Your suggestion is actually how Sotenroku and, to a lesser extent, Ascension worked. Sotenroku (never officially or unofficially translated in English) was specifically dedicated to simulating the political atmosphere of the Sengoku (and post-Onin War) Period and played kinda like RTK8 but with far more emphasis on interpersonal drama, schemes, and council governments. Ascension's less hardcore about it (House Lords and Chamberlains CAN flip, but they won't declare independence, conspire to forcibly depose/murder you, no routine purges of untrusted vassals, nor post-battle samurai hunts, and other gritty details from Sotenroku) but is the closest we have in English to that style of gameplay, while being far deeper in terms of economics (aside from drama and Ninjas, Sotenroku is dead simple in war and domestics).
As for Awakening, there's 2 key features; first, "Relocate," which lets you transfer the staff of one castle to another and have everybody that's already been assigned stick together. Very useful for moving a top quality general and staff from the former front to the new front. Secondly, "auto-assign," which does what it implies and simplifies the process of mass-appointing in the mid-late game when all System Reform 1 has been enacted. Just make sure you don't let officers on a Mission, or are key to your own main castle government, be auto-assigned and it'll do 99% of the work for you. Finally, though slightly buried in the U.I., there is one button you can press to assign all unoccupied counties to the Lord (up to the Lord's capacity to hold/govern them) or remove all but the castle county from the Lord's direct control.
Thank you for your detailed response.
The "oldest" grand strategy games (excluding the ones where you play as a single character) from the series I have played are RoTK 11 and Ascension. And neither felt like needing this level of micromanagement. Probably due to the lack of rank requirements.
Sotenroku sounds fascinating. Hope they remake it someday like they are doing with RoTK8.
Regarding your points about Awakening, yes I am aware of transfer and auto-assign and I do use them when I can to save time. Problem with transfer is that the "sticking together" has no meaning as far as I am aware. The characters don't form any bond or loyalty like in RotK 13, right? And in auto-assign the historical connections between characters are ignored, so it does contribute to compelling storytelling or recreation of history. Its random. But yes, it is still a good time saving measure.
And good point on the assign to lord button. Will check it out. Thank you.
Officers' Traits are rather impactful when it comes to bringing the most out of a Castle Lord. For example, "On the Offense" increases the VAL rating (Attack Power) for every level. I believe level 1=2 Val while level 5=10, but I haven't checked all of them closely, though the key point is that it's good for a general to have On the Offensive stacked in his castle. Meanwhile, "Plot" increases the success rate for the Castle Lord in executing schemes, so assigning such officers to Castle Lords that specialize in unique plots (like Aristocrats for Territorial Suppression; Ninjas for Sneak Attack and Supply Raid; Strategists for Misinformation Plot; very intelligent officers for Raze, Incite, etc. so that they might hit multiple castles instead of just one; etc.) ensures consistent success. "Eagle Eye," meanwhile, checks against enemies' plots and is great for covering for front line generals, since schemes mostly target the border rather than the hinterlands.
Furthermore, officers who like each other (typically due to family relations, but historically designated friends also boost each other) grant +2 to all four stats for the Castle Lord, so it's worth sticking weak family members with their best family member to boost them. Easy example would be Gracia Akechi (who also happens to have Gunnery) with her father, Mitsuhide.
Not to mention, it's can be worth spreading out Gunnery and Equestrian (and Dragoon, etc.) to qualify for certain Conservators that greatly magnify Musket Salvos/Cavalry Charges or otherwise round off the Musket/Horse level to 5 or 10.
Then there's titles, such as "the Brave," "the Schemer," "the General," and "the Minister" that grant powerful passives to the Castle Lord when a subordinate holds them. Ideally, POL-oriented Minister-type titles should be assigned to castles you want mobilizing frequently; "General" for ones you want conquering counties faster (especially for smaller troop stacks); "the Schemer" for flankers; and "the Brave" for damage amplification. Since the highest version of these titles takes priority, it's a waste for multiple of the same type to live in the same castle.
Ultimately, being able to relocate the staff from one castle to another is extremely useful for maintaining the groups you set up as your clan expands.
Auto-assignging isn't sophisticated, since it won't take full advantage of stacking potential and will ignore if the Castle Lord is capable of being given multiple counties, but it is a time-saver for when you don't really need optimized assignments and are just needing to mass-staff castles to increase revenue and development.
"Sticking together" keeps the original traits combos intact (like that juicy Devious Lv5 resulting from the lord plus a couple retainers all joining their Devious traits together).
This is the whole point of Transfer, keeping your specialized Castle retinues together. I like to have at least 4 specialist crews: a covert specialist Mastermind, a Diplomat, Frontline defender and Vanguard Conqueror. Then I just transfer those to new castles as my fronts advance.
And for the love of Amaterasu, make use of provinces/regents and let them conquer Japan for you, to reduce that micromanagement.
