The Rokkaku What’s Up (Wonder) Brau
An Introductory AAR
This is an Introductory AAR. One that shows how the game plays out, the interface, and some strategies to those who aren’t yet familiar with Sengoku. After navigating the initial setup and strategies I’m using in this campaign, the pace will pick up and we can experience the more advanced facets of the game, along with some successes, and perhaps some comical blunders.
I've begun this great conquest as the leader of Clan Rokkaku; the young Rokkaku Takayori to be precise; a boy of five. My home provinces are a bit unusual in that they are hard against a lake, a nice natural barrier which should make predictions of enemy movement an easier task.
While the lake is a helpful factor, the age of my clan leader is not. This provides numerous extra difficulties in a starting game, one being the question of having a viable heir to the clan leadership from my own line. Obviously little Takayori isn't impregnating numerous wives just yet, at his ripe old age of five. Having children, and thus more courtiers, is a must in Sengoku if you plan on expanding and even surviving. Takayori will be far behind in courtiers before long, and the ability to arrange marriages for them. This will pose some tough expansion challenges in the future. While other clan leaders will be flourishing in the baby making department from the beginning, I’ll be waiting for Takayori to get past puberty and reach the age of sixteen .. the age of majority.
Luckily, the boy starts with a personal demesne of three provinces. This will allow one province's castle to be improved, one's village to be improved, and the last to provide income during this beginning period. While we can hold five demesnes without any penalty, three is sufficient enough to keep all my ministers busy and still have one province providing it's full income. Provinces under improvement only provide thirty percent, so having at least one to provide it’s full tax value is a good idea. The tradeoff with having more than three is that, while gaining more income, the extra provinces will lag behind in the rate of their province improvements. I’d like having five just for the income, but don’t worry, we’ll work on that. Little Takayori may not be able to do the marital deed just yet, but he and his regent can surely order his clan to war.
The Rokkaku clan begins the May 1467 start date as a supporter of the Yamana clan in it’s war against the Hosokawa clan, and their allies, for the Shogun succession.. the Onin War.
This means that we must quickly build a retinue, and raise levies, with what little we have in our coffers and the small income at start. Definitely another level of difficulty added to this clan’s beginning situation. On the bright side, it will require no expenditure of Honor for Rokkaku’s first conquests and we will have a head start compared to clans at peace, who will need to raise their honor before going on the offensive.
As you can see in the screenshot, there’s a lot of red out there, and I’m not talking Feudal Japanese Commies, either. Fortunately, our coalition is just as large as our enemies, or even larger, so we won’t be the only targets and likely not the main one either. There are some very small clans nearby, ripe for the conquest, but Hosokawa is also just to our west and they are much more powerful than Rokkaku. Perhaps, if we leave Hosokawa alone initially, they’ll concentrate on someone else. Preferably our larger Hatakeyama neighbor and ally.
One added bonus I find? A Buddhist temple in the province of Shiga at start!
This will allow me to join the Buddhist faction for an additional army replenishment bonus early in the game. Rokkaku is obviously a firm supporter of the Buddhist faith. Joining a religious faction also gives relation bonuses with others of the same faction (+10), and a penalty for those of different ones. The large Hatakeyama clan south and west of me, who are also fighting Hosokawa, similarly have a Buddhist temple and will likely join the same faction. This will start us off on the right foot, and I intend to befriend the Hatakeyama clan as much as possible, using them for a boost to the top, and a shield from the other hairy beefcakes nearby.
The Rokkaku clan, in blue. And it’s fearless (we hope!) boy leader Takayori. Sagara and Soekami look like tasty targets just a short stroll away.
We have hostages exchanged with our so-called “allies”. A hostage exchange is a diplomatic option that will trade one of your family members with the target clan’s family member for five years, and ensures that neither will attack the other. It’s typically a good idea to arrange marriages for all your family members, before shipping them off as hostages, because you can’t marry them off while they’re guests in another clan’s court.
