What is the farthest that you have progressed in the game?

[DJB_Halo]

I've had this game since the day it came out. I even pre-ordered it from gamestop so I had the ninja clan before it was an buy able DLC.

However, no matter the faction, I can never seem to reach the end of the game. The farest I've ever gotten was 1578 with the Chosokabe clan. Then for some reason, my regions starting to revolt, I was being invaded and my ports were simultaneously blockaded. Other than that, I never get pass 1560. I always lose sometime before that year. Hell, I even lose in two turns once.

So that has made me curious, what's the farthest you gone? Have you beaten it?

[magraev]

I've won the long campaign on easy and a couple of times on normal. Never got so far on Hard. I usually start over, when the game becomes too much work. FOTS can be fun, since you can have several allies to share the load at the endgame. I finished that campaign once on easy and once on normal so far (go Satsuma!).

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

I've beaten the Vanilla as all of the campaigns as every clan and I beat all of the historical battles.
In Fall of the Samurai I beat the campaign as almost every clan, I beat the Legendary as the Empire and I need one more historical battle to go. Then my computer broke

[DJB_Halo]

I haven't have the opportunity to play the Rise/Fall of the Samurai yet. Looking forward to it though.

[Didz]

I've completed the campaign several times on Normal difficulty, and I'm currently working through the list of clans to get the achievement for completion for each of them. Just finished the Hojo, and currently doing Takeda. The trick is to manage your economy and diplomatic relationships effectively from day one, otherwise you end up at war with everyone and bankrupt well before the end.

[Blopwerth III]

I have managed to win the short campaign as the Otomo, Shimazu, and Takeda, and have come close as the Hattori, but can make almost zero headway in any other clans. I find that in many total war games, especially this one, your trade starts to ramp up and your clan has expanded, but for some reason at around turn 30 your income always totters and falls. You usually are compelled to start over, but give it a few years and start new military campaigns. It'll fix itself and you can move on, eventually reaching the point where you and your koku are like a nerd and his sperm: so much of it and nothing to use it on.

Joking aside, eventually you'll be making ten thousand koku a turn and you'll be able to buy everything you want in a few turns. I call the above mentioned scenario your clan's "Mid-life crisis".

[Didz]

Well the big event you need to be planning for is the 'Realm Divide', which occurs when the Shogun finally loses patience with you and decides that your clan need eradicating. At that point you clan takes a massive relationship hit (I think it's initially something like -50 to all clans) which will cause any that are not really friendly with you to declare war.

This then gets steadily worse every year with a further -20 relationship being deducted up to a maximum of -200. So, unless your allies and trade partners are really bosom buddies with a relationship of +200 or over at Realm Divide you can be more or less certain that they will declare war or you, or at least cancel their trade deal with you.

To be honest, one could cope with the entire of Japan being at war with you, what you can't cope with is the lack of income from having nobody to trade with.

To win the campaign (without cheating) one needs to plan both the timing of the Realm Divide and the retention of your allies and trade partners.

That means securing a decent income and a sizable treasury before the Realm Divide, and then using that to keep all your friends on side afterwards.

In my Hojo Campaign I had three major clans as allies and trade partners pretty much all the way through the campaign, and I was careful to manage my relationship with them carefully. I avoided attacking their allies, supported them in their wars, fed them a regular percentage of my trade income and allowed them unrestricted access to my lands as a sign of my trust in them.

Just before Realm Divide I married two of their nobles to my daughters (+100 relationship degrading by -20 per turn), and bolstered our relationship by gifts until their relationship with me was +220.

I then monitored this figure every turn and topped it up with more gifts and daughters etc. to make sure it stayed over +200 for as long as possible. You can't actually keep it that high for ever, becuase even with +100 for gifts the -200 Realm Divide penalty will push the total under +100, and you can't breed daughters fast enough to keep their nobles distracted. Plus there are penalties for expansion, as your allies get jealous and nervous as your clan becomes more powerful.

However, as long as you keep the relationship over zero you should be able to avoid a war and keep trading, you just might not be invited over for tea as often.

I managed to win my Hojo campaign with an income of around 6,000 koku per turn, but ideally I would have like more. I was paying about 1,200 per turn to each of my allies to keep the gift benefits maximised. One thing I noticed was that some clans were not as grateful for gifts as others, not sure why, but some cost more to keep than others.

[SanyuXV]

I've finished the long campaign several times in Shogun 2!
Playing as the Hattori, Takeda, Oda, and Hojo

Now I've got to figure out just how to play FOTS....

[Didz]

I'm just approaching the Realm Divide in my Takeda Campiagn at the moment and have a treasury of just over 123k koku saved up, and a current revenue of 9,000 koku. My main ally is the Hojo clan, and I've just married my daughter to one of their Diamyo's sons. However, they are proving a bit of liability, as they have just declared war on my vassal and one of my other main allies, forcing me to withdraw my support for both. So I'm scrabbling around at the moment trying to rebuild my coalition by improving my relationships with clans that are not quite as friendly, but at least out of reach of Hojo aggression.

[Alhaioth]

I won a Date campaign on medium. In FotS, I won a Nagaoka campaign on Shogunate's side, and reached the late game as Tosa, going republic.

I should get back to this game sometime...

[Blopwerth III]

Ah yes, and in FoTS, I've won as Nagaoka, Aizu, Choshu, and Satsuma.

[Blopwerth III]

Now I've got to figure out just how to play FOTS....

Go for modernization at every opportunity, by the time you have large line infantry formations and a couple Gatling Gun factories near railroads, you will mow through everything and everyone.

[shadowflare1995]

OP, if you want you could add me on Steam. I could help you and maybe even do a multiplayer campaign with you.

[Biggus Splenus]

I beat it on legendary as the Oda once, it was a glorious day.

[Himster]

I've finished every clan on legendary, but the "furthest" I've ever gotten was with the Uesugi clan on normal where I didn't destroy a single clan, I made every clan my vassal, when I finally united all of Japan this way, after a long and bloody/benevolent campaign, they all rebelled against me, so i decided to wipe them all out completely. On the last turn before the game ends (1620 or something) I took Satsuma province, the last province from my rebellious vassals, so it was basically two campaigns in one, the longest campaign I've ever had

[mightytaters]

Long story short: I died... really fast... with the Satsuma which is surprising; considering they're one the the easiest factions to start with, because of their lucrative land of choke points. Therefore I can make the conclusion, that I am at the campaign long and/or short.

[Didz]

Just finished the Tokugawa Campaign, and I'm in the early stages of a Chosokabe one.

The Tokugawa campaign was interesting as it's the first clan I've played where you start the game as a vassal.

The Chosokabe I've noticed don't seem very popular with the other clans, and several begin the game with -20 or -40 diplomatic penalties. I'm not sure why that is unless they are the former friends of the Ichijō family whose rule the Chosokabe rebelled against just before the start of the game. However, that coupled with the expansion penalties incurred as a result of the early subjugation of the rest of Shikoku island has left me with a pretty poor reputation and I'm having trouble even finding anyone to trade with. Hopefully, once the game progresses further memories will fade and more immediate demands will force a chance of heart amongst my neighbors. Till then the incense and silk I'm importing will have to sit on the docks in Tosa.

[The Useless Member]

Took all of Japan on normal and hard.

Never tried on Very Hard.

[Vice]

I've beaten FOTS and normal Shogun 2 on Legendary once each just so I could get the achievement (not a fan of the "you no save besides auto-save" bs they make you do or i'd play it more then once on each game)...Of course I was the Shimazu / Satsuma Clan each time hehe...

[Man o' War]

Furthest I've got is completing the game and controlling the whole of Japan as Uesugi on legendary domination mode while fighting every battle. I also wanted a "Happy Japan" so I was careful how I managed the empire.

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