Shogun 2: Total War
Version: 1.1
Made by egoflux0
egoflux0@gmail.com
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|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]
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|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 not without it's drawbacks.  You're
up to your neck with people that want to do you in right away from all sides!
If you're not careful on the first season with what you do, you could be
committing seppuku by season 2 as you're attacked from any and all enemies
at once!
Put your peasants to work right away and start recruiting them basically
non-stop throughout the game starting from season 1.  I would highly recommend
that you fortify Owari with your army and wait and see what your enemies do.
Sometimes they will attack, sometimes they will all attack, othertimes they
get wiped out by someone else.  Whatever you do, do NOT under any circumstance
move your army away in its entirety.  You have like a 99% chance to lose Owari
unless your sole garrison of samurai retainers can stave off 3 or 4 units of
yaris and archers from each attacker that comes your way the next season!
Strategically, Oda demands power in numbers.  Recruit peasants until you have
many, many stacks of ashigaru.  Owari's position is fairly nice since
everywhere you will be expanding eastward has very nice choke points.  You
will likely want to take South Shinano for their stone and choke point.
The Kiso clan almost never expands and just fortifies, so you might need some
bulk to take that province, but once you have it, it makes for a great turtling
position and Kiso probably upgraded the castle to boot.  Nice house, we'll
take it!
If you can keep peace with your neighbors to the west for just long enough
while you make your way east, you will have a good chance at the Shogunate.
Continue your expansion eastward until you're happy with your expansion.
If you can capture all of eastern Japan, go for it, you should definitely
have enough ashigaru to allow this.  Unfortunately, Realm Divide will happen
by that time, and you will probably have an army of clans very mad at you
by that time anyways from your expansion.  The best bet is to expand east
in to good choke points, ally or make peace with the east clans, then focus
back towards Kyoto.  This way when Realm Divide happens you can happily
defend your eastern front with little problems.
Normally I end up severing Japan in half with my clan as Oda.  The Ikko
become incredibly annoying and usually have to go sooner or later.  If that
happens, you'll expand to the north shore while your normal expansion takes
you to the south shore, effectively cutting Japan in half.  This isn't
necessarily a bad thing, but can make for awkward army movements should
you need to shuffle the east force with the west force.  The worst part about
cutting Japan in half is that you can't play politics as much with the
other clans.  It is difficult to impossible for a clan to the west get in
to a fight with the clan to the east -- meaning less enemies for clans
on both sides of... well YOU.  When the AI has few enemies, they will usually
find a good excuse to fight you instead of each other.
With your mountains of ashigaru, you can usually take a good number of enemies,
but fighting everyone before Realm Divide might be too much.  Fortunately
in the beginning of the game you will have contact with many clans allowing
for you to trade a ton with everyone making your economy very good.  Lots
of money means lots of peasants.  Be careful not to rely on trade too much
since your trade partners will be dropping like flies before long and their
trade income will be gone with them.
Speaking of trade, Oda is generally too far from the foreign trade nodes
for that to be a huge priority.  It is not impossible to get foreign trade,
or even dominate all of the nodes, but it will take some effort and some
time before you can get boats to almost all of them.  On the plus side, since
you're basically in the center of Japan, you can choose which of the foreign
goods you'd like to prioritize.  Unfortunately, by the time you crank some
trade ships, they might already be taken (especially true in higher
difficulties).  With your copious, cheap ashigaru, you probably won't need
the trade economic boost for a while anyways.
If you want to try for them, the extra income is always nice, but for sake of
argument, they are usually too far out of the way to make them a huge
priority.  If you decide to go for them early, immediately upgrade your ports
to trade ports and train trade ships.  Since you're at war with everyone,
getting them away from your shorelines might require some naval power as well.
If you're fighting on land, which you probably are, you might not be able
to afford a decent navy and will likely lose time and money just trying to
get them out to the trade spots.  Several seasons in to the game and you
want some foreign trade, you can usually camp a trade ship or two near trade
nodes with a small naval fleet and wait for spots to open up.  As factions
die away, you can get some opportunities to take over their spots since you're
conveniently nearby when their spot opens up.
