Sengoku - Sword of the Shogun, any advice?

[socralynnek]

Never seen an AI taking the Daimyo out of the capital! So if you see an enemy capital without Barracks, you know for sure, that the daimyo is still Daimyo-1! Can't remember which unit can give you a GA, got mine from a wonder!

 

[Tony595]

i just mass produced ninjas and attacked the capitals, even those this sounds like a cheap way to win, it was still harder than i thought.

 

[LLXerxes]

Play as the Oda! They rock!

 

[Zcylen]

man! this one is real hard!

I use my daimyo to explore and kill some barbarians, with +2 move a get a lot of free techs
in the early game you must destroy the capital of your neighbors ASAP but be sure to have at least 2 or 3 settler to grab the land, otherwise, the rest of the families will send theirs

 

[tim hicks]

Xerses wrote :-
Play as the Oda! They rock!

The Oda have plenty of space, but no Iron nearby, and without Iron you can't get anywhere in the game.

 

[socralynnek]

I prefer the Takeda. Good starting position. Make sure you get iron and then...
And also use your daimyo to explore in the beginning, so you get the contacts to buy and sell tech.

 

[LLXerxes]

TIm hicks wrote
The Oda have plenty of space, but no Iron nearby, and without Iron you can't get anywhere in the game.

Yes, I noticed this, too. The O da are in the middle of the thing. They can easily move throughout the thing. So, if they have a good starting positoin, and good terrain, ect. they should be able to settle all over. (especailly on the little islands, and in lands to the north.
In the two games I won, (diplomatic both times )
I had 9 and 10 percent of the land in my borders. The roockin' almost never fail!

 

[Snetsinger]

Date is my favourite tribe, easy to keep yourself from having to deal with 2 front wars. I think it's also important to build the war council even if it's just to keep it out of the AI's hands

 

[nullspace]

Takeda has some very nice territory. I played on a difficulty that was easy for me, but I was able to settle a very large area without fighting. I think I was able to get 6 luxuries, iron, and jade just by settling. I also had some very strong cities in the mountains where there were food bonuses. At that point, I just built and out-researched everyone else to get to mounted samurai. With all those luxuries and marketplaces, many cities were at size 12 and very productive. Everyone lacked either the techs or the iron to build samurai spearmen, so I mobilized, built and upgraded tons of mounted samurai, and I easily conquered japan. I'll have to try this scenario again on Demigod or Deity.

 

[Zandrew]

I've read lots of posts that praise Takeda, they're one of the favorites. My first game was with the Hojo (regent) who start next to Takeda and share much of the same great territory. I was soon attacked by them and had to sue for peace while I built up to crush them 20 turns later. I've also played as the Mori (monarch) at the southern end of the island. Less cramped there but the Hojo were more fun. Got domination wins.
I highly recommend using the Daimyo, carefully. Be prepared to reload or the game's over. You can make your own rules about this: I chose to reload if necessary, but not retry lost battles. If you're carefull enough he shouldn't lose, but you never know with the RNG. You can certainly win the game without him, but he's too much fun to leave couped up in the palace.

 

[a4phantom]

I like taking all there other cities first that way I won't have to build my own cities in the void thats left once you kill a civ off

I agree, if you go for the heart right away you spend all your energy clearing out territory for other clans to expand. So take the good cities and then destroy the capital. The only thing I hate about this excellent scenerio is that you can't take the enemy capital, so if someone else builds an essential wonder you can't take it.

 

[a4phantom]

I don't understand why you'd put the Daimyo in an Army--you can't get him back out later. Can you even upgrade it while still in the Army?

No you can't, and if you put your fully upgraded Shogun X in an army he loses his all terrain capability, even if he's armied with Yambushi who have it as well. So if you use your Daimyo actively, don't put him in an army. But if you only want to keep him safe, armying him with two or three samurai will make him and your capital pretty impregnable - cannot be pregnated without a massive force.

On the other hand, this is a scenario where armies are really useful. Constrained land area, lots of rivals around you and you're going to be at war with someone most of the time. I've now finished the game I mentioned above win a domination win. Ended the game with 5 armies in the field, 4 from great leaders and 1 I built via the Academy. 3 of them were samurai and 2 were mounted samurai. With them together plus a few odd units as occupation forces I could have wiped out any of my rivals but it wasn't necessary or my goal. Game ended just after ninjas became available so I didn't have much chance to explore how they worked.

