Need Some Advice!

**IBSXYPNTS** · March 09, 2016, 12:25 AM

So i just got back into playing Shogun 2 after a two year hiatus. I forgot how beautiful and different it was from Medieval 2! Still I have a few questions that kinda remind me why I stopped.

1. WTF is with the gangbanging CAI? I know CAI always has difficulties but it is kinda offputting.
-In RotS I managed to get 6 regions and was going fine until suddenly literally every single neighboring clan attacked me. I think this is because I became 'Respected' or something. I literally only declared war on 1 clan in about 100 turns and they had only one region and the gangbang happened a dozen or so turns later.
-In regular Shogun 2 I started a game as the Chosba (The archer lovers on Shikkido) and I took one province on the mainland and stayed peaceful trying to build up. Suddenly I got attacked which I wanted anyways at that point so I didnt mind but suddenly again all neighboring factions ganged up on me. Even the ones that I was friendly with and had both alliances and access cancelled the agreements and joined in.
-In FotS I was playing Satsuma and did well even holding up to 10 regions! this was fine, so was the problem with the modernization I enjoyed the difficulty controlling the populace. But again once reached a point suddenly where the entire Japan went insane and suddenly from all sides I was attacked, even that was fine but again even staunch allies betrayed me for little reason. (I honestly had the least problem with this campaign since it was nice to play a campaign where I won every battle but lost the war)

Now is this normal? If so is there a mod that addresses this?

2.The battles go very quick and feel strange, like the units dont seem to want to attack. I will select 4 units of mine and click an enemy unit and only 1 seems to attack them the others sit there for some reason. Along with this, is there a way to literally make a simple straight frontline or do I have to use the silly animal named ones or what have you. (Again not much of an issue in FotS) I have never used or liked the army setups in total war so its weird for me.
-A BIG ONE HERE: Why are the units so massively spread out? I mean when you see them the individual troops are standing ten feet apart! Is there a way to make it so they have a tighter formation?
-Again a side note: Does the game give you incentive to use better units? Since in all 3 versions I seem to be forced to spam militia level units that are horrible to play with since they retreat if you look at them wrong.

Tl;DR:
CAI is bothersome, want longer battlee with more units.

Is there a mod that addresses these issues? Or am I missing something crucial in the game mehanics of Shogun 2 that is throwing me off?

**wiesel** · March 09, 2016, 05:44 AM

I'm going to assume you're playing on very hard. Very Hard is much more extreme than some of the earlier games like Medieval 2. I played the Fujiwara in ROTS on Very Hard and & after taking only 4 provinces, within 2 turns, had all 5 major clans declare war on me, including my 'sister clan' and 4 regional adjoining minor clans as well.....most of which I'd had good relations with & trade agreements. Playing the same on Hard, the AI aggression was much more reasonable & tempered. I know there are people that love playing legendary & it is an incredible challenge but you're really playing a totally different game & most measured considerations, including strategies for diplomacy & economic growth go out the window & that's just not the game for me. As far as making a front line, you need to select the units you want, make sure they are UNGROUPED first, use the mouse to stretch out the line to your liking & then group them. If you try to move grouped units as a group, they will stay in the same arrangement & spacing as before & often not fit the contours of the new terrain.

**IBSXYPNTS** · March 09, 2016, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by wiesel

I'm going to assume you're playing on very hard. Very Hard is much more extreme than some of the earlier games like Medieval 2. I played the Fujiwara in ROTS on Very Hard and & after taking only 4 provinces, within 2 turns, had all 5 major clans declare war on me, including my 'sister clan' and 4 regional adjoining minor clans as well.....most of which I'd had good relations with & trade agreements. Playing the same on Hard, the AI aggression was much more reasonable & tempered. I know there are people that love playing legendary & it is an incredible challenge but you're really playing a totally different game & most measured considerations, including strategies for diplomacy & economic growth go out the window & that's just not the game for me. As far as making a front line, you need to select the units you want, make sure they are UNGROUPED first, use the mouse to stretch out the line to your liking & then group them. If you try to move grouped units as a group, they will stay in the same arrangement & spacing as before & often not fit the contours of the new terrain.

I actually was only trying on Normal to try and get a feel for the game after two years absence. Thank you for the info though! I am curious as to if there is a way to fix this because its no fun at all to play this way for me.

**Thelann** · March 10, 2016, 01:13 PM

S2 can be a bit unsettling coming form previous titles, I can only recommend this, it´s the best I found and most of it is still up to date:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showth...-War-Shogun-II

As far as I remember:

-The CAI is not schizophrenic. The political situation in Japan is very complicated and it is very easy to do mistake and get everybody to hate you. you can always have a look at the "factors" influencing your relationship with a given clan. Among the most importants: religion, size of your empire, marriage and relationships with other clans (the enemy of my enemy blablabla)
Compared to M2, you will have to get really active on diplomacy. Try to get your daughter married, if possible, and don´t hesitate to give small gifts. Be aware also that at a point something called "realm divided" will strike Japan and put diplomacy under huge pressure.

-I am not aware of the multiple attack order issue, I cannot help you on that.

-Battles feel strange. Definitely. The pace and rules of battle are much different than the one form M2, and force you to think in a different way when approaching battles. If you do want something closer to M2, many mods bring it back close to it. I think the most praised is Darthmod.

-You can create your own formation with the "g" key. I always mix up between RomeII and Shogun 2. I think for shogun 2 "ctrl+g" keeps the formation as it was when you created the group.

-The units are more spread out than M2, especially in RoS. No way to go around this AFAIK.

-Incentive to use better units? Well, your power/space ratio increases, opening different tactics on the battlefield. However, compared to other iterations. There is no "better" unit strictly speaking in S2. The ashigarus are more cost efficient and easier to replace, but more prone to moral shock and limited powerwise. Samurais units on the other hands come at a hefty price, but are much more resilient and can open breaches in the enemy lines, disturbing the plan of battle. Two very different ways of playing battles.

Have fun

**IBSXYPNTS** · March 10, 2016, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by Thelann

S2 can be a bit unsettling coming form previous titles, I can only recommend this, it´s the best I found and most of it is still up to date:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showth...-War-Shogun-II

As far as I remember:

-The CAI is not schizophrenic. The political situation in Japan is very complicated and it is very easy to do mistake and get everybody to hate you. you can always have a look at the "factors" influencing your relationship with a given clan. Among the most importants: religion, size of your empire, marriage and relationships with other clans (the enemy of my enemy blablabla)
Compared to M2, you will have to get really active on diplomacy. Try to get your daughter married, if possible, and don´t hesitate to give small gifts. Be aware also that at a point something called "realm divided" will strike Japan and put diplomacy under huge pressure.

-I am not aware of the multiple attack order issue, I cannot help you on that.

-Battles feel strange. Definitely. The pace and rules of battle are much different than the one form M2, and force you to think in a different way when approaching battles. If you do want something closer to M2, many mods bring it back close to it. I think the most praised is Darthmod.

-You can create your own formation with the "g" key. I always mix up between RomeII and Shogun 2. I think for shogun 2 "ctrl+g" keeps the formation as it was when you created the group.

-The units are more spread out than M2, especially in RoS. No way to go around this AFAIK.

-Incentive to use better units? Well, your power/space ratio increases, opening different tactics on the battlefield. However, compared to other iterations. There is no "better" unit strictly speaking in S2. The ashigarus are more cost efficient and easier to replace, but more prone to moral shock and limited powerwise. Samurais units on the other hands come at a hefty price, but are much more resilient and can open breaches in the enemy lines, disturbing the plan of battle. Two very different ways of playing battles.

Have fun

I managed to play a regular Shogun 2 campaign and won. I had forgotten how gaining lands actually makes other clans hate you and such. I got realm divide in 1579 and managed to hold it the four turns to win the campaign! I also realized, like in Rome 2, armies can march and take several provinces in one turn (which is silly to me but w.e)

I have played all Total war games since Rome and I quite enjoy the different styles of fighting in each. But in Shogun something seems wonky, I cant explain it, maybe its because the cavalry are so slow and the archers are supermarksmen? Still had alot of fun though! I will check out the Darthmod for this!

The formation thing is just irritating I hate all the fancy crap on the sides that auto-pops up when I group units is all. I think there is a way to set the unit spacing, or at least there used to be in the EDU file, but I dont want to fiddle with it so much. It was during the RotS campaign that this issue came up the most!

I understand that samurai are better and that due to the generally limited timeframe of less than 100 years unit variety is massively down from what I am used too with the older games! Also let it be known I am not trying to bash the game just needed help dealing with the massive differences since I havent played it in forever!