Am I the only one losing every time? (RotS)

[Charsi]

I'm only playing on Normal since my experiences on Hard in Vanilla made me very nervous. Sounds like i'd get roundly kicked if I went up to Hard difficulty.

Normal is manageable for me. I start as the southern Minamoto, befriended Takeda and the guys to the west, allied with Nitta, and expanded eastwards. Eventually the northern Minamoto guys simply absorbed the Takeda and those guys to the west of me, where Imagawa are in Vanilla. So now I have a brother at my back, and i'm pushing east to wipe out one of the Fujiwara clans that DoW'd me. I'll worry about Taira later.

I have the Hitachi province cranked up and ready to produce high accuracy archers. I'm trying to push into Fukushima to form a firewall from the northern provinces. Nitta holds both Kozuka and Shimotsuke provinces.

[Conanophile]

I lost quite a few campaigns as well.. I can't seem to get a good start as either Fujiwara and get assaulted by several full stacks within 20 turns while barely having half of a full stack of my own .

Apparently, the AI is programmed to spam Armies (using Create Force command) if the AI isn't doing well.
Or just if it fancies.

[lamefellow]

Still trying to figure out how to use agents + influence to my favour. Minamoto is not easy =(

[WatcherCA]

Apparently, the AI is programmed to spam Armies (using Create Force command) if the AI isn't doing well.
Or just if it fancies.

No, it doesn't.
The same rules about unit spawning that applied in the original campaign also apply to the Rise of the Samurai campaign (except there is no Ashikaga).
Please see: http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...ies-now-sticky

[Charsi]

Still trying to figure out how to use agents + influence to my favour. Minamoto is not easy =(

1. Build food thingys.
2. Recruit Junsutsushi (or w/e they're spelled)
3. ??
4. Victory!

But in all seriousness, I use the Jun guys way more than anything else. I just stand them in whatever province I want to take next, converting the populace to my influence. Once you take the province, leave your army there and toss a couple of Jun in the provincial capital to accelerate the conversion.

Incidentally... I have a enemy Sou following my army around spamming Demoralize on it, which is irritating mainly because I can't get rid of him. It's not worth it to pay him off or seduce him and I can't recruit Ninja to kill him.

I dont even see any ill effect of Demoralize so...

[Ethien]

Looks like I'll actually have to play Fujiwara on normal. I can handle Taira and Minamoto on hard and even very hard, but not Fuji.

[Altimis]

Apparently, the AI is programmed to spam Armies (using Create Force command) if the AI isn't doing well.
Or just if it fancies.

Its built real armies

on harder difficult, they get recruitment bonus

[Finnbat]

Minamoto, Legendary mode, come on guys...

3 time now try that, but it seems like crazy task.
Last game (which I just ended) the last effort from AI was to attack me with 5 other family.
And was it 7 full stack they dropped on my shores. Well, it took my morale and I shot the machine.

What is frustating is that the diplomats dont get any results. Like that Taira family, they was in war with me all from the beginning and they NEVER wanted to even try a peace period.

When you see that the AI is programmed just to kill you and no mercy for realism, then it sucks me.
Some kind of realism should be made even it is Legendary mode, because why is it there, if it cant never be won ?

Well, I will try it again tonight.

[Becephalus]

Apparently, the AI is programmed to spam Armies (using Create Force command) if the AI isn't doing well.
Or just if it fancies.

The AI does not spawn armies. Rational people have been fighting that rumor since the game came out. I have never once seen in dozens of campaigns one army "spawn" nor have any of the egregious claims you hear about it ever been backed up on video. It is always ignorant newbies surprised by ambushes and other ridiculous stories. "This 1 provinces minor had 1 stack, then I killed it, next turn they had a brand new one, I killed that one...blah blah blah...6 stacks in 6 turns. IMPOSSIBLE OMGZ AI HAX!". You hear lots of stories like that, but there have been zero videos of it. People on the internet make up silly stories all the time, and then players cling to them to explain their losses.



As for the OP. Yes RotS seems a lot harder. I play hard and autoresolve everything. I beat the original campaign on H or VH with every clan and by the last few times could do it nearly every time.

In RotS I have lost badly my first three tries on H. Mostly because I was ramping up my economy too much too early and didn't have a good enough army when the first doom stack attacked me. With manual battles you might salvage that, but with autoresolve it is death.

Going to try a game tonight where I build up my first stack more quickly. Maybe that will help.

[Finnbat]

Like I told in the previous post, I tried that Legendary difficulty setting and it went horribly wrong many times. But now, in the last game I didnt loose totally before the end bells. So actually I am very proud when managed to SURVIVE all the turns and actually my troops were on very good speed at the end turns. I had 16 castle.

Well, maybe the key was when I took (Playing Minamoto (the blue) clan) that very good area on east side.
This can be done in turn 2. Then developed my economy strongly and sended merchant fleets to west.

I suffered long time of Kaira family when they raid my shiplines. I realized too late that I must deal with force against them. And when builded very hard navy fleet (5 large + 5 medium ships) I finally got rid of them and koku started to roll in like never before.

Actually I start to like this Legendary challenge, allthought it sucks when you know the AI can do things with load of cash and load of material. But hey, otherwise they cant manage your monger warmachines, heh.

Next night I will try more agressive style and deal better with trade and protecting the tradelines.
Then I dream to first time win the campaign in Legendary level. And that will be awesome celebration !



*

[MJWilliams]

You could go without using agents really at all in the main Shogun 2 campaign, however the agents are completely necessary in this one.

Totally agreed, they're essential no matter what clan you play. I'm approaching Kyoto in my H/H Kiso Minamoto game, and I've utilised agents at every possible turn, bribing and paying off especially. Requesting allegiance is vital as even if the CAI moves to take back undefended and newly converted provinces, you can fight in their direction and try to pin them down. I've really conquered more by cunning than I have by military might in this campaign, despite playing a heavily military-focused clan.

From my experience its almost impossible to survive in RotS without several highly ranked agents.

[Skesku]

i started over a few times. diplomacy is big and relations seem to be fragile in this one.

[Captain Arrrgh!]

As for the OP. Yes RotS seems a lot harder. I play hard and autoresolve everything. I beat the original campaign on H or VH with every clan and by the last few times could do it nearly every time.

I agree with everything in your post, brutha, but you autoresolve everything? Reall? Doesn't that reduce fun for you? Don't you want to see each individual warrior going at it?

Though this does say something for CA's improvement of campaign map. Treaties are actually honoured and playing the campaign half is actually immersive.

[Humble Warrior]

I will attest that the CAI is good enough to get by without seeing the battles, though it seems a little weird not to see some of them. Although there is a slight chance of losing if you get too reliant on it.

Not tried ROTS properly, but probably will now since I just got wiped out in the default game. Impressed with Sagara as they were staunch allies all the way.

[Ethien]

I will attest that the CAI is good enough to get by without seeing the battles, though it seems a little weird not to see some of them. Although there is a slight chance of losing if you get too reliant on it.

Not tried ROTS properly, but probably will now since I just got wiped out in the default game. Impressed with Sagara as they were staunch allies all the way.

Prepare to get your Samurai mind rocked. I've taken a break from it for now (Two weeks of nothing but Shogun campaigns calls for a vacation), but I'm looking forward to continuing my Fukuhara campaign.

[Pierro]

Guys, i need help, i have some questions:

I started my first campaign RoTS with Minamoto, normal settings.
I started to conquer countries up to Echigo & around, up to fukushima (so i can cut trade roads to the green faction).

Everything went well, i rapidly owned the whole East of japan but Takeda's and my sister clan's countries. I started war against the red as my sister clan asks for help. I was close to the victory (19/25), THEN the Emperor set my clan as TRAITOR and the whole clans are pushing me back to Uzen, 1199 came and my last country wasn't destroyed.
-I was controlling Kyoto, i thought i could try to be the new Emperor. It seems it doesn't work like this

=> Can you tell me why everyone went on war after me ? Is it due to my Daimyo's honour ? I was too much aggressiv ?
When you capture country with Agent (junshi-thing), does it change your honour ?

or

you'have sooner or later to fight versus every single clan ?


nb: female spies (geisha thing) are REALLY annoying... Ninjas are way harder to produce, what advice you could give to counter these dirty ?

Thx

[Becephalus]

I agree with everything in your post, brutha, but you autoresolve everything? Reall? Doesn't that reduce fun for you? Don't you want to see each individual warrior going at it?

If there are interesting battles I will make a save and play them stand alone later. I don't like fighting battles in the campaign because it just makes it too easy and eliminates all the challenge. The battle AI still has too many holes to exploit so fighting the battles tends to eliminate the importance of the strategy part of the game (IMHO).

You don't need to mange your land well if you can win every battle 100 lost to 1800 killed. On the other hand if you always autoresolve you will quickly become much better at the strategic side of the game, because you cannot hide behind raping the AI in battle. I have been mostly using autoresolve since at least RTW.

The other big virtue of it is the game goes much faster, so you can play more of them. If I get the itch to fight some battles I just look in my saves, set up a custom or go play online.

[Humble Warrior]

Been running the ROTS and wierdly enough I am finding ROTS EASIER than the default game! I`ve taken about a 3rd of the map already.

Maybe it`s because I like to use my agents a lot as part of warfare. I like the influence thing (which seems a tad easy) to take cities with. And I`ve been using my monks and that girl whatsername (I`ll call her Geisha Lady) to help demoralise the enemy. So my agents have been doing most of the work.

Battles have been pretty enjoyable. I enjoyed one particular battle where the BAI had 90% archers and I had all archers and we just sat there archering eachother for about 15 minutes! I just zoomed in and watched close as the arrows flew directing as needed. It was neck and neck, sometimes my men would weaken in their moral. I couldn`t tell what the enemy moral was but knew they too must be wavering. It really was a stare down. Suddenly the enmy archers broke and ran away. The whole battle was just an archer battle, not one man actually fought hand to hand! Now that`s how battles should sometimes be. Empire failed miserably at this- It couldn`t do artillery battles or authentic 18th century rifle battles without it descending into a melee fight, yet Shogun 2 manages it in this.

I was even enjoying the early sieges without the walls because I never had to witness men climbing walls for a good while.

[alexjs]

I'm having a bit of trouble with the Fujuwara. (My first try, probably not the easiest clan to start out as.) I didn't anticipate Minamoto's swords and foot samurai being so powerful, to say the least. I managed to beat their main army back at a nice river choke point. (Beautiful map.) Unfortunately, my ally pissed off the Ashikaga and they sent a full stack after my already bloodied army since I happened to be in their territory, occupying one of their former cities . (Hey it was on the way! I didn't know they had a full stack waiting for me!) Fun times. I lost my army and Daiymo in that exchange. Ironically, I was the sacrificial pawn for my sister clan to waltz in and take Ashikaga's capitol right out from underneath them.

A few years later, I managed to make a slow comeback and reclaim what I'd lost with a bunch of my specialized monks, but I think time is what's killing me in this campaign. Not enough of it, that is. I probably won't win in the time constraints, but I think I have a shot to win long-term.

Interestingly enough, I managed to hold and maintain a beneficial alliance with my sister clan after a brief war with them. (They declared war on me within like 10 turns for no rational reason, but were clearly unprepared and lost. I offered peace.) It's too bad the sister clan's land doesn't count towards the victory requirements. I also wish you could somehow ask your ally for help at certain choke points and in certain battles rather than relying on luck to ever actually work together efficiently.

[kostas84]

R u kidding me?

I find normal/normal to be too easy