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Nice update, it is wise that you start conquering the north as it gives you just a mere 1 front to fight on! Banzai!
That is exactly my strategy!
Sorry I didn't make that clear -- the reason my army failed is because I failed to put my general in charge.
Thought it was obvious from the picture!Thanks for the feedback! I'll definitely keep a close eye on the 10 province barrier.
I'll take a look into that; thanks for the advice, and welcome aboard!
I think it would have been funny if you had posted a picture of you being annexed.
Seems like you're nicely cementing your control of northern Japan.
I didn't actually get annexed, but I was at war with everybody except Japan on the Home Islands, not to mention that two of the three provinces were occupied and my army was gone.
Is this a reference to tennis in general, or something specific?
I fear the easy part is over, but welcome aboard and thanks for the feedback!
Nicely done!
I've got the update, tentatively, scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday. I haven't had a chance to play yet, so we'll see.
Chapter 2: Winning battles is for chumps
So, it’s 1450. We’re in a pretty good position, having occupied most of the northern/eastern bits of Japan. The next step is to defeat Takeda and annex their precious, precious gold. Relatively early on in this update, I make an important general strategic decision. Normally, when playing a Western power, I hoard administrative power. However, there’s a greater opportunity cost at stake with Japan, because a) it’s going to me a long time to get the tech anyway and b) I need a lot of loans to keep my army strong. In addition, it’s handy to buff stability for the inevitable stab hits. Thus, I spend my admin a bit more freely than I would if I were, say, Spain.
This is the first step in my master plan to defeat Takeda.
I need a powerful ally if I’m going to overcome the numerically greater army of Takeda (and so early in the game, numbers matter!) Yamana has the two qualities everybody looks for in an ally: close enough to help, far enough away that they’re unlikely to stab me in the back. 1451 poses a difficult choice:
I hate situations like this from a personal standpoint (but love them from a game design point). I have to sit and think this one through a bit; I don’t want to fight Takeda again so soon, but Yamana is less likely to come to my aid if I betray them now. (By the way, I absolutely adore the fact that defender doesn’t always win the call to an alliance). Sorry, Hosokawa.
Now it’s 1452. Hah hah, n00b! All your rice are belong to us!
The other choices are lose prestige (with no benefit), or gain a little less money and prestige, but lose the admin. I want to make sure I can fund this war, so I take the greater amount of cash. Dewa cores in July of 1452. I also kick stab up to +1. Kai is sieged by me (yay!) at which point Yamana immediately signs a peace (boo!) which somehow doesn’t apply to me (guh?) The result is Takeda destroys my army. (This genuinely confused me, since Yamana is without a doubt our war leader, so that should have taken Takeda out of the war entirely, right?)
This decision here is a pretty easy one – as you can see, I don’t lack manpower. My bottleneck for replenishing my army is cash, not manpower, so I’ll take some free prestige. Someday, I might even have 0 prestige!
A Ronin helps me afford to start rebuilding my army.
I get some more free prestige via Noh theater.
It’s now November 1454. I decide to take my now two regiments and give them a leader who might actually have better than 0 shock. I find that general.
It’s a shame I can’t cryogenically freeze the guy with +4 to fire and thaw him out in a couple hundred years. Oh well. In any case, this should help even the odds against Takeda! (If you’re wondering why I didn’t pick up a new general earlier, it’s because I forgot that generals in EUIV are only military power, there’s no monetary cost and no maintenance to pay.) A battle ensues in January 1455 that sees me lose, but I inflict almost as much damage to Takeda as they do to me.
Then this happened in June.
There was a point where I didn’t hate Takeda. That point has long since been passed. (My fault for underestimating cavalry, perhaps, but I did that pretty consistently in EUIII with few ill effects. I will definitely need to reevaluate my strategic thinking.)
It’s November, and the war is over. My side won. Huzzah!
Uh, yeah, I’ll skip the -5 stab hit to help an OPM, thanks.
Some time passes; I get a stab hit, but another event for 50 admin, but that softened that blow. I get my first tech in 1457!
Then this happens four days later.
This is probably the worst possible for him to die (I guess, other than in the middle of a war). Especially since Takeda got its army destroyed somehow. I wouldn’t want to break the truce anyway, but if I were going to break a truce, this would be the time. Getting mil tech 3 in August is small consolation.
