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Thread: Shimazu Guide

  1. #1

    Default Shimazu Guide

    Hello folks!

    I just thought I'd pop in and see if anyone is interested in talking about some Shogun. You see, I'm relatively new to the game and almost everything I've learned about this game I've learned from perusing this forum. However, I've missed out on Shogun's glory days and I never had the opportunity to 'talk shop' about this awesome game back in it's heyday. I realize with this being an old game most folks have moved on and in some ways it may feel like there's nothing left to say that hasn't already been said. Now I really like the MTW subsection setup where there's a guide for every faction and I've noticed that this subsection doesn't have anything like that. So I thought I'd write up a quick guide and see if there's any newer players who like me just want to talk strategy. Alternatively if there's any OG's that would like to pop their heads in and offer some advice it would be most welcome!

    I thought I'd start out with basic Ol' Shimazu just to keep things simple on my first guide for my sake (and yours).

    I consider Shimazu to be the best clan to start out with for a beginner. Their safe starting location coupled with their poor farming income create a firm yet gentle scenario for newbs to learn their first lessons in. It's going to be important to be aggressive, at least in the beginning. The northern clans have rich territories and if the Shimazu player doesn't have a solid hold in central Japan by the mid game it's going to be an uphill battle to close out the campaign. To this end my opening goals are to consolidate power in Kyushu and then push on and take Tosa. My midgame goals are to defeat clan Mori and then push to the Owari - Mino- Echizen line in central Japan. Those three provinces are very defensible. Particularly in Echizen which is a province I really enjoy defending. Those high twin peaks on the right side of the map can a lot of fun to defend! Once I'm in this defensible position I usually like to take my foot off the gas a little bit just to build up my economy, my military infrastructure and of course my armies! This way I can go into the end game with a decent income along with some decent armies with decent troops.

    Here's a summarized turn by turn break down for my opening for anyone that's interested in the nitty gritty.

    Turn 1) I'll start by building castles in Nagato and Bungo just to keep anyone from interfering with my Kyushu campaign. Besides I'll end up building ports in most of my provinces just to earn a steady income that's not dependent on good or average harvests so I'll need castles in every province that borders the ocean. I'll spend the rest of my money for this year on a SA and YS. I'll move my Daimyo into Higo and prepare to attack Chikugo on turn 2. I'll also move an archer from Nagato into Buzen just so that I can feign an attack on Chikuzen during the next turn.

    Turn 2) Attack Chikugo with my Daimyo and the SA and YS from Higo plus the YS from Bungo. Also feign an attack on Chikuzen with my forces in Buzen. I don't intend to carry out this attack as Imagawa typically defends with 2 YS and 2 SA which will defeat my force of 1 YS 1 SA and 1 YA. Therefore this is simply to prevent Imagawa from reinforcing Chikugo with these troops.

    During the river battle in Chikugo I'll send my Daimyo over the bridge and run him to the right side of the map and let Imagawa's forces chase a little. Once I feel like I have enough space I'll send my infantry over, spears first followed by archers. Once we're all on the correct side of the bridge the rest of the battle is a cakewalk.

    Turn 3) An average harvest with the taxes set to punitive will net me 785 koku which is utter garbage. Take solace in knowing that that should be the smallest number you see from a harvest for the rest of the campaign. I'll feign an attack on Hizen with my Daimyo and I'll feign an attack on Chikuzen with my Buzen forces again but other than that I'll wait a turn for reinforcements to arrive from Satsuma and population loyalty in Chikugo to stabilize. I'll spend what little money I have on a tea house and a YS. I'll spend what's left on YA and a Shinobi once the tea house is built. Shinobi are the key to quick expansion. So I'll be training a lot of these to keep my population loyalty high to keep my family safe from assassins.

    Turn 4) Now I'll attack Hizen with my Daimyo plus 1 YS and 1 SA. And I'll also attack Chikuzen with my units in Buzen plus whatever is leftover in Chikugo. When I do this the Hizen garrison retreats to the castle and the Chikuzen garrison is outnumbered by 100 soldiers.

