No Gun Shogun - creating the rules for a campaign of suicidal traditionalism

[Peasant Phill]

The parts where I can't decide what to do about rules:

1. Modernisation points. At first I thought it would be easy to keep it at zero. Then I got the game. I now doubt this will be possible for several reasons:

• The economy is tight, samurai units are very expensive, and without a bit of modernisation I will not be able to build up. I think that a degree of leeway will have to be applied to economy.
• Samurai take 2 turns to recruit, and so it will be very hard to recruit any sizeable force if I do not have a good number of recruitment slots. Most slots come from modern military buildings. I'm not sure how feasible it is to limit myself to dojos only. I could allow a few basic modern buildings and then ignore the units they provide ... but that kind of feels like a fuzzy line.
• Research requires modernisation. If I do not modernise a bit I will not get past tier 1, and that means missing out on a lot of economy techs. Also, some techs provide modernisation points. It's easy to draw a line through most of the army techs, but much harder to do the same with the civilian techs. Some, like the tier 3 'tea ceremony', tie in with the traditional campaign nicely.

2. Research. What techs should be acceptable, what should be off-limits.

3. Navies. Even the basic ships are modern. If I play the concept strictly that means I will not be able to have a single navy, full stop. If the AI wakes up and starts sending naval attacks after me, that could be a severe problem. Also, army movement in FotS is pretty slow, and sea transport is one of the cures to that. I may also need to bypass an allied clan blockage if the Shogunate clans expand in the 'wrong' way. However, if I'm messing around with boats, I'll need to keep them competitive with the AI's fleets and that's modernisation. Tricky.

4. Campaign length. I can't decide between short or long. Negative factors being: I'm more likely to survive short, long is more likely to get boring.

5. Ancillaries. Many of the agent and general ancillaries are modern. Should I reject a useful ancillery because it's a modern item, like a British gun? What do I do if I am offered a choice between 2 modern ancillaries?

6. Town buildings. Assuming some modernisation points are allowed, at what point does each family becomes too modern to scape past the rules? Sometimes it is clear, others it is not.


Any ideas? Remember, the aim is fun with the theme whilst surviving for a reasonable amount of time. Dying eventually is acceptable; dying on turn 15 is underwhelming.

1. Modernize, but keep it on the civil/economic side.
2. Clearly western ideas should be off limits. Anything that could be reasonably expected to have been on the Japanese research menu eventually can be researched.
3. S2 had already naban trade ships and cannon bunes. Ships with wooden hulls and solid shells should be allright.
4. Go for a long campaign. You can always quit if you get bored. You have do redo the campaign if you reach the end without satisfactory result.
5. When having a choice between a traditional and a modern ancillary, always go for the traditional one. When you only have the choice between 2 modern ones, use the Maltz' reload trick until you get a choice.
6. I don't know buildings from the top of my head. Just use common sense.