One of the Horde
Vote
for the Future of Hojo (click here) !!| STW War Story VI
One of the Horde |
Vote
for the Future of Hojo (click here) !! |
Welcome back, noble lords of Hojo. I am Miyoshi Tadayoshi, reporting what we
have achieved in the previous years.
The open-year meeting in spring involved 22 noble lords throughout the land of Hojo.
| 9 | 41% | [Maltz] How about attacking Mikawa, Etchu, and Kai? (listed in the order of importance) |
| 5 | 23% | Attack Kai then Izu! |
| 4 | 18% | [Miyoshi Tadayoshi] Please let me attack Kaga! |
| 4 | 18% | Don't attack, just build up army in Shinano and Totomi. |
Many noble lords thought we should put attacking Oda's Mikawa as the first
priority, while also take Etchu and Kai if possible. Mikawa is a very defensible
province because of its river, so it will be a good bonus for future defense.
Attacking Etchu will allow my 600 men to join the battle on the south, as the
defense in Shinano and Mikawa are both weak.
Kai is important with its gold
mine.
Spring 1537
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While general Hojo Ujisuna, the heir of Hojo is waiting for more recruits
into the assault to Mikawa, I have finished the preparation and marched my
troops into Etchu.
Three years ago, there was a large scaled Ikko-Ikki revolt here against Imagawa. The warrior monks did not disband after the fall of Imagawa - looks like they will fight for their independence no matter who steps on their land. But we left no alternatives. To increase my chance against these fierce monks, Lord Hojo also sent reinforcement from Shinano! |
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The numbers were a good match, but the enemy is a well balanced army of 240 monks, 240 archers, and 240 ashigaru. As we slowly march forward, we could see
enemy archers mobilized in the forest. Are the monks
also there? |
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To play it safe, our archers stepped forward and started to shoot at the enemies
in the woods. Their archers responded by coming out and start the
shootout... definitely not too bright.
Now we could see more... hmm some yari ashigaru is also there. |
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Our archers' arrows showed no mercy to the enemy who were right at the
bottom of the valley.
The enemy archers suffered very heavy losses and started to flee, and
they also carried away their ashigaru which has not even engaged yet! So this would be our best chance to beat the monks if they are in the forest. I made the yari samurai attacking the forest from three directions, while yari ashigaru should stay as the flanking backups. |
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| No monks! We promptly chased the enemy out of the forest,
and now we could see the warrior monks coming from the forest on the left!
I ordered the left flank yari samurai and yari ashigaru to prepare for a downhill charge once the monks get there. The right flank should keep pursuing the fleeing enemy archers and ashigaru. The archers quickly come forward and shoot at the monks! |
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| The first group of 120 monks have arrived! As previously
arranged, our left flank intercepted them and our archers started to
shoot. Just in case this is not enough, the center yari samurai is ordered
to flank the monks from the other side!
They were defeated! |
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| The second group of monks, the enemy taisho is coming - but
this time we greatly outnumber them.
Our yari samurai bravely charged down their right, and yari ashigaru went around to attack their back! |
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They are down! And we are right on their fleeing path - our
peasants slain the monks happily! 
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| Only 18 out of 240 monks made their way out of the
battlefield.
The enemy made a big mistake at the beginning - they left the monks to
the far back. With their power divided, we easily handled each group.
Etchu is ours, and my men can join the battles on the south now! |
Summer 1537
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The defense of Etchu is now left to general Ota Yasusuke. My army has
moved to Shinano now. Lord Hojo was very satisfied with my performance on
the battlefield - and he promoted me to a higher rank (R4) in the house. All of
my men were very happy!
The attack of Mikawa is also ready! Hojo Ujiyasu drew every available men to the battlefield!
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Oda also dispatched a small group of reinforcement to Mikawa. There is no alternative. The only choice left for Ujiyasu is to attack heads-on. The first group of Hojo's warriors were the elite (H4) yari samurai! |
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Right after they crossed the bridge, Oda's men rushed forward from all
directions!
The poor yari samurai of Hojo were soon surrounded and defeated badly. |
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Leaving the other group of samurai archers shooting at the enemy, Hojo
Ujiyasu decided to come forward himself. His presence encouraged the Hojo
fighters greatly - Hojo and Oda now clash on the end of bridge! 
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The fight was intense. Corpses lying everywhere on the ground, stepped by
the enemy and comrades.
