WELCOME!
First, thank you again for your support of my STW SP campaign story :-)
As many of you have encouraged me to continue, I have started making the second. Trying to make it more interesting and readable, I will do the following:
1. Tell the story as I am one of the soldiers that witnessed the battle (inspired by CaptMac).
2. Make more screenshots and more detailed description. It will hopefully make more fun than pure statistics reporting.
3. Well, also include more numbers for the mathematicians here! I will extract more important information from the battle logs.
So, here it comes.
Maltz, June 2001
p.s. It is worth mentioning that the STW campaign map does not follow true geological north and south. The north on the map is roughly northwest in reality, so the Mikawa, Totomi, and Suruga provices are more of east, not south. The true geological direction will be used in the story.¡@
STW War Story II - Imagawa's Struggle
Expert level, no cheat, no save-loads.
Links:
Chapter 3 : The Flash of Turning
Chapter 9 : Breaking the Bamboo
Chapter 1 Tough Daimyos
As the spring of 1530 came, our young lord Imagawa Yoshimoto turned 11. He was defintely not a kid like others: brave, calm, and wise. From his brother he succeeded the lands of Mikawa, Totomi, Suruga of the "east-sea-way" of Japan, while in the west he distantly controlled the north 3 provinces of Kiushu, the island of the nine states.
We awere surrounded by great clans. On the north, the rich Uesugi controlled Shinano that oversees all of our territory of east-sea-way, and the formidable cavalry realm of Takeda drools on Suruga. On the southwest, the Oda clan has been on war with us for years. Besides, Shimazu in Kiushu will take our provinces as their first step of expansion. This is a time of struggle; we must use our diplomacy and military powers wisely - also if possible, the men of shadows.
1530 Spring
The first order that the young lord of Imagawa Yoshimoto gave, to our surprise, was to toally give up our provinces in Kiushu. 'With our power divided, we will be destroyed by those united,' says Yoshimoto. Concentrating on the east, we will let our nearby enemies taste the power of Imagawa; divided two, we will be the prey of the strong. At the same time, we shall make peace with those distant powers.'
The young lord issued his orders firmly.
Spring 1530, the entire force of Mikawa was ordered to invade Oda's land of Owari, and Yoshimoto himself will draw soldiers from both Suruga and Totomi to take Uesugi's Shinano. If we can kill Lord Oda in this surprise attack, we will eliminate the threat from the south immediately. Then we can concentrate on the north. Shinano is strategically important, so we must take it as early as possible.
The army from Kiushu will be responsible for gurading the internal territories.
Owari: Peasant vs. Samurai
Lord Oda Nobuhide was not prepared for our sudden assault. The entire Oda army in Owari consisted of only 2 groups of peasant ashigaru and the daimyo himself, numbered 131 totally. The leader of our army, numbered 120, was a new general Nagai Ujisada. His men were well trained samurai archers, joined with a group of yari samurai.
To make the sudden assault even more surprising, we manged to deceived lord Oda that we were going to cross another bridge. With all enemies absent, we crossed the bridge on the left without any difficulty.
When Lord Oda discovered our plot, it was too late. We already rested on a mild slope on the same side. Lord Oda, frustrated, urged his peasants for an uphill charge. Using the height advantage, our archers rained arrows on Oda's ashigarus. The peasants fled home long before they were close to us.
Oda Nobuhide lost all his face seeing his peasants rout before the enemy. With his bravery, he himself charged into our yari samurai. As we all know, the horse riders are especially vulnerable to spears. Soon lord Oda lost all his bodyguards to our yari stabs. Yet he did not surrender and kept fighting.
At the same time, the once-routed peasants regained their breath. Seeing their beloved Lord in danger, they rushed back, attempting to attack our yari samurais from the back. General Nagai Ujisada, although not yet experienced with battles, immediately charged all the samurai archers down to handle the peasants. The peasants routed again.
Nagai Ujisada then decided to join the battle with Lord Oda, hoping to take his life earlier.
However, the two group of peasants both returned - they are going to attack our back! Our soldiers started to show their anxiety. Lord Oda was able to challenge the whole group of our yari samurai, and the smart peasants of Oda have faked their routing and are now inflicting heavy damage on both our units by attacking from our back.
After all, the difference of a samurai and a peasant is still large. The ashigaru fled again after their numbers reduced. They came back several times in total, each time repelled by Nagai Ujisada's leadership.
