Rookie needs help

[yodasplat]

I'm a rookie at this game and I keep getting my butt kicked by the AI at this game:

1 - Legendary Geisha is unstoppable. It's like Terminator. She gets in, she kills my Daimyio, end of game. How do I stop her??

2 - After I wiped out 2 of my neighbours I reached the borders of another guy I never saw before. Looked ok for 1 or 2 turns until this guy threw at me 20-30 armies filled to the brim with soldiers (I mean his provinces closer to me were PACKED with armies made of 12 - 16 groups of 80). I didn't even know you could have so many armies.

Armies cost money to buy AND maintain, right? How does the AI do that? The only thing I am doing to my provinces is improve farmland. Is there anything else I can do to improve my revenue?

The manual that ships with the game is not that beefy...

Thanks for help

Yoda

[solypsist]

1. make your own geishas and keep one handy in the same space as your daimyo. Also, keep ninjas in the same pronvinces as your heirs.

2. you didn't say who it was, but my guess is it's the Hojo Clan. Do you have the patch 1.12? It cuts down on AI deficit spending and the "Hojo Horde" problem so many of us faced when we were beginners.


My best advice is that you may be taking a tediously long time in playing the game to let your opponents get far enough to get geishas and have that many armies. Be more aggressive and try to have all of Japan under yor rule within about 30 years to avoid such powerful AI opponents.


[This message has been edited by solypsist (edited 12-08-2000).]

[Rob]

1. The best way to stop a geisha is to assassinate her. Use either a high-ranking ninja (level 4 or above) or a geisha of your own.

2. This is the Hojo Horde (so called because the clan with large armies is usually the Hojo clan, though not always). It can be beaten, but not easily. Usually, players resort either to assassinating the enemy daimyo + heirs, or making use of the 'port bug' to invade enemy territory and stretch their forces.

This is officially a bug, which will be addressed in patch 1.13 which will be out some time soon

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AkaiRob Hojo
Honour to Clan Akai Ken

[Rob]

lol soly you beat me to it

We must have both been writing our posts at the same time

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AkaiRob Hojo
Honour to Clan Akai Ken

[yodasplat]

Thanks for the advice guys.
As a matter of fact you are right: I am taking my sweet time moving on. I am also enjoying the game by taking my time. I like to do things slow...
Oh well, if you tell me that the fun has to finish in 30 years... so be it.

Thanks

Yoda

[hach]

yodasplat

until the hojo horde bug is fixed i suggest killing the hojo daimyo and all heirs asap.

this turns the ronin which are generally easier to handle.

hach

[solypsist]

once you win, you can try again as a different clan and on a harder level. the fun never stops, especially once you figure out that multiplayer is much more difficult (in battle mode) than the campaign. the single player is really just training for mp.

[BanzaiZAP]

To be honest (and not trying to brag) but what's the big deal with the Hojo Hordes? You can have an army of 2,000 soldiers hold off ANY sized opposing army. Rout his men, and he'll never get the reinforcements, no matter how many there are. If you're defending, rout him, and the rest of his army high tails it back to his territory. Attack, and when he routs: 1) some of his men will flee into the castle, usually with the general, so now you've isolated his general. 2) If he has any neighboring provinces, he'll just retreat the rest of his huge army back farther behind his own lines. 3) If there is NO neighboring provinces, then all those extra men are GONE! So by killing 600 men, and routing the rest, his 6000 man army has lost 5000 men, JUST BECAUSE THEY ROUTED! So you can leave only two "full" armies to defend against ANY amount, and one or two full armies should be able to take a province, no matter how big the defending army is. Important note: this is only possible if you command that battle yourself. If you autoresolve, you'll be slaughtered!

Of course, it's easier to rout them on an easier mode, or if you are a better general, but I find that the AI can't hold up too well against a human general.

-- B)

[Slyspy]

The problem is that fighting the Horde is boring. Its just a meatgrinder for years. Its even worse if you assassinate the horde's daimyo because the armies go ronin and never attack you. You just sit back and wear them down. Boring!

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"Put 'em in blue coats, put 'em in red coats, the bastards will run all the same!"

[Heims30]

After I got the patch I still had to face the Horde. It just wasn't Hojo. I've seen a Takeda Horde, and one of the blue coloured clans Horde. It really pisses me off. The western provinces are a big dogfight, why wouldn't the east? That is so frustrating. I usually end my game at that point. No way can I suppport battles on 2, maybe 3 fronts, especially when one of those fronts has me as his only front, and another is the Horde.

[solypsist]

I've faced a horde twice:

My first campaign game ,where I was super slow and careful and basically let Hojo build up lots (nevermind routing his armies time and again, when you'll always take some casualties and he can always replace his a lot faster than you can yours).

The other time was when Takeda inherited half of Japan from a very assassinated Hojo (my thrid or fourth campaign). So that was that.

[ShaiHulud]

One reason the Hojo horde is so often seen is that Uesugi is incapable of holding his home territories. Shinano usually falls to Imagawa very quickly and Mutsu falls to Hojo after the latter has created a large force. From there it's simple for the Hojo to complete the conquest of ALL the prime koku areas.
As the Mori one could capture 5 provinces and still not match the output of Mutsu alone. The imbalance of rice production is not balanced by gold/silver or ports, either. Those take time and koku (which is hard to come by early on)and Mori/Shimazu/Oda face multiple fronts AND Ronin of sufficient numbers to badly damage a carefully created army.
Generally speaking, the best way to avoid a horde at game's end is to start as one of the Clans near the prime koku areas and control them yourself.


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Wind fells blossoms, rain
fells steel,yet bamboo bends and drinks