The Chrysanthemum Throne

The Chrysanthemum Throne

Possible if

• Start date is 11 November 1444.
• Playing in ironman mode.
• Provinces with historical tax and manpower values.
• No custom nations.

The player's country:

• Has the Daimyo government reform.

Achieved if

The player's country:

• is Japan.
• All provinces in the Japan region must be either owned and cored by Japan or unowned.

To unlock the Chrysanthemum Throne achievement, the player must start as a Japanese daimyo, unify Japan and own all provinces in the Japan region.

Strategy

Overview

In 1444, Japan begins under the shogunate system. Whichever clan holds Kyoto (initially Ashikaga) is de facto overlord over the other daimyo. Uniquely among subject nations, daimyo can declare war on each other (but not other countries) using a special casus belli that also grants reduced aggressive expansion. A daimyo that grows large enough can then declare an independence war just like any other vassal and - by capturing Kyoto - become the new shogun.

It is crucial to claim Kyoto as quickly as possible. While Ashikaga starts off weak relative to its subjects, after 10 years it will begin annexing the smaller daimyo, cutting off opportunities for growth.

Initial expansion

While any daimyo can obtain the achievement, it's easiest to begin as one of the larger clans. Uesugi, Yamana and Hosokawa are the most powerful daimyo in the north, center and south, respectively; Hosokawa is a popular choice, as their neighbors are small and the clan can swiftly roll up the south.

Growing in power is a matter of opportunism, and the complex network of alliances that form in the first few months mean that the opening stages can vary dramatically from game to game. A few things to remember:

• Before selecting your rivals, look at the alliances for all your neighbors. Check for networks of potential allies and rival the countries that they rival to avoid conflict.
• Don't be afraid to break an alliance with a neighbor if they control territory you need. Friendships will be very tenuous.
• Consider forming an alliance with a small daimyo another part of Japan, then helping them swallow up their neighbors. This daimyo will be less likely to rival you due to geographical distance and they can help a great deal when you move to claim Kyoto.
• Try to capture all of the land in your area first - i.e. Hosokawa should move south while Uesugi moves north. Controlling your entire part of Japan will prevent you from having to fight a war on multiple fronts later on.
• Have your diplomats constantly fabricating claims on your neighbors. While this may seem unnecessary given your special Sengoku CB, claims will reduce coring costs and this is important as Administrative power will be far and away your greatest limitation as you expand.
• Be cautious about declaring war on enemies with level 3 forts. No daimyo begins with a force limit high enough to siege down a fortified capital, and while this can still be managed in a few ways (e.g. by calling in allies, exceeding the force limit or hiring cheap mercenaries), the time it takes might not be worth it.
• You may be tempted to raise autonomy on provinces you capture, which will mitigate the high unrest from your constant expansion. The drawback to this is that is greatly slows the growth of your force limit, which you need to raise as high as possible before declaring war on the shogun - remember that as a subject, your force limit won't be as high as you expect. Consider raising autonomy only on low-development provinces that won't benefit you as much and taking other means to deal with rebels in high-development provinces.
• After 1454, start keeping tabs on the liberty desire of the other daimyo. If you see that one of your larger neighbors has a low liberty desire, declaring war and occupying some of their provinces will interfere in Ashikaga's attempts to annex them.
• Before declaring war for the shogunate, make sure that you control Musashi - unless Ashikaga controls it, in which case you should capture both Kyoto and Musashi at the end of the war. This will guarantee that you can form Japan, even if you later run into problems with your subjects.

Ideas

If you play efficiently, you might be ready to declare war on Ashikaga before unlocking your first idea group. If you do manage to reach Administrative tech level 5, then start with a Diplomatic idea group, as Administrative power is too precious to use on ideas and your army is better served by advancing your technology. If you don't plan on continuing the campaign after earning the achievement, Influence ideas can help keep liberty desire low which will help tremendously after you become shogun.

The war for Kyoto

Once you have an army larger than Ashikaga and their remaining loyal daimyo, declare war and go for Kyoto. Provided you've consolidated power in your region, this won't be a complex war - the victory will most likely go to whichever side has the most soldiers in the field and in reserve. Remember that in addition to Ashikaga, you will have to fight the other daimyo, but your own allies will side with you.

Try to run up the warscore as much as you can. At the very least, you need to take Kyoto and Musashi (if Ashikaga owns it), but taking additional provinces will weaken Ashikaga and make them easier to manage during the aftermath.

Unifying the empire

Having become shogun, your next goal is to form the unified country of Japan. There are two ways of doing this.

Diplomatically

The more elegant method is to diplo-annex the remaining daimyo, which will reward you with some bonus monarch power. Doing this requires keeping their liberty desire low for ten years, which isn't as easy as it might seem. Daimyo have an innate +10% liberty desire, and they can still gain power by conquering each other - something which they will likely do immediately. The remaining daimyo will be relatively large, and if one of them (usually Ashikaga) is able to conquer the rest, that daimyo might be too powerful to annex diplomatically.

Managing liberty desire is key during this phase. You can use the "Forcibly Expel Ronin" ability to slightly reduce liberty desire, but don't use any of the special subject interactions. There's no easy way to stop the daimyo from invading each other, but declaring some wars of your own can at least keep them busy - remember, you do need to conquer some additional territory for the achievement (see below).

As a last-ditch effort, the special "Annex daimyo" CB will give you a means to deal with a daimyo with high liberty desire, provided that said daimyo has at least 10 provinces. However, the CB doesn't negate the stability hit from declaring war on a subject.

Militarily

Provided that you remembered to take Musashi, you also have the option of simply becoming Japan by decision at any time. If you take this choice, you'll still need to conquer all of your former daimyo - and quickly, before they have time to form any alliances.

The remaining provinces

Aside from the land held by the daimyo, you'll also need to capture a few other provinces, namely Okinawa (ruled by Ryukyu), Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands (all owned by Ainu). Okinawa is easily captured as Ryukyu seldom has any allies at all. Depending on how things have unfolded, the rest may be more difficult. The Ainu aren't much of a threat, but getting the land can be trickier if they have formed an alliance with and/or been invaded by one of the mainland countries. If this is the case, you'll need to build up your fleet for an early mainland invasion.

Achievement guides