Are you converting to Christianity in your campaigns?

[Yojimbo]

I love using hand gunners so i usually convert, despite being atheist.

[MuttonChops]

I always convert. I like using Priests to incite rebellions in my non-buddist enemies. They are also good baits for ninjas and sometimes against the scary Geishas!

[Xerrop]

Anyone knows how the cathedral income is calculated? Does building more churches mean more money for you?

[smeogol]

Every Church yields 200 koku iirc, including Churches built by other clans.

[MaximiIian]

To bring some life into this nearly dead forum, I´ll start a new topic:
How do you deal with the Portuguese and the Christendom?

Do you convert to this new religion and start building churches?
Or do you remain Buddhist in your campaigns?

I remain Buddhist so I can keep using and training warrior monks. They're, hands down, some of the best infantry units in the game. Excellent shock troops and great on defence as well. Back 'em up with archers and lancers and you'll win every time.

As far as the guns go, I just wait 'till the Dutch come. They have better guns, anyway.

[killervomit2]

i converted to christianity as mori but can still recruit warrior monks

[caravel]

As far as the guns go, I just wait 'till the Dutch come. They have better guns, anyway.

I see this repeated a lot, but it's actually a myth. The Dutch do not enable the training of better teppo units, the "Musketeers" become available earlier if you accept the Portuguese and build enough churches and a cathedral. This should be completed way before the Dutch arrive. There is also the chance that your clan may miss the Dutch altogether (this can happen), so pinning your hopes on the arrival of the Dutch is not a safe bet. Also accepting the Portguese and then the Dutch gives you a large combined income from the Portuguese and Dutch trading posts.

[Erkki]

Great to see some people still post at the forums of such an old game...

I have played STW and RTW only - MTW refusing to work, and having heard nothing but bad of the later ones - RTW had poor enough gameplay to me. I think as a game, as a complete package, STW is superior to RTW. The only possible area where RTW is better, are those custom multiplayer battles, with their infinitive variety of maps and considerably greater unit variation. But even that only when its hevaily modded.

I think I have accepted the Portuguese only once or twice - both were at desperate situations, but still, at least the last time, the Arquebusiers were unable to turn my Imagawa Hard campaign into a victory. Statistically I think its better to convert than to not, unless if you're Mori, but usually when the Portuguese arrive the invasion of a nearest neughbour(s) has already been on for a while, and getting Arquebusiers to the line in good enough numbers is, I think, not worth of it. I rather use the koku to buy more "traditional" units, or improve their weapons/armor/morale. After I've paved the nearest neighbour or two, I'm usually economics wise so powerful than I can use no-dachi, monks or cavalry as the main line units of my armies. Those guns are not so useful when attacking, compared to their usefullness in defense, either.

[Marku]

i always convert and get the guns :-D

[Hopit]

guns for japanese, it WILL end well

[Iosif Stalin]

Personally I don't see the military value of converting to Christianity. Maybe I just haven't figured out the right way to use arquebusiers, but I find them pretty useless. A few months ago I was playing a campaign and I converted to Christianity for the guns, and when I went to battle they did almost nothing to the enemy. I remembered having difficulty with them in previous campaigns in the past, so I thought maybe I just didn't put enough of them on the battlefield to be really effective. So I fielded maybe 6 or 8 arquebusier companies in one army, and they had little effect on the enemy and were very quick to rout. Of course I didn't rely only on them, I had melee troops as well to protect them, but still. I disbanded them all in disgust after a couple more battles with no improvement, and switched back to Buddhism for the warrior monks, who are both strong and won't run away crying for their mothers the instant the enemy gets within 20 feet of them.

As far as I can see, the only advantage to converting to Christianity is the increased koku from tithes and trading posts. Which can be useful, particularly if you're playing as the Mori (as I was) in the poorest part of Japan. But militarily the guns just don't seem that good to me. So I generally won't bother if I'm playing as a richer clan, unless I'm looking for a challenge or just trying to shake things up and try different strategies.

[NorseThing]

To paraphrase the original post, I will post to help put some life in this forum.

I tend to role play, so Oda will always convert. It is fun to rule Japan with a mob of peasants armed with gunpowder. I will sometimes convert with the Shimazu, but I do not recall ever choosing to convert with any of the other clans. I guess I am at heart an anarchic traditionalist in Shogun. The first three posts in this ancient thread pretty well sum things up for me.