Your Shogun 2 Tactics

[Fooz]

its my first time playing a Strategy game and i was wondering how others play them?

i'm currently the Uesugi Clan (Monk Based Clan) and i had been building up one province for about 18 years, without attacking anyone (although i have had people attack me, i have yet to lose) i was building an army up to just go and dominate other provinces, and in 3 turns so far i have taken over 3 other provinces taking minimal casualties along the way.

i have tried my hand at using a ninja, but he got executed on his second mission -__-, but i am going to hire another and use him, as i have seen other people use them to great effect.

so everyone, what are/were you/your tactics for playing the game?

if you have played it with a few different clans, then tell me what was your most successful clan?

 

[Toasty Virus]

I actually just picked this game up today, Started as Oda and got destroyed in my second turn.

I'll be watching this thread for advice

 

[Fooz]

I actually just picked this game up today, Started as Oda and got destroyed in my second turn.

I'll be watching this thread for advice

lol, i was lucky, no-one came near me for a while, so i got to build up my clan a bit, hopefully there is some good advice on here huh?

 

[Lawbringer]

Best advice is to max out on economy for first few turns, then churn out a few Ashigaru armies - keep then as small as possible, but with as many armies as you have generals. Generals can appear after combat if you don't already have one, sometimes.

Keep this up, with all research going into Chi until eventually the enemies start to become a little too tough to defeat comfortably, then switch into full military mode and build some large samurai armies. If you do this right, you should easily find yourself with a large number of provinces in early game and with a decent army to defend it.

-Do try to capture as many trade ports as possible. This is worth valuable koku as everyone will want to trade with you if you have resources.
-Do not start fights with too many enemies at once. Be prepared to make large concessions if you need to as otherwise you will find yourself swamped when three/four enemies all find allies and swarm you.

You don't need *full* armies at the start of the game. A nice blend of yari and bow ashigaru with your general should see you attain victory over the majority of your opponents without too much trouble.

PS - BEWARE of the ganging up event at endgame. You will know it is happening from the gradually filling 'notoriety bar'. The game will give you many reminders of this. When it gets 'nearly' full, just stop. Stop and make peace with everyone. Build your economy, repair your armies, upgrade your armour, weapons etc. Build at least two decent fleets (northern and southern coast) to prevent enemies sailing past you, then prepare for...ahem...total war!

How's that?

Oh...first time this was with Uesugi, btw. COmpleted without training a single Samurai (warrior monks for the win!)

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

I thought about getting Shogun 2, but my forays into Medieval 2 were less than successful. I guess I'm just bad at the economy management side. I turn on the auto build options so the computer can take care of it but I still end up in debt every time I try.

 

[Fooz]

Best advice is to max out on economy for first few turns, then churn out a few Ashigaru armies - keep then as small as possible, but with as many armies as you have generals. Generals can appear after combat if you don't already have one, sometimes.

Keep this up, with all research going into Chi until eventually the enemies start to become a little too tough to defeat comfortably, then switch into full military mode and build some large samurai armies. If you do this right, you should easily find yourself with a large number of provinces in early game and with a decent army to defend it.

-Do try to capture as many trade ports as possible. This is worth valuable koku as everyone will want to trade with you if you have resources.
-Do not start fights with too many enemies at once. Be prepared to make large concessions if you need to as otherwise you will find yourself swamped when three/four enemies all find allies and swarm you.

You don't need *full* armies at the start of the game. A nice blend of yari and bow ashigaru with your general should see you attain victory over the majority of your opponents without too much trouble.


PS - BEWARE of the ganging up event at endgame. You will know it is happening from the gradually filling 'notoriety bar'. The game will give you many reminders of this. When it gets 'nearly' full, just stop. Stop and make peace with everyone. Build your economy, repair your armies, upgrade your armour, weapons etc. Build at least two decent fleets (northern and southern coast) to prevent enemies sailing past you, then prepare for...ahem...total war!

How's that?

Oh...first time this was with Uesugi, btw. COmpleted without training a single Samurai (warrior monks for the win!)

wow man thanks for the advice, yeah i got some warrior monks because i did a mission, and they completely own, im just about to build the building that allows me to recruit them, then i becoming shogunate will be a cake walk

 

[Jandau]

so everyone, what are/were you/your tactics for playing the game?

