STW War Story II - Imagawa's Struggle

Chapter 2     The Army of Thunder

    Carrying the color of sky, our army destroyed the clan of Oda and Takeda in two seasons. We, the Imagawa clan, had established the absolute dominace of northern-central Japan.  However, we are still threatened by the rich enemies of Uesugi and Hojo, who are taking the rivers in Echigo and Musashi for defense.

    After the intense battles in the first three seasons, the reinforcement from Kiushu became insufficient to garrison the newly acquired territories. The young lord Imagawa, now 12, generously promised the peasants that the tax rates will be kept lowest for the coming two years! 

    This also implies that we will have more battles to fight in the immediate future.

    Lord Imagawa did not take a rest. He marched troops into Izu in the winter of 1530, as the Takeda clan only left a small number of defense army. His plan was to quickly grab both Izu and Sagami before the army of Hojo stepped in.

    On the west, Uesugi still holds their last stand among our lands, the Hida province in the deep mountains. Again, Nagai Ujisada the swordsman general was ordered to assault Hida, not wasting any time.

Winter 1530

Hida: Chase to the Edge of Sky

The Uesugi army was led by a new general, one day new.  The original general died the night before, bloodily murdered by our man of shadow. 

The army ratio was 205 : 119, we had both numerical and morale advantage. As our men bravely stepped forward in the enemy's arrow, the enemy could do nothing but to fall back, faster and faster. 

Finally, the enemy reached the edge of the map, also the edge of sky.  No place to run, they were surrounded, killed to the last 10 men. 92% of kill that was. General Nagai Ujisada, a nobody one year ago, now has been raised to rank 3. One of the fastest promotions in the history.

The Izu ronins left from Takeda retreated before the arrival of our daimyo. The ronins now rally in the province of Sagami, with 240 men led by a fairly good general, Miyoshi Muneharu. Obviously, this is not enough to stop Imagawa Yoshimoto. As soon as the folks finished their low-tax new year celebrations, the swifit army of Imagawa marched  302 men onto the province of Sagami in summer, 1531.

Summer 1531

Sagami: Natural Prey

The enemy was primarily horses, 1 YC, 2 CA, and 1 YS. As long as our Yari Samurais hold the line, we should be able to crush the enemy instantly. The rebels soon realized this, and moved their cavalry archers to the front, starting an archery duel with our H5 elite.

The duel was a total failure for the enemy. Realizing this, soon they pulled back the heavily damaged riding archers. This is the time for our yari samurais to march forward. 

The rebels, led by the rank 2 general, were still organized. They retreated onto a hill where we had no other choice but to march the yari samurais up. We planned a flank, but the enemy charged down first. We were forced to fight uphill, yet the cavalry was still the natural prey of our long spears. With a hold formation command, our man had minimal damage. The enemy cavalry could advance any further.

Encouraged by the daimyo himself, our yari samurais finally repelled the charge of the cavalry. As soon as we took the head of their general, the rest of their men quickly retreated.

Due to their  supreme mobility, the enemy was able to rally soon after. However, they had no chance to prevail in front of the well-orgniazed Imagawa soldiers, marching forward as a wave of thunder. Only 1/3 of the enemy escaped eventually.

The wave of thunder did not stop. With no rest as usual, Lord Imagawa led the army of Kai and Sagami into Hojo's Musashi. The rich river province is not heavily defended, and we should wait no longer!

Autumn 1531

Musashi: Blitzkrieg 

The man of shadow again showed their power. Before our army stepped into Musashi, two of the generals in charge of Musashi defense had been assassinated. Rumors spread out in Musashi that the general leading the defense of Musashi is cursed by the Budda.

The battle then became a ratio of 285 (Imagawa) - 178 (Hojo).  Lightning flashes in the sky - a perfect chance for our yari samurais to advance over the bridge! The army of thunder is now aided by the sky.

The enemy's arrows didn't even touch us - and those who tried to block our passage over the bridge gave up their hope upon the sight of our daimyo.

Maybe the shortest bridge battle in Imagawa's war history was achieved. Only died 15, we killed 42. The province of Hojo Musashi is ours!

Winter 1531

    The harvest of 1531 was normal, in the lowest tax rate as Lord Imagawa had announced. With their previous ruler forgotten, peasants had no intention for revolts.  We left no garrison in most newly acquired provinces - well we don't have enough soldiers to do so. Maybe it is the time to strengthen the defense...

    Our clan again had 2000+ koku to spend. As the castle of Mino has been finished, we started building a spear dojo.  A castle in Shinano and a tea house in Kai (last year we abandoned the plan due to insufficient koku) are also now under construction.

    With the gain of Musashi, we detected the activities of Uesugi and Hojo emissaries. Lord Imagawa soon ordered the assassination of the two. One corpse was found on the street, and the other one in his own room inside the enemy's castle. In the near future, the Uesugi and Hojo can cannot ally to fight against Imagawa.

Spring 1532

    The army of thunder never rests for too long. As soon as the reinforcement from the south (Owari and Totomi) has arrived, lord Imagawa again made a bold move - charge into the province of Hojo daimyo, Shimozuke. Another surprise, yet the enemy daimyo retreated in advance.

