Shogun 2: Total War Walkthrough

Shogun 2: Total War
Version: 1.1
Made by egoflux0
egoflux0@gmail.com
===================
|Table of Contents|
===================
X. Changelog
0. Disclaimer / Legal Info      [0000]
1. Playing Tips                 [0001]
2. Clan Information/Strategy    [0002]
2a. Shimazu                     [002a]
2b. Mori                        [002b]
2c. Chosokabe                   [002c]
2d. Hattori*                    [002d]
2e. Oda                         [002e]
2f. Tokugawa                    [002f]
2g. Takeda                      [002g]
2h. Hojo                        [002h]
2i. Uesugi                      [002i]
2j. Date                        [002j]
2k. Ashikaga*                   [002k]
2l. Ikko Ikki*                  [002l]
2z. Minor Clans                 [002z]
3. General Campaign Strategies  [0003]
3a. Economy                     [003a]
3b. Military                    [003b]
3c. Agents                      [003c]
3d. Trading                     [003d]
3e. Politics                    [003e]
3f. Realm Divide                [003f]
3g. Steamrolling                [003g]
4. Coop Campaign                [0004]
5. Province Capturing           [0005]
5a. When to expand              [005a]
5b. When not to expand          [005b]
6. Unit Information             [0006]
7. Battle Guide                 [0007]
7a. Night Attack                [007a]
7b. Hiding                      [007b]
7c. Sieges                      [007c]
7d. Weather/Time/Terrain        [007d]
8. Mastery of the Arts          [0008]
8a. Maximizing Art Research     [008a]
9. Game Problems                [XXXX]
A. FAQ                          [0faq]
B. Final Words                  [finl]
=================================
|X. Changelog                     |
=================================
05.29.2011 - Release version 1.1
Added the playable Ikko Ikki clan information
Added some new, useful campaign playing tips
Added weather/time/terrain section
Added Ikko Ikki section
Added some more info for Takeda and horsemen
Elaborated on initial Oda foreign trade strategy
Added small blurbs about Wako and European Traders
Added more information on when to expand and when not to
Added additional information about how to manage a better economy
Added Mastery of the Arts section
Added information about when to auto-resolve combats in the FAQ
Added info in the FAQ about armies getting stuck at map edges
Minor other fixes (tokugawa's home province for example)
Minor corrections to spelling and grammar
04.28.2011 - Release initial version 1.0
=================================
|0. Disclaimer / Legal Info [0000]|
=================================
This guide is only to be used on www.gamefaqs.com, www.eondev.net, or other
mediums and websites with explicit permission from the author.  Any websites
wishing to copy, in part or in whole, this guide or its contained information,
please email me before hosting said content, thank you!  If I don't get
back to you, by default I am denying your request.
I get all my game information from actually playing the game, learning from my
mistakes and talking about the game with other players.  I do not own any
strategy guides for this game nor have I looked for one on the Internet, this
is all my own creation.  With that said, all the information probably isn't
completely accurate, but should be considered an excellent starting place,
or reference in general.  This game comes with a fairly decent compilation
of information in the form of an encyclopedia which this guide will reference.
There might be some errors, grammar mistakes and of course spelling mishaps.
I apologize ahead of time should these make their way in to the final product.
Of course, anyone can email me with corrections and possibly some additions.
If someone sends information that gets included, I will add credit to that
author and state what part(s) they contributed.  My email is at the top of the
guide.
I own a copy of the Limited Edition of this game, thus I will have information
on the exclusive Hattori clan as well.  On that same note, I have not played
much of the online Avatar Mode.  The primary focus of the guide is the
campaign; however, the general information and strategies here should be
applicable in any online mode you decide to engage in.
Because of the open ended nature of the campaign, it is difficult or possibly
even impossible to write a step-by-step guide on what to do and when.  At any
given point, other clans might behave in unexpected ways which would
nullify a significant portion of any such guide.  At best, this guide could
be used as general information on strategies and what to do in very specific
circumstances.
Towards the end of the document there are some game issues that are
addressed.  There could be information in there that, if mishandled by you
the reader, could permanently and irreversibly damage your computer.  I
will go ahead and let you know that I didn't force you to do anything, only
implied how a solution could be met.  If you are unsure, incapable, or in
any way have no idea what you are doing, stop what you are doing and
immediately try to seek the counsel of someone else that knows more about
computers than you do.  I remove myself from any responsibility that you
do to your own system, game, or anything else.
Finally, this guide was written for the most recent version as of the
beginning of 2011.  It is highly suspect that The Creative Assembly will
release downloadable content (DLC) to possibly unlock additional features
and clans that this guide might not reflect.  For as long as I'm interested
in the game and wish to continue updating this guide, I will attempt to
include new features and content that get released in newer versions of the
guide.
As expected, the first DLC was released on May 26, 2011 which included the
Ikko Ikki faction.
Oh yea, I'll throw this on there for good measure...
Copyright (c) 2011 egoflux0
======================================
|1. Playing Tips                 [0001]|
======================================
This section contains general advice for someone playing the game for the first
couple of times and possibly someone that may have overlooked "that neat
trick".  If you've played this game a bit, you can safely skip this section.
However, there might even be a couple tricks in here you may not know about.
In general, you can hold your mouse over almost anything to get additional
information about, well, almost anything you hold your mouse over!  Use this
on everything you don't completely understand, and I do mean *everything*.
Sometimes you will need to hold your mouse over things for like 10 seconds
before additional information will cycle through the little information
popup.  This is particularily useful, say in combat, where you aren't too
sure what certain abilities do.  Hold your mouse over the activation button
for a couple of seconds to get a couple cycles of information.  Naturally this
guide will attempt to cover most or even all of the abilities of all the
units in the game later on.
Play on easy for your first game or two to get the hang of the game.  There
are multiple difficulty levels available to you, select a modest one and
work your way up from there.  Higher difficulty levels start crippling
your game interface, provide less information to you, and make the campaign
more agressive.
This game is a mix of economy, expansion, agent actions, and battle prowess.
If you aren't so good at one or two of those, try changing your strategy
to take advantage of your stronger aspects.  If you're being militarily crushed
constantly, use another strategy, for example try using agents more
effectively.
This game comes packed with their "encyclopedia" which you can access in game
or on your hard drive.  The location of the main html file is:
%STEAM%\steamapps\common\total war shogun 2\data\encyclopedia\how_to_play.html
I recommend you start there and read until your head can't take it anymore.
I won't lie, there's a lot of information in there.  Having a general idea of
a good portion of the information contained should get you started in a good
direction playing this game.  No, don't memorize everything, just get a
general idea of what's in there.  If you don't want to bother, this guide
should give you the basic necessary understanding anyways.
Don't panic if you're playing the game and access the encyclopedia and see
a lot of gibberish across your screen for a moment.  The game uses a game
library that allows for games to render HTML files in the game itself.
That gibberish you see is graphical data uninitialized.  It should go away in
a second or two then load up your requested information.
The advisor is nice to have for your first couple of play throughs.
Personally, I turned it off after my third game.  I found it more like my
friend that lives with me in my clan giving some background information
and helpful hints about my clan and some tips on what to do.  To me, it
seemingly just gave me more of a feeling of authenticity of being in feudal
Japan rather than a helper.  Your mileage may vary, but I do recommend keeping
it on until you feel like you're ready to go solo.
If you are having a hard time playing the game, try to play a coop campaign.
Coop almost feels like you're cheating over the single player game because
it forges an unbreakable alliance with the other player.  Make sure you trade
with the other player as soon as you can for a boost to income also!
Speaking of things you might forget to do, on the first season...
DO NOT FORGET TO SET YOUR MASTERY OF THE ARTS
Your advisor, if it is on, might accidentally forget to tell you to set what
you are to research until like your second or even third turn.  That's 3
seasons down you forgot to research anything!  Let me repeat this because
I've had several games where I forgot.  Set what you are researching
immediately when you start a new game!  Hit m on the keyboard to open that up.
You can save your camera position on the overland map by pressing SHIFT F9,
SHIFT F10, SHIFT F11, or SHIFT F12.  Once pressed, your current camera
position will be saved and can be recalled by pressing the F key again.  For
example, you can press SHIFT F9 while your camera is over your capital
province.  Later, you may have your camera elsewhere, like over a trade
node far away, but you want to go to your capital, free F9 to recall the
camera position.
You can press the spacebar during gameplay to speed up your units moving
and sometimes instantly move your camera when clicking the minimap (this might
be bugged since sometimes the camera still slides rather than warps when you
click the map).  This is a toggleable setting, so you press the spacebar once
to be in "fast" mode, press it again to revert back to "slow" mode.
Troops do not replentish without a General when in the open field, station
troops in a castle if they lack a leader to recover troop numbers.  Places
with more advanced roads and bigger castles will recover faster.
======================================
|2. Clan Information/Strategy    [0002]|
======================================
Each playable clan has their own starting province and some attribute that
sets it apart from the others.  When the AI controls a clan other than
"Rebels", you can interact with that clan through diplomacy.  Remember that
your goal in the game is to take Kyoto, some other specific provinces and a set
number of additional random provinces.  Some clans you will need to get
rid of, others you can keep peace with as long as they don't have a problem
with you.
If you're playing the game on the longest game setting, you will need to
unite ALL of Japan.  Knowing that, be sure to make friends along the way
while ultimately plotting against them and striking them down at your
convenience when it happens to be inconvenient for them for maximum efficiency.
--------------------------------------
|2a. Shimazu                     [002a]|
--------------------------------------
Home Province: Satsuma
Politics: Peace with Sagara to the north, war with Ito to the east.
Advantages:
Generals have +1 loyalty
Katana Samurai are cheaper to recruit
Katana Heroes can be recruited at higher rank
Katana Samurai can be recruited at higher rank
General Strategy:
The Shimazu are probably the "easiest" clan to play in the campaign.  Now,
notice that the game mentions *starting* difficulty.  Pretty much after the
first season or two, the game can start taking nightmare directions -- even
for this clan.  That being said, the first 2 seasons are always crucial to
starting the game out, even with Shimazu.
First season, set your research, start training some troops.  You should notice
that the Sagara clan to your north is not a threat, yet.  Use that to your
advantage and focus your military to your other border where the Ito clan
is getting ready for a fight.  Remember that alliances or being neutral with
ANY clan is temporary... think of it more like "we won't attack you for a while
as long as you don't attack me for a while".
Even though Shimazu has "cheap" katana samurai, make sure your economy can
handle spamming them.  All samurai are relatively expensive so make sure you
can afford all that upkeep as you begin your quest for Shogun.  Fortunately
for you, if you picked this clan, your all around military power will likely
be able to handle almost any situation since your clan advantage lends great
power to the best all around military unit in the game.  If numbers is your
military game, spamming katanas will likely win you the game on numbers alone.
Just remember, when Realm Divide hits, all your trade income will be shot.
Review your financial status frequently if you're cranking katanas and try
not to exceed your income from taxes and taxes alone in military upkeep.
Strategically, Shimazu have probably one of the best starting locations.
You have ports, close proximity to almost every external trade node on the map
and are "in a corner" meaning you have less borders to worry about initially.
Plus, your first goal is basically to conquer a small island.  Once that's
done, you can use amazing choke points militarily to protect all your assets.
Within the first 4 or 5 seasons, you should put heavy emphasis on getting as
many trade ships on to those trade nodes as possible to secure a strong
economy for the rest of the game.  Don't forget that, based on your navy unit
size setting, you can stack 6 to 10 trade ships on a trade node.  For every
additional trade ship, you will get additional income.  If you can manage to
get even one trade node you will need to send a small navy to defend it sooner
or later.  On the higher difficulties it might be a good idea to have a
support navy camp in close proximities to your docked trade ships on the nodes.
Your trade lanes will likely also get disrupted on occassion, having a
navy handy will help take care of those pirating clans.  Be warned, when this
happens, you will lose that income from that trade lane until the pirates
are handled.  If your economy is frail this can cause disasterous problems
all over your territories... especially if you've been spamming a certain
expensive unit that wields katanas.
-----------------------------------
|2b. Mori                     [002b]|
-----------------------------------
Home Province: Aki
Politics: War with Amako to the north, allied with Ouchi and Nagati to the
west, peace with Kikkawa and Kono to the east
Advantages:
Ships can sail further on the campaign map
Ships cost less to recruit
Ships can be recruited at higher rank
General Strategy:
At first, Mori might not seem the greatest clan to pick.  I mean, the vast
majority of battles will be on land so basically none of your clan abilities
will really set you apart.  However, with a possible superior navy, you have
the potential to strongarm any rival navies.  This means you have a good
chance at controlling possibly *every* trade node on the map.  If you do
that, your economy is set to be very strong for the entire game.  You may
wish to consider pirating rival clans naval trade lanes with each other as
well for a boost to your own economy by conveniently redirecting their
goods and koku to your own coffers.
I should also mention to set your research on the first season and since
we're at war with an enemy with a gold mine right on our doorstep, get
some troops and get ready for battle!
Strategically, Mori are in a fairly good position with fairly close access
to almost every trade node, and a powerful, cheap navy to back that up.
Since you're allied or at peace with the factions to your east and west,
it makes for a convenient focus for you to attempt to eradicate your
foes to the north while acquiring a better economy.  You might have to
play politics a bit since you aren't really in a corner and your allies
will eventually backstab you -- or you might consider doing it yourself!
Try to keep only *one* battlefront, fortunately because of the terrain where
your clan lives, there are many choke points available at almost every
province you can expand in to.  The trick will be to maintain peace
or even ally with other clans that might cause problems as your army will
start moving around and away from other fronts.
Mori has the potential to get a fairly strong economy early on, use that
to your advantage both militarily and politically.  Bribe your way to peace,
bribe enemy armies with metsuke, or just spam military/navy and dominate.
Depending on your game setting, you may wish to only focus eastward towards
Kyoto to win the game.  With that said, you will likely never need to worry
about your western front until getting close to Realm Divide.  Otherwise
you will need to find an opportune time to kill off your old allies to your
west and claim their territory and consider possibly even taking over the
western island completely at some point.  You need caution if you want to
fight that major war since all the clans to your east will likely quickly
grow unhappy with you and cause major wars on your east.  If you have
managed your economy, military, and possibly navy well, you can do this,
but be warned you might find yourself stretched too thin!
----------------------------------------
|2c. Chosokabe                     [002c]|
----------------------------------------
Home Province: Tosa
Politics: War with Kono to the north, war with Ichijo *inside* Tosa,
peace with Miyoshi to the east
Advantages:
Farms produce more income
All bow infantry cost less to recruit and have lower upkeep
Bow infantry can be recruited at higher rank
General Strategy:
You need to notice that Chosokabe have major advantages from their clan
abilities alone.  Farms, which are the basic necessity for a strong
economy give additional income.  That alone makes these guys amazingly
good.  Top that ability with the very potent archer bonuses and you have
the Chosokabe!  A mighty clan in the making, but we have to deal with
some problems at home first.
Your first season will make or break you.  You've got Ichijo *in* Tosa and it
looks like they aren't going anywhere other than to cause you trouble.  They
will need to be dealt with in the first season if possible.  If this battle
goes awry, it will probably be game over unless you can pull an epic defense
out at the battle in Tosa.  Once that is taken care of, time to set your
sights on expansion.
You've got a war to settle to your north which will need to be dealt with
so you will probably want to recruit some troops after you take care of
Ichijo.  Since your clan has that amazing farming bonus it is definitely
a good idea to start upgrading your farms anywhere and everywhere you
expand in to and at your capital right away.
The Chosokabe are on "the other island" and have a decent shot at the trade
nodes but you will likely be in competition for them from the other clans
that started closer.  Still, it isn't impossible to get one or two, and
possibly all of them if you do it right.
