Samurai Warlords beta 8

[Raz]

I did try several times repeating the process. I'm pretty sure that I made the background colour completely black (0 R, 0 G, 0 B) at least once.

If it's something other than that I'll probably have to read it tomorrow.

[R'as al Ghul]

Raz,

it's not only important to have the right RGB values, like 0,128,0, but also to have the right index number. You can use the 0,128,0-green all you want, if it's not indexed correctly, you'll see the green instead of having it transparent.
Same with the black values. You can check out the post-battle miniflags for Takeda or Amako in beta_8 and you'll realise that they have some errant black pixels that are transparent. I made a mistake there.
Another issue is that the corpses are "cut off", don't show in their full size. That's due to the coordinates in the deadpage. They need adjustment to show the full corpse.


R'as

[Noir]

ok, some feedback on the workings of the newly proposed province incomes by Barocca:

I am in the finishings of an Uesugi campaign in Hard difficulty using the new province incomes.

I picked the Uesugi on purpose, in order to check how much the "take Dewa then Mutsu then the world" strategy works. I tried to play as aggressively as possible until i became large (until beating the Satomi), that is as little turtling as necessary. After that i turtled more. I used the 120% loyalty level for rebelliousness that is the default one.

These are the events until 1654:

I initially had an interesting war with Satake and Date for Mutsu (after destroying the Mogami) and later on with Satomi that occupied all the Kanto (1530-1575). The Satomi were a tough opponent and the battles were very good and played very balanced including some multifaction mayhems until they brought forward a general with 8 stars. He invaded Etchigo and sieged me there. When i invaded from Dewa to relieve the garrison, we played a river battle where notable... individuals played a significant role like 3 NAs and 13YS of level 9 from his army (that gave rise to the legend of the 13 spears of Nagano : ).

This seems to be happening from time to time on a per (strong) faction basis (i was playing with .matteosartori. on). I guess is when an able hero is crowned with Offices and has a command virtue or two, but other than that (after that general died that is) there were not such incidents, due to the nerfing of the default command stars. IMO there is some space for nerfing the command starts a bit more, but as they are at the moment they only create folkstories rather than interfering with playbalance, i think.

After that i wedged between a strong Hojo and a strong Satomi, and took advantage of their fear for each other to recapture Dewa (that i had lost in order to save Etchigo), Mutsu and eventually Shimotsuke, Kozuke and Hitachi and finally destroy the Satomi in Shimosa.

At 1585 i was making 5000 per turn and had stored 100,000 koku. It seems the game is won at this stage, as i had already more men than my future competitors and i was the richest for a solid decade.

Eventually i took over the Hojo (1610) and now the Oda (1650). Now (1654) i am preparing for the final showdown with Mori, having large stacks and 250,000 koku stored. The Mori have been getting the richest faction message for about 10 turns.

Elsewhere on the map:
The Hojo got rid of the Takeda (1560) and the Oda expanded all the way from Yamashiro to Mikawa (1575). The Otomo conquered Kyushu but they got a Shimazu reappearance (1590). Subsequently the Shimazu were put down by an ever-expanding Mori. The Mori conquered the Hiroshima pensinsula and were claiming part of Kyushu too, but were slow as they were plagued by civil wars, however eventually they got parts of Shikoku and almost all Kyushu and now are expanding in Etchizen and Kaga taking their share from a collapsing Oda.

Occupying Ecthigo, Dewa and Mutsu was hard but once accomplished firmly is difficult to prevent the holder-player taking on the Kanto and completing conquest of the richest overall area in the map (Dewa-Mutsu-Etchigo-Kozuke-Shimotsuke-Hitachi-Musashi-Shimosa-Kazusa). IMO Dewa and Mutsu still make a lot of koku to provide an advantage . They are difficult to lose too if one holds Etchigo and allow for very effective turtling. Etchigo is powerful, but its ought to be IMO.

Another reason that area of the map is more "suscepible" to produce this effect is that the overall province number is lower than at the "other end". That is the whole can be conquered with "less moves" and to "greater benefit" at the same time.