1. Spam Ninjas and Monks. You can win the game without declaring war on anyone. Have your Ninjas sabotage any and all Rice farms they can find and to keep them sabotaged, as well as any markets or temples, or anything that gives happiness or money. Repairing heavily damaged buildings costs a lot of money and you'll soon bankrupt the target clan. Then their public order will start to drop due to starvation and uprisings will start. Meanwhile, your Monks should go around demoralizing armies and converting agents to train themselves up. Once they get the +4 to Inciting Unrest skill, just send them to a province with negative public order and have them start a riot. I've wiped out entire major clans without attacking them once, just mopping up the rebels and minor clans that take over their provinces.

2. Early on, your best bet is to attack when they aren't looking. The AI will often leave their cities poorly defended and you can sweep in and lay down the pain beofore they can react. In my Usuegi campaign, I jumped on Takeda while their whole army was south, took 2 of their 3 provinces and forced them to become my vassals, without ever facing their army. All those Ninjas you've been building can help here by sabotaging armies in the field and giving you free reign.

3. Try to fight defensive battles if you can. If you're fighting a war, it's only a matter of time before the AI attacks you. If you can predict where the attack will come, you can station a sizeable force in that town and defend from the castle. If two armies of equal strenght fight over a castle, the defender has a vast advantage and can wipe the floor with the attacker while suffering only minimal casualties. Then, when the enemy's main armies are dead and broken, just swoop in on his poorly defended castles.

4. Don't spam Samurai early on. It's tempting to start training Samurai from Turn 1, but it'll ruin your economy. Stick with Ashigaru units at start and then gradually start adding in Samurai as you expand and get a higher income. Eventually you want an all-Samurai/Monk/Hero army (unless you're Oda), but no need to rush it.

5. GET THE TRADE NODES! On Turn 1, upgrade your port. As soon as it can build Bow Kobayas, start building them and sending one to each and every trade node on the map. If you get to one and there's nobody there, park your Kobaya on it. If someone is there, park your Kobaya nearby and wait in case they move or are chased away. Then get Trade Ships and get that sweet sweet trade income rolling. Just remember to mix in some Kobayas and Bunes with your Trade ships, those Pirates can be nasty.

6. Beware the Realm Divide. It's the downright atrocious hit to your diplomacy that occurs when you capture Kyoto or get to 16 provinces. Pretty much everyone except your closest allies will declare war on you. If you find this mechanic to be annoying and/or unfair, look up a mod for it that changes or removes it.

7. Either have more Cavalry than the enemy, or don't have any at all. Cavalry is only good if it can operate freely and it can only do that once it whoops the enemy cavalry's arse. When playing as Takeda (better cavalry units) my 5 Katana Cavalry would quickly establish dominance over the enemy's excuse for cavalry and proceed to harass, flank and destroy the opposing infantry and archers. Even Spearmen aren't much of a threat if charged from behind. In siege defences, deploy your cavalry outside the walls and have them hunt Archers. The AI will sometimes deploy isolated groups of archers that are easy to mop up.

8. NEVER BREAK ALLIANCES! The diplomacy hit you take is awful. Also, don't ally with clans who might declare war on each other, because then you'll have to pick a side and betray the other guy. It's best to pick one strong clan which doesn't hold any of your Victory locations, ally with them, and then ally with their allies/vassals. That way you can be fairly sure your allies won't go homicidal on each other.

Hope this helps. If you have any more specific questions, I'll gladly help.

 

[Fooz]

so everyone, what are/were you/your tactics for playing the game?

1. Spam Ninjas and Monks. You can win the game without declaring war on anyone. Have your Ninjas sabotage any and all Rice farms they can find and to keep them sabotaged, as well as any markets or temples, or anything that gives happiness or money. Repairing heavily damaged buildings costs a lot of money and you'll soon bankrupt the target clan. Then their public order will start to drop due to starvation and uprisings will start. Meanwhile, your Monks should go around demoralizing armies and converting agents to train themselves up. Once they get the +4 to Inciting Unrest skill, just send them to a province with negative public order and have them start a riot. I've wiped out entire major clans without attacking them once, just mopping up the rebels and minor clans that take over their provinces.

