Strategies for FotS?

[Eco]

I have just bought the game and I was looking for a strategy guide, for economic and military stuff, like there was for Shogun, napoleon and empire. I have googled it but I can't find any. You know, stuff like at what pace to modernize, which foreign power to choose for treaties, which units to use, etc.

[Omegazxi]

Try to modernize at a pace that won't make your people to angry to quickly, and be sure to research stuff that improves your happiness and repression to counter act the unhappiness from modern building and research.

[DarthShizNit]

Get kneel fire, after that, it's game over. Melee units are still effective (use Yari Kachi), it just requires a clever use of terrain in order to get up on rifle troops before they can get off a volley. Oh, and lots of artillery!

[Felixlynch777]

Kneel fire is incredibly useful. Also build lots of ships.

[Ecka65]

I'm certainly no officiando but I'll offer what I can. Managing your economy is critical. Also, managing dissent in your early acquisitions is also critical as you'll have few units and you need to keep them mobile. Thus far I've found building an Inn, then a Geisha and stationing her in the town helps with both. Lowering tax as soon as possible to "low" also helps. Your income won't be high but you'll be encouraging growth.

Early you want to grab one province by the end of winter / start of spring. Then aim at expanding to 4 whilst maintaining an ability to defend your others - meaning try to keep them togther as best as possible. Meanwhile, the standard "grab trade agreements and ally with a neighbour" is good practice. Focus your military buildings in the most central province, preferably one with the lowest dissent. Focus on economy only in the others. Build your ports, and then trading ports when you can. Get to line infantry as soon as possible.

The above general "opening" if you like sets a good base. Once I've got the main army to about 6 line infantry supported by Cavalry and a few spears for the flanks it's time to up the tax rate to normal and expand to 6-8 provinces. Then I stop and turtle hard no matter what. The income will by this stage be quite good and allow for more building slots, upgrades, and agent production.

In two games, I actually turtled at 7 provinces for two years. When spring arrived I had buffed very modern armies and went through provinces like a hot knife through butter! The two year turtle strategy (if you like) meant 7 booming provinces assisted by very strong agents and tech advances. I was able to afford pretty much whatever I needed just from that base of 7. On H/H it was literally a pretty simple walkthrough after that.

[Humble Warrior]

Depends on difficulty and faction.

As Satumo on Hard I was able to turtle and the game became ridiculously easy, especially after a strange long period when no one challenged me at all and after gaining 500000 and never going under, the CAI ceased to be any kind of threat. By the time I had an actual war I had discovered and invented everything! I had to double check I wasn`t on Easy.

As Aiza or Jochia(sp) on Legendary, I cannot do anything without being ceaselessly attacked from 2 or 3 quarters. It seems turtling doesn`t work on this level.

The jump in difficulty from hard to Legendary is strange. It wasn`t like this for default Shogun. As far as I know, legendary is just Very Hard with all the realism modes on.

Oh well, I like a challenge.

[Titan Uranus]

Depends on difficulty and faction.

As Satumo on Hard I was able to turtle and the game became ridiculously easy, especially after a strange long period when no one challenged me at all and after gaining 500000 and never going under, the CAI ceased to be any kind of threat. By the time I had an actual war I had discovered and invented everything! I had to double check I wasn`t on Easy.

As Aiza or Jochia(sp) on Legendary, I cannot do anything without being ceaselessly attacked from 2 or 3 quarters. It seems turtling doesn`t work on this level.

The jump in difficulty from hard to Legendary is strange. It wasn`t like this for default Shogun. As far as I know, legendary is just Very Hard with all the realism modes on.

Oh well, I like a challenge.

I had a similar situation, I stopped conquering one province before RD and no one even tried to touch me, though then again no human player would go up against odds like that alone.

[Captain Arrrgh!]

Strategies for FotS?

Point your gatlings that-a-way and plug your ears.

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

Point your gatlings that-a-way and plug your ears.

But then how will you hear the delightful screams?

[Eco]

Thanks. Btw here is a little guide.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/16/sh...ou-take-japan/
The only one, I think, in the whole web.

[A Barbarian]

Just finished a short campaign on hard with a 'Terror/Police State' strategy. Usually I am the nice guy but this strat was fun for a change:
- Loot every city with decent money (about every 2nd city in my campaign) and get the 'higher loot' perks for your general. This will lower the honor of your Daimyo but the happiness impact seems to be limited to -2 which isn't too bad. Interestingly, trade/foreign politics didn't seem to be impacted much by the low honor.
- With the money from the looting, you can keep civil research at a minimum and rapidly go down the military tree and also help financing your military
- With your advanced military it's possible to capture new provinces quite quickly which is necessary to get more loot since your normal income won't be very high
- To keep the people under control, build a lot of police stations and get all the 'people control' traits for your secret police agents.
- If necessary, get some happiness/suppression policies from the civic research tree

[SkyTrickster]

Artillery is your friend. Once you get 4 pieces of armstrong in any army, you are basically invincable. Atleast I haven;t lost a battle since, because the AI tends to be pretty bad with arty and they don't bother with it as much.

[Omegazxi]

I posted this in the strategy section but I'll post it ehere as well for you.

While playing around with FOTS Satsuma on Legendary I have found a pretty solid tactic for engaging melee infantry with line infantry with low casualties.

Once you get the timing of the naval bombardment down you will enable your melee troops to engage with their line infantry without the line getting its first devastating off.

Right before your naval bombardment impacts the enemy AI is in disarray trying to get its troops out of the area, this time here is when to charge your melee infantry in. Once you get the timing down you can have your melee infantry engaging their disorganized infantry 1-2 sec after the naval bombardment ends.

Their infantry will be the section where you are attacking will be forced into melee and they will pull units from their flanks to save it, which will give you a chance to advance your flanking units for the surround.

If you can get the timing of the charge with the end of the naval bombardment then you will be able to pull of the charge without their line getting and shots off.



I find this method most useful with a focused naval bombardment on the center of their line followed up by the melee charge; this is because attacking the center means they have to pull their flanks in to support the center.

It’s been an effective way for spear levies to fight line infantry, and it knocks the enemy formation in complete chaos.

But getting the timing down is the most important part of this tactic, as you only have a window 3-5 sec to get the full effects of the enemy being in disorder.

This method is inspired by the British introduced WWI timed artillery attacks (infantry hits the enemy line at the moment the artillery bombardment stops.)
Let me know how this works out for you