STW War Story II - Imagawa's Struggle
Chapter 8 Elegy in Shikoku
Mori eliminated, the region of Chukoku is left with small individual forces waiting to be conqurered. What worried Lord Imagawa more was Shimazu - who took northern Kiushu from us.
Lord Shimazu Takahisa had gathered a force of 3000 before our arrival on Shikoku (4 countries). With our stand in Awa, we wonder which provine is Shimazu drooling on - is that the poorly defended ronin province Sanuki, or the heavily guarded province of Tosa, by the rank 5 general Chosokabe Motochika? Anyways, our force is not sufficient to challenge Tosa. But we can grab Sanuki. The rank 4 swordsman general of Nagai Ujisada was incharge of this easy mission
1540 Spring
Sanuki: A Time to Stab
The answer to the previous question was: BOTH. Lord Shimazu emptied Iyo, and attacked Sanuki and Tosa at the same time! Before the result of the tough fight in Tosa was known, three forces will struggle on the relatively flat land of Sanuki. The allied force of Imagawa-Shimazu numbered 772 and 540, while the local defense force only numbered 240.
Well, we rather took it as 772 vs. 760.
Waiting the Shimazu army to do the killing first, we followed them closely, but always falling a little behind. The army of Shimazu was led by an ashigaru general of 0 flag (should be a HO), so he will be our first target, once the ronin force has been destroyed. General Nagai also secretly assigned the job share - all of our units will be used to take care of each of Shimazu's, some flank, some back-attack.
The naive Shimazu army soon charged towards the ronins. Although they appeared to lose at the beginning, soon their number provided the advantage and the enemy general started to flee!
Yes - if we let the enemy general flee out of the battlefield, then this battle is over. We didn't expect the enemy general to flee this early, so our troops were not in position yet - but what the heck! We now declare war on Shimazu - revenge for the northern 3 provinces of Kiushu!
In a sudden, the battlefield is in a chaos. All units are scattered here and there. Roughly we were winning, as Shimazu already lost quite a bit fighting ronin...
The enemy Taisho was soon surrounded by our ashigaru of 2 times the size, but they also had a group of YS. Before the flank arrives our ashigaru were losing badly, but now we got him in the horde.
However, the ronin general, once fleeing near the exit, has come back and attacked us!
With the cost of 3 ashigaru units, we killed the enemy taisho of Shimazu! KO 1!
We also got the rebel force general, KO 2!
Although not achieving a good kill rate, we destroyed both ronin and Shimazu. According to the log file, the kills were:
Ronin: Kill 184, Killed 185/240 (77%)
Shimazu: Kill 351, Killed 442/540 (82%)
Imagawa: Kill 297, Killed 205/772 (27%)
Obviously, Shimazu has been fully utilized and finally discarded. It was a good time to stab!
1540 Summer
Tosa: Worn Down
On the other hand, Lord Shimazu had an absolute numerical advantage (roughly 2500), and finally defeated Chosokabe's 1000 (estimate). However, they also suffered heavy losses of at least 1000. Their units sizes should be smaller now - and we have a good chance to win! The other good news was the rebellion of Iyo - just after Lord Shimazu and his army left, a fairly large revolt happened in Iyo. Knowing that Lord Shimazu must draw back some forces to keep Iyo, the defense army in Tosa will be weaker even.
So Imagawa Ujizene, the Rank 4 heir of Yoshimoto, gladly acccepted this mission - the third tough task he received.
Lord Shimazu indeed drew back some force, leaving 933 in Tosa, facing our 821.
A rainy day, we gain more protection from enemy arrows, but also gets tired more easily in this hilly province. The enemy camped on the mountain, and we had to figure out a way to go around.
ALthough we managed to sneak into their back, Lord Shimazu had led all his soldiers to hide in another place - a forest on the right. He also sent a few groups of suicide units - as long as they are close to us they rout, but they are still approaching - bcz we are right on their routing track! So why exactly is he sending suicidal troops like that?
