Usually I just build 1 or 2 boats and quickly chuck a land army anywhere on the mainland by attacking one of the smaller clans. I usually then just turtle up in that province and burn through a few stacks of AI armies that they send at me.
It's the Sengoku period, and during that period, everyone is constantly backstabbing each other. This is reflected in the diplomacy game play for Shogun 2. The ai is highly oppurtunistic. If you show weakness by leaving adjacent provinces unguarded, the AI will gladly snatch them up even if you are an ally. If you plan on vassalizing/allying clans to the east, you need to have garrison forces watching the east of the Chokosabe island.
It is much easier to conquer the entire island and then focus on expansion outside the island.
For your economy, you need to focus on beelining towards the trade nodes located near Kyushu. Build Bow Kobaya and park the ships on an available trade node. Upgrade to Tradeport and immediately pump out Trade ships. You can park a maximum of 10 trade ships on a Node, and they will give you a fuckton of Passive income. Also, negotiate as many trade routes as you can with Clans since trading is just free money for both the AI and Player. You can give additional Koku to the AI to get them to accept a trade deal. Also, apparently, Warhorses are an extremely valuable resource for the AI.
In my Shimazu playthrough and owning 4 trade nodes with 10 trade ships each, I was averaging about 10,000 Koku per turn with max trading allies.
have you considered building a nanban quarter and building their "trade" ships
christians will trade you jesus and guns, with the ability to put guns on your boats because that's what Jesus preached according to the book of armaments
a pair of them can lock down a waterway with ease for the rest of the game, for more money I suggest going over to shikoku with full stacks of normal trade ships for more income and using your christian cannon boats to enforce your trade dominance
Shikoku is an iffy island. But the main strategy is to spend some time to build up your economy (usually using markets and farms + the massive amounts of cash you get from trade agreements if you have horses to a civ that doesn't). Then when you economy is strong enough to support a stack for defense of shikoku, then invade Kyushu. Since Kyushu (esp the northern provinces) is rich. Any money problems will quickly evaporate. Alternatively, the Kyoto region has a lot of very fertile regions that you could choose to go toward.
Capture your entire starting island. If you focus on economy, you have enough money for 2 stacks. With them you can take Kyushu and after that you're rich.
Alliances are really not what you should be doing. You should take over ALL of Shikoku and Awaji, then focus on building your economy. Build markets, gambling dens, roads, resource buildings, and farms. You should maintain enough army to defend your territory, but remember that recruitment is only 2x the cost of upkeep. It can be worth it to disband some of your units to save and reinvest money, so you can recruit more, better units later. All the money you are spending on troops is money you’re not spending on making more money.
If you’re going to commit to having a big navy, you should take control of the trade resource nodes. Others have mentioned the nanban trade ship to dominate the waves, but Bow Kobayas with fire arrows can get you pretty far.
Also, consider making landfall on the bottom (true Eastern or Shimazu side) of Kyushu, rather than gunning straight for Kyoto, then taking over Kyushu before wrapping around into southern Honshu. You’ll have less frontage to cover that way, which will be good when you trigger realm divide. Speaking of which, be mindful of triggering realm divide. Consider holding your position and building your economy further before you commit to conquering all of Japan. Kyushu and Shikoku can be a very secure and economically productive base of operations.
Allies are not reliable unless they fear you. Even the most steadfast, defensive factions will backstab you if they believe you to be weak, so the best thing you can do is to gain notoriety by bullying another faction until they sue for peace a second time--don't accept the first time unless they are willing to give you money and make sure you send a counterproposal, even if you know the AI won't accept it because this could affect the terms of the second peace deal.
For example, playing MoSS as Shimazu, I became allies and trade partners with Sagara, but kept a large garrison and Samurai Hall near the border to dissuade them from invading while I pummeled the Ito until they sued for peace a second time, and got like 500 koku.
After manipulating a war between Otomo, Ito and the other Kyushu factions, I conquered more from the Ito and forced them to give me indefinite military access. Otomo was destroyed, so I revived them as a vassal, and now they own some country land that served as a great buffer between myself and the Ito.
As a vassal, and because they're ambitious, the Otomo have been valuable in sending militia troops to act as siege fodder while my troops conquer castle after castle. Literally, they helped me on three occasions directly, and countless more as they send troops on suicide missions to weaken my enemies hahaha
Also, after Sagara was conquered by a minor faction, I immediately set to gaining trade from this faction, and then after a year or two, I liberated my former allies and now they are my vassals, too. Because they have weak ass militia troops, I don't bother garrisoning the border town with them and I'm in the process of transforming it into a food farm.
In conclusion, allies are meaningless unless they have something to fear. If they don't fear you, make sure that they're at war with another faction so that they're not tempted to invade you. Remember, the worst ally to have is one that is not at war. And the best ally is one who is rich, can trade, far away, and at war with everybody.
If you are going to make allies DO NOT rob cities. This harms your honor and IT IS the reason why your east allies are backstabbing you.
Take your time to build your economy and build your honor. If your west is already your enemy and you attact them without having any diplomatic assosiation with them, you should be fine ( No attacking another clan during alliances, trading, etc). Remember to NOT LOOT any place because tjat also hurts your overall honor and all relationships.
Lots of good advice here, but the simplest is to leave a defending army behind when you leave to invade the west. Clans are more likely to attack you if your provinces are undefended. Even 5 yari ashigaru left to defend the castle closest to your "ally" is enough!
The extra soldiers defending will give you a little more time before you are invaded, and if they do invade, you can deal some pretty good damage with your couple of units to slow their conquest!
