Hello and welcome to the official Shogun Total War hints and tips pages. Check out this great guide which was written and compiled by the guys at http://www.totalwar.org/Jason Fitzgerald (Studio Marketing Manager) and Michael de Plater (Executive Producer) from Dreamtime Interactive have put to together a detailed guide, which you can see here. We also have a section written by Bob Smith, the programmer who designed Shogun Total Wars AI, click here.
You can also check out our fantastic on-line guide The Way Of The Daimyo. This is an historical companion to Shogun Total War that will give you some of the background knowledge that will help you to understand the time period and your opponents better. There will be more features coming soon, so keep an eye on these pages. Anyone who wishes to submit a strategy guide should contact the webmaster.
Unofficial Shogun: Total War Gameplay Hints and FAQ Guide, Version 2.0
Alliances:
Treaties and alliances do provide some small (very small) measure of security - if the AI has other things to concern him (such as an ongoing war with another clan or Ronin provinces to take). Just make sure to carefully garrison those regions that you don't want him to take the next time he feels sneaky. Always accept alliances - and break them at need.
There are several reasons why alliances are great for strategic reasons!! 1. If you make an alliance with a daimyo that is strong and then right after you form the alliance send your "best" ninja and geisha to kill him and you’ll get his land and his army. Another good reason to form an alliance is if the Dutch traders arrive at your enemies shore first they will have guns first so make an alliance with that daimyo that has guns and then after he wipes out your close enemies then you send in the geisha to kill him and "walla" you control a large part of Japan and have eliminated your nearby enemies another good reason to form an alliance is when you lack resources and can’t build an army quickly enough to take out your neighbors so you form an alliance to keep your neibor from attacking you or at least this will delay the moment and give you more time to build up your resources!! Another good reason to form alliance is when you have an alliance with 2 clans that are at war. This can be a great time to break the alliance and grab that high koku producing territory you’ve been trying yo get, while their fighting you can "drop" your army on that province and you will be in the battle also and all you need to do is wait for them to beat up on each other and then move in for the kill. This is a great way to gain a high koku producing province with little casualties!! So, alliances were made to be broken but there is a time to form them and a time to break them.
Using Geishas and Ninjas:
Both can be used offensively, as spies and assassins. Both can be used defensively as counter spies and counter assassins. Honor seems to grow at the same rate whether used offensively or defensively. Ninjas, including high honor ninjas, are at great risk of having the mission fail (they die), no matter the probability of success the game tells you. Geishas, on the other hand are very infrequently intercepted by opposing ninjas or geishas. This, together with the fact that if a geisha does get the opportunity to assassinate a target she NEVER misses, makes this unit very powerful. The developer says that they gave geishas this capability to keep the game from becoming stalemated and going on forever. Some posters on the forum believe that ninjas and, especially, geishas, as implemented in the game, are VERY unrealistic and unhistoric. Some players won’t use geishas at all, and some only use ninjas in very limited ways. Others, of course, love the supreme advantage one or several geishas give them.
Formation Setting:
Then imagine the formation you want your men in, where you want them, and what direction you want them to face. Click and hold on the upper left corner of the imaginary box that would surround that formation (if you were positioned behind them), then drag the mouse to the bottom right corner of this imaginary box. As you do so, you will see the formation of your men (ghost image if you will) change as you continue to drag the mouse around (while holding the left mouse button down). When you finally see a ghost image that looks like the formation you want, along with the direction you want them in, then let go of the mouse button. Now not only will the men move to that location, but also they change formation to fit what you specified. If you change your mind before letting go of the left mouse button, hit the escape key and then release the mouse button to cancel the attempt.
Complex formations with more than one group:
If you already have those multiple groups set up the way you want, and you just want to move them to another position, facing another direction, there are two things that might do it for you (but sometimes it acts a bit strange on me): if you want them facing north, click on a spot a little south of that position, then hold down the shift key and click on that final spot north of the first spot you clicked on. Holding the SHIFT key means the next spot you click adds a waypoint. It's the only way I know of to change the facing of a unit without having to re-define its formation, even if the formation will be identical. The other way is again a click and drag, which will change the formation of all groups selected, but puts them all side by side, which may not be what you want.
Moving units to the left or right without changing orientation:
Hold down the ALT key and click on the new spot. The men will change formation facing to do the actual moving, but once they get there, they will form up to face the same direction they were originally in. The exception is if this new spot was very close to the original. They will then keep the same facing while they move (well, formation facing anyway, while they move).
