Newb STW WE strategy questions

[Jeff]

OK well being fairly new with STW WE, I have a few general questions. Now I'll apologize ahead of time for any question that has been answered before many times (things that could annoy longtime members and such) but I'm at work and I don't have a whole lot of time right now to search the forums.

General Gameplay
When starting out a full campaign what types of things do you guys do first? Build, Farming, Units? The last couple of campaigns (I have yet to win on Normal difficulty) I have tried to first build up my starting provinces in Farming, dojos and ports first before getting into producing too many units. That seems to help my Koku income but leaves me fairly weak, in which Hojo, Takeda, etc. seem to exploit every time and thusly end my campaign fairly quickly. When I try the other strategy I'll have plenty of troops but never enough Koku to really develop the land, mining etc. I have yet to find a really good balance that seems to work. Can you guys help me out with some tips please.

Military Units
My first strategy was to overwhelm with numbers, which at first seems to work, but YA are not really effective against Warrior Monks and No Dachi swordsman etc. even with numbers. I have tried to go with a good mix of troops and I have plenty of Arquebusers but they seem terrible much less effective than regular archers. I am curious to know your strategies for building an effective army. I will sometimes wait to have enough money for Warrior Monks and Cavalry, but I never seem to have enough of them and am almost always overwhelmed with sheer numbers from the enemy. Any tips would be much appreciated.

[pdoan8]

Are you playing as the Uesugi? They are rich but fairly difficult because there many other factions around (Hojo, Takeda then Imagawa and Oda later). Wider border make it harder to defend.

The first campaign that I played was as the Shimazu. Selected the faction by accident (didn't read the manual so I didn't know how to select a different faction) but it turn out to be a good choice. IMO, Shimazu is the easiest faction to start with.

To answer your question, depending on the faction that you play, the strategy may be slightly different. You may have to pump out a bunch of troops first in order to defend your homeland before you can upgrade your ecenomy.

In upgrading province: obviously, you won't have enough money to build everything in all provinces at first. So, build the upgrade in selected province. I split the provinces into 3 groups for upgrade:

- Rich provinces: rich farmland or mine. farmland is easier to upgrade than mine. For the provinces that have rich farmland (usually produce around 200 koku initially), I won't build anything else but farmland (and a port later). Farmland upgrades don't require that you have to have a castle.
- Troop advantage provinces: some provinces produce +1 honour troops. These provinces should be dedicated for troops producing. I would build all or most of the dojos here. The build order of the dojo would depend on how much money I have and what type of troops I would need first, but I would upgrade to at least having the capability of training Yari Sam and Sam Archers ASAP.
- Poor provinces: for these provinces, I would invest in a port (200 koku income). These provinces would use for producing troops if needed.

Producing troops: I usually try to split into 3 provinces or more. One for spears and archers (both require lower tech so it's easy to combine into 1 province), one for higher quality H2H combat (WMonk and No-Daichi) and one for cavalry. Higher dojo level can produce better troops, but I won't go that far if I can't make enough money. Usually, I stop at the first level. For Cav, Yari Cav are good enough, so I stop building dojo once I can train YC (and Horse Archers). Allocate the koku to upgrade economy then upgrade dojo again later.

Overwhelmingly out number my opponent with cheap troops earlier in the campaign would work out nicely. However, once both side reach the 16 units limitation or the other side can produce better troops, I would need better troops too. With good tactics and some terrain advantage, I could pull out a win with a Yary army (Yari Sam And archer) against a better army with cav and No-Daichi (not Wmonk, they are tough). Eventually, I will need higher quality troops in order to advance further.

Arque are not as good as regular archers. Musket are much better than Arque. I would rather train archers than wasting the money on Arque.

My standard army in early would be: 8 Yari Sam, 4 Sam Archers, and 4 Cav (mix of Yari Cav and Horse Archers).

Later standard army: 4 Yari Sam, 4 mix of missiled (usually 2 Sarcher + 2 Harcher), 4 mix of No-Daichi and WMonk (2 ND, 2 WM), 4 mix of Cav (usually 1 HC, 1 NC, 2 YC). Sam Archer and Horse Archer: I usually use Sam Archer on defence and Horse Archer on offence.

*Edit* It was a long post, but I still forgot someting. Trategic units. You should have one province producing trategic units. Shinoby: they can keep the peasants loyalty up and catching enemy Shinoby and Ninja. Ninja and Geisha: you will need these assasins sooner or later especially when an enemy Geisha shows up next to your Daimyo or Heirs. All assasin dojo types can be build in one province. Some units requirements are overlap such as: Emissary and WM require the Tranquil Garden. You will need Archery Dojo and Horse Dojo to train Horse Archer. You will need a Spear Dojo or Archery Dojo before you can build Horse Dojo and you will need Spear Dojo and Horse Dojo to train Yari Cav.

[Jeff]

Yes the first couple of campaigns so far have been Uesugi. I'll have to try Shimazo. I know that they are in the left corner and pretty much have a penninsula to themselves.I'll try Shimazo tonight when I get home from work. As far as developing the provinces I have kinda made it a habit of upgrading the farmland whether it was a good farming province or not. I'll let you know how I do with Shimazo. (they are the green correct?)I'm not in front of my home computer so I can't remember. It was the green clan who have taken me out each campaign so far and now that I think of it yeah they are the SHimazo. Anyways thanks for the reply I'll let you know how I progress.