Shogun:TW Campain and Battle Hints and Tips

[Secret User]

As STW is one of the hardest TW games with many users (aswell as myself) having difficulties both on and off the battlefield. What is a good faction to play as first? What units do I recruit early on? What buildings do I construct? Do I Turtle or Blitz?

Help will be greatly appreciated.

[Gregoshi]

Welcome to the Org Secret.

I'm sure others will have some better words of wisdom, but I think Shimazu (green) is a good clan to start with. They start out at the southern end of Japan (left side of campaign map) and only have one direction in which to fight. Japan is narrower there so your fighting front is narrow too. Hojo (purple) and Uesugi (dark blue) at the other end are richer but Japan is wider there so there is more to clans to worry about and more directions in which to attack or defend.

Regarding units, a good place to start is your bread and butter units, the yari samurai and samurai archers. For more details on all the units, checkout frogbeastegg's excellent The Complete Total War Unit Guide

There is also a sticky in this forum that discusses your very question: Best Scenario/Faction for Newbie?. I see I said basically the same thing in that thread as I did above. Note Noir's post #21 - an excellent breakdown of the STW map by section.

Good luck with whatever clan you start with.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Uesugi and Shimazu are good. Recruit samurai archers and yari samurai early. Construct gold mines and famous dojo's, then try for sword/horse dojos to get better troops. You can turtle or blitz but blitzing is more fun.

[Wasp]

I don't think there's much to add to this! Develop your own style I'd say, and just play and learn. And foremost; enjoy!

[Brave]

Develop your own style I'd say, and just play and learn. And foremost; enjoy!

Nothing more can be added to that.

[Togakure]

Hojo start with a big income and have potential for huge income, but are weak militarily at opening. They must cover the Kanto provinces without a sufficient number of units, and hence are vulnerable for a couple of years. Takeda and Uesugi are next door, both strong clans, both coveting the Kanto. Except for Hojo Ujiyasu (4-star), the Hojo have pretty crappy generals/daimyos throughout the campaign. They must eventually contend with armies led by Shingen and the Takeda's excellent collection of generals, and Kenshin, and Date. If the Hojo survive and develop their income and infrastructure potential, they become formidable. This is key to winning with the Hojo--and producing well-trained troops in great numbers. I still think Hojo are the easiest clan to play in the standard 1530 Sengoku Jidai campaign.

The Shimazu are poor so you have to get started with just a few troops--if you don't have decent battlefield skills, they can be frustrating for the first few years. Your economy must be carefully managed (ports, ports, ports, trading posts, trading posts, churches, cathedral ...). Early on, discipline your Shimazu-self to do much with less. Once you get the ball rolling with them, it can be a very fun campaign. The daimyo line is prolific and skilled (several 4-star generals). The No Dachi bonus is wonderful--once you activate the Swordsman event and can build a Sword Dojo.

Uesugi are not as rich as the Hojo at opening, but close. They have a better starting position, and if they take the Hojo out first .... Archer bonus is fabulous, early on especially. If Totomi is taken ...superior archers, cheap! Avoid defending Totomi with archers though--that province is a paradise for cavalry. Generals are better than Hojo, and if the clan is solid when Kenshin matures ... time to rock and roll! Uesugi are easy too, almost as easy as the Hojo. Just concentrate on an enemy at a time and don't get too spread out (hence why I favor the opening I described ... inhale, EXHALE).

Oda is hardest. When you start feeling cocky, try them on Expert. Using ahisgaru effectively can be quite tricky, but they can definitely be a nice bonus unit--particularly beause you start with Owari, which has a bonus for them. Generals are not so good at first, but quite good in mid-and end-game. The Oda challenge is starting position and rebel infestations. They're in the middle of everything, and the rebels nearby are mostly monks and archers. Kyoto (Yamashiro) is the initial goal of every clan on the map played by the AI--in the heart of Oda territory. Early on it takes a Nobunaga attitude to survive and thrive with this clan. Depending on how things go, perhaps a more influencial or patient daimyo could carry things to conclusion.

The Takeda clan is the most fun ... well, for me cuz I LOVE CAV!!!! And for 375 ... I'll buy THAT for a koku (well, 375). Great bonus for all cavalry types, great generals, Shinano with it's cav bonus next door ... what a recipe for an exciting campaign! Income is a problem early on, particularly if you do what I do and abandon the western provinces to concentrate in the east. Last night, before 1533, I was able to secure Musashi as border in the east, Mikawa in the west, and Shinano. None of my neighbors were a significant threat at the point I forced myself to save and go to bed.

Mori ... meh. Just don't enjoy playing them. Crappy income, a nice but still expensive bonus, such that I still don't think it's worth it to build a lot of monks (unless I'm playing a take-my-time develop and steamroll with power units game--rare for me). Starting position has limited strategic options = boring.

***Oops, forgot the Imagawa ... I'll insert something here later when I have more time. ****

Using .conan. and playing the ronin can be very fun, but quite different from a "normal" game.

I develop such that I can build relatively balanced armies efficiently. I go for cav archers first (assuming archers, yari samurai, and yari ashigaru are a given), then yari cav, and once the Swordsman event activates, No Dachi. I don't often build monks--too expensive in the long run. Then I up to a Fortress for Naginata cav. I get arqs asap if I'm going the Christian route; muskets when the Dutch arrive otherwise. A typical balanced SP army for me is two or three archers, two or three guns, 3 yari samurai, 3 no dachi, two or three cav archers, two or three nag cav, and the taisho unit (general). Keep in mind that I play STW Warlord Ed., 1.02. When I attack, I never take more than 16 units (no reinforcements)--no matter how many units the enemy has. If I can't win with a standard army, then I shouldn't have attacked. Heh, I just don't like playing with more than 16 units in a battle (I don't enjoy piddley little battles either).

EDIT: fleshed out my commentary a bit. I'll add more when I have time. Parallel Pain I don't play Imagawa often in this campaign, but I really enjoy the 1580 Tokugawa campaign that comes in STW Warlord Edition. I'll write about it later also. I did an incomplete campaign story about it here a long time ago ... it's still here somewhere.