Who did you side with? Emperor or Shogun?

[Cpt. Kid]

Steam should have a survey system setup for this.

I sided with the Emperor but we ended up going independent with me as Prince of Shimazu.

I never play as Shogun Vanguard forces but are Vermillion Infantry recruitable? Levy unit? I like the new modernized Imperial style better.

[THEDOSSBOSS]

Imo there is little difference between the shogunate and the imperial factions. They both have access to the same melee units and have more or less the same modernized infantry. I am a shogunate main and I never noticed game mechanics trying to make me use the kachi, just the standard line infantry to dominate the early game and SIR infantry to dominate the late game

Story-wise I am for the shogunate because the shogun had good reason to blame that city's destruction on the emperor for agreeing to take in the westerners without undergoing cautious measures, while the Emperor's perspective is he just blames the shogun on it with no reason and set up the common propagated excuse that 'he abandoned us when we needed him'.

So by the looks of things, the emperor is capitalizing on the death of his citizens while the shogun is trying to remove power hungry traitol

[Zonda Zecarius]

TheDossBoss.
"the shogun had good reason to blame the emperor for taking in westerners without cautious measures"
doesn't the opening of the campaign say that the Emperor wanted to remove the westerners, while the Shogun wanted to keep them there and ignored orders from the Emperor to get rid of them?
That'd make the emperor trying to remove the people that murdered his citizens while the shogun is trying to protect them and take down the emperor so he's the only seat of power in Japan.

and personally, I go for Shogunate on avatar conquest since they get more melee troops and Yugekitai.
Campaign I side with the emperor more than the shogunate.

[THEDOSSBOSS]

Originally posted by Sargent379:

TheDossBoss.
"the shogun had good reason to blame the emperor for taking in westerners without cautious measures"
doesn't the opening of the campaign say that the Emperor wanted to remove the westerners, while the Shogun wanted to keep them there and ignored orders from the Emperor to get rid of them?
That'd make the emperor trying to remove the people that murdered his citizens while the shogun is trying to protect them and take down the emperor so he's the only seat of power in Japan.

Gimmr a sec let me check

[THEDOSSBOSS]

Oh nvm I was wrong (only just got back into fots), the emperor was the piece of $hit that thought that the best way to end the outside influence of western powers was to assassinate their leadership (very dishonerable) and then blame the shogun for what followed. Meanwhile the shogun was being welcoming and peaceful, and with ongoing negotiations, could probably demand the respect from the western powers that would eventually benefit the japanese people.

The emperor was a cowering idiot who used the shogun as a scapegoat to have the people not turn on himself and to justify his own dishonorable actions, then used that to try and establish himself as the ruling head of japan.

[Zonda Zecarius]

intro cutscene quote: "the trade agreements favoured the west... the economy faltered and people suffered" shogun literally made things worse for the japanese people, and considering that was the result of 10 years of diplomacy, chances were they weren't ever going to get an agreement that wasn't bad for them.

Not mentioned in the cutscene is that the Emperor set a deadline of 2 months for the westerners to leave. Only once that deadline ended did they start using force.
Cutscene also shows that the Emperor made peace with the British and gained their support to take down the Shogun who is outright trying to overthrow the legitimate ruler of japan.

So tl;dr
Shogun made bad trade agreements and japan suffered from it
Emperor gave warning for all foreigners to leave.
Shogun ignored orders of a higher authority.
Force was used after deadline. not dishonorable.
Not once mentioned anywhere that the Emperor tries to use the shogun as a "scapegoat"
Emperor was already meant to be the ruling head of Japan. The shogun was simply rebelling.

[EoNightcore]

In my first game, I served the Emperor cause it was the right thing to do and I was a loyal Imperial subject... except everyone else but me and my vassasls were Shogun-aligned, so I became a subject of the Shogunate. Won the game without the realm divide mechanic kicking in.....

Played that game until I did hit Realm Divide, than I went Independent and ate everyone as the President of Shimazu Nihon.

[Hellsteeth30]

I normally don't play much above normal difficulty so the AI is usually less "the player is on this side so let's all switcharoo", but I usually stick to the side I started on.

I find myself picking the Imperial clans more though. Especially the ones where Nagaoka is nowhere near them. Those dudes are ridiculous. I have a game as the Jozai and they blocked me off already within 20 turns AFTER offering me an alliance.

[Björn]

Originally posted by Nicholas Herrman:

Steam should have a survey system setup for this.

I sided with the Emperor but we ended up going independent with me as Prince of Shimazu.

I never play as Shogun Vanguard forces but are Vermillion Infantry recruitable? Levy unit? I like the new modernized Imperial style better.

yes, vermillions are recruitable and you´ll have other troops too. Shogunate has melee advantage and imperial has gun advantage... Shogunate has the shinsengumi and shogetai(high morale/banzai melee unit) and i think a 150 range ninja with a gun(forgot the name of the unit). Some other differences too but those are the most important.

[Zonda Zecarius]

Yugekittai aren't ninjas, they're guerrilla fighters
and never really understood while Shogunate forces have a larger focus on melee despite imperialists being the one that wants to expel the westerners.

[Cpt. Kid]

I like the Imperial Vanguard better you guys. Theres just too many poser warrior vet types on Shogun Vanguard side claiming to be Samurai when they are actually nothing more than ashigaru. I dont use ashigaru for garrison or in my assault armies even for a modernized military setup. I still have a purpose for ashigaru though I wont be mean about this and its like a rite of passage amongst them.... like taking the pick of the litter.

The warrior standards are high to be part of the team to be part of the Imperial Vanguard. This is what made Japan so great to live in and defend. This is what made Japan that quality product to the rest of the countries/empires around the world.

[Hoxtalicous]

https://strawpoll.com/chcydwa6 just make a strawpoll, man

[★☭150th Rifle Division☭★]

It's funny how the emperor betrayed many of the supporters. Especially Satsuma. I played as Satsuma for revenge even though it happens after Meiji Restoration. lol I build of relations with other clans and betray them later.

I wish I can betray during battles. I join a battle with another imperial clan to take a castle. What I did is I watch and withdraw slowly just ike Braveheart. After the battle the imperial clan lost 90% of his army so I manage to declare war on him and take both provinces.

In history some of the major rival leaders from Tokugawa and Shinsengumi survived to 1900s unlike some leaders Satsuma and Ishin shishi leaders.

[THEDOSSBOSS]

I both hate and love how when there are no border enemies, my fellow shogunate allies randomly break their military alliances and declare war on me. I mean, I get that there's a deadline, but can't I just have a year of peace to increase power by developing my lands. Now I am surrounded by enemies who still follow the shogunate, and all their fleets just destroy all the coastline buildings. I am now bankrupt, but forced 2 out of the 3 clans into surrendering. Great challenge but just wish it was less forced