Skill point strategies

[econ21]

We are capped at 12 skill points, I think (2 each for level 2, 3 and 4; 3 for 5 and 6). That introduces some hard choices, except for the right hand side column of skills - boosting the bodyguard unit - which seems like junk.

It's worth thinking about saving points and trying to get far down the tree but I would like to max out strategist if I could. Being faster than the other guy seems essential if you want to catch him or evade him.

I am rather taken by the sound of siege expert - cutting sieges down by 3 turns sounds very nice. Having just lost virtually my entire army trying to take a well defended castle, I was thinking about starving them out in similar situations. That would require 2 points plus 3 for the prereqs - strategist(1)/infantry commander(1)/ashigaru commander(1).

I also like the sound of intimidating - lowering the enemy's morale. You can get that ability for one point plus 3 for the prereqs strategist(1)/poet (1)/honorable (1).

For my next game, I'd be inclined to make an intimdating siege expert daimyo - with 2 points in honorable for higher honour which gives a diplomatic + loyalty boost and 3 in strategist for the campaign movement speed. Just doable with 12 points.

If multi-stack forces are a feature of the end game, I'd think hard about stealthy (3) for the night attack ability. I assume that allows you to attack one stack in isolation as in BI and M2TW. I had hoped a ninja's subverting an army could achieve the same effect, but it did not (if the two are close enough, even a subverted army can reinforce).* Indeed, stealthy sounds better than intimidating for a general (for a daimyo, honorable is appealing so intimidating costs only one point). In BI, where multi-stack armies proliferated (hordes), night fighters were golden.

One thing I am not sure about is how important command stars are outside of autoresolve. If they boost attack/defence stats as in some of the early TWs, skills that give command stars would be a no brainer. But I seem to recall therother discovering that in RTW they just boost morale, in which case I'd skip them. Combat seems awfully lethal out of the box - I'm more worried about my men being killed than running away.

The exception to disregarding command star skills may be naval combat. Next game, I'll dedicate a pirate/admiral general to lead my main fleet. I am less proficient at naval combat, so need every edge I can get and morale does seem more of an issue (typically no generals I guess?). Plus I'd be more inclined to autoresolve a sea battle than a land one. Strategist seems even more desirable for an admiral than a land commander if the movement bonus works at sea.

So far, I am finding my daimyo does nearly all my fighting. For secondary generals, I guess poet is the best choice. +12% to bushido research per general is pretty powerful - especially early on in the game for the specialist research missions, archery ammo, naval movement, fire arrows etc. It's probably worth putting only 1 point in strategist for this. Having them tag along to reinforce the main army (and so get XP) is probably worth the hassle, at least until they are level 3.


* Subverting armies by ninjas can achieve the same result.