Having finished GOTM28 a little early, I started this scenario this weekend, and finished it early this morning. I assumed the Predator rules, razed all captured Odan cities, and only established 1 city on the Oda continent, none on the Oda island and 1 on the Barb island which I don't think impacts the play.
I didn't change anything in the saved turn, scoped out the situation and pressed enter. I started play on Turn 1, in 960 AD. I changed several builds to Galleon on the NE corner of the American Continent, I changed 1 city on the East side of the Viking continent to Galleon, set research to 0 (for this short scenario, I wanted the cash) and set several others to Cavalry. I decided that my invasion spot (marked on the map below) would be the hills tile 2 spaces SE of Azuchi; the hills provides good defense, the Capital is my first target, and this location is convenient to ship reinforcements to. I tend to be fairly careful when doing invasions, so I wanted a strong force able to withstand considerable attack by the defenders.
In 970, after moving all units out of Odan territory, I declared war, and landed 2 forces; the major one on the hills space I described, and a minor one, 8 units (2 Galleons full) on the Odan Island just East of the Viking Continent. Lots of units counterattacked on Oda's turn; I estimate about 10-12 units were lost on each side, but I was able to establish New Atlanta on the Odan continent in 980 (which promptly rushed Walls at 2x cost), and my Cavalry destroyed 11 Odan units that were in the Grassland spaces adjacent to New Atlanta. My forces were in place, fortified and had a friendly town to heal in.
Meanwhile my minor invasion cleared the Odan Island. Having read JustusII's report, I don't believe I built as many Galleons as did he. I used this Island as a staging area to send troops to the Odan continent; I had 9 Galleons set up to ferry troops over 3 legs; this allowed me to move 12 units every other turn to the beachhead, and they dropped reinforcements off in 1010, 1030 and 1050. I also had 2 Galleons on the Viking Continent ferrying units over to the formerly Odan Island, and 1 Galleon was in a place where it could ferry 2 boatloads of troops from the main continent to the Viking Continent. To supplement this chain, I had built a few more Galleons such that I landed 7 more boatloads of troops on the continent, 4 of them at one time forming a 2nd invasion near Yokkachi in 1040.
Here is a map showing the major steps, and when each city fell:
After Walls, New Atlanta rushed (at 2x cost) a Barracks, then started on a harbor. After having lost 10-12 units the first turn, I only lost 6 Cav to Oda's 15 lost Attackers, once I was fortified in the Hills. The turn after that, when Walls were in place, the Oda lost 11 while I lost 2 (but one was that initial Army, which was partially healed.) I continue to destroy small stacks near New Atlanta, while my units heal and reinforcements start to arrive, in 1010.
In 1020, I threw every available, healed Cav, and even some Cav down to 3 hps, at Azuchi, and it barely held on (there was a 1 hp Samurai showing, so I sent a 2hp Cav at it, lost, and now it was a 2 hp Samurai; that's when I stopped.) The next assault, in 1030, takes it and Azuchi is no more. This opens the door to further aggressions. 12 more Reinforcements arrived in 1030. In 1040 a 2nd landing force of 16 units lands near Yokkachi, several Cav go north and destroy Moriyama-ku, and a penetrating 20 high stack of Cav head east to menace Ise and Ogaki. For some reason Oda puts a 20+ high stack of Agashiru Spearman in the hills near New Atlanta to do pillaging; I send some Cav behind them to pillage and cut them off from the remaining cities so they can't reinforce them. In 1050, another 12 reinforcements arrive at New Atlanta, the 2nd Amphib beachhead force, with help from the pillaging cav, destroy Yokkachi and Nagoya, and my forward Cav SOD destroy Ogaki and Ise, positioning 11 Cav to menace Handa and Suzuka. A small force of Cav tries to take Koroma, and is turned back. In 1060, the Cav SOD destroys Handa and Suzuka, leaving only Koroma, which is surrounded by 17 Cav. In 1070 (turn 12) Koroma and the Oda are no more.
A couple of things I could have done better: Nagoya is within striking distance from New Atlanta, while Koroma is not. I could have finished one turn earlier by leaving Nagoya to the 1050 reinforcements, and sent the pillaging Cav and unused 2nd Beachhead Cav to Koroma in 1050 for a 1060 assault. And I should have had a couple of Galleons in New Atlanta to ferry the reinforcements in on the turn of arrival; the 3 step ferry distance was exactly 24 movement points long so the Troops had to step off the ships on the last turn making them incapable of moving further the turn they arrived; a couple of Galleons in New Atlanta could have brought them in that last space, allowing them to be used 1 turn earlier. (In general, this would be better form, but I don't think I'd have benefitted in this circumstance.)
I was somewhat tentative at the beginning, but an initial assault on Azuchi might have cost me New Atlanta. I felt I had to hold defensively until reinforcements began to arrive. (Since then, I've had another thought that I might check out later.)
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Lots of fun while learning! It's amazing how a fully healed Army can convince the AI not to attack. In reality, the Oda should have laid it on since I only had 1 landing group but they didn't. Seeing all those troops move around, seemingly in circles, really took me back to X-Com and all those wonderful nightime missions. Maybe I'll try to find that version that works on windows...