Also displayed in this window is the info for our province Kurita. The province owner’s portrait is shown, and clicking it will take you to his character page. Below that are the two basic province improvement lines available, Castle and Village improvements. You can click on the big pic of each on the left to order the appropriate minister to start improving it. The shades can be opened by a minister relatively quickly compared to the castle and village improvements, and each one allows a specialist building to be erected, with appropriate funds and time.
Below these are listed the hard numbers. Tax income from the province is increased with village improvements as is supply limit, which lists how many troops can be supplied in the province without incurring steady casualties. The Samurai and Ashigaru levy limits can be increased via Castle upgrades, which also provide better defensive bonuses for the province and increases the time it takes for the enemy to successfully siege the location. The Religious Buildings button at the bottom allows for one of the three religious faction buildings to be built and the Raise Levy button will mobilize that province’s levy regiment, at reduced morale until it’s up to combat-ready condition a couple-three months away.
Appointing your three ministers is quite easy. You only need to appoint a courtier with a high value in the appropriate attribute, which is sorted from highest to lowest by default when you click the ‘appoint’ button. There isn’t a need to worry about Brutus stabbing you in the back here, so appointing a minister with low relations doesn’t result in any drawbacks that I’ve seen. They also get a relations bonus for the appointment, anyway.
Each minister has three available tasks. Their uses are explained in a popup window, but I nearly always use them for the same task. Improving Villages, Castles, and Hiring Ninja.
When in a serious bind, running a negative monthly income balance during a war and close to becoming bankrupt, I will order my master of ceremonies to Collect Taxes in my most profitable province and the Master of Arms to Restore Order in the same location (to reduce the extra revolt risk from the tax man). Going bankrupt results in some serious penalties with your vassals, and is a good way to get them to rebel or split off on their own. It’s as bad as having low Honor. So endeavor to always avoid bankruptcy in Sengoku.
You will occasionally use your Master of the Guard to expand a guild in one of your provinces, which opens one of the four ‘shades’ and opens a custom building slot. This takes far less time than the grannies building castles and improving villages, and you don’t need them opened as often since the specialty buildings cost 250 wealth apiece.. quite a sum.
Ministers, given work to do, will display a circular icon above the province in which they’re toiling happily ,or unhappily, away. You can see they’re busy in Gamo and Shiga. Note the demesne list, in the overview at top right. The first number, with a gold icon next to it, is the current province income. Kurita is earning 10 wealth per month, while the other two are only earning 3. This is because the cost of village improvements comes from a 70% income reduction in provinces being improved.
It’s always helpful for your bank account, having at least one province at full income. It’s hard enough to save up in Sengoku, for some shinies, so don’t stagnate your profits if you can keep away from it.
What do we have here? Pretenders! I’ve no idea if they have brass in pocket, but it might help when we dump their bodies in the lake.
These guys are trying to take leadership of the clan from our Wonder Boy. While my current nomination for next clan leader, upon the current ones (hopefully natural) death looks to be a blood relative, the clan vassals all vote for the next clan leader when the time comes. And these two bozos think they’re John Wayne. Note to self: Keep an eye on the shifty ones, and pay off the vassals if need be.
Here we join the Buddhist faction. First!!1
We’ll receive the extra recruiting speed bonuses for being a member, and another one if we become the religious faction leader. We also gain relations bonuses with other members and penalties with the others who didn’t take such an enlightened path as I.
In the Army screen, we start recruiting our Retinue.
The retinue is a standing army, the only one that replenishes it’s numbers in the field. It’s also the only one which benefits from special guild building bonuses. A couple village upgrades, and a barracks ‘guild’ building, will increase your levy limit. This will become your elite force that is always active, and customizable to fit your tastes.
Some people don’t bother with recruiting a retinue at the beginning, but I prefer getting mine up and running pretty quickly. Our retinue cap of four will allow for 1,000 soldiers. It just costs to get them trained so I’ve only queued two units for the moment. With a war going on, it’ll have to suffice because we’ll be in action very soon.
