Easiest-to-Hardest Single Player Clans

[Hiroshi-O'Duff]

This topic probably comes up from time to time, but I feel like starting it again.
Here's my rating for the easiest clans to win (at HARD in Single Player):
Hojo
Uesugi
Oda
Shimazu
Mori
Imagawa
Takeda

Never played Ronin, but I think they'd be up among the easiest.

What do you all think?

Duff

[Vanya]

I'd put Mori at the bottom... his lands have no koku yield... and he has 4 fronts to start!

[EasyCo]

Hojo- Well you know why http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

Takeda- It is easy. Because the Calvary and the Takeda Shingan 5 Gen.!!

Uesugi- That he has the much koku..Then you can get the Hitachi...Then your ok then.

Oda- I thought it was hard but you can win. Thanks Shai!!

Mori- That is a very hard way to go.No koku...yuck! But you can win buy the monks,monks and more monks..I won buy the province Kawachi

Imagawa- That is a very, very hard to go..(For me)

Shimazu- Well, I have never beat him!!NO Koku. He has a little army, and are away far away.

This is for me..I have beaten ALL of them for hard.The only expert is darn Shimazu.


[This message has been edited by EasyCo (edited 05-24-2001).]

Oh!

Did you find Oda so easy???
here is my list

Hojo
Uesugi
(ronin)
Mori
Takeda
Shimazu
Imagawa
Oda

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[Anssi Hakkinen]

This depends a *lot* on the difficulty level. On Easy, Shimazu may actually be the hardest. Everyone gets an easy start on Easy, but Shimazu always has to beat a Horde to win.

On the other hand, at either of the levels easier than Hard, Oda is easier because the WMs are passive. His position is really excellent otherwise.

Maybe it's just me, but I get early-game-rushed a lot as Hôjô - more than as any other clan.

[EasyCo]

Oda it is hard!! I got killed alot of the times. I was probably a 40%Oda won.

Hojo- 98%
Takeda- 93%
Uesugi- 75%
Oda- 40%
Mori- 15%
Imagawa- 1% http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif
Shimazu 0% http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/frown.gif

This is a guess. Like I said this is Expert games.

EasyCo

[Yoko Kono]

How do you play as Ronin???

anyway i cant believe you all find Shimazu so hard to play
By eliminating imagwa in the first 3-4years then taking the ronins island u have agreat defensible postion from which to launch attacks from and the ashi hon bonus from the ronin island gives your guns a head start too
I have founs Shimazu the easiset clan on all levels, closley followed by Hojo

Heres my list

Shimazu
Hojo
Uesegi
Oda
Mori
Takeda
Imagawa
and how do i go ronin?

[EasyCo]

You can cheat thats how.hehe. .conan.

EasyCo

uhmmm... what's wrong with ODA ? it's very easy on anything but expert... (and then it gets tuffer with everybody anyway)...

[The Bear]

Hojo
Takeda
Uesugi
oda
shimazu and imagawa
MORI- must be me , i still have all kind of trouble with mori.

The most fun must be takeda and oda (thanks again Shai) for me. Shimazu and imagawa are the most challenging but i find Mori so hard.

[hecose]

I've just recently finished playing all clans on Expert. Imagawa and Oda were the last ones I managed to do. My list looks like this:

Uesugi (very easy)
Hojo (very easy)
Shimazu (quite easy)
Mori (quite easy)
Oda (hard)
Takeda (quite hard)
Imagawa (very hard)

My reasoning:

Uesugi (very easy) - rich lands, good position, cheap archers. I find archers very useful throughout the campaign. Helps a lot in beating monks / no-dachi. Uesugi starts with quite many borders, but once you take out Hojo, you are very very rich and your borders are reduced greatly. Your rich lands are protected in one corner and you can safely launch a campaign westwards.

Hojo (very easy) - rich lands, good position. Cheap castles also help in upgrading to get better troops. Also, once you take out Uesugi, you become very rich.

Shimazu (quite easy) - good position. Although starting lands are poor, you are pretty well defended once you get Imagawa's lands on Kyushu. And those are rich lands. Well, I sometimes do get a horde when I reach Oda's lands, but by the time I have half of Japan, the horde is not a problem to me anymore.

Mori (quite easy) - large starting army, cheap warrior monks with armour. Lands are not good, but similar to Shimazu's approach, you can quickly take Takeda's lands. Normally I'll expand westwards first to secure the western half of Japan, and then go east without having to worry about western borders. And of course we know how powerful warrior monks are.

Oda (hard) - many fronts, and those rebel warrior monks. Sometimes it's a bit tricky in maintainnig garrison so that monks in Yamashiro and Ise don't attack you, and it's also a bit tricky when you want to attack them and wipe them out early. Then you have Imagawa's Mikawa (river) to worry about. It's probably to expand westwards first, after defeating the rebel monks. But then eastern lands are richer. Oh... what a dilemma.

