Lets play Shogun 2: Diversity challenge!

[Cius]

So I have been watching some youtubers who do a lot of Shogun 2 challenges. What a challenge is playing the game with an artificial self imposed restriction on yourself to make the game more fun or challenging.

In this case we will be playing Shogun 2 Total war vanilla with the Sengoku Jidai Unit Pack.

I will post thoughts, progress, and strategy here as I go.

So to start let me explain the challenge. The Diversity challenge is playing the game where each army is only allowed one of each type of unit in it. I have seen this played where you can have many small stacks of basic units all re-enforcing each other but I am trying to get away from that so I will be playing it at a harder level saying non-garrison armies (so offensive armies) have to be lead by a general, and can only have one of each unit type in them. Garrison's do not have to have generals but can only have one of each type of unit. While moving re-enforcements around and training units there may be a turn or two where a stack has more than one of the same in it but I will do my best to never get into combat like that and if I do accidentally end up I will retreat the offending unit that should not be there. I hope to only re-enforce in battle with general lead stacks. This will be crucial in the early parts of the game as I will have smallish stacks against very large stacks of the opponents. So having multiple stacks moving around together will be important.

The reason why this challenge appealed to me so much as opposed to the more common challenges I see (mostly single unit challenge like bow only, cav only, yari sam only) is that in Shogun total war I find that in most games I never use more than 5 or so unit types, with the bulk of my troops being tier one ashigaru troops. In particular bow and yari ashigaru are great units that hold their own easily into the late game due to their large unit size, and in the case of the yari ashigaru the amazing spear wall. The tech tree goes very deep in Shogun and I never tend to care about getting down into the tree much rather filling in the cheaper techs for incremental bonuses to the low level troops over going deep. I have never produced a hero unit for instance or used a gunpowder unit in battle.

So the purpose of this challenge is to force me to use units I am unfamiliar with and to research and play the game differently. No more ashigaru spam!

Anyways, we are going to need as close to 20 units in a stack as possible so lets look at what is available. I will break them up in how easy they are to obtain.

From start (3):
General cav
Yari Ashigaru
Bow Ashigaru

Easy (5):
Yari samurai (yari drill yard)
Bow samurai (archery dojo)
Katana samurai (sword school)
No Datchi swordsmen (no datchi dojo)
Light cav (stable)


Medium (6):
Naganita samurai (naganita dojo)
Yari cav (warhorse stable, yari drill yard)
Bow cav (warhorse stables, archery dojo)
Katana cav (warhorse stables, sword school)
imported matchlock ashigaru (Nanban quarter)
Fire bomb throwers (seige workshop)

Hard (5):
Bow warrior monks (monastery, archery dojo)
Naganita warrior monks (monastery, naganita dojo)
Kisho ninja (Gambling hall)
Mangonels (??)
Fire Rockets (??)

harder (3):
Matchlock Ashigaru (gunpowder mastery)
Warrior nun (temple complex)
Matchlock sam (gunsmith)

Very hard (5):
Great guard cav (have to be shogun, master bayu dojo, naganita dojo)
Bow hero (Legendary Kyudo School)
Sword hero (Legendary Kenjutsu School)
Yari hero (Legendary Sojutsu School)
Naganita hero (naganita dojo, famous temple)

Getting to 20 units in a stack will be hard, as some of these units are useless (mangonels for example). The issue is its impossible to research everything in a game of Shogun 2. You have 120 turns, but without bonuses there are over 500 turns worth of research available. Much of the tree can be ignored but especially for the hard and very hard units it takes a massive amount of time to get there and we will also have to get some economic techs.

Added to this list will be the unique unit of the clan I choose from the Sengoku Jidai Unit Pack. I have never played with this pack before and downloaded it specifically for this challenge so that I could have that extra unit in the stack.

The big choice will be which faction to pick. Strategically I want to start in a good location where I am not beset on all sides by enemies. Having a one front war makes a huge difference for challenge runs. Hence I would like to start in one of the corners of the map or on the Chosokabe island.