Your main military unit should be archers -- lots and lots of archers.  The
cheap ashigaru bow units can just devastate almost every enemy army, and you
can spam them into oblivion all while having a strong economy from farms to
back it up.  When you take territory, throwing a couple bow ashigaru as defense
in your castle can just wreck even overwhelming numbers of attackers by
garrisoning them in the castle walls.  Naturally an army of ONLY archers is
probably not in your best interest, but they will probably be a large majority
of your armies.
Strategically, Chosokabe have the smallest island to unite.  Once that's done
you can basically fortify your island and keep invaders at bay which is a major
advantage over other clans.  Obviously your first goal should be to wipe out
the other clans inhabiting "your island".  They also have some resources which
can be put to good use, including the highly coveted stone resource which is
very scarce throughout Japan.  Basically, kill off your immediate enemies
when you get a chance, flood them with archers and defend with like 2 or 3
archers units depending on difficulty and what you can afford.  When you feel
like you have a good shot and killing off the rest of the clans on your
island, declare war and start mopping them up.  It might be a good idea to
play a bit of politics with any clans on your island before you just outright
declare war.  Check if they happened to trade or allied with any clans from
the mainland.  You probably don't want to go to war with someone and realize
they have 2 or 3 allies on the mainland already.  Try to bribe away their
allies if you can or if you feel confident, just go to war and see what
happens.
If you are having a tough time taking over your island as the starting point,
play the long tutorial campaign.  It will walk you through doing exactly
what I'm attempting to explain here.  The tutorial is a little quirky, but
should give you the basics on what to do.
After you unite your island, it is time to set your sights on the mainland.
Now, before you just randomly run off massacring everyone with your amazing
archer army, we need to pick *who* to pick a fight with.  Unless you caused
some problems earlier, you probably don't have any available enemies.  Now
then, it is time to choose.
Obviously who we can pick must be someone with a naval landing site so that
we can inject our armies in to their land.  Look for beaches along the
mainland's coast and try to pick a clan with a small army or very little
territory.  You may wish to check what sort of political situation your
intended target is in also.  Excellent targets would be a clan with no allies,
one or two provinces, and a small army.  Even better, if you happen to start
a fight with a clan with several enemies you will get some political credit
with the other clans with whom they are already at war with, giving you
some room to breath as you establish a foothold on the mainland.
Once you've taken some land on the mainland, things get a bit more complex.
You will need to be mindful of politics and all your borders, you might
also need to militarily ally with a decent clan nearby to intimidate other
clans from randomly going to war with you unexpectantly.  Start training
samurai archers as soon as you can and start spamming them along with
bow ashigaru.  It won't be long before you're in position to take Kyoto.
Oh, and don't forget to upgrade farms everywhere you go and set your research!
---------------------------------------
|2d. Hattori*                     [002d]|
---------------------------------------
*: You can only play Hattori with the Limited Edition of the game
and after it is activated through Steam with your code.
Home Province: Iga
Politics: Everyone is at peace... for now
Advantages:
All ninja agent actions have +2% chance to succeed
All units can hide more effectively in battle
All normal military units have "kisho training"
All Generals get Night Attack ability (not mentioned in game @ selection)
General Strategy:
The Hattori are in a unique location and have an interesting political
position.  With no enemies from the get-go, you can spend some time bulking
up and getting ready for the inevitable, or take some initiave and start
some fights yourself.
You start with a ninja agent immediately which works very favorably for your
clan (see the ninja agent section for more information).
Hattori starts adjacent to the Ahikaga Shogunate and Kyoto, which makes
for a very intimidating thing in the beginning of the game.  It would be wise
to ally with the current Shogun, as distasteful as that sounds, in order to
intimidate potential rivals from thinking about attacking you unexpectantly.
The Asai clan to your north controls Omi, an incredibly productive and rich
province and makes for a good target for inital conquest.  Then again, there
are provinces to your west under the Tsutsui and Hatakeyana with nice
philosophy bonuses; which would make excellent boosts to your mastery of the
arts -- which by the way you should set on your first turn!