About Myth's method -- Shogun needs that was well. Many times I just want to move my men to a spot, but have them face a different direction than the direction they came from. Myth had it down: you just click on the target location, and then drag the mouse in the direction you want them men to face once they get there. They need that in this game, however since the click drag is already used to change formation, they'd need to use a special keystroke to get this feature. Perhaps CLICK DRAG when CONTROL is held down, but you are clicking on the ground? Shogun makes the assumption I want to change my formation a lot, but I think more often than that (much more often) I really just want to change the facing, not the formation. The best way to get this same feature is to click drag, but it redefines the formation. Since many times you want to keep the exact same formation, you are forced to spend a few seconds redefining the exact same formation.
But one other way you can do it is waypoints: make the first destination the rear of the spot they would be in, then hold SHIFT to give the second destination spot, which would make them face that direction. It's not as clean, but it works, too.
More on Placement and Facing:
The best control is a combination of Alt+Click and ALT+Right-Click. Position unit A as normal. (Click and drag) If you need to adjust his PLACEMENT and not his heading, ALT+Click will have the unit walk to that position, but still be facing the same way. Also, you don't have to worry about clicking on another unit - it will NOT change which unit you are currently selected. Most useful for moving a unit a few feet left/right/up/back without losing which way they are heading, and without the time it takes to click-hold-and-drag. Speed, once the combat gets hot-n-heavy, is essential. To adjust their HEADING and not their placement, use the ALT+Right-Click. IF I have Unit A selected, then hit ALT+R-C, they will swivel (or wheel, if you prefer) to the new facing. The center unit soldier (with the big flag) stays in place, and the unit rotates around him. If you HOLD the right button, you can drag it around to see the relative headings. If you have more than one units selected, the units will all face that one point you clicked on - very useful for getting several units into an "arc" formation. Anyway, this makes it MUCH easier for that fine positioning some battles require.
Unit Formations:
Close: This is the best all-around formation, cuz you're men are right next to each other, and can watch each others' backs. Wedge: This is best for breaking enemy lines. Your men get a bonus to kill the enemy, but the enemy also gets a bonus to kill your men. They are so focused on KILL that they forget to defend. Also, since they're so closely packed, any archers will have a field day. But if you need to shatter that line of naginta, this is the way to go.
Loose: This is mostly to have men not get killed by arrows. When they're bunched up, if an arrow misses its target, it will likely hit the guy next to him. On Loose, there is more space between them, so arrows are less effective. If you're men are holding a line and the enemy moves his archers up, switch your standing line to Loose to reduce casualties. Go back to Close when they do their infantry charge. Also, I've had a lot of luck using LOOSE in the forest. Standing orders:
Skirmish: This is best for missile units. This means that they will hold the line and fire, until the enemy gets close. Then your men will retreat until they have space, then reform and resume firing. Hold Formation: This gives your men a big defensive bonus, at the cost of being less effective killing machines. Basically, the units will hold it's rows and columns, even in the heat of a fight. This is best to have a unit of naginata take position at the foot of a bridge, and Hold there. The bonus to defense means that they will survive longer. It's harder for enemies to force their way through, as well.
Engage: When they get the command to attack, they will let the lines break, and everyone attacks en masse. You get more men into the combat, since they are not concerned about keeping neat, orderly lines. This is the usual melee.
Hold Position: Without this command, your soldiers would let the battle surge back and forth across the field. Sometimes, you've got the sweet hill to defend on, so you don't want your troops chasing the enemy across the field. This setting means the men will neither retreat nor pursue the enemy. Works best when combined with Hold Formation, but also works well to keep your missile troops from changing the formation heading during combat. Nothing more annoying than having your nice line of archers swivel around so that their flank is no longer protected by the spear line!
Fire at will: No, don't shoot Commander Riker. Basically, this lets your missile units choose their own targets. The bad is that they will open fire at long range, and miss a lot and waste ammo. The good is that they will try not to hit their own men - they will fire at an incoming infantry unit, UNTIL it is engaged by friendly infantry. Then the archers will find another target to try to reduce friendly-fire casualties. If you select a unit to attack, though, they will continue to shoot at them if your own troops engage.