    Turn 5) Attack the castle garrison with the Daimyo's army. Try to unlock the the legendary swordsmen event with this battle. If the castle is defended by just archers the Daimyo's unit can probably take the unit on my himself. If the castle is defended by spearmen then they'll need to be whittled down by archers first before charging in with the Daimyo supported by spearmen.

    Then it's on to Tosa! There's a couple reasons why I consider Tosa to be a critical goal for Shimazu's opening. The main reason is that that province will always come with a legendary sword dojo and being able to produce No-Dachi swordsmen with +1 honor from two provinces while playing as the Shimazu is very powerful. Clan Shimazu already can train No-Dachi swordsmen at a discounted price (provided they've unlocked the legendary swordsmen event), being able to do so from two provinces with an automatic +1 honor is really something special this early in the campaign.

    Other reasons to take the island of Shikoku early are the mine in Iyo, the 380 farm income in Sanuki and the tranquil garden in Awa. Once Shikoku is taken then the Shimazu player can open a two front war against the Mori. This is something I prefer rather than become restricted to a two province bottleneck that is southern Honshu.

    Unfortunately Tosa can be really hard to take and this leads me into my final reason why I consider taking this province to be the 'boss battle' of Shimazu's opening. You see for me this is personal. My defeats at the hands of the rebels holding this province have been etched into the fabric of my memory. The thought of taking this province quickly, preferably before the rebels can become too strong makes me see red. However rushing Tosa unfortunately isn't the way. The soonest I can reach Tosa (while still securing Imagawas lands first) is turn 11. And that is with a half stack of 4 SA and 4 YS and that is just not enough. With this is mind I recommend the Shimazu player to take this time after taking Iyo to build up their forces in Nagato and Iyo a bit before pressing on. The extra time spent will allow the Tosa rebels to train anywhere from 4-6 ND plus a 3 star general among them and this is going to make it a very tough province to take, plus the terrain makes it very tricky to find an advantage. I'd recommend building to a full well balanced stack of archers, spearmen and hopefully No-Dachi if you have them. Even then you might have to attack twice (or thrice ). But once you take it you're on to the midgame!

    That ends my opening breakdown of the Shimazu campaign but I will leave you with a few more notes to consider.

    I tend to role play a little bit when it comes to diplomacy and when I play the Shimazu I prefer to play as the 'nice guy'. This is tough in a game where you have to kill everyone, therefore I will only ally with either the Uesugi or the Hojo just for the extra cash which is nice in the early game. Then I won't attack them until everyone else is dead or they attack me.

    On the subject of emissaries I still value them greatly for their use as a spy who won't be captured by border forts or shinobi therefore I try to always keep one around my front lines. Unfortunately Imagawa will make this difficult in the beginning. I find that they will always hunt down my emissary and no matter if I run him into Shikoku or Honshu they will find him. Cross your fingers that he survives and if not then at least there's that tranquil garden in Awa!

    I will always convert to Christianity when playing as Shimazu again just to role play a bit but also for the cash. Portuguese trading posts + churches/cathedral will bring in a stupid amount of cash. Hence why I start shinobi production almost immediately, it's important to almost have a shinobi in every province by the time the Portuguese arrive on your shores.

    Speaking of shinobi, keep four shinobi protecting every heir. Shimazu has plenty of heirs and they'll make fine generals. Other than your heirs you'll be lucky to come across a general that is higher then 2 stars. So clan Shimazu needs it's sons fighting battles and leading armies. Protect them at all costs!

    On the subject of army composition I prefer to use a different composition for each clan that I play just for an extra bit of roleplay plus some challenge and variety. For each clan I'll use a standard base of four units (YS,YA,SA and YC) plus two extra special units. I've taken inspiration from the starting units each clan receives in the 1580 campaign and for Shimazu that'll be No-Dachi and Teppo! It's fun stuff for sure. My exact composition is 4 SA (including heir/general), 5 YS, 4 ND, 2 Teppo and 1 YC.

