Might try allying yourself with some of those clans in the first few turns.
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Shogun 2: Total War
- Thread starter WabeWalker
- Start date
Might try allying yourself with some of those clans in the first few turns.
WabeWalker
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How are you guys dealing with the battles - do you auto-resolve whenever you can? I find that with a game like this you have to learn from your mistakes, meaning you really have to play it. If you play every battle in real time then it drastically lengthens your play time.
Hrm, get a monk or a small ship going along the coast to encounter other clans, ally and trade with some farther away clans that are very unlikely to conflict with you until later. Dont always feel like you need to destroy a clan and garrison the town, sometimes its good to make a hit and make someone your vassal. Also, dont be afraid to sack a town every now and again. Its better to take the honor hit than to go bankrupt. Also, the date have a fairly close island that has a gold mine on it just north of the Useigi that gives 1000g per turn and more when you upgrade it.
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I'm really enjoying sieges. One annoyance though is that the smaller forts are too small, and the biggest ones are too big.
For example, you have 15 units in a basic fort and they're just crammed in a wooden square. Not too many options on where to put people.
On the other extreme, I just defended Kyoto with (I think) 20 units and there were still major gaps. Luckily the moat slowed the enemy down and let me move units around, but I would like to have battles where you fight level by level in the castle. It'd be cool to see the outer layers get demolished while whittling down the enemy and then have the inner keep finish off the enemy( or get destroyed too, w/e). Right now it feels like I have about 80% of the units I need to properly defend. I guess if I went 90% archers for defense I could kill everyone before they even reached the walls though.
The difficulty level is pretty good imo. The enemy has done some interesting things in battles. On one level they were defending, so they hide their hole army in the trees on a hill. Since they had a lot more archers than me I got totally massacred when I approached. Overall though the battles aren't very difficult when I play them. The harder part is how good the enemy is at the strategic map. I got destroyed really quickly when I first started.
As for general bugginess I think I experienced 2-3 bugs the whole time. One was early and I can't remember, the second time I got 1.8million gold from raiding in 1 turn, and the third was loading quicksaves, which seemed to send me back in time 1 turn or so. I quicksaved, lost a battle, reloaded, but then I had to redo a lot of actions I'd done prior to the quicksave. Not sure if that's intended or not but it's not what I expected.
Overall I'm really enjoying it for a $40 purchase. I wish the multiplayer menus made more sense and were more streamlined though. I also wish I could ever find a game(played with one host so far), but that might be because I'm in Asia and they automatically filter by ping. Not sure. Another complaint is the graphics. They don't really seem that good to me. Maybe compared to the last game, but I guess i was expecting more.
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Auto-resolving battles: I usually do it if the numbers are 50/50 or more, my general outranks his, and my units are better. If it looks like it'll be rough then I fight it myself and usually win, unless the odds are totally stacked. I like sieges as well so I try to play most of them. I also think they're the easiest battle mode to change who wins. A lot of times if I auto-resolved the enemy probably would've won, but by playing the siege myself I usually slaughter the enemy.
A couple things that really threw me off were the resource requirements, like stone and iron. I play as the Shimazu so I didn't have easy access to almost anything, which really limited my building options.
The other was that better castles cost more food, and food gets pretty limited. I started by fortifying all my early castles and near the end I was at about -22 food per turn. I ended up just garrisoning about 6-8 units at every province, but I wasn't expecting that drawback to building better defenses.
For example, you have 15 units in a basic fort and they're just crammed in a wooden square. Not too many options on where to put people.
On the other extreme, I just defended Kyoto with (I think) 20 units and there were still major gaps. Luckily the moat slowed the enemy down and let me move units around, but I would like to have battles where you fight level by level in the castle. It'd be cool to see the outer layers get demolished while whittling down the enemy and then have the inner keep finish off the enemy( or get destroyed too, w/e). Right now it feels like I have about 80% of the units I need to properly defend. I guess if I went 90% archers for defense I could kill everyone before they even reached the walls though.