Still, lord Oda did not fall. One after one, our yari samurais gave their lives under the sword of Oda Nobuhide - the man refuses to die. (For more information on the die-hard of Oda Nobuhide, you can referred to the Oda war story (esp. Ise and Kaga) to get a really good idea.)
Suddenly, Nagai Ujisada realized that his yari samurai soldiers were forming a line for nothing. That's the orginal formation of the yari soldiers when they were on the slope. But he has issued a charge, and the yari samurais were not asked to hold their formation. Maybe the soldiers are too scared by lord Oda's bravery...?
Quickly, general Nagai Ujisada forced our man to hold together tighter. The general himself again lead his army charged onto the die-hard lord of Oda. This time, from Lord Oda's back.
Sandwiched by both our units on the slope, Lord Oda finally cannot protect has back and killed by an anonymous stab from behind! The first season of the war, the Oda clan disappeared...
During this small but decisive battle, we took 73% of enemy's head, losing slightly more than half of our own. Lord Oda was killed; that's the most important thing. Our plan went well - now the entire south is secured temporarily. Although the peasants were led by their daimyo, they completely showed their inferiority before our well-trained, death-taking samurai of Imagawa.
Lord Oda, despite his courage, shrewdness, and skill in battle, had his inevitable death as his peasants abandoned him one time after another. Lord Oda died honorably. Before his death, he himself took 13 heads, alone facing an entire group of the 5-meter-long yaris!
Shinano: Banners Prevail
At the same time, Lord Imagawa marched 251 soldiers of Totomi and Suruga to Shinano. The local defense army, numbered only 120, instantly routed when they saw the numerous banners carried by our army. The young lord Imagawa was trully a threat to other clans!
In the fight in Owari, the victorious commander Nagai Ujisada himself took 6 heads from the enemy. He was then granted the name of lengendary swordsman - and the rights to open sword dojos in all of our territory, teaching young samurais the art of No-Dachi, the two-handed sword.
1530 Summer
The largest threat from the south was gone. We were lucky to have caught Lord Oda in such an unprepared situation. Also, the gain of Shinano allowed us to produce good cavalry, which would be a great bonus in later battles.
However, the young lord Imagawa Yoshimoto was not contented by the victories we had. 'Now aim at Takeda,' he said. Everybody on the meeting was surprised, yet so will lord Takeda be. We left the Hizen army of Kiushu to inform the local peasants of Shinano that their new lord Imagawa Yoshimoto is going to reduce their tax to 3/4 for the year. The entire army of 251 imagawa samurais now invades Takeda Nobutora's heart province of Kai!
That's not the end of lord Imagawa's plan. After Lord Oda's death, some peasants survived the battle has fled into the castle of Owari. We must take the castle as early as possible, or the local peasants will be reluctant to accept their new lord, even if we relieve the taxes. The legendary swordsman Nagai Ujisada had his second chance of glory.
Lord Imagawa surely knew how to use the man of shadows. He dispatched a skillful ninja into the castle of Owari the night before the castle assault, assassinated the once-routed enemy general. Now the enemy inside Owari castle are greatly demoralized!
On the other hand, to prevent any assistance to the Takeda clan or even heritage of lands, lord Imagawa had secretly sent another ninja, aiming for the emissary of Takeda. His head was cut into half during his sleep!
Owari: The Will to Live
The battle was probably one of the smallest scale in Japanese history. 57 vs. 34.
The peasants were not trained to use bows. Knowing this, Nagai Ujisada first lined his man into single, ruthelessly firing arrows towards the enemy. However, we only killed 4 of them.
Frustrated, Nagai Ujisada ordered the yari samurai units charging into the castle along with himself. Our samurais got lost just in front of the gate, but was soon reminded by the Taisho of their rediculous sense of direction.
The peasants, though outnumberd by 2 and just lost their general, was desperate to survive. United as a whole, the peasants gave our samurais a very hard time. We finally killed all of them, but also lost 42% of the small army. A big applaud to the Oda ashigaru. (The survival of the last battle had made them honor 2 in average).
