Page 5 of 7 FirstFirst 1234567 LastLast
Results 81 to 100 of 129

Thread: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

  1. #81

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    hey great strategy there . whew i just finished the uesugi domination campaign on vh/vh by the time 1588,at last. here are several tips from me and how a win the campaign. i will use orientation based on the game map not the real world map because its easier to understand.

    - your first focus should be owning region presently owned by the jinbo but before this you need adequate economy and military strength as marching your army westward will make echigo vulnerable.

    - the jinbo owned region is an opening to a more farm riched regions such as kaga and those regions act as a chokehold from central and western japan.

    - the key to be steadfast with uesugi clan is to be the strongest clan in the region or at least the same strength as the other clans.

    - you dont need to be the richest one at the eary game. once your strength is weak you will be jumped by almost every other clan in the region. it is beacuase you are the master of yamanouchi which control the centrally located kozuke region with paper(?) resources in it.

    - i strongly recommend you not to break alliance with yamanouchi beacuse they are proven to be useful if given time.

    - an alliance with date is a must. date region is uesugi backyard. you are doomed if you have war on the front and your backyard. they are dependable anyway and in my campaign my uesugi and date are side by side till the late game facing the terrifying oda-takaoka-bessho alliance which control central and west japan. date still on my side even after realm divide and kenshin beacme shogun. it is me who decide to forfeit the alliance because i cant afford to have heavy infantry and archers on standby to defend my backyard while bessho armies led by their 5 star general pressing kyoto and the sorroundings and their over mighty navy-in one of the stacks it has the black ship in it-constantly dropping armies on the south (musashi etc.) so just ask for your allies when you are attacked but remember when you ask that your strength must be greater or at least the same compare to your enemy.

    -dont bother to allied with the other clans as they are easily backstab you

    -dont take fukushima just yet,because it take a long way to march your armies from fukushima to kozuke region which you should be your priority

    -building a massive army immediately is significant. time is of the essence

    -merging armies is important. merge the experienced one with the other experienced so that it dont loose the xp when replenishing. xp is important. replacing armies is important, replace your loss of armies beacause of the merger with one better or more expirenced

    lets get to business

    -crush your rebellious brother then direct your kenshin army to the port.
    -make sure echigo doesnt have negative growth. move your tax slider to the left. stagnant is enough. -build an harbour immediately don't waste your money on any other building.
    -recruit a monk and merge him with kenshin.
    -do this for the turns until your horbour is ready: recruit 1 yari and 1 bow and merge them with kenshin.
    -when your harbour is built move your tax slider to the right as harbour will give a positive growth to echigo. echigo's growth should be stagnant by now.
    -keep recruiting 1 yari and 1 bow each turn.
    -build a bow kobaya and as soon as it ready invade sado. make sure your echigo can withstand jinbo wave attack.
    -keep recruiting 1 yari and 1 bow each turn.
    -as soon as you have sado build a farm in echigo. take your army back to mainland regularly every turn starting with kenshin to maintain public order in sado.
    -now this is your build priority in order: a farm in sado,a mine in sado,upgrade echigo wall,a yari dojo in echigo.
    -keep recruiting 1 yari and 1 bow each turn.

    IMPORTANT: two things,treasury and income. never let your income goes below 500 per turn and never let your treasury drop below 1500 unless it is an economy build (your lost treasury will be payed off after the building has been completed) or emergency recruitment. pay attention that you have a surplus income when you are recruiting army,for example if you have 1000 income this turn that means you can recruit 1 yari and 1 bow and have a surplus about 300 as total cost of a yari and a bow of about 700. as for building it is build deducted from your treasury fillled with previous income surplus. when your income goes below 700 per turn,recruit a yari and a bow alternately each turn. as for research go straight to way of spear,chi,todofuken and way of bow in that order. purposes for immediate chi and todofuken completion are obvious. as for way of spear and way of bow ill explain below