Next I don't want a unique unit that takes too long to get too. Some arrive early in the game tech wise and that will be a massive boon. Also we want a useful unit. The other thing I have noticed is that with only one unit of every kind we are going to have trouble holding the line here. We have very few front line infantry, so an infantry troop type that arrives early would be a bonus. With all that in mind I have decided to pick the Date. Their bulletproof Samurai unit arrives mid game, and is heavily armoured infantry. It can hold the centre of the line with ease. Date also have a very linear campaign as they only have to travel West. The main negative of them is they do not have easy access the western trade nodes so getting access to Cotton, incense, or silk will be very hard, and that eliminates a few of the late units. Still, I think early benefit outweigh late game units.

 

[Cius]

OK, with the clan decided I start the game. I will be playing on Normal difficulty as the challenge settings already make this tough. I will be going not with a short or domination campaign but the 40 province long campaign. Its longish but after getting 40 provinces nothing can generally stop you so I find the domination campaign overkill (where you have to get all 60 provinces).

The campaign map for those unfamiliar:

Date starts in the far right corner of the map in 24. The provinces are very large so marching distances can be an issue. Fortunately you generally only expand in one direction initially so it is not too problematic in terms of being backstabbed.

Our first challenge is to eliminate the rebel forces in our territory. We have two generals so I immediately put the maximum number of units on my Daimyo's brother, our commissioner of warfare. He gets a yari ashigaru, bow ashigaru, and our only yari samurai which we can't currently even train or replace. The battle against the rebels is easy and I make sure to let them retreat so that I can fight them twice to level up my general. For his two promotion points I give him double movement speed bonus as spaces are large. The Daimyo waits in the capital with our other yari ashigaru. Right off the bat I start upgrading ports and roads to help marching and to secure the topmost trade node.

Our first research is the first chi research for the small economy boost after which I will go into the military side to unlock units.

Over the next few turns I train up some ships and upgrade to a trade port to get the node, and go park some bow Kobaya on the trade node in preparation of the trade ships arriving. I am not limiting naval stacks to the one unit rule as there is just not enough variety. My army moves towards the Mogami province to our north and meets their army just inside their territory on the way to us. I have my Daimyo's force now with 3 units (Ashigaru) and my commissioner with 4 units. I easily defeat the enemy with the two armies assisting each other and take the settlement.

My plan is to move fast to secure the top 4 provinces to get an economic base going. I am upgrading my capital's castle now that the farm is done as with the armourer I am developing in the province I want to train all front line infantry here. This will mean I need to upgrade the castle at least 3 times so that I can build the spear and sword chain buildings as well as the camp into an armoury to get the bulletproof samurai. Food is going to be an issue I can see already.

After a brief pause I head West to take the last Mogami province, Uzen. As I move into enemy territory I see a Honma force right behind me and is also at war with Mogami. They are the faction on the little island just north of the Mogami. Its a bit of a race to the town but I make it by leaving the slower Daimyo lead force behind and take the town easily as it is largely undefended. This is a key province as it has a fortified monestary chain of buildings. This means any monk troops trained here will get a large experience bonus so this will be key later in the campaign. Taking it has the added benefit of teleporting the honma army out of my territory and probably back to their island. I am now at peace with everyone and thinking rather than carrying on on the mainland that Honma island is looking very good. We are relatively poor and that island has a gold mine which will boost my economy massively. With that in mind I start preparing two boats to take my two stacks over. By now I have finished my sword school and have katana sam in training but I am not sure they will make it into the stack before I sail. I also have a bow kobaya circumnavigating the map to meet all the factions so that I can start trading with someone. So far all the factions I have met have little interest in trade.

For now I am developing Ugo, my first conquest up to recruit bow units and fire bomb throwers via the siege workshop. I have zero experience with the fire bomb throwers but I need units right now.

My research after the single chi art has been mostly military focused. I have got the sword school unlocked, Seige workshop, and am headed towards naganita dojo now after which I will unlock no datchi sam. The first few techs on that side of the tree all unlock units so I race down them.

