Darkkn said:
Only thing i'm not digging about this game is the fact that campaign only has one victory condition(yeah, makes kinda sense since game is about combat), but i would have liked more CIV-like victory conditions as an option.
I'll second this. I had an epic 2 part battle for Kyoto in the Summer of 1575. I converged my entire army on the capital, 4 generals each with ~4000 men. During the siege, the Shogunate sallied an army to meet me outside the castle. The first battle was an absolute massacre, his veteran/xp units utterly crushed my army. I only pulled off a Pyrrhic victory when my reinforcements came in and managed to kill his general, forcing a rout. It's incredibly painful to watch the unstoppable domino effects of all your units routing after never having lost a single battle for the entire campaign.
While he managed to eliminate one of my 4 armies, I pressed on the siege, and won it rather easily. Had the AI not pulled out of the castle, I probably would have lost the battle just due to the fact that it takes so long to get reinforcements in time.
Unfortunately I'm a total dofus, and forgot that I need 25 provinces to win (I only had 17~). So while my campaign is technically a loss, I still consider it a moral victory for taking Kyoto.
A few tips/points.
- Metsuke (secret police) are ridiculously useful. When I moved from my Chosokabe island to the mainland, I just bought out every province I could. I managed to take 6 in total without losing a single man. Also, being able to buy out invading armies can quickly give you a numerical advantage. Try and level up your agents quickly by giving them lots of easy tasks like bribing a small single unit enemy force.
- Careful with your cavalry. I never got the higher tier units, but Yari and Light cavalry have a tendency to get 'stuck' in the unit you tell them to charge. Be very careful if you're flanking enemy yari. I lost at least one unit to a failed hit and run flank where my cavalry got stuck in the enemy unit, and subsequently beat down.
- Archers are your best friend for attacking castles. March them up first, engage the enemy range units until one side routs or runs out of arrows, then go in with your infantry. Also, when scaling the walls, try and attack from as many sides as possible, avoid bottle necking your forces on one wall. A favorite tactic of mine is to move my ashigaeru yari to engage the main defending force, then sneak some katana units around back. My yari will hold the defenders in place while the katana units hit them from behind.
- Know when to use 'rally'. Nothing sucks more than using it to save 1 unit of archers when everyone else decides to pack up and bail 30 seconds later.
- Upgrade your unit types - This was probably my biggest problem. Ashigaeru units are awesome early game, but you have to switch to Samurai / high tier units as soon as you can. Yes they are expensive and take more time to recruit, but ashigaeru units rout like there's no tomorrow. I learned this the hard way.
- Always be observant of faction movements, have metsuke/ninja keeping an eye on places. That massive defending force you've been watching may get taken over by another faction, who suffers great losses to claim it. Move in when the situation dictates.
- Chosokabe specific, consolidate your island as fast as you can, then prep an invasion force for the mainland. I took way too long to get off the island (somewhere around 1560) and I ended up failing because of this. Alliances are a great way to keep your back protected.
Going to start a new campaign, so fun.
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