Gunpowder

[Togakure]

Thanks, Martok . I just finished an Uesugi 1580 campaign, and have confirmed that Trading Posts--Portuguese or Dutch--do indeed add 200 koku per turn. At the start of the 1580 Oda campaign (which I've just begun; this is going to be a tough one), there is a Portuguese Trading Post, without a port (?!) in Owari that is generating 200 koku of trade income per year.

At the end of my Uesugi campaign, I was earning 15,000 koku in trade income alone, 5,600 in mine income, and about 19,000 in agricultural income on a good harvest. The campaign completed in 1600. This is easily the most trade income I've ever had to date in an STW SP campaign. I basically had enough cash flow to build a Port, Large Castle, and Dutch Trading Post in every sea-bordered province in central and Eastern Japan. I finished before being able to build many in the Mori lands or on Kyushu or Shikoku.

As Uesugi I remained Buddhist. The 1580 campaign is such that even the remotely Eastern Uesugi gain access to western traders relatively early. A Dutch Trading Post requires a Port and a Large Castle to build, whereas if I remember correctly (I'll soon know from my Oda campaign), a Portuguese Trading Post requires only a port (which requires at least a small castle). Hence, the initial investment and time to profit is longer when going the Dutch route.

For the last ten years I was producing 1 h3 ashigaru (Owari, for garrisons), 2 h0 arquebusiers (Musashi and Shimosa; for garrisons), 1 h0 muskeeter (Sado), 1 h3 archer (Totomi), 1 h2 yari sam (Kai), 1 h2 monk (Echigo), 1 h2 nag cav (Hitachi), 1 h3 heavy cav (Shinano), 1 h1 cav archer (Shimotsuke), 2 h2 shinobi (Hida and Dewa) and 1 h1 emissary (Kazusa) each turn, pretty much. If a harvest went bad I'd produce nothing in Autumn, and sometimes I would turn off production of expensive units for a season to allow for a Citadel or two. All in all though, I was able to keep high-quality troops cranking out like crazy.

It was a bit of a steamroll having a standard army composed of a general followed by 2 h0 muskets with legendary armor, 1 h3 archer with exceptional weapons, 2 h2 yari samurai with exceptional armor, 4 h2 monks with legendary weapons, 2 h1 cavalry archers, 2 h2 nag cav with legendary armor, and 2 h3 heavy cav with legendary weapons and armor. When the general was 4-star adding +h2, or 6-star Date Masamune adding +h3 to these values ... opponents were running soon after initial engagement, even when I didn't really execute my attack well.

I won't be playing the Uesugi campaign again anytime soon, as it's a bit too easy once you get the cash flowing. But the campaign was an excellent study in maxing out trade income to enable constant troop production and infrastructure developement.

1580 Oda now ... this is going to be a biyotch.

[Togakure]

I stand corrected on information I posted earlier in this thread: archers and musketeers have the same range, according to Puzz3D. Archers have better accuracy and rate-of-fire. Arquebusiers have reduced range and accuracy in comparison to these two, and in STW MI v1.02 cannot fire in rain. Muskets can, though at a significantly reduced effectiveness.

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In Samurai Warlords mod, neither type of gun can fire in rain.