Realm Divide Preparation - Total War: Shogun 2 [TW:S2]

Video detailing how to prepare for realm divide in total war shogun 2. For newbies, Realm Divide! can be a disaster but if they know what it is they can take it in stride and enjoy it. I am playing as Date but the basics apply to every clan. Great game for satisfying your samurai fix =)

[@BhudhaLovesBudlight]

Didn't even know about RD until it triggered. Half my country rebelled, enemies from all different fronts, some are invading by ships to places I don't have troops near. New game I suppose lol

[@PK7___]

😂 me too

[@singingshelf834]

my wife witnessed it with me "why does everyone hate you :/" me:"maayne wtf i dooo?"

[@anandakang]

I've played over 1400 hours of Shogun 2 and I have some tips to share on preparing for the realm divide. Most people think there are only two phases of a typical campaign game, split by the RD itself. I disagree, there is one more phase that takes place just before you trigger RD, and that's something I like to call the Long Peace. You can expand aggressively and seize territory however quickly you want, but only until you get to the point where taking one more town will drive you over the edge. That's where the Long Peace begins. Don't go into new wars with other clans. End ongoing ones by winning decisive field or defensive seige battles without taking any new lands, then suing for peace. Get to trading with as many clans as possible, but build your internal economy as well so that eventually you won't have to worry about losing all your trade deal income when RD hits. Basically, any town that isn't used for recruiting units, needs to be a fort with a market and a sake den chain building, at minimum. I like to get Land Consolidation going on all my lands as quickly as possible, then boost all my towns up to Fortress level minimum before chucking down a religious building, for those extra research boosts (life is great with a Kabunakama and a high level metsuke in a gold mine castle town). This is basically the time to be accruing a massive piggy bank before RD commences, and to grow your economy so that you can stay on a comfortable bankroll while on minimal taxation (to aid the happiness situation in all provinces). The war bank is mainly so you can quickly plonk down new sake dens and markets in the cities you conquer during RD so your armies can be constantly steamrolling down the line, but you will also need it to feed your allies with regular 5000 Koku gifts to keep them on your side while the war rages on. I like to think accumulating around 200k Koku before going into RD. Thanks to this strategy, I'm able to consistently and comfortably win campaigns with only about 3-4 army stacks and 4 navy stacks (if I'm a West side clan I'd usually be able to field the black ship by herself quite comfortably too).

[@HCT-lq8xj]

Good point, I keep a couple of dojos in provinces with bonus but most of rest is market/den. Lower taxes>growth>more money on longterm also...

[@Jon-ov4nc]

During the end of the long peace phase (which I do too) you should be setting up all your towns on very high tax rate. You can offset the unhappiness with sake dens and temples but you also offset the unhappiness by increasing the size of your garrisons using the ashigaru armies you were using up until this point and replacing them with samurai armies. This significantly increases your overall military might. If enemy clans break through and invade your territory you will have the ashigaru troops already there to mount an immediate defence, either by defending your towns or by dropping the tax rate so you can send them to fight in the field.

[@anandakang]

@@Jon-ov4nc I'd rather not set taxes high because that affects growth in all towns negatively. Unless you're already sitting on a large enough piggy bank to sustain you till the end of the campaign, and figure that you're going to finish up the campaign quickly enough anyway that long-term town growth is no longer essential, then I guess that seems fair.

[@Jon-ov4nc]

@@anandakang I agree. I let town growth go up in the early game so you can afford to let it drop a bit, I only switch to very high tax just before initiating realm divide and once growth gives a big enough pot to get even more extra tax from it. You also get increased diplomatic weight from high military and economic power. Once I'm confident I'm in a good position after RD I drop it to high and send a first wave of troops to the front line, then again to normal for a second wave. Once you're in the late game its definately worth setting it to very high again. Having the increased military might helps with forcing other factions to agree to peace, or even becoming vassal.

[@wavydavy9816]

West side!! 🤘

[@AvengerAtIlipa]

When you play on higher difficulties, realm divide doesn't really matter at all. Odds are, you'll already be at war with the entire map by that point.

[@arkhanthefriend4050]

Playing as the shimazu and made a bunch of Vassels that all declared war on me and they all had stacks

[@RedPandaKoala]

saul downey F

[@marcksman7896]

vassels in this game are practically usless except for a buffer provence when your in war. thats all their good for.