Taking Advantage of the AI: It is generally easy to win tactical battles against the AI, even when outnumbered. This said, the AI displays several traits which you can take advantage of:
1. The AI will generally try to flank your forces. Not always, but enough so that you must pay attention to where enemy forces are moving. If you’re careful enough you can gain a window of opportunity and mug the flanking forces before the main body closes.
2. The AI will generally run away after losing their general. On the other hand, you can keep your troops fighting after the general is lost. I have won two such desperate battles through some luck and careful use of terrain.
3. Caution! Make note of the total enemy troops before a battle versus what you can see. I still remember watching 60 Yari Samurai pour out of a forest and into my flanking Samurai Archers. Still won the battle, but I gained respect for the AI.
4. The AI occasionally chooses to fight when it has no hope of winning (e.g. when it has an all yari force against a mixed force of archers and yari) and will instantly withdraw when it sees you. If you suspect this is the case (such as when you have good spy information), use a fast, small unit (preferably yari cavalry) to scout out their position - sometimes the AI deploys too far forward on the flank out of sight. If you can, deploy your army so that you can hit him in the flanks as he tries to withdraw.
5. The word caution can not be emphasized enough. The AI can and will regroup, even when the day seems won. Be very careful, especially if you are numerically inferior, that you don't charge down from your defensive position in pursuit of the enemy and suddenly have to fight it out on level ground. This also applies to bridge battles after crossing a bridge. Tactical Combat the troops:
1. The battlefield use of Yari Ashigaru is problematic. Very vulnerable to archers and easily routed, you cannot normally rely on Yari Ashigaru to carry a battle. Make sure your general isn’t a part of those troops, as you will have a routing / killed general very quickly. If you have some (from the start of the game) they can be useful to garrison castles, hold flanks in battle, keep newly conquered provinces from rebelling, etc.
Later, if you build them in a castle with the right supplemental buildings, you can really strengthen them. With the proper (around 3 is good) honor, they can hold off anything, weather almost any amount of missile fire, and they're cheap cheap cheap. Think about this: for the cost of 1 unit of Yari Cavalry, you can get 3 units of Yari Ashigaru. And with high honor and excellent weapons and armor, even only one of them can hold their own against many other types of units.
One note about battlefield use of Yari Ashigaru - they are kind of bad in a stand-up fight, but they do have uses. Ideally, make them in a place with an armory - added durability goes a long way, especially against arrows. Moreover, they run faster than standard spear units, so if you keep them back, you can have them attack (and flank, we hope) any incoming cavalry units. They work surprisingly well against Yari Cavalry. Also, since they're cheap, you can use them as disposable units. In you bridge attack, if you send one or two groups of Yari Ashigaru across first, they will draw enemy fire away from your monks, letting a few more of them survive to form up, and at the same time deplete the enemy archer units. Yes, the peasants will panic and flee back across the bridge, but panicking peasants does NOT affect the morale of samurai units. Don't let them rout through another peasant unit, but they can flee past samurai fine.
2. Samurai Archers combined with Yari Samurai are the premier force to field in the early stages of the game. At least two spear units provides the kind of ground cover your archers need to carry the battle. This should provide the backbone for any of your armies.
3. As Cavalry and Warrior Monks become available, they provide the crunch factor needed to quickly break the enemy lines and/or rapidly flank their forces.
4. Targeting if you are facing a significant number of enemy Samurai Archers in addition to enemy troops, make sure you focus your firepower against them. These units will cause more trouble for you than any others (and their loss costs your opponent more). Just remember once your archers have run out of arrows they can be used as ground troops.
5. Fighting across a river is never an easy proposition. I find pounding two or three warrior monk units across will establish a solid bridgehead. If there is a second bridge, you can lure the bulk of the enemy forces to first bridge and then use your faster troops to cross over rapidly to flank the enemy forces. Once across take the time to bring all your forces across before going ahead. You don’t want to risk stretching your forces out too much.
Tactical Combat - general guidelines:
If you use quality troops and a well-balanced army, you should win all evenly matched battles. You should not start encountering difficulties until:
1. Being attacked by an opponent with 1.5:1 to 2:1 odds in their favor. Wise use of terrain and inspired leadership will carry the day.
2. Having to attack an archer heavy opponent up a hill. Careful maneuver and timing is critical. If you over-flank excessively, your opponent WILL shift all their forces to attack one side of your forces (and probably ambush you from a forest at the same time).
