Is there a challenge in this new NA Taishi?

[XYZEXPIRED]

There are only few things I like in this game like the council so you can research policies. Otherwise, I don't know what should I like about this game compare to NA SOI.
I mean, I feel no challenge at all and I don't know why people said it benefit smaller clan in this version.
First, I pick some minor one castle daimyo, and first thing you want is ally. Sure, but beyond that, everything is so easy. Money is so easy to make in this game, do the trading which is unlimited and sell the Ration when you are low on gold. I don't know why Gold is dirt cheap, you can get x3 amount for Gold when selling.
Yes, there are tactic and strategy in this new one like hiding in Bushes. However, it is still easy to fight unlike the older NA where there are much more satisfy when fighting the battle.
I feel bore by the clicking and seeing my money go up along with my food in just a years without anyone bothering me. I like SOI as you feel be sure to enter combat in Year 1 from almost any castle which make you develop strategy to turtle, vassal or fight. Fighting to control territory all the time is what make SOI much more fun.
How doesanyone here play this new NA Taishi?

[Gray Riders]

Honestly, I found SOI incredibly easy as well. The AI actually attacks me more often in Taishi because occasionally a smaller clan will take a swing--in SOI once I got reasonably large everyone gave up and let me conquer them one at a time, even during a coalition (this being with both intelligence and aggression maxed out). The Nanbu were the only clan I remember ever trying to attack me in SOI once I became powerful.

The PUK might make Taishi harder or add a new difficulty setting.

[XYZEXPIRED]

They better make a better PUK or adding some of the element of SOI. The ninja aspect in SOi was fun, but they didn't add strategy tactic or traps in the game. I actually like the challenge in SOI in the first 5 years. The Nanbu in SOi are strong but only if you let them, they wear out in later game whereas Hojo are continue to steamroll, same as Uesugi and Takeda (these two fight each other for ages and not winning).
I said Taishi not challenge since I am like at years 6 and not a single attack, my master tired of me so he dissolve the alliance but it doesn't change the fact that I make tons of money in these earlier year comare to being struggling as a single castle, lower production.
Population rise fairly quickly, this remind me of Iron Triangle as population rise really fast, too.
The most ridiculous one was Nobunaga 9 I think, where the enemy turtle up in a single castle with 1 millions soldiers. I guess they catching on that so later game now doesn't have 1 millions soldiers in a single castle as population have to be way higher than current setting.
I am at year 6 with almost 8000, I can max out to 10,000 in a few months with 90,000 gold.
I doubt anyone would attack me even if no master protect me, and no ally as I see battleground only being less than 10,000 max.
Which clan are you playing or is it depend of the region, I know SOI the Kanto region was the hot bed since day 1. I remember making a custom clan and fighting there since day 1 until my guys was elite since I only make him start at 60+ stats ; ).
PS: I pick Murakami as he have odd trait as Pirate and living in an isolated island.

[Kreng]

Gold is typically useless in Taishi. Only Income is needed to get your infantry in.
With gold alone you can't have a real advantage in this game. (No items to buy, Upgrade castle are totally useless) So just get enough for infantry and expand/increase every turn.
It's your food production who is really important here. And what stop you in your path of conquest, by far. (Since you can easily outplay large army, they had to put something in, in order to stop you to win it all in one run)

[Gray Riders]

Originally posted by XYZEXPIRED:

They better make a better PUK or adding some of the element of SOI. The ninja aspect in SOi was fun, but they didn't add strategy tactic or traps in the game. I actually like the challenge in SOI in the first 5 years. The Nanbu in SOi are strong but only if you let them, they wear out in later game whereas Hojo are continue to steamroll, same as Uesugi and Takeda (these two fight each other for ages and not winning).

In the incident I was referring to the Nanbu stood no chance against me and got crushed after they attacked. They were, however, the only clan I'd seen in SOI attack me when I was anywhere near as powerful as them, but I've had several in Taishi try to attack me when I'm clearly stronger than them.

I said Taishi not challenge since I am like at years 6 and not a single attack, my master tired of me so he dissolve the alliance but it doesn't change the fact that I make tons of money in these earlier year comare to being struggling as a single castle, lower production.

I don't disagree Taishi is easy, but I found SOI was even easier in the mid game and onward (it was harder in the early game, I'll agree).

Population rise fairly quickly, this remind me of Iron Triangle as population rise really fast, too.

The +Pop growth facility is pretty insanely powerful. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets weakened in a patch.

Which clan are you playing or is it depend of the region, I know SOI the Kanto region was the hot bed day 1. I remember making a custom clan and fighting there since day 1 until my guys was elite since I only make him start at 60+ stats ; ).

Currently playing the Akizuki on Hard. Even after taking all of Kyushu I still had the Amago attacking me. Before that, the Shimazu and the Otomo invaded both when I was stronger than them.

Originally posted by Daoxin:

Gold is typically useless in Taishi. Only Income is needed to get your infantry in.
With gold alone you can't have a real advantage in this game. (No items to buy, Upgrade castle are totally useless) So just get enough for infantry and expand/increase every turn.
It's your food production who is really important here. And what stop you in your path of conquest, by far. (Since you can easily outplay large army, they had to put something in, in order to stop you to win it all in one run)

I definitely think the game needs more to spend gold on. SOI style castle upgrades (but better balanced) would be a good start, as would buying items.
I imagine before Taishi added facilities gold was a bigger concern since you needed to buy muskets and horses.

I also think they should either increase the troop limit of most battlefield and have the AI build many more patrol posts--it's too easy to get, say, 15,000 infantry together and crush much larger militia armies because there are so many narrow battlefields everywhere.

[Kreng]

Well, mid-game looks hard because you just can't dispatch as many army as you need/want, because of food income. (Don't mind buying it xD)
In late game, you take 2* 120kvs120k fight and 12* 10k rush castle and you will win no matter what, even if you have to just put army nearby targeted castle till defender leave :\

[The_Chairman]

This game seems much slower to build an attack than in SOI. The game is interesting but it takes a lot of planning to attack, which is difficult because you have so many castles to take.

[XYZEXPIRED]

One clan did finally attack me even though it said another clan I trade with are planning to attack but they were far away. I don't know how much useful is the advisor is or because they are low intelligent unlike ROTK where advisor will actually said something useful :).
I find it weird as they do not allow me to equip my troops in horse, they put all my infantry in musket then I am attacking the attacker (me 8200 vs them 3200). If I auto, I win because of troops differences, however, if I manually control the battle, I lose all the time. I don't remember this happening in SOI, in SOI, I even manage to win against a larger foe as long as I can outnumber them with multiple officer despite the troop size.
Morale in manual battle seem to fall rather quickly for the player compare to the AI. Still don't know why I cannot change troop type, as clearly my S musket are weaker than their A spear. I have to do more testing but battle map are only a little better than SOI but not as good as older series.
PS: I notice that if you let the computer march out automatically, you cannot change the troop type, but if you do march out to battle first, it let you choose the troop type. I find this odd and seem more like a bug as SOi doesn't have this issue.

[Kreng]

You can switch the troops you want to use during the creation of your army.
The auto-mode will use the "Best" for you in any situation. If your policy are "unarmed" (spear) focus, they will not equiped your soldier with Horse nor Musket. But if you have Musket power policy (most common and cheapy), they will put musket in. You need to play really horse-offensive resolver (as Takeda or Satomi) to have great priority on horse. (Need officier with Red armor and stuff like that)
But in any case, you can choose the troop type when you clic on them one by one.

Defensive battle a really easy to win. (Just moove your army to the left outspot, play Lure Provoc, make a frontal groupe of your 3 best officier including the luring one and 2x 3Flank unit, push them up when ennemy appears and win while defending the outspot, you will win "moral battle" very fastly)
Offensive battle is a little bit more complicated. Since you have to take the 3 ennemy outspot to not loose the moral battle. Usually I save before each offensive battle, first try, I try Charge all, you'll win if you have better officier and troop type. If it doesn't work, I like playing Phantom and I use my weakiest officier to take the 3 ennemy outspot while keeping my units as a block, mooving down the worst morals units. Be sur to use your spell correctly. You will prefer to repositioning while attacking instead of just reduce ennemy mouvement speed 90% of the time.

If your moral is weak and your Smusket attack is weaker than Aspear ennemy, it's coz you use Milita instead of Infantry?
Or you don't have good combat policy at all \:
Musket is very good in this game. Horse is just cool for the mobility.

[Kreng]

Originally posted by The_Chairman:

This game seems much slower to build an attack than in SOI. The game is interesting but it takes a lot of planning to attack, which is difficult because you have so many castles to take.

Yes and no. Even in difficult, I have ended run in less than 10 years, 6 is my record I guess.

[The_Chairman]

Do you have any tips in order to get a quick win?

[Kreng]

Take the strongest clan, attack all nearest little clan as fast as possible with the lowest soldier possible in order to not run out of food. Stormblade everything if you have enough soldier.
Choose one of the strongest clan to marry, having support each time you start a war (I usually take Uesugi when I can (they are pretty strong in defense and doesn't really attack others) - or keep Tokugawa is you're doing a Nobunaga rush)
Never stop attacking each autumn and outsmarting ennemy positionnement.
If someone attack you, if you can defend, do it, you will be able to rip his entire land just after.
If you don't mind "loosing time managing", place yourself your commander and regulate your soldier, best way to earn more food and having your strongest general on the field, on battlefield, techniques aren't that great. Pursuit suck and technique like Concentrate (who was secretly OP in SOl) make your unit doesn't moove, and all the winning condition are: mooving and circling ennemy units (Some fight can be hard on offense, but I still rarelly loose with a good optimized comp)
I've just checked, I did early 5 years on my best scenario.

[The_Chairman]

Thanks for the tips. I think I took out the toguwawa early in the Night raid scenario as the Oda. I guess they are a good buffer between you and the clans in the South East?

[Kreng]

Well, I never see them (Tokugawa) doing anything in any type of scenario, while they were clearly OP in SOI middle-late game. I have even see them loose to late Takeda or late Hojo (who get pretty buffed in Taishi, middle and late Hojo is almost as strong a 1545 Hojo, it's insane. I have only see them getting crushed by Satake in 1615 scenario, in all realistic scenar, they go and take on Uesugi and even Date)

In my first run of Night Raid, I rushed it with Takeda, keeping alliance with Hojo and Imagawa,
rushing over Shinano (very easily), then going for Mitsuki, Shiina, Jinbo, Hatakeyama, Hoganji, Askura, Saito, Oda and all rush to Nijo palace. Then just get what you need to the west. They just start to have enough soldier to have good fighting :)
But then you have enough Stier General to reach 3x 30k army ezpz

[XYZEXPIRED]

Thanks

Originally posted by Daoxin:

You can switch the troops you want to use during the creation of your army.
The auto-mode will use the "Best" for you in any situation. If your policy are "unarmed" (spear) focus, they will not equiped your soldier with Horse nor Musket. But if you have Musket power policy (most common and cheapy), they will put musket in. You need to play really horse-offensive resolver (as Takeda or Satomi) to have great priority on horse. (Need officier with Red armor and stuff like that)
But in any case, you can choose the troop type when you clic on them one by one.

Defensive battle a really easy to win. (Just moove your army to the left outspot, play Lure Provoc, make a frontal groupe of your 3 best officier including the luring one and 2x 3Flank unit, push them up when ennemy appears and win while defending the outspot, you will win "moral battle" very fastly)
Offensive battle is a little bit more complicated. Since you have to take the 3 ennemy outspot to not loose the moral battle. Usually I save before each offensive battle, first try, I try Charge all, you'll win if you have better officier and troop type. If it doesn't work, I like playing Phantom and I use my weakiest officier to take the 3 ennemy outspot while keeping my units as a block, mooving down the worst morals units. Be sur to use your spell correctly. You will prefer to repositioning while attacking instead of just reduce ennemy mouvement speed 90% of the time.

If your moral is weak and your Smusket attack is weaker than Aspear ennemy, it's coz you use Milita instead of Infantry?
Or you don't have good combat policy at all \:
Musket is very good in this game. Horse is just cool for the mobility.

Thanks. So the 3 outpost in offensive battle mean it will drain my morale every turn, am I right? So defeating the enemy gain back some morale and capture the outpost? I am use to gaining morale back in SOI, but this one make my unit lose morale faster than I could even click to run away.

[Kreng]

It's most likely, every 3 turns outpost use "Victory Cry", giving a good overall moral boost and giving back a huge portion of moral to unit nearby.
You can win Offensive fight without destroying the outpost (It looked impossible for me before yesterday, but for training, I've done all my attack fight manually) since ennemy AI will most likely to run back at a low %moral, then enrage one and just destroy his unit, that might work. If there is no unit to moral boost, then moral boost doesn't work, right? xD

The secret of offensive is to moove your main troop in a very closed stance. You can use one sacrifice to get outspot while following the map limit (horse is the best too, but if it's your strongest officier, don't do it with him)

With few offensive policy, infantry and goods officiers, you won't loose moral so easily, except if you get ganked 3 or 4 v1
In a block-line fight, without pincer and flank, you will obviously lost less moral