How is your first campaign going?

[Wozzle]

My first campaign was on Hard with the Chokosabe (please excuse my spelling of the Japanese names. My knowledge of Japanese history before the first World War is embarrassingly low) and I had to concede defeat fairly quickly. Like others, hard campaign AI is, uh, hard!

I'm trying again on normal with a different clan (who's name escapes me at the moment. The clan with the superior Katana's) and it seems like it could go either way at the moment.

All this brings up my biggest SP complaint so far: why is there no seperate option for difficulty between campaign and battles? Hard battles and normal campaign would probably be the perfect challenge for me at this point, since I have a far better grasp on the battles than I do on the campaign.

[Gregoshi]

Wozzle, according to Jack Lusted from CA, you can change the battle AI difficulty via the game setting once you start the campaign.

[vladiator]

Playing Shimazu on Hard/Hard.

Started with a war against a minor clan, Ito, and quickly took Osumi province. Soon, they were joined by Sakara (their ally) and Shoni (another clan on the same island, which attacked me, Ito and Sakara!), and I was soon fighting against three clans. Although I was winning battles, I could not take any other provinces. Shoni, another clan on the same island (or is it a peninsula?), was, however, more agressive than me and soon took over all provinces from Ito and Sakara, destroying them in the process.

Owing to Shoni's might, I thought it would not be prudent of me to continue fighting them. I offered them peace and trade agreement. Since I was actually winning battles against them and was giving them a lot of grief, and because they had another war going against Mori, they accepted my proposals.

So there I was, sitting with two provinces at the bottom of Japan, cut off from the rest of the world by mighty Shoni clan. For a number of years, I simply developed my provinces, my arts and my strength. I concluded a number of trade agreements, but had no allies.

All these years, Shoni's strenght have only been increasing. They were extending north and took a number of provinces from Mori. Their attitude towards me was "friendly".

Since they were stronger and more prosperous than me, I was a bit worried about attacking them. However, I finally saw my chance when most of their armies were committed against Mori outside my island (peninsula?) and their towns were left badly protected.

Hence, after all these years of waiting, I finally backstabbed Shoni by declaring war and taking Hogi. Unfortunately, I did not take advantage of their forces being so stretched and did not blitz through their territory. This gave Shoni time to destroy Mori and concentrate on me. We fought great many battles with great losses of lives on both sides. It took me many years to take another 3 territories from them.

By that time, 2 other minor clans ('minor' only in name -- their respective strengths are "terrifying" and "mighty") declared war on me. Not willing to be too stretched out, I offered Shoni peace, my alliance and trade agreement, and Shoni happily accepted it. By that time, Shoni lost almost all its territories, and only had 2 provinces remaining on my island/peninsula.

So far, I only fought 2 defensive battles against those new enemies, and I won both of them.

Everything was looking well, until Chosokabe, a mightly clan which was in war with Shoni, suddenly landed a full stack of troops on my island and destroyed Shoni in 2-3 turns by taking the remaining 2 provinces from them. At first Chosokabe were "very friendly" to me, but recently I received a message saying that it is possible that they will attempt to use my current situation and attack me. Their attitude towards me has changed to "indifferent", and I consider the war to be imminent.

So, it looks like soon I will be fighting against 3 very strong enemies. I need an additional army to fight Chosokabe, and I need to think hard about its composition (I looked at Chosokabe's full stack and it consists almost entirely of Bow Samurais). The future looks very uncertain and very interesting.

Oh, and I haven't lost a single battle in my whole campaign yet! :)

BTW, now is a year 1570.

[Wozzle]

Wozzle, according to Jack Lusted from CA, you can change the battle AI difficulty via the game setting once you start the campaign.

!!! Now that is good news! That is my biggest issue with single player right now! Yay! Still, not sure why they would hide it away, but as long as it's there. I'm off to change my campaign right now! Thanks!

[knoddy]

Second campaign,

Shimazu on H/H

Took all of the island i start on, allied with chosokabe(sp) who own their whole island. took my war to the mainland, took out a few minor clans, kept spreading forward with some full stacks of upgraded units. conqoured all the way to kyoto, and took it im now shogun, bout 100 turns thru my camp, have like 25 provinces. its a domination campaign so ive still got a long way to go.

Im liking it very much so far, had my fully ranked up ninja assassin roamin the land slaughtering generals, and now im ranking up a metsuke who is 1 rank off max. i like that the agents change appearance, when they get to the higher ranks.

the main powers left in my camp, are me, the chosokabe, the hojo, the hattori, and the tuistuis( or w/e that minor clan is) im allied to hojo and chosokabe and havnt had the realm divide event yet.

i like the fact that the AI is much more open to negotiations if they are getting thouroughly beaten, altho this can be exploited. if found it was possible to declare war, steal a few provinces then get them to agree to peace a few turns later before they can muster any real force in opposition.

all in all tho im very happy with the game.

[Naughtius Maximus]

Won the game as the Tokugawa, summer of 1598. I have much to learn with this game; looking forward to some good reality-based mods.

I thought that the arts took too long to accumulate; I didn't even get to the point where I had Teppo Ashigaru. All in all, it was a very challenging campaign, even on N/N. We are pleased.

[Zarky]

Won the game as the Tokugawa, summer of 1598. I have much to learn with this game; looking forward to some good reality-based mods.

I thought that the arts took too long to accumulate; I didn't even get to the point where I had Teppo Ashigaru. All in all, it was a very challenging campaign, even on N/N. We are pleased.

Did you try to get them, or just research everything in order? Aside from my 1st Mori campaign, I haven't had much trouble with arts research because I've concentrated on getting to philosophical traditions, though I should prioritize more in the future, like choosing between spear+siege+gunpowder path or sword+bow+horse path.

[Naughtius Maximus]

@Zarky - thanks for asking the question; I concentrated on chi arts @ first because some of them confer a research bonus to begin with; there is also the chronic food shortage I had to deal with before I could expand.