Shogun 2 Single Player: Using Trickery To Your Advantage On The Campaign Map and Battlefield
Shogun 2 Single Player: Using Trickery To Your Advantage On The Campaign Map and Battlefield Are you in a tough situation? And you would rather not have to reload or scrap the campaign. Don’t rage quit just yet, perhaps there’s a way out. (most of these were tested at higher difficulty levels. So they should work the same at lower difficulties, perhaps even better)
Campaign Map
Are one or more AI armies going after your under defended province and you just need to buy 1 or 2 turn’s for your reinforcements to arrive or new recruits to bolster your forces? AI just landed a full stack in your under defended province and you need to buy some time?
Unit minefield:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Separate and scatter your units around between their forces and your castle, preferably so your units zones of control (ZOC) makes contact with its neighbor but so your units aren’t in reinforcing range of each other(if space permits). The enemy will attack and you retreat, they’ll attack another unit and you retreat, etc. If you need another turn and if there’s enough room then reposition those units to stall again.
I've scattered single units around the castle. The rebels attacked several units and I retreated them. Tokugawa is attempting to go around my units. Now I've repositioned my units to try and stall them again. This gave me one turn to recruit 2 more units.
The rebels stood there because my new units in the castle gave them pause. Tokugawa attacked several units and I retreated them. This second turn of stalling has allowed me to recruit 2 more units. Now I'm 4 units stronger then I was at the start which should be enough to now defeat the rebels and tokugawa.
It's good that you take that province but why not make some money off of it's current owner first.
Diplomatic Side Step:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
You can make more money from selling military access within a short period of time compared with if you actually controlled that one province yourself. Sell military access to your neighbor 5, then 10, then 20 turns then indefinite military access(you might wish to stop at 20 turns or as you wish). Get your forces in position to attack then declare war on their ally, usually they will join against you, negating the access you sold them. You can then move in to attack without incurring any diplomatic penalty with other clans.
Here I've sold military access to saito then I declared on their ally kiso. Saito joined against me thereby negating the military access that I sold them.
You can also do this by having your vassal next to them. In this case tokugawa is my vassal and saito has declared on them, thereby negating the military access that I sold them. This option involves less enemies for you but you can't tell when or if they'll decide to declare on your vassal.
A few achievements can be easily obtained under the right conditions.
Early campaign
Summer Son:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The summer son achievement and associated trait is simple to get. Start an oda campaign and move your units inside the castle, queue 2 ashigaru units. On the summer turn attack tokugawa then the rebels then one of their leftovers and now you have the achievement and trait. autoresolve if you wish.
You can recruit 9xp warrior monks and get the achievement if you have a province with a shrine. Fortified monastery, famous temple and bushido arts spear techs. You can also recruit 8xp bow warrior monks from this same province with an archery range.
Has the ally of your enemy just taken a province next to yours and now you fear they'll join against you.
Turning your enemies ally into your ally and getting them to join your war:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
In this example tsutsui has just taken Ise. Tsutsui is allied with hattori who is my enemy. The chance of tsutsui declaring war on me would seem to be a given.....or is it?
First I'll give tsutsui 20 turns of military access to break their alliance with hattori.
Sometimes your in position to take a province but your afraid the clan on the other side will attack if you do so. Why not let them assist you for a while.
Long lasting help with your siege, helps to keep your allies loyal:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Is this situation Oda is on the other side of suruga. Although were allied I fear that Oda will turn on me if I destroy imagawa. They currently don't have any other enemies.
I siege Imagawa then oda comes in to assist. I siege with only a general, generals don't suffer the effects of attrition. Oda's units are suffering from attrition every winter season, just in case they turn on me later they'll be weakened by attrition. Every turn I'll break the siege and immediately resiege imagawa.
Some years later and more of my allies have come to help...well hojo dropped me as an ally but their still helping with the siege. I finally decide to take suruga as my allies now have other wars that they can focus on.
If there's a one province clan that you can vassal perhaps you can use that to help you eliminate another clan.
Joining your new vassals war to eliminate a future problem:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
In the above situation instead of taking suruga and eliminating imagawa, I could of vassaled them instead. It could potentially be bad in that my ally oda might attack them but it also opens up an opportunity to eliminate hojo. Hojo was previously allied to me but they dropped me. However they continued to assist me in the suruga siege. Hojo might attack me from behind if I take suruga, so here's what I could of done in that situation.
Here I've gone into diplomacy and vassaled imagawa. Since I'm not allied with hojo I can now join imagawa's war against hojo.
I still had military access from when I was allied with hojo so I moved in troops to eliminate them in one swift stroke as soon as I joined imagawa's war against them.(Keep in mind that as soon as imagawa is vassaled hojo's units will be teleported back to their territory at the closest point, so take that province first)
Do you need a quick money boost and/or perhaps an ally or some other diplomatic treat.
They really like warhorses:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
You can make a large sum of money by trading warhorses. It works best if you trade with them by sea. Once you have a province with a warhorse specialty or the warhorse trade node you can demand money from your potential trade partner. Shop around until you find a clan that will pay a large sum of money and perhaps give you the other diplomatic perks that your looking for.
In this situation I felt it best to have an alliance with honma(although they have a tendency of not wanting to maintain agreements over the long term). This was an opportunity to make an alliance and get some money. Thanks to them valuing warhorses so highly.
If you need money in the short term, perhaps your in jeopardy of going bankrupt or perhaps you want to have more money to spend on province upgrades/units early in the campaign. You can go into your finance tab and raise taxes to very high then the next turn put them back on normal. It takes 2 turns for your provinces to rebel so using this method you can bring in very high taxes every other turn. Note: Doing this will destroy your town growth(Due to the tax level penalty and discontent) so it would be better to have lower taxes the longer the campaign goes on.
Can't handle assaulting that full stack in your enemies castle?
Luring them out with one unit:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Perhaps you have less then a full stack and you don't think you can defeat the full stack that your enemy has in their castle or similar situation but you do think that you could hold if those roles were reversed(you defending the castle against them). You can place a single unit approximately at a distance of a full movement from your enemies castle(make sure their in the open, not hidden in ambush). They'll send their entire force out to attack your single unit and you retreat, then they won't have enough remaining movement to get back to the castle(they might be able to reach your unit a second time, if so then autoresolve). At this point you can take the castle while only facing their spawned garrison units, if you wish.
Luring the shogunate troops is a little different. They have 2 stacks so you'll want your ninja to sabotage the stack outside the castle twice. Send one weakened unit. To do this with one unit you can't have access to Omi. Position the unit just slightly below the road and they'll send their castle units out, then retreat, then autoresolve. Sabotage the second stack again then take the castle. They'll have 11 spawned defense units in the castle.
You don't like being at war with the ouchi and shoni as otomo?
Otomo initial peace:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
You can go into diplomacy and make peace with shoni and/or ouchi. If you want to turtle or have an easier time of securing the trade nodes or perhaps attack sagara or other. The shoni have a tendency to drop you as an ally(at least on higher difficulties) but they might ally again if you ask right away.
Here comes the black ship but you only have a few ships in the area.
Black Ship Containment:
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The black ship won't attack so you can pin it in place until your larger fleet arrives. Just make sure to leave no gaps so it can't get by the land and your ships zones of control. Don't keep it pinned in for to long or an AI fleet might come along and snatch it from you.
Taking their last province when they still have troops elsewhere.
What remains:
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When you take a clans last province, any remaining units they have in other provinces disappear. With any units they still have in their last province, they get to keep one army which becomes rebel and the rest disappear. So if a clan only has one province left and their army is in another province, you can easily eliminate them without having to face that army.
Here I'm about to take mino, takeda's last province. Once I do so their unit in south shinano will disappear.
You can build a nanban trade port/quarter in a province then let it rebel. Another clan will take it, if their a small clan they'll convert. If there a larger clan they might not or it could just take a while.
Here I've built a nanban port in mikawa then I let it rebel and Tokugawa took it.
Would you like to have more then one of that nice building.
Multiple Nanban Ports/Quarters:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
You can build a nanban port/quarter in one province then let that province rebel. Once it rebels build one in another province then reclaim the first and now you have two(works with other buildings as well, buildings where your only supposed to be able to build one).
Here I've built a nanban port in owari. As soon as the rebels take it, I'll build another in mikawa then later reclaim owari.
So you want to attack an enemy by land but their on the other side of a neighboring neutral clan.
5 gets you 10:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
If your diplomatic relations are decent with your neutral neighboring clan then you can trade them military access. Then you'll be able to move thru their territory to attack your enemy(make sure you trade enough access to get to them and I really don't trust them to honor the agreement past 5 turns, it varies).
Here I want to move across urakami's territory to attack hatakeyama.
Shortly after I take bungo it allows me to convert to Christianity(caution doing this will usually put you at war with several clans in that area, depending on who controls it) after I convert I disband my units and let it rebel or let the previous owner reclaim it(you might need to hold bungo until you get the nanban trade message with the free matchlock unit, otherwise it might not let you build the nanban port/quarter but you can still convert).
Is the AI army just outside the castle but you really want to deprive them of that province?
Rushing The Castle:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
If you have a small force and the AI larger army is right next to their castle on the campaign map then you can rush the castle. If you win the enemy reinforcing army will retreat. If you have movement remaining, you'll then be able to leave the castle and go elsewhere....perhaps moving on to the next province or back into friendly territory.
Here I've sieged urakami with their larger force in reinforcing range.
So you want to turtle while having AI like bonuses(income wise)? You can sell military access to give you a money boost(example done on legendary difficulty, amounts may vary at other difficulty levels). *uesugi can sell more access then most clans due to bordering a number of provinces.
Selling military access to speed up the start of your campaign:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I've started an uesugi campaign and decided to sit and turtle. I'll sell military access and use that money to build up my infrastructure and recruit units.
Turn 1 and 2-I'll start selling military access to murakami on turn 1 since they usually don't last long. I'll start selling to my other neighbors on turn 2.
My per turn income is getting low. This area is pretty peaceful so I guess I'll go take sado.
So you want to take provinces quickly with a small force? but you don't have enough troops to leave behind as a garrison to keep them from rebelling.
Making vassals in provinces that have a high resistance to invaders:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Provinces you take have 2 levels of resistance to invaders(these pics are from legendary difficulty, resistance to invaders is lower at lower difficulty levels). You might be able to take the province and recruit a couple units to keep it from rebelling in provinces with the lower level of resistance to invaders but probably not at the higher level without leaving garrison units behind. Vassals count towards the victory conditions so if that clan is currently dead then you can bring them back as a vassal and continue on to the next province.
So perhaps keep direct control of the provinces you take at the lower level of resistance to invaders and recruit units and build them up while vassaling the provinces you take with the higher level of resistance to invaders. Allowing you to continue your speedy offensive.
So your close to that enemy army, unfortunately your out of movement. So hmm, how can you stop them from taking your castle?
Trapping them in your zone of control:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
You can edge your way next to the AI army, locking both armies into each others zone of control. One of you has to attack the other to get free. As the player you can attack and press retreat to get free of their zone of control but the AI won't do that. So the AI has to attack you or they'll remain stuck there until you release them. You can also use the splitting units off to get a little closer to your next target.
Highlight all your units except one then click to attack the enemy stack
Do you want to move your army a long distance in 1 turn?
Army crawling:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
You can move an army a very long distance in 1 turn providing you have 2 units or more in that group. Take one unit and separate it from the main group, moving that unit around until it's out of movement. Make sure that the unit ends up right next to the rest of your units. click on the units with movement then hover over the unit that doesn't have movement and Alt + right click to bring up the merge panel. Take the units with movement and combine them with the unit with no remaining movement. Then separate the unit with no movement and repeat the process until you reach your target. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YPdV6EAzUg
So you decided to loot that province and it rebels. Even after you defeat the rebels you still can't maintain public order and so it rebels 1 or 2 more times before you can get it under control. There's another way that might work if you want to avoid the battles.
Leaving the rebel general alive to keep the province from rebelling again until you get the public order under control:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Providing the rebels have a general in charge, you can destroy the rest of their force but let their general survive. Each turn that general will siege you, then you attack him and he'll retreat(you need to have at least a couple units for this to work). You can maintain this situation until public order is stable. *The main drawback to this is you can't recruit units or build in that province because it's continually under siege*
Here the saito rebels have attacked mino and lost, saito dosan remains. He sieges then I attack him and he retreats, same thing the next turn and so on. For these screenshots I was using just a first level castle with some regular units inside. It's best if you have a castle with 2 or more garrison units, then you can move your regular forces elsewhere. That way the rebels will immediately siege your castle instead of damaging your infrastructure first.
Battle Map
If your assaulting a stronghold, you can minimize the casualties inflicted by their towers.
Hiding from their towers while still being able to fire on them:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Move your archers around to the left of your starting position and approach the castle from that corner(leave one or more units in the original start position to help keep their archer on that side. Stop near the wall leaving just a small amount of space and you'll be able to fire on most of the defenders from that position.
Certain castles can be taken easier. The larger they are the harder(easier) they fall.
Blow up the wall and send them flying: Use their own tower to destroy them and win with minimal or no casualties:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
You'll see as I burn the gate, part of the wall catches on fire. This kills some of the enemy unit. The enemy unit must be pretty close to(or on) the wall for this to work. You can also destroy the wall with artillery, sending them flying.
You'll also see that I capture their tower and use it to shoot them. You can kill a large portion of the enemy in this way. This is what I refer to as a type 2 stealth assault as you're able to use a small number of units to destroy a larger defending force(providing you have the patience for it). This is in north shinano at the fortress level. Note: not all towers can fire into the inner tier in this way but there are many that can and I didn't bring any archers, be sure to bring archers if you want a quicker battle. 1:20 to 3:18 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature..._QW--8k7s#t=78
So your attacking and you want to win with a minimum of casualties.
Battfield luring when attacking:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
when your attacking you can pick off the enemy units one by one by using the appropriate unit to lure them. Try to stay clear of their archers and if possible don't knock out their archers early on, if you do there's a chance that they'll attack you, because you have ranged superiority. Here's some luring in the first Date battle against the rebels. 3:17 to 6:14 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...QW--8k7s#t=195
You can distract some of their units while defending in a siege defense by sending a cavalry unit out to greet them.
Something you can do with matchlocks once the enemy units get up the wall.
Keeping the enemy engaged while giving your matchlocks a clear shot:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Once the enemy units are up the wall you just need to keep them engaged with one of your melee units while your matchlocks deal the real damage to them. 8:40 to 10:52 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...QW--8k7s#t=518
The AI is reinforcing you, well that's nice of them.
Utilizing AI reinforcements:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Sometimes another clan will also be at war with your enemy and they'll send some forces to help you against them. You could thank them for their assistance. 10:52 to 13:22 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...QW--8k7s#t=650
Some of these were brought to my attention by posts from other forum members and some I came up with on my own. All have been recently tested to make sure that they still work as of Aug 2013. You can decide for yourself whether these are tricks or strategy/tactics and from that determine if you want to use them or not, it's up to you.
Last edited by wealthmonger; October 08, 2013 at 01:51 AM.
Re: Shogun 2 Single Player: Using Trickery To Your Advantage On The Campaign Map and Battlefield
The military access cheat is an easy way to bolster your budget; however, if on the first turn it looks rather low from one or more neighbours, wait a turn and then offer it. Not much point in letting it exceed five turns, as no one has that kind of cash to spare. Re-offering it will gradually lower it's worth, though by that time, you shouldn't need that subsidy.
Avoid indefinite access, as you have to deal with diplomatic fallout if war is declared within ten turns of cancellation, and this is an easy thing to overlook.
Re: Shogun 2 Single Player: Using Trickery To Your Advantage On The Campaign Map and Battlefield
Thank you for this guide.
"Famous general without peer in any age, most superior in valor and inspired by the Way of Heaven; since the provinces are now subject to your will it is certain that you will increasingly mount in victory." - Ōgimachi-tennō
Re: Shogun 2 Single Player: Using Trickery To Your Advantage On The Campaign Map and Battlefield
Most of your tips are more like cheats.
If you have to deploy your army in a cloud around your castle to win, and sell military acces to everybody I suggest playing on a lower difficulty instead, or use a cheat to give you more money. These tips are also needed to win on Legendary. I would like to see a diplomacy-mod, where the AI only pays for military access, if it has need of it.
I like to cheat once in a while to try something different, som I'm not judging.
Re: Shogun 2 Single Player: Using Trickery To Your Advantage On The Campaign Map and Battlefield
Originally Posted by magraev
If you have to deploy your army in a cloud around your castle to win, and sell military acces to everybody I suggest playing on a lower difficulty instead, or use a cheat to give you more money. These tips are also needed to win on Legendary.
None of these are needed to win at any difficulty level including legendary. These are situational, meant to get a player out of a jam or get your campaign off to a quicker/easier start like selling military access. Of course if a player wants to use them on a regular basis they can but it isn't necessary.
Re: Shogun 2 Single Player: Using Trickery To Your Advantage On The Campaign Map and Battlefield
Originally Posted by wealthmonger
None of these are needed to win at any difficulty level including legendary. These are situational, meant to get a player out of a jam or get your campaign off to a quicker/easier start like selling military access. Of course if a player wants to use them on a regular basis they can but it isn't necessary.
OK - I'll take your word for it (I don't play above hard). It just seems that all guides for the high difficulties include selling military access.
And I actually tried sending an spear levy out of a castle to distract an invading army in FOTS yesterday - it worked like a charm (lost the unit though).
Re: Shogun 2 Single Player: Using Trickery To Your Advantage On The Campaign Map and Battlefield
I love the unit minefield, it saved so many castles in my Uesugi campaign. Expecially effective against naval invasion when your main armies are very far.
It's only after you have lost everything, that you are free to do anything.
Re: Shogun 2 Single Player: Using Trickery To Your Advantage On The Campaign Map and Battlefield
does army crawling still work, or was it patched? alt right click doesn't bring up that menu, though i can slowly move an entire army the full travel distance of the general, just not further.
Re: Shogun 2 Single Player: Using Trickery To Your Advantage On The Campaign Map and Battlefield
Army crawling still works, started a hattori campaign and got up to echizen in 1 turn. I might not of mentioned it in the description or the video-while in the unit exchange window hold down ctrl while you left click the units being exchanged so you don't have to exchange them one at a time.
You might of been hitting ctrl or something else instead of alt, easy to do since it's so repetitive. click on the group with movement then hover over the unit without movement and you'll see 2 arrows, one pointing left and one pointing right then alt/right click to bring up the unit exchange window.
Last edited by wealthmonger; May 06, 2014 at 02:49 AM.
Shogun 2 Single Player: Using Trickery To Your Advantage On The Campaign Map and Battlefield
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Originally Posted by magraev