    My early building priorities are to produce YC and YS in Hizen. SA in Nagato because I can build an armory there and armored archers will help me win the skirmish phase. Plus ND in Satsuma and Tosa of course. By the time I can produce guns I'll have Portuguese trading posts everywhere so I could produce guns everywhere but I'll mainly focus on Owari because of the honor bonus for ashigaru. Everything else will just be whatever buildings I take from my defeated enemies.

    Phew! Alright I'm glad I could keep that short. I would've been so embarrassed if my first post on this forum was just a long incomprehensible rant

    If there's anyone still playing Shogun and would like to chime in on the topic please feel free! And if there's any newbies like myself that would like me to clarify anything I'll try my best.

    I only have a couple questions for Shogun veterans that I haven't been able to find answers to. I find that certain rebel provinces will always have certain buildings in them when I conquer them. Ise will always have a Buddhist temple, Tosa will always have a legendary sword dojo, Iyo will always have a mine, etc. So is it true that rebel buildings will never be pillaged upon the taking of one of their provinces or am I just getting lucky?

    Also I know that each clans heirs birthdates and command ranking is hardcoded but is this also true for each clans 'random' generals? I feel like Shimazu and Hojo get worse generals then Mori and Takeda but I haven't seen this confirmed anywhere else so I was just wondering what ya'lls thoughts were.

    Anyhoo thanks for reading!
    Last edited by Khan of Steppe; 01-22-2021 at 10:33.

  2. #2
    Arrogant Ashigaru Moderator Ludens's Avatar
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    Lightbulb Re: Shimazu Guide

    Hello and welcome, Khan!

    Your post is making me want to play Shogun again. It's been very long, though, so I am not sure I can answer your questions with any degree of accuracy. I think that non-heir generals are entirely random - but I know this isn't the case in M:TW, so...
    Looking for a good read? Visit the Library!

  3. #3

    Default Re: Shimazu Guide

    Quote Originally Posted by Ludens View Post
    Hello and welcome, Khan!

    Your post is making me want to play Shogun again. It's been very long, though, so I am not sure I can answer your questions with any degree of accuracy. I think that non-heir generals are entirely random - but I know this isn't the case in M:TW, so...
    Hey Ludens, thanks for the welcome!

    Yeah it's not the easiest thing to test for sure. I'd just take someone with a lot of free time on their hands...welp I'm a bartender out of work atm so I guess I'll see what I can find out I know the first unit recruited by Shimazu will always be a 1 star general. When I write the Mori guide next weekish I'll see if I pick up on any patterns.

    Now you have me thinking about MTW, are you sure the generals are hardcoded? I've only played a couple turns of MTW but I thought I noticed that all of the generals; king, heirs and non-heir generals were all randomized. Vices, virtues, command stars, plus piety, loyalty, dread, etc. I thought that was all randomized in MTW. Oh man there's so much to learn once I decide to give MTW a proper try

  4. #4
    Senior Member Senior Member ReluctantSamurai's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shimazu Guide

    Now I really like the MTW subsection setup where there's a guide for every faction and I've noticed that this subsection doesn't have anything like that.
    The closest you will get to guides are these:

    https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=56338

    There are various campaign threads scattered throughout back pages, and if you go back far enough (2003-2005) you'll find lots of info on rebalancing the vanilla game.