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|2f. Tokugawa                    [002f]|
--------------------------------------
Home Province: Mikawa
Politics: War with Oda to the north, we're vassal of Imagawa to the south!
Advantages:
Metsuke have +2% chance for their actions
Diplomacy has an initial bonus
Kisho ninja are cheaper for recruiting and for upkeep
Kisho ninja can be recruited at higher rank
General Strategy:
To be totally honest, Tokugawa is likely the hargest clan to play as.  You
start as a vassal of another clan which takes half your income and restricts
you from starting any wars on your own.  Worse, you *must* join a war against
anyone that declares war on Imagawa.  This means that your only chance at
salvation is to destroy your master clan.  Naturally, he won't go without a
fight -- the only war you can start is with him!
So, from the onset, you really only have to deal with Oda to your north since
you start at war with him.  You probably don't want to let Imagawa take care
of him since then you will be sandwhiched and have nowhere to expand to until
you break free from the master.  The tricky part of Tokugawa is knowing when
exactly to start war with Imagawa and find your independence.  It also may
come to pass they he declares war on you for whatever reason, so it is best
to bulk up until you're ready for him.  Until then, hope that no other clan
starts wars with him, otherwise you get dragged in to that combat when you
might not be ready for it -- another incentive to not wait too long to take
care of Imagawa.
Strategically, you're in the middle of the country.  Lots of trading
opportunities will arise and you should take advantage of them.  Unlike Oda,
you can't just spam ashigaru to win, you will need to be crafty with diplomacy
or have superior battlefield tactics to win with Tokugawa.
Once you break free from Imagawa, the same general strategy can be applied
from the Oda section.  Split the country in half, expand east, use choke
points, and take Kyoto for the win!
It should be noted that Tokugawa is generally too far from the trade nodes.
Though foreign trade is profitable, you will likely be unable to get a node
at all.  It isn't impossible to get, but with such a long trade route,
patrolling the lane might be more bother than what is worth because then you
might need to fund a navy to protect it.  At the end of the day, I usually
just focus on ground forces and farming for my economy as Tokugawa.
If you are having a tough time with this clan, try to coop campaign with
someone.  Have them pick Oda and then you can both focus on Imagawa
immediately. Once you've been broken free, dominate the daylights out of
Japan with your new friend!
In coop campaign, make sure you remind your friend to set his art mastery.
Which is of course something you should do as well.
--------------------------------------
|2g. Takeda                      [002g]|
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Home Province: Kai
Politics: Uneasy peace almost everywhere, threats from the north
Advantages:
Cavalry get improved morale
Cavalry are cheaper to recruit, and cheaper upkeep
Cavalry can be recruited at higher rank
General Strategy:
The Takeda have powerful horses which you may wish to take advantage of.
Personally, I usually find mounted armies generally too expensive to maintain,
so Takeda's clan ability mitigates that problem a bit.  On the battlefield,
cavalry can be used for their speed over normal units and general power.  This
lends to good battle tactics and allow you to route overwhelming numbers if
used correctly.  I can't stress "used correctly" enough.  Cavalry are good, but
are usually considered expensive fodder for the overwhelming chear yari
ashigaru in the game.  Meaning one of the most used units in the game will make
mincemeat out of your amazing horse army if you decide to charge head first
in to a wall of spears.  On top of that, training cavalry requires you to
have the horse strategic resource.  If you ever lose that, your whole clan's
ability is nullified until you can reacquire that resource.
Your first couple of seasons you will need to figure out who of your neighbors
is the most threatening and where you'd like to expand.  You will likely find
yourself in a perpetual state of war, so a healthy supply of military units is
in demand.  Unfortunately, you start with quite a few borders to be concerned
about.  Use diplomacy as much as possible to start to allow you some breathing
room while you make a nice niche to live in for a bit, then do it again as you
expand in whatever direction you choose.  Try to check the politics of rival
clans that you'd like to conquer.  Starting too many wars at once on accident
could spell your doom when some random clan rolls up with a full stack
of units on an unprepared province of yours from the wrong direction.
