Rise to power: How I learned to stop worrying and love Realm Divide

[Marshall Louis-Nicolas Davout]

I say,just loot.

Its useful when you're bankrupt.

[Monk]

I say,just loot.

Its useful when you're bankrupt.

You know that's actually not bad advice. Once you'd hit RD it's probably the easiest, most secure way to get a lot of income. Especially if you're completely desperate and about to hit bankrupt. Just be careful: Looting will affect your daimyo's honor, if it gets too low, your generals' loyalty may suffer

I personally handle it differently than Monk. I turtle at the maximal number of provinces and then pick a few provinces to conquer simultaneously as I trigger realm divide. It's easy to find some that can be liberated and turned into vassals. The problem with having vassals before divide is that they count against your Clan Fame conquest cap that triggers realm divide. I'd rather develop the big infrastructure around the maximal number of provinces (all owned by me) and then create vassals afterwards. I agree on creating at least one strong ally.

Ah, very good point! I forgot vassals count toward your fame cap.

[Seyavash]

I have played several normal campaigns now. With first one Realm Divide caught me by surprise but I still managed to hold on. Afterward I tried the mod that reduces the effect but that actually made things too easy, now I am back to using the full RD. I find it makes for a much better game. The key is farms, food supply and roads. Low level markets are helpful as well and better than castles as you can always destroy them if your food supply gets too low. Trade is good to build up a war chest but be ready to go without it once RD hits.

The trick to surviving is to create vassals after RD, any from before will betray you eventually. those created after RD are not affected by and will trade with you allowing you to rebuild this aspect of your income. Plus vassals can be surprisingly effective in waging war on your enemies so it becomes a true civil war and not just you against the world. Even if your vassals are not aggressive they will usually provide distracting targets to their neighbors. this gives you all kinds of opportunities to exploit.

[katank]

Definitely build up. Another thing that's very useful is to train up the maximum number of ninjas and monks and keep using them to destabilize neighbors, etc. You can afford lots of agent missions while trade is still good before RD.

Sabotaging enemy armies and assassinating their top ranked generals can give you breathers for the dog piles. It's also much harder for the AI to make war on you effectively when all their farms are in ruins and they're constantly wracked by rebellions.

[Monk]

Sabotaging enemy armies and assassinating their top ranked generals can give you breathers for the dog piles. It's also much harder for the AI to make war on you effectively when all their farms are in ruins and they're constantly wracked by rebellions.

Seconding this. I mentioned it in another thread, but I'll say it here: A well diciplined ninja group, sabotaging and assassinating can do incredible things for your campaign. Back in shogun 1, the intro movie used to say: "A man who is invulnerable in battle is as vulnerable as a child while asleep. No one is untouchable" when talking about ninja.

I take this to heart in my games.

[Zim]

I'm slowly closing on the Realm Divide point in my current Hojo game. Getting a bit worried. Right now I'm trading with almost everyone and building up my farms and economy. We'll see how it goes this weekend...

[sassbarman]

Agreed realm divide is a winning solution to the mid-game blue's. My experience with RD in my Mori campaign (legendary) was thankfully much less intense than most I've seen. I was riding on the fence of RD with about 13 or 14 provinces for quite a few turns teching up and trying to improving my economy when I got word from the shogun to aid him in his war against the Aisa(sp) clan, whom had grown quite strong and had made a bid for the shogunate.For this I would recieve a reward of being given the title of "deputy shogun" a unit of katana samurai and more importantly +50 relations with all clans. I readily agreed and promptly landed 2 full stacks in Kii and a neighboring province and easily took 4-5 territories withing a couple of turns. This brought me to the borders of kyoto where I witnessed the aftermath of what must have been a titanic struggle. No less than 5 Aisa tattered stacks stood around the burning capitol victorious over the ashikaga and with only a small garrison left to hold it. The next turn all but 2 of the asia armies moved off to presumably fight elsewhere which allowed me to easily take the city and claim the shogunate.
The major factor however for my easy time with RD was my steadfast alliance with the Hatano(sp) clan whom at the time of my capturing Kyoto probably had 30 provinces of there own. Imagine my heartache when I had to backstab them to capture my last province to win the game.

[Marshall Louis-Nicolas Davout]

[QUOTE=Monk;2053294233]You know that's actually not bad advice. Once you'd hit RD it's probably the easiest, most secure way to get a lot of income. Especially if you're completely desperate and about to hit bankrupt. Just be careful: Looting will affect your daimyo's honor, if it gets too low, your generals' loyalty may suffer

HM,,Loot Kyoto and other big cites,I rebulid the looted provinces after that.

[Dead Guy]

An important detail about trade-vassals set up after realm divide: The penalty is applied to all factions again when you capture Kyoto. Not a huge problem, but be aware. It will start from 20 or however much it is for those that aren't already affected.