Quote Originally Posted by R'as al Ghul
Specialize your Provinces. One builds yari, the other Archers. Don't build all buildings in all Provinces.
Don't hesitate to disband ashis you once build to maintain loyalty. The upkeep costs for garrisons can add to a high amount.
Be careful not to build more troops than you can afford. Control this frequently. Use Shinobi and border forts to keep Provinces calm where taxes are high. They don't cost any upkeep and are very efficient.
Hi R'as, me again

I don't think building all buildings in all provinces is a likely prospect anyway, given the money problems. The real problem I find is going to the other extreme. Having gone to the outlay for large castle, fortress etc, I tend to want to build all the other types in that one place, so I can advance them to famous/legendary level later on.

The hazards of doing that are that sometimes you find you've successfully defended against an attack but suffered casualties in the hundreds and need to recover troop numbers fast. Even if you inflicted heavier casualties, one unit per season won't cut it if they're raising 2 or 3. For comfort, I'd like to have at least three troop training centres at the ready, even if two of them are honour 0 level, only to be used in emergencies. Even so, the expense of creating those just as a precaution is a pain, since it delays the progress of my more advanced dojos.

Also, if you put your Tea House & Ninja House in the same province where you're raising your advanced-level troops, perhaps with the ultimate aim of being able to raise Geishas there, long periods of mobilisation or replacing casualties means you can't deploy these strategic units when you want to.

So, in the early stage of the game I'll generally end up with 2, or 3 - if I've been lucky with the harvests - troop centres and 1 other which only raises Ninja and Shinobi. If I ever reach the stage of having a citadel and have advanced the troop dojos within it as far as is possible (or as far as seems required by the quality of opposition) then I will consider going to the expense of duplicating the Tea/Ninja houses in that province, as prerequisites of the Geisha House, rather than attempting to advance the castle at the original spy centre to Citadel status. It's either quicker or cheaper, or both...


Disbanding Ashis?

Something I'd love to be able to do. However, I'm still running V1.11 and the only way you can de-mobilize units (of any kind) is by using them as arrow-fodder or sending them on suicide missions. I gather this is something which can be done with the expansion pack. That's something else I need to ask about. I doubt it's available in the shops anymore but, if it's a downloadable thing, I'd have a chance of getting hold of it.

Border Watch Towers/Forts

Again I see them as an expensive luxury in the early game and, for the money, I'd rather go for a Tea House and enough Shinobis to cover my home territories in preference to one or two lots of Towers. Perhaps an early experience where constructing towers only served to provoke an attack which smashed them caused this. Similarly, I'd rather get the Ninja House than spend the same amount on BFs. The exception to this rule is where I want to seal off the province where all my most advanced buildings are being built. Even then, they're not totally impenetrable. Honour 3 Shinobis of mine seem to have survived them and there are Emissaries, of course. The AI Ems will actually tend to camp in these places, in the hope that no low-level Ninjas will survive to get them!

In past campaigns where I went on to win, I reached a stage where I had no shortage of cash and started building things just for the heck of it, so I'd splash out on setting up border forts from coast-to-coast where this could be done using just 2 or 3 provinces, plus additional BFs at each province with a port, in case they tried getting in that way.

However, I take your point about them maintaining loyalty level in lieu of a garrison force and will consider trying that in future. The ability to send all units to the frontline, instead of having them spread all over the map may actually help bring the campaign to a conclusion that bit quicker. Thanks.