The difficulty level is pretty good imo. The enemy has done some interesting things in battles. On one level they were defending, so they hide their hole army in the trees on a hill. Since they had a lot more archers than me I got totally massacred when I approached. Overall though the battles aren't very difficult when I play them. The harder part is how good the enemy is at the strategic map. I got destroyed really quickly when I first started.
As for general bugginess I think I experienced 2-3 bugs the whole time. One was early and I can't remember, the second time I got 1.8million gold from raiding in 1 turn, and the third was loading quicksaves, which seemed to send me back in time 1 turn or so. I quicksaved, lost a battle, reloaded, but then I had to redo a lot of actions I'd done prior to the quicksave. Not sure if that's intended or not but it's not what I expected.
Overall I'm really enjoying it for a $40 purchase. I wish the multiplayer menus made more sense and were more streamlined though. I also wish I could ever find a game(played with one host so far), but that might be because I'm in Asia and they automatically filter by ping. Not sure. Another complaint is the graphics. They don't really seem that good to me. Maybe compared to the last game, but I guess i was expecting more.
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Auto-resolving battles: I usually do it if the numbers are 50/50 or more, my general outranks his, and my units are better. If it looks like it'll be rough then I fight it myself and usually win, unless the odds are totally stacked. I like sieges as well so I try to play most of them. I also think they're the easiest battle mode to change who wins. A lot of times if I auto-resolved the enemy probably would've won, but by playing the siege myself I usually slaughter the enemy.
A couple things that really threw me off were the resource requirements, like stone and iron. I play as the Shimazu so I didn't have easy access to almost anything, which really limited my building options.
The other was that better castles cost more food, and food gets pretty limited. I started by fortifying all my early castles and near the end I was at about -22 food per turn. I ended up just garrisoning about 6-8 units at every province, but I wasn't expecting that drawback to building better defenses.
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I find that enabling the debug camera improves the graphics because you're able to zoom in a lot more in the campaign and battle maps. Try this,
Go to
C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Shogun2\scripts (you can also conduct a search for %appdata%)
And in preferences.script change the line
default_camera_type 1; # default_battle_camera <card32>, default battle camera: 0-totalwar 1-rts 2-debug #
to
default_camera_type 2; # default_battle_camera <card32>, default battle camera: 0-totalwar 1-rts 2-debug #
Only bug I've had with that is in the battle map my camera keys become reversed, I solve this by rotating the camera and the controls reset to normal.
Once they add in AA and DX11 it should look even better.
It's been my experience that the auto-resolve, to put it kindly, blows. If you have a significantly stronger force, than it seems to work out, but if the numbers are near parity I find that I can do significantly better than the auto-resolve does. And don't even try to auto-resolve a battle where you are trailing significantly - normally you can at least administer some damage to his forces to make him pay for the attack, but with auto-resolve I find I get totally raped.
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Yeah, the lack of AA is the killer.
This picture shows it pretty well on the narrator photo(top left). To me it feels like the old shock I had when going from a beautiful 2D game to a new 3D game(like BG2 to NWN, Warcraft 2 to Warcraft 3). Just has a jarring effect sometimes.
I'll try that camera hack and some other things. I'm not running absolute max settings, but pretty close to it.
Most of my complaints about this game are really nitpicky and could probably be fixed with patching. I also really don't like the English voices w/ Asian accents. I think Japanese with subtitles would've been better for immersion(kinda like in the battle scenes).
Pic also shows 1.8m koku in one turn. I thought maybe the comp was trying to help me out since I only have like 15 years to win at that point.
This picture shows it pretty well on the narrator photo(top left). To me it feels like the old shock I had when going from a beautiful 2D game to a new 3D game(like BG2 to NWN, Warcraft 2 to Warcraft 3). Just has a jarring effect sometimes.
I'll try that camera hack and some other things. I'm not running absolute max settings, but pretty close to it.
Most of my complaints about this game are really nitpicky and could probably be fixed with patching. I also really don't like the English voices w/ Asian accents. I think Japanese with subtitles would've been better for immersion(kinda like in the battle scenes).