Being at war from the start, we’re gonna mobilize many of our levies. As you can see, the red/green bar on the right of the army strength indicator is showing it’s initially low morale state and that will rise quickly with time. Another nice feature is the clan symbol on the left of that same bar, which you can click to select the army. No more attempting to click directly on the little 3D model, which could sometimes make you want to go to war all by itself.
With the troops mobilized, we can see our monthly income total and the cost of army, levy, and ronin (mercenary) troops by hovering the cursor over the totals, in the clan screen.
Normally, we’d be able to arrange marriages and betrothals for our clan leader and his children. I don’t have that luxury with Junior, here. The only marriage I can arrange is for Takayori himself, and it will be a betrothal between children which are more easily accepted.
Don’t worry, she can’t take the house and the dog. That’s what the “Retire to Monastery” button is for, when she stops shootin’ out babies and starts nagging.
Setting up a marriage with the Toki clan leader should give me a relations bonus, and hopefully keep them off our back. Wives add half their attribute scores to their husband’s, if he’s a landed noble. So stats and diplomacy are both considerations when arranging marriage.
What does little Takayori do on Father's Day?? ... He looks for one!
And here comes a bit of the ‘ole ultra-violence. After concentrating some levies into a 1500-strong army, we’ve begun marching them into Sagara province – owned by Imizu-Hatakeyama, who deserves to perish for having such a long name.
Most neighboring clans have joined one side or another, and raised their levies. As defensive precautions, I’ve left a few of my levies in their home provinces, in case one of my uppity neighbors comes looking for an easy target this early in the conflict.
Bah! Those Yamana sneaks have beaten me to the punching victim. Being as the army arriving first to a siege is the one who claims the province upon victory, I’ll be moving on to greener pastures further south.
I just know the bastards did it to cut me off from having a contiguous line of provinces! I’ll not forget such nose-thumbing in the future.
Uh Oh. Looks like Hosokawa is bringing a few thousand troops to an un-announced gathering in our province of Kurita. There is no end to the rudeness I must endure!
This looks like it could hurt really bad. I may not survive to kiss me some Kaka!
(to be continued..)
An Introductory AAR
This is an Introductory AAR. One that shows how the game plays out, the interface, and some strategies to those who aren’t yet familiar with Sengoku. After navigating the initial setup and strategies I’m using in this campaign, the pace will pick up and we can experience the more advanced facets of the game, along with some successes, and perhaps some comical blunders.
I've begun this great conquest as the leader of Clan Rokkaku; the young Rokkaku Takayori to be precise; a boy of five. My home provinces are a bit unusual in that they are hard against a lake, a nice natural barrier which should make predictions of enemy movement an easier task.
While the lake is a helpful factor, the age of my clan leader is not. This provides numerous extra difficulties in a starting game, one being the question of having a viable heir to the clan leadership from my own line. Obviously little Takayori isn't impregnating numerous wives just yet, at his ripe old age of five. Having children, and thus more courtiers, is a must in Sengoku if you plan on expanding and even surviving. Takayori will be far behind in courtiers before long, and the ability to arrange marriages for them. This will pose some tough expansion challenges in the future. While other clan leaders will be flourishing in the baby making department from the beginning, I’ll be waiting for Takayori to get past puberty and reach the age of sixteen .. the age of majority.
Luckily, the boy starts with a personal demesne of three provinces. This will allow one province's castle to be improved, one's village to be improved, and the last to provide income during this beginning period. While we can hold five demesnes without any penalty, three is sufficient enough to keep all my ministers busy and still have one province providing it's full income. Provinces under improvement only provide thirty percent, so having at least one to provide it’s full tax value is a good idea. The tradeoff with having more than three is that, while gaining more income, the extra provinces will lag behind in the rate of their province improvements. I’d like having five just for the income, but don’t worry, we’ll work on that. Little Takayori may not be able to do the marital deed just yet, but he and his regent can surely order his clan to war.
The Rokkaku clan begins the May 1467 start date as a supporter of the Yamana clan in it’s war against the Hosokawa clan, and their allies, for the Shogun succession.. the Onin War.
