Quote Originally Posted by Nakamura Lobato
Thanks for the info on the matchlocks. Now that I remember Seven Samurai, the gun had to stay lit, or they had to keep a fuse going. Thanks for clearing that up. I watched the Hidden Fortress on IFC this morning, and they were using them too. I know that the Portuguese introduced them to Nippon but I wonder about how common they were. I thought that they would have the advantage in wet weather versus archers, but now I'm not so certain. The loading times seem to be prohibitive, so maybe just dealing with the initial shock and confusion would give them an advantage versus their foes?
A unit suffers a temporary -2 morale penalty when it sustains one or more casualties inflicted by archers. This morale penalty is -6 when the casualties are caused by teppo. There is an additional temporary morale penalty for the ratio of the number of men lost in a combat cycle compared to the number of men in the unit in the previous cycle. There is also a permanent morale penalty for the ratio of decimation of a unit compared to its original size (-2 for 10% casualties, -8 for 50% casualties and -12 for 80% casualties). In addition, teppo have more penetrating power vs armor than archers, so are better against heavily armored units such as naginata and heavy cav than are archers. Teppo also take 4 hitpoints off the tashio if he gets hit whereas archers only remove 1 hitpoint. Taisho's have 6 hitpoints minimum + additional hitpoints for good health. I think 25 is the maximum number of hitpoints for a very healthy tashio.


Quote Originally Posted by Nakamura Lobato
The Kensai should be extraordinarily rare. I think they should be a special unit that happens to appear only once in a while versus creating them from a building. That would make them wonderful. Ronin samurai were plentiful at certain points in history, but ronin kensai are all too common i.e. easily hired.
They should be rare I would say.

Quote Originally Posted by Nakamura Lobato
You know what would be cool? What if you don't hire ronin in your cities? Wouldn't that cause trouble to the province? All those loose cannon would breed banditry in a location. I wonder if that's why they got bought up, just to get them off the streets. It would make the use of Shinobi more important to a town.
I don't think we can model that effect in this game.


Quote Originally Posted by Nakamura Lobato
Have you seen many times that marrying off a princess caused you to inherit the lands of another clan?
I think it's alliances that result in you getting provinces if a clan is eliminated.