Real newbie question (not about XP)

[Steve Macduff]

OK I am new to shogun in general and I need a bit of aide if you got a minute. I bought the game used at EB and it didn't come with instructions, just the little flipout in jewel case.

First: Musketeers. How the heck do I get the structure needed for it (forget the name of the structure... religious building...). I got the trading post set up and I can get Arqubesser (sp?) guys, but I upgraded almost everything and it still won't let me build the structure for Muskies.

Second: Is there a way to combine 2 smaller units of the same type on the board? I am tired of having 10 units of 15 soldiers each.

Third: Is this game really supposed to be this easy? I don't mean to seem like I am gloating, but I got the game 2 days ago and am already owning the campaign on hard (well, not OWNING, but I think from the battles fought it is pretty inevidable). Is expert really really hard? Or do they just add punishments?

Thanks a lot for your time... before anyone replys refering to my post a couple of days ago, it was somewhat misinformed. I had got on the board the day of the Mongols pack that so many people complained about it and made a generalizing post assuming that is the way the community always is, which has turned out to be wrong. I apologise... now let us never speak of it again =)

[hecose]

1. If you have accepted trade with the Portugese and converted to Christianity, you need to build 6 churches (building a church needs a large castle), and then build the cathedral (which needs a citadel). After that, your Portugese trading posts will be able to train musketeers.

2. At the strategic map, click on an army icon. You will see the contents of that army in the army roster at the bottom of the screen. On the roster, click (and hold) on a depleted unit, drag it to another depleted unit (of the same type) and drop it. The two of them will merge into one.

3. On Expert, you start with less koku, and the AI units have more extra honour bonus (they already have some honour bonus on Hard) (I think). For a real challenge, play against other human players on Multiplayer.

[Steve Macduff]

Thanks a lot!

One other question: Are musketeers a whole lot better than the arqs... because I am fairly unimpresssed from what I have seen. Only time they really came in useful was for making things less than enjoyable for the nemy attacking me on one of those bridge maps.

Steve

[Algesan]

Yes, muskets are much better. A bit more range (same as archers on level ground), more accurate and reload faster.

[MajorFreak]

2. Note that you must drop an obsolete unit onto the new and improved unit type. (i always forget how to do it and end up swearing *g*)

As for unit commanders...Don't worry about ignoring level 2-3 commanders. They are a dime a dozen (also note all your commanders..even hiers..arrive at the western most created unit in the SUMMER)

So make sure your Ashigaru troops aren't sucking hind tit on the western front. *g*

[Steve Macduff]

What do you mean you must drop obsolete units on new and improved unti type? You can't put 2 of the same type of unit together (I am assuming by obsolete you mean without bonuses from castles they were made at), one needs to be more powerful then the other?

Little confusing...

Thanks,
Steve

[Raging Road Rodent]

Well, fellow newbie to fellow newbie, I actually love the muskateers. I find that they really change the entire nature of battle. Usually, it was get your archers going until they ran out of arrows.

Just a few points on them. Be ready to support them quickly if they do get attacked. Use Yari Samurai, or even a squad of Monks or No-Dachi. Line em up, and have fun with the day. I have yet to see my muskateers run out of ammo. They keep going and going and going. Eventually, their formations becomes so tattered, and any time they charge, they buckle under gunfire, and run home. I get monks and no dachi running. However, they are the biggest threat in my mind.

I have anywhere between 2-4 units of musks in 16 unit army. I try to keep an equal amount of cav archers, because if its raining, I am defending. And if its raining, the musk don't work. Put those archer in nasty spot, and make em pay for every inch of ground they take.

I used 4 units of muskateers alone one battle. 240 guys against 1500. They lined up on a hill, ...real high, and waited. The computer of course came to make muskateer soup. Well, I lost the fight because time ran out. The entire purpose of that fight was to simply take 4 cheap units, and widdle 800 men of his army before I invaded it for real.

I love muskets.

[Steve Macduff]

LoL Raging I just put a response to your thread.

Us newbies gotta look out for eachother =)

[BSM_Skkzarg]

Gotta disagree with Algesan on one note - muskets have a slightly better rate of fire and accuracy - but their range is still short of archers by a healthy little chunk.

They are much better than Arqe's tho, especially when you know how to use them best. If you string them in 2 ranks, both ranks fire at the same time - doing massive damage but with a slow rate of fire. However, line em up 3 deep they "rotate", the first line firing, then moving back as the second line moves up and fires. This gives you a decent amount of shot per barrage, with a high rate of fire.

Also - in the expansion pack - the musket can be fired in very light rain. This allows them a lot more flexibility. If you can keep them alive long enough to get it, good honor muskets are a REAL treat to use. Of course, to be honest, I still like xbowmen better, but they are dealt with differently. At higher honor, they do MASSIVE damage per salvo, as their aim increases in skill.

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BSM_Skkzarg
"A mind is a terrible thing to taste."

[celtiberoijontychi]

The thin with "adding" units goues this way:

the unit you drop into another gets the sme bonusses as the "host" unit, i.e.: armor and improved weapons.

so you can upgrade (or downgrade if ya aren't careful) ur units for free.

[hecose]

Is it true that you get free upgrades when you drop a less upgraded unit to a more upgraded unit? I always thought they trace the unit statistic down to every soldier, e.g. the unit overall may appear to have improved weapons, but actually only some of the individual soldiers do, but the rest just have normal weapons.

[Gothmog]

Quote Originally posted by hecose:
Is it true that you get free upgrades when you drop a less upgraded unit to a more upgraded unit? I always thought they trace the unit statistic down to every soldier, e.g. the unit overall may appear to have improved weapons, but actually only some of the individual soldiers do, but the rest just have normal weapons. [/QUOTE]

NO, it's not true.

If you look at the log file, every soldier in the unit ALWAYS has the same updates (weapon, armor, I didn't check the moral enhanced by palace -- for I think palace update is useless, not that moral is not important, but it's just not worth it---, but I suppose it works the same way).

The honor of the unit is traced down to every soldier though. You might have a unit of honor 1, but one particular soldier might have honor 6. Legendary swordman event, remember?

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(note: in the following discussion, the BASE honor means the honor before adding the general's bonus. For instance, if a general's base honor is 6, and he is a rank 6 hero thus enjoys +3 command bonus, then the actual honor is 9).

I found an interesting thing about the general soldier. His base honor is either his rank, or the unit average honor, depending on which one is higher.

Daimyo is an exception, his base honor is usually a little bit higher than his rank.

I haven't seen general whose base honor is greater than 6 though.

This also explains why the enemy daimyo and high rank generals are usually super tough. Once Choke alone -- rank 5 monk general in the emperor's Province -- took 42 heads of my elite soldiers before he finally died. That happened when he was completely surrounded by my high honor heavy cavalry, monks and yari cavalry, and his monk pals were completely annilated!

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I also have a question. What if, you drop a golden armored (but no weapon update) unit on to another unit with no armor update but with 3 swords to merge them? What will you end up with? A unit with 3 swords and gold shield? Or simple one with 3 swords?



[This message has been edited by Gothmog (edited 08-27-2001).]

[MajorFreak]

yes, i forgot to mention that honor is the one exception to the "upgrade by dropping obsolete unit onto improved unit" rule.

Honor is the AVERAGE honor of every individual in that unit