As I move from faction to faction in the game. I always read up on them before I do, to get a perspective of what really happened. My knowledge is very poor but is something Im very interested in, so I research a bit. Enough about that and to the point. Im going to play as the Takeda next and was reading about them and more importantly Takeda Shingen. Seems he was a massively important figure that dies before he can truly take on the Oda-Tokugawa alliance. Who knows what would happen if he had lived longer in real life, the game allows us to recreate that to a point. I bring this up only because I think the bonuses for the faction I think could use tweaking. From what I read he was and thus the clan was very well organized and administered. So much so that his ideas were adopted by many, including his enemies. I dont know if the game only allows 4 bonuses, but I think the Takeda should get a bonus to faction administration and tax bonuses. Dont know what others think and will get more sources if neccesary. Have a read here and tell me what you think.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeda_Shingen
I would also like to see the short campaign end around 1600-1604. Its the historical end to the period and gives you a little more time to finish of a turtled short campaign. I turtle as much as possible to give the ai time to build up and give me a challenge. Im starting to play more short campaigns as once the player gets 10+ provinces, the game is basically over. Long campaigns lose there appeal to me once I am the top faction. The AI can not coordinate attacks properly, they dont raid and run which would make sense but no TW game accurately portrays Total War.
I know this is a long shot but I figure I will throw it out there anyway. Instead of unit caps, is there anyway to tie Samurai recruitment to # of provinces you have or castle levels of those provinces? In my last Hojo campaigns, I played 199 turns total before getting my 40 provinces, turtle is my style. By the time I had 10 provinces the game was over. I couldnt build a big enough army to really expand further until I made my way in the Bushido arts to professional ashigura. But when I got to that I wanted to wait until my enemies could at least put up a weak defence to my military advances. With the low caps what I find is that ai factions with 5+ provinces are like dogs chasing there tail. What I mean is that either rebels or warring factions keep them reconquering the same provinces over in over in a circle. The AI never garrisons cities, which makes me think spawning bigger garrisons is necessary. I watched the Oda go round and round for over 10 years reconquering the same provinces. I honestly miss facing the massive 3 or 4 factions in game that vanilla had about 40 turns in. At least they could throw stacks at you and keep you on your toes. Right now its face one army and if you defeat that you get the province. Just seems from my reading of the period there were many more battles then what we can now simulate, no fault of the mod of course. Dont get me wrong as I do like the unit caps, it makes you divide your strength to defend your multiple fronts adequately. Just would like to either see them raised slightly or tied more to number of provinces or size of castles you have.
Loving the mod, cant wait to see how it continues to evolve