Just a note, when a battle is close or I may lose it I am fighting manually. If the battle is clearly in my favour I tend to auto resolve. The auto resolve tends to give more experience and spread casualties out more. With the way replenishment works that helps me as I then recover my forces faster. When I fight manually I tend to have some units with almost no casualties and some units that can almost get wiped out. Those take forever to replenish up to full health so the auto resolve sometimes helps a lot to keep the campaign rolling along.

I set sale with only one katana samurai in tow and declare on the honma as I land. They do not really have the forces to stop me so with a single battle I eliminate them. The island already has the fully upgraded gold mine which is amazing. I scrap the military building they built and build a market instead there getting my first Metsuke who I put into the town on the island for the massive tax benefit he will provide over the course of the game.

In terms of the meta game the Takeda are the power in our area. They are up to 10 provinces vs my 4 and are allied to the Hojo who are to their south and have 5 provinces. After failing to secure any trade whatsoever I finally persuade the Hojo to trade with my by paying them 1000 Koku. Seeing as the trade is 1300 per turn I will recoup that loss in a turn. Still, finances are always tight. There are so many buildings to build to unlock each unit and often a castle upgrade needed before I can even build the building. The castle upgrade requires food so I have to do farms ASAP too. I even spend two turns in food deficit at one point to get my yari dojo up and running in preparation for training my second yari sam and upgrading to the Naganita dojo shortly. Overall though things are slow. With the new samurai units in my armies they are stronger but I am down to a profit each turn of 780 Koku. Saving up for buildings takes multiple turns now. I have unlocked techs now towards the bullet proof samurai but I can't dream of affording them.

At this point I took a step back and looked at the campaign. What I realized was that I had been way to military focused and my economy was in the tank. I change research direction and head towards the next tier farms and the tech before that boosts tax revenue. Troops will have to wait. The fire bomb throwers have performed dismally. They tend to die in the first auto resolve battle as they are somehow priority targets for the auto resolve. As I auto resolve at least half my battles I eventually give up on them and realize a stable would have been better than the siege workshop as light cav are incredibly versatile and can be trained without the hourse resource. Light cav can generally solo destroy general units and are great for running down routers and breaking wavering troops. With this in mind I scrap the siege workshop and start saving for the stable.

I manage to take the 4th province on my island and vasalize the Uesugi who are stuck in their home province for the honour boost to my Daimyo. I am developing him towards the poet line as I want to get as many early research boosts as I can to try get deeper into the teach tree. I also want to train a monk or two down their boost lines and if I get a province with the philosophy specialisation I will definitely build libraries/academies to try boost it more.

At this point I am still very poor, I can't train any more units, and I have only 5 provinces where Takeda are breathing down my neck and have 10 provinces. They are still allied to Hojo who are also close and have 5 provinces.

At this point I took another step back to think about why I was falling so far behind. In retrospect I am starting to think doing this as the Date was a huge mistake. My economy stinks and I am used to spamming cheap ashigaru in the start. The troops I am adding now are very expensive and I just don't have the economy to get the infrastructure up to build them much less maintain them. I still have not managed to get enough money together to even max out my armoury in my home province. A western based faction with access to all those trade nodes is generally rolling in money by now. I am thinking I should have rather started as Shimazu or Chosokabe despite the less than perfect unique unit. After all what is the use of a unit you can't even afford!

Anyways, I think this still may be salvageable but for now I need to look only at economy. I am almost at the next level of farms and I now notice that all 4 of my home island provinces are feartile or very fertile. Farms it is then! I will also need money to build those farms. The only way I am going to get the cash is by being aggressive and conquering into a decent economy. With that decision made I declare on Takeda and start driving into their homelands.

 

[Cius]

What a difference a few turns can make though. When I typed the above update I was almost ready to abandon the campaign due to the economy. The entire game turned around with the new focus. Takeda was fighting in the west apparently because I have found almost no resistance! I blitzed them taking a bunch of provinces. Their navies where huge and where raping me but Hojo backstabbed Takeda too and their navies are sweeping the seas clear.

