Tosa and have dispatched an army to conquer it. They however underestimate the Chosokabe and me.





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So with the clans pertinent to the current situation discussed, let's take a look at the one province under my rule Tosa and my starting forces and resources. It covers the entire southern coast of Shikoku and is a moderately wealthy province with average soil and plentiful wood. The latter making a good location for ship building. So I have a total of 600 troops at the beginning of Spring 1545. 570 under the command of Kira Masayo and the remaining 30 in the capital with Daimyo Chosokabe Kunichika. I as well have 4000 Koku and to get about 1309 when Spring ends. Not a bad starting position, though I can improve it. So first I buy irrigated fields for my farms which will give me two extra food and 400 plus more farm income.


Next up I upgrade the trails to roads, which gives a speed boost to my troops when done and finally I start construction of a harbor for my coastal town which will give me a possible trade route, boost to pop growth, the ability to build one ship at a time and to replenish naval units. I have spent about two thirds of my money but it's a good investment. After that I purchase a basic spearmen and as well a basic archer unit. Both of which will be available at the beginning of the next turn. With that finished I march my under Kira west to finish off the Ichijo.



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Well this battle will heavily be in favor of my forces. Which is great news for me. Not so much for the Ichijo. So with that in mind I autoresolve what will be known as the Battle of Tosa Fields. I get a Decisive Victory, though it cost me almost twenty percent of my army. Obviously things turned out way worse for the Ichijo who have been reduced from 315 soldiers to only 78. What remains of their forces flee a little bit west but my army quickly follows them and attacks again.


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This time I suffered barely any losses and the entire enemy force is wiped out to the last man including Ichijo Fusamoto. With that the Ichijo are gone and all of Tosa is mine. We also get our first divergence from OTL due to my general Kira Masayo living while in OTL he died during the Battle of Tosa Fields. Hopefully he'll keep giving me victories and not die in the very next battle. With my province secured for the moment I march my army back to the capital to replenish it's ranks and soon enough face the coming Kono army. Who will hopefully just be a speed bump to my road to greatness.

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Hah, you went the easy route. The tosa are fairly strong so you will have a fairly safe route to power until the realm divide or whatever the name was kicks in.
 
Damnable chosokabe archers.

They are pretty strong on the offense.

But the otomo still outdo them. At the very early game they get the matchlock ashigaru, which on the deffensive battles will murderize morale with 2-3 salvos. And latter in that early game they can pretty much get the portuguese tercos, which are basically katana samurai with the second bestest guns (behind only the hero gun unit, and are like 40 vs 120). Oh, and they get to mass produce the black ships.
 
They are pretty strong on the offense.

But the otomo still outdo them. At the very early game they get the matchlock ashigaru, which on the deffensive battles will murderize morale with 2-3 salvos. And latter in that early game they can pretty much get the portuguese tercos, which are basically katana samurai with the second bestest guns (behind only the hero gun unit, and are like 40 vs 120). Oh, and they get to mass produce the black ships.
Yeah, fun. Also, gun units -when properly supported- murderize everything in their path. I've seen games where a properly supported matchlock ashigaru unit simply went to town. Seriously went to town. Some Yauri to keep that calvary away and you're golden unless your opponent outnumbers you by job lots.

Then again, I have all the DLC for this game and it can get... fun... at times.
 
Oh damn, Chosokabe huh? Archers.

Otomo can be particularly hard because you really need to do conversions as you conquer, but Chosokabe is literally located in the worst position (IMO) of the game, Shikoku just isn't a good place to start.

Well, I wish you the best of luck. This is going to be an interesting one.
 
FotS is pretty interesting as a whole, as it's the closest thing to the Russo-Japanese War and WW1 as we can get.
Agreed. From the late ACW and upward, it is harder to reconcile the traditional Total War 'fight in tight square formations' system and skirmish lines which were how soldiers actually fought despite the meme and historical misconceptions.
 
Agreed. From the late ACW and upward, it is harder to reconcile the traditional Total War 'fight in tight square formations' system and skirmish lines which were how soldiers actually fought despite the meme and historical misconceptions.
And now that I think of it, there is that problem of 'modern artillery getting a too powerful' issue. Like, FOTS has only foot artillery with extremely limited mobility and without special ammunitions like cannister or incendiary, and they still murder around half of the enemy/friendly casualties if you check post-battle score.
 
And now that I think of it, there is that problem of 'modern artillery getting a too powerful' issue. Like, FOTS has only foot artillery with extremely limited mobility and without special ammunitions like cannister or incendiary, and they still murder around half of the enemy/friendly casualties if you check post-battle score.
Actually, you can get shrapnel shot for foot arty... but you can only get three charges for it.
 
Yeah, but even with that limitation, artillery in FOTS is ridiculously lethal, with the exception of wooden cannon.
Yeah, with the 'blood and gore' DLC it gets... sickening. Going up against Warring States/Rise of the Samurai units just turns the entire battlefield into pure unrelenting carnage, and that is before you start adding stuff like Darth mod...
 
Yeah, with the 'blood and gore' DLC it gets... sickening. Going up against Warring States/Rise of the Samurai units just turns the entire battlefield into pure unrelenting carnage, and that is before you start adding stuff like Darth mod...
Another issue, I think, is that the battlefield got larger and large since the Napoleonic War, beyond the scope of what is possible with the Total War system. Relatively small map size is probably also connected to why the artillery is so lethal in FOTS.
 
Another issue, I think, is that the battlefield got larger and large since the Napoleonic War, beyond the scope of what is possible with the Total War system. Relatively small map size is probably also connected to why the artillery is so lethal in FOTS.
Yeah, Armstrong guns simply wreck face because they basically have a range of 'yes'...
 
Yeah, Armstrong guns simply wreck face because they basically have a range of 'yes'...
I don't think I actually used Armstrong that much in campaign... Parrott is capable of wrecking everything already, so I felt few needs for more expensive Armstrong.
 
I don't think I actually used Armstrong that much in campaign... Parrott is capable of wrecking everything already, so I felt few needs for more expensive Armstrong.
The RoF is better and in my experience, they're great for shelling fortifications. They also do better against unit blobs too... also in my experience.
 
The RoF is better and in my experience, they're great for shelling fortifications. They also do better against unit blobs too... also in my experience.
True, but I always preferred line infantry-type units/Parrott mix because they are only somewhat less lethal than the higher-tier equivalents while being cheaper.
 
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