Question about the Ashikaga Shogunate

[Honorable Discharge]

Why is he so pants-on-head retarded? I know he's supposed to be neutral, but while Japan is going complete mental during the civil war, the one in charge does nothing to fix things.
Especially since he's the shogun, he supposely have enough power/wealth/influence to stop clans from rebelling !

[thedUWUmslayer]

Actually, during the Sengoku Jidai time period, the Shogunate was extremely weak, thats what allowed the other clans to rebel. Had it been during an earlier time when the Shogun actually had power, it would be a different story. Just got the game, so I'm not sure if the Shogunate in-game is weak or not, but if it isn't I'd imagine that would be so that the Ashikaga ended up being like a final boss, of sorts.

[Kayeka]

@Pandoradog: The shogunate isn't particularly "weak", just very passive. They start the game with a full stack of samurai, and then proceed to do absolutely nothing but sit in their huge citadel in Kyoto. If you've played Rome, you could say they are a lot like the Senate in that game.

So yeah, "final boss" would be a good description.

[Honorable Discharge]

Okay, thanks to you two, I finally understand that my strategy of going straight to attack the shogunate was not brilliant.
That explains why I never won a game.

[Kayeka]

Well, attacking the shogunate itself isn't really the problem. A full stack of samurai is quite intimidating, but you should be able to field similar forces around mid game.

The REAL trouble comes after you've claimed Kyoto, as it will trigger Realm Divide.

[Honorable Discharge]

Originally posted by Kayeka:

Well, attacking the shogunate itself isn't really the problem. A full stack of samurai is quite intimidating, but you should be able to field similar forces around mid game.

The REAL trouble comes after you've claimed Kyoto, as it will trigger Realm Divide.

The bloody heck is Realm Divide? I though my goal was "capture Kyoto, become Shogun, a winner is you".

[StrangeLittleMan]

Originally posted by Hartmann BloodMouth:

The bloody heck is Realm Divide? I though my goal was "capture Kyoto, become Shogun, a winner is you".

+1

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/15573-The-Guide-to-Surviving-Realm-Divide

[Kayeka]

The goal of the game is to become Shogun, control about six clan-specific provinces, AND control a certain amount of provinces (25, 40, or everything, depending on whether you play a short, long or domination campaign)

Realm Divide is, in short, the part where the AI clans decides you've become too powerful, so they team up in order to destroy you. This happens twice during a given game: once when you capture around half of the required provinces, and again when you capture Kyoto. That said, if you capture Kyoto first, then RD will trigger only once.

Once RD triggers, all diplomatic relations will suffer a penalty that stacks each turn, until every single surviving clan (including allies and vassals) has declared war on you. Once war has been declared due to RD, peace can not be negotiated. It is possible to keep your allies and vassals friendly by donating money to them, but this will often cost around 2000 each turn, so you might consider it not worth it.

The trick to surviving RD is not to expand too quickly, build a powerful economy so your income doesn't rely on trade, and raise multiple armies so you can defend from all directions. The AI will throw everything they have against your defences, so carefuly pick a few provinces where you can easily bottleneck them and upgrade those castles as far as you can. On lower difficulties, the AI will eventually run out of experienced troops and generals, at which point you move out and capture the provinces you still require for victory.

EDIT: Or I could've just posted a link, of course. I was never one for efficiency.

[StrangeLittleMan]

Originally posted by Kayeka:

EDIT: Or I could've just posted a link, of course. I was never one for efficiency.

I just linked because I felt speechless :p

[thedUWUmslayer]

I'd heard of "Realm Divide" but I didn't kmow what it was, being new to the game and all. Now I know what to prepare for.

[Honorable Discharge]

Oooooooooookay. So the game is way harder than I thought. And I'm playing in easy mode.

[Kayeka]

There is definitely a rather steep learning curve, yes. Most people that are new to this game aren't aware of RD, or don't really understand it, so they just expand willy-nilly early in the game.

Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't expand at all early on. What you could do instead is expand aggrassively at the start, and once you got an area of a few easily defendable provinces, you turtle up, disband part of your army and focus on building your economy instead. Once the economy is sufficient, build up your army again, take some more land and start developping again.

It might seem a bit boring and counterintuitive, but keep in mind that this is a Grand Strategy game. If history tought us anything, Grand Strategy is all about playing the long game.

Don't expect to win right away. You probably will lose a few times before you finally get it. But keep at it, and you'll be shogun in no time.

[sphm65k9]

For realam divide you have to prepare for total war aginst all clan fighting against you. but by diplomacy you have chance making one of them nutral in this coflict.

At least have more then +75 relationships they might not join the war but sometimes they dose so dont forget to SAVE the game. How to increase relationships ? give them money. but giving to shogun dont work.

Most of the things kayeka already wrote it so i wont here, so i will just write dont forget to expand modernaized warships. even when your dispanding armys to gain income.because naval manuver briez is something Ai really loves in this game.they always declare war when they land on your soils.dont hesitate to attck any fleets with troops inside if you see it. I havent checked this but I believe ai just use this skiping province tactics only aginst players. i never seen a ai attcking each other skiping next provinces.maybe im wrong.

[StrangeLittleMan]

If you should feel presured by the time limit for campaign victory then this info could be usefull (first few campaigns I played I always tought I wasn't going to make it)..

The best 'victory condition/ time to complete' scenario is playing a long campaign, this is about 240 turns.
Capturing 40 provinces might seem a lot, but near the end you will see the enemy running out of experienced troops. At wich point you can advance without to much resistance.

With 3-4 armies of your own you can take 4-8! provinces per turn (if you have the movementpoints and means to keep unrest down)
By taking so many provinces per turn you can even afford to lose some should the enemy land an army where you cant get in time.
And by the time a province could start to rebel, you will already have won.

A good way to speed up your endgame steamroll is to keep your monks at the frontline.. you capture a province, turn of it's taxes and place a monk in it..
This will keep unrest to a minimum while you rush on to the next province.
Monks are crucial when dealing with the Ikko clan or any Christian clans because they help convert the newly captured province to your cause.

[Honorable Discharge]

Damn that game.
First campaign I played, I was doing well, killings things as the Chosokabe (bows are cool, bowties too), and then I had a window telling me that the Shogun started noticing, so I panicked, restarted a campaign, and sucked ever since because I was sure I was supposed to go "capture Kyoto then the rest of Japan".
Didn't knew nothing about Realm Divide. I shoulda be a bit more brave.

[StrangeLittleMan]

When playing a normal difficulty long campaign, you can take around 14-16 province without triggering realm divide. This is also influenced by your Daimyo honor and any legendary buildings you have.
Just keep an eye on your "fame meter", as soon as it is full, realm divide will trigger!
And don't panick when the Shogun notices you mate :p
He will notice you again later :)