I consider Shimazu to be the best clan to start out with for a beginner. Their safe starting location coupled with their poor farming income create a firm yet gentle scenario for newbs to learn their first lessons in. It's going to be important to be aggressive, at least in the beginning. The northern clans have rich territories and if the Shimazu player doesn't have a solid hold in central Japan by the mid game it's going to be an uphill battle to close out the campaign. To this end my opening goals are to consolidate power in Kyushu and then push on and take Tosa. My midgame goals are to defeat Mori and then push to the Owari - Mino- Echizen line in central Japan. Those three provinces are very defensible. Particularly in Echizen which is a province I really enjoy defending. Those high twin peaks on the right side of the map can a lot of fun to defend! Once I'm in this defensible position I usually like to take my foot off the pedal a little bit just to build up my economy, my military infrastructure and of course my armies! This way I can go into the end game with a decent income along with some decent armies with decent troops.

Here's a summarized turn by turn break down for my opening for anyone that's interested in the nitty gritty.

Turn 1) I'll start by building castles in Nagato and Bungo just to keep anyone from interfering with my Kyushu campaign. Besides I'll end up building ports in most of my provinces just to earn a steady income that's not dependent on good or average harvests so I'll need castles in every province that borders the ocean. I'll spend the rest of my money for this year on a SA and YS. I'll move my Daimyo into Higo and prepare to attack Chikugo on turn 2. I'll also move an archer from Nagato into Buzen just so that I can feign an attack on Chikuzen during the next turn.

Turn 2) Attack Chikugo with my Daimyo and the SA and YS from Higo plus the YS from Bungo. Also feign an attack on Chikuzen with my forces in Buzen. I don't intend to carry out this attack as Imagawa typically defends with 2 YS and 2 SA which will defeat my force of 1 YS 1 SA and 1 YA. Therefore this is simply to prevent Imagawa from reinforcing Chikugo with these troops.

During the river battle in Chikugo I'll send my Daimyo over the bridge and run him to the right side of the map and let Imagawa's forces chase a little. Once I feel like I have enough space I'll send my infantry over, spears first followed by archers. Once we're all on the correct side of the bridge the rest of the battle is a cakewalk.

Turn 3) An average harvest with the taxes set to punitive will net me 785 koku which is utter garbage. Take solace in knowing that that should be the smallest number you see from a harvest for the rest of the campaign. I'll feign an attack on Hizen with my Daimyo and I'll feign an attack on Chikuzen with my Buzen forces again but other than that I'll wait a turn for reinforcements to arrive from Satsuma and population loyalty in Chikugo to stabilize. I'll spend what little money I have on a tea house and a YS. I'll spend what's left on YA and a Shinobi once the tea house is built. Shinobi are the key to quick expansion. So I'll be training a lot of these to keep my population loyalty high and to keep my family safe from ninjas.

Turn 4) Now I'll attack Hizen with my Daimyo plus 1 YS and 1 SA. And I'll also attack Chikuzen with my units in Buzen plus whatever is leftover in Chikugo. When I do this the Hizen garrison retreats to the castle and the Chikuzen garrison is outnumbered by 100 soldiers.

Turn 5) Attack the castle garrison with the Daimyo's army. Try to unlock the the legendary swordsmen event with this battle. If the castle is defended by just archers the Daimyo's unit can probably take the unit on my himself. If the castle is defended by spearmen then they'll need to be whittled down by archers first before charging in with the Daimyo supported by spearmen.

Then it's on to Tosa! There's a couple reasons why I consider Tosa to be a critical goal for Shimazu's opening. The main reason is that the province will always come with a legendary sword dojo and being able to produce No-Dachi swordsmen with +1 honor from two provinces while playing as the Shimazu is very powerful. Clan Shimazu already can train No-Dachi swordsmen at a discounted price (provided they've unlocked the legendary swordsmen event), being able to do so from two provinces with an automatic +1 honor is really something special this early in the campaign.