Strategically, Takeda is in a rough spot.  You aren't on the coast and are
surrounded by potential enemies.  You have to deal with a problem to your
north so start the normal process of recruiting a unit or two and try to
kill off the problem.  If you expand east you'll notice that the territories
start to get quite a bit larger and can take a few seasons to traverse.
Heading west will run you in to Oda and his problems which can quickly become
your problems.  Heading further north will run you in to the Ikko and all
their religious issues, so as Takeda, you have quite a bit to deal with.
You will definitely want a healthy supply of farm upgrades and carefully
figure which provinces of yours should get castle upgrades.  You will need
as much farm income as possible to maintain a fairly widely spread army.
Something you may wish to consider is the gold mine that Hojo possesses off
to the south.  Surely some gold can help those economic woes you will likely
be facing sooner or later as the Takeda.
The trade nodes are almost out of the question.  By the time you get a coastal
territory, some trade ships up, and sail to the nodes, they will likely be
taken by other factions, including hostile ones.  Economically, focus on
farming and trading.  You will have plenty of neighbors for this opportunity.
Ally with one or two and trade with everyone that will accept.  Takeda
requires good management of your economy with military power and expansion to
win with.  If you expand too fast you will spread too thin too early and likely
be taken out by some angry other clan, if you expand too late, other super
powers will be pressing down on you hard from multiple directions.
During battles, and once you feel like you can afford it, use their cavalry
bonuses like crazy.  Cavalry, in general, are fairly powerful, are fast on
the battlefield, and can really turn the tide of battle with the ability
to flank enemy forces.  Likewise, if you are Takeda, and using horsemen,
your reinforcing armies will be much faster to the battle enabling more
powerful attacks on a common foe.  Of course, the drawback is that they are
a bit more expensive than normal.  An army of katana wielding horsemen are
manueverable, powerful, and very scary.  Used well, you can destroy almost
any battle situation short of seiging castles.  Throw some yari ashigaru
to take the brunt of a battle, and used cavalry to the best of your micro
ability can take you.
--------------------------------------
|2h. Hojo                        [002h]|
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Home Province: Izu
Politics: Uneasy peace all around, war is definite soon
Advantages:
Castes are cheaper to upgrade and repair
Siege units are cheaper to recruit and maintain
Siege units can be recruited at higher rank
General Strategy:
Well, Hojo is difficult to figure out.  Their clan ability focuses mostly on
siege units, but the problem is siege units take quite a while to research
and get set up.  Oh, I mentioned research already, you best be setting what
you're researching on that first season!
Ok, with that out of the way, Izu, your capital, has a gold mine, which is
a very nice addition, but poor crops in that province sort of balances it out.
Upgrade your mine as you get the funds, it won't be long before your territory
is under direct thread from Imagawa, Ogigayatsu, and Takeda.
Hojo is the only clan to start with 2 provinces and this is a mixed blessing
since this gives you additional borders you need to be wary of right as the game
starts.  Where do you station your troops for defense?  Well, Imagawa is primed
to attack you shortly since he has nowhere to expand but in to you!  He
won't be attacking Tokugawa on his other border any time soon (Tokugawa is
his vassal... so yea) his only option is your valuable gold mine or to help
Tokugawa off to the west against an Oda invasion... which could give you a
good opportunity to expand west yourself if you know what I'm saying.
Strategically, Hojo is set up pretty nice.  you are on the coast with 2
territories and have a gold mine.  The gold will help your economy in the
beginning, but it can't sustain your ever growing need for more money forever.
Your real question is do you want to wait for someone else to start aggression
against you or do you want to start the fight?  Either way, you might end
up fighting wars on all fronts if the cards play out just in the wrong way.
Usually Takeda will be too busy with his own problems on multiple fronts to
want to start something with you right away, so you might want to buddy up
with him with trade and possibly even an alliance to stymie any other clans
chance for an easy victory over you.