A good chance - Hojo Ujitsuna retreated to Kozuke, now he has no place to run! Drawing the maximum troops available, the army of Shimozuke, Musashi, and Shinano joined in Kozuke! The Hojo clan's daimyo is now in our trap! 

The same time, Hojo attacked Shimozuke from the east, and the Hojo daimyo dared to split some of his army in Kozuke to take Musashi! Now the defense of Kozuke is even weaker. We were delighted to see the battle of Kozuke come first - this way even if we lost Musashi and Shimozuke, the Hojo clan would disappear as well.

Summer 1532

Kozuke: The Shadow Daimyo

To our greatest disappointment, the Hojo clan had released false information. Their daimyo had actually fled to Musashi with his elite army, while the one we saw in Kozuke, leading 274 vs. our 510, was just a fake daimyo...

(p.s. It was common in Senkoku Jidai for a daimyo to pick a few shadow daimyos who have a similar appearance of him. The enemy on the battlefield usually got the wrong target, as well as the ninjas are confused. Well --- in STW, we rather call this a bug, since on the snapshot we clearly see the Hojo daimyo is in Kozuke.)

We expressed our frustration with the rage. We spread out our archers, raining arrows into the forests where the enemy was hidden. Their archers dared walk out of the forest - but perished very soon.

The rest of the enemy retreated after seeing their archerers ended up a group of hedgehogs. Finally they hid in a forests on a distant peak. Our yari samurai surrounded the mountain, while their archers delivered their last effort of resistance. Regardless the arrows from the above, we marched up. The enemy escaped from the forest, intercepted by our right flank.

The battle was won very easily - but to our dismay the Hojo daimyo had escaped!

Musashi: Blocking the Daimyo

The defending army in Musashi was a small number - only 103 of us, two groups of yari samurais, now against the enemy daimyo's 191. Being inferior in both number and honor, we also had no arrows to beat the enemies on the bridge. However, there is still some hope - too expensive to give away. If we successfully defend Musashi, Hojo Ujisuna will have nowhere to flee.

We spread the two groups of yari sumaris to an angle that was more perpendicular to the river. This way we can hopefully wrap up the enemy daimyo if he carelessly cross the bridge first - and possibly kill him.

Yet, Hojo Ujisuna was not this confident, after seeing the army of thunder in action. He sent all of his soldiers through the bridge first, even including all the archers. No, we cannot give up.

Charge! The two brave groups of our soldiers charged towards the enemy archers just crossing the bridge!

Well, under the honor inferiority, even our yari samurai was no match of enemy's archers - from winning easily, suddenly evenly matched, finally losing badly. As the enemy daimyo came onto the bridge, we realized that we had lost.

The first defeat of Imagawa - yet we tried our best to block the daimyo of Hojo. We lost 92 men, almost 90% of the defending army of Musashi.

On the other hand, the Nagai Ujisada army of Shimozuke was outnumbered, 132 to 222. We will not sacrifice our men pointlessly - therefore we retreated.

We won't let the Hojo daimyo take back Musashi this easy - also we do not have soldiers to defend Kai and Sagami. Imagawa Yoshimoto rushed his army back to Musashi immediately. The 3rd Musashi battle took place in Autumn, 1532.

Autumn 1532

Our revengence has not over yet - the man of shadow killed the rank 1 general of Hojo in Shimozuke (a victory due to our retreat). His easy victory now pays off. 

Again, we see the works of Hojo's shadow daimyos. On the same time their daimyo appeared in Shimozuke and Musashi. So which one is real?

Well, Murphey's Law applied 400 years ago, too. Of course he is not in the province we want him to be in.

Musashi: Army of Thunder Returns

Exactly one year later, the army of Imagawa stepped onto the bridge of Musashi. Covered by the thunder, we marched forward like the lightning itself. The enemy had only 3 groups of ashigaru - doomed from the beginning.

The ashigaru could do nothing but retreat. Their general was more incompetent than we had expected. We killed his entire unit to 1 person left, without any casaulty!

Musashi was returned to Imagawa now. Another swift victory in this river province - two successful crossings, we lost only 20!

The harvest of 1932, under the mercy of lord Imagawa, was normal under the lowest tax rate again. The spear dojo in Mino had completed, so we now have three troop-generating facilities in total (Owari - YA, Mino YS, Totomi - SA). The tea house in Kai was also completed. An armoury was then started in Mino.

Looking back the past two years, we swiped through the previous provinces of Takeda, invaded the lands of Hojo, and barely got their daimyo. The Hojo clan is in deep trouble now, becauase the bold Uesugi clan has also advanced to their back - Hitachi!

From 1530 to 1532, Imagawa has expanded from 6 to 15 provinces - averagely of 1 province each season. Our territories in Kiushu had not yet taken by the Shimazu - a truly defensive, peace loving green force.

So, what will be our goal next year? Will our Lord Imagawa show Hojo and Uesugi the power of the army of thunder once more?