Pic also shows 1.8m koku in one turn. I thought maybe the comp was trying to help me out since I only have like 15 years to win at that point.
darkhunter139
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How do you get a new general? Lol I got mine killed early and now i only have one left.
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Unless the UK has some law against bundling steam with steamworks games, it shouldn't have any problem registering to steam. Since it uses steamworks it requires steam, no matter who you buy it through.
To get a new general just have a general-less army go around and kill stuff. Eventually a heroic soldier will be recognized and you can pay 1k to promote him to a 1 star. Having children will also do it, but it takes longer.
To get a new general just have a general-less army go around and kill stuff. Eventually a heroic soldier will be recognized and you can pay 1k to promote him to a 1 star. Having children will also do it, but it takes longer.
Hmmm, have at least 1000 gold in your coffers, win a heroic victory with a set of units that has no general, or wait until a son is old enough and there is some other random chance thing I believe. They all cost 1000 gold though except he son
darkhunter139
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Alright thanks, I think I am screwed this campaign haha. I can't get the hang of the economy.
PanzerBoxb
2[H]4U
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Don't give up! Have you no honour? 
darkhunter139
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Don't give up! Have you no honour?
Im not going to give up but I have two huge clans on both sides of me and they are allies so I can't really attack either and my clan just went bankrupt haha.
Read this, if you only know one thing about playing this game this is probably the most important thing to understand. I was completely lost myself but this cleared up almost all my economy questions and helped me make some $$$
http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/11396-Dark-Side-s-Economy-Guide-for-Shogun-2
Jimi_Shuffler
[H]ard|Gawd
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So I mainly play on easy, but its pretty fun commanding a full on ninja army vs an army of katana samurai haha. oh and the sieges... Kyoto map, is pretty sweet, until you place all your men on each side of the castle only to find the enemy place all their men into two forces... so I was spread too thin. :/
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That happened to me on Kyoto too. The moat helps so much though and it gives you time to move people around. I had like 3-4 archer units vs the enemy's like... 8. But I didn't lose a single one and I don't think he made it to any of my walls. One side had 0 archer units, so I let him waste his ammo and then I sent a few naginata troops and my leader outside and they mopped up the defenseless archers.
Overall my simple strategy for sieges is to hold the enemy off in most directions, slaughter then on one side with massed archers, and then redistribute those people to the other sides. I haven't fought against siege weapons yet so that might change things.
For the economy problem, I was hurting too until I realized how much the trade points brought in. Then I'd just put 10 trade ships per point and hoard them.
Overall my simple strategy for sieges is to hold the enemy off in most directions, slaughter then on one side with massed archers, and then redistribute those people to the other sides. I haven't fought against siege weapons yet so that might change things.
For the economy problem, I was hurting too until I realized how much the trade points brought in. Then I'd just put 10 trade ships per point and hoard them.
First play with the campaign mode, chose Date. Eastern Honshu (everything east of Mikawa, under Tokugawa) is under the Date clan. Currently at war with the Takeda clan, have already conquered much of their provinces but they're slowly moving to the West as well (through the northern coast of Honshu) and swallowing up the minor clans there.
Tokugawa conveniently offered to ally with me, so I didn't have to fight on two fronts, for now.
Tokugawa conveniently offered to ally with me, so I didn't have to fight on two fronts, for now.
Finally I am making some progress on hard. I chose date this time around and my campaign is going like this
I began the season by putting down a small uprising next to my starter town. The enemy was easily routed with some spear and arrows, with my new found confidence I head north. My starting blacksmith gives rise to a few samurai units who deftly climb the walls and take hold of the town square and win the battle with little casualties.
Feeling confident, I move west and take yet another town, alas, I have but one southern trade partner and ally with all other clans already trading with others or declaring themselves my enemy. I begin the next season with my three neighbors declaring war, takegowa, hojo and imagani(sp). They are all allied together with my destruction their only apparent goal. I began building up my farm and road infrastructure, order my governor to start immediately on a trade port to take advantage and prepare my economy for war on a massive scale.
