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Thread: Saga guides, hints and tips

  1. #1

    Default Saga guides, hints and tips

    Please post any advice you have for the Saga faction here. Please note that this faction is a DLC bonus, and is not available to everyone.
    Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.


  2. #2
    Grand Patron's Banner Bearer Senior Member Peasant Phill's Avatar
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    Default Re: Saga guides, hints and tips

    The starting moves for Saga aren't hard to determine. The clan starts with 1 allied clan (their neighbour) and 1 clan at war (on a nearby island). There is an enemy fleet within striking distance of your fleet and the enemy island Fuchu has a gold mine. There is also another pro-shogun island (Goto) nearby but this clan starts indifferent to you.

    - The nearby fleet has one gunboat less than your fleet so you can attack it immidiatly and take out the possible threat to your home province. Immidiatly return to your port for repairs.
    - You start with a dojo so you can go for matchlock kachi and research shih immidiatly or you can go the modern route but then you should tear down the dojo to make place for barracks.
    - Regroup your existing army and add the foreign veteran so that he can train them.
    - Train as many troops as you think your economy can handle (Your enemy will have a sizeble force)
    - Build an extra ship for more bombardment damage.
    - Fuchu will build baracks ASAP. Find the balance between a decent force to attack with and not letting Fuchu train to many line infantry.
    - You can recruit a ninja from turn one but resist that urge. His actions are to costly in the early game
    - When attacking Fuchu castle fist bombard the castle before sieging (for the extra casaulties) and don't assault. Fuchu forces will come to you in an open battle which is much more to your advantage than assaulting the castle.
    - After conquering Fuchu, you can either keep the barracks there (if you didn't build them in Nagasaki) or tear them down and replace with an economical building.
    - Consolidate and prepare for a similar (similar navy and similar army) challenge to conquer Goto.
    Last edited by Peasant Phill; 03-30-2012 at 09:50.
    Quote Originally Posted by Drone
    Someone has to watch over the wheat.
    Quote Originally Posted by TinCow
    We've made our walls sufficiently thick that we don't even hear the wet thuds of them bashing their brains against the outer wall and falling as lifeless corpses into our bottomless moat.

  3. #3
    pardon my klatchian Member al Roumi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Saga guides, hints and tips

    To carry on from where Peasant Phil left off (it's probably hard not to replicate the same moves in the first few turns)...

    I'd just say one (basic) thing about the first micro-Island invasion, time your landing till just after the end of winter to avoid attrition before the battle or sieging the castle.

    My medium term plan for the Saga was to conquer the entirety of Kyushu and it's surrounding 3 single province islands. This would set me up strongly for realm divide, either Imperial or Republican, with a consolidated strategic position (only 1 land bridge) with a decent share of key resources (iron, copper, coalx2, guns/armour, tea, gold) and "overwatch" of two foreign trade lanes (GB and France).

    I focused a province's buildings according to its resource, with a default set on economic production for those without resources. This would give me (when in possession of the entire island) 2 Naval provinces (Coal), 1 Artillery province (Iron/Steel), 1 budget military province (copper) and 1 elite military province (guns/armour). This building strategy therefore put me at something of a disadvantage until I could capture at least 1 province where i could base a modern barracks. Accordingly, I pumped out the levies and focused on naval and cultural tech until such a time as i could develop the recruitment centres. As it happens, this isn't bad to start with - most probably know this but you can do very well for the first few years with levies and the starting tougher units (kachi/samurai).

    Standing in the way of that initial goal of unifying Kyushu are the other inhabitants of the island, not least your immediate allies to the east of Nagasaki.

    To begin with, I took the starting enemy's island with its gold mine, then moved on to the next (closer) island West of Nagasaki -the rulers of which actually declared war on me almost as I finished off the first island. What terrible timing for them.

