{"id":13937,"date":"2011-10-24T13:00:55","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T18:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=13937"},"modified":"2011-10-24T13:03:17","modified_gmt":"2011-10-24T18:03:17","slug":"josh-plays-shogun-2-part-6-retribution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=13937","title":{"rendered":"Josh Plays Shogun 2 Part 6: Retribution!"},"content":{"rendered":"

splash_shogun2_josh.png<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

Our toil against the treacherous Imagawa clan will soon be at an end! After our humiliating defeat at Mikawa, we’ve gathered all of the forces we could muster to strike back and retake what is ours. And we must strike back \u00e2\u20ac" our backs are up against the wall, and the only way out is to defeat the Imagawa advance before they can move any farther.<\/p>\n

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.<\/p>\n

shogun6-1thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

We’ve just moved our reinforcements to assist in the siege against Mikawa. And we’re not the only ones \u00e2\u20ac" as you can see, the Imagawa have reinforcements of their own, and it’s a rather disconcerting omen: two katana samurai units. It seems the Imagawa have been improving their military infrastructure while we were busy recovering. We still have a manpower advantage \u00e2\u20ac" for the moment \u00e2\u20ac" but the Imagawa haven’t yet sallied forth to attempt to break the siege. So we’ll wait.<\/p>\n

While our army lays siege to Imagawa, our ninja scouts have been busy, and they’ve confirmed that, as I suspected, the full strength of the Imagawa is concentrated solely on Mikawa. If we beat them here, they will have nothing left.<\/p>\n

We still have some funds left, so before I end the turn I order the recruitment of some additional garrison troops and begin work on upgrading Owari’s fishing village into a harbor. Later on, we will want a navy to repel any aquatic invasion forces, and a proper port will allow us to gather some additional income from sea trade.<\/p>\n

There’s nothing left to take care of \u00e2\u20ac" let’s see what the Imagawa do.<\/p>\n

shogun6-2thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

And, indeed, we do have a battle on our hands. But it’s not exactly what I’d hoped for. The Imagawa have managed to reinforce Mikawa with a second<\/i> force, this one bringing a third katana samurai to bear and closing the manpower gap. This is most troubling \u00e2\u20ac" even in spear wall and standing uphill to neutralize any charge advantage, a yari ashigaru can’t beat a katana samurai one-on-one. And our infantry unit count is even \u00e2\u20ac" eight to eight \u00e2\u20ac" meaning I can’t count on overwhelming the katana samurai with numbers either. No matter how this plays out, it will be a pitched battle for sure.<\/p>\n

And the gravity of that fact cannot be overstated. This is it \u00e2\u20ac" if we win this battle, we win the war. Even with the allowances legendary difficulty affords to the AI, they simply won’t be able to build enough troops quickly enough to stop our advance if they fail here. The same is true for us as well; if we lose here, there will be nothing to stop the onslaught that will surely follow. It all comes down to this one fight.<\/p>\n

Let us hope fate is smiling upon us today.<\/p>\n

shogun6-3thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

Oh, and it’s raining. This does adversely affect bow units, but not to the degree that Nobuhide seems to suggest as he gives his speech.<\/p>\n

shogun6-4thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

And so, this is our battlefield. And I’ll be frank: this terrain sucks. My strategy when dealing with superior armies is to sit on top of a steep hill and let the enemy wear themselves down on my spearpoints, but there isn’t a single ideal, defensible hill anywhere in range of my starting position. There is the hill that you can see directly ahead of my start zone and to the left, but it has a multitude of problems: it isn’t very steep, there’s a tree-covered hill directly in front of it which means my archers will be reduced to total uselessness, and its far enough forward that my reinforcements \u00e2\u20ac" which should come in directly behind me \u00e2\u20ac" would have to run to reach it in time to be of any practical consequence. <\/p>\n

shogun6-5thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

Instead, I’m going to break with my traditional tactics and deploy as close to the back edge of the battlefield as possible. There are some small mounds at the edge of the map that could loosely be interpreted as hills \u00e2\u20ac" if you squint \u00e2\u20ac" and there are plenty of trees for cover. Here’s hoping it’ll be enough.<\/p>\n

shogun6-6thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

As intimidating as that wall of spears is, it’d look more intimidating if the hill were a 45 degree incline. And all of my spearmen had guns. And there were dragons flying overhead and the death star was looming in the background. <\/p>\n

Man, that’d be awesome.<\/p>\n

I’ve spared you the several minutes of obsessive shifting of units as I try to make do with what cover I have, and by the time this was taken I’d grouped together my main force and my reinforcements and finished fussing with my lines. <\/p>\n

And as restricting as battle realism mode is (no minimap and a camera that can’t be moved very far away from your own units) it sure was cool for this battle. At this point, the Imagawa were so far away, and the fog and rain so thick, that I couldn’t even see their unit flags in the distance. For a moment, you could fool yourself into thinking the Imagawa had given up and weren’t coming.<\/p>\n

shogun6-7thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

Of course, all good fantasies must come to an end, just as mine did as their main line materialized. But it came with a glimmer of hope as well \u00e2\u20ac" as you can see, there don’t seem to be any reinforcement units in sight. Only the main castle force is in front of me \u00e2\u20ac" the rest must be farther behind. If they attack in two waves, and I can rout their first attack before the second comes, then my chances of victory will be much higher.<\/p>\n

shogun6-8thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

The battle is joined in a rather… unusual fashion, as one of the Imagawa generals charges headfirst into my spear-wall. I can only assume that the AI saw my archer units, sitting there firing in loose formation \u00e2\u20ac" and assumed it’d be a good cavalry target. My infantry wasn’t visible until they got closer. Why they didn’t break off the charge when they did see my infantry is something I can’t explain, but the results are certainly welcome. The enemy general dies within twenty seconds of meeting my lines. <\/p>\n