I recruit a single ninja, putting all my faith in his abilities. I send him to the tokegowa provinces, sabotaging harbors, farms and temples as I move from locale to locale. His experience increases and my enemies discontent is clearly visible from the aggression of their troops.
With an army built, I begin a daring strategy. My spies report 3 full tokegowa armies several seasons from my closest town. I build a single, fast moving ship and move along the coast. Attrition takes its tolls on the high seas but I land my most seasoned generals with a full garrison of archers and spearman hundreds of miles into enemy lines.
I move south, capturing one province, then another, then another in daring and quick succession. My clan is powerful and I feel that victory is within my grasp. Then disaster strikes
3 full armies of tokegowa make their way to my newly captures towns. I am somewhat fearful but I believe that my armies are brave and strong enough to destroy them. Then from the south, 2 full stacks of their hojo allies begin moving to my town. Their combined numbers are nearly 10,000 strong. Even though my generals are great, I have no choice but to retreat.
I burn as I go, if the enemies are to take my newly gained cities, they will be all the poorer for it. I then take my armies and retreat back to the seas. As a final move, I take one last tokegowa city and make it my vassal for the region. With the farms burned and buildings in ruins, I move my army into a seaward retreat. As they board the ships, I find that my vassal has betrayed me. They have declared war and take 2 close cities while the tokegowa reclaim their ruined seat of power. Vengeance is in my heart but it must wait for another day, I am not one to quickly forgive and I wont forget their betrayal.
As I make my way back to my home region after years abroad, pirates strike my port and destroy my trade. My trading partners have also been undone by enemies or turned into enemy vassals. If things were not dire enough, another enemy moves into my homeland with a huge army and takes my westernmost city. Things are very bad, in another turn, I will be bankrupt. I begin selling off armies to secure my treasury and I fear that defeat is close.
My seaborn troops spend several seasons returning home, they land with my brother and his small force already waiting. We move with speed and reclaim my western city in an epic battle that leaves my enemy and my own forces decimated. However, victory is victory and my finances begin to return to their former state. I amass an army of ships and crush the pirates, my imports of iron are now secured. I then take my leader and move into enemy territory taking 3 provinces within a year. New alliances and trade agreements are now struck. I sack the home of my enemy taking over 10,000 gold as my prize. Where I go from here is anyones guess. The evil tokegowa are still strong and hold the north, the hojo still hold several cities to the south. The shogun holds his seat of power but with the right tactics and brave generals, I just may have victory.
I began the season by putting down a small uprising next to my starter town. The enemy was easily routed with some spear and arrows, with my new found confidence I head north. My starting blacksmith gives rise to a few samurai units who deftly climb the walls and take hold of the town square and win the battle with little casualties.
Feeling confident, I move west and take yet another town, alas, I have but one southern trade partner and ally with all other clans already trading with others or declaring themselves my enemy. I begin the next season with my three neighbors declaring war, takegowa, hojo and imagani(sp). They are all allied together with my destruction their only apparent goal. I began building up my farm and road infrastructure, order my governor to start immediately on a trade port to take advantage and prepare my economy for war on a massive scale.
I recruit a single ninja, putting all my faith in his abilities. I send him to the tokegowa provinces, sabotaging harbors, farms and temples as I move from locale to locale. His experience increases and my enemies discontent is clearly visible from the aggression of their troops.
With an army built, I begin a daring strategy. My spies report 3 full tokegowa armies several seasons from my closest town. I build a single, fast moving ship and move along the coast. Attrition takes its tolls on the high seas but I land my most seasoned generals with a full garrison of archers and spearman hundreds of miles into enemy lines.
I move south, capturing one province, then another, then another in daring and quick succession. My clan is powerful and I feel that victory is within my grasp. Then disaster strikes
3 full armies of tokegowa make their way to my newly captures towns. I am somewhat fearful but I believe that my armies are brave and strong enough to destroy them. Then from the south, 2 full stacks of their hojo allies begin moving to my town. Their combined numbers are nearly 10,000 strong. Even though my generals are great, I have no choice but to retreat.
I burn as I go, if the enemies are to take my newly gained cities, they will be all the poorer for it. I then take my armies and retreat back to the seas. As a final move, I take one last tokegowa city and make it my vassal for the region. With the farms burned and buildings in ruins, I move my army into a seaward retreat. As they board the ships, I find that my vassal has betrayed me. They have declared war and take 2 close cities while the tokegowa reclaim their ruined seat of power. Vengeance is in my heart but it must wait for another day, I am not one to quickly forgive and I wont forget their betrayal.
As I make my way back to my home region after years abroad, pirates strike my port and destroy my trade. My trading partners have also been undone by enemies or turned into enemy vassals. If things were not dire enough, another enemy moves into my homeland with a huge army and takes my westernmost city. Things are very bad, in another turn, I will be bankrupt. I begin selling off armies to secure my treasury and I fear that defeat is close.
My seaborn troops spend several seasons returning home, they land with my brother and his small force already waiting. We move with speed and reclaim my western city in an epic battle that leaves my enemy and my own forces decimated. However, victory is victory and my finances begin to return to their former state. I amass an army of ships and crush the pirates, my imports of iron are now secured. I then take my leader and move into enemy territory taking 3 provinces within a year. New alliances and trade agreements are now struck. I sack the home of my enemy taking over 10,000 gold as my prize. Where I go from here is anyones guess. The evil tokegowa are still strong and hold the north, the hojo still hold several cities to the south. The shogun holds his seat of power but with the right tactics and brave generals, I just may have victory.
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I love how arrows stick into the character models now.
Last guy defending his castle:
Evasive bastard, but he couldn't outrun 320 arrows for long.
Last guy defending his castle:
Evasive bastard, but he couldn't outrun 320 arrows for long.
WabeWalker
Supreme [H]ardness
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I'm so disgusted that I haven't had time for this - just so many titles, and so little time. The problem for me is that at the end of the day I'm usually too tired to commit to something like this. I have to set aside a night for this, and just go great guns on it.
enlightenedby42
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Well, I've lost most of a weekend to Shogun 2: Total Crack.
I've had 2 CTD's now, but they weren't show stoppers. Both of them occurred after playing for 2 or 3 hours, so it's entirely possible that it's heat related and not game related (my GPU always got damn hot at load even with pretty good ventilation). Mildly annoying, but twice in 20 hours or something isn't terrible. I did notice my internet was cutting in and out during one of the crashes, so I almost wonder if that one was some kind of DRM thing (purely speculating).
Anyway, game is great. It's definitely more "Rome-like", but this might have a lot to due with a shift back to melee combat from gunpowder. I tried one Date campaign, and never could get my economy off the ground enough to build up. Tried another as the Shimazu and am having much better luck.
This time, I rushed upgrades on the capital's ports in order to build trade ships ASAP. Rush trade ships and grab as many of the trade routes as possible. After you establish them (focus on monopolization of ports first, then reinforce routes with more ships), keep adding ships until you get to 10 or so. This coupled with trade agreements will help enormously with income. Also, as you go to war, try to grab provinces with good resources in favor of mediocre ones. It is CRITICAL you focus on farming research above all else or you will wind up with food shortages and long halts in progress as you wait to improve your food supply all at once after neglecting it. Also, I recommend skipping the rice exchanges...there's apparently a small balance bug where these hurt you in in the long run beyond a certain number of provinces.
These made me an economic powerhouse, so I was able to start building a good army.
The one thing I'm worried about is replay value to some extent...the factions are no different than the 3 Roman families in R:TW, so there may be a limit on how many campaigns will be interesting.
In any case, I'm a happier PC gamer at the moment than the folks in the Crysis 2 thread, that's for sure. This has actually motivated me to give Empire another shot, too.