    I consider Shimazu to be the best clan to start out with for a beginner.
    This is quite true for any time period one chooses to start a Shimazu campaign. A player gets to "hang out" in a more quiet sector of Japan, and you can pursue pretty much whatever strategy you want without having to fight on multiple fronts at the same time. The absolute hardest, IMHO, is Oda 1580 at Expert Setting. I have a thread around here somewhere with my AAR's from those campaign's. Unfortunately, all the screen shots have been lost, but the description's should give you an idea of what's in store for anyone willing to take on that challenge. I'm sure there are varying opinions on which campaign is the most difficult, but my reasoning for Oda 1580 as the hardest is this: in most campaign's there are one or more epic battles that decide the game. You break an enemy's hold on a certain province, or you kill that Honor 6 Daimyo and maybe several of his best generals. Almost always, those battles come after many years of campaigning. In Oda 1580 that epic battle comes within the first several turns; lose it, and you might as well reload and start again. And if that wasn't enough, you will be fighting a two-front war where you will be invaded multiple times a season by as many as 5000 troops...sometimes more

    Unfortunately Imagawa will make this difficult in the beginning. I find that they will always hunt down my emissary and no matter if I run him into Shikoku or Honshu they will find him.
    I found myself using an emissary as a trap for enemy ninjas at the Expert setting. Other clans make it a point to assassinate your emissaries, which is easy to do, so I would place an emissary in a province with a border fort (not just a tower), and a cadre of shinobi's. You eliminate quite a few enemy ninja's this way before they eventually get him. Then rinse and repeat. Besides, I've had very, very few alliances that were worth the effort. Mostly your erstwhile ally betrays you, so why bother.....

    Speaking of shinobi, keep four shinobi protecting every heir.
    There's a thread around here somewhere about an alternative strategy for causing rebellions in other clans provinces by spamming dozens and dozens of shinobi and sending them out to foment unrest. It's a great way to expand territory without having to go to war with another clan, and it's hilarious to watch the AI have to scramble to put down multiple insurrections...

    So is it true that rebel buildings will never be pillaged upon the taking of one of their provinces or am I just getting lucky?
    It's been a verrry long time since I've played, but isn't pillaging a voluntary measure? I used to use the scorched earth method when I wasn't developed enough to take and hold a province (Shinano is one of those notorious for changing hands nearly every season since it can be invaded from no less than 10 provinces). I would take a province, burn as much as allowed to the ground (good source of income when you're broke!), and retreat.

    Also I know that each clans heirs birthdates and command ranking is hardcoded but is this also true for each clans 'random' generals?
    Don't know what you mean here Any army commander can acquire stars by winning a certain number of battles...more wins are required the higher the advancement. I guess I never really payed attention from campaign to campaign whether a general started with the exact same number of stars. Heirs are hardcoded.

    Don't neglect the historical battles or campaign's. Some of them are quite challenging. I actually started by playing some of the historical battles before I ever played a campaign. The Battle of Okehazama is the one that got me hooked on Shogun. Oda Nobunaga standing at the top of a large hill with his cavalry in a crashing thunderstorm, No Dachi and BFN hidden in the woods on either side of Imagawa Yoshimoto's troops, waiting to spring the trap at just the right moment. It embodies everything remarkable about Shogun that I don't feel was ever duplicated again in other TW games. The music by Jeff van Dyck, the realistic weather effects, the tension of when to spring the trap:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWi96nWFtxc

    And as your Heavy Cavalry crushes everything before you:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C--UFqAsaEQ

    20 years on and I still remember the first time I played that battle....

    Found the thread with my old AAR....again not as impactful without screen shots, but you'll get the idea:

    https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...aga-s-Ambition

    And the Shinobi thread:

    https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...n-with-Shinobi
    Last edited by ReluctantSamurai; 01-25-2021 at 07:43.
    High Plains Drifter

  5. #5
    Arrogant Ashigaru Moderator Ludens's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shimazu Guide

    Quote Originally Posted by Khan of Steppe View Post
    Now you have me thinking about MTW, are you sure the generals are hardcoded? I've only played a couple turns of MTW but I thought I noticed that all of the generals; king, heirs and non-heir generals were all randomized. Vices, virtues, command stars, plus piety, loyalty, dread, etc. I thought that was all randomized in MTW. Oh man there's so much to learn once I decide to give MTW a proper try
    Sorry, I should have explained. In M:TW there are famous generals (and agents) that are scripted to appear at a set time (IIRC when you recruit a unit sixteen years after their year of birth). But the vast majority of unit leaders are not historical.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Shimazu Guide

