Chronicles of the Takeda Clan 1551-1557

With the assault prepared during the Winter, the stage was set for the fall of Owari in the Spring of 1551. The Hattori wiped into submission became vassal of the mighty Takeda.

A trade agreement was also brokered with the Matsuda clan.

Again it was time to consolidate the gains. A new Metsuke was appointed in Suruga, Tadauji of the Yamadera, another samurai with ties to the Yakuza gangs.

Trade was also established with the Manchurian Jurchen tribes which provided us with a selection  of their very best horses.

Unfortunately by the end of the summer the Hojo decided to show their true colors with an assault on Suruga.

The garrison put on a brave defense, but were put to the sword by the victorious Hojo.

To compund problems, Kai suffered a series of devastating fires that season as well, further crippling our ability to fight off the Hojo.

Fortunately trade agreements were achieved with the Hatakeyama and with the Ikko-Ikki, altough the marriage of Lady Hiroko to a Shimozuma upstart let a sour taste in the mouth of Lord Shingen.

With the Takeda military machine running on full steam Suruga became hell on earth for the next two season.

Commisioner Sanefusa retook Sunpu only to loose it to Lord Ujyasu again.

Unfortunately for the Hojo plasteres he did not expected Commisioner Sanefusa's retreat to be a ploy by lord Shingen.

With the Hojo being expert siege masters and with Sunpu defenses heavily battered an open field battle served the Takeda cavalry much better, so Sanefusa conducted an ordely retreat from the city, leading Ujyasu to the waiting forces of Lord Shingen himself.

 Ujyasu survived the battle, but was captured in Sunpu, and put to the sword. The Hojo were now badly crippled.

1552 started with bad news as the Hattori were wiped out, dishonorable dogs as they were, they had submited to the Takeda and it was poor form to let that stand.

The Hojo also tried to show they had some fight in them with an ill-begotten on Kai itself.

Perhaps unexpectedly for them though this assault actually had a good possibility of sucess as Kai was lightly defended by virtue of the hardships of the Suruga campaign, and the army commanded by Yuki Tokiyuki was surprisingly elite.

Still Baba Sukeaki commanded a spirited defense that routed the besiegers.



With Takeda lands secure war was brough to Hojo lands. Mishima fell on the Fall putting Lord Shingen in control of the Izu gold mines.

Sagami fell in the winter, Lord Shingen deciding to winter in the Hojo capital city of Odawara and preparing the coming of age of Lord Yoshinobu their.

Ties with the Chosokabe were strengthned by arrangig a match for Nana in exchange for trade concessions.

Kosuke fell on 1553.

In 1554 the Takeda started trading iron with the Ainu barbarians, and Lord Takeda decide to accept trade from the southern barbarian, the Porutogaru or whatever their name is.

In 1555 Lord Shingen issued a tax reform that increased the income of the clan exponentially.

In 1557 Lord Yoshinobu was married to Lady Suzu of the Sogo clan.

It was time to prepare the next leap forward.

Chronicles of the Takeda Clan- 1547-1550

 1547 was a glorious year to the Takeda clan.
With the three Takeda brothers working in unison the Hida campaign ended in three months in what surely should be a tale for the ages.

With the Takeda army divided in three collumns our clan stormed Hida at lightning speed, with Lord Shingen's collumn spearheading the assault on the Anegokoji army, with his brother's contigents closing the pincer for a double envelopment.

In annex I transcribe Lord Shingen's speech to the troops before the fateful battle.

With the fall of the main Anegokoji army Takayama was unable to hold out the assault of our glorious army. After the battle Lord Nobukado met a most curious samurai Shichiroji who seems to have a bit of the strategist in him. He his now part of Lord Nobukado's personal retinue.

Unfortuantely this was not the last of the Anegokoji as they had defeated our relatives the Jimbo during the winter, so there were some loyalists in Etchu. It was with a sad heart that Lord Shingen decided to recover the ancestral home of our fallen kin. To further complicate matters the Hattori darkspawn decided to attack our Imagawa allies. Naturally Lord Shingen declared war on the hellborn insolents but could provide nothing more than moral support until the Anegokoji were dealt with.

