Castles in battles?

[cuendillar]

I've had Shogun for some time now, and just recently got te-interested in playing it. But, as I delve deeper, I remeber some of the thigs that bothered me, and I still have issues with them now. So, anyone willing to offer some advice/answers, please?

1.) Castles/Fortresses- other than prolonging a take over for a particular county, or allowing for building upgrades, what do these things do? Is there a way to fight from them? As I understand it, basically their purpose is to keep a county under the castles oweners' control a few more turns to allow him to accrue the income and prevent his enemy from gaining it. Seems like there should be more to them, but I can't find it.

2.) Spies, Ninja, etc. I use them to seek out enemy generals and determine strengths of enemy forces- but is there any way to kill them before they attack, or kill them so they quite allowing an enemy to report my troop strength?

3.) I get frustrated when running around a map looking for the enemy. On some maps, I jog around for 15 minutes looking for the enemy hiding place. I try to use a quick scout type unit, but that isn't very efficient,as the end up being sacrificial lambs just to determine where the enemy is. Is there some way to tell where an enemy is once in the 'battle mode'?

4.) Archers/Arquebusers in rain- these guys obviously suck in wet weather conditions. But, I like to use them and I hate to chance losing a significant portion of my troops by withdrawing when I find I am fighting in wet conditions. So, is there any way to tell weather conditions before I fight, or, how many, if any, troops do I lose if I choose not to fight once I find out the field is wet?


Thanks,

Cuendillar

[Khan7]

1: Yes the modeling of castles and sieges sucks total and complete ass. It just is that way in this game. Oh well.

2: Both (a) having Shinobi and/or Ninjas in your provinces, and (b) having Border Forts (upgraded Border Watch Towers), will contribute to catching enemy Shinobi and Ninja in your provinces.

3: It sounds like you're rushing it. If you're in such a hurry you're playing into the hands of the AI sitting in its little hidden pockets. Then have a tendency to reveal themselves if you just take your time and keep your eyes open.

Also, the Taisho is NEVER concealed trees or no. So you can find him pretty quickly and deal with whatever else when it pops up.

4: Archers work good enough in rain, especially light rain. If you want to use your archers, simply go with the light rain, it will always be available. Arqs are useless even in light rain. Oh well. Muskets are severely hampered. You can still use them to fire a few volleys off at the enemy, but as far as an intense situation, they won't cut it. So whatever troops you deem as useless, just put them in thick formations behind your other troops for morale support, and charge them into combat if you REALLY need the help, though watch out cuz guns suck at h2h.

Matt

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[Doraemon]

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[Cazbol]

Quote Originally posted by cuendillar:
1.) Castles/Fortresses- other than prolonging a take over for a particular county, or allowing for building upgrades, what do these things do? Is there a way to fight from them? As I understand it, basically their purpose is to keep a county under the castles oweners' control a few more turns to allow him to accrue the income and prevent his enemy from gaining it. Seems like there should be more to them, but I can't find it.
[/QUOTE]

You can attack the castles if you like. If you're besieging a castle, you can drag and drop your army onto the castle (on the stratetic map). This will prompt a battle for the castle with the defenders inside the castle and your troops fighting their way through the gate. It ususally makes much more sense to starve them to death, but attacking the castles can be great fun.

Cazbol