    The closest you will get to guides are these:

    https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=56338

    There are various campaign threads scattered throughout back pages, and if you go back far enough (2003-2005) you'll find lots of info on rebalancing the vanilla game.
    There are some really good campaign stories in that thread! Some real standouts in my opinion are Barocca's Shimazu blitz challenge and Sasaki's Takeda campaign. It's actually the latter that has inspired my preferred Takeda strategy. He plays that clan almost like they're a horde faction. Burning, killing and migrating across the map, it makes for a very fun and unique experience.




    This is quite true for any time period one chooses to start a Shimazu campaign. A player gets to "hang out" in a more quiet sector of Japan, and you can pursue pretty much whatever strategy you want without having to fight on multiple fronts at the same time. The absolute hardest, IMHO, is Oda 1580 at Expert Setting. I have a thread around here somewhere with my AAR's from those campaign's. Unfortunately, all the screen shots have been lost, but the description's should give you an idea of what's in store for anyone willing to take on that challenge. I'm sure there are varying opinions on which campaign is the most difficult, but my reasoning for Oda 1580 as the hardest is this: in most campaign's there are one or more epic battles that decide the game. You break an enemy's hold on a certain province, or you kill that Honor 6 Daimyo and maybe several of his best generals. Almost always, those battles come after many years of campaigning. In Oda 1580 that epic battle comes within the first several turns; lose it, and you might as well reload and start again. And if that wasn't enough, you will be fighting a two-front war where you will be invaded multiple times a season by as many as 5000 troops...sometimes more
    One day I will get around to playing an Oda 1580 campaign. You make it sound like it's the pinnacle of the Shogun experience and it sounds like quite the challenge! I haven't dabbled yet in any of the Era's campaigns. The 1580 campaign looks remarkable. I'm curious to know how you feel about the 1530 and 1550 campaigns, worth a shot or no?



    I found myself using an emissary as a trap for enemy ninjas at the Expert setting. Other clans make it a point to assassinate your emissaries, which is easy to do, so I would place an emissary in a province with a border fort (not just a tower), and a cadre of shinobi's. You eliminate quite a few enemy ninja's this way before they eventually get him. Then rinse and repeat. Besides, I've had very, very few alliances that were worth the effort. Mostly your erstwhile ally betrays you, so why bother.....
    I should've clarified, in that particular passage I was simply referring to the fate of the emissary that the Shimazu clan will start with. At that stage in the game it's too early (and pointless) to use him as a ninja trap. And yet unfortunately his fate seems to be that of a doomed man no matter what the player tends to do with him. One of the Imagawa ninja's will find him during the second or third year of the campaign.



    There's a thread around here somewhere about an alternative strategy for causing rebellions in other clans provinces by spamming dozens and dozens of shinobi and sending them out to foment unrest. It's a great way to expand territory without having to go to war with another clan, and it's hilarious to watch the AI have to scramble to put down multiple insurrections...
    Yeah! That thread along with Drisos's Imagawa thread where you and him discuss an assassination based strategy inspired my preferred Imagawa strategy. In order to keep the other clans off my back long enough to train up my ninja's and hunt down and kill the Daimyo's I'll use shinobi spam to slow down the other clans progress. It's totally valid and it's totally fun but again in the name of roleplaying I prefer to save the "offensive shinobi" strat for Imagawa. For me victory with the Shimazu is all about No-Dachi and gunfire!



