Shogun, Part II

[Youngsun]

Using "Yari samurais" is cheaper and more effective way to deal with enemy daimyo and his body guards.

[Urban Ranger]

I suppose if you just have a spare yari samurai that is hanging around doing nothing What's 10 bodyguards to these men, right?

[Youngsun]

Yari samurais receive massive defence bonus against cavalry considering its own bonus vs. Cav with the penalty the enemy cavalry suffer.(double bonus!!)

If you are sick and tired of playing normal daimyos try "ronins and rebels".

Just type .conan. while you are playing as other daimyo then the "Ronins" are under your command instead of the one you had played(very easy to play so it is highly recommended to do it at Expert level).

[Urban Ranger]

What are you supposed to do when you play the "ronin and rebel" faction? To overthrow the monachy and establish a democratic system?

[Youngsun]

I haven't finished the game as Ronin so I have no idea. Perhaps Japan in endless turmoil as finishing demo with the messege "You ruined Japanese history! you bastard!"?

[Urban Ranger]

That would be way cool!

[Youngsun]

I had little thought about using the battle field engine of Shogun for other Napolenic battle simulations.

Yari cavalry:lancers
Heavy cavalry:cuirassier/Dragoons
Arquebusier/musketeer:Napoleonic ones with bayonets(can form square!! oh yeah!)
only artillery units are completely new.

[Urban Ranger]

What about warrior monks? Maybe elite guards or something

[Urban Ranger]

I remember something that irritates me. Even when you have win a battle decisively by killing the enemy taisho, you still have to wait till the enemy troops have finished running away. I wish they could just end the tactical right there. Or maybe they could throw in variable speed so I don't have to wait so long when I am defending.

I can't remember if I have complained about this before

[Youngsun]

Press Ctrl+T(or was it shift+T?)then battle field time will go a lot faster!!!!

[Kinjiru]

Does anyone else think Geisha are WAY overpowered? They have very high success rates, and even if they don't succeed, they do not get killed, they just keep trying.

I rarely can beat a Geisha with Ninja, so that is a useless tactic. Geisha vs. geisha is the only way to counter.

In every MP game I have played, the first player to get Geishas always wins.

[Youngsun]

True. "Geisha" is one of the most unrealistic parts of the game. I've never played MP so I don't have any clue how people use her. I can only guess if the game has progressed that far Japan might be under contol of 2~3 lords and everyone has vast number of shadow army as well as convential one thus making Geisha sorta power balance breaker. At least you can see enemy Geishas so you can put away your daimyo and heirs from approaching Geishas until you produce one for yourself. Of course that can hinder your strategic moves but I think someone who heavily invested on the infra to produce Geishas deserve to get some advantage over other players. What's your favourite tactics and units Kinjiru?

[Urban Ranger]

Youngsun: *sigh* No icons to click? Maybe we could write a strategic guide just for the hack of it.

[Kinjiru]

I try not to have *favorite* units, but instead let the flow of the game and my strategic situation dictate my force strucutres. However, I do really love those warrior monks!

As far as tactics, I am a very big proponent of using forest cover. I just love to station a bunch of cav in the forests and let the other player come to me. Since only about half my units are out in the open, I let the opponent slaughter them, but in piecemeal fashion. Essentially I try to get my open units to position first and engage. After the initial skirimish I will pull my open guys back a little and re-engage. The opponent always is ahead at this point because when I turn to run away, he can obviously hurt me badly. So, after about half my (open) guys are gone, the opponent becomes confident of his victory and gets sloppy. That is when I bring out my cav. It's great because usually I have withdrawn my open guys enough so that my cav charges in from behind the opponent.

It never ceases to amaze me how often people will fail to make effective use of scouts.My biggest peice of advice to anyone playing MP would be to send out scouts to any possible place where your opponent could hide some troops. There is nothing worse than being hit by a cavalry charge from the woods, or having some arrows suddenly rain down from behind that little cleft you are marching past.

[Urban Ranger]

But there are no scout units, i.e., units with better search and observation abilities. So I am assuming you are suggesting sending out cheapo Ashigaru units to wander about the battlefield. But this could be bad since a lone Ashigaru unit tend to get destroyed quickly.