Takeda (quite hard) - split lands. Horses are fun, but you really can't afford too many in the early years. You probably need a few more ashigaru to beef up your troop numbers. Also, cavalry are not very easy to master in STW. For the western lands, it's hard to hold out against Mori's large starting army. Musashi (river) although rich is not easy to take.

Imagawa (very hard) - split lands. It's quite hard for Imagawa to expand because the more you expand, the more borders you get. And you are surrounded by Oda, Takeda, Uesugi (in the east). But note that Imagawa's starting army is all samurai (no ashigaru) and the archers are Honour 2. You must make good use of this troop quality.

Is somebody going compile all this data collected? That'd be interesting.

[Shiro]

Hojo
Uesugi
Mori
Shimazu
Takeda
Oda
Imagawa

That's the way it goes! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[hecose]

Hey, Shiro, your list and mine are pretty close. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Anssi Hakkinen]

Originally posted by hecose-san:
Quote Is somebody going compile all this data collected? That'd be interesting.[/QUOTE]It would appear you just did. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

This thread is definitely one flagged for the Strategy Archive once it plays out. I would imagine the balance of power is much altered with the expansion (not to mention the MP campaign), however...

[hecose]

Anssi, actually I meant to compile the statistics on who thinks which clan is easiest / hardest. The following is what I was thinking of. For each person's ranking, I assign a score of 1 for the easiest clan and 7 for the hardest. These are the scores, from easiest to hardest.

Hojo. Scores:1,1,1,1,2,1,2,1. Average:1.25 Var:0.21
Uesugi. Scores:2,3,2,3,3,3,1,2. Average:2.38 Var:0.55
Takeda. Scores:7,2,4,2,6,2,6,5. Average:4.25 Var:4.21
Mori. Scores:5,5,3,5,5,7,3,3,7. Average:4.50 Var: 2.00
Oda. Scores:3,4,7,4,4,4,5,6. Average:4.63 Var:1.70
Shimazu. Scores:4,7,5,7,1,5.5,4,4. Average:4.69 Var:3.78
Imagawa. Scores:6,6,6,6,7,5.5,7,7. Average:6.31 Var:0.35

From these stats, looks like everyone agrees that Hojo & Uesugi are the easiest and Imagawa the hardest. But there's a lot of disagreement on Takeda and Shimazu.

If there are most postings to this thread I might do another round of number crunching later. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

Note that there are 9 scores instead of 8 for Mori, because Vanya commented that Mori is hardest but didn't comment on others. Imagawa and Shimazu had two 5.5 scores because The Bear feels they are equally hard.


[This message has been edited by hecose (edited 05-25-2001).]

[ShaiHulud]

Hecose.... Do a search for "hardest clans" and you'll find 3 more surveys available.

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Wind fells blossoms, rain
fells steel,yet bamboo bends and drinks

[Maltz]

I am still new in Shogun http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

So far I managed to win all hard level campaigns, and Hojo on expert. Here is my rank (Hard level).

1. Hojo (also very easy on expert level!)
2. Uesugi (as long as I take out Hojo first, by giving up Hida and Shinano I will have enough troops)

3. Takeda (plz see below)
4. Oda
5. Shimazu
6. Mori
7. Imagawa (Surrounded by big enemies, and no good place to expand).

I give Takeda a higher ranking bcz if I attack those rich lands on the east early enough, I will be as rich as I would be Hojo and Uesugi anyways. Its good generals give me a good start, too.

Oda was historically the winner of the period. I just made peace with the east and wipe out west first.

[celtiberoijontychi]

Easiest on Expert, 120 men units
Hojo
Uesugi
Oda
Takeda/Imagawa
Mori
(haven't tried shimazu with 120 men)

Oda is easy only and if you follow the strategy posted elsewhere in this forum: take the ronin provinces in the first year. If not, it's very very hard.

Imagawa and Taked depend on how you perform in the first 2 years. U must be VERY agressive and concentrate on one front.
Imgawa:
1. take shinano
2. "Punishment" expedition against Takeda, just to calm him down http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif
3. Then go for Hojo
4. Be opportunistic. Taked, Hojo and Uesugi will soon start to fight each other ... follow the way of the vulture
5. If needed, abandon shinano and mikawa, and take musashi, it will be almost undefended.
If you do well, you will have the hojo and uesugi lands in ur hands soon, but will loose mikawa, totomi and shinano.
Takeda:
1. Take musashi from the beginning, then same as imagawa.


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Long live Celtiberos
Glory and Honour to Clan Celtiberos