Let's Japanese in... NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION: Sphere of Influence - Ascension

Here we go again lest you say I’ve deserted my fellow white devils in these strange lands. Unfortunately, my expectations about my job were pretty much on the money so these updates will be rather sporadic.

Let’s get down to it.


[details=Update 02 – Minutia]While we’re here I might as well show you what the loading screen looks like.

Just in case everyone forgot where we were – it’s July and we’re playing as Oda retainer with minor land associated with our name where we govern. As much as we can as lowly retainer, that is.

I use this mode for clear visibility so I can see what plots are active, what can be built upon, resources I have, etc. But wait. I see some smug kid on my fiefdom so let’s see what he wants.

I do wish we could place it at a better position, but it will cover the already existing Forge as well as whatever we build on the other side.

While we’re on the subject you may have noticed the MISSION button has turned orange and acquired a check-mark. This means we qualify to complete for at least one of the objectives.

Seems clear as day. Shame that with this and Theater built we’re at absolute zero iron at the moment… which truth be told shouldn’t inconvenience us that much, but still. I’d rather have than want something. We’ll also get good 50 Honor for it so that’s a plus.

Sure thing, boss. And while we’re at I might as well visit Nobuhide for my monthly courtesy call. Not a bad idea to get some browny points with the boss if you can help it.

It is actually worrying I’m not already at least friendly with my daimyo, but we’ll work on it.

And with that out of the way move to advance time to August…

No need to be so formal, my lord. Have I mentioned how much I’d like a promotion yet? Oh, just some underling humor.

And you better be grateful for it. You know, some would argue smiths don’t deserv-

FREE IRON? You’re alright, my good men. Just keep that kid out of the forge until he’s older, alright?


And so begins August. Let’s see what’s happening.

That absolutely sad income still hurts my soul whenever I see it, but thanks to smiths we’ve recouped some of the invested iron. This is still definitely a very weak economy we have going on, but provided it’s a single small fiefdom we can’t do much about it so gifts and incentives is what we’ll have to use to get by.

We had nothing to report specifically, but that Log is ever useful when you need a quick and basic summary of what transpired during the last month.

With that we’re back in the game.

And with surprisingly nothing to occupy our attention at the moment. No talking heads with advice or outstanding orders we can deliver – as limited as our options are this is when we get a taste of freedom. To do what exactly? Get some Paddies going on, of course.

As it says they need irrigation access we just so happen to have a nice little river running through our territory with even some outskirts so Paddies don’t interfere with other central facilities. You know what? Let’s construct TWO. We should feel it immediately next season and supplies are important as things go on.

Done and done.

Let’s visit our friend-to-be Hirate while things are still calm.

As I’ve said before I think our shared Ideal nets us double Friendship points.

With nothing else to do time speeds on to September…

It seems building that Theater to appease the smiths was a good idea in more than one way seeing as basic human greed is beginning to surface. Still, 500 gold is nothing to scoff at AND future profits from Merchant’s Quarter. Excellent suggestion and I’ll have to check out where to put the facility.

Pleasure as always. I think we’re really getting along.

I imagine he pitched me this idea during our social call. Commendable effort, but stimulating anything, especially concepts that don’t really benefit from clan Oda discount, isn’t feasible at this junction.

And something new as our forum rascal takes initiative:

We see other retainers can also take up mission goals for themselves. They also have it easier in a sense they announce beforehand what they’re claiming and can take a while to finish it as opposed to the player who basically has to claim and finish goals in one go. Such is our lot in life, I guess.

Showing our little domain is growing we’ve also received two visitors.

Morishige Sakuma is a young Oda retainer without a title so far, but like I said he’s young. Maybe he wants to learn from an old warrior? Insert your own joke where appropriate.

A rising statesman from Toki clan, Toshishige Saito seemed to really like our Paddy fields. Maybe he’s just scoping out the competition, but who can tell. Serenity is so hard to find these days.

As the month runs out season also changes and we get a neat screen effect indicating Autumn has begun.


Council for month of September begins.

Nothing new here except the costs for those two Paddy fields.

Now we’re cooking with fire – Paddies are immediately paying off because that’s more or less double the amount of we’d have gotten otherwise without them. It’s really a blessing that we have river access compared to certain other clans. And our friend Hirate got promoted to Chief so heartfelt congratulations to him. Maybe our friendship will start paying off soon…

And a very amateurishly edited image just so I can portray everything on one screen. Good stuff.

And once again we wonder what to do. Those two talking heads there are suggestions to build the Merchant’s Quarter and stimulate the concept of Law, respectively. We can acquiesce to one of those at least, but before that let’s check out the orange MISSION button again. You have noticed we have more than enough supplies to fulfill a goal.

Gathering supplies is never as glamorous as anything else so it nets us less honor but amusingly enough, seeing as merchants had such low standing in feudal Japan, neither is collecting gold. Still, we have the supplies and it moves us toward completing the mission. You can also see Takashi Tadokoro has claimed his own objective of gathering 800 wood so good luck to him.

Anything for the cause.

Let’s do good by that totally-not-greedy merchant and build the facility.

There is sadly no perfect spot where we can find the perfect synergy of influences for maximum profit so we’ll have to settle for this. It’s still higher than default.

There’s that. And seeing as we have one spot adjacent to the iron source we might as well just go ahead and build another forge there. Won’t be that much of a production and it won’t level up much, if at all, but every bit helps.

Before ending our active phase we decide to pay a visit to our now bit more influential friend.

It seems Kiyosu has become quite a meeting ground for people traveling and meeting. Not disappoint September also fares well.

Tadayasu Tominaga of Mitsunaira clan seems like someone we should considering we’re almost around the same age and our clans are so close to one another, yet we do not. Let’s hope future events don’t lead us down a dark path.

I have to remember to bring some mochi next time. It’s gonna be huge.

You know how it goes. You scratch my back and I scratch yours. I’ll take that gold now.

Can’t say I agree fully seeing as old ways have served us well so far, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, young Tadokoro. Good luck with that lumber.

October cometh.


Slow but steady increase in resources. Still preferable to straight up loss, though.

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Fittingly named update seeing as you’ve seen a lot of month-to-month gameplay I actually have to deal with seeing as that’s the bulk of the game at this level. Good news is putting together these updates takes exponentially more time than it does to actually play Nobunaga’s Ambition so it keeps me spry with the output. :sweat_smile: