A few questions.

[SS_Ghost_Of_War]

I am basically new to the whole Shogun series, I am having a hard time with the economy. I usually always out spend myself on Units to fight off invading armies or stretching my borders way to far by taking provinces. My few questions are

: How many stacks should I recruit to balance out, my income and mililtary strenght. Should I follow the quality over quantity theory and recruit the professional armies in smaller numbers rather than large and inferior trained troops?

: Which faction should I start out with, since I am new to the Shogun series

: Should I auto fight or fight the battles myself to minimize casualties?

: What is a good effective fighting formation for Offense and Defense

[Blackthorne]

: How many stacks should I recruit to balance out, my income and mililtary strenght. Should I follow the quality over quantity theory and recruit the professional armies in smaller numbers rather than large and inferior trained troops?

As to how many troops you need, this varies alot due to things like your econmomy, how far along the campaign you are and also how good you are at fighting battles. In general make sure that you are always making a profit and you wont go far wrong. At the start of the game you wont be able to support many samurai troops so I suggest building mostly Ashigaru since they're nice and cheap and losses can be replenished anywhere.

: Which faction should I start out with, since I am new to the Shogun series

Deffinitly the Chosokabe, you start on an island with just a couple of weak neighbours that you can take over fairly easily. By the time you control your island you should have a decent handle on the game.

: Should I auto fight or fight the battles myself to minimize casualties?

I would suggest you fight them yourself, most of the fun of the game is in the tactical battles. The naval battles are a blast this time round as well.

: What is a good effective fighting formation for Offense and Defense

Spear troops in a line, missile troops behind and your general in the middle behind your archers. This is a good general formation to start with since you likley wont have much in the way of cavalry and such. It'll work on both offense and defense. Once you have some Samurai, or some cavalry put them on the wings slightly behind your main force. Once your main melee line has engaged your enemy's send your elite units/cavalry on a flanking attack. One other thing, never assualt a castle town unless you serioulsy outnumber the enemy, especially if you only have Ashigaru. The best part of the battles is working out your own tactics so I suggest you experiment and see what works.

That should get you started, good luck.

[OTZ]

: Should I auto fight or fight the battles myself to minimize casualties?

Definitely do the sieges yourself - at least against the 1st level castles. You can usually capture them with fewer casualties and without damaging anything. Makes a big difference in the early turns especially since you can recruit right away if there's no damage. .

[SS_Ghost_Of_War]

As to how many troops you need, this varies alot due to things like your econmomy, how far along the campaign you are and also how good you are at fighting battles. In general make sure that you are always making a profit and you wont go far wrong. At the start of the game you wont be able to support many samurai troops so I suggest building mostly Ashigaru since they're nice and cheap and losses can be replenished anywhere.









That should get you started, good luck.

How many stacks would you recommend recruiting for defending provinces, while my main army goes on campaign?

[OTZ]

You're at the mercy of your own economic/political/georgraphic situation. If you're secure you can leave your regions pretty much undefended (the AI does it even when it's in a bad spot). Less troops at home, means more at the front. You may even consider a rapid reaction force that's centrally located.

[Blackthorne]

How many stacks would you recommend recruiting for defending provinces, while my main army goes on campaign?

In the early game, none. You wont have the funds to build an army and keep a garrison in your home province. The good news is that the AI wont either, so when you defeat their army you should then be able to march straight on and take their home province.

Once you've hit about the four province mark you can start thinking about defending your lands. Again, this depends on how much money you've got, but at least a three quarter stack should do it. I wouldn't bother trying to garrison each of your cities, enemy armies tend to be big so two or three units in a city wont do anything except cost you money. Instead try and keep a large army in the area you expect to be attacked from. You can use Ninjas or other agents to scout the lands around you, they can spot enemy armies and you can send your stack to meet them while the ninja slows them down by sabotaging them.

Diplomacy also helps, if you can get an alliance with one of your neighbours you wont need to worry about them attacking you and so you don't need to defend that border. Try to only be at war with one enemy at a time, that way you know where the attacks will come from, then your attcking force will pull double duty by also defending the province it's attacking from.

As for actual numbers of units etc, all I can say is as many as you can afford. Make sure the upkeep isn't so high that you don't have enough income to upgrade your provinces, as in the end your economy is more important than your army since if your economy doesn't grow then you wont be able to afford a fancy army.

[SS_Ghost_Of_War]

Would disbanding nearly beat units be a good idea to save upkeep as well?

[Blackthorne]

Would disbanding nearly beat units be a good idea to save upkeep as well?

It depends, unit replenishment is free and quite fast if the unit is in a province that can produce it. So for Ashigaru units you are better off just waiting for them to replenish. As for Samurai, well by the time you've trained a new unit somewhere with the right building and moved them up to your front line you might've spent the same amonut of time and money as if you'd let the original unit replenish, so that one is situational. Don't forget that units gain experience, so if you have a three chevron unit it's probably worth waiting for it to come back up to strength.

[AlfonsoVIII]

I am basically new to the whole Shogun series, I am having a hard time with the economy. I usually always out spend myself on Units to fight off invading armies or stretching my borders way to far by taking provinces. My few questions are

: How many stacks should I recruit to balance out, my income and mililtary strenght. Should I follow the quality over quantity theory and recruit the professional armies in smaller numbers rather than large and inferior trained troops?

: Which faction should I start out with, since I am new to the Shogun series

: Should I auto fight or fight the battles myself to minimize casualties?

: What is a good effective fighting formation for Offense and Defense

1. One full stack to begin with until you get some trade agreements then add another stack. Consider following it with a half stack for garrison troops to keep your momentum going. Keep with the ashigaru troops for now, the samauri are not that much better. They die just as easy from archers.

2. Chosokabe or Shimazu, they have their own small island where you can build all the basic troop types with bonuses.

3. Jury is still out on auto-resolve, I would fight the battles yourself, as you can win even though the enemy has the advantage on the balance meter.

4. I choose infantry first line in spear mode, guard mode. Second line is archers in loose formation, fire at will off. I would switch the two, but I find that I cannot protect my archers 100 percent of the time from the charging enemy. They close in really fast. This is for offense and defense.