I've had 2 CTD's now, but they weren't show stoppers. Both of them occurred after playing for 2 or 3 hours, so it's entirely possible that it's heat related and not game related (my GPU always got damn hot at load even with pretty good ventilation). Mildly annoying, but twice in 20 hours or something isn't terrible. I did notice my internet was cutting in and out during one of the crashes, so I almost wonder if that one was some kind of DRM thing (purely speculating).
Anyway, game is great. It's definitely more "Rome-like", but this might have a lot to due with a shift back to melee combat from gunpowder. I tried one Date campaign, and never could get my economy off the ground enough to build up. Tried another as the Shimazu and am having much better luck.
This time, I rushed upgrades on the capital's ports in order to build trade ships ASAP. Rush trade ships and grab as many of the trade routes as possible. After you establish them (focus on monopolization of ports first, then reinforce routes with more ships), keep adding ships until you get to 10 or so. This coupled with trade agreements will help enormously with income. Also, as you go to war, try to grab provinces with good resources in favor of mediocre ones. It is CRITICAL you focus on farming research above all else or you will wind up with food shortages and long halts in progress as you wait to improve your food supply all at once after neglecting it. Also, I recommend skipping the rice exchanges...there's apparently a small balance bug where these hurt you in in the long run beyond a certain number of provinces.
These made me an economic powerhouse, so I was able to start building a good army.
The one thing I'm worried about is replay value to some extent...the factions are no different than the 3 Roman families in R:TW, so there may be a limit on how many campaigns will be interesting.
In any case, I'm a happier PC gamer at the moment than the folks in the Crysis 2 thread, that's for sure.
This has actually motivated me to give Empire another shot, too.enlightenedby42
Supreme [H]ardness
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Yeah, it must take the better part of 10 turns to move a boat from the extreme north to the extreme south of Japan. You really have to plan ahead to do any business on the opposite coast. On one hand it would be more fair if they were evenly distributed, but it does make for an interesting gameplay hook that requires slightly different strategies for different factions.
Will probably try one of the central factions next (unless Empire gets its hooks in me this time around)
Arthur Hucksake
Limp Gawd
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The stuttering on the campaign map has made it unplayable, its just one of those things that aggrevates me too much to enjoy the game.
Anyone know a fix for that? Otherwise ill have to write off more money for games I just wont play.
Why do ALL games release busted nowadays, may just wait a month before I buy anything from now on.
Anyone know a fix for that? Otherwise ill have to write off more money for games I just wont play.
Why do ALL games release busted nowadays, may just wait a month before I buy anything from now on.
I noticed this last night too.. I also got into a weird state where my movement keys would no longer move around the campaign map and even mousing to the side wouldn't.. i had to double click the map to move around..
TwistedAegis
[H]F Junkie
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Ok, maybe someone can help me with setting up a trade agreement. My first (and only) trade partner decided out of the blue to declare war on me. So not only did I have to deal with the expense of higher troop levels and fighting on that border, but my economy absolutely CRASHED after losing that trade income.
I have tried to set up trade agreements with all of the other clan I have access to (not many this early on) and so far even throwing in hostages, marriages, etc only gets me up to a "Moderate" chance of success, and not a single clan has accepted any of my offers thus far. I absolutely thrashed the dirty bastards on the battlefield and looted their capitol, but without trade agreements I'm losing money every round.
I have tried to set up trade agreements with all of the other clan I have access to (not many this early on) and so far even throwing in hostages, marriages, etc only gets me up to a "Moderate" chance of success, and not a single clan has accepted any of my offers thus far. I absolutely thrashed the dirty bastards on the battlefield and looted their capitol, but without trade agreements I'm losing money every round.
I also had this happen in a coop campaign. Had to revert to an older save a few turns back.
I had stuttering on the campaign map as well. What solved it for me was turning off SSAO and reducing shadow detail. You'll have to fiddle with the graphic options to smooth it out. My guess is that the advanced options are not optimized until they release the DX11 patch.
Arthur Hucksake
Limp Gawd
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Thanks, I will give that a go. Amazed my system can't run this game properly.