3. In the defense, patience is a virtue. You will have time to adjust your troop formations as the enemy closes, paying particular attention to the disposition of your ranged units. They should be able to break up at least one closing infantry unit before switching fire to enemy ranged units.
4. In the offense, patience is still a virtue. Generally if you outnumber your opponent they will not maneuver as aggressively against you, instead waiting for you to close and pepper you with their ranged units. Make use of terrain to close in on their flank without being shot at. Time your attacks so you hit them at the same time, don’t allow your troops to march into a meat grinder unless you absolutely have to.
5. In huge battles where not all your troops appear at the same time, don’t be afraid to retreat out spent troops. Withdrawing spent archers will prevent them from being abused as foot soldiers when you can bring in more powerful troops. Caution – as you push your opponent back they will fall back on their own stream of reinforcements, so you may suddenly face a refreshed opponent crashing into your exhausted troops. Take your time and let your army regroup and switch out as needed.
6. When defending against mixed forces with an archer/yari army (from the obligatory high ground), try to keep at least one or two archer units in reserve. You are going to run out of missiles long before the enemy does, and you definitely don't want to be forced to charge at all those archers because of lack of missiles. Conserve some of your missiles for breaking up that Yari Samurai charge forming up at the base of the hill. Many battles seem to have the tendency - Archers duel, Yari charge (broken up by archers and your Yari), Archers duel, Everything charge. You want to have arrows left over for that last archer duel and have him coming to you.
7. Use loose formation and skirmish on for archery duels. Not only do you take fewer losses, but it also allows your own Yari to move through the archer formation easier when the time comes to blunt the enemy assault.
8. WARNING re: Routing Units. These units CAN nearly destroy a unit they retreat back through. BE CAREFUL!! There is quite a bit of controversy about whether they should do this. For now, look out.
9. Yes, enemy archers will run out of arrows. Eventually.
Strategic Combat philosophy:
I am only partway down the path of understanding all the subtleties to Shogun: Total War. I am merely listing some items I have noticed, strategies I like to use, and areas in which I need to improve.
1. Play with all the realism options. Builds character. Makes little Daimyos grow up into big Shoguns.
2. Treaties and alliances are essentially meaningless (except see above for other thoughts). On the plus side, when you are betrayed (and you will be), it does provide for a great deal of righteous anger and vicious battles.
3. Improving the land and building ports and mines are key to making your economy more effective without having to attack anyone. You can generate such additional income from bigger provinces that it makes sense not to attack smaller, less valuable provinces. Good mines (silver, good) really provide the best return for your investment; they’ll have paid for themselves within two years.
4. When you siege a castle, it will usually draw season after season of counter-attacks. Make sure you plan for this accordingly.
5. Usually you cannot turtle in and try to “tech” too quickly. You will always have to build up your forces to keep the ambitions of your foes in check. Balancing economic, military and technology growth is a difficult proposition.
6. Shinobi and Ninjas. I have survived four assassination attempts, but the latest brought down a level 3 general. I have not been using any Shinobi to protect my generals nor help pacify newly conquered provinces. At this stage, it will take several years before I can recover from this mistake.
7. Shinobi Have lots of these guys running around. Their ability to stabilize provinces quickly and protect your generals is critical.
8. Ninjas Frankly I don’t use them that often, and only against generals just before an attack. Killing Diaymos with assassination is a fairly dishonorable tactic and very chancy.
9. Know when to retreat from a province! You can either lose two weakly held provinces or consolidate and only lose one. The choice is yours.
10. Try to avoid killing the enemy Diamyo in combat, especially if they have a particularly strong realm. If they have no heirs, you may suddenly find all their provinces joining another Diamyo! I watched in horror as my clever battlefield maneuver destroyed one Diaymo only to raise Takeda to new heights of power! NOTE: By the same token killing off the last Diaymo can generate a great opportunity to strip away lands from the rebels without pissing off anyone else. It’s worked in my favor in other battles, but just be aware it can be a double-edged sword.
11. Taxes: If you’ve invested enough in enough Shinobi, you can afford to take your tax levels up a notch. They are only 100 koku.