    now you have two generals,a massive army,and two settlements which one is upgraded and ready for yari samurai recruitment. at this point your present army is obsolete. you could have a stack of yari ashigaru with one xp or yari samurai (its worth the upkeep) instead all your armies are rookies. your economy is growing but not at significant rate. so its time to use that obsolete armies. as in my campaign yamanouchi usually gets attacked by takeda/hojo. move your armies south to kozuke,leave a few at guard near the bridge to kozuke. hide your armies in the trees near kozuke so that you will refinforce yamanouchi if any clan decide to attack it. play this till enemy armies tired out. at some point you will have to ambush enemy armies so that you can counter attack the attacking clan. this is way of the bow is for. as half of your armies consist of bow,ambushing enemies with flaming arrow cloud be devastating. you can play it by yourself but i think autoresolve is ok. now you can merge your war inflicted yari and replace the loss with 1 xp yari ashigaru form echigo or even with yari samurai. in my case i tend to recruit 1 yari samurai and 1 yari ashigaru. as a yari samurai takes two turn,by the time i have a yari samurai i have also 2 more yari ashigaru.
    now go for the offense. take north shinano,anegakoji region and at last jinbo region. dont worry for yamanouchi. now they are strong enough to face the tired hojo army, thanks to your help to increase their armies xp. by this time money shouldnt be a problem for you. make a stronghold at jinbo region to prepare for the coming of hatakeyama/ikko ikki or in my case the takaoka . go for musashi and all of hojo region including the one with the gold. the hojo are crushed! make a stronghold here. if you want you can crush the supposedly weak satake and ashina. in my case i crush satake but i leave ashina for hojo so that they have a room to expand. i was not worry about the wood,beacause i got it anyway by trade. so now you only have to worry about the west clan which you can easily fend off at three chokehold. north shinano/or sotuh shinano if you decide to capture it (but take care of the weak takeda first),the previous hojo region,and jinbo region. in my case i decide to focus on the north as takaoka armies pressing me. by the time i got echizen at 1564 i almost caused realm divide. later in the game after i build my economy and military strength (i do this step for over than ten years because i wait for land consolidation so that i have economic stability in case i lost all my trade income caused by realm divide) i capture omi and caused realm divide. by this time date has done helping me with oda invasion and they control suruga into saito home province. i cant face oda myself as i focused my welath on building armies and navies to face takaoka. their navies are abundant. later i capture kyoto and kenshin became shogun. then my only concern is bessho which control the rest of central japan. their armies are strong and experinced. as i said before i decalre war on date because i need my extra stanb by troops and i also need the extra money from date provinces. i made a mistake by recruiting a lot of monk warriors both naginata and bow. i got about 30 units of warrior monk. its really worth it. they are useful as hell but their upkeep were dragging my economy down. the date were crushed. i marched all of my heavy armies to kyoto and from there it was a piece of cake. i control all of honshu(?) and then i invaded sagara and sogo. domination won!
    p.s. try your best effort to ally with date as soon as possible even if you have to sacrifice your money

    ok that's my campaign. let me now if anyone try it!

  2. #82

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    I had half the map declare war on me in first 3 turns than i sailed a ship past some far away clans on the way to trade nodes and they declared war on me too. lol

  3. #83
    WelshDragon's Avatar Miles
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Washington, DC
    Posts
    374

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    Quote Originally Posted by Kopimi View Post
    I had half the map declare war on me in first 3 turns than i sailed a ship past some far away clans on the way to trade nodes and they declared war on me too. lol
    LOL, this happened to me the rist few turns on several tries in a row.

    Like a lot of the clans surrounded by enemies, the first few turns are pivotal and takes a little luck as well... I finally survived by allying with Takeda and Date, making peace/vassalizing the clan west, and taking the island ASAP. I had to take 2 hits to my honor as I didn't want to get dragged into wars by my vassals early, but that helped me get my economy going, took 2 trade nodes, built a gold mine, and then took the Ikky's land when they declared war on Takeda and I joined in. After that, it's all about turtling until you are ready to make a move.
    Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true. - Julius Ceasar


  4. #84

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    I stuck by my allies and abandoned the mainland to regroup

  5. #85

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    - Kill rebels.
    - Kill incoming Jinbo army.
    - Take Jinbo and complete "capture province mission".
    - Build as many units as you can with the +1 training bonus from mission.
    - Meanwhile research Essense of Spirit for the free Monks.
    - Sail everything you have to Sado and take it from Honma. In the meantime you'll probably lose Etchu and Echigo because everyone has declared war against you.
    - Wait some time, get an army together, sail to Iwate while the Date armies are stuck somewhere far away. Enjoy your free buildings and Blacksmith.
    - Build second army.
    - Steamroll!

  6. #86

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    I am on h/h. Second play through, first time being as Mori. What a stark contrast! On turn 27 and have spent most of my time fending off sieges. All the clans are at war with me.

    First off I made some terrible strategic decisions: I stuck with my vassal, dragging me into wars. Second, I choose the Ashina over the Date (both allies) when they went to war. I prematurely declared war on the Honma.

    The Yamana over ran Etchu. I am about 4 turns away from a joint Hojo Date invasion. Date has a near full stack of katana and bow samurai. Yamana is coming for my capital too.

    I on a dare that I couldn't do d without retrying at least once, so I am not giving up yet., Last ditch plan? Sail my army in my capital and in Noto to claim Sado, blockade, and regroup. Repair relations once my enemies turn on each other, and attack a easily defendable but often unguarded area, like Ugo. Or make a small fleet and invade Shikoku or Kyushu.

    We'll see what happens...

    Update: diplo played a minor role with the exception of building a strong alliance with Yamana to take off some Takeda pressure. Built up 2 stacks in the safety of Sado island. Landed on the shores of Ugo and Iwate. Then it essentially turned into a Date steam rolling campaign.

    I also captured the black ship from the clan that got it from the Europeans. It was heavily damaged already, and easy to capture.That one on side of Honshu plus a bow kobaya stack on the other side prevented naval invasions. It's pretty much over now. 6 stacks to take Kyushu in 10 years. Should take less than 1 and change
    Last edited by park77; December 22, 2011 at 05:20 PM.

  7. #87
    Gaizokubanou's Avatar Biarchus
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    United States, New Jersey (That's East Coast)
    Posts
    669

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    After hours of rage inducing attempts, I finally beat this on VH. My opening was to garrison my town and queue up units. The reason I garrison is because the rebel will always just flat out assault your castle, which makes it a cake to wipe them out. I also snatched all the trade agreements that I could, got alliances with a few that was willing. Also built Yari/Bow Ashigaru non stop until I was low on money.

    I think at turn 6 I conquered Sado. I achieved this by getting peace deal with Jinbo so I wouldn't have to defend my main town. Once I got Sado I tried to econ while looking for opportunity in land grabbing. To avoid getting overrun, I abandoned by vassal. I also allied with Takeda, and had Takeda and Imajiwa break alliance, which I felt was the most critical decision I have made. With the relation turn sour between the two, the uber Takeda-Imajiwa-Hojo alliance never came to fruition and they all fought amongst themselves in long wars.

    After that I think campaigns will vary too much but I'll just give an overview of what happened on my end. Oddest thing was Jinbo going on rampage by wiping out Ikko. Good thing to since they allied with me, so I had secured my west. I went roflstomp to my east, and since then it basically turned into Date campaign.

  8. #88

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    I won with Uesugi on hard a while back, haven't tried a VH campaign. Like one poster said, the randomness of the sociopolitical game really does dictate your fate. I resorted also to going after Sado first, and then launching my next strike on Date lands. From there I played it out like a Date campaign. I used Echigo as my "Helm's Deep", upgrading it to lvl 3, and I beat back stacks there while getting Sado's infrastructure going.

  9. #89

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    Yeah Uesugi is so Helms Deep strategy on the upper difficulties. Lots of restarts on Hard, but I now have one going where I'm sufficiently happy.

    Start

    Train a monk, for what it's worth, you will be in pitched battles and all the morale counts. Taking Sado as fast as humanly possible is a must - the gold, after a few upgrades, is ludicrous. I tried one where I didn't get a chance to reach Sado in time after expanding - Honma just kept a full stack at home and I could never afford/support the troops from the mainland. Restart.

    So don't worry about Hatakeyama alliance with honma, get them doubloons! Hatakeyama is the old shoguns clan. Too spread out to be a big threat, they never defend Noto - their only presence, and will get gobbled up, so gobble Jimbo and Noto after you blitz Sado next.

    I captured a trade ship once, so I sent it north to the Ainu iron node (slightly cheaper troops, plus moolah) and sent a bow kobaya to discover the north coast. If you send it too late, everyone hates you and Ikko Ikki blocks that strait quite unnecessarily so you can't explore. You can only talk to hated people. That's a restart, try again.

    Turn 5ish
    You just secured Echigo, Honda, and Maybe Echu. You're gonna want to blitz Noto, so win a good battle there.

    Here's the bad news for Uesugi: Everyone around you, except mogami and date, will go buck, and you'll have a massive all hostile war to sort things out.

    Start fortifying like the end of the world is coming, even though you see no enemies at all. How you diplomacy the next few turns determines how much time before standing at the gates of hell, before endless stacks of a unified wave of hate, so I rushed Level3fort in Echigo. The way of chi free monks mission rewards are key - by that time you're in war and begging for units, and the ridiculous chainsawing-through-heaps-of-Ashigaru units, the Samurai Retainers, Monks, and Yari Sam (just one or two) may be what you need.

    Takeda is coming, so I used my initial Trade/Alliance, after discovering them, and forced Takeda to break with Imagawa. Like the above poster, it bought me a year while takeda stumbled out of the gate, and the money during that extra year was very handy.

    If you don't do this, Takeda/Imagawa/Hojo/Satomi will form a Mordor alliance and send stacks at you. Only by winning those crazy battles and securing some peaces can you halt them, at which point their doom alliance will fracture as they bicker. This is the "usual" Uesugi early campaign.

    I also abandoned my Vassal Yamanouchi, as they are instant targets by everything, every time, and just roll over and die as early as turn 4. I dunno where some people find the luxury to "help them out" they get attacked so fast, and you have so little. In my game they turned treachery after I abandoned them, and allied Takeda(wow), somehow sparing them from the usual 3-way obliteration.

    Weird, but if it wasn't them it'd be Hojo there attacking you, or Satomi, so it made no major difference.

    Turn 10ish who knows
    Around turn 7-10 you will probably be in a massive war, and will have to win with dirty siege tactics. I won't lie - some of these turns I had to play out a guess, then restart a few years back. Or restart a pitched battle I should have lost, won anyway, but still had to restart because I was too inefficient and I was facing back-to-back full stacks. Very hard stuff, these critical early turns. It took a few tries, and some nail-bitingly close siege battles to make it through.

    After you win the initial lopsided battles, the question becomes when/where to leave your 4 initial provinces. Ashina turn treacherous, but they suck - they fight everybody. So taking Fukushima might be an answer. Another way is to move south from Etchu to Hida after securing a truce with Ikko Ikki - Put your army at the bridge outside of town, so Takeda attacks you there. Crush them and take Hida and North Shinano.

    Even if takeda is down to one or two provinces, they remain treacherous and dangerous - somehow, they can still field two full stacks still. That's a massive improvement over the 3 or 4 stacks they love to throw at you, however.

    Favoured tactics:

    Hold the bridge at Echu on the river, the bridge map is awesome for massacring big armies. Spear wall around the bridge - form a pocket, and fill it with arrows. Then flank them with a small force, GG you're routing on a bridge. Massacre time.

    If you get attacked back-to-back here, you can press "retreat" and even with no move points you'll enter Echu! Just maybe, because of that menu, the army attacking you can't reach the town that turn. Tricks like these make all the difference for Uesugi - on Hard, you only fight a fair battle because you earned it - outnumbered 2-1 is common. On Very hard, you just don't fight fair ever.
    . Anything you can do to buy yourself time, or an extra unit, pays huge dividends when you're outnumbered.

    My favourite tactic for the Helms Deep siege defenses is a flank on the L3 castles I call the "Toilet Bowl", because that best describes it. Often you face a horrendous army on one side, and a mostly yari force opposite. I have a big, Rome:Total War stacked Yari Spear wall choking up the first level at a tower. It's the same deal as Pike Phalanxes and the movie "300" - decent morale ashigaru can take damn near anything thrown at it in Spear Wall as long as it's from the front. This doesn't take many troops to hold off a giant army, so I usually deal with the rear force before the army - it also usually saves troops from bow samurai, who stay at the front. All my archers help crush the yari secondary force first, I usually use monks or retainers here to help flank the line.