[@redrangerrr558]

@@marcksman7896 Plus trade, don't know how good that is but you can trade.

[@redrangerrr558]

@@marcksman7896 Plus they increase honour when you make some one a vassal, so that helps with public order overall and diplomatic relations.

[@ShacklefordR]

@@redrangerrr558 I think honor mechanic in this iteration of TW can easily be cheesed, especially with factions like shimazu... but it's kinda historically accurate in some ways? since vassels / hostage deal always got worked around lol

[@hzzofficial]

I got into RD yesterday before watching this video on how to prepare. I am playing Shimazu and I conquered Kyuushuu and 5-6 provinces on West Honshuu. The Ashikaga Shogunate declared RD on me, so literally EVERYONE except my one vassal declared war on me. I only had 2 full army and 1 and a half navy, so I'm technically screwed P.S. This is my first campaign in the game

[@execute6200]

Hey did u finish?

[@saelaird]

I'd break realm divide preparation down into the following: 1. Have a strong economy. 10k profit per turn 2. Have 50,000 in the bank. 100,000 is better 3. Have 4-6 balanced armies of samurai / ashigaru, all led by 2 star generals or higher 4. Have max number of available agents trained and on your border / in armies 5. Have 4-6 full fighting navies, again balanced for cost. 6. Ensure trade income is expendable for overall upkeep costs, income should be land based taxes 7. Ensure you can go low taxes without riots 8. Have high honour Daimyo and a decent chi chart to maintain population happiness Simple really.... not.

[@TheFlyingZulu]

As for agents... place all five of the secret police (metesuki?) agents, one each, in your top 5 highest earning providences. You get a lot more money per turn doing this.

[@saelaird]

@@TheFlyingZulu Agreed. As per Mrsmartdonkeys advice.

[@helly9748]

@@saelaird how u guys even build a proper economy I m so confused... I have 17 province and was playing chosokabe and like after the Rd Iwas like in -650 koku my all sea trade routes were raided and ports blocked so eventually I had a huge bankruptcy. Lol

[@saelaird]

@@helly9748 So heres the trick. It's all about town growth. Build markets in all standard provinces... and be careful not to build too many extra / upgraded castles, or other building that utilise food. Surplus food makes towns grow... as do low taxes. Keep taxes low, always, build markets, get those food stores up and wait. Really wait. Over time you will build a monster economy. Don't use all Samurai armies, balance ashigaru in there for the cost benefit. Always upgrade roads and farms.

[@helly9748]

Appreciated I'll start a new campaign of Date and try out and like till how many turns long u need to do that? And in the mean time do we need to continue capturing provinces?

[@luckyphilism]

Tip - build up your economy BEFORE realm divide. Any town/city that isn't a troop producing province, build markets and sake dens. Try and take all the trading nooks, they are important for getting money. Do everything you can and build everything you can BEFORE realm divide. Upgrade farms as much as possible, research as much as possible and get ready becasue your in for an onslaught! Get as much money as possible and get as many units as possible before realm divide.

[@Arcaryon]

That's basically it. I am really glad I picked a short campaign for my first go because I was not prepared for half a dozen vassal states to rebel against their overlord when I took the most unimportant village of Japan...

[@owenhardy7035]

I didn’t even know about the realm divide until watching this video. My first campaign in Shōgun 2 was with the shimazu, and I claimed Kyōto and became Shōgun before the divide could happen. The government can’t declare war on you if you are the government.

[@redrangerrr558]

Actually I did that as chosokabe, there's still a realm divide.

[@andreadiecidue5248]

everyone declares war on you after one year that you occupy kyoto, so if you don't win before that date you get realm divide anyway

[@TheGrimHHH]

Capturing Kyoto is actually the fastest way to trigger Realm Divide because it happens within 4 turns after you take it. You probably just stopped the campaign after taking it, lol.