I'll try a new campaign after i complete this one with the new incomes and a Kyushu clan, and see what the AI clans make of it.

Another interesting thing is that the battles become somewhat easier once guns are introduced in the game for the player as the AI is slower to produce them and most importantly uses them with skirmish on.

In order to account for this it would be perhaps good to introduce the teppo ashigaru units as the default gun units to all clans and make the tech tree for importing large scale teppo warfare more complicated or more expensive or more hard to get (mainly for the sake of keeping teppo off the player's hands). Currently only iron having provinces can make japanese teppo and coastal provinces Portuguese teppo (if i'am not mistaken and this is working well for the player but unfortunately the AI seems slow to make them - i guess because he completes all his other military buildings first).

In order to cut the disadvantage to the AI factions the ability may be restricted to certain clans only (SP only). To counterbalance that, other types of units/units may be emphasised to certain other clans (SP only).
These can be put forth with new units for the SP game.

Generally the incomes seem to work ok IMO, particularly in Kyushu, as all provinces make money now and the Shimazu can compete better with the Ryuoji/Otomo. I would suggest though that Dewa and Mutsu are further nerfed.

Relative to Kaga - i also think nobody wants to take anything from Hoganji. The Oda had a lump of Hoganji in Yamashiro whithin their territories that they didn't touch at all for many turns. They simply allied with Hoganji and concentrated to other opponents. Perhaps its the different religion that causes it. However, after i started fighting with the Oda the Hoganji allied with me and Oda destroyed them shortly afterwards.

Many Thanks

Noir

Edit: the reason why battles become easier when guns become available is that a campaign can be won by what i call "aggressive defence strategy". essentially, after you establish yourself you turtle and wait for the other "major" opponents to attack first (or you provoke thme into doing it after you ar ready). You have a couple of cheap stacks behind a stack that sits in a very defensible province as bait (other borders overgarrisoned). The "victim" attacks only to be chopped down in Nagashino style in mountains and bridges with very little casualties. After that the cheap stacks advance to occupy his now undefended provinces that fall with little to no resistance.

Players that play SP exclusively, tend to play like this often (consciously or unconsciously) as it is a guarantee for victory. After a couple of other clans/factions fall in this way the player is rich enough to storm the remaining opponents with tones of troops. Effectively this means that with 3 or 4 smart chosen defences a campaign can be won - this is all the more true in MTW that factions suffer civil wars after major defeats.

[Puzz3D]

I'm playing Oda at normal difficulty and loyalty:180 using the new province incomes. It's 1575 and I have 5572 koku with 9146 income and 8929 expenses (217 profit). I have 5979 troops, and control 11 provinces: Yamashiro, Kawachii, Kii, Yamato, Ise, Iga, Omi, Owari, Makasa, Mino and Shinano.

To the north, the Satake are my main opponent. They have 10749 income and 5406 troops. They control 11 provinces: Etchu, Echigo, Dewa, Mutsu, Hitachi, Shimotsuke, Shimoza, Kazusa, Musashi, Sagami and Izu. Totomi and Suruga are being contested between us. Kozuke, Kai and Hida are all independently owned.

To the south, there is no single faction that dominates the region due to faction re-emergences. Clearly if I can defeat Satake which is now just a matter of inflicting more casualties than I sustain, the game is strategically won which seems reasonable since I'll control most of the map. Satake will strip its provinces of troops to reinforce the front line provinces which is how the AI plays, and this will eventually lead to revolts, faction re-emergence or civil war.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Samurai Games on MP still on Sundays? Anyone new showing up?

[Puzz3D]

Samurai Games on MP still on Sundays? Anyone new showing up?

We play every Sunday. Noir and Silvan are new, but we lost players to the valor 1 mtw/vi tournament and they haven't come back. As a result, we play 2v2 or sometimes 3v3 battles.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

We play every Sunday. Noir and Silvan are new, but we lost players to the valor 1 mtw/vi tournament and they haven't come back. As a result, we play 2v2 or sometimes 3v3 battles.

Cool. to bad some players were lost, but they come back after the tounrment. Why don't you guys do 1 on 1's to? they can be fun as well.