Glory Stories

**technishn08** · March 28, 2006, 07:21 AM

Wow it seems like no one cares about STW any more, well, i can see why as it has graphics that are worse than those of MTW. Still, I have it, and I play it. And you know what? I like it! Yes, i do like leading massive samurai armies (along with some peasent spearmen) into battle. So let me tell you about one of my greatest games. I was playing as the Red faction (I cant remember exactly what the name of that one is) and fianlly, it was only me and dark blue left. We each controlled half of Japan, and were constantly fighting. I had massive armies at least 6 in each province. Every single one of my castles had a full garrison, and I was constantly producing large quantities of Kensai to counter the buddhist monks i had to keep fighting. Assasins and spies were everywhere. IT was one of the coolest games ever. Aftewr a series of large battlers, I figured out that neither side could win unless i used codes, which i did not want to do. So i made a lot of armies and put them on my borders, and made it so that if he ever tried to come into my territory, his army would be massacred. The End. Please post more!

**Aetius** · March 28, 2006, 11:06 AM

That sounds like fun. I used to play STW a long time ago. And I distinctly remeber as playing the Shimazu (Green) clan. I remeber the assasinations and geishas. Those movies were the most hardcore movies I have ever seen on any TW game. Eventually my armies of no-dachi, kensai, heavy cav and musketeers started owning everthing except the Hojo. Somehow they always live on and I just kept sending Geishas after their daimyos and generals until I had the upper hand. then I attacked and made Japan a Chritian island.

**Vyktrius** · June 08, 2006, 02:58 AM

Yeah, I know, this thread is ancient. But I want to put in my two cents.

I played a campaign once as the Oda (yellow) and had conquered much of Honshu (I believe that's the largest island, correct me if I'm wrong). But after a while I realized it was becoming a real pain in the *** to keep any of my territories. No matter how large my army was (and trust me, they were huge) it did not deter my enemies, nor did it stop them. So I devised a master plan

. I focused four of my territories on building ninjas

. My plan was based on the fact that when any assasination mission was undertaken there was a chance they would fail. The chance of assasinating a daimyo was like 5% so I figured if I sent in about 25 ninjas one of them had to succeed. And I was right. My hordes of ninjas

infultrated even the most secure locations, granted many many of them were caught and killed but their death was a necessary sacrifice. Then I assasinated everyone. I even assasinated my ally, but that proved to be a smart move as all his territories instantly became mine. Finally there was one daimyo left. I sent my 6 veteran ninjas in to finish the job, but to my dismay they failed. So I began building a new ninja horde and also a regular army. Then, just one turn before I planned on the finishing the whole game, the worst disaster ever struck. Three quarters of every territory I owned revolted, and joined my dead ally no less

. Huge armies poped up everywhere, even in territories the guy had never even owned. I could do nothing, my garrisons were smashed and destroyed. My empire was ripped to pieces and my shining victory snatched from my grasp. What was left were a few defensless territories and a massive debt. I wept

(no not really but that fit so perfectly). I think that was the last time I ever play STW.

**MaximiIian** · June 20, 2006, 07:02 AM

I played as Uesugi (true blue), and won within 2 hours. Mostly due to money cheat, and using many, many emissaries to bribe the enemy's army out from under them.

Another time, I played as mongols (I have Warlord edition, which is STW + MI with some added features), and conquered in less than an hour. Didn't use money cheat, of course, as it would've been pointless. Gotta love them Thunderbombers.

**penance_of_discord** · July 13, 2006, 07:47 PM

my most memorable battle was the first time i ever played stw on a LAN link. it was against my brother, who owns my at battlefield 1942 but isnt as good at rts as i am. So we start small, and do a 2500 koku match. my army was rather diverse, three squads of nodachi, two nagatina cavalrymen squads, and two yari samura. He takes (of coruse) a big squad of heavy cav, a kensai, and some warrior monks. at first he wanted me to charge him, but he was attacking and so had a time limit. When he realized this, he charged directly into my nagatina cavalry with his (general) heavy cav. They tied them up long enough for me to flank them with a squad of no-dachi, and then my other two sqauds and yari samuri pincered his warrior monks and massacred him. game over. total time of game? about 3 minutes.

Edited out offensive text. Please keep your posts respectful. - Trajan

**ZeekLTK** · December 21, 2006, 03:21 AM

Originally Posted by technishn08

Wow it seems like no one cares about STW any more, well, i can see why as it has graphics that are worse than those of MTW. Still, I have it, and I play it. And you know what? I like it! Yes, i do like leading massive samurai armies (along with some peasent spearmen) into battle. So let me tell you about one of my greatest games. I was playing as the Red faction (I cant remember exactly what the name of that one is) and fianlly, it was only me and dark blue left. We each controlled half of Japan, and were constantly fighting. I had massive armies at least 6 in each province. Every single one of my castles had a full garrison, and I was constantly producing large quantities of Kensai to counter the buddhist monks i had to keep fighting. Assasins and spies were everywhere. IT was one of the coolest games ever. Aftewr a series of large battlers, I figured out that neither side could win unless i used codes, which i did not want to do. So i made a lot of armies and put them on my borders, and made it so that if he ever tried to come into my territory, his army would be massacred. The End. Please post more!