    It's been a verrry long time since I've played, but isn't pillaging a voluntary measure? I used to use the scorched earth method when I wasn't developed enough to take and hold a province (Shinano is one of those notorious for changing hands nearly every season since it can be invaded from no less than 10 provinces). I would take a province, burn as much as allowed to the ground (good source of income when you're broke!), and retreat.
    When a province is invaded some buildings are destroyed or damaged automatically. The rest can be destroyed at the whim of the player. However certain rebel provinces seem to always keep their buildings when captured. Awa will always have a tranquil garden, Tosa will always have a legendary sword dojo, Iyo will always have a mine, Ise will always have a Buddhist temple (which makes capturing it on turn 1 as Oda very powerful ).

    Which brings up another question, is there a difference between destroyed and damaged buildings? I know in later titles damaged buildings can be repaired at a lower cost but there doesn't seem to be that option here in Shogun.



    Don't know what you mean here Any army commander can acquire stars by winning a certain number of battles...more wins are required the higher the advancement. I guess I never really payed attention from campaign to campaign whether a general started with the exact same number of stars. Heirs are hardcoded.
    I was referring to each "randomized" general/commander. I guess it's just something I noticed when replaying the Shimazu opening while writing this guide. It seems that there is a hardcoded order of generals that are spawned by each clan. I'll know more when I work on other guides but if it's true than it's a cool little tidbit CA threw in to help balance each clan experience in different ways.

    Don't neglect the historical battles or campaign's. Some of them are quite challenging. I actually started by playing some of the historical battles before I ever played a campaign. The Battle of Okehazama is the one that got me hooked on Shogun. Oda Nobunaga standing at the top of a large hill with his cavalry in a crashing thunderstorm, No Dachi and BFN hidden in the woods on either side of Imagawa Yoshimoto's troops, waiting to spring the trap at just the right moment. It embodies everything remarkable about Shogun that I don't feel was ever duplicated again in other TW games. The music by Jeff van Dyck, the realistic weather effects, the tension of when to spring the trap:
    I've played the historical battles but now you have me thinking I need to check out the historical campaign's. It's something I overlooked once I figured out how to control armies but not for long!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWi96nWFtxc

    And as your Heavy Cavalry crushes everything before you:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C--UFqAsaEQ

    20 years on and I still remember the first time I played that battle....

    Found the thread with my old AAR....again not as impactful without screen shots, but you'll get the idea:

    https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...aga-s-Ambition

    And the Shinobi thread:

    https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...n-with-Shinobi
    All good stuff here, and it's nice to see some of the soundtrack up on youtube. I appreciate the in depth reply ReluctantSamurai. I'm glad to see some folks are still making the rounds around these parts.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Shimazu Guide

    Quote Originally Posted by Ludens View Post
    Sorry, I should have explained. In M:TW there are famous generals (and agents) that are scripted to appear at a set time (IIRC when you recruit a unit sixteen years after their year of birth). But the vast majority of unit leaders are not historical.
    Ah that makes sense then.

    Yeah in Shogun it really seems to be the case that each clan has it's own hardcoded order of general/unit commander appearances. Which if true is a really neat clan balancing tool in my opinion.

    I understand why they'd switch to a randomized system in MTW, it adds more flavor to each playthrough while probably also being less work for the developers. But dang does it suck to end up with heirs with low loyalty in the early game! When these things are hardcoded they can be planned for and strategies can develop for known occurrences but when they're randomized then Think you got it all figured out? Welp, too bad! Civil war is on the menu for today and you just have to deal with it

  8. #8
    Senior Member Senior Member ReluctantSamurai's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shimazu Guide