2. Early on, your best bet is to attack when they aren't looking. The AI will often leave their cities poorly defended and you can sweep in and lay down the pain beofore they can react. In my Usuegi campaign, I jumped on Takeda while their whole army was south, took 2 of their 3 provinces and forced them to become my vassals, without ever facing their army. All those Ninjas you've been building can help here by sabotaging armies in the field and giving you free reign.

3. Try to fight defensive battles if you can. If you're fighting a war, it's only a matter of time before the AI attacks you. If you can predict where the attack will come, you can station a sizeable force in that town and defend from the castle. If two armies of equal strenght fight over a castle, the defender has a vast advantage and can wipe the floor with the attacker while suffering only minimal casualties. Then, when the enemy's main armies are dead and broken, just swoop in on his poorly defended castles.

4. Don't spam Samurai early on. It's tempting to start training Samurai from Turn 1, but it'll ruin your economy. Stick with Ashigaru units at start and then gradually start adding in Samurai as you expand and get a higher income. Eventually you want an all-Samurai/Monk/Hero army (unless you're Oda), but no need to rush it.

5. GET THE TRADE NODES! On Turn 1, upgrade your port. As soon as it can build Bow Kobayas, start building them and sending one to each and every trade node on the map. If you get to one and there's nobody there, park your Kobaya on it. If someone is there, park your Kobaya nearby and wait in case they move or are chased away. Then get Trade Ships and get that sweet sweet trade income rolling. Just remember to mix in some Kobayas and Bunes with your Trade ships, those Pirates can be nasty.

6. Beware the Realm Divide. It's the downright atrocious hit to your diplomacy that occurs when you capture Kyoto or get to 16 provinces. Pretty much everyone except your closest allies will declare war on you. If you find this mechanic to be annoying and/or unfair, look up a mod for it that changes or removes it.

7. Either have more Cavalry than the enemy, or don't have any at all. Cavalry is only good if it can operate freely and it can only do that once it whoops the enemy cavalry's arse. When playing as Takeda (better cavalry units) my 5 Katana Cavalry would quickly establish dominance over the enemy's excuse for cavalry and proceed to harass, flank and destroy the opposing infantry and archers. Even Spearmen aren't much of a threat if charged from behind. In siege defences, deploy your cavalry outside the walls and have them hunt Archers. The AI will sometimes deploy isolated groups of archers that are easy to mop up.

8. NEVER BREAK ALLIANCES! The diplomacy hit you take is awful. Also, don't ally with clans who might declare war on each other, because then you'll have to pick a side and betray the other guy. It's best to pick one strong clan which doesn't hold any of your Victory locations, ally with them, and then ally with their allies/vassals. That way you can be fairly sure your allies won't go homicidal on each other.

Hope this helps. If you have any more specific questions, I'll gladly help.

damn man, you seem like some Shogun 2 Guru, and so far i have been pretty successful/Lucky with what i have been doing, except my trade has gone downhill, i used to have a good trade income, but now all my trade roots are being pirated and my ships destroyed which is fairly annoying, but i am building up a fleet slowly but surely, just trying to keep within my means, dont want to build a huge navy and then end up bankrupt.

 

[Je Suis Ubermonkey]

Do not play as Oda.
DO NOT PLAY AS ODA!

Oh God. The trade nodes are out of reach, I'm surrounded trying to build an economy whilst under attack, I have nothing but ashigaru to defend with, vassals keep backstabbing me, my trade routes are raided, my only dependable allies are Kyoto and the Date; AAARGH.

I was so near to an easy victory until Takeda attacked Tokugawa (my decent vassal) and I got dragged in, just as Ito landed an invasion force and Urakami started marching samurai forces at me.

Why does the AI hate me so?

My tactics at this point are to defend two key cities. Everything else is expendable; it has to be.

Here's a tip: For the same price you can outnumber yari samurai with yari ashigaru 4:1. Zerg rush much? kekekekekeke.