12. Armories, Swordsmiths: Keep upgrading your troops! Try to make as many of these areas as possible, the long-term benefits are enormous. Daimyo and Heir Comments:
Daimyos and Heirs in the same army: Found a bug in the game which might explain some of the clans dying out too early. If you place an Heir in charge of a set of units - then place your Daiymo in charge of the same units (i.e. in charge of his heir) - then if you take those units into the battlefield when you come back out to the board (even if you haven’t lost a man) you have lost your heir - he’s gone, vanished, poof! I thought that this was just something for me to be aware of until I saw the Hojo do the same thing. Hojo attacked me with 2 armies from 3 nearby provinces. His heir is in an archery unit in one of the armies. He attacked me with his Daiymo and heir - I kill the daiymo and his army flee - NONE of his archers were killed (it was a river crossing battle) - yet Hojo clan is wiped out - no heirs!!!!! (if he draws his second force from the other province then I can happily wipe out all of them and his heir takes over). This may be why games never go the full length and most clans are extinct within 20 years or so. That and the fact that Daiymos really shouldn't charge at bridges at the head of a 1700 strong force. This needs fixing because it really spoils the game knowing that you can simply sit at a bridge and watch Enemy Daiymos come kill themselves at it until they are all dead.
Death Wish Daimyos: They charge into battle oblivious to the odds against them, even when they really shouldn't. They'll charge a unit of archers that's pounding them instead of trying to escape. Last night Lord Mori and his pals bought it hard when they tried to run at a little archer unit in the middle of my line - it was something on the order of a 800 arrow salute from units ranging in honor from 2-4, and completely annihilated the 9 remaining men in his unit (dropped 60 yari ashigaru with one volley just a bit before that). No human would rush a daimyo at a long line of men unaided, but good old Mori seemed content to charge with just a squad. And the Daimyos with an heir that's too young to inherit are almost worse than their fellows. I've ended the game a whole bunch of times now by either killing enemy Daimyos myself or having the Rebels and Ronin do it for me. You'd think that they should be more conservative when they're the "last of their line", wouldn't you?
The birth of heirs is apparently historic as is the honor level rating they are given. Deaths of daimyos and heirs on the other hand are not based on history but whatever the game’s aging algorithm is. In some clans, the heir’s clan name changes. This is apparently related to actual historical events. Also, the game aging algorithm will allow apparently fertile 105 (for example) year-old daimyos to suddenly being producing heirs again after a long hiatus. Some forum posters are saying historically, this is grandchildren.
Castle Sieges: I think it is too easy to just sit and siege castles. There is never any real point in fighting a castle battle because units besieged in a castle will die in around 1-3 seasons. Also, when attacking an enemy Daimyo in a province that has a castle and he retreats, he always retreats inside a castle. This is not good because 1-3 seasons later he dies from starvation. I killed 1 Daimyo and 2 of his heirs this way in 5 turns. End of a very large Oda clan, as the clan didn’t come to his Daimyo or his heirs' aid!! Bit of an anti-climax really. I have never had to waste men in a castle fight!
Use of Priests/Churches: Building churches, and later the cathedral, increases koku production. Very valuable capability. I think Priests are more useful than Shinobi except in the defensive counter spy role, and as good as Ninjas in the spy role:
1. They can begin the process of conversion in an enemy province years before I'm ready to invade a province. If the province rebels, so much the better. If not, once I do conquer the province, the province is less likely to rebel, loyalty rises faster (I think), with a smaller military garrison. No other unit can do this.
2. They are cheap to build compared to any military unit, even Yari Ashigaru. So I can afford to keep them in one of my provinces to keep the level of Christianity high. This lets me cut any garrison I might otherwise need. The cost/benefit ratio versus any military unit in rear areas is very good.
3. They work as well as Shinobi and Ninja as spies, and are 25% of Ninja cost and 50% of Shinobi cost. I can lose 4 priests (having gathered 4 times the info) and break even versus the cost of using a Ninja as a spy.
Availability of Monks and Gun Units: If construct your temple before you convert to Christianity to get gun units, you can still construct warrior monk units.
Honor, Armor, Weapons: Honor affects a unit offensively and defensively, whereas armor only increases defense (which includes defense from ranged attacks?), and weapons increase offense (which don't include arrow fire?).
But an increase of one in honor affects offense for that unit the same as an increase in one of weapons. And conversely, increase in one of honor affects defense for that unit the same as an increase in one of armor.
Honor increases will affect both offense and defense of such units simultaneously. But armor or sword upgrades will affect offense of all unit types created in that province (only hand-to-hand attacks are affected). So take your pick given that info what you're after more: a quicker overall improvement of one unit, or an increase in defense or offense of a group of units more quickly. Decisions, decisions..
