How the ♥♥♥♥ do I play japan/daimyo?

[BlitzNexus]

Whichever's quicker/easier for a unification. I've got no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue.

[tonypa]

I did recently The Chrysanthemum Throne (Unite Japan as a Daimyo) and Kirishitan Japan (Start as a Japanese Daimyo, convert yourself and all of Japan to Christianity) achievements. I had some trouble first and had to restart several times before finding correct tactics.

Here is walkthrough:

Started as Hosokawa, large and strong daimyo. Maxed up the army to the limit. Now, my main problem with earlier plays was that I got some allies and started to take out other daimyos one by one. This failed every time because my small ally always declared war of emperor to Japan and every other daimyo not allied to them. You can not decline this war and will probably face enemy twice your size. What is worse, even if you manage fight back and start to win the war, your ally will always accept the 10% war reparations peace.

So, do not get any allies. Stay alone instead. If you have maxed army other allied daimyos will not start war against you, they will fight each other first. That is when you strike. Wait for 1 or 2 smaller daimyo nearby get into other war and their allies to become busy and not willing to help defend them. Declare war, crush their army if it is nearby and occupy capital. Take as much money as you can and their province. Increase the autonomy to suppress rebels and core it. Repeat with next daimyo.

You do not have to worry about aggressive expansion, there may be false messages about coalition forming against you but these are not actually in the game. You do not have endless time since Japan will start to integrate smaller daimyos. Once you are only daimyo left, take out Japan and get independence. Now you have to wait out truce timer to conquer remaining Japan provinces.

Japan region also includes Ainu in the north, Okinawa (Ryukyu) in south, the Kurils (need to colonize), and Jeju (owned by Korea). Winning against Korea can be most difficult, specially if they are allied with Ming and have grown big.

I wont go into Kirishitan Japan achievement yet unless you having trouble with it too.

Good luck :)

P.S I am not saying this is only way to unite Japan, it is just what worked for me. Some expansions may change the way it plays out (only have AoW and El Dorado myself).

[Mikey]

Why go for independence tony? You could go declare for the Japanese Shogunate instead, which should (afaik) force the remaining Daimyos to submit to you as vassals.

[Ypulse]

Originally posted by tonypa:

I did recently The Chrysanthemum Throne (Unite Japan as a Daimyo) and Kirishitan Japan (Start as a Japanese Daimyo, convert yourself and all of Japan to Christianity) achievements. I had some trouble first and had to restart several times before finding correct tactics.

Here is walkthrough:

Started as Hosokawa, large and strong daimyo. Maxed up the army to the limit. Now, my main problem with earlier plays was that I got some allies and started to take out other daimyos one by one. This failed every time because my small ally always declared war of emperor to Japan and every other daimyo not allied to them. You can not decline this war and will probably face enemy twice your size. What is worse, even if you manage fight back and start to win the war, your ally will always accept the 10% war reparations peace.

So, do not get any allies. Stay alone instead. If you have maxed army other allied daimyos will not start war against you, they will fight each other first. That is when you strike. Wait for 1 or 2 smaller daimyo nearby get into other war and their allies to become busy and not willing to help defend them. Declare war, crush their army if it is nearby and occupy capital. Take as much money as you can and their province. Increase the autonomy to suppress rebels and core it. Repeat with next daimyo.

You do not have to worry about aggressive expansion, there may be false messages about coalition forming against you but these are not actually in the game. You do not have endless time since Japan will start to integrate smaller daimyos. Once you are only daimyo left, take out Japan and get independence. Now you have to wait out truce timer to conquer remaining Japan provinces.

Japan region also includes Ainu in the north, Okinawa (Ryukyu) in south, the Kurils (need to colonize), and Jeju (owned by Korea). Winning against Korea can be most difficult, specially if they are allied with Ming and have grown big.

I wont go into Kirishitan Japan achievement yet unless you having trouble with it too.

