Firstly, I'd like to say congratulations on designing a superb mod that really adds lots of flavour and excitement to an already great game. I've been playing around with it for a few months and I really like how it's progressed. The game is a lot more challenging.
Right now I'm playing as Ikko Ikki on Legendary mode with the latest patch - 2.6. I'm around the 56th turn (1560 or so?). All the great clans are going strong, with the exception of Uesegi, who was killed early by Takeda, and the Hojo, who seem to have been conquered by the Oda. Ikko holds 8 provinces and I've managed to build a strong economy by having good trading relations with almost every clan I've met and choosing my fights wisely.
A little chink I noticed: I can't recruit the Yari Warrior Monks (additional unit from AUM-sho mod) - I have a yari dojo but on the recruitment queue it states that I need to build a buddhist temple - which is obviously impossible seeing as I'm Ikko.
Also, are the
Mangonels and Fire Rocketeers
recruitable as Ikko Ikki? In the custom battle it lists them as unavailable, so I assume it is likewise in the campaign. I have the powder maker in one of my provinces and there's no mangonels available in the recruitment queue. Can you make them recruitable? For two reasons:
1) Seeing as historically, gunpowder weapons were available in Japan during the Sengoku Jidai, why shouldn't these weapons be available to the Ikko? If they can recruit matchlocks, it follows that they can also manufacture simple projectile weapons such as a fire rocket or catapult. I'm not saying they should get cannons, as that requires a considerable amount of engineering, but all sorts of gunpowder weapons including rocket projectiles saw widespread use in Asia as early as the 12th century - it would be easy for the Ikko to capture these weapons during uprisings, or convert artisans who have the skills to build them.
2) Gameplay wise the Ikko have a very limited variety of units, and with the S2R+ additional restrictions especially on archers it kind of boils battlefield strategy down to point-click-charge with massive units of cheap ashigaru, which in the later stages of the game can get kind of boring. Though neither the mangonels or fire rockets are very pivotal in their effectiveness, their animations make the game quite a bit more exciting, especially in siege battles, where they add a completely new dimension of long range artillery > archer fire > then close combat assault.
And what happened to the
Naginata Ashi for Ikko? Historically the naginata was one of Ikko's preferred weapons - give it to the peasants too!
I don't mean to be nit picky, I just think these few minor changes would make Ikko more of a worthwhile clan to play in the long run verses other clans who can field a much wider variety of troops. Once again congrats on a magnificent interpretation of the game.
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