Personally, I find that raising honour is the best way to have superior troops, although improved armor and weapons sure doesn't hurt. That's the reason that the Emperor's province has the bonus that it does: it's the best bonus. Of course, I believe that the province is lacking in iron sand deposits, which makes the province to the right (Omi, is it?) a better spot for building Naginatas and just general troops. Kii is best for warrior monks, and there's a province in the middle (Iga?) that gets great ninjas. It's no wonder that Oda was so successful - he owned the lands that had or were near everything you need to build the best armies in the game. Heck, he even had decent farmland to the northeast (in actual Japan) and he could nab two more from the Mori clan.
Morale: Morale is like how eager your guys are for combat. On the unit icons at the bottom in the battles, there is no direct morale listing, but if you see the little white flag appear, they ain't happy.
Here are the levels:
Impetuous: They're raring to go! In fact, they will often ignore you if you tell them to fall back! They'll charge out into battle, even if they're outnumbered a zillion to one. Usually no-dachi and monks are like this. Steady: This is what you want. They're ready to rumble, but will follow orders. In a melee, they will go looking for their next opponent.
Uncertain: They're tired, but still behind you. They'll follow orders, but will want to catch their breath before they go looking for their next fight.
Wavering: Okay, now they're having second thoughts. At this point, their status icon has a flashing white flag. They're not breaking yet, but they have lost confidence.
Running Away: They blew it. Now they've panicked and are legging it for the horizon. You still might be able to Rally them, but they're not happy any more. The morale bonuses are mostly to keep them from dropping too quickly. A palace-based unit is supposed to start off a little higher, so that it takes longer for them to get scared. Again, combat situations will influence morale. Being flanked sucks. Being shot at by guns is a real downer. Being separated from the rest of the army is bad. Keeping orderly units - good thing! Having the daimyo right in there is another bonus.
Gun Units: I have found them extremely good for bridge defenses, because they have a whole lot more ammo than archers. two units of musketeers can fire pretty much non-stop for a whole battle without running out of ammo. if you have 4 muskets, and say three good melee units like monks, naginata, or heavy cav, you can hold a bridge against thousands. make sure your muskets are in double line, angled slightly towards the bridge, and positioned far enough back so that archers on the other side can't get them. They will mow down the attackers and the bridge will be absolutely covered in dead (his, not yours). However - always have 3 or 4 archers back-up, and and preferably some cav archers as reinforcement units. If the enemy attacks when it is raining you can hold the bridge with what you've got, withdraw your muskets and bring the cav archers up quickly. However, as archers ammo is much more limited you're gonna need more of 'em to do the same job.
Muskets similarly are good to hold ground behind an attack led by cavalry. Use cav to clear enemy archers from the high ground (from the flank, not uphill), and move a couple of units of muskets onto the high ground to give your cav cover while they re-group. Related to this - if you can decimate a defending army with cav charges early, and bring muskets up to cover the reinforcement spot, you can stop him getting fresh reinforcements maneuvered into position. A couple of volleys followed by a quick yari cav charge will pretty much rout any fresh unit that comes on. Of course, you can only really attack in summer if you want to use muskets and cav.
I've found the gun units pretty useful, esp. Musketeers. Some tips. Keep in skirmish if you want them to run back if the baddies get too close. Also, if you form up in two rows and remain in fire at will, and don't give specific targets, the unit will hold fire until the enemy comes in effective range until a deadly volley is fired. Another one of these by another gun unit makes most units run especially if you're using two rows of guns. You can use multiple rows like 3-6 to have higher rates of fire but in less volume of fire. Shooters who have just fired run back to the back of the formation while fresh loaded ones move up to firing positions. Think of it as leapfrogging in one place. I tend to have a 50/50 mix of two row/4 row gun units. Two rowed ones to decimate close in attackers and the others to just shoot at everything with their higher rates of fire. Also, the 2+ rowed formations turn and set up much more quickly to a surprising flanking maneuver than the wide spread 2 rowed ones.
Weather Effects: As attacker you should take advantage of the weather! If you know he has lots of archers, attack on a windy day. Gunmen got you down? Let it rain! Cavalry problems? Attacking in the Winter will slow them down and tire them out! Snow and rain will slow down and tire out the heavily armored guys like naginata, too.
One of my favorite tricks is to attack a bridge in a heavy rainstorm with just ashigaru, monks and no-dachi. All of their missle units are useless! My units are unaffected!
