Chapter 7   Western Imagawa

As Shimazu collapsed into pieces after the sudden death of Shimazu Takahisa, we, the Oda clan are now able to concentrate on the Imagawa forces of northern Kiushu (the 9 states) island.

The three provinces of Imagawa consists of Hizen on the west, Chikuzen on the north, and river province Chikugo on the south. AI had quite large garrisons (around 1000 men) in both Chikuzen and Chikugo. Our only contacted province was Chikuzen.

In Spring 1540, Oda Nobuhide formally declared war to Imagawa, marching his full foce into the province of Chikuzen.

However, Imagawa also planned an attack themselves - their targe was the former Shimazu province Bungo, south to Buzen. As our large army marched into Chikuzen, the province was almost emptied as to Bungo, where they won the battle with quite heavy losses.

1540 Summer

Sneakers

So now Oda Nobuhide is surrounded by Hizen, Chikugo, and Bungo with roughly 1.5 times of Imagawa army. In case the Bungo army invades Buzen, we would be isolated on the island of Kiushu. If we want to attack, we better strengthen our back first - Bungo. In order to defend Chikuzen, Oda Nobuhide left half of his army and attack the province of Bungo with some elite troops: 3 H3+ Samurai Archers, 2 H3 Warrior Monks, and 3 H2+ Yari Samurai-s. The enemy had a numerical advantage, 556 : 432.

Out of our expectation, Imagawa Ujizane, the heir of Imagawa clan launched a total assault to Chikuzen as our daimyo left the province. The army in Chikuzen was outnumbered (1:2). The defending army had neither honor nor number, so we retreated.

Back to Bungo, summer of 1540. Soon we sited the relatively large Imagawa army sitting on our left on the slope. As usual, we will climb up the mountain before their archer was even close to reach us. The sneaking was quite a success, thanks to large hill in between blocking their view. When the Imagawa army noticed our presence, we were almost on the top of this large hill.

The Imagawa armies started shooting at us. Oda Nobuhide forced his men to ignore the fire, and keep marching till they occupy the high grounds completely. As soon as our archers in position, our fighters charging down at once with Yari samurais for the frontal assault, and monks wrapping from the even higher grounds on the west (the screen shot is taken from the eye of one of the monks).

Although one of our Yari Samurai groups got outnumbered by 4 times of its size, they refused to surrounder and kept fighting. The monks and the other YS decimated the enemy ruthlessly. Soon the new enemy general turned around and ran for his life.

Killing 60% of the enemy, we only had one-fifth of the casaulties they did. The monks did great in their first battle! The brave YS unit was also wonderful.

Hearing that Chikuzen was lost again, Oda Nobuhide realized almost all of Imagawa's forces now concentrate in Chikuzen, leaving Chikugo defendless. However, attacking Chikugo will make even more province exposed, so the decision was to challenge Imagawa's whole western army directly in Chikuzen, hoping some of them will move back to Chikugo.

Our hope was in vain. Imagawa clan has guessed our move and marched almost all his availble troops to Chikuzen. The battle featured 758 (Oda) vs. 1055 (Imagawa), a new head-count record on Oda's war history. The Imagawa has got quite a few cavalry units, while their ground troops are mainly ashigaru. The commander of the Imagawa army was the heir of Imagawa Yoshimoto.

1540 Autumn

They've got horses

Chikuzen is mostly flat land, and it didn't take long for us to see the enemy entirely sit on the distant mild slope in front of a forest. As usual, we would climb up the hills first.

However, suddenly we see some enemy hidden in the forests just in front of us. These poor peasants were probably too scared to make a move. We let 2 archer units shooting at them, and in no time they ran back to Imagawa Ujzane. As a result, we killed none of them, while a few of our own guys got friendly killed by their comrades behind...

As our daimyo and monks pursue the ashigarus out of the forest, suddenly the Imagawa army started a major blow of cavalry charge downhill (we haven't climbed up). To the worst is that our daimyo is now in front of the forest. Instead of turn-and-run, brave Nobuhide decides to stop this first cavalry group with his 10 well-experienced H7 bodyguards. Our Yari samurai at the same time ran across the little forest to rescue their master.

Our archers were ordered to get into their positions as soon as possible, while all Yari units ran forward to stop the Imagawa cavalry.

Oda Nobuhide is another man who refuses to die. He held an entire YC enemy until his YS arrived and saved him. On the right flank (closer to the camera in the snapshot below), our fighters siccessfully stops the charge of brave Imagawa horse riders. Imagawa Ujizane has  ordered more troops to flow in, but they were not as fast as the horses.

