STW 2: Fall of the Samurai (question)

[Sir Slash]

You know at Realm Divide, you can try to take-over all Japan by your self. Anybody ever try that one?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Yup.  I did that in my first and only game of FOTS.  Then I upgraded my PC and couldn't play for nearly a year.  Maybe I'll fire up another campaign too and we can compare notes.

[Gusington]

I'm still waiting to get to Realm Divide :/

...someday.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Maybe look into doing an AAR Gus and the crowd can help find ways to improve your strategy.

[Gusington]

I can do that but the kernel of the problem is pretty simple: I suck at multifront conflict in FOTS. Also, in most strategy games I like to turtle, and while I can do that for a time in FOTS, at some point you must go on the offensive. And when I do that, some frickin' faction I've never even heard of sticks it to me on another front. Bastards, all of them.

Also...in my last campaign my allies got their arses handed to them almost immediately so for almost the whole campaign I was virtually alone.

How do you counter these problems other than throwing your hands in the air and admitting suckdom?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Use fodder and give up space.  Man your forward castles with crap troops and use them to chew up enemy armies on the walls.  Sure, you'll end up losing the province, but then you can counter-attack with your quality army, retake the weakened province and hopefully be able to push on into the enemy's province as they've just wasted most of their army on your castle walls.   

[Gusington]

I have attempted to do that but typically there have been 2-3 strong factions surrounding me, so my high quality army is slowly destroyed and I then have no way to rebuild it. It happens slowly, but eventually I lose and am snuffed out.

[Nefaro]

In all TW games, I just tend to keep attacking & capping enemy territories.  If you ever slow down doing so, the AI will start taking more of your territory than you can gobble up every turn.  Since the AI is pretty much programmed to steadily gang up on you (if you border them or have fought them in the past, or a myriad of other reasons), you must constantly do your best to expand or it'll further the divide in income and, therefore, troop quantities.

I actually prefer to turtle a bit, and take my time plotting and looking for weaknesses in these grand strategy games.  But I don't think TW lends itself to that kind of gameplay well, unfortunately.  It's programmed to swarm you, as the strat & tac AI isn't anything amazing (although they have improved it with the S2TW series!)

[Sir Slash]

In FOTS the agents can have a huge impact on the game especially after they gain a couple of levels of experience, assinations, sabotage, inciting revolts in rival provinces, crippling other armies as well as getting generals and troops to switch to your side. They also give boosts to your troops in battle or on the campaign map and in your cities. They can be major players in this game and I always keep them with or in front of my armies.

[Gusington]

My agents were the ome factor in my last campaign that kept me afloat for as long as I did. To be honest I think Normal difficulty has been ramped up in Shogun 2. It's definitely a lot more difficult than Normal in say Medieval 2.

[PanzersEast]

Started on Normal as the Imperials..... let the buttocks handing begin!

PE

[MengJiao]

You know at Realm Divide, you can try to take-over all Japan by your self. Anybody ever try that one?

I tried as the Republic of Satsuma on Normal and found it almost impossible.  Anywa, so hard that I switched to
other less demanding games.

[Gusington]

Are you being sarcastic? I can't tell. If not then I consider myself to be in good company!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I just started a new campaign as the Obama.  I figured I'd try the Shogunate side this time as my first campaign was as the Chosu clan.  I'm playing on normal difficulty with limited Battle UI.  It's off to a good start.  It's now the middle of summer, 1864 and I've grabbed Echizen and Kaga with minor losses. 

[MengJiao]

Are you being sarcastic? I can't tell. If not then I consider myself to be in good company!

No, I had a hard time as the Republic of Satsuma.  I could go back to it, but I'd rather blow things up in ARMAIII or play board games.