6. Jozai Clan Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai
Some of the biggest betrayals I've faced have occurred whilst playing strategy games, with the most occurring during play-throughs of Shogun 2. Now, I've had allies turn on me many a time due to my rather aggressive foreign policy, and I've usually dealt with their betrayal by wiping them off the map. However, the one time that came as a shock to me was during a Fall of the Samurai play-through as I was playing as the Aizu. The Jozai had been my allies since day one, and around the 60th turn they decided that my unguarded territories looked rather appealing. Within 2 turns theyd sent 2 full stacks through and captured two of my provinces. I of course wasn't ready to let this stand and loaded up a fleet and sent my armies home to re-capture my provinces; the Tsu could feel the Shoguns wrath at a later date. After quite a few turns with my resources being severely depleted, Id managed to capture all of their provinces, but it was here that I made my mistake; rather than wipe them off the map I made them my vassal. I gave them a few gifts of cash and they seemed rather happy. I stuck around for a few turns to ensure their loyalty before heading back towards the Tsu to convince them that the Shogun was better for Japan, and by convince, I mean rain ungodly amounts of cannonball on them. Everything seemed quiet on the Jozai front and as I was running out of allies to support me, I decided to reward them with more and more cash so that they would support me and allowed them full access to my provinces. At first they seemed to approve of this and moved their armies by sea until suddenly a few more stacks were appearing at my borders. I prayed that they were merely amassing men for their conquest of the Imperial provinces, but of course karma wasn't going to be kind. Before I knew it, they had declared war again and were back to conquering my provinces, causing me to pull back my forces from the West and embark on another Jozai genocide. Now, this may not seem to be that much of a shocking betrayal to all of you, but most of my gaming life has been playing strategy games. I grew up playing Age of Empires and Red Alert and when I look at my Steam game-play time; Shogun 2 ranks as one of the highest. Forgive me for this slight tangent - onto other betrayals!