Hello and welcome back to another Sengoku developer diary. As you may have noticed there have been a shortage of these dev diaries for the last couple of weeks due to vacations and the internal team being busy putting the finishing touches to Sengoku as well as preparing several projects for the upcoming GamesCon. The topic this week will be civil war.
Even though large parts of Japan are already embroiled in a civil war when the game starts, an individual clan may also find itself in an internal civil war - a power struggle for the title of clan leader.
Unlike the kokujin and daimyo titles who are automatically passed on to your heir, the clan leader title is an elective title. So to make sure that your heir will continue to also lead the clan you need to make sure that he receives more votes than any other eligible character. Anyone who has received a vote is a pretender for the title and as such can decide to declare a civil war to challenge the reigning clan leader for his position. Even the nominated heir can do this should he be too impatient to take over.
Once a civil war is declared the clan will split in two halves, where the revolting side adds the name of the pretender's home province in front of the clan name, like Soejimo-Ashikaga. The clan crest will be the same as the original clan with the addition of two crossed swords on top of it.
The two halves will then fight it out with each other until one side either concedes defeat or are wiped out. Whatever side won the conflict then continues under the original clan name and clan crest.
Historically many of the clan civil wars were often triggered by a succession crisis, and at the start of the game there are already three of these going on. So if you start as the Hatakeyama, Takeda or the reigning shogun's clan, the Ashikaga, you will not only find yourself entangled in the Onin War that rages in the middle of Japan, but you also need to defeat a threat from within before both halves of the clan are overrun by power hungry neighbors taking advantage of your temporary weakness...
Even though large parts of Japan are already embroiled in a civil war when the game starts, an individual clan may also find itself in an internal civil war - a power struggle for the title of clan leader.
Unlike the kokujin and daimyo titles who are automatically passed on to your heir, the clan leader title is an elective title. So to make sure that your heir will continue to also lead the clan you need to make sure that he receives more votes than any other eligible character. Anyone who has received a vote is a pretender for the title and as such can decide to declare a civil war to challenge the reigning clan leader for his position. Even the nominated heir can do this should he be too impatient to take over.
Once a civil war is declared the clan will split in two halves, where the revolting side adds the name of the pretender's home province in front of the clan name, like Soejimo-Ashikaga. The clan crest will be the same as the original clan with the addition of two crossed swords on top of it.
The two halves will then fight it out with each other until one side either concedes defeat or are wiped out. Whatever side won the conflict then continues under the original clan name and clan crest.
Historically many of the clan civil wars were often triggered by a succession crisis, and at the start of the game there are already three of these going on. So if you start as the Hatakeyama, Takeda or the reigning shogun's clan, the Ashikaga, you will not only find yourself entangled in the Onin War that rages in the middle of Japan, but you also need to defeat a threat from within before both halves of the clan are overrun by power hungry neighbors taking advantage of your temporary weakness...