    Back at the choke things should be heating up. Archers turn to spend the remaining ammo at the phalanx wall - it's probably teeming with troops right now. Keep them at max range general aura so they don't rout and they'll be ok. If the game says the general's "under attack!" ignore it. Hell - the whole castle is "under attack!", what, he's such a baby he can't support from in aura distance? Screw that! A few stray arrows don't do much damage either, so be near the wall to boost morale.

    Once this is done, any reserve you have, and anything you spent at the one side, these units become "Flush"! Swing right around the castle opposite the chokepoint in a circular fashion, and envelop the massive invasion force threatening your yari spear wall. Instant rout. Sandwiched army. Big massacre. GG invaders.

    The toilet is clean for the bow troops and generals. Flush again to kill the generals.

    Yari Spear Walls help so much, it's insane what they can stand up to with enough density. I have favourably experimented with Yari walls outside of the fort, guarding the actual walls. The vantage point on the wall greatly lowers friendly fire from your bows and murders enemy troops attacking a spear wall head on. Anything that fights the wall head-on will lose. To archers, towers, and the yari spear wall, they will lose - Phalanx spearmen are powerful. If you stack troops on top of each-other this way, you can make some seriously beefy spear walls.

    The Ashina beside you? They declare war on you after being all friendly, but they always seem to bite off more than they can chew diplomatically. They may be the best expansion opportunity - protected by mountains from the horrors running at Echigo and Echu, and the clan is often distracted with Mogami or Date.

    Save often.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    If you can survive the initial onslaught, expand from the coast and hold it, you're well on your way to a standard campaign. The Uesugi start is just a big bloodbath you need to overcome.
    Last edited by BubbaLou; January 21, 2012 at 05:29 PM.

  10. #90

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    I always grab as much cash as possible from selling military access (and packaged with trade agreement on turn one, 400-600 each from the 3 neighbouring clans), every penny counts, especially in Uesugi's case. Keep repeating the calculation till you know where the max is (moderate probability will trigger a counteroffer from AI which you wouldn't want). Then repeat and sell your 10 and 20 turns access in subsequent turns.
    On VH, Takeda comes into map turn 3 when they take north shinano, and they are indifferent with you so this is your best chance of alliance with them. Trade agreement plus 10 turns military access will get you their alliance, your demand of them breaking current alliance and trade embargo Hojo.

    At this point you could take sado You should have 10 units plus 2 generals, and a bow kobaya on turn 4.
    On turn 3, if you hit the Jinbo army with the right amount of men, it wouldn't retreat, and you could kill it without sending your main force too much south, which would then allow you to load your army onto the kobaya on turn 4 along the beach west of your capital.

    It's important to kill that Jinbo invading army on turn 3. Otherwise you'd have to delay your sado invasion or split your already limited army. And to do that, you'd need to draw the Jinbo army in towards your capital after killing the rebel army.

    On turn 4 you load the ship, then turn 5 you could land. Since your ship has 1 rank from naval tradition, you can beat the jinbo fleet of 1 kobaya that tries to kill you. Or you could retreat, either way you'll be able to land on the eastern shore of Sado on turn 5. He will have 14 units, you could beat that with 9, but taking all your forces meant less losses. I took my monk with the fleet so I could salvage 2 additional units from Sado, land back on echigo turn 8 with all but 1 unit, and the monk.

    With enough money, holding echigo isn't impossible. It's very inaccessible from land routes, and you could make Jinbo a rebel state... Naval tradition is well worth the trouble.

    Allying with Takeda will give you a window where you could choose to go east or west, east is much easier. Take Uzen and Ugo.
    Uzen can become your first military province, all your monk units will be produced from here till you have Shimotsuki or something.

    Holding Fukushima and echigo cuts off access to your northeast provinces, so you could dump a stack pretty much anywhere to start a new zone, or take Hitachi then move your army in Fukushima into Shimotsuke. 3 stacks of army, 1 navy, 1 trade fleet, 9 provinces around 35th turn then you're in good shape.