I start building farms everywhere and head up tax reform line towards highest level farms. It will take forever to get there but hopefully be worth it. I get as far as Fukishima with little issue. Eventually between me and the hojo we have taken all but two Takeda provinces and they are behind the hojo for me. I regroup for a few turns to give time for some new units to filter down to my armies. I have finally managed to train the bulletproof samurai and now have naganita monks online too.

My 3 armies are up to 11 units and now have the following:
General, Yari ashigaru, bow ashigaru, yari samurai, katana samurai, naganita samurai, bow samurai, no datchi swordsman, bullet proof samurai, naganita warrior monk, and light cav.

I can finally start to consider creating a 4th army with at least the cheaper troops in them. I now have a 4000 koku profit per turn and am finally finishing up building some stuff I needed.

After some consideration I notice the Hojo are fighting mainly in the far west and despite them being my only trade partner for now I blitz them too. I see few armies of theirs until I have just taken Kai, and am poised to take their third last province in the far south (31 on the map) which also has gold. After hitting end turn I find two massive full stacks of Hojo troops have arrived next to Kai and will surely take it next turn. There is no way my 11 units can take on their 36 units. Kai is also a key province as it has finally given me access to horses. It also already has the baiju master dojo so once I build the right buildings around that I will be able to add 3 cav units to every army. Katana, Yari, and bow cav!

After looking at the situation I take the gold town in the south and then sue for peace. Due to all the damage I have done Hojo are not only willing to accept but will pay me for the peace treaty! What a relief. The game clearly did not realize the strategic nature of the situation. They could have taken back many provinces before I could stop them if they had pushed on. The last farm tech is taking forever though (was 18 turns in total) and I am now needing 3 more turns to get it. Being at peace with everyone is good as I need to regroup and build up again. I now have a province on the front line with an armoury so I want to shift front line troop production forwards. I also have a craftwork province to develop into a bow recruiting centre.

The situation in the world is Shimazu has the left most island and has 8 territories. They are the only Christian clan for now. Chosokabe has their home island and has spread towards me and now has a massive 18 provinces. To their north and holding the rest of the main island is the Amaku. They just took out the Uesugi and now also have 18. I have the remaining 14 provinces. I am in better shape but I am about two provinces away from realm divide. I manage to get trade with Chosokabe and Amaku at this point by paying them a bit. Shimazu is not interested and honestly as the only Christian clan I don't want to trade with them. I am hoping to use them to divert the two closer enemies.

After my farming tech finishes I pause for 10-15 turns and just invest in farming and get bow monks online and the cavalry units into my armies. Farming is my strategy for handling realm divide but I will explain in the next post how the economy works for that and what realm divide is for the curious.

 

[Cius]

Shogun 2 has an interesting economy. There are some good articles about it but essentially you have a few sources of reliable money. The one is economic buildings, like the markets chain, ninja chain of buildings, or any resource building. They tend to provide a flat amount of wealth in the town they are built. For instance a gold mine can produce a massive 2500 wealth per turn to be taxed at your preferred tax rate. Metsuke (kind of like town managers) boost the tax rate a lot and you can build 5 so they tend to be in the best economic cities.

The next major source of wealth is trade. Trade with other clans can be massive, but depends on how many tradable goods you have. Date, have limited trade goods as they tend to be dominated by the trade nodes to the far west of the map. However once you have conquered a bit you can build up resources. I now have stone, wood, iron, craftgoods, gold, etc that I trade. At the current point in my campaign buildings and tax on them provide 10 000 koku per turn. My trade is producing 6000 koku. My total costs are about 11 000 koku so if I where to lose the trade I would run a deficit.

At this point it is worth explaining realm divide. Realm divide is a game mechanic to make the game harder. The snowball effect means at a certain point in the game you just become unstoppable and can eat up clan after clan. To prevent this the whole world turns against you after you get your clan fame to a certain level. It normally happens for me after taking my 17th province. After taking the last two hojo provinces in this game I stopped as I was right at the cusp of realm divide. The problem with realm divide is the shogun declares on you and every clan in the game gangs up on you. That means no trade income. This kills many inexperienced players.