[@Wisteria_9]

There is an RD. However it's not as punishing like when the shogunate still exist. I've done so too, played as the Oda and soo close at triggering RD. The thing is my enemy Uesugi been pain in my ass and been bordering Hatano and Chosokabe, luckily they have their own problem with Ito and Otomo. The thing is I can't knock Uesugi out since it will trigger RD and judging by how my territory looks like, I'll be fighting a war on multiple front and gonna be very vulnerable with naval invasion which I believe Otomo or Chosokabe would gladly do so. Luckily I've manage to allied with Date and Uesugi been too focus on me so they manage to create a force, I've tried my best to draw Uesugi attention and been fighting deep into their territory without taking a single one. It's soo pain in the ass that I've lost 3 General there and 2 armies but all that came with fruition. Uesugi were knock down and now I'm bordering Date which quite dangerous now but I've manage to drag them with a war to Hatano before Uesugi knock down also I solidified the alliances with marriage. That point I claim Kyoto and rapid advances to three front at the same time the West of mainland, Island of Shikoku and as well as Kyushu as fast as I can. The RD is not triggered as hard as it was when the shogunate still exists so with Date on my east border to secure my flank it was enough, the RD is still building up though that's way I'm paying them 3k koku occasionally which increases their likeness to me. Well been typing quite sometimes now but you get general idea, when West were clean I shipped my army back to Owari, Echizen, and Suruga. By then war were declared by Date toward me due to RD and so we fight. So yeah, I could prevent the war with Date long enough for me cleaning other territory first by taking Kyoto before RD and it work surprisingly well although good heaven that's extremely costly

[@Hawktotalwar]

Realm divide with Oda is a pain in the ass, you are forced to fight on two fronts. I don't have a choice to occupy Central Japan because Hattori declare war on me very early. So I couldn't just expand eastward to make it an one front. Game is impossible.

[@Kartikeyahm]

Playing my second campaign ever as oda... Fighting a four front wars ... Boy it's not easy but I'm somehow managing... I have 0 navy so that worries me.

[@Hawktotalwar]

@@Kartikeyahm Is easier if you do it on a long campaign rather than on a short campaign. Because the conditions for triggering Real Divide requires more terriorities (which means at that point) you should be strong enough. But at the short campaign only 12 provinces is not enough to sustain a two front war. 12 provinces is only enough to field 4 armies max.

[@Kartikeyahm]

@@Hawktotalwar Yup learnt that the hard way 😂🤦🏼‍♂️ Played oda on a long campaign and managed to get all the provinces.. the whole map and tthen went ahead onto Kyoto with a whole ass army. 😎

[@randoboi2710]

Keeping up the happiness in realm divide as the Otomo clan is not fun at all...........

[@benerdick_cumberbiatch]

Driosd R Otomo are great. Unstoppable navy, easy access to 4 trade nodes and once you take a region it's hard to lose it if you have enough Matchlocks. You just need churches and missionaries and you'll convert provinces in no time.

[@Krindig]

I think as a non Buddhist faction, you should spam your religious agents in the enemy territory and spam riots even before the realm divide.

[@MoodOnYouTube]

I've been upgrading everything four turns before the RD, until I got it all I had in mind was staggering all the units to the borders. It's overwhelming to know that the world came against not because of who you are but who you became.

[@lucioarenas3182]

Its nearly impossible to survive the realm divide as Oda, yes you have the advantage of raising LARGE ARMIES OF ODA YARI ASHIGARUS AND LONG YARI ASHIGARUS but your fighting on two fronts unless you have secured enough land to feed you with income which is outstandingly a pain in the ass unless you are Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

[@edwinramirez1019]

I'm in the saddest position right now. Only 4 other clans remaining and they are in a mega alliance against me. Basically RD without actually triggering RD yet - 50+ provinces vs. my 14

[@teddymoon3744]

Yyou need to always have 1 or 2 armies in other parts of the country sacking for $. preferebably clans that are growing strong so when you fight them they are weaker.

[@edwinramirez1019]

@@teddymoon3744 not a strat I've ever thought about. Thanks for the tip!

[@teddymoon3744]

@@edwinramirez1019 ive beat the game 50 times. you must have one army or two raiding for cash. while your home armies defending slowly expand. enjoy

[@VisionsDark]

Currently fighting in realm divide with the Oda fighting on two fronts. I'm so tired of fighting....

[@olafoman9768]

Carl John hahah same. I have to pull all troops near the choke points and raid rich towns as I go to stable my upkeep and keep multiplying my pheasant army. My kingdom is closely secure and my docks are protected by 2 stacks navy. I gave a lot of ground but the danger I face was revolts. That’s the hardest

[@SGProductions87]

Hi mate, the thing I found with Date is the other clans won't trade because you don't have horses. Once you get horses, every clan wants to trade. Unfortunately, by that point, you're well on your way to realm divide and the late game, because the war horses are either at Mikkawa or Kai or the node in the sea near Hoki. My personal opinion of why the game is like this for Date is that it's to balance for the fact you have really fertile lands and great farms, plus Sado. By the way you can get away with looting if you get your Daimyo's honour high enough because the max penalty is -3 for looting. By vassalising, winning heroic victories and through Chi and retainers you can add honour very easily. Vassalising is probably the easiest way, and I found that after RD hits vassals don't get the really high RD diplo penalty, it's like -20, so no big deal if you have good honour and mastery of the arts bonuses.