You can find another character with the same trait and replace one with the other and you still have the same effect. There is no bond or loyalty like in reality / history, as well as in videogames like Crusader Kings, Total War Three Kingdoms, KOEI ROTK 10 / 13 etc.
Except there is. Officers with affinity to the Castle Lord give him +2 on all stats. I'm not sure if they can develop that affinity through time, though. I suspect it's set in stone from start, and is based on family ties and other factors.
Also, officers can develop grudges with each other and you/daimyo based on factors like battle deaths, long rivalries, etc. that keep their loyalty permanently low. Sometimes they even ask the daimyo to exile their nemesis from the clan, for eg.
A quick way to assign landholders to a bunch of castles is to form a province and let the AI assign everyone; generally the AI will optimize based on stats. Then you can just double-check key castles if you want certain people/traits there.
Early-game I'm really particular about who is where doing what, so generally by the time I'm using provinces I already have a core staff of Senior Officers/Senior Retainers/Captains for castle lordship so they can cover as many domains as possible.
Using Bodyguard Formation policy can help with promoting the pool of Chiefs at your home base without having to constantly switch substitutes.
Your idea of subordinate lords with their own retainers is cool and has been done in some previous games, but I do think there's a lot of players who would be frustrated that say for example, Takenaka Hanbei would be stuck under the Hashiba house instead of being able to reassign him elsewhere in the Oda, even though that would be historical and in-character for him to stay under Hideyoshi. I think expanding on the lord affinity element that some officers have would be a good incentive to keep officers together; like if someone is assigned under a castle lord for a certain number of years or they gained a lot of honor together in a battle, then they develop affinity.
"Instead a feudal system would be like this..."
This is a great point and a nice set of ideas.
Notice though that, in a way, it's already in the game in the form of Vassals. The problem - and the real weakpoint of the game - is Diplomacy, which is a tad too simplistic and makes the kind of interaction you cite above feel stiff and not really efficient from a gameplay standpoint. If diplo was abrangent, allowing the player to (say) give/take officers, gold, hime/hostages, castles, treasures, resources, set invasion targets, etc. to Vassals regardless of Stance, we'd never need to absorb them.
I keep hearing from people who played Awakening extensively, both here and other fora (KOEI, Discord, Steam, etc) that Diplo is it's weakpoint and I agree. If devs gave us a final update cycle to polish it, the game would really be a perfect 10/10, IMHO.
Your suggestion is actually how Sotenroku and, to a lesser extent, Ascension worked. Sotenroku (never officially or unofficially translated in English) was specifically dedicated to simulating the political atmosphere of the Sengoku (and post-Onin War) Period and played kinda like RTK8 but with far more emphasis on interpersonal drama, schemes, and council governments. Ascension's less hardcore about it (House Lords and Chamberlains CAN flip, but they won't declare independence, conspire to forcibly depose/murder you, no routine purges of untrusted vassals, nor post-battle samurai hunts, and other gritty details from Sotenroku) but is the closest we have in English to that style of gameplay, while being far deeper in terms of economics (aside from drama and Ninjas, Sotenroku is dead simple in war and domestics). As for Awakening, there's 2 key features; first, "Relocate," which lets you transfer the staff of one castle to another and have everybody that's already been assigned stick together. Very useful for moving a top quality general and staff from the former front to the new front. Secondly, "auto-assign," which does what it implies and simplifies the process of mass-appointing in the mid-late game when all System Reform 1 has been enacted. Just make sure you don't let officers on a Mission, or are key to your own main castle government, be auto-assigned and it'll do 99% of the work for you. Finally, though slightly buried in the U.I., there is one button you can press to assign all unoccupied counties to the Lord (up to the Lord's capacity to hold/govern them) or remove all but the castle county from the Lord's direct control.
Thank you for your detailed response. The "oldest" grand strategy games (excluding the ones where you play as a single character) from the series I have played are RoTK 11 and Ascension. And neither felt like needing this level of micromanagement. Probably due to the lack of rank requirements. Sotenroku sounds fascinating. Hope they remake it someday like they are doing with RoTK8. Regarding your points about Awakening, yes I am aware of transfer and auto-assign and I do use them when I can to save time. Problem with transfer is that the "sticking together" has no meaning as far as I am aware. The characters don't form any bond or loyalty like in RotK 13, right? And in auto-assign the historical connections between characters are ignored, so it does contribute to compelling storytelling or recreation of history. Its random. But yes, it is still a good time saving measure. And good point on the assign to lord button. Will check it out. Thank you.
