We do not need to make a decision concerning the Oda immediately. The Uesugi have only one province left for us to take as the remaining two are cut off behind provinces already conquered by the Oda. Unfortunately for us, the Uesugi seem to have concentrated most of their remaining strength in this one province. We do not discover this until our Daimyo’s army is nearly upon them as we have moved our Ninja to our border with the Oda. By this time, it is winter and we must attack or face losses from the freezing weather.
Given the potential for serious losses, careful and patient tactics are employed for the assault. A small force of yari ashigaru is positioned to discourage their archers from moving away from their positions on the fortress’ walls. Meanwhile, our mangonel demolishes the fortress gates at the other end and we slip single units of archers to locations not covered by the Uesugi archers to whittle down the defenders, rotating them out when their ammunition is depleted. By the time the enemy archers are roused to act, we have almost completely decimated three units of yari ashigaru in this way and severely bled the bodyguards of their two generals present. Then we bring the full force of our archers on the enemy archers to rout them. After this, it is simple matter of marching in our yari ashigaru, backed by katana samurai to mop up the remaining defenders.
The next few years turn out to be peaceful as we hesitate to declare war on the Oda. We focus our efforts on developing our provinces and building up both of our armies to full strength. In 1553, our Daimyo’s eldest son Hojo Ujimasa comes of age. Unfortunately without a war going on, we make the mistake of leaving him with no duties in our capital of Izu for a year. This causes him to develop a taste for women instead of warfare. In 1554, we finally build our first naval unit, a Medium Bune, as despite no longer possessing a land border with the Uesugi, some of their ships continually harass our ports. This stops when the Oda finally destroy the Uesugi later that year. By then, the Oda controls an impressive 13 provinces to our 8.
We have not been completely idle of course. We have trained a second ninja and we employ the two of them to scout out the lands controlled by the Oda. Sometimes we find it necessary to dispose of Uesugi monks or metsuke who wander into our territory. Occasionally, we even use them to secretly sabotage the Oda’s rice production facilities. It is difficult to tell how much economic damage this causes but the experience does greatly enhance our ninjas’ skills. Our first ninja, Nakamoro, who so impressed us last time, is now probably one of the deadliest assassins in all of Japan.
But despite our provocations, the Oda take no action against us and we feel that it would be dishonorable for us to declare war against them. But then we hear news that invalidates all of our previous plans. Our sources within the Date clan, who have been our friendly trading partners with us for some time, warn us that their Daimyo has had a change of heart. It seems that they are secretly planning for a war against us. We divert our ninjas into Date lands and find not one but three armies bearing down against us!
This means that we must once again swallow our pride and appease the Oda clan. By agreeing to join in the war against their current enemy, the Satake clan, the Oda agrees to a military alliance with us and a trade embargo against the Date. Naturally, we do not need to wait for long for war with the Date to arrive after this. Large numbers of troops are sent eastwards to deal with the threat. This is when our ninjas come into their own. Nakamoro is so skilled that he can reliably assassinate anyone short of a Daimyo. Combined with sabotage missions, our operations once again force the enemy to winter in our lands and perhaps more importantly, prevent the multiple enemy armies from forming up together. This both gives us time to receive reinforcements and allows our own Daimyo to engage them piece-meal.
These machinations actually give us a numerical advantage when we engage the largest of the Date armies, led by their Daimyo. In this battle, while our forces considerably outnumber that of the enemy , they possess superior troops, including several units of fearsome naginata samurai. We advance in a V-shaped formation with our archers in front to pepper the enemy from two directions and have them retreat when the enemy warriors approach. Then we try to engage the best enemy units from two directions at once. The results are quite satisfying.
With our Daimyo’s sons bringing in reinforcements from Satomi province, we are able to advance into Date lands and quickly take two of their provinces. Speed is of the essence to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Oda clan. However the provinces in the north are large and it takes time to move armies through them. It is only in 1559 that we destroy the last of the Date and gain control of the entire northern side of Honshu. By this time, we control an impressive 12 provinces, but the Oda control 21 provinces and they are the only clan we have borders left with.
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