[@jammixing8737]

this game never gets old

[@adumbass8759]

Me first playing it, RD hits me unaware. Low income, low in treasure, average troops. I was uesugi, not enough arms to defend against oda's two armies coming up. So I held North Shinano pass with my daymio, and a ninja sabotaging one of them armies every turn, they never attacked me and never left. With a second army I invaded Oda's unguarded towns, encircled oda's daymio position and surrounded him, then attacked with both my armies after sabotaging one of them. Thats how I beat oda being broke and outnumbered...

[@AvengerAtIlipa]

You don't need navies at all post realm divide. For invading Kyushu and Shikoku, do it in one-turn jumps with bow kaboya and just be sure to end your turn on dry land. The only other thing navies are useful for are preventing naval invasions. As soon as an invasion force lands, go to diplomacy and sue for peace. Offer them your entire income for 20 turns (they will probably accept). When they do, their army will be teleported home. Then you can just declare war again, and you won't have to pay them anything at all.

[@carpetsellerman4177]

Bruh I am playing as Shimazu, have 18 provinces, and at the year of 1560. I think RD is going to happen if I cap another province. Should I just take the near future turns to fully beef my army and economy?

[@shinsenshogun900]

I'd recommend on keeping the black ship, by not auto resolve naval battles with that, because it's crew will be suffering auto deletes in there, and even ending the naval battle causes it, unless every ship surrenders or sinks

[@ashina2146]

I play as the tokugawa,And I got realm divide when I has 29 Provinces,that was almost half of japan! also I has markets all over my provinces

[@stevebuscemi3622]

The damn invasion drop ships keep getting me

[@SpooningTreesap86]

I didn't know realm divide was triggered on a certain number of provinces gained, thought it was just Kyoto. So I conquered everything up to Kyoto with basically just 2 large armies as Date going from East to West and then triggered hell. I effectively got kicked back to less than half the number of provinces due to rebellions and back side armies from 1 ally abandoning me. Lessons learned but probably just gonna reload the save before RD and stop conquering and bulk up to prepare.

[@Inderastein]

I have played Shogun 2 I have looted 2 towns Story was: I am Satsuma holding most of the Islands. Attack an Island up north by Shogunate. Then I got declared war on and got attacked by Imperial big daddy clan being helped by a small neighbor in my Island. The Island up north literally got attacked by 750 yari ki by the small neighbor with no general, 4 boats and I only had 450 levy infantry with no general. My fleet came in just in time to swoop the navy and bomb the yari ki, get sallied out by 450 levy, meaning this was a ~690 yari ki vs 450 levy. Naval bombed my own men, retreated those men, held again, targeted my own men, this time exited properly. Won the battle up north Wreck that small neighbor into vassalage and offered peace to the one Imperial big daddy clan.(I know vassalage is worthless but time was not on my side.) They refused. I defeated their army invaded their territory. I won and sued for peace, alliance, and vassal. I went to delete most of my army except the front. 2 turns later, they broke truce and attacked me In the Navy: I was dogpoop. In the Land: I was a mass murderer. I went into one of their cities, then because they broke truce, I burnt it into the ground giving me 30000 money and built more stuff in the island. I got -1 daimyo honour only countered by research, the money was worth it as my trade ports increased. 2 turn peace and declared war despite being a dishonorable move, took 2 provinces, sued for peace and military alliance and vassalage. They agreed. I then demobilized my army with the navy and pushed my troops back, thinking this was a Pax Satsuma! Upgraded a lot of money stuff. I see the big daddy which is now 1 province, mobilize their old navy and boarded a ship. I refused to think they'd start a war on me... they turned left... damn it, MOBILIZE THE PORTS AND ARMY In just a snap of my finger, I got literally an entire army ready to destroy him thanks to the 30000 money. I proceeded to Geisha spam his one city, all but 1 unit got distracted, a levy. Because they broke truce for the second time, I BURNED THEM INTO THE GROUND GAINING 40000 MONEY. Using that money I then invested on several stuff, I then declared Pax Satsuma for real now. For 2 Winters, I upgraded everything, got 2 Iron clads from the British with an income of 15000 koku per turn, literally per turn I get 500+ income. Now the only threat now is that I am the only Imperial left to fight the Shogunate East, and I am close to realm divide, I only have a few provinces before the shogunate comes after me, they are expanding like wildfire. Now I know I think I am ready as I added 2 levy per province, 56 Kaiten ships to decimate the ports of Japan thinly stretched ngl, and my main land army with 6 maxed line infantry divisions, split by 2 for decimation of any other forces. The Islands have a few men that could potentially destroy my vassal's army before they come after me. My only weakness is losing my agents, they have been my most powerful assets