  11. #91

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    One thing I'm finding is my alliances is what dooms me. Whenever I ally with everyone I can, usually one ally declares war on another, forcing me to break an alliance, which in turn hits my diplomacy pretty hard and makes me look unreliable. This generally causes systematic collapse until all I'm left with is one ally (usually the vassal clan). I cannot stress enough that good diplomatic relations are imperative, and certainly make sure you spend money on keeping everyone angry with each other (Takeda/Hojo are top priority, but a little cash to break up the Satake/Satomi alliance never hurts either) but I think that you should seriously consider who you ally with and who you dont. That said, I'm still getting stomped around turn 20 (legendary) but that usually helps me last longer then allying with everyone willy nilly does.

    One random factor that is very important is how your vassal does militarily. Best case scenario, Hojo or Satomi declare war on them, and your vassal manages to crank out half a stack before being attacked (Half a stack is usually enough for them to defend themselves from an initial invasion, and by the time they're attacked again they're usually fielding a full stack - sometimes before me!) If Takeda is the first to fight though, I find the vassal crumbles under the double or triple stack armies that seem to spawn immediately after Takeda gets North Shinano.

  12. #92
    SgtScooter's Avatar Civis
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    East Coast, USA
    Posts
    147

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    Aside from vassals, I try to only form one major alliance. The idea is to pick the clan you think is going to smash the others and hope that you've backed the right horse. You need to pick early enough that they want your help, but not so soon that you get drawn into wars you don't want. If you can secure just one of your flanks with an alliance, you'll have an easier time surviving. If you ally with everyone, then everyone will eventually hate you.

  13. #93

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    Man, like others here, I was surprised at the difference between Normal and Hard game play. Hard is an understatement! I had to restart like 5x before I got into a position where I will probably win. It's 1567 and RD has hit. Mogami is in the Northeast and is aligned with me. Oda owns 8 provinces South of Kyoto and is only Strong now (having had his butt handed to him by Terrifyingly Rich Chosokabe & Uragami) but also aligned with me. Pretty much West of Setsu is enemy land and I'm facing several stacks of Uragami as I type this... This had been by far the most challenging and frustrating campaign I've played to date! Thank heaven for this thread! Thanks to all that have posted their tips, I'm hoping to make it this time around.
    Avatar

  14. #94
    Protector Domesticus
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Aus
    Posts
    4,864

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    I managed a game going on VH but its a struggle and required alot of reloads
    -Killed the rebels with a two way pincer to get both generals to the next level
    -Mass produced as much archers as i could while building a few ships and training a monk
    -Loaded my army onto the ships and invaded the island to the north and beat them rather easily

    -By that time that nation you start at war with had been annexed by the guys with the blue flower emblem whome sadly declared war and sent a full stack.... tried to get my army back but it proved to slow to load and unload my army... so i was forced to abandon it completely and flee to the island.
    -Waited a few turns for the capitol to be undefended then recaptured it with ease, from then on my game has been about building my two provinces while defending against stack after stack with my now elite peasant archers and 3 high level generals.

  15. #95
    DeMolay's Avatar Senator
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    France
    Posts
    1,040

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    Quote Originally Posted by SLN445 View Post
    I managed a game going on VH but its a struggle and required alot of reloads
    -Killed the rebels with a two way pincer to get both generals to the next level
    -Mass produced as much archers as i could while building a few ships and training a monk
    -Loaded my army onto the ships and invaded the island to the north and beat them rather easily

    -By that time that nation you start at war with had been annexed by the guys with the blue flower emblem whome sadly declared war and sent a full stack.... tried to get my army back but it proved to slow to load and unload my army... so i was forced to abandon it completely and flee to the island.
    -Waited a few turns for the capitol to be undefended then recaptured it with ease, from then on my game has been about building my two provinces while defending against stack after stack with my now elite peasant archers and 3 high level generals.

    If you board your army from Sado island , you should be able to reach Echigo with your army in one turn if your general is a strategist .

    You perhaps know it , i just post it in case but when you board your army into the ship , the ship must be docked at the port , so that there is no "loading" time where you have to wait the next season to start your travel . So you board the ship that is docked at the Sado island port , you sail right into the dock of Echigo port , then you unload your army and march toward your capital , you should be able to be in contact with the red area around your Echigo castle , so that you can defend it as reinforcements of the garrison , i'm not 100% sure , but i think so

  16. #96
    Protector Domesticus
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Aus
    Posts
    4,864

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    Ah ok, still worked out in the end anyways in a better way then had i tried to defend my low level castle.
    I managed to upgrade it and my troops fought a few times and were more elite after i recaptured it and before thier army rushed back

  17. #97

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    Man, what a friggin' intense campaign! Even on just Hard it was, well, hard! I had to restart 5x and I also did a couple of reloads further into the game but I found that Diplomacy is vital, much more so than any other clan to survive. Diplomacy is important in all campaigns and quite useful but it's down right mandatory in this campaign.

    Avatar

  18. #98
    Protector Domesticus
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Aus
    Posts
    4,864

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    Going to have restart my campaign, far to late in the game and I've still only got the two provinces under constant attack.
    Ive found how easy a monk can be abused, knocked out 80% of my enemies territory's in rebellion going to aim to do that early next game.

  19. #99

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    After 230+ hours on Shogun 2 I finally beat Legendary with the Uesugi. This faction isn't hard, it's broken. A victim of poor design attributes which overwhelm Uesugi's weak starting position. This faction is a mid/late game power stuck in the worst possible position to capitalize on its strengths. Rather than tell you how to win, I will break down why Uesgui is so imbalanced that it requires the player to essentially not play the faction in order to win.

    Diplomacy

    Vassal Clan: Uesugi's weak starting position is theoretically compensated by a vassal with the attendant +1 honor boost and increased income. Instead, on Legendary, the vassal becomes a noose around the player's neck that tightens if he attempts to defend the vassal. It is too weak and isolated to survive even with Uesugi assistance and instead starts a multi front war that will destroy the Uesugi.

    Poor Starting Relationships: Besides the Jinbo, no one hates the Uesugi. But no one, besides the Ashina, like the Uesugi either. As a result it is difficult to compete with the Takeda/Imagawa/Hojo behemoth which spawns in the map center. In contrast a human player, as Hojo, can force an alliance break between Takeda and Imagawa while Takeda gobbles up the north. Whereas Uesugi can break the alliance but finds it difficult to either maintain a high enough relation with the non-allied factions or get them to declare war on one another after the split. As result Takeda, and/or Hojo, attempt to gobble up the north where you happen to be.

    This problem compounds Uesugi’s economic problem, discussed below, because the DoW’s invariably occur to the West and South where some of the poorest provinces in the game are. So unless a player wishes to risk a three front war Uesugi must maintain its relationship with Ashina thereby bypassing their relatively rich province. If Uesugi conquers Ashina, war with its neighbors almost invariably follows.

    Child Leader: Uesugi is the only faction to start with a juvenile, 16, leader and, as a result, is one of the few to lack sons to hostage and daughters to marry. Both are pivotal diplomatic relation tools in the early game and their absence compounds Uesugi’s poor relationship problem.

    +2% Chance for Monks: Like the Tokugawa and Hattori this miniscule percentage will barely affect play.

    In short, Uesugi must cut ties with the vassal clan almost immediately negating any advantage of starting with a vassal. Their diplomatic relations, compounded by a lack of hostages, is so poor that only luck can prevent a multiple front war, particularly against Takeda and Hojo.

    Military

    Superior Warrior Monks/Reduced Recruitment and Upkeep Costs for Warrior Monks: The Uesugi have the best Warrior Monks (WM) in the game with: +2 attack, +3 charge, +1 melee defense, -100 Recruitment, and -25 Upkeep. However, Legendary eliminates the recruitment and upkeep bonus so WMs remain cost-ineffective because their low armor, slow replenishment rate and massive start up costs (around 6000 koku to build all the requisite buildings) render them vulnerable to the AIs archer spam.