You also have a decent chance at getting the iron trade node off the northeast
corner of Japan since you start with a port and are relatively close to it.
If you can manage to get other trade nodes, go for it, but your hands might
be tied with other problems brewing at home, and you have a long distance
to get there if you do try.
If you're going for the win, it would seem natural to expand to the west
as soon as possible and just use Sagami as your east choke point.  A viable
strategy then becomes to bulk up Sagami, wait for an attack from probably
Imagawa then counter attack and proceed to demolish westward to Kyoto while
resupplying your Sagami's defensive military to camp.  Of course, your gameplay
might not be so clear, so you have to watch the politics between your neighbors
and attack when you have the forces and feel like you can manage the others
in case one of them decides to get rowdy against you as well.
--------------------------------------
|2i. Uesugi                      [002i]|
--------------------------------------
Home Province: Echigo
Politics: Rebels inside Echigo, uneasy relations with Yamanouchi,
peace with everyone else
Advantages:
Monk actions have +2% success rate
Trade income yields bonus koku
Warrior monks are cheaper to recruit and maintain
Warrior monks can be recruited at higher rank
General Strategy:
The Uesugi are like the Buddhist fanatic faction.  Their clan bonus allows
them to recruit the fairly potent monk warriors by marrying religion with
their military.  Now, it takes a little while to get the temples up to
get the monks, then build the necessary alternate building to finally get
monks of whatever unit you'd like (need archery school + monastary to get
bow monks for example).  At the same time, monk units are generally very
expensive to recruit and maintain.  Fortunately Uesugi's ability reduces this
problem a bit, but there's still that dreadful wait time to get monks in
the first place.  Not to mention you'll need to research a bit of the Chi
arts to even get temples in the first place.  Which by the way, you should
conveniently be setting on the first season!
You'll have to deal with some rebel scum on the first season, but otherwise
you're relatively safe for a couple seasons before any other external
problems start to manifest.
Strategically, Uesugi have some distance to cover before they can take a
fight to an enemy clan.  You will need to plan ahead for that, or send an army
to your border in preparation for war ahead of time so that you can reach
someone within a season or two without too many interruptions.
It is very tempting to hop on a boat from your port and conquer Sado as well
relatively early in the game to take control of their gold mine.  The Honma
clan won't give it up very easily though, so expect a decent fight there for it.
If you can manage to wrest control from them your economy will be looking
fairly decent.  Even better, controlling Sado is like a free province, few
clans sail there, if any, to try to capture it from you.  If it bothers you,
leave some troops there and sail your army back to the mainland for other uses.
Uesugi have a decent shot at the northern trade nodes as well, especially the
northeastern one.  I would highly recommend attempting to capture the iron node
before Date or even Hojo has a chance to get it.  Extra income will be very
welcome as the game progresses since you will likely be heading west towards
Kyoto and encountering many of the same problems faced by Oda.  Once enough
time has passed and you've established your economy enough, sprinkle your
armies with a couple monk recruits.  Monks have higher than average stats
and much higher morale from their religious convictions, but their downfall
is smaller numbers and take a lot of damage from their robes as defense.
Usually, I only scatter some monk archers around in my troops for their extra
boost to accuracy, teamed up with a fletcher province nearby, and you have
walking snipers of doom raining hell down on enemies.  Once you've researched
fire arrows and even the +10% accuracy art, you will be slaughtering whole
armies with monk archers.  Granted other monk units are nice too, but usually
for how expensive they are and their relative brittleness, I usually stick
to monk archers.
--------------------------------------
|2j. Date                        [002j]|
--------------------------------------
Home Province: Iwate
Politics: Rebels, War with Mogami and Usen to the west
Advantages:
All units get a charge bonus
Nodachi units are cheaper to recruit and maintain
Nodachi units can be recruited at higher rank
General Strategy:
Nodachi troops are dreadful, hands down.  They will chop up every other unit
in the game very quickly.  Date use nodachi very well for obvious reasons that
they are relatively on the cheap for how strong they are.  Charge in to battle