Research priorities

[Zarky]

You can get +4 to valor too, so why go for morale (or perhaps you meant valor).

What I sort of meant was that I usually make one holy site a pilgrim hostel, but I might as well make it a warrior monk recruiting center because of the +1 exp they get. The morale bonus is just redundant is what I meant.

[econ21]

Research priorities are interesting in this game because there are few "no brainers" and you can't get everything - there is a genuine choice.

This is the research order I am following in my first proper game:

(1) Get your free unit: From my limited experience, it seems like the first mission you get is to research a military tech relevant to your clain (way of sword for Shimazu, way of spear for Oda) so it probably makes sense to do that first.

(2) Heaven and earth: 50% more arrows IS a no-brainer.

(3) Farming: I then went down the farming improvements up to Chonindo for the faster economic growth from food surpluses.

(4) Naval: I started to get embroiled in various naval engagements and found the tendency of the AI to retreat far from battle frustrating. So I worked down the naval tech tree which is fairly self-contained. I am not sure it was necessary, but after I had the 20% more sea movement, things seemed a lot less frustrating. I should have gone for fire arrows before going down that path though.

(5) Agents: I started specialising provinces for better agents, so focussed on the left chi path. Ultimately picking up Ninjutsu mastery to get Japan's first Infamous Mizu Shobai District.

(6) Calligraphy: I belatedly got the Confucian Academy, benefiting from the combined +30 diplomacy and +30% trade tariffs from Calligraphy and Tea Ceremony.

(7) Master and Legendary dojos: I am now working on the bushido techs. Having one turn recruitment of samurai during realm divide sounds very attractive, as does being the first in Japan to build the legendary dojos (to get the bonuses for those feats).

[Seyavash]

Besides going for farms or specific military tech that you decide to prioritize, another criteria you can use for research is to focus on the areas that allow you to work building trees that promote research such as the philosophy and the temple angle.

[jackie_fish]

on other total war game i used to go down the economic side first but in this game i seem to go down milatery i guess because it is a harder game

[Azi Tohak]

Pretty much the same as everyone else. Farming, then get to Heaven and Earth, then back to the right side. I'm really enjoying my ships so I'm glad I have some serious naval techs too (at 90+ turns I have a lot of good stuff!).

[Cecil XIX]

I'm not too sure about Heaven and Earth. Extra ammo is nice, but it seems that 90% of my battles end before archers can expend all their ammunition in the first place. Maybe I need to work commanding archers better.

[Zarky]

I'm not too sure about Heaven and Earth. Extra ammo is nice, but it seems that 90% of my battles end before archers can expend all their ammunition in the first place. Maybe I need to work commanding archers better.

For me arrows usually become a problem in late-game large castle siege defenses (which happen to me a lot after RD) where there is plenty to shoot and less need to back away from the walls. I research H&E for the replenishment bonus and encampment, if it was just the arrows I'd skip it until turn 80 or so.