Hojo Ujiyasu made it to the front - and every enemy has targeted himself to him. But the Hojo soldiers fought bravely. With the aid of archers' arrows, the enemy ashigaru were the first to waver - and their frustration soon spread to the rest of the Oda army... |
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The Oda's men were fleeing! 
Hojo Ujiyasu stood still even if his men were reduced to 7, including himself. There were only 107 Hojo's men on the other side of the bridge. However, the enemy didn't have the guts to rally and fight, even if their number was twice of that. One after one they fled! |
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The enemy taisho was also on the run - intimidated by only 10 men of Hojo
charging towards them...
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With a very heavy loss, Mikawa is reclaimed by us. However, we will need to strengthen the garrison as Oda will probably come back in the near future! |
Autumn 1537
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Oh, a new mission for me!
Since Oda didn't move too much reinforcement to Mino and Owari in the last season, we could spare more garrison in Shinano to go for our third goal this year - Kai. But before that, I was ordered to attack Suruga first. There were only a small number of enemy there. And we need to wait one more season till the new recruits are ready. Our current army might be insufficient to defeat the previous Takeda
soldiers of Kai. |
Winter 1537
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The enemy retreated from Suruga.
So here comes our chance to take Kai. I was given an army of 600 - many of
them are my home boys, the ashigaru and yari samurai from Hitachi! |
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However, the enemy from Kai attacked Musashi at the same time. This way,
our army from Musashi was forced to retreat. This leaves only 491 of us in
Kai... but we should still give a try! |
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As expected, the enemy were largely cavalry - which is good!
I brought quite a lot of yari troops with me. 
Hey wait - the enemy has no archers! |
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| Our archers slowly approached the enemy, and all the ronin
warriors could
do was to back off.
In the meantime, our yari samurai and yari ashigaru are all in position! Now everybody charge! |
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| We engaged on the slope - although we have quite a height
disadvantage here, our men were actually flanking the enemy from three
directions. Besides, our archers are on their way to completely wrap the
enemy from behind!
Hmm wait - there should be more enemy than this. Yeah there are still two groups
of enemy yari cavalry.. what are they doing? If they flank us this
time, we might not be able to hold... |
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| Oh no, there they comes! To prevent being backstabbed, I
only asked the archers to flank the enemy. The enemy cavalry charged
down swiftly, but they could not post a large threat in front of our yari.
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| Whew! the enemy taisho was killed! The enemy were soon on the
run. Our speed does not allow us to catch their cavalry, so why not we
just let them retreat into the castle. With no archers, these horse riders
is doomed in the castle anyways.
However, some of the enemy did not flee. These cavalry quickly marched
away! Now this
can be a big problem because the day is going to end soon! |
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So I divided my men into two groups - chasing down two groups of
walking-away enemy cavalry. The first group was soon scared away by myself
So now I move more men to the right... |
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Hell these shameless bastards are marching uphill! 
I could only ask my men to run full speed - lets get them before the sun goes down! |
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They hide into the forest - so here we chase them in...
But our peasants mysteriously routed! Now they were slain mercilessly
in the woods... To the worse, our yari samurai suddenly refused to move any further -
probably they were too tired... |
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| Fortunately we had another group of yari samurai, finally we
still managed to defeat the enemy on time.
We killed 80% of the enemy! |
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On the east, the defense of Musashi was also taking place. Both sides were yari samurai - but one has the advantage of defending the bridge. The commander of Hojo was Suwa Shigemasa. Although he has no previous experience in army commanding, he held the enemy on the bridge easily.
Shigemasa took 5 heads from the enemy, including the head of the enemy
taisho! |
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However, the chase ended up a huge waste of energy.
Suwa Shigemasa made a successful defend - and now he is promoted to rank 1. Now he can also join our annual clan meetings! |
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| Happy new year, Noble lords. Our three goals in the previous
year were all accomplished!
However, the harvest this year was poor. Lord Hojo decided to postpone the training facility upgrade, and kept focusing on recruiting. Hopefully by the end of next year we can have a much larger army. Right now we have roughly 300 in Mikawa (HOjo Ujiyasu), 400 in Shinano (Hojo Ujisuna), 400 in Kai (myself), 100 in Sagami (Suwa Shigemasa), 100 in Musashi, 100 in Noto and another 100 in Etchu. It is the meeting time again. What is going to be our goal for the coming year? Please feel free to contribute your
opinions. |
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Hojo 733
Ikko-Ikki
720
Oda 480
(red zone?)