There are many choices available to you from the start, so many of the game
aspects will be up to you if you are this clan.  Personally, I usually choose
to attack Omi first for their incredibly rich farms and boosting my economy
early.  If you go this route, the Ikko clan will be nearby, which initially
isn't much of a problem.  However, if they live long enough, their native
religion could spread to Omi and other territories you might lay claim to
and cause internal religious problems for you.  Thankfully, other clans
don't appreciate the differing of religious opinions either and usually
end up in fights with them.  Fortunately for us sneaky hattori, we can pull
some puppet strings here to assist in the Ikko's eradication.  It would be
a terrible shame to subvert some Ikko armies on the move while "someone"
takes their provinces.  Now, how much you play a direct hand in their
annhilation is up to you.  Usually, other problems will become evident on your
other borders to make them a larger concern.
The Kitabatake and Tsutsui and possibly even the Sakai might declare war
on you causing you to defend from the north, west, and east.  Kitabatake
from Ise is likely since they have a predisposition of negativity towards you
from the beginning of the game.  As you expand, the nearby clans will
frequently attempt to take your territory from that political backlash of
expanding.
Strategically, Hattori have it kind of rough being in the middle of Japan.
If you use kisho ninjas you better be good at micromanaging them in battle.
Unfortunately kishos are very expensive so you usually won't want to spam
them unless you manage an amazing economy.  Fortunately Iga is tucked
away in a corner of a mountain with very inaccessible roads and forests
surrounding it.  This means you can really only be attacked from Asai and
Tsutsui from the beginning, and it takes them a while to get to you without
any roads leading directly to Iga. You can also use the plentiful forests
to ambush incoming armies.
The Hattori also automatically get the ability Night Attack for all their
generals and their Daimyo.  Refer to my Night Attack section for more
information.  If used well, battles completely not in your favor can
be turned around.  This is important because from the start, the Hattori
in general are not well off economically or have the ability to just produce
a mass army to dominate.  Used well, they can use agents and strategy to
tip the scales in their favor.
All in all, the trick with this clan is to try to encase some of your
territory.  For instance, if you take Omi and can focus back on Ise and
then mop up the Tsutsui clan, you have a nice foothold in the middle of Japan
with some territories with no immediate need for defense since they have no
border with rival clans.  Use this to your advantage and make those territories
in to economic powerhouses.  Iga and Omi can become quite wealthy later in the
game, thanks to their ninja schools which indicate you should build Sake Dens
and their upgrades there.  That extra boost to money should help and at the
same time provide you with very powerful ninja agents and kisho ninjas on the
battlefield.  If you're having a hard time using kisho ninjas, refer to the
section on them for some basic help.
Later in the game, other factions from the far east and far west have likely
gone on a rampage becoming very powerful.  If at all possible, keep/make your
alliance to Ashikaga.  If these brutes start war with you, the Shogun will
likely join your side.  Since your ultimate goal is to take Kyoto anyways,
you can use your enemies power to mow down Kyoto's forces for you then you
sort of let your alliance fall apart and you just happen to clean up both
armies.  Dirty work is for the barbarians, let them figure it out then you
clean up!
This is the name of the game for Hattori, mangle politics while managing
agents while you silently raise a massive army of your own.  Since you start
next to Kyoto, you don't need to go very far from your starting position
to win the game, use this to your advantage and bulk up your initial area.
--------------------------------------
|2e. Oda                         [002e]|
--------------------------------------
Home Province: Owari
Politics: War, war everywhere!
Advantages:
Ashigaru have higher morale
Ashigaru recruitment and upkeep costs are reduced
General Strategy:
Oda's abilities alone make them very powerful.  Ashigaru are already the
most cost effective units in the game and usually comprise most of your
army.  Now, with cheaper prices, you can sustain even more of them!  Combine
that with their higher morale and you have a decently powerful peasant army
that doesn't run away the second they start dying!
All this deliciousness of peasantry is