The enemy was doomed. As our daimyo was standing intact, our spear units marched forward, destroying each of their cavalry along with the arrows from our archers. The first wave of the enemy attack shatters, the following units of naive peasants also wavered and turned around. The enemy, although well balanced and honored, collapsed as a tide of wave. Imagawa Ujizane, although riding nice horses, was blocked by his own men and caught by our pursuing army. His head taken and lord Imagawa Yoshimoto is now heirless.

The battle was won without too many corpses on the battlefield. The enemy collapsed very fast, and retreated very fast as well. Our monks didn't get the chance to walk to the front. However, taking the head of Imagawa Ujizane, the western Imagawa is severely weakened.

So we have pushed back Imagawa to Chikugo and Hizen, with only half of the force as they had 2 seaons ago.

Soon we were surprised to discovered that Imagawa has grabed the province of Higo (South of Chikugo) and Hyuga (south of Bungo) from the former Shimazu. However, they now face a large group of loyalists of former Shimazu, probably because the garrisons were too small.

The harvest was normal in the year of 1540 in our own lands. With 5000 koku, we started building fortresses in Yamashiro and Kii.

So Hizen and Chikugo, which one should we go first? It is reaonable to assume that the AI will split the large army in Hizen to Chikugo in the coming season, so if we stayed as one we could out-number them easily in any province. As a result, we picked the bridge province of Chikugo. Doing this we also blocks the back door of the southern Imagawa army, leavng them to be kicked by the former Shimazu loyalists.

Well, we were wrong again. The AI gave up Hizen and march all his forces to Chikugo, and looks like they got free troops in Higo and Hyuga already! (despite those provinces are still undersiege!). Now the longer we wait, the more difficult the situation will be. Oda Nobuhide decides to risk for once - attacking the bridge province in front of the large defending army. 708 vs. 634.

1540 Winter

Blood on the snow

Although Kiushu is usually warm, the 3rd day that we waited was a badly snowing day. The snow showers dempens the bows, and the wind blows away the arrows.

The time passes fast, so quickly we let the Ashigaru cross the bridge. The Imagawa army quickly marched horses ahead to receive our arrows.  They even came on the bridge to pursue our peasants, making them the target of 300 archers from us. Repeating the above procedure one more time, we started the real attack of massive YS.

Imagawa surely had a lot of horses, making them especially vulnerable against our bridge crossing Yari samurai. If they had YS we mightly have lost completely, but they had YC came forward! Soon the horse riders went panic and yelling for mommy.

Yet the enemies archers weren't routing. We punished their resistance greatly, and finally we killed more than half of them. Our YS suffered also 50%+ casaulty - their lives were given honorably.

Lord Imagawa is not the guy who gives up easily as well. As he knows the full force of Oda Nobuhide was heading to Chikugo, he dispatched a little army to attack Chikuzen, 120 : 60. We retreated again, and the Chikuzen province was taken back to Imagawa the second time.

Oda Nobuhide wouldn't allow Imagawa to live on this small garrison of course. The next spring we launched the third attack to Chikuzen. Imagawa played the old trick of assaulting Chikoku from our back (seems he had successfully defeated the revolting peasants in Higo, much thanks to his free troops generating from nowhere). However, we had learned the lesson and left a quite specialized army for defense in Chikugo. The Imagawa army retreated from both Chikogu and Chikuzen. More men rushed into the castle of Chikugo, waiting for their death.

1541 Summer

Arrow-less

So it comes to our time to take Hizen, the last province of western Imagawa.

Leaving enough troops in Chikuzen for the siege, we still extracted a well-balanced 368 men, marching towards Hizen, where the Imagawa clans was left with purely Yari units.

The nice weather enables us to see Imagawa's horses on the rather-flat hill. But wait, there are only 3 units of them. Needless to say the others were hiding elsewhere, maybe in the forest right infront of us.

That was correct! We rushed all we have inside the woods, eliminated the majority of them. The rest fled to join their calvalry comrades on the hill. We did not wait too long to finish them. The Yari samurai themselves completely handle the cavalry.

The battle was won easily - the end of the Imagawa 3 provinces in Kiushu. Most of Imagawa's army was destroyed by Oda Nobuhide, rest handled by former Shimazu loyalists. There was another revolt in Higo, this time much larger then before. The Imagawa troops had no where to run and perished in Higo.

Knowing that Hizen castle defenders have no arrows, Oda Nobuhide ordered a castle assault the next season. The enemy were good targets for our archers' shooting practices, and we made 26 kills using all of the arrows of our 3 units. An unfortunate guy was shot by his fellow man behind though.

1541 Autumn

1541 Winter, the northern Kiushu had completely joined the clan of Oda. The loyalists of fromer Shimazu are nowing lining up big armies in Hyuga and Higo, so there are still challenges ahead.

A bad news was that the harvest in 1541 was extremely poor (50% off). Do we have enough reinforcement to finish the Kiushu campaign?