From Easy to Normal?

[Klaatu]

Anyone have any advice for me. I have played thru the campaign a few times on easy and thought I was ready for the normal settings but keep getting the snot beat out of me. I started with hojo, and within one turn was invaded by takeda and one of the other guys. I did manage to survive and push forward but then the rebels, oda and imagwa hit me even after I've made some alliances. Should I favor a more conservative playstyle as opposed to fast and furious takeovers? What about building buildings versus troop production? Thanks

[Karhu]

From personal experience and reading through the threads it seems that generally the best thing is to build up your army first, to protect your borders and grab that juicy neighbouring province. Then you shift to economic development and developing two, or at the most three, centres for troop production (any more is a duplication of effort and a waste of koku).

I found that overstreching myself in the beginning would always lead to trouble. After exhausting yourself you inevitably get rolled up by a large, intact army from somewhere, at which point everyone else moves in for the kill. There's no quicker way to lose an alliance than to have weakly defended provinces along your ally's borders.

The main thing though is to enjoy playing, try out different strategies, and see what works best for you. Good luck!

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The general claimed the troops owed their victory to him, but in truth they knew it was their gift to the general

[EasyCo]

First, Im bad for the English language...sorry

The Expert I was trying and trying...Everytime i was lost and lost. then I WON and WON.....I was So happy. I was Expert for ALL of them accept the Damn Imagama. I dont why..I just cant.

1.The crops. First Winter to Summer. I like to VERY LOW. then Penitive (Atumn)Back and forth..

2. Lot of people said "your cheating" well I dont think so. The 'BUG PORT'. if you Western
Clan ie Shimazu or the Mori you need the bug port. Usually I dont need it for Eastern Clan

3. Shinobi and MORE an MORE....Try it, youll like it.

4. Use what you can. Utilize speciale units...ie the Oda you can +1 Ashi..PLUS the province Yamato province is all of them +1.And the Hojo is 25% the Castle..USE IT..theres more.

5. Use the best who knows ...Shai and JoBeare http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000697.html http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000723.html

Its funny all the Clans I can use it!!!

5.If you use that damn online place your gonna get hammered to use the IE ITS DIFFERENT. I am so bad against the Humans...I am the best for the IA....LOL!

6. USE ASHI!!! yes thats right. use a Horde method!!

There some more...Like you said, use the thread.

Sorry about the english language.

EasyCo

[BanzaiZAP]

I like to build up a bit. Grab a few easy provinces if they're available, then dig in. Hojo can do this most easily, since they get both rich lands and cheap castles. I end up spending almost equally amongst troops and buildings, a little troop-heavier early on. But when I'm earning 2-3000 koku annually, it's fairly close to 50/50 troops/buildings. I like to have as advanced troops as possible. A fully armored ashigaru unit is the same cost as an unarmored one, and will survive much longer. Longer survival = higher honor which in turn equals even longer survival.... Unfortunately you DO have to take a defensive posture early on, since you won't have as many troops available for conquest. Also, this means that I only hace a couple provinces actually producing troops. Rather than having a spear dojo in every province, I ony have one spear dojo, but it's got an armory, a swordsmith, and a palace.

As Hojo, I try to grab Mutsu from Uesugi as soon as i can, and fortify the rest of the borders. Then I dig in and build up Hitachi for yari and cavalry, build up Shimosa for archers and no-dachi, and turn the little province out on the end of the peninsula into shinobi/ninja/geisha. I dont end up getting monks until later in the game when I take Kaga, or else put up a temple instead of the Sword Dojo in Shimosa.

Works well for me, but you may want to find your own formula. Have fun!

-- B)