No Gun Shogun: A Self-Proclaimed Suicidal Campaign in Futility

[kptb42]

I would first deal with the Utsunomiya. After a short consolidation period try to take Hitachi province. It is fertile and has copper. Then expand south and west with a goal of North Shinano for the silk. Those two trade goods should help with cash flow. If you manage to get Koga (clay) that would help in the long run.

[Trithemius]

I concur with that advice! Kazusa which is fairly nearby has Iron which is probably handy for Traditionalists - and if you are going for North Shinano's Silk then consider South Shinano's Tea too!
The only really hard-to-get resource is Coal, and you probably don't need it as an anti-industrialist anyway.

There are also a couple of Smithing centres around, but the value of armour might be less if everyone is shooting guns at you? It might also be annoying to have to march armies from remote recruitment centres if you don't use railways too.

[Sp4]

I will use hard difficulty for the campaign map, and normal difficulty for battles.

How does this work? I thought you can only change both at the same time?

Also one other thing. What determines wether you will have a general with a unit of revolver cav as their bodyguard or traditional, kata wielding, armour clad warriors?

[ForzaFiori]

Also one other thing. What determines wether you will have a general with a unit of revolver cav as their bodyguard or traditional, kata wielding, armour clad warriors?

I'm pretty sure it switches when you get to the third level of modernization.

[Sp4]

I shall test that xD

[Peasant Phill]

I'm pretty sure it switches when you get to the third level of modernization.

I can confirm that.
Keep your modernisation under level 3 and your general and his friends will still prance around in traditional armour.

[frogbeastegg]

It looks like we have a general consensus on how the opening stages of our war should be fought. I'll play through them and report back, ready to plan phase 2. It might take me a couple of days.

How does this work? I thought you can only change both at the same time?

On the new campaign screen, select hard difficulty. Then, when you land on the campaign map, press escape to bring up the menu. Slect 'game options' and look for a setting with a name like 'battle difficulty'. Sorry, I can't recall the specific names and I'm not on my desktop so I can't check.

[frogbeastegg]

Well, the computer found a way to defeat me: the game will not load after this week's hotfixes. It doesn't give an error message, it doesn't get labelled as not responding by task manager, it just sits there loading forever. Usually takes a little under 2 minutes to load at the start; I've left it for as long as 10 minutes without any change. I've verified the game's files, no joy. Gah!

I suppose this is one way to play a low-tech campaign. Now, who's got a set of samurai wargame miniatures?

[Sp4]

Leave it loading for longer.. can take about 20 minutes. It's something to do with stuff they did not tell us about in the patch =p It will do it once and then go back to normal loading time.

[Yesugey]

I admire your idea, but if you try this on brutal difficulty, you will be erased in few turns.
I play this since good old STW, I even played and finished the first buggy version. But I have never finished a campaign in S2tw