Good luck :)

P.S I am not saying this is only way to unite Japan, it is just what worked for me. Some expansions may change the way it plays out (only have AoW and El Dorado myself).

no, this is very wrong tactic and it is just luck that u survived probably, or ur gaming mechanics are very good,or lack of dlc :p

what u need to do is make an alliance (full 4) and go to war 2-3 times when ur ally calls (war for independence), there u can stay away from that war usually, cuz lot of enemy daimyos and even japan will ignore u most of the time, or enemy daimyos will simply not fight and stay at home.or u can simply just join the fights, but only vs japan.(If u play as hosokava, u need to ally useugi and its allies)
Disbanding all ur ships is also necessary at the start of the game, cuz u need everymoney into landforce.u only need ships after u have united japan already or when u start to colonize.

this way japan will never ever diploannex, while u annex the enemy small daimyos one by one (from daimyo having 2-3 provinces it is good if u keep them with 1 province after peace, to keep the illusion iof alliances). when u have no alliances, japan is diploannxeing very fast.

during wars usually u need to go over force limit and take loan,otherwise u will be in bad spot, and just hoping for a good luck to happen.

when u are big enough (fighted for ally 2-3 times vs japan, when ally called) u can start ur own indepence war.

administrative idea for first is the best thing u can go for.

also right at the start of the game after 1-2 month (right after the game allows it for u, in december) u should declare war vs the weakest target and take their land.

[tonypa]

Originally posted by Mikey:

Why go for independence tony? You could go declare for the Japanese Shogunate instead, which should (afaik) force the remaining Daimyos to submit to you as vassals.

I honestly did not attempt to get united Japan achievement as Japan itself. Maybe I was obsessed to get both (the Christianity achievement requires to start as Daimyo I think) with one playthrough.

Do you think it is easier when starting as Japan? I did not have really any problems following the tactics I described above.

[veryhungryperson]

As Tonypo posted Hosokawa is probably the most reliable diaymo to unite japan with however I personally deviate from the strategy given.

Couple of quick tips.
-As Tonypo said, allies are not your friend. However that is not to say that you shouldn't take allies of convience.
-Loans are not a bad thing. You can take money of other diaymos as you annex them
-A miltary advisor (disp/morale) should always be gotten and military focus should be selected for the first round of focus. Military tech advantages are significant in general however are exasubated in the same nature of diaymo wars.
- Carpet seiging is your friend. You can to minimise the amount of manpowe you use in wars so making sure nothing new is recruited once you have routed an enemy is key.
-You don't need to declare independance, I personally never do as it means you have to fight whatever vassals japan has left getting truces with all of them.
-Takeada is great for taking money from in a pinch.
-I've done it a couple of times but the quickest I've managed is 1465.

General Strategy
Pick Hosokawa, See if you have a displine or morale advisor, restart until you get one. Rival Ouchi, Yamato, ally Usegi, improve relations with Japan and Royal marriage them. Put your forces in your northern most province. Declare war using diaymo CB on the 11 Dec. Build up to land force limit. Hire a general and admiral. If Ouchi called in an ally then go crush Ouchi and leave 1 damaged unit on each their provinces to prvent new units spawning while you go deal with their allies. Peace out allies for money and war reps and any land you can get. FInsih up Ouchi.

Check to see if Usegi is in a war. If they are choose between Yamato or Otomo depending on allies, remember to rival them before declaring. If Usegi isn't at war then rival and declare on the 2 province minor you have in common and opposite sides of Japan, promise them land. Same deal as before, stackwipe the main enamy army and leave a troop there while you go clean up allies. Give Usegi a province on their side. Do the other other step you didn't do.

Lookm at Shizamu and see if they have any allies, if they don't then free land otherwise declare on Shiba with Usegi and take whatever you can don't give Uesegi anthing and break the alliance after, at this point you can carry an indepandance war if you want.

Peroid of peace while you recover from your crazy warmongering and wait for the alliance break treaty. Try and get an instiution in your capital as when you become Japan it will move to Kyoto resetting your capital development bonus. At this point it's pretty straight forward. Once you take out Uesegi nothing can touch you and your free to eat whomever you what whenever you like.

[Mikey]

Can attest to tony's strategy. Well thought out and easy to replicate.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=864955462

[Raeker]

They are actually changing Japan for the next update, you might want to hold of actually playing as Japan until then. People have been complaining about Japan's system for a very long time, the fact they're finally changing it is awesome