Um...

[blazer-glory]

Its a bit strange this but Ive actually owned this game for about 3 years but never played it. I think Im alittle daunted by it. I have installed it but not really known what I should be doing, there seems too many options, build?, expand?, or invade. It is wise to invade straight away and should I build my forces up first THEN invade a neighbouring country?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I always invade right a way. Just give it a try, if you lose it's not the end of the world. The purpose is to conquer the entire map. Unlike the later games in the series you will spend most of your time building up armies and invading. Investements in buildings and economy are a sideshow.

[Dexter]

I always invade right a way. Just give it a try, if you lose it's not the end of the world. The purpose is to conquer the entire map. Unlike the later games in the series you will spend most of your time building up armies and invading. Investements in buildings and economy are a sideshow.

... i disagree ! upgraded units rule this game. 3 weapon 3 armor + 3 morale from palace + drill dojo ( 1 morale ) ... specialy sohei and heavy cavalry ... no matter if the enemy has 10 times more men ... i kill`em all ...

search the web and you will find manny hints and tips ( unit descriptions tactics so on ) ... i personaly like an adaptable army and a balaced economy ... but this is me ...

if you need it i could mail you the "stuff" i have txt and doc ... ok ?

have fun playing !

ps . the tutorial has a good battle : Learn from the past ... ( the last one )

[Drisos]

Sasaki,

For me not really either.. I am so slow in a campaign that the quality of my army and especially my income play big roles.

[caravel]

I always invade right a way. Just give it a try, if you lose it's not the end of the world. The purpose is to conquer the entire map. Unlike the later games in the series you will spend most of your time building up armies and invading. Investements in buildings and economy are a sideshow.

I actually agree with this. It's a good idea to get a few invasions off for a start in STW because the AI is much more treacherous and aggressive than it is in later TW games. You can then concentrate on teching up. e.g. as the Imagawa I tend to aggressively oust the Shimazu while developing my detached provinces more defensively than economically. I then tend to slow down as my playing style is moreso turtling than aggressive domination.

[blazer-glory]

if you need it i could mail you the "stuff" i have txt and doc ... ok ?

Thats would be great thanks.

[Dexter]

Ok monday after noon chek your mail ... CET 17.00 ... ok ???
sorry dont have net home ...

[Labrat]

blazer-glory, I don't want to be rude, but it is a bad idea to put your e-mail adress on the internet, where everyone can see it. It is the best way to receive a load of spam in your mailbox. I think you'd better remove it.

[caravel]

blazer-glory, I don't want to be rude, but it is a bad idea to put your e-mail adress on the internet, where everyone can see it. It is the best way to receive a load of spam in your mailbox. I think you'd better remove it.

True, he should have at least posted in this form: bboy_joeATfastmailDOTfm or even better sent a pm.

[killerxguy]

I usually wright my email as blah (underscore) whatever (at) hmail dot com so no spamming internet bot will take my emai and spam it with ads.

[caravel]

I usually wright my email as blah (underscore) whatever (at) hmail dot com so no spamming internet bot will take my emai and spam it with ads.

The problem is that many crawlers can detect the sort of basic encoding in my post above and in yours, though your's is more thorough, so a pm is still the best idea.

[Dexter]

I will ask Sasaki Kojoro to edit the post as it is partly my fault for not telling him to use private messege ... no worry ...
ps I am not a hacker ! ( just a Shogun maniac ... 23 years old ... LoL )

[blazer-glory]

Oops yeah I guess you are all right. I will remember for next time!

[Trajanus]

You will find that different tactics work better for different clans (well at least I find this).

Test out different clans and see which beginning setup is good for you then play that campaign to get a basic tutorial to the game.

[blazer-glory]

I guess I should just take a deep breath and go for it!! ;)

[Papewaio]

Also to just get a handle on the strategic side of the game play the battles with autoresolve. This allows you to quickly go through a campaign and get used to the strategies you will want to use when playing the battles.

You should be able to outperform the autoresolve feature. This is purely a time saving device so that you can focus on one level of the game, the strategic one.

[Togakure]

... You should be able to outperform the autoresolve feature. ...

Except for those dang river provinces--if you use autoresolve you'll need to send a LOT of troops in to take them in one turn, or attrition the province over several turns. Either way, you lose a lot of men.

[Drisos]

I get better results when playing myself then with autoresolve... Besides I love the in-battle game, so I always play the battles.

I do remember though, using autoresolve was especially bad against Mongols, or attacking rivers. It works the other way around - if you are the mongols or defend a river you're safe with autoresolve.

however, in any case, you always use a lot of men with autoresolve. Just practice and practice the in-battle game and soon you will manage to defeat the AI on yourself, without too many losses.

good luck!

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Castle assaults are another bad place for autoresolve...the infamous "lone ashi kills 400 of your men" syndrome.

[Togakure]

I get better results when playing myself then with autoresolve... Besides I love the in-battle game, so I always play the battles.

I do remember though, using autoresolve was especially bad against Mongols, or attacking rivers. It works the other way around - if you are the mongols or defend a river you're safe with autoresolve.

however, in any case, you always use a lot of men with autoresolve. Just practice and practice the in-battle game and soon you will manage to defeat the AI on yourself, without too many losses.

good luck!

Indeed--autoresolving a river province attack usually results in losing 3 to 4 times as many men for me than the defending AI. Conversely, if I fight the battle myself, I can usually reverse that, losing maybe half as many men as the AI. Hence, I always fight the river province battles myself. I use autoresolve for regular terrain battles that look like they're going to be boring.

With castles I usually wait until they attrition if I can afford the time and men, just camping out in the province until the castle falls. If I want the castle to remain the same size, I'll storm it on the last turn (" ... is about to fall."), and usually autoresolve it. As long as you have a balance of shooters and infantry, and not too many cavalry, you'll usually do well in a case like this because you outnumber them (or at least, I usually do). The exception to this is if there are ninja in the castle--but they are rarely built by the AI so you only encounter them in some of the campaigns that start with them on the map (1580, Iga 1530 non-Sengoku, etc.).

***

What's really silly is taking an army of only ninja against a castle with no shooters. March the ninja--except for the general unit--up to the gates and have them star the troops inside to death. They'll just stand there and die, and your ninja honor up like crazy. I'd take one unit, honor them up a few, then another, honor them up a few ... it was ridiculous. I don't do that anymore because it's obviously a programming oversight, but I did when I first discovered it, just for kicks.

[blazer-glory]

Thanks, some nice stories there. And Sasaki, is that really true about "lone ashi kills 400 of your men"?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Well, actually the most I ever lost was 130 men to a lone ashi. But it happens.

[Trajanus]

Am I right in thinking that if a unit gets really reduced in size (to less than 10 men) its honour increases? Not sure if that is the reason or just coincidence because I'm doing something else at the same time.

This may be the reason. High honour ashi can be very deadly.

[caravel]

The honour value is an average of the real honour values for each man. As the lower honour men in the unit die, those with the higher honour remain and increase the average honour.

[Papewaio]

The idea with autoresolve is that you can always do better if you fight the battle yourself.

However autoresolve is faster which means you can learn more about how to win the strategic side of the game and practice it more times in a given time period... which is one way to get used to the strategic demands of any of the TW series quickly. The battle side tends to be the most consistent and hence easy to learn, while the strategic campaign side shows the most change and hence the longest to learn.

So it is a great way to learn how to improve your strategic skills in a short time period.