Rain, for instance, prevents arquebusiers and musketeers from firing; it also hampers bow accuracy, as does wind. Fog, well, that's an LOS issue -- it can seriously reduce the usefulness of archers, since those sohei might be able to get in MUCH closer. Snow tends to make units tire faster as they march, if memory serves. I wouldn't be too surprised if it also slowed 'em down somewhat. Snow might hamper arquebusiers; not sure of that. Don't make your heavy cavalry charge uphill in a snowstorm. Hints for playing at the expert level:
1) Keep the funds flowing. Do not lose your big revenue generating provinces at the start. Better to spend the early cash on units (not building improvements) to secure your provinces, then you can build. If you don’t secure them you never will build anything anyway.
2) Get intel - know what is going on around you - pick the one or 2 provinces that border the most adjacent provinces and build border towers (they cant be assassinated unlike emissaries). You need to know opposing army positions and constitution.
3) You will need to move units around as the AI moves its troops almost every turn. As the AI builds armies you can’t outbuild all your opponents in aggregate. You have to do the best you can to use available units to counter threats against your most important provinces. The AI will pounce on unguarded provinces so follow its troop movements and have a welcoming party ready.
4) Make sure you match the opposing troop types with appropriate counters. For example if you are playing Hojo and the Takeda are massing cavalry make plenty of Yari units not archers.
5) Use geography. River provinces are hard to attack. So you can leave fewer units to defend them than you would for a flat province with little to favor the defender.
6) Use Shinobi to improve loyalty and protect against ninja assassinations.
7) Do not sit with large unused armies, especially ones larger than 16 units, until it is late in the game and you have plenty cash. Units cost koku for upkeep. Better to battle and reduce numbers on both sides, then with more koku in the treasury at the end of the year you can spend the extra on upgraded units. I try to always have 16 units in my frontier provinces when the AI has that number or more in adjacent provinces. However above 16 units you don’t really need to match it numerically. Have a reserve force centrally positioned so that it can replenish several provinces. In a Hojo game for example you can use Shimotsuke or Shimosa for this.
8) Constantly recycle and move units to spread tired units between armies and combine depleted units to make a full strength unit. After a long tough battle the units will be tired for several turns (usually 2). So don’t leave a bunch of tired and depleted units as one army. Immediately do the recycling. The AI is not good at this. It will field depleted units. This means you will outnumber it from the start of a battle if you have done your recycling.
9) Continue to monitor the constitution of the nearby armies and modify the composition of your armies to deal with those threats. For example if the opposition starts going with lots of archers you might go with cavalry. There are lots of forum threads dealing with the strengths and weaknesses of each unit type on this board. There is a counter to every unit type.
10) Once you have secured your provinces against early threats, start building upgrades to make more cash flow such as mines, ports, and improved farmlands. Once the cash is flowing, work on unit upgrades, preferably in provinces that have a natural advantage such as resources for an armory or a bonus for a specific unit type (Like Totomi for Archers).
11) The game is not won by building the biggest armies. You can only field 16 units at the start of a battle so concentrate instead on making them high quality. If your 16 can beat the best 16 that the AI can field you will win even if the AI has another 30 in reserve. Also any opponent fielding a new 16 units every battle because they are using cheap throwaway units will not build honor. If you concentrate on high quality unit types such as monks they will be around for the next battle, and after their victory gain honor further increasing their effectiveness.
12) Don’t overextend in attacking. Best to start out by cautiously attacking one province at a time. Every time you acquire another province you get more border to defend so make sure you can hold your gain before going further.
13) Pick targets that generate lots of Koku and that are weakly protected. I like gold mines personally (1200 koku per year with the mine complex upgrade) but there are rich farmland provinces like Sagami or Mutsu that are attractive. The best is provinces that combine both like Dewa. This province can earn you serious cash and the AI doesn't defend it very vigorously.
14) Make alliances. The AI often breaks them (the clans differ in their reliability) but there are advantages. The biggest is that if an ally Daimyo dies you will acquire a portion of their territory and army if they have no heir.
15) Check the koku tab every turn (that button to set the tax rate). Always end the turn with no provinces below 100% loyalty if you can. If you reset the tax rate and click the button again you will see the modified loyalty based on the new tax rate. After acquiring new territory you may need to leave a large army on site or reduce taxes for a while until loyalty is assured.