That is pretty much what happened when I played as the Shimazu. Except I was deadlocked with the Hojo clan. It was the first campaign I ever played and I remember taking it really slow, only fighting the Mori and the (light blue, I forgot what their clan was) occassionally. I remember when I finally broke through to the east and I ran into this purple army (Hojo). They had a lot of guys in the providence I found, so I left them alone. Then I broke through on the southern part and there was purple again! It turned out they were the only clan left after I finished off the Mori, and their army was about 4 times the size of mine (and mine was HUGE, or at least I thought it was). I was afraid to attack them, so I just built up my army even larger. They finally attacked me and we fought some MASSIVE battles but neither of us really gained any ground on the other, so I eventually got bored with it and declared a stalemate.

The next campaign I played as the Uesugi and made sure to take out the Hojo as quickly as possible. With them out of the way, I eventually moved west and conquered the whole island.

**edders** · December 24, 2006, 08:53 PM

Not really a 'glory' story...well, maybe a personal one

The first time I tried out the campaign on the hardest setting I'd just finished two campiagns playing 'conventional' style on the lowest settings.

I was playing the clan who starts with a couple of provinces on completely different ends of Japan (can't remember the name) and getting massacered by the psychotic AI behavior. In my despair I decided to take turtle-ing to a new level. After withdrawing to my most defenseble starting provinces I built up taverns and geisha houses instead of my military or economic buildings...and it worked.
Basically, I built up solid alliances with one clan at a time and then built up my troops on their borders whilst taking out the family members with my geisha. Once all the clan leaders were dead some of their provinces went to me whilst the others became poorly-defended rebel lands which I quickly took over with the small armies I'd built up earlier. This strategy took ages, but eventually I managed to take out the final Mori leader and capture the last provinces in Japan. It felt fantastic - I've never had such a feeling of elation from Total War campaign since

.

I know many people complained about Geishas and assassins being overpowered but I loved this side of Shogun - it felt like an alternative playing style to steamrolling the island with your warrior monks. I never even played my battles properly - just auto-resolved them all because the stratgeic/diplomatic side of the game was so much fun. You couldn't use geishas, but there were still cool strategic options such as royal marriages, inciting civil wars etc. in MTW. Unfotunately, the most recent games in the series place far more emphasis on the conventional side of warfare. Ah well, good memories

.

**WeeWullie** · January 28, 2007, 06:26 AM

Wow!! GLAD to find people still talking about Shogun!

Definitely my favourite of the series - much classier and better produced than the rest and with by far the best gameplay. Basically, it was RISK with a beautiful 'board', exquisite sounds, a fantastic culture and historical setting, a brilliant military machine and philosophy, and, of course, for the first time EVER, the opportunity of resolving your military encounters in person, man to man against the enemy, his honour against yours, on the bloody field of battle! Oh Great Game!

So, war stories, eh. Perhaps I should tell you about the time I played as the Uesugi (real blue, far east of map) and how I ate my neighbours, including the 2000 or so Hojo who fell to my archers and yari samurai at the river crossing in Shimosa. Of how the fighting raged for possession of the mighty Shinano province. And of how, in the end game, my armies made an epic and heroic stand in the Great Killing Ground of Mino against the Red Tide of Mori and his shaven-headed warrior monks! How my Naginata stood, enduring, keeping at bay these religious zealots while my archers slew them by the hundreds! How the fighting raged from dawn til dusk, and how the corpses of 3.5 thousand fallen enemies lay on the slopes and in the bottom of the Great Cauldron of Death!!

THERE'S MORE. Indeed, you should know, my friends, how this sanguinary slaughter was but the first in a succession of such encounters fought over a period of three or four years, in which time 30,000-odd of my enemies were despatched!!!

Thus was the might and the will of the Mori clan broken, the remnants of Lord Mori's armies being driven before me until, in the mountain fastness of his clan heartland, I SLEW MY ENEMY AND THREW HIM DOWN FROM HIS HIGH PLACE!!! HOT DAMN, MY FRIENDS!

**Arcani 4 Ever** · September 27, 2007, 07:05 PM

I like Shogun a lot. I ussually used the Tokugawa and the Takeda, because they were the ones qith fewest lands and their attributes were about ninjas and late cavalry, so i had plenty of time to play with spear samurai and peasant archers.

At the first year i fought with the rebels and with the Shimazu, after some year of peace i finally get a castle in every single province (only 8 or 9). After some years i was obligates to use the matteosartori cheat to how advanced my enemies were. The Uosugi and the purple ones were nearly in control of all Hokkaido (the big island) and they were invading my island of Iyo (the one in the middle of the large ones) So there start my great battle stories.

