Well, I shouldn't post this, but maybe somebody can explain how the game mechanics work to me.

Background:

I am facing Takeda clan.
They have half my provinces (13 vs. my 26 provinces).

They have a fairly expensive army:

Yet they show up with 3 armies whose total upkeep is 5000+. Well, it's not impossible if Shogun is "paying" their army fees, but I still wonder how are Takeda developing provinces with such a high army upkeep.

My issue

However, what puzzles me is this: all Yari Ashigaru and Bow Archers are maxed out. Literally: all of them are Rank 8 or something.

As some of you may know, units that lose men also lose experience.

I tried to break down the process of maxing out 30-40 Ashigaru units

So, in order to have some 26-40 units (2 or 3 stacks) of Rank 8 Yari Ashigaru (or Bow Ashigaru), this means:
  1. You won all battles;
  2. Every time one of your unit won a melee, it hasn't lost enough men to decrease experience but it has killed enough to either level up or retain its experience level;
  3. As per point 2, but provided this happens with all of your units. All 30 or 40 of them.


The problem

Now, here is when I start smelling bull***t.

Basically, this AI Takeda gonzo shows up during single player with an overpowered Ashigaru Army that has no reason to exist. That is, because I followed his expansion and he had to conquer a good deal of provinces (some 10 of them) but, even so, I cannot believe all of his Ashigaru graduated each unit one level per battle (or something like this).

I just cannot believe this happened in game.

I too have my Rank 8 units, but we are talking of one or two of them in an Army that never lost a battle. Of course, as you might have understood, I am not excessively conservative. I got many Decisive Victories, but even a couple of Pyrrhic ones. Nothing that bothers me. However, one thing looks clear: no way I was able to max all my Ashigarus up to level 8.

Questions

  • How many of your units reach Level 8 during an average game?
  • Are you able to micromanage every melee (during the battle) so that everybody level up but does not lose enough men so to nullify said level up?
  • Any suggestions?
  • Is AI cheating grossly?