The year is 1563 (Autumn). Japan is at war, but not with any outside power. It is a country turned on itself. Since the age of the Onin War, centralized authority has been a little more than a memory on the Isles of Japan. The former strength of the Ashikaga Shogunate has dwindled to docility to whomever controls Kyoto. Some men have distinguished themselves as superiors to all the other Lords, winning many battles and forming small kingdoms throughout the land. These Daimyo, are the both the cause of the chaos, and the key to ending it. Among the commoners, the war has taken a toll, and people are beginning to become disgruntled with their daimyo, and have taken up arms, forming peasant armies, Ikki, to bring down the powers that control their day to day lives.
The Miyoshi clan is in bitter struggle with the Oda clan and her allies, Asai,hatetkayama, and Otomo and Shimazu in the West. Miyoshi has loyal allies though, the flameyoant Yamana Yoshisada (Toyosada) of the Yamana Clan, Amako Clan, Mori clan, Ukita clan, Imagawa,Hojo,and Takeda clan.
Who will win this bloody war?
Rules
There will be four seasons per year. Each chapter represents a season. After each chapter i will give options for each Clan for the next chapter. The diplomacy between players will last for one week. After a week the players will submit their answers.
A player can pm other players with their diplomatic offers,with nonplayable Clans pm me. Players can also demand submission to Vassal for other clans or submit themselves if the other player accepts via diplomacy. This means that when submitting the player continues playing the game with limited options under the rule of the player they have submitted to. Also when a player conquers another human players clans last areas,he has the choice to make him vassal or exterminate his clan. If he makes the other player his vassal.The player that has turned into vassal continues playing the game as vassal of the other player with limited options. Decided by the victor,they can continue serving as generals for example fighting campaigns semi independently. If the players Clan is exterminated by the Conquer,he will drop out of the game. Also the loosing player can decide to commit Seppuku, which will result in him dropping out of the game after he has lost all his lands.
When player conquers the whole territory of nonplayable clan he has basicly the same options.To include the Clan in his retainers as vassal or destroy it and give the lands to new lord of his choosing. Vassals can revolt, but as they are only semi independent there is always high risk of getting cought. If the players reach a deal in diplomacy they should make a public announcement about it.If the deal is secret one,all you need to do is for other of the deal makers to pm me about it,so i can take the deal in account. During the second week i will write the new chapter and post it in the end of that week or following weekend. The first playable factions are:
Economy
Each player has the knowledge of the maximum amount of troops he can raise. This is also the indicator of their wealth. Basicly one man= one koku (amount of rise to feed a man for a year). I have thought long and hard about how to solve this and this is how the economy will play out.
For example if you can raise maximum of 20000 men for your army, that means you can alternatively build for the amount of 20000 koku. As Japan is feudal society, the amount of trade is very limited and most income comes from taxing the agriculture.Here are prizes for buildings you can build:
Church/Temple 1000 koku (helps keeping the province happy,converting to other religion).
Teppo factory 10000 Koku (starts construction of your own teppos, first about 100 per season,later cannons etc. and increases its production.)
Castle upgrade 5000 koku (makes you stand sieges longer and betters the training of your men)
The castle sizes are from smallest to largest:
simple
small
medium
large
huge
Simple castle can hold out about 1 year of siege if well supplied, small about 1 and one quarter of year, medium one and half of year, large one and three quarters of a year and huge about two years of siege.
ship for your fleet 100 koku( each ship can carry 100 men.) Annual upkeep for each ship you have is 20 koku.
Each building takes an year to finish,you can build up to 10 ships per season on your coastal provinces.
For example if you can draft 15000 men in maximum, you can start building teppo factory during spring, but after that you only have resources left to maintain army of 5000 untill its completed after an year.
Portuguese and other European traders.