Soon we discovered Lord Shimazu's plot - to wear us down before the last fight! Shimazu had a total of 9 reinforcing units. We will either run out of time or energy. Therefore, Imagawa Ujizene ordered all soldiers march ahead, towards the forest! Soon all of our soldiers rushed into the forest, preparing to take down Lord Shimazu's heavy cavalry inside. However, we were fighting uphill, and our ashigaru could not stand for too long
Marched more than half of the map with their wet armor, our soldiers got tired soon - but Lord Shimazu was there still. Suddenly we heard a bad news - Imagawa Ujizene has abandoned his men and routed! What a shame to a heir.
We withdrew without too heavy extra losses - that was already 60% of the troops. We also brought down 330 of Shimazu, meaning that we will be able to take it down easier next time, same as we did in Kaga. The third defeat since our campaign started - we were too used to instant victory due to the enemy's stupidity.
To completely seal off Lord Shimazu from Kiushu, Nagai Ujisada attacked Iyo in autumn, with his 636 men.
Lord Shimazu discovered our purpose, and marched almost all the army from Tosa to Iyo - another decent fight with lord Shimazu, the army head count was 636 (Imagawa) vs. 781 (Shimazu).
1540 Autumn
Tosa castle is still undersiege. The number of Shimazu soldiers has be reduced to under 1000 due to both our failed assault of Tosa as well as the revolt in Iyo - Shimazu took it down successfully, but quite costy. After the battle of Sanuki, general Nagai Ujisada also obtained fresh reinforcement from the northeast. We should wait nolonger but to attack Shimazu - now they cannot leave Tosa, while their Iyo defense is weak. If we can take Iyo, then Lord Shimazu will be trapped in Tosa - easier to bring him down in Shikoku than in Kiushu!
Looks like Shimazu Takahisa had anticipated our moves. Drawing all avilable men from Tosa, the rest of the 3000 Shimazu soldiers now rushed to protect Iyo - a battle of 636 (Imagawa) vs 781 (Shimazu). Again we were numerically inferior - but this time we shall not repeat our errors to tire our troops before the total engagement!
Iyo: The Toll
Shimazu Takahisa sit his army on the slop of the right. To remove the height disadvantage, we marched our soldiers onto the mountain on the right as well. Soon Shimazu moved away - looks like they were trying to repeat the tactics in Tosa! Well, not much choice, we followed.
Same as last time, they sent suicidal troops over. This time we didn't tire the entire army - we let the right flank YA and YC to handle - one after one they perish. The rest of our soldiers were still not too tired (but were quite tired already, just climbing halfway of this mild mountain for once!)
As the reinforcement of Shimazu appeared, we didn't let the YA and YC to handle - they will be too tired and probably waver before reaching them. Pulling them back to the right flank, we started marching the samurais forward, with the coverage of arrows. Lord Shimazu was involved at the center. Now it was the time for our left flank-YA to do their job!
The yari cavalry, rushed back several steps earlier than Shimazu's reinforcement (totally 3 groups), had a devastating effect on the morale of the enemy on the right. They ran away, and now we change left.
However, at this moment our soldiers also started to waver. The swordsman general Nagai Ujisada can no longer stay at the back shooting. He marched his troops to the front, encouraging the fighters - and suddenly the wavering disappeaered!
We got Lord Shimazu under the yari! The enemies rout immediately, and now we chase them!
Killing 76% of Shimazu's army led by the daimyo himself, we terminated Shimazu, right on the island of Shikoku (4 countries). Now they disappear, returned to the sky where they come from - yet the army carrying the color of sky prevailed. 3000 Shimazu troops onto the land of Shikoku, 1000 killed by Chosokabe of Tosa, 1500 killed by Imagawa, and 500 by the revolt. The entire horde vanished in merely 2 seasons.
Shikoku is almost ours, and the campaign of Yoshimoto in Chukoku hasn't encountered any formal resistance. Only the army of thunder survived after these 11 years of intense warfare - now we should grab the whole Japan even faster!