16) The AI is ruthless in attacking provinces with weak armies. It tends to go for a rapid land-grab at the start - and that’s also what you need to do.
17) The key to expert is to produce only the minimum required units at the beginning - you need to spend as much of your koku as possible upgrading your lands - koku is the key - mines, ports and land upgrades. The AI is (even on expert) ridiculously wasteful in its own expenditure so you generally have plenty of time to get things done.
18) Don’t try to build unit-producing castles in every province. This is a waste - I generally get by with only 2 or 3 unit producing provinces for the entire game, good unit rotation, planning, and narrow attack routes means that you only ever really need about 6 or 7 armies to complete the entire map.
19) Watch out for ninja and geisha which the AI does use a lot more of at this level. Attacking an army on a hill:
Comment - THIS IS NOT ABOUT ‘CAMPING’ IN MULTIPLAYER. There are also a LOT of ways to beat a defender on a hill. The following is only a selection of ideas. Remember, no pre-determined tactics are going to win every time.
Have 2 units of Yari Ashigaru. You can expect to lose them, but put them in a loose formation and put them in front of the defender’s archers. The enemy archers will open fire and eventually your Ashigaru will run off. The idea is to either completely run him out of arrows or at least sorely depleted his arrow supply. Make sure it’s a loose formation so the Ashigaru can last longer and tell them to hold position.
Most maps with hills have other hills that allow the attacker even ground or even higher ground in some. You probably will have the problem of the attacking army being tired due to climbing up the hill. If this happens and you can, rest your men.
The attacker has an advantage the defender does not. Choosing when to attack. To take full advantage of this, choose the worst weather possible and attack with a melee majority army. Some range units are still useful, however, so don’t just go with all melee units. Defenders are likely to have a lot of range units so bad weather cuts down defending ability significantly.
Wait for bad weather and poor visibility to attack so your enemy gets little warning.
If I'm going after a hill, I try to come in from multiple axes. The defender expects you to take a frontal approach generally, and if you can push him from two different angles he gets all disorganized. I like to come in from a 90 degree and -45 degree pairing, personally, because it makes him work on refusing his line, creating a weak joint. Attacks en echelon work well too, because he will probably move his reinforcements to one end of the line. This leaves the rest weak. The ideal hill attack would involve softening him up with missile fire (if practicable), then sending in the infantry from multiple directions all at once. The tangle at the hilltop should be really hard for the defender to sort out.
Cavalry archers on melee work well for removing archers, as they are fast enough to escape should there be any Yari Samurai or Yari Ashiguru around. They are able to turn and fire back. They are good for 'drawing' your opponent off the hill by which time your other troops are in a position to attack.
As much as you can, you need high honor men to counter the hill/height advantage. The other way is making sure you remove or distract his melee forces. I find 2 units of Naginata attacking on his flank with 3 honor can hold out long enough for a force of high honour Yari Samurai and No-dachi to break his back. Keep a unit of 0 honor Yari Cavalry available to chase his most dangerous units down when he runs. The only thing about this strategy is, it’s entirely based on timing, the key is to getting him/her to split his forces. You can expect to kiss your Naginata goodbye. Two units against a whole army won’t survive too long but it is enough to buy time.
Reinforcements:
If you stack more than 16 units (say two groups of 16) in a province to battle it out, as units become obliterated, reinforcements arrive from the edge of map ready to take up the place in battle. This occurs in battles you manage and in AUTORESOLVE battles.
If the number of units you have on the field drops below 16 new units arrive. One nice thing you can do is order (ctrl+w) a weakened/tired unit or archers low on ammo to retreat off the field and it will be replaced by a fresh unit.
If one of your unit has only 10 or 20 men left who are "TOTALLY EXHAUSTED" I usually tell them to withdraw by hitting ctrl+w. Several advantages to that:
1. Obviously you get fresh meat in the battle as reinforcements.
2. A
group of highly depleted and very tired men are more than likely to run when
faced with enemy reinforcements. This will affect your entire army's morale
badly. So, withdraw them before they run.
3. The 10 or 20 guys left standing
usually has a honor level at least 1 or 2 points higher than the original unit.
After the battle you can merge that unit with another high honor unit and the
resulting unit will practically unstoppable, especially with a good general.
Just try attacking any group of infantry with a level 4 monks and see how fast
the enemy turn and run
This FAQ is not/may never be complete.
Compiler: JeffM