European traders arrive each Spring to Kuyshu. From there they move to Honshu and Shikoku during summer. They carry muskets and cannons as their merchandise,but not enough for all Japan, so depending on the Western Daimyos, the Eatern lords might not get any. Here are the prizes of their products.
musket 10 koku
cannon 500 koku
Orders: Orders must be received by the due date. I will not accept late orders ever. No exceptions. My reasoning for this is the amount of players I am dealing with. If your orders are not received, I will play for you as an NPC, but the outcome might not be very favorable for you. When you write orders, please include your updated, not original, clan profile. If you are training new companies or building new ships, I expect you to add that to your profile as well as put it in your orders. If you do not add it to your profile, those troops will not exist. Orders should be well-written, organized, and helpful to me for writing an update. Please do not make them overly-detailed, rambling, or confusing.
Updates: Because I am a single, lonely mod, and there are so many players, expect updates to take a while to write. And when they come, it would be most helpful if you accept the results instead of challenge them. I cannot guarantee epic, lengthy updates. Rather, I am more for quality than quantity. The updates will be clear and concise narratives as opposed to stream of consciousness rambling about minute, unimportant details. Details about what I write and the nuances of the update are up to you to express via stories in-between updates.
War: War is obviously a focus of this game (hence "Warring States" period), but you should know that war will be costly and difficult. Territory gains will happen slowly, as castles are gradually seized and small clans are brought under your domain, hopefully becoming your retainers instead of disappearing completely. Do not expect entire provinces or clans to fall in one year's time. Wars during this time were drawn-out and lengthy, although decisive battles did occur from time to time.
Understanding
The Shogunate: The current shogun is Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the son of Ashikaga Yoshiharu, who was forced to retire due to a political struggle with the Hosokawa Clan. The current shogun has a brother as well named Ashikaga Yoshiaki and a cousin named Ashikaga Yoshihide. The Hosokawa once ruled Kyoto with the Ashikaga Shogunate as a puppet, but they were defeated by the Miyoshi Clan. The Miyoshi kept Yoshiteru in place to use as a puppet and thus the Miyoshi Clan now has political power over Kyoto, along with their vassals the Matsunaga Clan. It is up to you as the player to unite Japan and become a Great Unifier, or perhaps install your own puppet shogunate. The shogunate is a symbolic position at this point, as historians say, "nothing more than a rubber stamp". The Warring States period is happening somewhat because of the inefficiency of the shogunate. Nonetheless, Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru was not completely ineffective. In history, he actually attempted to negotiate peace treaties between clans.
Castles: During this time period, many castles already existed and many new ones were built. That means you can build castles. If you indicate in your orders that you want troops to fortify, the result will be simple fortifications and small castles in the area the companies were ordered to fortify. This is no extra cost, but is a function of your army. As for larger, more important, "map-worthy" castles: these take several turns to build, and you can say in your orders the specific place in your territory you would like that grand castle to be constructed. The castle will be completed when it is completed. You have no way of knowing exactly when that will be. Typically, the more manpower you put into construction over the course of a few years, the faster it will be built. Putting some extra koku into the project will also speed it up, but only if you are putting koku into the project for specific, designated purposes, and not just throwing koku aimlessly into the structure. Companies focused on construction of these larger projects cannot be involved in attacks or offensive maneuvers for the turns they are involved in construction, and they must remain at the construction site all year. Japanese castles were fortresses composed primarily of wood and stone. Many of them evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their most well-known forms in the 16th century. Like European castles, the castles of Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such as ports, river crossings, or crossroads, and almost always incorporated the landscape into their defense. There were often "castle towns" as well, or towns in which the castle overlooked the entire settlement. Sometimes the walls of the castle were built around both the castle compound and the castle town, and sometimes the walls were built only around the compound (and did not surround the castle town). You don't have to go into immense detail about the layout of new castles, but providing some descriptive details about your new castles and your perceived strengths of those castles would be beneficial to you as a player. Please note that you should only write about famous or important castles that you are building. These castles could take many years to build. Meanwhile, it is safe to assume you have minor castles and forts, though you could include in your orders something about general improvement or construction of new minor forts (see the first page of these rules for more details about constructing fortifications and castles). Castles during this period were also extremely ornate and beautiful on the inside. They were not only fortifications on major fronts of war, but also places of residence or temporary lodging for the daimyo or other retainer lords. There are often peaceful gardens within castle walls, and areas for the daimyo to sit with opened shoji (paper doors) on his tatami mat, listening to birds and insects while plotting with retainers or writing letters.