Their infantry charge in for revenge, but against four units of yari ashigaru and a small group of samurai retainers, my four ashigaru-strong front line will easily hold.<\/p>\n

shogun6-9thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

But things are about to get a lot more complicated, as the enemy katana samurai reinforcements have finally arrived.<\/p>\n

As an aside, the “katana samurai” units fall into the category of things that bug me about this game. The idea of well-trained, main-line shock troops armed only with katana is rather anachronistic. Sure, there were foot-soldier samurai that wielded swords, but so did everyone else who could afford to. Swords were general purpose sidearms, to be used only if you were engaged in melee combat. But in the open battlefield, swords were far less useful than a spear or a bow, and a troop armed only with a sword would be vulnerable to just about any weapon with a longer reach \u00e2\u20ac" a spear, a bow, and that’s to say nothing of cavalry. Worse, if you zoom in close to the combat in this game, you can even see that almost every soldier actually does<\/i> carry a sword and most of them use it if engaged in melee.<\/p>\n

Hell, even the name “katana samurai” seems wrong. “Katana” is simply a generic Japanese word meaning “sword,” and can apply to a variety of bladed weapons. The blade that the game seems to be referring to in the unit name is the “daito,” or “long-sword,” which happens to be the category of blades that we commonly refer to as “katana” fit into. But then you could also apply this same complaint to most any English-language work that references Japanese swords.<\/p>\n

But I digress. The katana samurai boogiemen were charging.<\/p>\n

shogun6-10thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

As it happens, things have turned out just as well as I’d hoped. By the time the katana samurai meet my lines, the Imagawa main line has routed. As a last ditch effort, the enemy daimyo, Imagawa Yoshimoto, seems to have charged my main line as well, but he’s not having a lucky day \u00e2\u20ac" there’s no way I’d let an opportunity like that pass by. Though his morale shatters quickly, the daimyo himself escapes \u00e2\u20ac" but seeing their leader flee the field with his tail locked between his legs is perhaps an even greater blow than seeing him die on the field.<\/p>\n

shogun6-11thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

With the enemy main line retreating, I now have free reign to wrap my main own main line around the enemy katana samurai, encircling them. As well-trained and battle-hardened as katana samurai are, even they can’t help but lose heart if they become completely surrounded.<\/p>\n

shogun6-12thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

And now the katana samurai are breaking under the pressure. It seems as if all I have left is to mop up, but unfortunately, the spirit of the Imagawa is stronger than I had thought possible. As you can see, their former main line, that had routed following their abortive attack on my own main line, has actually rallied and returned to the battle. This is despite both of their generals being either dead or routed \u00e2\u20ac" remarkable resolve for peasant mercenaries. With my entire melee force committed to the encirclement of the enemy samurai, they’ve come back to engage my archers in melee.<\/p>\n

shogun6-13thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

It is fortunate that they didn’t arrive in time to assist their samurai brethren \u00e2\u20ac" the enemy katana samurai units have been almost completely destroyed by my “inferior” ashigaru army. At this point in the battle, all semblance of organized warfare had more or less disappeared \u00e2\u20ac" it turned into a chaotic blob as I tried to direct some of my ashigaru to assist my archers without taking too many men away from the group that was still finishing off the katana samurai. It was hard to tell what was going on and which unit was where and who was attacking what \u00e2\u20ac" and my head hurts just thinking about it.<\/p>\n

shogun6-14thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

But without their general, they didn’t stand a chance, resolute or not. The Imagawa army is broken.<\/p>\n

Victory \u00e2\u20ac" as fleeting as it seems to be in these times \u00e2\u20ac" is ours.<\/p>\n

shogun6-15thumb.jpg<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

Pyrrhic victory is right: Over twelve hundred of our brave men lie dead on the field. But even our mounting losses cannot soften the blow we have dealt to our enemies. One Imagawa general is amongst the casualties, all three enemy katana samurai units were completely crushed by our forces before they could retreat, and Mikawa’s castle has a only a few depleted regiments left to defend it and its cowering lord, Imagawa Yoshimoto.<\/p>\n

As much as we will mourn the men we lost on the battlefield, we must also thank their spirits for the sacrifices they made. Mikawa will surely fall to us next turn, and that will put us into direct striking distance of their remaining provinces. This is the death knell for the Imagawa; they will never recover from the blow our hard-won victory has dealt them. We’ll make certain of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our toil against the treacherous Imagawa clan will soon be at an end! After our humiliating defeat at Mikawa, we’ve gathered all of the forces we could muster to strike back and retake what is ours. And we must strike back \u00e2\u20ac" our backs are up against the wall, and the only way out is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[188],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spoilerwarning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}