Samurai - Daimyo Pattern
Quotes from this book keep showing up on the loading screen of Total War: Shogun II.
I found a sample, from an online version of Hagakure: Book of the Samurai.
Total War: Shogun II is a nice game.
You play a Daimyo, and every turn, there is not much you can do.
You can enter negotiations with other Daimyo, manage your finances, recruit soldiers, move your army, move your agents, promote people, attack cities.
Not an exhaustive list - point is the huge actions above, are abstracted away, into simple point-and-click maneuvers.
Once you end your turn, every other kingdom makes their move.
Once I anticipated a correct attack from an enemy, and hid my army in a forest. I was given the option to ambush them, as they moved - my army was hidden. Nice! But I didn't know what I was supposed to do then. It didn't work that well.
Another time I had the numerical upper hand, and tried to end the siege I was in, by attacking the enemy....My army was killed.
There was little else to do - next round, they continued the siege, and killed everyone.
My daimyo committed seppuku, and it was game over. I felt like an idiot - I should have just waited, or been more mindful when attacking.....Probably a lesson there, somewhere......
In a war, I gave extra money every round, hoping the enemy daimyo will leave me alone. It didn't work. He still attacked. The Daimyo I was supporting as a vassal, never sent his own troops, either, to help me.
It's interesting, because the act itself is simple, especially for a lord who everyone obeys - but how that act manifests in cause-and-effect is multifold, irrevocable, difficult to do, easy to mess up, and 1 mistake can cause the whole clan to perish.
....Once my new soldiers ran from a winning battle, because their morale crumbled in the face of unflinching samurai.
game AI: Shameful Display, milord! Our units are running away from the battle field!
Me: I don't think I blame them..... 🤦
game AI: This is a black day! Our general has fallen!
Me: ...I needed the extra cavalry......
game AI: Glorious victory, milord! Victory will soon be ours!!
Me: 🫡
One of the reasons the Daimyo can have soldiers walk to their deaths, or stand patiently while arrows fall, is because of this, I suspect:
Which brings me to the pattern I've noticed.
Where?
In leetcode anime!
You guessed correctly 👍
I've seen this Daimyo-Samurai relationship in the following anime. No spoilers!
But I use gifs, from the following series:
- Attack on Titan
- Iron Blooded Orphans
- Bluelock
- Kaiju no. 8
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- Haikyu!!
Strategic genius, and his tactically supreme spinning blade.
Leader of the Iron-Blooded Orphans, and his prodigal Gundam operator.
Well rounded generalist, with his scorer of limitless aptitude.
Sniper Captain and her knife wielding Lieutenant
Flame wielding, ambitious, scheming Colonel, and his sniper
King and his ninja vassals.
Conclusion
What do you think? I left out 1 anime, for sure.
I also didn't include the 'captain and their ace' from Haikyu!!.....I focused on specific pairs of strategy-tactics, especially of exceptional talent in each individual in the pair.
I think in Haikyu!! The pairing is ubiquitous, and used more for personality balancing, storytelling, plotting and action combos.
I was looking to emphasize a strategy-tactic dichotomy, especially a ruler-warrior dynamic.
In the context of knights, samurai, honor, and The Last Stand, I think you should watch this video.
Have a good one!
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