One province start and low population = doom?

[Zawarudo]

Hello!

I love the setting, the artwork, the music, this game is really cute.

I like challenges so I prefer to start really small, the smallest the better!

Usually a single province clan with very low population!

So far so good right? Actually no!

Out of 10, I will get attacked and wiped off in 10 times.

Cant have a bigger army because my city is small, cant build new stuff because my population is small, so that big bad daymio will always come, always around the same time (if I remember correctly, less than 10 turns) and always kill everyone and send me back to the main menu...

I thought this game was rich and deep but I feel I was quite mistaken...

Please tell me I am wrong, this is a beautiful game and if there is any way around this... any way to actually save my experience (godamn I bought all dlc too!) please, share it with me.

[archita]

you can create super generals with good skills and try to use many diplomacy to have more allies around the clans that you want attack.

remember that NA games are many skill-oriented , try to engage more enemy units for a "great battle" and destroy them in tactical battle, in this way you can crush their units and have vantage of momentum to attack weaken castles.

Remember to feed Emperor with gifts, you can force the truce with enemy also, extremely useful !

and...try to take enemy generals with gifts, sametime its a good way to reduce enemy army capability in strategic manouvre.

remember to grows the population to have more troops,more food,more GOLD to buy rifles,horses and treasures!!! commerce is many important !

[Gray Riders]

Starting as a tiny Daimyo with low population is making the game as hard as possible--these guys are basically speedbumps. If you're not already very experienced with the game you're going to get rolled over.

Often one important survival tactic is to pick a large clan nearby and submit to them so you have someone to protect you and--equally important--they won't attack you themselves.

[RoxyRiku94]

Quite a few Provinces, like Owari, Mino, the Kantō Region and every Province involving the Takeda, Uesugi, Hōjō, Mōri and the Shimazu should be avoided early-game as they become highly contested battlegrounds with little to no chance to survive. Hida and Rikuchū are also not recommended as the provinces themselves have poor population/land and don't have any redeeming qualities to make up for it.

Good starting locations so far are the Hokkaidō Region with the Castle Spots of Wakimoto (between Tokuyama and Mobe Palace) and Shinori (SE of the Hakodate tribe) as the Kakizaki/Matsumae aren't that impressive; Ugo (but you have to expand quickly, as the Antō expand there fast);Iwaki (with plenty of small clans like the Nikaidō, Shirakawa and Tamura);Noto-Kaga (the Hatakeyama shouldn't be much of a problem and the Honganji are fairly passive);Tanabe (SE of the Kawachi Hatakeyama);Sanuki Ichinomiya (NW of Sōgō Castle, the Miyoshi/Hosokawa are passive until 1570) and Nagasaki/Sakurababa at Western Hizen (but be careful of the Ryuzōji as they also expand fast).

Some also recommended the position of Sado Island, but that means you're deep within Nagao/Uesugi province, and having 2 tribes and 1 or 2 mines aren't going to help much if you want to expand. Takatsuki at Settsu east of Arioka Castle also has high population, but due to the Oda later taking over the Capital it is only recommended in early scenarios.

[mrdragonrider]

I always start with 1 fortress or castle lord with the most difficult setting. And I only start in each scenario either surrounded by a very large clan or in-btween two very powerful clans to make things more interesting and challenging. To survive the difficult early phase, these are some tips.

1. First 2-3 years, expect to fight each and every month.
2. Offense is the best defense.
3. Never use auto battle resolve. Must resolve each and every battle manually.
4. Never lose your troop strength. Always disengage before losing troop counts.
5. Draw your opponent to attack your castle and engage in defensive battles where you can essentially destroy your enemy no mater how big they are by leveraging the battle reset mechanism.
6. Make a move on a fake target to draw an ally of your opponent to commit to the fake target, then attack the real target. The ally can only commit to defending only one target a t a time.
7. Always attack from tactical advantages. If you miss the timing, retreat and restart.

I have a guide based on the Sanada clan in Sekigahara scenario posted on the guide section. It should help you on some of the details.

[madgamer2]

@: mrdragonrider I am old and the newer games like this with so many things to do and so many choices tend to lead to not playing the game or a refund. I like the RTK XI and still play it a lot but the later versions leave much to be desired IMO.
For my first game I choose to play the first scenario as the Oda clan. Is this a bad choice for a newbie?

[Kai]

Originally posted by madgamer2:

@: mrdragonrider I am old and the newer games like this with so many things to do and so many choices tend to lead to not playing the game or a refund. I like the RTK XI and still play it a lot but the later versions leave much to be desired IMO.
For my first game I choose to play the first scenario as the Oda clan. Is this a bad choice for a newbie?

chances are you already beat that mode by the time of this post. but the Oda are a good starting clan, but early Oda has to avoid the east until they've gotten their city's built up.

[mrdragonrider]

Originally posted by madgamer2:

@: mrdragonrider I am old and the newer games like this with so many things to do and so many choices tend to lead to not playing the game or a refund. I like the RTK XI and still play it a lot but the later versions leave much to be desired IMO.
For my first game I choose to play the first scenario as the Oda clan. Is this a bad choice for a newbie?

I haven't been checking the forum for awhile and only saw this post just now. I think Oda clan is a good clan to learn the game. One of the more difficult aspects of this game is human resource management. As a small clan, it is usually difficult to have enough officers to man newly acquired castles and fortresses, and it becomes the limiting factor for your expansion plan. A big clan like Oda starts with a good number of higher quality officers which makes it easier to focus on other aspects of the game.

[Zawarudo]

I will start playing this game again... Maybe if I employ all of your advices my clan can survive the first 10 rounds. Im not into creating super oficers or exploiting the game tho.
I will try to find some youtube videos to learn how to battle with a smaller force :P

[Boaa]

I started playing just yesterdsy and non stop for like 12hours. Enjoyed it. Used new ruler like you on my first game and likewise, army is too small to even take a bigger castle.

I was lucky because nearby theres a tribe. Bribe them to take my first castle and the rest is history.

I just love 3X games. Fixed map grand strategy. 4x without the eXplore. All in KOEI.

[Delacourt '27]

Originally posted by Boaa:

I started playing just yesterdsy and non stop for like 12hours. Enjoyed it. Used new ruler like you on my first game and likewise, army is too small to even take a bigger castle.

I was lucky because nearby theres a tribe. Bribe them to take my first castle and the rest is history.

I just love 3X games. Fixed map grand strategy. 4x without the eXplore. All in KOEI.

Welcome to the last great NA game in the series, I guess 14th is the lucky one. Since both Ascension, 14.5(RPG version) and Taishi, the 15th one, have a lot of bugs and less enjoyable. Plus the PS2 version had a major handicap game feature against me to like the game.

If you want to play small, only fortress, historical factions that can survive and win, then I suggest Onadara(?) at northern Japan.

If you want to play OP created fictional factions with easier start, pick a spot near Onadara(?) and go for the win.

[Zawarudo]

Originally posted by Delacourt '27:

Originally posted by Boaa:

I started playing just yesterdsy and non stop for like 12hours. Enjoyed it. Used new ruler like you on my first game and likewise, army is too small to even take a bigger castle.

I was lucky because nearby theres a tribe. Bribe them to take my first castle and the rest is history.

I just love 3X games. Fixed map grand strategy. 4x without the eXplore. All in KOEI.

Welcome to the last great NA game in the series, I guess 14th is the lucky one. Since both Ascension, 14.5(RPG version) and Taishi, the 15th one, have a lot of bugs and less enjoyable.

If you want to play small, only fortress, historical factions that can survive and win, then I suggest Onadara(?) at northern Japan.

If you want to play OP created fictional factions with easier start, pick a spot near Onadara(?) and go for the win.

I think a custom clan near the Chiba and Satomi clan might be great. There are close to 10 bases with 1000 HP in that area. A custom daimyo with an op tactic such as Keen Spear can grow big with many oficers and bases in less than a year. Those 1k HP bases are really close to each other. The only cause of concern is the Hojo and the Satomi clan.

You can beat the Satomi clan with an op tactic but the Hojo... they come in huge numbers so even trespassing in their lands by accident can be the end.

[Delacourt '27]

Those 1k Fortresses are nice, but it's also against you when you meet Hojo/Satomi/Satake. 1k will be bad for you.

I wrote and then deleted a wall of text because I realized that it all depends on difficutly setting. I play on a custom setting, to the way I like it. If someone play on a different difficulty setting, Onadara(?) might not be that good.

You do make a good point about Hojo because of these:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=533194971

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=522340455

Let's all continue enjoy this great game.

On the side note, OP, is the battle of Nagashino super hard from the Takeda side in the Nagashino DLC because they got less troops, as seen in the 4th pic at DLC store page?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/392643/NOBUNAGAS_AMBITION_SoI__Scenario_5_Battle_of_Nagashino/

[Zawarudo]

I only played the "Birth of Nobunaga" until now.. I think the game lasts longer if I start that early so never tried Battle of Nagashino.

I also started playing with custom clans now too... but it feels broken.

I mean, with an officer with keen spear, I bet I can even beat the Ouchi with single fortress clan...

Maybe throwing a custom clan in Kyushu with that tactic could be fun :D

Its probably the worst place for a small can, surrounded by those big Daimyos everywhere.

[Narwhals"oh mein gott Anhalte!]

haha yeah first time playing this game...and i wen with Hojo..i thought hey this guy has 3 castles..should be an easy start lol..boy was i mistaken..i havent had a peace since i started playing lol..i wiped out taekda an on the verge of wipen out Immegwi or w/e there called to the west of me even though they started out as my ally..i went historical so they ended up betraying me, then East came at me lol an the north..im constantly haven to build fortresses, u pgrade an buy buy buy lol, horses/supplies/gifts. So far im holding my own an expanding like a mofo