1458; my army is being rebuilt slowly but surely, but so is Takeda’s. It’s like the naval arms race before WWI, but only if it happened really, really slowly. Ouchi declares war on Hosokawa. I would have guessed that OPM Ouchi would have regretted that.
Nope. Not one bit. By 1459, I notice it’s taking Takeda forever to rebuild their army, and I start fabricating a claim. Kai will be mine, with or without the cobras! 1460 now. Ouchi wants to be my ally, suspiciously mere moments after the second biggest daimyo, Otomo, DOWs them. Nice try, Ouchi. I get my claim on Takeda, but can’t DOW them until my heir is of age. Patience is needed. Not wanting me to get bored, Yamana calls me into a war against Ouchi.
This puts me on the same side as Takeda, which just makes me feel dirty. Manchu declares war on Ming with Tribal Conquest in September 1460 – I’ll definitely keep an eye on that one!
Stop the presses! An army was destroyed in one of my battles… and it wasn’t mine!
This is presently the highlight of my EUIV military career (I told you hadn’t played this game very often
). I get my new ruler, but I can’t attack Takeda until this war ends, since we’re on the same side. (The wrongness, she burns!)
After my brilliant siege of Suo, Ouchi surrenders, the war ends, and I waste no time starting a new one.
YAMANA! You are my best friend until I decide to betray you later! (Hosokawa is an OPM at this point.) I build a Great Palace to celebrate my impending victory.
Four years later, I win!
If that seemed anti-climactic, I’m sorry. It turned out to be a siege race, which I won. Takeda got the Yamana province they were besieging, Yamana peaced out (white peace), which gave me 100% warscore. That all still took four years, though, so I am hardly a military dynamo. Still, it’s good enough for one update, I think. Next one will be coming early next week; this weekend isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but I’m going to Kronstadt, weather permitting, either Friday or Saturday.
Nice to see you won your war. Four years is a long time but I guess without cannon or anything it would probably take quite a while to lay siege.
I tend to forget cavalry too, and think it has bitten me a few times in EU IV, as I usually only have a regiment or two.
But things look to be going good for you! And that new rule has nice stats which should help some. Especially his military stat, at least it will help you get closer to advancing military tech a bit sooner.......maybe!
I tend to forget cavalry too, and think it has bitten me a few times in EU IV, as I usually only have a regiment or two.
But things look to be going good for you! And that new rule has nice stats
which should help some. Especially his military stat, at least it will help you get closer to advancing military tech a bit sooner.......maybe!
Aw, poor Hosokawa. :sad:
But you got your shiny new province! Care to share your next set of plans?
But you got your shiny new province! Care to share your next set of plans?
Fantastic progress so far, especially with the war victory! I don't know if it's just me because I'm weird, but I like to lose battles (because it seems absurd to roll over everyone in every battle, at every epoch of history!), to which I confess, sometimes I deliberately engage in a battle I know I will lose just to make the game more fun and challenging...
Shigefusa is the type of ruler (stats-wise) I wish I would sometimes be blessed with more often than not in my games! To see a skill point of 6 accompanied by the others being 3+ is always joyful cause for celebration! I'd actually much prefer a balanced 3-3-4/4-3-3, etc. ruler than one who ends up totally unbalanced even if they have a 6 in one category, like seeing a 6-1-2 or something like that...
Shigefusa is the type of ruler (stats-wise) I wish I would sometimes be blessed with more often than not in my games! To see a skill point of 6 accompanied by the others being 3+ is always joyful cause for celebration!
I'd actually much prefer a balanced 3-3-4/4-3-3, etc. ruler than one who ends up totally unbalanced even if they have a 6 in one category, like seeing a 6-1-2 or something like that...
Nice, Avindian. It can sometime take people 10 years to complete a war against an OPM...:glare:
The Takedan menace is no more!
It can sometime take people 10 years to complete a war against an OPM...:glare:The Takedan menace is no more!
Oooh, good to see. I love how fragmented Japan is in this game, makes for some very interesting shifting alliances. I would love to see what kind of general your ruler would make, but on the other hand I would hate to see his lifespan shortened.
I couldn't really follow all those alliances there, but it's good that Uesugi is on the rise! Despite your "nigh ignorance" of EUIV.