Trade agreements were made with the Oda, Sakai and even with the Ikko-Ikki rabble.

 Meanwhile Lord Shingen recognized the need for "information" specialists and by 1548 the first Takeda intelligence network had been setup in Hida by a fellow named Tsunemasa.

Soon Tsunemasa would prove his value for the Takeda cause.

As usual Lord Shingen moved to destroy the enemy armies on the field, and then move onto the, now undermanned, strongpoints. This time however Tsunemasa improved upon the strategy by moving ahead of the army, and sabotaging the castle gates at Toyama.

With the Anegokoji matter dealt with it was time to move onto the Hattori.

 The unholy scum first showed their perfidy when they tried to assassinate Metsuke Suwa Ujinari. Naturally they failed, and Ujinari proved quite relentless in uprooting the Hattori spy network. He suceeded in tha same season, altough we coild not secure enough evidence to garantee an execution, so we had to conted to arrest and exile the ring leader, a man named Chisato.

 After this experience Metsuke Ujinari took to alaways be accompanied by a fine hunting dog of Kai stock.

Unfortunately the operations in the north prevented our armies to reinforce the Imagawa on time and by the end of the summer Sunpu was in Hattori hands.

Commisioner Nobushige would commence the vengeance for the fallen clan in the fall with the retaking of Sunpu in fall while Daimyo Yasunaga had moved into Izu but it was clear that the Hattori were no conventional enemy and as such another Metsuke was invested, Suwa Ietoyo, on the advice of his cousin Ujinari.

 In the meantime Lord Shingen provided rearguard cover for Commisioner Nobushige and engaged the returning army of Yasunaga.

It must have a great surprise for the Hattori Daimyo to be on the receiving end of a relentless assaul for a change. After the initial defeat Yasunaga tried to escape back to Izu but not even that detered Lord Shingen. Yasunaga was parted from his head in the snow covered fields of Izu.

During this time Metsuke Ietoyo was also proving his worth by uncovering and executing the Hattori agent Moroakira

With 1549 ending on such an auspicious note, 1550 proved to be even better. Lord Shingen promoted Baba Sanefusa to the rank of Commissioner for Development.

But above all the honors of the year go for commissioner Nobushige who spearheaded to offensives into Totomi and Mikawa both provinces falling within the year putting the Hattori on their knees.

However the victories of the year were lessened by the dogged resilience of Hattori Metsuke Ooyama Aritoki who was able to inconvenience Tsunemasa to a sandstill.

 Metsuke Ujinari also recommended another cousin for a position, Tsunenori, a somewhat wild young man with ties to the Yakuza.

Ietoyo also proved a to be a surprise by recruting a kabukimono for his retinue.

 With the Year at the end Owari would be the main target for 1551

Historical/Gameplay notes:

Baba Sanefusa is a non-existent personality, probably randomly created by the game, however the Baba clan, like the Suwa is real.

Chronicles of the Takeda Clan- 1545-1546

 Taking advantage of the inefectual rule of the Ashikaga Shogunate in Kyoto the provincial warlords of Shinano lead by the Murakami decided to pray upon Takeda lands.

It is sad to see such offenses to the laws of Heaven being commited by the very same men tasked to be their keepers, but such is the way of men.

Now more than ever this proves a new shogunate must rise, and who would be more worthy than the Takeda to receive such honor?

However every voyage begins with a single step, and the first step in this voyage were the Murakami upstarts.

1545 was starting out to be a good year for our clan. The Imagawa alliance was further reinforced with a trade agreement, which assured a greater bounty for our clan and secured thwe southwest border.

It was late spring that news of the Murakami incursion reached Kofu. It was a mere raiding party, but an agressive one, lead by an Ogasawara of no special lineage, but eager to show himself better than he was.

Lord Shingen's first action was to send word to lord Nobushige, with the main army, of the incursion.

After careful evaluation the hills north of  Kofu were chosen as the ideal battlefield to defeat the Murakami bandits, with Nobushige providing the main battleforce and serving as a decoy, while Lord Shingen's retinue would strike from ambush.

