Chapter 12   Kaga and Noto

Year 1548 has come. WIth Takeda expelled to the barren land of Noto and Hojo shattered into pieces, we had a peaceful new year. Sagami surrendered to our troops last winter, with no resistance.

As planned, now we aim for Kaga. The watcher tower reveals that the army in Kaga increases every month, as well as all previously Hojo ronin provinces - the horde is still here, getting bigger and bigger. We counted the monks left in the province of Kaga -- 509 (!), mostly with decent honor of 2 or 3. To the worse, a rank 3 general pops up in the castle of Kaga, which means we will be facing some rank 4 monks.

That's why Takeda failed, even with the life of the rank 6 legendary Takeda Shingen with 2000 hordes. Full of highlands and forests, calvary are of little use. Besides, all other troops collapse before warrior monks in the forest.

To prepare for the assault of Kaga, we got the daimyo, 47 win - 0 loss Oda Nobuhide himself, while his heir Nobuhiro will help defend Shinano for a while. We also designed a special army for the assault, probably the hardest battle so far.

1548 Summer

Budda's Compassion

Since cavalry becomes trash in the forests, we must counter monks using monks. Drawing all available monks in the nearby 3 provinces, we gathered a group of 8 H4 monks, 7 H4+ archers, a total number of 737 plus our legendary H9 daimyo. The plan goes: we shoot, we flank, we chase.

After a long march to the high ground, we sighted the enemy hidden in the forest near the edge. The peak (where the camera stands) is an ideal place for the archers to shoot, while there are 3 directions for our monks to flank. A good start.

The enemy starts shooting at us as we approached the forest. Once all of our monks in position, we ordered a full-scale attack from the 3 sides. The archers rout in no time, yet there were quite a lot of monks in the forests - especially one blocking 2 groups from the left completely - they fought until only 4 left.

This leaves our right flank surrounded by the enemies in the forests. They fell one by one, but they did't waver. The lasted till the other three groups got in the forests, and the same time the enemy collapsed.

The rank 3 enemy Taisho was destroyed. But we were not too happy - monks are famous for their independence even if there is no general.

The enemy reinforcement of monks and no-dachis appeared one after one, just beside the battlefield forest. They arrived a little late, and our archers and monks had been there waiting for their arrival. One monk group fought till 1 left, while No-dachis rout in no time even before any contact!

No more reinforcement. However, the battle hasn't finished after some waiting. We soon realized that there should be far more monks than we had met. Should be 509, while we only fought about 4 or 5 groups of 40 - 60.  About half of the monks were still alive - the only possibility being the forest on the west.

Good. We shoot, we flank.

Monks were really good in hiding. We had to move the daimyo really close to the forest to actually see the monks inside. As soon as they are on the visual, our archers started working. One after one they fell down. After a while, they lost patience and rushed out of the forests - 3, 4, 5... oh no! still many groups of monks!!

We flanked them using all the monks left (actually their monk number was greater than ours), but we had no fear. Our daimyo charged into the terrible horde, and he soon got in danger in front of the monks again, after this long 19 years. His bodyguard all died, while at the same time we degenerated these furious foes.

Well, not all belivers are faithful. One group of 35 monks didn't join the fight from the beginning (thanks Budda! or we might have lost), and they tried to run away after seeing their comrades got destroyed. We rushed the entire troop towards it, killing 34 of it. There last guy certainly should join the 800m splint in Olympic games, but we have got archers waiting on the other side.

The expensive victory was finally ours. We lost 55% of the monks brought on the battle field, killing 63% of the enemy with half of them monks. One of our monk groups gave all their lives on the battlefield. It was indeed one of the toughest battles in the war story of Oda. 

Yet, we shoot, we flank, we chase, we win.

The same season (summer 1548), the famous general of Shibata Katsuie (known as the No.1 Taisho in the Oda Clan) assaulted the long-standing castle of Izu. The arrows of the enemy were so effective again, but we saved the time of 3 more seasons of siege.

Kaga is now ours, and we don't want to finish Takeda till next spring. Oda Nobuhide quickly re-organized his army and marched onto the last province of Takeda - Noto. We numbered 773, the enemy 778.

1548 Autumn

The End of Takeda

Noto is mostly flat land, which is ideal for cavalry. Therefore, we added 5 groups of silver-shielded yari samurai as well as two groups of yari cavalry, fresh recruitment from Hida. This is also the first appearance of horses in Oda Clan.

Takeda Nobutora, the daimyo of Takeda clan, first marched his archers to challenge us. At the same time, Oda Nobuhide divided the army into two. Both flanks with SA, YS, and the Shock troop of monks (left) and cavalry (right).

The enemy did not have the courage to charge towards us at all. Our two flanks finally meet each other, and Takeda Nobutora has become the tiger in the cage (his name "tora" means tiger).

Nobutora bravely charged into our YC, giving his life. A glorious death of an daimyo, much greater than the poor luck of Mori Motonari, the cowardness of Shimazu Takahisa, the stupidity of Imagawa Yoshimoto, and the stubborness of Hojo Ujitsuna.

Without a castle, the remaining 40% of the Takeda army shattered.

That's the end of the once-glorious clan of Takeda. They took over the lands of Imagawa, but soon lost to Oda in the turning point of Shinano, where Oda Nobuhide surprisely assaulted with a monk rush. The loss of Takeda Shingen marked the doom of Takeda. As he probably gave his life to the monstrous monks of Kaga, we now have revenged for him. Not too hard to realize how he could lose.

With Takeda defeated, now we can concentrate on the former lands of Hojo. The normal harvest in 1548 granted us the army required for the coming huge battles against the Hojo ronins. They do grow larger and larger - troops keep popping out in the castle, several of them rank 2 generals...

Yet we are not afraid. More battles with the hordes!