I beat Avindian in one thing only. One Brandenburg game, there was a huge war between Austria and Burgundy. I get called in and go to help out. During that war, my entire army was wiped off the board. I rebuild my army. The war is still going strong and Burgundy has a massive stack in Tirol or somewhere close to it. So I do the smart thing and go to siege Holland.
I'm halfway there, when the FOW suddenly breaks to reveal a 20K Burgundy stack sitting right in the next province.
2 Stackwipes in 1 war.
I'm halfway there, when the FOW suddenly breaks to reveal a 20K Burgundy stack sitting right in the next province.
2 Stackwipes in 1 war.
Your progress reminds me of my Austria game where my army was wiped out like every decade.
You seem to be cleaning up Japan nicely. Watching you play makes me want to try out one of the Japanese daimyo.
You seem to be cleaning up Japan nicely. Watching you play makes me want to try out one of the Japanese daimyo.
not sure about japan military tech (combined arms bonus), but cavalry is overrated.... it's not worth to have more then 2 regiments per stack.
eventually you can run 4/6 but that is once you hit 20/4/16 compositions etc.
in early game you will be perfectly fine with compositions of 10/2, 14/2, etc. what matters more are who is defender, who attacker, quality of general, morale and ofc size of stacks
if you can get hands on military leader giving discipline/morale that's great bet.
eventually you can run 4/6 but that is once you hit 20/4/16 compositions etc.
in early game you will be perfectly fine with compositions of 10/2, 14/2, etc. what matters more are who is defender, who attacker, quality of general, morale and ofc size of stacks
if you can get hands on military leader giving discipline/morale that's great bet.
ehm while i am a bit on topic of military units... artillery in EU IV is super important and awesome and you really basically want to have full width of artillery "barely" covered by infantry in front row...
but I guess at mil. tech 3 you have plenty of time to think about artillery
but I guess at mil. tech 3 you have plenty of time to think about artillery
Nice to see you won your war. Four years is a long time but I guess without cannon or anything it would probably take quite a while to lay siege.
I tend to forget cavalry too, and think it has bitten me a few times in EU IV, as I usually only have a regiment or two.
But things look to be going good for you! And that new rule has nice stats
Which means he'll almost certainly die the moment I open the save.
It is nice to see that things are going your way! Keep it commin!
I certainly intend to do so!
In the short term, burn off the AE -- in the long term, I genuinely don't know yet.
Fantastic progress so far, especially with the war victory! I don't know if it's just me because I'm weird, but I like to lose battles (because it seems absurd to roll over everyone in every battle, at every epoch of history!), to which I confess, sometimes I deliberately engage in a battle I know I will lose just to make the game more fun and challenging...
Shigefusa is the type of ruler (stats-wise) I wish I would sometimes be blessed with more often than not in my games! To see a skill point of 6 accompanied by the others being 3+ is always joyful cause for celebration!
Well, I've never lost a battle on purpose (since I do that enough just via mistakes!), but I admit I was pretty excited to see his "6" for MIL.
Nice, Avindian.
The Takedan menace is no more!
I must be missing your reference.
Excellent work!
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with the general I already have, and as you say, it's not worth the risk.
I couldn't really follow all those alliances there, but it's good that Uesugi is on the rise! Despite your "nigh ignorance" of EUIV.
I'm totally serious about the ignorance.
I've played exactly one game past 1500, which was a Spain game. Just too many other games in the backlog and incidents of non-gaming.Ugh! Sounds like a nasty bit of business, that.
Your progress reminds me of my Austria game where my army was wiped out like every decade.
You seem to be cleaning up Japan nicely. Watching you play makes me want to try out one of the Japanese daimyo.
I'm glad that I'm not alone in my miseries, at any rate.
ehm while i am a bit on topic of military units... artillery in EU IV is super important and awesome and you really basically want to have full width of artillery "barely" covered by infantry in front row...
but I guess at mil. tech 3 you have plenty of time to think about artillery
Thanks for the advice! I'll take all I can get.
It's been a question of expense, thus far, which I hope my shiny new gold mine will help alleviate.
Superb! Glad to have you!
So how is life as a Dynamo? enlightening?
A brief aside here, which I did not realize until after the fact: in American English, a dynamo is a really energetic person, although it's seldom used these days. I completely forgot that the British English word "dynamo" is what we Americans call a generator.
Well played, both of you!Depending on various factors, I should have an update this evening.