What would you Recommend?

[Honor and Glory]

Hello,

I am playing as Satsuma and am currently around turn 90 or so and the realm dived occurred. I am the Satsuma Imperial Vanguard now and I see it has come with some serious consequences. After the realm divide occurred, within the next few rounds, LOADS of enemies declared war on me, sent ships to my shores, bombarded the ****ing F*** out of me and I can barely scrounge up enough resources to create a good navy. I am currently fighting off loads of armies at the end of my border on the mainland near *****u. I need all the resources I can get to supply myself with troops at the front. How am I to get rid of these ships that just keeping coming and coming? I have a few small fleets trying to get rid of these ships who are bombarding me, raiding trade routes, and blocking ports. Before the realm divide, I was making anywhere from 2500Koku-5000Koku based on the season and upkeep, now, I can barely get more than 400Koku with all this raiding and bombarding. My biggest threat is the Obama Shogunate Vanguard. They send MASSIVE fleets at me and i have to thin them out over a few turns...

Please, help me. My Shimazu/Satsuma Vanguard depends on any help it can get.

Honor and Glory

P.S. I am on Normal Difficulty.

[Colonel Mallard]

Try to ignore them, and just keep conquering. Don't worry about enemy numbers, be bold and you'll probably break through eventually. Once you have enough provinces, eventually they won't be able to bombard them all. Build all new economic buildings inland rather than near the coast, just to be safe. (Source: What I did; went on to win (Tsu, republic, normal, domination))

[Thesaboteur]

I had the same problem as the Choushu vanguard. What I did was research into explosive and ap shells, that will give you an immediate edge. Just go manual and control your navy and attack. The ai usually researches into explosive shells only and leaves ap alone. AP has more range so you can switch back and forth and it takes about 15 shots to get a ship blown up.... The main solution I found was to upgrade to a military port and have the defenses work for me. Put a couple of ships to garrison it and watch them come to you. With ap shells and the coastal batteries it will be a easy battle. Or upgrade to foreign trade district and get the ironclad which can take out navies like nothing. Along with that the batteries come into campaign, creating an attrition zone that damages enemy ships. It takes very little to repair and does a lot of damage. You also might want to consider creating vassals as they can hold a region better and you don't waste your money repairing everything. In my campaign, my two vassals each had something like 6 provinces and because you are the vanguard they never betray you. You have to thinkg about the emperor not your clan. Heck, my clan controlled 3 provinces and I was kicking some as*. Alternatively sack some cities (Muhhahaha) for a quick cash boost. Eventually you will have to lead the imperial forces to victory.

[vallu751]

Upgrade ports to trade or military ports and keep a gunboat always docked at each. That will prevent naval landings, bombarding of the port and if they try to blockade, they'll have to fight the coastal defenses first. I prefer the trade ports due to the 700 wealth they bring.

[Schepel]

Ignore the fleets for now. You can't win that battle, so don'teven try. You don't have to. Scupper any and all ships you have and invest the money in enough land units to defend what you have, with some money to spare. With that, you invest in business chain buildings. Apart from one city where you recruit units, all other cities need to be both upgraded and filled with buildings that give you income. With that income you hire more soldiers. Try to capture new cities, but do it slowly. Without a navy you will be invaded quite a lot so you will have to be able to defend each and every city. (My experience is that 12 levies + garrison units can pretty much hold anything.)

[Honor and Glory]

@ Schepel

Having 12 Levies in every city will damage my economy so much. If you read what i said, I am struggling to get barely more than 400Koku, sometimes i dip down to less than 100...

As for everyone else, thanks for the tips. Time to implement them.

[Schepel]

@ Schepel

Having 12 Levies in every city will damage my economy so much. If you read what i said, I am struggling to get barely more than 400Koku, sometimes i dip down to less than 100...

As for everyone else, thanks for the tips. Time to implement them.

Right now you can't afford it, but if you do what I suggested, you will be able to do so - easily. Trust me when I say you can do it. I have done it with almost every clan available - on VH. You should get at least 2k in taxes from every city you own. At any rate, the most important bit of my previous post is this: build financial buildings and upgrade your cities. It may seem like a huge investment, but it's worth it.

[Honor and Glory]

Well, I tried doing what you guys said, but after a few turns, the Obama Shogun Vanguard attacked me with 4 full strength armies! The took all my land on the main island. Then, all of the other shogun factions I was at war with sent full strength navies to every port, bombarded me so badly I couldn't repair buildings (some of them cost over 2k to repair...) and landed massive armies, I ended up losing my home, Satsuma Province, and finished with Buzen, which i made a super military city, and Tsukishi, which was my capital by the end. So, basically, on normal, I got owned as if I was playing on legendary. I wonder if that's even "normal."

First time I ever lost a Shogun 2/FotS campaign...

[damadman228]

When I played Satsuma on normal the end game was boringly easy and tedious. I wonder what you did wrong there. Maybe you lost all your allies early? The most important thing is that you prepair before triggering RD.

[Schepel]

Well, I tried doing what you guys said, but after a few turns, the Obama Shogun Vanguard attacked me with 4 full strength armies! The took all my land on the main island. Then, all of the other shogun factions I was at war with sent full strength navies to every port, bombarded me so badly I couldn't repair buildings (some of them cost over 2k to repair...) and landed massive armies, I ended up losing my home, Satsuma Province, and finished with Buzen, which i made a super military city, and Tsukishi, which was my capital by the end. So, basically, on normal, I got owned as if I was playing on legendary. I wonder if that's even "normal."

First time I ever lost a Shogun 2/FotS campaign...

Learn from your mistakes. FOTS is not very forgiving, despite the fact you can utilise wildly different strategies. In your next campaign you'll want to invest in financial buildings, city upgrades and castles. If you do that, you can afford to garrison your cities properly. (If you cannot afford 12 levies everywhere, start with 6 everywhere.) The reason you need to do this, is because it will stop attacks of opportunity. If the AI 'senses' your cities are not defended (at all), it will declare war on you and attack. That will leave you with 'normal' opposition. Use agents to monitor enemy movement and move and/or recruit units as needed. With a level 3 castle (6 repression) you can stop anything up to 2.5 stacks cold with 12 levies. (If the AI sieges you will be in trouble, so it pays to have at least one stack to move in if the AI does not assault as it is generally wont to do.)