 There isn't much to say about the battle itself. Lord Nobushige adressed the troops in a short speech, after wich the Murakami raiders were soundly beaten with Lord Shingen's providing the killing blow with a flank attack.

 A few reprobrates escaped the main battle but the Warfare Commisioner pursued and destroyed them in details.

A young warrior distinguished himself as a spearmaster in this battles and was raised by commissioner Nobushige to is retinue as a spear instructor. I can attest that the spearmen in Nobushige's contigent are indeed a cut above the rest.

By the summer it had become obvious that the only way to secure Takeda lands would be to control North Shinano, so arrangements were made to destroy the Murakami.

The council of elders also suggested the further development of our already fearsome Cavalry.

Within three months Takeda forces sieged Matsumoto and by the end of fall North Shinano was ruled by Shingen when the Snake Yoshikyo fell to Takeda spears.

Let it be said though that Yoshikyo was not without courage. He died charging his hatamoto into an ashigaru company. He was certainly foolish, but not without courage in charging commissioner Nobushige's Spearmen.

 A welcome side-effect to the conquest of Northern Shinano was the boost to the economy that followed. Many say that samurai should not be concerned with such matters, but the wise general know this is not so.

 Politically, Lord Shingen managed to secure Imperial recognition of his deed and was gifted a Koi Carp by the Imperial Court, a great boon.

This further help cement trade relations with the Yamanouchi Uesugi, and the Jimbo, which also allowed Lady Tomie to join our family.

1546 was thus a year of consolidation. Our southern borders became fully secured through an alliance with the Odawara Hojo. It may be be a doomed alliance as the Hojo will have to contend with us if they have design of their own onto the Shogunate, and their lands are far to valuable for the Clan to ignore, but this alliance serves our mutual interests for the time. A trade agreement was also brokered with the Uesugi of Echigo, which allowed to plan the war against Anegakoji of Hida, enemies of our relatives the Jimbo.

1546 was also the year that saw the coming of age of Lord Nobukado and the submission of the Northern Shinano samurai to Takeda rule, with Suwa Ujinari gaining a commision as Metsuke for our clan.

1547 was promising to be a great year.

Historical/Gameplay Notes: There isn't actually much to comment on as the Takeda clan is one of the most well known and studied samurai clans. At this point the most salient note is that Shingen hadn't yet taken vows, and as such was known as Takeda Harunobu. I also don't know if the displayed daughter's anme is accurate. His first wife's name is certainly not known, only that she came from the Sanjo family.

However Shingen's brothers, Nobushige and Nobukado, and first son, Yoshinobu, are correctly named.

Yoshinobu would later plot against his father and forced to commit suicide, hence the sucession by Katsuyori (which wasn't born at Shogun's starting date), in a move not dissimular to Shingen's own rebellion against his father who favored Nobushige.

Another salient absence is the lack of gold mines in Kai, which proved to be the proverbial bread basket for the Takeda war machine. I suppose there were balance reasons for CA not coding a gold mine in Kai, possibly the fact that there is one in Izu, and that Sado, Kai and Izu could easily become a economic engine for one of the Eastern clans, but the trade hubs near Kyushu are, in my opinion, a reliable counterpoint, and the Takeda are in a less than ideal strategic position.

An interesting sidenote is that the Takeda was the first Japanese clan to use matchlocks in battle, altough not the Portuguese style introduced in Kyushu in 1543, but chinese style matchlocks. Sadly, but understandibly this is also not modeled in-game.

Incidentally, the Uesugi clan at this point would still be called Nagao, the true Uesugi being the Ogigayatsu and Yamanouchi clans. In-fighting and Shingen's assaults would end up driving the true Uesugi into Kenshin's hands who had himself adopted and made heir by the Uesugi lord.

Game-wise I intend to focus on the Cavalry and gunpowder lines in the Bushido Arts, after developing the Tax Reform and Equal Fields Chi arts. Archery and Ninja arts will receive a secundary focus.

On the tactical side of things I intend to go for a mixed Ashigaru/Cavalry style army, altough I suspect this might prove inappropriate to perform siege operations. If my economy is good enough Yari Ashigaru will certainly be replaced by Naginata samurai. The Takeda army is an expensive one.