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Hai! Welcome back to the Shimazu War Story. I am Shoni Sukemoto. It has been a long time since I reported the great success of our Chugoku campaign. The falcon men of Satsuma made two great victories of completely eliminate the enemy in a row. I was honored to be the commander of these two battles.
Spring, 1533 A.D.
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| Although we had less than 400 men left in Chugoku over the intense battle last year, our lord still insisted that the harbor of Aki should be captured as soon as possible. The harbor provides a rapid reinforcement route from Satsuma (via Hizen). Besides the trade income, the silver mine would bring us some significant profit! |
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Takeda promptly sent reinforcement to Aki, their gate in Chukoku. Lord Shimazu is going to have a tough fight there. Also, Mori has poured all their men from Izumo to Iwami, combining their forces in the Iwami castle. With only 120 men in Iwami, I had no chance to prevail against 277 of Mori. We were forced to abandon the province and retreated west! |
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The Takeda army in Aki was consisted of 240 archers and their taisho, yari cavalry. We would have a hard time if starting an archery duel. The only chance is to quickly capture their taisho, rout it and break the morale of the enemy. Lord Shimazu ordered the yari samurai and yari ashigaru to split up and lure the enemy taisho to the center! |
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Here they come! The enemy Taisho was attempted to charge
lord Shimazu unsupported, but that's exactly the illusion
we wish to give...
With the enemy taisho right at the center, Lord Shimazu along with the yari samurai and ashigaru wrapped the enemy taisho in the center. However, the enemy archers soon decided to join the melee fight. Our ashigaru were totally surrounded! Now Takeda has outnumbered Shimazu! |
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Lord Shimazu quickly pulled the archers to help, flanking the enemy on the right! Our left flank of yari samurai is doing great stabbing the enemy yari cavalry down. But our peasants have collapsed! | ||||||
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Although all bodyguards of Lord Shimazu has given their lives, our right flank arrived in time and routed the enemy taisho! | ||||||
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Killing 12 himself, Lord Shimazu defeated the Takeda army in Aki! The yari samurai reached a high number of kill as they flanked the enemy taisho and killed many fleeing enemy archers from their back (with their routing path blocked by the Shimazu archers on the right). |
Summer, 1533 A.D.
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The loss of Iwami was not the end of Mori's counter
strike. They further advanced into Suo, while I was forced
to abandon the province again with only 60 men against 120
of the enemy. Now we are in trouble as Lord Shimazu is
isolated in Aki. Can our reinforcement arrive in time?
No time to think this much, as Takeda also launched an attack to Aki. Shimazu has to face both Mori and Takeda with its limited men! |
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The Takeda is back, with a slightly larger army than us again. Their army composition was almost the same as last time, with one entire group of new Samurai archers. Their taisho was the same - now with only 6 horses left! Lord Shimazu camped his men on the slope. The yari samurai charged down when the enemy taisho approaches - that's right, we shall rout the enemy taisho first! |
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The enemy archers split up and marched away in two
directions! Lord Shimazu assigned the yari samurai to the
right, chasing one group as well as the enemy taisho,
while himself with his elite bodyguards chasing the left.
The enemy taisho soon rallied by its fast speed. But now they were trapped inside our yari samurai! |
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The enemy taisho was killed! | ||||||
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The enemy archers attempted some resistance, but were crushed under the leadership of lord Shimazu one after one! |
Autumn, 1533 A.D.
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Aki was attacked once more in Autumn, but this time it was Mori. Certainly Shimazu has become the common enemy of Mori and Takeda. Can lord Shimazu defend this important port province the second time? |
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The same troop allocation. Lord Shimazu has obtained one
group of fresh reinforcement of yari samurai from Hizen.
The enemy was consisted of 1 unit of YS, 1 SA, and 2 YA. A victory not too hard to achieve... Lord Shimazu decided to take it passively. Camping on the slope, our archers were ordered to release their arrows at will. |
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The enemy peasants were on the run as soon as our men charged down. Their taisho routed with his men before the made the contact! | ||||||
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With a loss of only 3 men, Shimazu prevailed on the land of Aki for the third time! Nobody could challenge the falcon men! |
Winter, 1533 A.D.
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With their major defeat, Mori's Iwami and Suo was left
almost defenseless.
Maltz: guess the program assumes they should retreat into the castle, while the castle is owned by Takeda's men. So here comes our chance to take these provinces back! I was ordered to attack Suo from Nagato. The enemy gave up the province without a fight. The next spring my army invaded Iwami! |
Spring, 1534 A.D.
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The Shimazu is back to Iwami, one year after Mori took it back. With nothing but yari samurai in command, my job was simple - surround and eliminate the enemy. The enemy was hiding in the woods, giving as a perfect chance to occupy the high ground just adjacent to the forest. |
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Aided by the height advantage, our three units charging from 3 directions, and the enemy were soon on the run! | ||||||
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Another inexpensive victory of Shimazu. With only 10 men lost, we reclaimed Iwami from Mori! | ||||||
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Despite the defending army in the Hiroshima castle of Aki were entirely archers, Lord Shimazu still launched a castle assault to end Takeda's resistance at once. The brave yari samurai of Satsuma broke into the castle gate, slaughtered the enemy under heavy archery fires. Aki is now ours! |
Summer, 1534 A.D.
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Iwami was under attack by Mori in summer!
However, just after I was ready for the defense, Mori's men decided to retreat and they all rushed into the castle of Iwami. Now Izumo was left defenseless, but our men power was just enough to continue the siege in Iwami. |
Autumn, 1534 A.D.
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But as there were a larger number of army inside the
castle of Iwami, the food was depleted faster and we could
soon spare some extra soldiers.
Lord Shimazu decided to attack Bingo of Takeda. The Takeda retreated - into the castle that was just completed in the very season. |
Winter, 1534 A.D.
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The winter has come - we were finally able to secure Aki
and Iwami from the combined force of Mori and Takeda.
I was ordered to assault the Gotsu castle of Iwami - should be an easy task as most enemy had starved to death... |
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We wiped out the enemy with reasonable lost! I was also promoted to a higher rank (R4) after the assault!
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The falcon men has finally conquered western Chukoku.
Right in the next spring, I received the order of
attacking Izumo while lord Shimazu would assault the
castle of Bingo.
With just over 500 men in Chugoku, can Shimazu extend its power to the east? |
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| Quite a lot of victory in these two years! With very limited soldiers,
we made our way through Iwami and Aki.
However, the very poor harvest in 1534 has prevented the clan to open the second training dojo in our lands. More tough fights are expected...!! |
Shimazu 264
Takeda 300
Mori 277