Kai: Till the Last Minute
Roughly the same time of assaulting the castle of Owari, the army led by Lord Imagawa himself advaned into the heart of Takeda - Kai province. The Takeda daimyo was indeed unprepared. In a hurry, he organized one group of Yari samurai, one Samurai archers, one Yari Ashigaru, and one Yari cavalry. Comparing to our 2 SA 2 YS, the enemy had a more balanced army, though having exactly the same size of 251.
However, Lord Tateda was not very good in tactics. He deployed all his troops against a slope, while letting his enemy to sneak right above. Our archers pouring arrows on them, our two yari samurai charged into Takeda yari cavalry (right) and yari samurai (left). Lord Imagawa himself flanked the enemy yari samurai with his elite H6 bodyguards.
Takeda Nobutora ordered his archers to concentrate the fire on our archers, ignoring the height disadvantage. However, he ordered the ashigaru to flank our left-wing YS, and himself charged into our archers. This way, we had to stop the arrow rain and concentrate both groups of archers fighting the formidable heavy cavalry of the enemy daimyo!
Under the flanking of our daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto, soon the enemy yari samurai on the left flank ended up with a pile of corpse - only 2 of them escaped, but our yari samurai also suffered heavy losses being flanked by the enemy ashigaru. We cannot back off now - the enemy archers are right infront of us, releasing deadly arrows! Lord Imagawa Yoshimoto immediately charged himself and his heavy damaged YS into the group of enemy samurai archers and ashigaru. Severely outnumbered, the YS tried their best, but finally turned around and run finally, and lord Imagawa was left alone with a number of enemy arhcers and ashigarus.
However, our right flank has completely eliminated the enemy cavalry - 60 out of 60. They rushed left to save their master. This back attack quickly destroyed the enemy arhcers and peasants. The survivors now flee like hell!
On the other hand, Lord Takeda was just another brave man who refuses to offer his head to us. His bodyguards all gone, yet he showed no fearness in front of the two groups of our archers.
Our archers were again remained well in their formations - what the heck are they thinking?
After killing 29 of our archers, Lord Takeda honorably fell down from his horse. It was indeed a honor for us to fight against such two brave lords of Oda and Takeda.
Belive or not, 95% of the Takeda army was slain. This was truly a good battle for both sides. The Takeda lost entirely due to their lack of tactics, while they fought till the last minute. Compared to Takeda Nobutora, Lord Imagawa Yoshimoto, himself killed only 15, had lost his honor.
1530 Autumn
The Takeda clan was destoryed by us, only one season after the fall of Oda. The Imagawa clan has secured the north-east and south.
Sieging only 10 men in the castle, Lord Imagawa definitely will assault the Kofu castle of Kai. The defense of Owari is now strengthened by the fresh troops from Totomi, but the swordsman general Nagai Ujisada was far from his vacation. Lord Imagawa gave him a new order - with the army of Shinano, attack Mino, the previous Oda province. Mino is not only important as a strategic point, but also for its good iron deposit for armoury. The defense army of Shinano was then replaced by the second group Kiushu soldiers. At this point, our provinces in Kiushu is completely defenseless. This may be a gift we offered to Shimazu, but we are going to ask it back.
Well, the man of shadows did not stop after Lord Oda's death. The general of Mino also lost his live under the knife of our ninja!
Mino: The Fame of Legendary Swordsman
The Mino invasion army, led by the lengendary swordsman of Nagai Ujisada, was numbered 145. The local army which just lost their general had 119. This could be a small but exciting fight, yet the enemy turned around. Mino and Shinano, two of the easiest-to-defend provinces, were taken without any casaulty.
Kai: The Last Minute Has Come
The assault of Kai castle was not complicated. The defense army, 5% of the remaining 251 from Takeda, was numbered only 10. Lord Imagawa himself charged into the castle, and finished all of them. Our archers surely was careless enough to shoot into the castle. They even shot dead one of their fellowman in the front row -- how ironic.
Finally, the braves of Kai were destroyed with honor.
As we annouced in the very beginning of the year, the tax rate of the first year was brought to minimum. The harvest was normal, giving us a good 2400 koku left. We started a castle in Mino (for YS), a tea house in Kai, and a spear dojo in Owari (for YA). Totomi will surely be responsible for samurai archers, its specialty.
The first year of our clan's campaign was a complete victory so far. Our surprise attack brought down both the formidable daimyos of Oda Nobuhide and Takeda Nobutora. They were truly honorable foes, just lacking a little brain mass.