It's a Crysis 1 Killer! LOL
I don't think looting is going to help your reputation (and liklihood of getting a trade agreement). Looting is not good for your clan honor. Have you tried sending trade ships to the trade points? Maybe send a ship around the island to meet other clans and increase your opportunites?
TwistedAegis
[H]F Junkie
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Agreed, however desperate times call for desperate measures. If I didn't loot them I would have gone bankrupt that turn.
I have trade ships at 3 out of the 5 trade points, so I definitely have goods to trade. I will however sail around Japan and try to expand my pool of known clans to try and trade with.
I usually select only trade partners that don't really share borders with me...until I conquer their neighbors. LOL
Actually if you start in the West the Chosokabe are a great trade partner, since they won't see you as a threat because at the start you obviously don't have a navy, and they're only threatened when you get to Shikoku island, through your navy.
In my Shimazu campaign my trade partners were the Chosokabe and the Satake. So while I conquered Kyushu I had two constant trade partners. The Satake was conquered by the Mori however; I have no alliance with Satake, but I declared war on the Mori for depriving me of a trade partner lol
enlightenedby42
Supreme [H]ardness
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Yeah, it must be a bug if your rig is having problems. I was getting a little bit of stuttering every once in a while when panning the camera. A tad annoying, but it occurs pretty rarely it hasn't been a big deal for me. Oddly, it seemed to happen on the edges of the map where it was mostly ocean in view. I just figured my GPU was getting a little bit long in the truth with most things maxed out.
How big is your army? Have you been upgrading your farms and markets?
TwistedAegis
[H]F Junkie
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My army is probably too big and my markets underdeveloped. I was fine until my trade partner bailed, so my income took a huge dive, so much that I no longer made any money per turn, while simultaneously waging war on two fronts. All my farms were upgraded fully; I think I made a mistake learning Bushido arts rather than Chi; I had to wait quite a while to get the upgraded terrace farming.
I may just have screwed the pooch and have to start over, we'll see. So far my battle skills have made up for my terrible economic (mis)management. The auto-fight option gave me a crushing defeat on my opponents capitol; fighting it out myself gave me a heroic victory with minimal losses. For some reason the auto-fight option doesn't seem to use archers anywhere near their full effect.
I think what I plan to do is wear out my troops a bit and take a few more provinces; basically keep the same number or a few less troops spread over more provinces. I <3 <3 <3 Chokosabe archers...the core of my army.
enlightenedby42
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2005
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Be sure to also try to grab the trade routes at sea. These will help to bolster your income when trade agreements fall apart. They can at least keep you in the black. Also, I chose not to upgrade markets and keep the extra food instead.
I did the exact same thing with Terrace Farming. Luckily I'd been saving every few years before I committed to wars or research paths so I didn't have to start completely over, but things went much better getting farms maxed before military.
It's well worth using large ashigaru armies at first to keep costs down in order to to knock out a neighboring minor faction or two to bolster your economic growth early on. After that, I turtled for a few years and worked on a better army and diplomacy. Expansion in small bursts has been a pretty good strategy for me.
Yeah, the terrace farming upgrade makes a big difference after a while, especially when you can get 6 or 8 provinces upgraded. I've found that the auto-resolve is better when you have an overwhelming majority - it will often cause complete destruction of the enemy army, while manually battling it often lets some escape - but is terrible at a fair fight.
Does anyone else think that castle sieges are too easy? Maybe it's just because I've been battling against lower-level castles, but compared to Medieval 2 (especially) it seems like storming the castle isn't much harder. The walls don't provide much (or any) protection from archers*, and scaling the walls makes it too easy to get inside. Maybe it is a style thing, but I much preferred having to use siege weapons to batter the castle a while before assaulting (and I much preferred being able to keep a strong army at bay from inside the castle). Now it seems like all that matters is army size.
*It also bugs me that archers can target troops in the interior of the castle from a position outside the walls and below the castle floor level. Shouldn't line of sight play a role there? How do the archers even know where the guys in the castle are. There should be fog of war for castles.