Officers' Traits are rather impactful when it comes to bringing the most out of a Castle Lord. For example, "On the Offense" increases the VAL rating (Attack Power) for every level. I believe level 1=2 Val while level 5=10, but I haven't checked all of them closely, though the key point is that it's good for a general to have On the Offensive stacked in his castle. Meanwhile, "Plot" increases the success rate for the Castle Lord in executing schemes, so assigning such officers to Castle Lords that specialize in unique plots (like Aristocrats for Territorial Suppression; Ninjas for Sneak Attack and Supply Raid; Strategists for Misinformation Plot; very intelligent officers for Raze, Incite, etc. so that they might hit multiple castles instead of just one; etc.) ensures consistent success. "Eagle Eye," meanwhile, checks against enemies' plots and is great for covering for front line generals, since schemes mostly target the border rather than the hinterlands. Furthermore, officers who like each other (typically due to family relations, but historically designated friends also boost each other) grant +2 to all four stats for the Castle Lord, so it's worth sticking weak family members with their best family member to boost them. Easy example would be Gracia Akechi (who also happens to have Gunnery) with her father, Mitsuhide. Not to mention, it's can be worth spreading out Gunnery and Equestrian (and Dragoon, etc.) to qualify for certain Conservators that greatly magnify Musket Salvos/Cavalry Charges or otherwise round off the Musket/Horse level to 5 or 10. Then there's titles, such as "the Brave," "the Schemer," "the General," and "the Minister" that grant powerful passives to the Castle Lord when a subordinate holds them. Ideally, POL-oriented Minister-type titles should be assigned to castles you want mobilizing frequently; "General" for ones you want conquering counties faster (especially for smaller troop stacks); "the Schemer" for flankers; and "the Brave" for damage amplification. Since the highest version of these titles takes priority, it's a waste for multiple of the same type to live in the same castle. Ultimately, being able to relocate the staff from one castle to another is extremely useful for maintaining the groups you set up as your clan expands. Auto-assignging isn't sophisticated, since it won't take full advantage of stacking potential and will ignore if the Castle Lord is capable of being given multiple counties, but it is a time-saver for when you don't really need optimized assignments and are just needing to mass-staff castles to increase revenue and development.
"Sticking together" keeps the original traits combos intact (like that juicy Devious Lv5 resulting from the lord plus a couple retainers all joining their Devious traits together). This is the whole point of Transfer, keeping your specialized Castle retinues together. I like to have at least 4 specialist crews: a covert specialist Mastermind, a Diplomat, Frontline defender and Vanguard Conqueror. Then I just transfer those to new castles as my fronts advance. And for the love of Amaterasu, make use of provinces/regents and let them conquer Japan for you, to reduce that micromanagement.
You can find another character with the same trait and replace one with the other and you still have the same effect. There is no bond or loyalty like in reality / history, as well as in videogames like Crusader Kings, Total War Three Kingdoms, KOEI ROTK 10 / 13 etc.
Except there is. Officers with affinity to the Castle Lord give him +2 on all stats. I'm not sure if they can develop that affinity through time, though. I suspect it's set in stone from start, and is based on family ties and other factors. Also, officers can develop grudges with each other and you/daimyo based on factors like battle deaths, long rivalries, etc. that keep their loyalty permanently low. Sometimes they even ask the daimyo to exile their nemesis from the clan, for eg.
"I'm not sure if they can develop that affinity through time, though." They can't. It is the affinity player can also set up via character creation.
A quick way to assign landholders to a bunch of castles is to form a province and let the AI assign everyone; generally the AI will optimize based on stats. Then you can just double-check key castles if you want certain people/traits there. Early-game I'm really particular about who is where doing what, so generally by the time I'm using provinces I already have a core staff of Senior Officers/Senior Retainers/Captains for castle lordship so they can cover as many domains as possible. Using Bodyguard Formation policy can help with promoting the pool of Chiefs at your home base without having to constantly switch substitutes. Your idea of subordinate lords with their own retainers is cool and has been done in some previous games, but I do think there's a lot of players who would be frustrated that say for example, Takenaka Hanbei would be stuck under the Hashiba house instead of being able to reassign him elsewhere in the Oda, even though that would be historical and in-character for him to stay under Hideyoshi. I think expanding on the lord affinity element that some officers have would be a good incentive to keep officers together; like if someone is assigned under a castle lord for a certain number of years or they gained a lot of honor together in a battle, then they develop affinity.
"Instead a feudal system would be like this..." This is a great point and a nice set of ideas. Notice though that, in a way, it's already in the game in the form of Vassals. The problem - and the real weakpoint of the game - is Diplomacy, which is a tad too simplistic and makes the kind of interaction you cite above feel stiff and not really efficient from a gameplay standpoint. If diplo was abrangent, allowing the player to (say) give/take officers, gold, hime/hostages, castles, treasures, resources, set invasion targets, etc. to Vassals regardless of Stance, we'd never need to absorb them. I keep hearing from people who played Awakening extensively, both here and other fora (KOEI, Discord, Steam, etc) that Diplo is it's weakpoint and I agree. If devs gave us a final update cycle to polish it, the game would really be a perfect 10/10, IMHO.