I have a couple of Mounted Samurai armies and a few more of two Samurai gunmen (not going to try to spell it) and two Samurai Warriors for extra HP. Strangely in one of them the Samurai Warrior does the fighting instead of one of the Samurai gunmen who outclasses him by +3/+1. If anyone can tell me how an army decides which units to use first, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Hygro]

I never used my Daimyo in a military sense until I added him to an Army. I feel it's too risky having him running around as a single unit.

By doing this you lose the Daimyo's special abilities that make him worth using. Without these abilities, why bother?

 

[a4phantom]

By doing this you lose the Daimyo's special abilities that make him worth using. Without these abilities, why bother?

I agree with you, but my aggressive use of my daimyo meant that I lost twice when he attacked a very lucky unit. In a multiplayer game where you cannot simply load from the beginning of the turn, it might be wise to focus more on protecting your daimyo and sticking some bodyguards to him in an army. It's the difficulty of having your King and Queen in one piece.

 

[a4phantom]

Ninjas are about the only thing I've seen that can knock off a yamabushi sitting on a mountain top. I hate those guys, running around stealing my workers (can't guard each one when you've got 50+ running around on auto).

If I'm not mistaken, yama-bushi means "mountain warrior". I don't mind them stealing my workers, although I've noticed that sometimes they kill (disband) them so I can't take them back, but the jerks tend to burn the cities they take. The mori did this to me a couple of times (I have the tech tree complete and am near a domination victory, so I declared war on everyone). Takeda rule.

What makes ninja good for killing yamabushi on mountains? They only have a 1 advantage (6 attack to 5 defense), more than overwhelmed by the mountain defense bonus, and the yamabushi can see them coming due to detection. I would rather use samurai or mounted samurai, but if there is something about the ninja that helps against yamabushi it'll save me some lost samurai. As it is, the only point I see to the ninja is covert warfare, pillaging and attacking vulnerable units and underdeveloped daimyo of a tribe you want to weaken without declaring war on.

EDIT: I seem to have killed another thread.

 

[a4phantom]

I'm playing my third round of Sengoku (second as Regent) and has anyone else noticed that the AIs don't really seem to try? No AI city advances beyond 6ish, their militaries have a few Samurai Archers at best, often their cities are not even connected. I know the AIs suffer a disadvantage from not using the daimyo to explore, pop goody huts, and wipe out barbarians, but this is ridiculous.

 

[King_MJS]

I played this scenario for the first time yesterday, and found it extremely easy.
I rushed for the War Council and won will every vote except for my election opponents and a few abstained.
But it was only on Warlord..

 

[thestonesfan]

I played Oda on Monarch, and it was a lengthy campaign. As long as you expand relatively quickly at the beginning, you should be surrounded by several weak civs.

Due to the AI's inability to use armies, you really don't have an excuse to lose this one.

The Mori and the Uesegi also got quite powerful, and the strong defensive units make battles really drawn out. You're best off to get your conquering done before everyone gets Arquebusiers. But even when they can build them, they seem to waste their money on Ninjas, ninjas, and more ninjas.

Next time through, I'm modding it so that the damn Yamabushi's can't pillage. Cripes-a-mighty that is annoying.

 

[a4phantom]

Next time through, I'm modding it so that the damn Yamabushi's can't pillage. Cripes-a-mighty that is annoying.

Makes sense for Buddist monks

 

[Cuivienen]

I read before that you could get a Golden Age from Building the Great Wall, but I am so far behind in Tech, that I'll never be able to build a Great Wonder, are there any units that can give you a GA ?

Also, has anyone managed to capture an opposing Capital ?, I was way behind in Tech, so attacked the Oda with the intention of Capturing their Great Library. Sadly though when I killed off the Daimo, the Civ crumbled to rubble.

Is there any way to get him out of the capital ?

This question is pretty old, but... You can only trigger a GA in Sengoku by building a Wonder. Any Wonder will do, as the Shogunates have no civ traits. There are no UUs or GA-triggering units.