FoTS - A few newbie questions

[hunner6]

I just got Shogun 2 and FoTS Limited Edition so I have the Saga faction. The only other total war game I have played is Medieval 2 and it's expansion, Kingdoms, which is much different to this game so I just wanted to ask a few questions on how I can do well as any faction. (preferably Saga though)

1. I didn't really fight out battles on Medieval 2 because I was rubbish at them so I auto resolved most of them so how should I fight battles without getting owned by the AI? Like which units should I sent in first etc.

2. I sent a full stack of units to an enemies city and attacked it. Since I'm bad at battles and I've seen the way a city/castle is on this game which is much different to Medieval 2, I auto resolved (bad mistake) and lost over 3/4 of my army while the defender had minimal losses. How should I fight out sieges?

3. How should I form a good economy? The way you build things on this game is also a bit different to what I'm used to so I don't know which buildings should be upgraded first to form a good economy as some buildings lower happiness etc from modernization. What should I be upgrading first?

4. I suck at army building, I usually add mostly Levy Spearman in my army in the early game (I've never gotten past turn 35 :L) so what units and how many should I have to have a decent/balanced army?

I hope someone can help me with these questions.

[alexanderswift]

Don't use Med2 as a guide, its a different engine not to mention its a heavily gunpowder focused game. Levy spearmen are good but you need guns in your army, mix it up with levy infantry as much as possible. As for sieges, don't fight them unless you really need to. Time your campaigns so you won't ever be besieging during the winter and just outlast them. Buildings that increase town growth should be your first priority, military after that, try to keep taxes as low as possible while still providing decent income. Auto-resolve has always been a bit shaky in Total War so its best to fight your battles, in S2 its pretty easy as the AI will usually come to you so you just have to line your guns up and knock em out.


Edit: For army comp. you'll want more guns than spears. Keep your spears near the flanks to guard against enemy cavalry/flankers. Position your artillery where they'll have a clear view of the most of a battlefield, I usually use sharpshooters to cover them as they have a high fire rate.

Edit Again: I'll try to add more if I can come up with more advice.

[hunner6]

Ah ok, thanks. Also, what should I start researching first?

[Ferdiad]

Ah ok, thanks. Also, what should I start researching first?

Depends on what you want to do, Turtleing needs some Economic Stuff, Blitzing needs some Military Tech.

[Ecka65]

I can't really give you a "guide", but I can try to offer a few pointers to get you on your way.

1. Whilst learning how to fight battles, try to sit back and defend. Build a line of "shooters" and then put your spears on the flanks. Maybe a spear or two behind the shooters as well. Watch enemy cavalry carefully and try to put your spears "in the way" of wherever they look like threatening you. Try not to let the Ai get to your shooters. Charge enemy melee troops before they reach your shooters. Keep your General safe.

2. Only auto resolve a siege if the yellow bar is strongly in your favour. Otherwise, click "continue siege". The enemy will eventually have to sorty out and attack you. Revert to point 1.

3. Inn's are good as they allow Giesha and provide both money and happiness. Recruit the Geisha and put her in the town to "entertain nobles". She'll help the economy and happiness as well. Craft shops are also worthwhile. Farm upgrades if the soil is better than "meagre" early on. Consider lowering the tax rate to "low". It promotes town growth and provides less unhappiness. Make trade agreements and when possible upgrade to "trading ports". The above will settle into a good economy.

4. Spears are good starters. But the game really encourages guns. Move to line infantry with your spears providing protection. Leave the levy gunners as garrison troops once you can build line infantry. Having some cavalry is also a good idea. Personally I'd avoid "wooden cannons". Once you can, Armstrong guns are VERY worthwhile additions to any army. Set them up behind your line and protect them.

Finally, Saga isn't the easiest Imperial faction to start out with. Maybe consider trying Satsuma or Tosa, both of which can expand to three or four provinces without too much drama and allow you to get the economy pumping.

Hope it is of some help.

[hochmeister devin]

I'm no good at describing battle tactics so I'll just to number 3 &4

3 in the campaign of fots your cities have 4-10 buildings in a provinces. When click a city and go to the buildings section you'll see it's in 2 parts, left and right. On the left side is the buildings outside of you city theres farms maybe a port and sometimes a provincial specialty building. The farms increase your money but cost quite a bit and at higher levels increase unhappiness due to modernization, so for the majority of your land Id build farms up to level 3. THen you have ports these are only in coastal provinces, upgrading ports lets build new ships increases income and town growth but they increase clan development and modernization a lot. Ports also let you establish trade with other nations if there connected with your Capitol. Finally here spacialty buildings, for these put you curler over the image (farthest to the right) and you'll we what it says and you can pick on what you like the best.


For the left side of the panel there's you city buildings. The farthest to the left is the city this gives unhappiness the higher ou upgrade it but also increase tax income and gives you more building slots. The next one is the castle this you defend in battles so the higher the level the better the defences, it also increases happiness and gives free garrison troops, for castles I only upgrad past level 2 if I desperately need happiness. Finally you have your buildings these give certain things, like barrackses unlock recruitment of troops, dojos recruit samurai, artillery things build artillery, industry makes lots to money, inns make money + increases happiness, that's the basics of cities.

[alexanderswift]

That depends on what your priorities are. I can't say I know much about the Saga so it really depends, I go for military first to get sharpshooters and then artillery. I'll go for happiness and economic research after that. Its really about personal preference, try out different things and see what works for you.

[hunner6]

Thank you for the help. Should I keep the taxes at low throughout the whole game or put them up again later on?

[Ferdiad]

I put them as high as possible without getting angry towns and bad growth.

[Szlachta]

Read the manual.

[hunner6]

I read the manual before I played but it didn't really tell me how to not suck at battles, building armies and forming a good economy... And thanks Ferdiad, I'll try and do that too.

[Ferdiad]

Just practice alot, only way you'll get better.

[hunner6]

Yeah, I suppose. I really need to practice battles for a start.

[Ferdiad]

Try some Custom Battles maybe.

[hunner6]

I'd do that but I've only done one on TATW and I'd probably always make it in total favour of me. :L

[Ferdiad]

Play a Campaign as Satsuma or Shimazu on N/N first and see what happens.

[fws2468]

1. Assuming you have no personal rule to always give the enemy a fair fight, you can auto resolve open battles where the odds are greatly in your favour as this ensures no enemy survivors. The same goes for sieges, but be prepared for more damage and hence needed repairs if you auto resolve them.

In fots, it's good to fully modernise your army due to the firepower and morale penalty on the enemy from your gunpowder weapons. Of course, it's possible for you to recruit only traditional samurai units, but it'll be tough as you'll be facing cannons and gatling guns.

My armies usually comprise mainly line infantry with cavalry and cannon support. If the enemy is sitting on a hill and waiting, I move my cannons within firing range and my entire force will approach the enemy from one of their flanks. This forces them to shift their army and expose their hidden units while under my cannon fire. If the enemy also has artillery, I try to move my army through forests and behind hills to minimise the enemy's line of sight until my infantry get within rifle firing range.

2. In fots, you can reduce siege casualties by placing a naval fleet (if possible) close to the besieged city so that it falls within the fleet's circle (bombardment range). The more powerful ships you have, the more powerful will be the bombardment. There's a limit of 2 bombarments, but if used correctly, could take out as much as a quarter or even half of defenders. In big castle sieges however, the defenders are more spread out, so to maximise bombardment damage, you can move your infantry towards the gates (but out of enemy firing range) to lure more enemy units to the area. Once they are packed there, unleash the bombardment on them. Also bring two or three armstrong guns to level the walls and eliminate the defenders on them.

3. You can see how much happiness there is in your city screen. As long as it is not close to 1 or 0, you can build modern economy buildings without any red faces. But beware also of your tech research as each level of modernisation you achieve would bring unhappiness as well. If happiness is close to 1 or 0, it's better to build police stations or castle-chain buildings for order first before modern economy buildings.

4. My army usually comprises 1 general, 2 cavalry (preferably upgraded to pistol or carbine), 3 armstrong guns (occasionally 1 gatling gun) and the rest line infantry/elite units. Early on though, you might need to recruit some yari kachis and matchlock kachis for a decent attack force if you start off with any traditional dojos. If not, you could build a modern barracks asap and recruit line infantry for their firepower. While they start with poor melee, they also gain veteran status very quickly, with a +2 melee bonus with each chevron achieved.

[DeValiere]

Satsuma is indeed a good starting clan - they own two provinces at game start, and more importantly just to the north of Satsuma is the Higo province which over time will give you a good return on farming. Also the Satsuma province itself has a key asset - a blacksmith. Rightly or wrongly, over time this will give you troops that have increased armor and aiming stats and once I am able, I always build a training camp there and upgrade it to a martial arts building giving added melee stats to my troops. The game favors "modern" units in most respects and you should notice that the odds will be more in your favor if you have a more modern army than your opponent (and vice versa). Satsuma is also well away from initial Shogunate forces for the most part. I tend to be very careful about making alliances with nearby provinces though so that I can expand. I would however accept an alliance with the Tosa if they offer it, or seek one if you can. Overall though the more alliances you make, the more conflicts you'll end up in, and the more boxed in you can be if you make them too close to home at game start. On the other hand you also need trade income so... damned if you do, damned if you don't!

I tend to initially try for military tech research up to the point of getting proper line infantry and Armstrong guns at the very least before switching to civic tech in order to improve resources etc. You also need civic tech to build a trade port and this gives the opportunity for a foreign trade mission to come calling. As Imperial, take the British offer Wot Wot? Once you have Line Infantry and Armstrong guns, you will find battles at least a bit more even. I agree that you need spear units to guard your flanks and even the center too, although less of a problem there as cross fire from line infantry should decimate a cavalry charge. Also, cavalry - note that traditional Yari Cavalry has a bonus against cavalry whereas Sabre cavalry does not - use Yari Kachi infantry to guard against Yari Cavalry as your modern sabre cavalry will be eaten alive. I find the Carbine Cavalry on skirmish are a great asset as well on the flanks - their range is far superior to revolver cavalry and I've just found them more useful in support of the main line as well.

Also make use of your foreign veteran once you have him or them. Again, you start with a foreign veteran as Satsuma. As they increase in rank, they are better able to "train" your armies and so the more experience your men have, the less likely they are to run away like startled rabbits. A good thing to remember about battles is the concept of mutual support - you'll see this when you arrange your levy/line infantry up - their fields of fire will overlap and in FoTS this seems particularly deadly. You can also experiment with line length - until you get the "kneel fire" tech researched only your front rank will fire for Line Infantry + Imperial/Shogunate/Republican Infantry. The more men in that front row, the more can fire. Sharpshooters and Levy Infantry don't have the kneel fire ability however. There's a fine balance between stretching the line out to maximize firepower, and making it too thin so that it will not be robust under melee attack or prolonged enemy fire. I agree that you should fight defensively to begin with so that you can see how the different units work. Your line should be a bit of a meat grinder against traditional units.

I also think that it helps to have a main troop production town once you're better established - Satsuma is such a center for me given it's blacksmith gives your troops better armor and accuracy stats. This leaves you to build more profitable buildings in other towns, but be aware of the negative effects of many of the economic and resource buildings in terms of modernization penalties.

Finally, for sieges if you don't like fighting your way into a castle, then lay siege to it. If you're lucky the AI will decide to sally forth and you'll then be fighting an open field battle. And remember - high ground is your friend if you're lucky enough to have it. You can usually put your sharpshooters down in front of you main line infantry if you're set up on a leading slope - very helpful.

Any questions, just ask or pm me.

[DukeofBrunswick]

The best way to learn how to play any stratergy game is to play through whatever tutorial it may have (I don't know if FoTS has its own tutorial but if it does it would probably help out alot) and then play a campaign as any faction and just try and learn how the game works. Personally, when I started play Empire I played most of the battles (not the Full stack vs. one unit battles but you know what I mean.) just to get a good feel of how the battles work and to figure out what different sort of units could do, what sort of armies you like to fight with (Artillery is a must for any army I lead) and also to get some experience with the game.

My first Shogun campaign I played was with the Date and I had no freaking idea what I was doing. I was playing Domination campaign and was trying to get all 60 regions, but I got about 20 when the game ended. My second campaign was much more successful and I conquered all 60 provinces without any problems. It is the same story with Empire and Napoleon. The best way to learn is through just playing the game. "Learning on the job"

[eXistenZ]

money is very important: you pay your armies, construct buildings, pay for agent actions, and have an edge in diplomacy. So its important you keep your economy intact, trade as much as possible, and dont let armies sit around doing nothing.

i suck at sieges too. only autoresolve them when the yellow bar is strong in your favour. you can also sit them out. then you get a land battle where you are the defender.
Also, only fools fight honest battles :p you have to try t outnumber them as much as possible. if possible try to attack them with two stacks.