Can a pacifist become shogun?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Yes!

[patdj]

Wow, did you do much for this? E.g. mass Ninja building or did the clans just whipe out themselves?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I just outlived everybody...Was planning on seeing what happened if you lasted 70 years but then takeda and shimazu died of old age and they were the only two left. The geisha and ninja's were defensive only. At the start of the campaign I burned everything and rebuilt from the ground up in Aki with my daimyo and heir as my sole army. Fought of 7 or eight attacks and then won. Anyone attacking me ran into this:





I was looking forward to being surrounded by a massive horde of takeda, trying desperately to hold on long enough to reach 70 years...ended a bit prematurely but was still a lot of fun. Thinking of trying something similar for my next campaign.

[Wishazu]

The possibilities with Shogun are endless lol

[patdj]

Might be a stupid question and offtopic, but how do you get Ninjas into battles?

[caravel]

Which version of STW do you have patdj? Do you have the Warlord Edition/STW + Mongol Invasion (V1.02) or the original STW (V1.12)?

If you have WE or the original with the MI expansion, then you can build the Battlefield Ninja Dojo and train the Battlefield Ninja. If you've every played MTW these are basically the same thing as the "Hashishin".

[patdj]

Hm, I bought a Warlords addition. But the little number on the upper left corner of the starting screen still says 1.00. It's a bit weird, I still have the problem, that the reinforcements of my enemy come from multiple sides, especially anoying on bridge maps. I played a historical campain, Oda i guess, were I controlled a ninja unit, but I didn't know that I could train them in campains. I'll check on that, thx.

Talking of it: are they of a special use, or just quick units to kill the enemy taisho?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

The ninja dojo requires a sword dojo and an infamous ninja house as I recall. They cost 600 koku and take a year to train (but only 1 season to retrain!). They're a for fun unit, really but do have tactical use. They can hide anywhere as long as they are standing still, they fight real well and they have a pretty deadly short range attack. I use them to sneak behind the enemy and attack his taisho unit in the thick of battle, usually brings a quick end to the fight. Not that those warrior monks need any help.

They're also, along with kensai, THE best units for castle assault.

[caravel]

Hm, I bought a Warlords addition. But the little number on the upper left corner of the starting screen still says 1.00. It's a bit weird, I still have the problem, that the reinforcements of my enemy come from multiple sides, especially anoying on bridge maps.

You need to update to the WE 1.02 beta patch.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Talking of it: are they of a special use, or just quick units to kill the enemy taisho?

When you get tired of the same-old/same-old, throwing in BFN and Kensei can be a fun diversion. I have several variations that I use.....my favorite being an all-BFN army led by a Kensei general, the "Bridge Busters". This is the ultimate river assault team I always opt for the worst weather that's available....heavy fog being the best. I send the BFN across in teams of four and disable the fire-at-will until they are all in place. Then I bring the Kensei Taisho into view where he can be "seen" and the BFN then cut loose. Most of the time the Kensei can light up a cigar and enjoy the carnage.

Another variation is the "Port Raider". This team is variable but usually eight BFN, a Kensei, one or two Muskets, and several Cav Archers. This used to be my geisha-house hunters until I used the file editor method to discourage geisha houses.

A variation of the "Bridge Busters" is a standard army of variable composition but having 4 BFN attached. I use them much in the same way Wishazu uses his Daimyo to dash across and distract the enemy long enough to get my main force over.

As mentioned, they are great for castle assaults, both BFN & Kensei being small enough to get through the gates quickly; and for bridge defense.....although I prefer muskets to hold anything really important.

At any rate, it's a fun diversion from the usual and I recommend you try them at least once, despite being quite unhistorical.

[patdj]

Thanks for the mass information. I managed to find them. Still, they cost quite a lot, more then WMs iirr. And take 8 seasons to train. Or is this when I train them the first time? I once had the impression, that the cost and time of training a Kensai sometime declines.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I play on normal unit size, so 4 seasons for each. If you want to try BFN, play the historical Battle of Okehazama as Oda. That was, in fact, the very first battle I played when starting STW. I think it forever stamped the aura of fighting in a crashing thunderstorm on my STW playing psyche. I loooove thunderstorms I think it still influences my preference of playing with NoDachi instead of monks.......

The battle itself is quite interesting to fight and is somewhat reminicient of the Battle of Stirling scene in Braveheart where Wm. Wallace (aka Mel Gibson) commands his men to : "Hold..............Hold.............Hold...........Nowwwwwww!!"

In fact, as another diversion, play some of the other historical battles, and if you really have a penchant for pain....one of the short historical campaigns.

I once had the impression, that the cost and time of training a Kensai sometime declines.

I wish that were so.......

[Drisos]

Lol Sasaki. Nice idea. Makes me feel dumb that you can win just like this without all the stress I usually go through. :S Too bad you still didn't find out what happens after 70 years. :S

[Karl08]

With only one province, how did you manage to field such a big army, and support it? You didn't... cheat, or anything, did you?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Well, that army costs 700 or so upkeep, and I got 1,000 from the mine and port. But yeah, I was only making a couple hundred a year or so at one point. I had alliances for a while as well.