This means that we must quickly build a retinue, and raise levies, with what little we have in our coffers and the small income at start. Definitely another level of difficulty added to this clan’s beginning situation. On the bright side, it will require no expenditure of Honor for Rokkaku’s first conquests and we will have a head start compared to clans at peace, who will need to raise their honor before going on the offensive.
As you can see in the screenshot, there’s a lot of red out there, and I’m not talking Feudal Japanese Commies, either. Fortunately, our coalition is just as large as our enemies, or even larger, so we won’t be the only targets and likely not the main one either. There are some very small clans nearby, ripe for the conquest, but Hosokawa is also just to our west and they are much more powerful than Rokkaku. Perhaps, if we leave Hosokawa alone initially, they’ll concentrate on someone else. Preferably our larger Hatakeyama neighbor and ally.
One added bonus I find? A Buddhist temple in the province of Shiga at start!
This will allow me to join the Buddhist faction for an additional army replenishment bonus early in the game. Rokkaku is obviously a firm supporter of the Buddhist faith. Joining a religious faction also gives relation bonuses with others of the same faction (+10), and a penalty for those of different ones. The large Hatakeyama clan south and west of me, who are also fighting Hosokawa, similarly have a Buddhist temple and will likely join the same faction. This will start us off on the right foot, and I intend to befriend the Hatakeyama clan as much as possible, using them for a boost to the top, and a shield from the other hairy beefcakes nearby.
The Rokkaku clan, in blue. And it’s fearless (we hope!) boy leader Takayori. Sagara and Soekami look like tasty targets just a short stroll away.
We have hostages exchanged with our so-called “allies”. A hostage exchange is a diplomatic option that will trade one of your family members with the target clan’s family member for five years, and ensures that neither will attack the other. It’s typically a good idea to arrange marriages for all your family members, before shipping them off as hostages, because you can’t marry them off while they’re guests in another clan’s court.
Also displayed in this window is the info for our province Kurita. The province owner’s portrait is shown, and clicking it will take you to his character page. Below that are the two basic province improvement lines available, Castle and Village improvements. You can click on the big pic of each on the left to order the appropriate minister to start improving it. The shades can be opened by a minister relatively quickly compared to the castle and village improvements, and each one allows a specialist building to be erected, with appropriate funds and time.
Below these are listed the hard numbers. Tax income from the province is increased with village improvements as is supply limit, which lists how many troops can be supplied in the province without incurring steady casualties. The Samurai and Ashigaru levy limits can be increased via Castle upgrades, which also provide better defensive bonuses for the province and increases the time it takes for the enemy to successfully siege the location. The Religious Buildings button at the bottom allows for one of the three religious faction buildings to be built and the Raise Levy button will mobilize that province’s levy regiment, at reduced morale until it’s up to combat-ready condition a couple-three months away.
Appointing your three ministers is quite easy. You only need to appoint a courtier with a high value in the appropriate attribute, which is sorted from highest to lowest by default when you click the ‘appoint’ button. There isn’t a need to worry about Brutus stabbing you in the back here, so appointing a minister with low relations doesn’t result in any drawbacks that I’ve seen. They also get a relations bonus for the appointment, anyway.
Each minister has three available tasks. Their uses are explained in a popup window, but I nearly always use them for the same task. Improving Villages, Castles, and Hiring Ninja.
When in a serious bind, running a negative monthly income balance during a war and close to becoming bankrupt, I will order my master of ceremonies to Collect Taxes in my most profitable province and the Master of Arms to Restore Order in the same location (to reduce the extra revolt risk from the tax man). Going bankrupt results in some serious penalties with your vassals, and is a good way to get them to rebel or split off on their own. It’s as bad as having low Honor. So endeavor to always avoid bankruptcy in Sengoku.
You will occasionally use your Master of the Guard to expand a guild in one of your provinces, which opens one of the four ‘shades’ and opens a custom building slot. This takes far less time than the grannies building castles and improving villages, and you don’t need them opened as often since the specialty buildings cost 250 wealth apiece.. quite a sum.