In around the middle of the game the portuguese arrived and decided to join cristianity. My first great battle was agains the red ones i wit a full army of semi elite samurai and trained archers and some few light cavalry decided to fight agains its daimyo. After 26 minutes of bloody battle i won and the clan desapeared because the red one is the first that dissapears, because there's no heir at some period of time. To make this shorter my gratest battle was
when only 2 provinces remained to me. Even if this battle was when i was getting bored of the Tokugawa it was a masterpiece.

That day i desided to use order and to move my army by units, the enemy army haved some reinforcments coming their way so i decided tofight fast
my daimyo Aejasu Tokugawa, the first ruler of japan in real life was in rik to die, and one of my objectives was to let him be the first shogun. after 15 minutes i obliverated the enemy army with the use of my warrior monks and no dachi samurai. We need to hear more good stories

**Joul Ironhand** · November 05, 2007, 07:25 AM

Damn, i'm installing this game the moment I get home from work!

**sanada** · November 10, 2007, 03:13 PM

I played the as the Uesugi clan from the Onin Campaign...its still the most fun I have ever had on a computer game

!

STW is the only TW game I can play all the way through, its so addictive!

I was fighting a losing war with the Mori clan, an EPIC war! Until, one of their provinces with a port rebelled, whilst the castle was under siege, I sent a couple of Armies and took control of their starting provinces, even then they came back though!

It was still brilliant, I think I may have to buy it!

**The Great Caliph** · February 12, 2009, 04:08 AM

Ahhh, the sweet bitter memories I have while conquering the entire Nihon isle would be losing my beautiful pet geisha to another geisha assassin. Acchhh .... but 'twas a small price to pay for the crowning achievement of enacting Tokugawa-Shogunate for Nihon future!

**Jacket60** · March 15, 2009, 02:14 AM

i wish more people still played shogun. Its beautiful in its simplicity, amazing in its intricacies.

Once as the mighty takeda, i battled the oda, who had grown into a power worth taking note of. Despite the takeda reputation for fielding formidable cavalry armies, i was unable to gather enough cavalry to for this battle. i was forced to supplement my army with yari samurai. my forces consisted of shingen takeda, 9 yari samurai, 2 heavy cavalry, and 4 horse archers. the oda army consisted of a general who's name i cannot remember (i like to pretend it was Nobunaga though), 3 ashigaru, 2 light cav, 5 archers, 2 monks, and 3 yari samurai. although i was not facing the most elite force ever, i have been beaten by worse so i was kinda nervous, especially since this was my first really big battle. The terrain did not offer much tactical advantages to either side. I deployed my troops in a very standard formation (Infantry in the front, cav on the flanks, horse archers behind infantry, and the general behind everybody). When i clicked end deployment the oda were positioned to the far side of the map, on a tiny plain with woods to the west and a small hill to the east. they had their archers positioned to the front of their army with all their spearmen guarding the flanks and everybody else in the rear. frontal assault was out of the question as my yari samurai were poorly trained. I also feared the enemy archers slaughtering my troops on the march and those monks routing my army. Now I'm not the best strategist ever. Usually i attack en masse and hope for the best. But i did not want to lose more troops than necessary, so i divided my army. Shingen would lead 4 yari units and a horse archer unit directly towards the enemy. Two other small armies would act as pincers, approaching from the east and west. I sent both heavy cav units and a 2 units of yari samurai to the west towards the woods. The other force, consisting of 3 yari samurai and 3 horse archers to the east towards the hill. My forces advanced slowly. My main forced waited patiently for the other forces to get into position The western force hid in the woods while the eastern force arrived on top of the hill overlooking the enemy encampment. My main force began the advance. The enemy stayed in position the whole time, rather than attack any of my smaller forces. Once the main force was in position, I ordered my eastern yari troops to position themselves on the face of the hill. The horse archers then moved To the top of the hill and began to fire. My western force sat comfortably hidden in the woods. i ordered my main line to charge the enemy. The Oda archers were quite an annoyance. They picked off more yari troops than i would have liked. My main horse archers weren't able to return sufficient fire. Luckily my eastern horses were devastating the enemy. My 4 main yari units were engaged by 3 yari units and 1 ashigaru unit. The ashigaru held longer than i would have expected. The enemy monks began to march towards my troops on the hill. My horse archer units quickly thinned their ranks enough to were my yari troops did not rout quickly and held their ground on the hill. My hidden troops waited patiently for the time to strike. Suddenly the oda allocated their remaining ashigaru to fight the troops on the hill while the oda light cav charged the main line. not smart. Besides the enemy General unit, the backs of the enemy line was directly visible to my heavy cav. i Kept my 2 yari units in the forest for reserves and charged my heavy cav into the backs of the enemy. The site was impressive! one after another the oda units routed. Even the oda general charging the front line was not enough to turn the tide of battle. Roughly 93 percent of the enemy was viciously slaughtered. The oda retreated to their castle where i seiged them till starvation. The province was mine! This is one of the few truly decisive battles i've ever had in a total war game. The oda army was crushed and were never able to recover. They were no longer a threat for the rest of the campaign and were destroyed within a few years.