    One day I will get around to playing an Oda 1580 campaign. You make it sound like it's the pinnacle of the Shogun experience and it sounds like quite the challenge! I haven't dabbled yet in any of the Era's campaigns. The 1580 campaign looks remarkable. I'm curious to know how you feel about the 1530 and 1550 campaigns, worth a shot or no?
    Any 1580 campaign is a challenge as all clans start with develped infrastructure, and you'll see teppo on the battlefield quite early. Oda 1580 ranks #1 on my list for difficulty (and I've played all of them) for the reasons I stated. I also forgot to mention that that initial epic battle you face will have to be fought mainly with Ashi against Takeda Heavy Cavalry, Cavalry Archers, and Naginata Cavalry---many with armor upgrades. Imagawa (yes you have to fight them both on the same battlefield) brings mostly a standard Samurai army (YS & SA) but he has several units of Battlefield Ninja which are a royal pain to deal with. You might want to disable geisha (I did this for any time period) as in 1580 there will be several running around quite early in the game, and without an Honor 5 or 6 Ninja you'll be forced to spam ninjas to keep throwing at her until one gets lucky...but then you'll have to do it all over again.

    If you prefer a quiet start, with lots of time to develop infrastructure, 1530, 1550, or Sengoku Jidai are most certainly worth playing. Depending on faction, you get to take advantage of the Legendary Generals---Takeda Shingen, Uesugi Kenshin, Imagawa Yoshimoto, Tokugawa Ieyasu to name a few.

    When a province is invaded some buildings are destroyed or damaged automatically.
    Again, it's been a very long time since I've played, but isn't it just the castle that gets downgraded?

    Oda's campaign to stamp out the Ikko-Ikki monks is particularly challenging...
    High Plains Drifter

  9. #9

    Default Re: Shimazu Guide

    Again, it's been a very long time since I've played, but isn't it just the castle that gets downgraded?
    This is another iffy one, when castle garrison's are being sieged out there seems to be a chance that the castle will be downgraded. Which of course gives some incentive to attack the garrison. However the downgrade doesn't seem to be guaranteed. Sometimes when I'm sieging out a tier 1 castle it'll disappear once the garrison falls (therefore is downgraded) and yet other times when I'm sieging out a garrison the tier 1 remains standing. I'm not 100% on this because maybe these were simply tier 2 castles that I didn't notice. I'm recording my campaigns so this would be easy to clarify...

    The provinces buildings however seem to be a random army destruction event that the player doesn't have control over. On the turn that a province is conquered even before anything is done about the castle garrison some buildings will be either destroyed or damaged and some will be left standing. Again, this all appears random except in the cases of rebel provinces.

    I realize I'm asking a lot from the memory of folks who probably haven't played the game in a while. I'm mostly asking to see if there was a general consensus unknown to me. Also I realize these are minor points in a game where generalized strategy will suffice. My curiosity is mostly driven from the fact that I have started a youtube channel which features this game and I'm simply trying to provide accurate information in my playthroughs. If we can't come to some hard answers it's all good! I'm just happy to be talking about Shogun

  10. #10
    Senior Member Senior Member ReluctantSamurai's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shimazu Guide

    The provinces buildings however seem to be a random army destruction event that the player doesn't have control over. On the turn that a province is conquered even before anything is done about the castle garrison some buildings will be either destroyed or damaged and some will be left standing. Again, this all appears random except in the cases of rebel provinces.
    It's possible that "random" building destruction isn't really random if the castle gets downgraded. Any buildings that are tied to a certain developed castle tier, should also therefore be rendered inoperable. Does not apply to rebel provinces, as you have noted.
    High Plains Drifter

  11. #11

    Default Re: Shimazu Guide

    Quote Originally Posted by ReluctantSamurai View Post
    It's possible that "random" building destruction isn't really random if the castle gets downgraded. Any buildings that are tied to a certain developed castle tier, should also therefore be rendered inoperable. Does not apply to rebel provinces, as you have noted.
    I've just done some double checking and the chance that a castle is downgraded during a siege is in fact random. The building destruction event is also completely random and is not tied in any way to the castle because the buildings are destroyed before the castle garrison is dealt with. I believe this is something CA changed in MTW because in that game the buildings aren't destroyed until the castle garrison is completely dealt with right? This is actually a change I quite like. Losing buildings because you've retreated to the castle in a frontier province can be tedious. Frankly this fact also deters me from building up my frontier provinces at all past the basic castle.

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