    The issue then is where next to strike on Kyushu. The Shimazu will likely still be modern, imperial and allied to a vassal on the southern-most micro island. Your starting ally to the east will likely begin a war with one/all of it's neighbours. The trick here is picking the weakest opposition and the opposition you can hit hardest. For me, that meant going after my erstwhile ally - be warned that doing this without managing the severance of agreements (alliance, access, trade) will damage your Daimyo's honour. I didn't "manage" it so well and my Daimyo still has the -1 to his honour from it. Perhaps the best would be to decline to join them in a war although I'm not certain that is much better, it also could give them more time to prepare...

    So in my game, I (dishonourably) hit my ally to the east, continued into his enemy and the other provinces along the northern shore. At this point there was me, the Shimazu + their vassal and the blue clan which starts with "F" (sorry, I should remember but I’m writing history here and they are but a footnote!).

    After a couple of turns, the Shimazu declared war (I had been trading but not allied with them). Again, fairly conveniently –although my militia were overmatched by their line infantry, but their wooden cannons more so by my parrott guns and naval bombardment. They sued for peace after losing the army and a fleet in one turn (still seems like a minor miracle after empire). I took the peace and the chance it offered to consolidate & build (turtle). A few turns down the line, the Shimazu switched allegiance to the shogunate and promptly declared war again. Luckily I had two armies ready, boarded them and invaded Satsuma and the Shimazu’s vassal but was too late to prevent my last neighbour taking the other Shimazu starting province.

    After absorbing & pacifying the Shimazu provinces I declared war on the remaining neighbour on Kyushu who held the 3 central/southern provinces. I had 3 armies at max ¾ of a full stack to do this so they were finished within a few turns.

    The interesting thing is that holding Kyushu and its outlying islands is just below the realm divide requirement. So you can very conveniently turtle at this mid-stage of the game and prepare properly for a push on to campaign victory. Your distance from rivals (bar those at the bottom of Honshu –who should be Imperial and trade partners anyway) means your Navy is your main defence. A few invasion stacks were sent my way by Eastern Shogunate factions but again beating the seaborne stacks was usually enough to trigger a peace offer.

    Options for triggering the realm divide are fairly open. It’s far easier if you side with the Emperor as you should still have some allies on Shikoku and the south western arm of Honshu and could therefore land an invasion force somewhere near the centre and begin capturing victory provinces.

    I’m actually now trying to get moving with a republican realm divide. I triggered this by capturing Sado – far to the north but defensible (I hope). I’ve found the first few turns hard though as the entire world and his wife starts attacking you and my Navy can’t sweep the seas to prevent damage to my trade ports or shipping. More Naval preparation would undeniably help –be warned that most enemy fleets will include frigates by this point.

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  4. #4
    Grand Patron's Banner Bearer Senior Member Peasant Phill's Avatar
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    Default Re: Saga guides, hints and tips

    Quote Originally Posted by al Roumi View Post
    ... The trick here is picking the weakest opposition and the opposition you can hit hardest. ...
    While I agree with @al Roumi when the situation hasn't changed that much from the starting positions, I wouldn't go this way when 1 faction has conquered a sizable piece of Kyushu before you're done with both nearby islands.
    In my case Shimazu rapidly conquered All but 4 provinces on Kyushu and was still going strong. However, the hard economic reality also applies to them so they couldn't support big garrissons on all their provinces.

    - I allied with my only land neigbour, who was already under attack but seemed to be able to hold out for now.
    - I sent an Ishin Shishi to Shimazu frontier provinces to start revolts. This should divert some of Shimazu forces away from your ally. For the most part, the revolt seemed to destroy reinforcements and little else.
    - Muster a sizable force and land behind enemy lines. Priority towards weakly defended provinces with a great significance to Shimazu.
    - Having the strongest navy will protect your own shores.
    Quote Originally Posted by Drone
    Someone has to watch over the wheat.
    Quote Originally Posted by TinCow
    We've made our walls sufficiently thick that we don't even hear the wet thuds of them bashing their brains against the outer wall and falling as lifeless corpses into our bottomless moat.

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