The stupid thing is I can blitz every other Total War game on very hard in my sleep. I got medallion of the imperial psychopath on normal with ease. But Shogun...

 

[oplinger]

tac....tics?

...I just built lots of dudes and smashed them into other dudes. ...I won 100% of the time.

But outside of battle tactics, don't upgrade your cities ASAP, you'll ruin your food. And take trade nodes ASAP, and trade like crazy.

...That's kinda all I did. It made me stop playing the game. Maybe wait for a couple updates. (This was on the hardest difficulty mind you. I think something may have been wrong on release.)

 

[LostCrusader]

Focus on trade early, try to keep peace with the majority of your neighbors, and expand your territory intelligently.
For Uesugi, expand right first while maintaining peace as long as you can to the left, particularly with the Takeda (no matter who I have played, they will expand rather explosively in a direction unless they have a good ally on that border).
For Oda, who are a very bad beginner clan, try to get an alliance with as many neighbors as possible and focus on only being at war on only one front.
My general strategy has been very successful for every total war game I have played where I am very defensive and keep alliances around so that I can focus my main armies in defending 1 or 2 castles. I wait for the computers to attack me with what ever they have, and because their not the greatest siegers I usually kill 75-90% of their troops after each battle. Then I push up to the next town.

 

[Jandau]

damn man, you seem like some Shogun 2 Guru, and so far i have been pretty successful/Lucky with what i have been doing, except my trade has gone downhill, i used to have a good trade income, but now all my trade roots are being pirated and my ships destroyed which is fairly annoying, but i am building up a fleet slowly but surely, just trying to keep within my means, dont want to build a huge navy and then end up bankrupt.

Yeah, piracy sucks. The only thing I can suggest it quickly whipping up a Navy stack, get a general on it (you do know generals can lead naal stacks as well as regular armies, right?) and go hunting. It will cost you money, but you'll likely end up with some captured ships at the end of the day, which can then be used to guard your trade nodes. In general, piracy is bearable, but don't lose the nodes. I generally have 3-4 Bow Kobayas per node, with the rest being Trade ships. This tends to deterr most attacks.

One more thing, you mentioned you spent the first 18 years in your starter province building up. Don't do that. Look at the diplomacy screen, see who is allied with who and try to pick off nearby minor clans without any significant allies. Always have expansion in mind. However, don't go too fast, becuase you'll get a diplomacy penalty for rapid expansion. This goes down over time, so don't worry about it too much, just don't let it get out of hand.

Here's another trick: Let's say you want to fight a small clan. Let's call them Clan Douchebag. However, Douchebag is allied with a huge major clan like Takeda, whom you do not want to fight. If you declare war on Douchebag, they'll call Takeda for help. You COULD try allying with the Takeda so they pick your side in the war, or getting one of them to break the Alliance. But that's for pussies. What you WANT to do is look for another weak clan who is allied with Douchebag, but NOT Allied with anyone major. Let's call them Clan Gimp. Declaring war on the Gimp will put you at war with Douchebag, but since you didn't declare war on Douchebag, you aren't at war with Takeda. I'm not sure if this made much sense to you, but if it did, you just got a useful tool.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Now for the battlefield:

You have to remember that Ashigaru are not shock troopers! They do not have high morale and are not very skilled in combat. If they enter direct face to face combat with any other unit than other Ashigaru they will rout nearly immediately. Which will have a very large effect on your entire army. Try to use ashigaru for flank attacks only.

They're good for a screen against cav as well, especially if you have have your own cav hit the enemy cav from the flanks while they're held on the spears.

I often use my spear ashigaru to tangle up enemy units so I can hit them with concentrations of naginata armed shock troops. It's certainly rough on the ashigaru but it's not like they're hard to replace.

When using cavalry it is important to note that they are not meant for charging directly into the enemy and staying in combat. You need your cavalry to kind of stab the enemy at it's weak points. Your cavalry is most effective when you attack weak targets that break under alot of pressure very quickly. Than it is just lather-rinse-repeat.

Cav is also supremely useful for mopping up broken/routing units so they don't reappear next turn and torch something important in your province.