Other reasons to take the island of Shikoku early are the mine in Iyo, the 380 farm income in Sanuki and the tranquil garden in Awa. Once Shikoku is taken then the Shimazu player can open a two front war against the Mori. This is something I prefer rather than become restricted to a two province bottleneck that is southern Honshu.

Unfortunately Tosa can be really hard to take and this leads me into my final reason why I consider taking this province to be the 'boss battle' of Shimazu's opening. You see for me this is personal. My defeats at the hands of the rebels holding this province have been etched into the fabric of my memory. The thought of taking this province quickly, preferably before the rebels can become too strong makes me see red. However rushing Tosa unfortunately isn't the way. The soonest I can reach Tosa (while still securing Imagawas lands first) is turn 11. And that is with a half stack of 4 SA and 4 YS and that is just not enough. With this is mind I recommend the Shimazu player to take this time after taking Iyo to build up their forces in Nagato and Iyo a bit before pressing on. The extra time spent will allow the Tosa rebels to train anywhere from 4-6 ND plus a 3 star general among them and this is going to make it a very tough province to take, plus the terrain makes it very tricky to find an advantage. I'd recommend building to a full well balanced stack of archers, spearmen and hopefully No-Dachi if you have them. Even then you might have to attack twice (or thrice). But once you take it you're on to the midgame!

That ends my opening breakdown of the Shimazu campaign but I will leave you with a few more notes to consider.

I tend to role play a little bit when it comes to diplomacy and when I play the Shimazu I prefer to play as the 'nice guy'. This is tough is a game where you have to kill everyone, therefore I will only ally with either the Uesugi or the Hojo just for the extra cash which is nice in the early game. Then I won't attack them until everyone else is dead or they attack me.

On the subject of emissaries I still value them greatly for their use as a spy who won't be captured by border forts or shinobi therefore I try to always keep one around my front lines. Unfortunately Imagawa will make this difficult in the beginning. I find that they will always hunt down my emissary and no matter if I run him into Shikoku or Honshu they will find him. Cross your fingers that he survives and if not then at least there's that tranquil garden in Awa!

I will always convert to Christianity when playing as Shimazu again just to role play a bit but also for the cash. Portuguese trading posts + churches/cathedral will bring in a stupid amount of cash. Hence why I start shinobi production almost immediately, it's important to almost have a shinobi in every province by the time the Portuguese arrive on your shores.

Speaking of shinobi, keep four shinobi protecting every heir. Shimazu has plenty of heirs and they'll make fine generals. Other than your heirs you'll be lucky to come across a general that is higher then 2 stars. So clan Shimazu needs it's sons fighting battles and leading armies. Protect them at all costs!

On the subject of army composition I prefer to use a different composition for each clan that I play just for an extra bit of roleplay plus some challenge and variety. For each clan I'll use a standard base of four units (YS,YA,SA and YC) plus two extra special units. I've taken inspiration from the starting units each clan receives in the 1580 campaign and for Shimazu that'll be No-Dachi and Teppo! It's fun stuff for sure. My exact composition is 4 SA (including heir/general), 5 YS, 4 ND, 2 Teppo and 1 YC.

My early building priorities are to produce YC and YS in Hizen. SA in Nagato because I can build an armory there and armored archers will help me win the skirmish phase. Plus ND in Satsuma and Tosa of course. By the time I can produce guns I'll have Portuguese trading posts everywhere so I could produce guns everywhere but I'll mainly focus on Owari because of the honor bonus for ashigaru. Everything else will just be whatever buildings I take from my defeated enemies.

I hope that this has been informative for those of you who are looking for some advice heading into a Shimazu campaign. I have created a Youtube channel that focuses on Shogun Total War walkthroughs on expert difficulty so if you'd like to see some more in depth strategies come visit me on Youtube! I know there are folks who still remember this game fondly but I also believe that the popularity of the Total War franchise may be bringing newer players to some of these older games. And for that I'd like to reach out and say welcome! And if you'd like to talk shop then by all means check out my channel and stop in a say "Hi!"