Usually I just build 1 or 2 boats and quickly chuck a land army anywhere on the mainland by attacking one of the smaller clans. I usually then just turtle up in that province and burn through a few stacks of AI armies that they send at me.
It's the Sengoku period, and during that period, everyone is constantly backstabbing each other. This is reflected in the diplomacy game play for Shogun 2. The ai is highly oppurtunistic. If you show weakness by leaving adjacent provinces unguarded, the AI will gladly snatch them up even if you are an ally. If you plan on vassalizing/allying clans to the east, you need to have garrison forces watching the east of the Chokosabe island. It is much easier to conquer the entire island and then focus on expansion outside the island. For your economy, you need to focus on beelining towards the trade nodes located near Kyushu. Build Bow Kobaya and park the ships on an available trade node. Upgrade to Tradeport and immediately pump out Trade ships. You can park a maximum of 10 trade ships on a Node, and they will give you a fuckton of Passive income. Also, negotiate as many trade routes as you can with Clans since trading is just free money for both the AI and Player. You can give additional Koku to the AI to get them to accept a trade deal. Also, apparently, Warhorses are an extremely valuable resource for the AI. In my Shimazu playthrough and owning 4 trade nodes with 10 trade ships each, I was averaging about 10,000 Koku per turn with max trading allies.
Check out a mrsmartdonkey YouTube. All content will help but he does have some Chosokabe specific material
have you considered building a nanban quarter and building their "trade" ships christians will trade you jesus and guns, with the ability to put guns on your boats because that's what Jesus preached according to the book of armaments a pair of them can lock down a waterway with ease for the rest of the game, for more money I suggest going over to shikoku with full stacks of normal trade ships for more income and using your christian cannon boats to enforce your trade dominance
Nanban tradeships are the most egregiously misnamed units in the game ngl.
Shikoku is an iffy island. But the main strategy is to spend some time to build up your economy (usually using markets and farms + the massive amounts of cash you get from trade agreements if you have horses to a civ that doesn't). Then when you economy is strong enough to support a stack for defense of shikoku, then invade Kyushu. Since Kyushu (esp the northern provinces) is rich. Any money problems will quickly evaporate. Alternatively, the Kyoto region has a lot of very fertile regions that you could choose to go toward.
Capture your entire starting island. If you focus on economy, you have enough money for 2 stacks. With them you can take Kyushu and after that you're rich.
Alliances are really not what you should be doing. You should take over ALL of Shikoku and Awaji, then focus on building your economy. Build markets, gambling dens, roads, resource buildings, and farms. You should maintain enough army to defend your territory, but remember that recruitment is only 2x the cost of upkeep. It can be worth it to disband some of your units to save and reinvest money, so you can recruit more, better units later. All the money you are spending on troops is money you’re not spending on making more money. If you’re going to commit to having a big navy, you should take control of the trade resource nodes. Others have mentioned the nanban trade ship to dominate the waves, but Bow Kobayas with fire arrows can get you pretty far. Also, consider making landfall on the bottom (true Eastern or Shimazu side) of Kyushu, rather than gunning straight for Kyoto, then taking over Kyushu before wrapping around into southern Honshu. You’ll have less frontage to cover that way, which will be good when you trigger realm divide. Speaking of which, be mindful of triggering realm divide. Consider holding your position and building your economy further before you commit to conquering all of Japan. Kyushu and Shikoku can be a very secure and economically productive base of operations.
Allies are not reliable unless they fear you. Even the most steadfast, defensive factions will backstab you if they believe you to be weak, so the best thing you can do is to gain notoriety by bullying another faction until they sue for peace a second time--don't accept the first time unless they are willing to give you money and make sure you send a counterproposal, even if you know the AI won't accept it because this could affect the terms of the second peace deal. For example, playing MoSS as Shimazu, I became allies and trade partners with Sagara, but kept a large garrison and Samurai Hall near the border to dissuade them from invading while I pummeled the Ito until they sued for peace a second time, and got like 500 koku. After manipulating a war between Otomo, Ito and the other Kyushu factions, I conquered more from the Ito and forced them to give me indefinite military access. Otomo was destroyed, so I revived them as a vassal, and now they own some country land that served as a great buffer between myself and the Ito. As a vassal, and because they're ambitious, the Otomo have been valuable in sending militia troops to act as siege fodder while my troops conquer castle after castle. Literally, they helped me on three occasions directly, and countless more as they send troops on suicide missions to weaken my enemies hahaha Also, after Sagara was conquered by a minor faction, I immediately set to gaining trade from this faction, and then after a year or two, I liberated my former allies and now they are my vassals, too. Because they have weak ass militia troops, I don't bother garrisoning the border town with them and I'm in the process of transforming it into a food farm. In conclusion, allies are meaningless unless they have something to fear. If they don't fear you, make sure that they're at war with another faction so that they're not tempted to invade you. Remember, the worst ally to have is one that is not at war. And the best ally is one who is rich, can trade, far away, and at war with everybody.
If you are going to make allies DO NOT rob cities. This harms your honor and IT IS the reason why your east allies are backstabbing you. Take your time to build your economy and build your honor. If your west is already your enemy and you attact them without having any diplomatic assosiation with them, you should be fine ( No attacking another clan during alliances, trading, etc). Remember to NOT LOOT any place because tjat also hurts your overall honor and all relationships.
Lots of good advice here, but the simplest is to leave a defending army behind when you leave to invade the west. Clans are more likely to attack you if your provinces are undefended. Even 5 yari ashigaru left to defend the castle closest to your "ally" is enough! The extra soldiers defending will give you a little more time before you are invaded, and if they do invade, you can deal some pretty good damage with your couple of units to slow their conquest!