War story

[Katasaki Hirojima]

I started a full campaigne at 11AM.I played till 6:30.I was HoJo,and came under attack right off the bat from Takeda.I lost the defence,but retaliated quickly,and took back Musashi.THe best thing about that was upon the retalitory attack,I managed to not only make his all cav and some Ashigaru army run fer da hills,I killed his Daiymo with no heirs,thus ending the Takeda threat.Then,like a horrible joke,Shimazu forces got ALL of his land.I blitzed the port province to make sure Shimazu didn't go into the fray.But the early war effort left me in a bad posistion,I desperately fought to hold onto land,and lost half my provinces at one point,but a mighty rebellion,plus some nifty troop movements saved the day.The untrustworthy Imagawa and Ueseugi faced off with HUGE armys.I was forced to become a pwan in there faceoff,desperately trying to keep the two powers from overrunning me.I had to defend all my provinces equally.I built up in this peace time,and began a sudden conversion to christianity and filled my provinces with Jesuit preists.I think this unsettled my hostile allies,and Uesugi attacked,took my northern province (I can't renember the names.) and held it.At the same time the Shimazu invaded.Thank god for chrsitianity,a huge Crusader Samurai army formed up and stopped the Green dead in there tracks.I put everything I had into saving my garrison in the northern province,who desperately held on in a castle.Three failed attempts later,my military was in shambbles,and the Imagawa then blitzed in,took Musashi,Blue blitzed in and took Hitachi.Also,Imagawa had forced Shimazu into that peninsular province,Izu,was it?I sent my Crusader army and Daiymo in,accidently hit calculate outcome,and lost my daiymo,with my heir two years away from becomeing mature.Nooooo..I'v been beaten by the AI!!How can this be,my honours been stained!Never have I ever come up against such a formidable AI.THen again,this was a four on one fight,tad unfair if you ask me.

PS http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gififficulty was Normal.I totally dominate Easy,but Normal is too hard,thats one hell of a learning curve!0_0

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"I maintain none the less that Yin-Tang Dualism can bo overcome.With sufficent enlightment,we can give substance to any distinction:Mind without body,north without south,pleasure without pain.Renember,enlightment is a function of will power,not of physical strength."-Shang-ji Yang,essays on mind and matter.

[Darth Wart]

Interesting.

I agree about the "learing curve" -- it's steep.

I can personally confirm that from "Easy" on up, the AI is not merely allowed deficit spending, but is allowed to create troops in provinces in which the facility to produce that troop type doesn't exist.

I've always felt that although "expert" was indeed expert, the programmers weren't very imaginative about HOW they made it difficult. I mean, they just screw you on the koku and give the enemy unfair production powers.

This could have been better. The enemy could have merely THOUGHT better at the harder levels (invading you by port, building geishas right away, staging feint attacks, etc.) and it would still have been certifiably difficult without the AI actually having any unfair advantage against you.

[Towashima Masakaido]

If you really whant to see a hard game try play as the uesugi on hard, (seems daft to say when playing it on hard but...)

it truely is an unhill stuggle,
if you go for advance and conqure the nabouring Hojo wait build up still at the mad rate of training (even with v1.12) and attack your flank provinces then your home land.

if you strike for the Hojo to start off with you find the takeda allied with them and know have claimed there remainding lands (as 9 times out of 10 the Hojo daimyo leads a last ditch assult on your home province of mutsu and dies.

then finniley after probley around 20 years soild warfare your weakend forces mange to remove the takeda only to discover that history does indeed repeat itself only this time the Oda have decided to expand as well into your terriory and you can't afford to auto calc as that means garanted defect.

I tell it is one hell of an uphill stuggle.

[Anssi Hakkinen]

I hate to burst your bubble, but the Easy-Normal learning curve is partially illusory. The real problem is: the game is at its most difficult in the beginning, and it's there you either win or lose (excluding a late-game Horde if you play Shimazu or similar). After you've built up a decent army, or several, and conquered a few of your neighbors, there isn't likely to be much that can stand up to you. Except a Horde. So the game just gets easier the longer you play.

And BTW: the very key to playing as Hôjô succesfully is to defend Musashi with all available forces in the beginning, because the Takeda (almost) always rush it with everything they have. The Northern border can be left much less strongly defended. Once Musashi is secure, build up one of the Northern armies (I recommend Hitachi) into an offensive one and take Mutsu. End of Uesugi. Then proceed to Shinano etc and soon you will have a Hôjô Horde of your own.

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"The right use of the sword is that it should subdue the barbarians while lying gleaming in its scabbard. If it leaves its sheath it cannot be said to be used rightly."
- Tokugawa Ieyasu: Legacy

[This message has been edited by Anssi Hakkinen (edited 12-17-2000).]

[Katasaki Hirojima]

Yeah,but it turns out that if you play any of the eastern provinces,you'll have to expand greatly and quickly.

ANother War Story:

I choose Mori,pushed the Takeda out of my land within the third year,repelled and then crippled the Oda advance on my western border by beating his armys back with the "red Tide"(lots of Spearman) and then took two provinces on my border that he filled with produceing structures.

I am now halfway into the game,I have captured half of Shikoku Isle.I have my borders with Oda well secured and I ready an invasion force to take Kyushu.

But,evil lurks on the horizon.Though I was dominant in my area,the Hojo had captured every province east of Shinano,and by the time my invasion of Kyushu was finished(A horrible failure)Hojo had conquered Oda and barrled right into my province.I held him off for about a year,useing every last thing I had.I then quit,there wasn't any real way I was gonna stop him,I KNEW he had 5-6 times the income and resources I did.

Whats this mean,the longer you play,dosen't neccesarily mean the easier it gets.

I agree about the AI,AoK was the same way,AI Cheats.I don't know why the "Best"AI cheats,it's suppose to have the Art of War coded into it,sure dosen't seem that way to me,seems to me that it has a Tips and Tricks magazine coded into it.

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"I maintain none the less that Yin-Tang Dualism can bo overcome.With sufficent enlightment,we can give substance to any distinction:Mind without body,north without south,pleasure without pain.Renember,enlightment is a function of will power,not of physical strength."-Shang-ji Yang,essays on mind and matter.

[Darth Wart]

Playing any clan you should drive eastwards as fast as possible to prevent Hojo from accumulating that damned horde.

Respectfully, I think that was your mistake, my friend. You should have set up a defensive stance against Shimazu and gone after Oda with all you could muster; better yet, skip him and invade Kazusa by port. Just one of the Hojo's better provinces is about equal to the entire island of Kyushu.

For Shimazu, Imagawa, and Mori the only way I know of to beat the horde is set aside one province and begin building up the tech tree to get geishas as soon as possible. I believe this is the only possible way to win with those clans -- the problem is that it's really boring after you've done it once. (I've heard people speak of this forum of invading Lord Hojo by port as an alternative to the effective but yawn-inducing geishas, but I find it difficult to believe that would do anything but delay things.)

And now, a War Story of my own:

Only once have I beat the Hojo horde with Shimazu without geishas or the .muchkoku. cheat: just at the point where I was at Wakasa, the Horde came a'knocking. Right before Hojo trammeled me, he died -- heirless. I had forgotten, but towards the beginning of the game I had allied with him and wound up inheriting the entire horde.

Now that was an easy game.



[This message has been edited by Darth Wart (edited 12-18-2000).]

[Katasaki Hirojima]

Yea,I think your right,I should have continued my advance on the Oda,I chould've swept him off the map,I had him crippled.(He put far to much investment in makeing troop buildings on my borders,I took them,thus makeing all that money a waste.)

But,I have discovered a really fun Clan,my personal Fav clan,the Uesugi(If only for the COOL lookin Daiymo).The archers are as cheap as the Yari Samurai.Beyond that,they are in a great posistion for a savy general like me.

The Hojo are so busy fighting Takeda that,I can wage war against him pretty much unopposed.THe Imagawa are agressive at first,but a good alliance and an agressive Oda can silence him quickly.Now I can focus on Hojo,take his land,build up there,and push on and roll over the always weaker (but incredibly well dug in) Takeda.(I had to use Shinobi to make his undefended provinces rebel,effectively cutting his income off.

THe problem is that Oda has conquered most of the west.But,Oda is a bad general,and I often pull 4 to 1 kill ratios against him in a personally commanded battle.

I don't Know Mori,never faced them.(THey always get killed by either Takeda or Oda.)

Well,my battle against Odas going well,I'v sent my main army on a blitz,deep into his territory to raze as many of his buildings as possible,but due to the need to keep a path of escape open,I need to keep a garrison(stupid rebellions),thus limiting what I can put on offence,thus,keeping my drive from going as deep as I need it to.Eventually I'll get a military sized large enough to go deep and wipe all his troop buildings out.

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"I maintain none the less that Yin-Tang Dualism can bo overcome.With sufficent enlightment,we can give substance to any distinction:Mind without body,north without south,pleasure without pain.Renember,enlightment is a function of will power,not of physical strength."-Shang-ji Yang,essays on mind and matter.

[Naughty_Plumber]

I usually take the mori and then take the green island and wait and not expand over to the east unless attacked. Then I will wait until i have legendary geisha and i killed the hojo like that even though he was on the virge of taking my capital. Even Though i remained steady until i either had super high honor ninja or made geisha. hope this helps http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

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HnT

[Kokueater]

If you dominate easy level already, go directly to hard, there's no significant difference between normal and hard. Expert is almost impossible to win, specially if you play as Imagawa, Shimazu or Mori.

Some advice for Hojo:
Attack Mutsu (the Uesugi home-base) in the first turn with ALL your available troops (including your Daimyo) and of course, win the battle. Send your emissary to deal a treaty with Takeda. Start building a Tea-house in your home-base and some spear troops.
Attack the castle at Mutsu in the second turn and kill the Daimyo, Uesugi goes into ronins. Send in shinobis asap to prevent revolts and reinforce your western borders.
Attack Dewa (that probably is ungarrisoned) and send in the shinobis from Mutsu.
This gives you very rich provinces and a decent good start position in few seasons.
Good luck!

[Hirosito]

kokueater

Barca or Espanyol?

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Hirosito Mori

A warrior's wisdom is shown in the treating of his defeated opponent http://cgi.tripod.com/smilecwm/cgi-bin/s/owen/sid.gif

[Kokueater]

Hirosito,

How do you know?
They play a match tomorrow!!!
Barca horde is going to win!!!

[Che]

Three key losses in a row for my team! (My name should be enough hint for you =]) I'm putting all my hope on the Champion's...

[Hirosito]

kokueater it says that you are from barcelona
on the left
and i agree 'tot en camp clap clap clap es un clam clap clap clap ' and so on is going to win

but maybe further catalan discussion should be led on the off-topic

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Hirosito Mori

A warrior's wisdom is shown in the treating of his defeated opponent http://cgi.tripod.com/smilecwm/cgi-bin/s/owen/sid.gif

[This message has been edited by Hirosito (edited 02-03-2001).]