Thursday 23 June 2011

Part 15, in which the end is nigh

Having dealt with a few waves of invaders, we are finally ready to spare some troops for an invasion of our own - Hojo must die, the sooner the better. And just so you know what I mean by "spare some troops", here's an illustration:


The bars show the strength of armies present in each of my provinces, garrisoned and otherwise. What you will notice is that all but the few border provinces are in fact empty, or very nearly so. Most probably they'd surrender to a particularly threatening looking rabbit; defense against an actual armed force is out of the question. So if some enemies managed to break through a border province, they could easily crush most of the country before I could send somebody else to stop them. For that reason, going on an all-out attack against Hojo would be stupid even by the standards of a suicide run: it will have to be limited, and I'll still have to keep an eye on the other clans.

North Shinano seems to have the most redundant troops, so that's where I take the first army for the task. It goes through what was until recently Kiso territory and, in a proud wartime tradition of the clan, hides in the nearest roadside bushes.

Well, might as well gather some mushrooms while we're here.

I'm not entirely sure what to expect up ahead as I haven't scouted the area with agents, and hiding in ambush is the least I can do in case Hojo are also about to come this way.

Meanwhile, more dudes come to knock on our doors - there's a stack from Satomi waiting just outside our capital, Mori are upset about our conquests way south, and there's still some rabble left after the battles I talked about last time. There's a lot of fighting to do yet, but here's a spoiler in advance: I win all of them. Actually, that could've summed up much of the post, if not for the fact that I had to fight all them by myself as autoresolve kept giving me crushing defeats instead. I had to spend quite a lot of time getting through those battles, so you get to read about them - fair's fair.

Satomi come well prepared for the siege of Kai - a full stack of units, lots of samurai, all the good stuff. They even manage to mount one of them fabled mythical Competent Sieges where they surround the castle and attack from all sides.

SO. COMPETENT.

Unfortunately for them, we're also well prepared, with enough archers to fire from all walls, enough melee troops to take their place when the spidermen come up - even some more to spare, and some cavalry to break the routine once the battle starts approaching its end. Been there, done that: another heroic victory.

Remember how we ended last post with splitting an already tattered army into three tiny parts? Well shockingly, it turns out actions have consequences: a few bands of Urakami deserters that were the only survivors from that string of battles, just over 100 men, decided they could give another go at besieging Settsu - and were not far from wrong, because I had left just over 100 men to defend it.

It helped that they only had a tiny scrap of light cavalry and slightly more numerous units of archers - all cowards. This allowed me to use a new and exciting approach to siege defense - running outside the walls and scaring the attackers away.

Cue "Yakety Sax".

In case you can't quite make it out, that's six samurai retainers chasing sixty or so archers who are already routing from the battlefield. The new strategy is a resounding success.

Then Mori try to retake their provinces from us once again, using an even more fantastical and rarely used tactic: not launching a suicidal attack right away, but actually sieging the town for a few turns to lure us outside for a better chance at victory. Well, they do succeed in luring us out, but achieving victory is more tricky than that. I won't bore you with details of the battle (suffice to say a hill was involved), but there's a lesson to be learned from it which you may find useful in your life:

When flaming horses start coming from ahead of you, consider turning back.

But what about the invasion of Hojo? Did we meet any resistance? Apparently, no - those two armies we defeated a couple of posts ago were in fact the majority of Hojo fighting force, and our army safely steamrolls through three of their southernmost provinces.

I like to think that my general here is facepalming.

The army that bravely defended our capital from Satomi also joined the party, taking a more direct approach towards the capital of Hojo. There's another undefended town in the way, but at least the capital has some defenders.

The one star mook of a general is their daimyo: a shameful display.

At any rate, I assume they are defenders - they don't actually think of going inside the castle until I come over there and start a battle. In their rush for the gates, I manage to intercept and destroy four or so units, while the rest that make their way in proceed to take up the worst possible defense positions. Despite the fact that I kept our whole army to one side of the castle, they spread their units across the whole place, and the only archers they have keep guarding a wall I never thought of assaulting.

Sniping time!

Our archers destroy three of their units without so much as an attempt to hide on their part. Then our spearmen break down the gates and the whole melee force goes up, from level to level, with hardly any resistance, and in no time at all the battle is over.

Hojo are now down to two provinces and no capital, although they still apparently have one battle-capable army left. A quick check reveals that I already own exactly 25 provinces - wait, shouldn't that mean I win? Oh, having Echigo, that Christian-, and more recently, Hatakeyama-infested town is one of the victory conditions. Ah well, I guess I can go for "proper" victory as well, right after I finish off Hojo.

Next time: those bloody invasions never stop. Also: the end.

2 comments:

  1. I want a Rockethorse T-shirt.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wonder what bucaneer would give to take part in that last siege with a PKP. Or the competent one.

    ReplyDelete