Hi all,

I'm almost embarassed to admit this but I gave up on STW (with/without the 1.1 patch) some years ago, in sheer frustration with the problem of recurring poor/terrible harvests as these left me totally hamstrung (nil or negative income) in the early phase of the game, with armies too small to mount feasible conquests on neigbouring clans, yet the armies they sent in my direction were comfortably 3:1 in excess of what I could afford to maintain. So I couldn't even properly defend what little I had long enough to improve it. Not even loading a previous game-save would fix this (sometimes made it even worse as the previous bad koku total would simply carry forward, only to be followed by yet another poor harvest). This is probably the only game I have ever described (out loud) as "you *&^$ing cheating s!£mbag".

I had no problem winning full campaigns as each of the six clans, at the 'Easy' difficulty level but this was both something of a false dawn and, more than likely, a poor preparation for the higher levels. I have won several battles at 'Normal' level, with the only perceivable difference being that my side's kill ratio isn't as good as it was at 'Easy'. Provided I can get the finances sorted, I know it's do-able, just that it will be a longer slog than before.

The 'Hojo horde' problem is as bad, or worse, than it was before. On occasion, they mysteriously get wiped out fairly early on in the game but that poses an even worse problem - the side which secures those high income provinces up that end of the map will wipe the floor with the rest of them, in next to no time. This is usually the point where I abandon the game as being an exercise in futility.

So, what exactly am I doing wrong?
1) To what extent does high province loyalty ratings cause average/good/excellent harvests to happen on a consistent basis?
2) Would it help me to raise garrison sizes to a level which my initial income would not seem to support, in order to achieve this high loyalty?
3) Should I increase taxes after high loyalty is established, or set it high right at the start of the campaign and hope I can restore it with troop numbers within the first few years?
4) Is it just coincidence, or does the latest lot of land improvements reaching completion sometimes trigger a bad harvest?

I'd appreciate your views and hints and am looking forward to being able to enjoy this game once again.