You're welcome, Jkarinen. I'm glad to see so many others who still love this game, and it's good to be useful.

I have played so many hours also, and tonight I learned something that I never knew before. I've been focusing on the 1580 campaign lately, trying different factions. I mentioned the first game as the Shimazu. Next, I played as Tokugawa and used a rather unorthodox approach to my opening. I abandoned Mikawa and Totomi within three turns, liquidating all assets there for koku, and moved to Kyushu, attacking Satsuma by sea with my nine ninja units. It was conquered easily as Shimazu forces had moved north (and they don't start with neary as many men--part of my strategy). After winning the ninja battle (if you can call it that--they ran away from my men in black), Ieyasu took a leisurely cruise with his Eastern army to Satsuma. I pincered the Shimazu between the armies of Honda in Hizen and Tokugawa in Satsuma, and conquered Kyushu entirely within a couple of years. I could now enjoy what would normally be the secure starting position of the Shimazu as the Tokugawa--quite a contrast from what the Tokugawa normally face in the 1580 campaign.

But I digress--on to the thing I've never noticed before. Last night I started a campaign as the Uesugi, 1580. As I slowly but surely fought off and pushed both the Hojo and Takeda back, I was reviewing Suruga's income distribution. The Takeda start with a Port and Portuguese Trading Post there. At first I thought I'd spotted a bug--ports yield a steady 200 koku income per year. Port income was listed as 400 per year! I looked at all the other ports I could see: 200 koku per year.

My guess based on these observations is that a trading post adds 200 koku to the base port income (a 100% increase!). I have yet to confirm this by viewing other ports with trading posts, and am very curious to see if a Dutch Trading Post has the same effect. If this is confirmed, it will alter my approach to economic warfare in games where going Christian makes sense.

Ever get frustrated by the fluctuating and unpredictable nature of harvest income? It's a cool feature of the game, but can wreak havoc on plans. My counter to it is to focus on building ports, mines, mine complexes, and if I go Christian, a Cathedral and then churches up the yin yang. Income from these is steady--no fluctuation, and leads to cash flow that is more predictable, allowing both better long-term planning and response to unexpected situations. I usually improve farmland 20% in provinces yielding a base of ~300 or more asap because it's relatively cheap and only takes one year. After that, I will bite the bullet of higher initial expense and focus on mines and ports unless a province is exceptionally rich (Owari, Musashi, Hitachi, Mutsu, and to a lesser degree, Echigo, Sagami, Kozuke, Kawachi, Ise, and Hizen are what I term "golden rice bowl" provinces).

At a cost of 750 koku, a port pays for itself in about 4 years. Churches cost 400 koku and yield 100 koku per year, paying for themselves in four years. Mines yield 200, 400, and 600 koku per year for copper, silver, and gold mines, respectively. Mine complexes double these. Because income from these sources is steady, I try to build them as early as possible to start reaping profits as soon as possible. The earlier they're built, the more guaranteed value you get from them throughout the game.

One thing about Churches is that, if you have a Cathedral, you earn income from the Churches of other clans too. If several other clans have built a number of churches, it can be a prudent economic strategy to jump on the Jesus bandwagon--particularly if they haven't got cathedrals and you can beat them to one early. If an opposing clan does have a cathedral, then I think it's important to compare the economic benefit the churches you build will provide them, in addition to the benefit they will provide you.

Heh, got on quite a roll there. Blah blah blah.

"Hei Poru! Hei Poru!! Hei Poru--yu don hafu tu bi poru enimoru! Jizasu izu hiya! JIZASU IZU HIYA ... ( *crazy sampled laughter* ). - Front 242, Welcome to Paradise).