[@Gokaes]

when i played the game by the time realm divide fired i had built farms and economies strong enough to defeat enemies fast and win the game i spent the entirety of early game slowly growing my economy and doing trade, then defeating lot of enemies fast , stabilaizing new towns and upgrading them, expanding again

[@thinker0519]

I don’t have realm divide i just became shugun with one army and ten provinces now everyone hates me

[@SGTDROUIN]

that's because you took Kyoto, the Imperial Capital ahah. Never do that unless you want to die fast

[@mauricemacon3628]

@@SGTDROUIN Agreed!! Just learning that the hard way 🤣🤣🤣👍🏿

[@SandeProHiQu]

I like how the AI can have as many provinces as they want and never trigger realm divide. Terrible game design.

[@Zushi_Tsunami]

Haven't gotten there yet but knowing thus I will be opening multiple fronts for my enemies to fight from that way they can't unleash there total army.

[@staroyouno]

I always end up at a point where I'm fighting 2 major factions at once and my vassals declaring war on me as well.

[@HP_lovecrafts_cat67]

Same just today lost my first campaign because I accidentally triggered realm divide and the two biggest clans ganged up on me and my armies weren’t prepared for a realm divide since they were very yari heavy

[@yarugatyger1603]

Super late comment but tbh you are super underdeveloped throughout your provinces for the year 1565, realm divide could have been super easyish otherwise.

[@nevergiveup621]

just got it now.. and playing as IKKO IKKO.. and was surrounded .. long story short.. i lost at 1564

[@marcksman7896]

have 110 hours into this game, i know thats not alot compared to others, but I still learned new things about the settlements. thanks for the advice.

[@awepen1596]

I just wish it had a warning like.. if you take this province, you will activate Realm divided cuz I got caught up, a lot.... thanks to no warning, whatsoever....

[@mauricemacon3628]

Exactly!! 😡

[@yoranger7735]

damn i played shogun2 without navy as that usually saves me like 5k of upkeep

[@Sunxip]

how do you deal with the AI ferrying armies behind your lines?

[@yoranger7735]

@@Sunxip well with 8-10k income i can usually just create an army relatively quickly and beat a samurai army with some peasants, oh yeah i also only have 2 armies up front, with like only 5 samurai each to help ease my income, and held out for like 10 turns till the ai runs out of armies to throw towards me before pushing

[@sylamy7457]

My first playthrough I've done this with the Oda, currently being bombarded with stacks of them coming in from the sea, but managing... A little...

[@Sunxip]

@@sylamy7457 keep up the good fight. finish it until the end. you got this!

[@sickly809]

I got fucked by every clan in the game even my vassals betrayed me. Even my elite armies of Nigatta samurai and samurai archers were eliminated. It took way to long to move additional armies up. And all my sea routes and trades ports were attacked but that's just me have absolutely no navy what so ever. I thought the game was just telling me that I am just very powerful I was obviously wrong :[

[@juliuscaesar9966]

I conquered Kyoto before realm devide so now??

[@moh.adipramudiono9467]

Automatic real divide after 4 turns.

[@ero-samairianto625]

20 province ??? I Triggered this event by only holding 11 *sadkek

[@teddymoon3744]

YOU ALWAYS NEED 1 OR 2 ARMIES SACKING OTHER CLANS WHO ARE STRONG. WHILE YOU EXPAND.

[@theamorphousflatsch2699]

Why is your economy broke so late into the campaign?

[@Sunxip]

black ship

[@theamorphousflatsch2699]

@@Sunxip lmao