    Marathon Monks (DLC): Other forum threads have provided good pro and con arguments for this units, but there is no question that Maraton Monks (MM) are a late game unit of support utility. All the problems with WM still apply but are actually exaggerated due to the unit's lower troop number and absurd development costs. Much like the Hojo’s DLC unit, by the time a player can capitalize on Marathon Monks the need for the unit has passed.

    Large Province Sizes: Increased upkeep costs in Legendary significantly limit a player’s ability to field a standing army. Conversely the AI’s reduced upkeep costs and taxation allow them to field massive armies. The best way to handle the imbalance is to funnel the AI along a narrow front to prevent the AI armies from bypassing the player army. Eastern Japanese provinces lack these bottlenecks and are quite large. A player will often to commit down one road only to find an AI army taking an alternative route. As a result, Uesugi spends crucial early game turns playing wack a mole without being able to expand its economic base before, finally, being overwhelmed by the expanding AIs.

    Small Military: This bleeds over into economic and diplomacy but is worth addressing here. The Uesugi are the poorest faction both in terms of starting income and potential income. The only adjacent rich province, practical to occupy, is Sado but its development costs are high. In the short term, Uesugi has limited income which cripples developing Sado and reduces army size. Smaller armies encourage the AI to declare war. Multiple enemies encourage the other AIs to dogpile. A vicious cycle ensures.

    In short, WMs are a mid/late game unit of questionable utility, given the AI's unchanging preference for archer spam, and cannot contribute to the vital early game. MM is a late game unit whose unit design exacerbates all the WM problems. The open map prevents economic growth and allow multi-front wars which defeat the player. Uesugi’s poverty hinders their economic development, prevents early acquisition of their best unit, and leads to smaller armies which exacerbate diplomacy problems.

    Economy

    Poor Homeland: Almost every other faction either begins in relatively prosperous lands or has the expansion into rich lands, defined as fertile or very fertile farms. The Uesugi’s most likely expansion points are Etchu, North Shinano and Kozkue all of which are Average at best. When combined with the large provinces sizes Uesugi players find themselves fighting over large, poor provinces whose economic returns do not justify the capital expended to acquire them.

    Increased Trade Income: I believe this attribute only applies to province resources and not trade between factions lacking any province resources. In theory an excellent perk, the Uesugi are too distant from the sea trade nodes to have any reasonable access because AI fleet spam turn early game naval efforts into a koku waste. Further, no province resources are relatively close to their starting location. Fuskishima is the only adjacent province with a resource but diplomatic and military factors, discussed above, invariably keep a Uesugi from capitalizing on this resource.

    No Nearby Holy Sites, instead Naval Tradition: A small problem, but the closest holy site is in Shimotsuke which is impractical to secure and build for Uesugi. As a result the faction cannot optimize its WMs until Uesugi has secured a large portion of the map whereas other factions, such as Shimazu and Date, start with home provinces ready made to optimze their best units. Instead the Uesugi get a Naval Tradition province which is amongst the weakest starting bonuses in the game.

    In short, the Uesugi are poor and likely to remain poor for a foreseeable period past game start. They are poorly placed, geographically, to utilize their bonus to Trade Income to compensate. And lack access to nearby Holy Sites to strengthen their WMs even if the Uesugi manage to overcome their monetary problems.

    Conclusion


    My solution, as a previous posters suggested, was to NOT be the Uesugi and, instead, become the Date. That is to occupy Sado island, since the AI will not appear to attack it, and use the island to invade Date lands. Then I play exactly as I would in a Date campaign, except with the Uesugi faction bonuses.

    All my efforts to expand my immediate power base beyond Sado failed. The AIs, particularly Takeda, were simply too strong and I lacked the tools to improve my relations in an effort to head off potential wars. To conclude, the Uesugi find it almost impossible to succeed from their starting position. Even a faction with better starting bonuses, such as Shimazu or Oda, would be hard pressed to win in Echigo.

  20. #100

    Default Re: The Uesugi Campaign Guide

    I just built up my economy by trading with everyone i could and constantly raising and lowering my tax rates according to the peoples happiness, and then i was unstoppable

Page 5 of 7 FirstFirst 1234567 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •