Originally Posted by
Plan C
OK dude, I've played a fair bit now so I can give you some decent feedback. I played Sendai on N/N (oh yes).
Campaign:
- Sendai are an easy clan to play, probably should have gone with H/H
- 100 buff to diplomatic relations makes it easier to avoid random DOWs so you only really get DOW'd now if your neighbour changes allegiance suddenly.
- I saw that you had not included the upkeep mod in yours and I agree with it - it makes armies more valuable now and battles matter much more. Yes, sometimes it feels anti-climactic to see that the 2 stacks of levy you've just smoked were actually your enemy's last forces but I still prefer it.
- Port defences on lvl 1 help loads, I have found, even on N/N
- Army composition logic is still the same, which actually not a bad thing. I can actually see the progress in AI clans' development where they start to crop up with more and more cannons and line infantry, Radious did well here.
- Balance of clan development is much easier now, I think. It's a lot more deliberate now, you have to want to progress (i.e. build 'progressive' buildings), it will not happen on its own. This is, believe or not, another indirect incentive to stay at lvl 1 - You always feel like the people want to keep things the way they are, it's you who's pushing progress on them, so to speak. Very good. Now when I go full on trad (which is always) I can almost see little thumbs up from the merchants on my roads and peasants in the field. I really like how craft workshop gives 0 to modernisation, nice touch. Breaks up the sea of inns and dojos.
- Overall I am really taking my time, I think I'm on Autumn 1870 now and owning 11 provs - the whole north up from Fukushima all the way to Sapporo.
- Oh, another thing about Date and why I think they're too easy on N/N - they start bang next door to Uzen which makes your trad armies crazy strong. Because of your 100 diplo buff you don't get harassed much so you can stay even on weak rating for a long time, enough time to scrape together the cash and build Temple Complex and Legendary Dojo; I know I went for that straight off. After a couple of years you get melee units with +6 melee, +15 charge and + 10 morale (IIRC) on top of their +5 rank out the door. At the moment it is still early in the game so AI fields plenty of levy and their armies are as hard as candy floss against my men.
Battles:
- before your mod came out I created a tiny .pack for my own use which changed the matchlocks a little bit - gave them rank fire and changed the stats about a little too; funny how your changes are practically identical to mine, great minds bud.
- matchlocks are now a properly viable force - you can keep on keeping on with them all the way through, they work amazingly well as flanking units, run'em up 2 strong to one side let them form up while you distract centre with cav and then just watch them work. Man, they are absolute machines now against levy troops - you can run them up, park them close to the levy units and they will outshoot levy every time. Bang on. This doesn't work so well against line infantry - matchlocks will lose the shooting match especially that they take casualties to even get in range, form up etc. They are not a replacement for line inf and will get massacred if they try to go toe-to-toe, but they are still fantastic as a fast deployment skirmish unit, especially on the flanks.
- armies look the business , thank you, thank you.
- I still couldn't resist the parrot guns and I am fielding them for their 20 ammo. I do consider discarding them completely, though, because they are a total drag on the camp map and I have not actually used them that much. I will probably change my mind once AI shows up with full line armies + armstrongs in tow.
- overall I think, for the moment, until AI starts giving me some harder units to fight I will just chew them up. Right now I'm allied to Nagaoka and we're at war with Jozai. Nagaoka have Echigo, Shimotsuke, and Hitachi so they sort of cut me off from the fight, I am going to see who comes out on top and then fight them. Hopefully by that time we will see some more regular troops who will give me a challenge.
I'll keep you updated mate. Overall - great work, thanks very much. Once this campaign is done I will actually try to play as Choshu and advance the clan, see how I stack up against the trad armies of Obama.