Ministers, given work to do, will display a circular icon above the province in which they’re toiling happily ,or unhappily, away. You can see they’re busy in Gamo and Shiga. Note the demesne list, in the overview at top right. The first number, with a gold icon next to it, is the current province income. Kurita is earning 10 wealth per month, while the other two are only earning 3. This is because the cost of village improvements comes from a 70% income reduction in provinces being improved.
It’s always helpful for your bank account, having at least one province at full income. It’s hard enough to save up in Sengoku, for some shinies, so don’t stagnate your profits if you can keep away from it.
What do we have here? Pretenders! I’ve no idea if they have brass in pocket, but it might help when we dump their bodies in the lake.
These guys are trying to take leadership of the clan from our Wonder Boy. While my current nomination for next clan leader, upon the current ones (hopefully natural) death looks to be a blood relative, the clan vassals all vote for the next clan leader when the time comes. And these two bozos think they’re John Wayne. Note to self: Keep an eye on the shifty ones, and pay off the vassals if need be.
Here we join the Buddhist faction. First!!1
We’ll receive the extra recruiting speed bonuses for being a member, and another one if we become the religious faction leader. We also gain relations bonuses with other members and penalties with the others who didn’t take such an enlightened path as I.
In the Army screen, we start recruiting our Retinue.
The retinue is a standing army, the only one that replenishes it’s numbers in the field. It’s also the only one which benefits from special guild building bonuses. A couple village upgrades, and a barracks ‘guild’ building, will increase your levy limit. This will become your elite force that is always active, and customizable to fit your tastes.
Some people don’t bother with recruiting a retinue at the beginning, but I prefer getting mine up and running pretty quickly. Our retinue cap of four will allow for 1,000 soldiers. It just costs to get them trained so I’ve only queued two units for the moment. With a war going on, it’ll have to suffice because we’ll be in action very soon.
Being at war from the start, we’re gonna mobilize many of our levies. As you can see, the red/green bar on the right of the army strength indicator is showing it’s initially low morale state and that will rise quickly with time. Another nice feature is the clan symbol on the left of that same bar, which you can click to select the army. No more attempting to click directly on the little 3D model, which could sometimes make you want to go to war all by itself.
With the troops mobilized, we can see our monthly income total and the cost of army, levy, and ronin (mercenary) troops by hovering the cursor over the totals, in the clan screen.
Normally, we’d be able to arrange marriages and betrothals for our clan leader and his children. I don’t have that luxury with Junior, here. The only marriage I can arrange is for Takayori himself, and it will be a betrothal between children which are more easily accepted.
Don’t worry, she can’t take the house and the dog. That’s what the “Retire to Monastery” button is for, when she stops shootin’ out babies and starts nagging.
Setting up a marriage with the Toki clan leader should give me a relations bonus, and hopefully keep them off our back. Wives add half their attribute scores to their husband’s, if he’s a landed noble. So stats and diplomacy are both considerations when arranging marriage.
What does little Takayori do on Father's Day?? ... He looks for one!
And here comes a bit of the ‘ole ultra-violence. After concentrating some levies into a 1500-strong army, we’ve begun marching them into Sagara province – owned by Imizu-Hatakeyama, who deserves to perish for having such a long name.
Most neighboring clans have joined one side or another, and raised their levies. As defensive precautions, I’ve left a few of my levies in their home provinces, in case one of my uppity neighbors comes looking for an easy target this early in the conflict.
Bah! Those Yamana sneaks have beaten me to the punching victim. Being as the army arriving first to a siege is the one who claims the province upon victory, I’ll be moving on to greener pastures further south.
I just know the bastards did it to cut me off from having a contiguous line of provinces! I’ll not forget such nose-thumbing in the future.
Uh Oh. Looks like Hosokawa is bringing a few thousand troops to an un-announced gathering in our province of Kurita. There is no end to the rudeness I must endure!
This looks like it could hurt really bad. I may not survive to kiss me some Kaka!
(to be continued..)
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