First time fots player

[Hamata]

Hey guys can you give me some starting tips? new to fots

[easytarget]

First off, have you played Shogun 2 or Empire? Either one would give you a pretty good leg up on FOTS.

[Hamata]

played shogun. so i guess dont need any tips then

[I_damian]

I started off playing on normal/normal difficulties because I always get smashed if I play anything higher, especially on the campaign map. I also started off with the imperialist Mori clan (they're not actually called Mori but in their description it says they are the Mori but got moved a bit further west) because they have bonuses to industrialisation.

Also in the battles you have to be careful at the start because the enemy samurai units will rip your line infantry/levy muskets to pieces if they got close - which they will, because they fire slow until you get kneel fire. The way I fought was to have a line of muskets and directly behind them a line of spear levies/yari samurai. Let the muskets fire one or two rounds as they approach then charge them with your spear levies.

[easytarget]

played shogun. so i guess dont need any tips then

Yeah, I'm betting you can sort it out pretty easily, in some ways it's easier in fact. Take realm divide, what was once quite a jarring experience you needed to prepare for, is now really just the imperial side vs the shogunate side facing off, something that is taking place most of the campaign already anyway.

As for guns instead of sharp pointy things, that's certainly easy enough to adapt to as well, just empire meets the east. Get a bit of city development going so your research doesn't get stopped by modernization (also a change btw you should take note of) and once you have line infantry and some 2nd level canons, you can pretty much sweep the map. I would take note that modernization does lead to some unrest you'll need to keep an eye on. The navies of opposing clans are more active, so you can't just ignore your naval development, especially given out aggressive the AI can sometimes be about raiding trade and off-shore bombardment.

But all in all, if you've been through campaigns in Shogun 2, I don't expect you'll have any difficulty at all with FOTS. Enjoy!

[easytarget]

Quick question to anyone who might wander in on this thread: Do the effects of foreign advisers stack? IOTW, if I've got one in a province and still have the ability to recruit another one, will the impact on training and recruitment costs be impacted or is it a waste of time? In ROTS I used to move 2 or 3 and sometimes even 4 Junsatsushi into a province to quickly switch allegiance, and the impact of more of them definitely change how long it took to switch allegiance. I was just wondering if in FOTS the same thing occurred with foreign advisers.

[Slaists]

Quick question to anyone who might wander in on this thread: Do the effects of foreign advisers stack? IOTW, if I've got one in a province and still have the ability to recruit another one, will the impact on training and recruitment costs be impacted or is it a waste of time? In ROTS I used to move 2 or 3 and sometimes even 4 Junsatsushi into a province to quickly switch allegiance, and the impact of more of them definitely change how long it took to switch allegiance. I was just wondering if in FOTS the same thing occurred with foreign advisers.

In my experience, at least in recruiting bonus, foreign adviser effects do stack. I suspect they stack in accuracy and reload too. My main army with 3 advisers had crazy accuracy and reload numbers...

As for first time tips:

1. Try not to over-extend early. Over extension can result in being attacked from multiple fronts. The more enemies you have, the more AI factions [even your allies] are likely to join the feeding frenzy...

2. Defending the seas and fixing bombarded infrastructure in the early game might be an exercise in futility, especially on VH campaign difficulty. Better spend the money on upgrading infrastructure [fields, factories] in provinces that are farther from the coast. You do need a wolf-pack of some stronger ships that to be able to take out an invasion force or two heading your way though. Use gun-boats in strategic straights to scout for those.

3. The economic side of research is extremely important in order to survive (especially on harder campaign difficulties). This should be prioritized early in the campaign. The military side of the research is basically a luxury, kneel fire being an exemption.

4. If you cannot take out your early enemy outright, consider sitting at home with your Daimyo while building up your economy and army and sending a single general (or a couple) into the rear of the enemy territory to burn some infrastructure [unlike for agent sabotages you do not have to pay anything for generals' actions]. Generals do no suffer attrition during winter. After the general has done it's dark deed, hide him in the woods to recycle in the next turn.

5. For assured field victories, get your dirty hands on parrot guns asap...