There are three main ways of handling realm divide.
The first for the hyper aggressive players is to just go for it and blitz without much prep. Conquering provinces adds to tax base which if you move fast enough keeps you ahead of the economy crashing. Bankruptcy in the game is terrible so you should never let it happen.

The second way is to wait before realm divide and save up a ton of money. This gives a buffer while you conquer until you balance the books again.

The third option involves the global food surplus. Each level of farm in Shogun 2 produces a unit of food. This food can be used to upgrade castles, or the markets chain of buildings. It can also be retained as your global food surplus. Each unit of food adds to the growth of every one of your provinces though every turn. So if you had 10 provinces and a 10 food surplus every turn your town wealth increases by 10 in each province, or 100 per turn. Its effectively like compound interest. My main realm divide strategy is to build up that food surplus by not upgrading the market chain of buildings and only upgrading a few main troop recruiting town castles.

I wait until my tax income is positive even without trade and trigger realm divide then. I also like having about 50K koku saved in the bank and I trigger realm divide by taking as many provinces as possible on that turn and then blitzing as far forward as I can support. Hence I tend to take a combination of all 3 approaches but the main thing that seems to carry me is the food. I have sometimes had a 60 food surplus at about 35 provinces and that wealth growth is massive. It is also cumulative so it pays off in the long run allowing you to steamroll forwards. Considering that at the point of realm divide you have 2-3 factions remaining and at least two will generally be stronger than you its vital to be financially prepared for the knock to income.

Back to my campaign. Shimazu I noticed started sending boats with armies along the northern coast. I started training a 6th small force up north but was not in time for them landing and taking my province in the far north east. They also took the Uesugi homeland from the Amako. I quickly re-took my province and also snapped up the Uesugi province as it looked like I could get one more before realm divide.

My farms are all just about online and the food growth curve is kicking in. I am running at about a 27 food surplus. My armies are mostly complete up to about 15 units each and I am starting to position them for the realm divide trigger in a few turns. I am about to start training Kisho Ninja units as the 16th unit in my armies and finally got offered the nanban trade port. As a result I am building up one of my forward provinces in the monk chain of buildings so counter the spread of Christianity in that province but that will give me matchlock units at last.

I am not sure where to go with research. I do not have the trade resources to build nun's, monk hero's, yari hero's, or bow hero's and am unlikely to get my hand on the silk, cotton, or incense required anytime soon. The only other units are fire rockets (no experience with them) or the long slog to Matchlock samurai. Sword hero perhaps but I suspect the Shimazu got their first as they are the sword clan. I could also ignore these and just go for other bonuses to economy, loyalty, experience, etc. Really not sure which way I will go at this point as there is no clear option. I could also aim for agent bonuses and go further up the ninja route perhaps.

Anyways, for now the strategic situation is looking up. Due to the Shimazu declaring on the Amako the Amako forces are all moving West fast leaving their back lines undefended against me. Shimazu does not stand a chance against Amako I am thinking but I can't wait too long to pounce as then they could wrap up the Shimazu and be back on my doorstep. Timing is going to be interesting. I will also need to see what I can do about the Chosokabe. I have heard that making a vassal after triggering realm divide means the vassal will stay your vassal for at least a while, especially if you aim for diplomatic positives with them. Hence If I can put a fleet right next to the Chosokabe capital and take it a turn or two after realm divide I may be able to use them against the Amako and Shimazu for a few turns before they betray me. Their fleets are the largest so they could clear the seas a bit for me perhaps.

When they do betray me I can then use that same army to try blitz their home island which is a nice place to conquer. My main forces can then sweep along the main island eating up the Amako and later the Chosokabe lands. Depending on if I manage to keep the vassal I may then ignore Kyoto till the end to keep the vassal on my side and take it as the 40th province.

I am also thinking about sending monks to Shimazu lands and inciting rebellions down there in the mainly Christian areas (makes revolts easier). That could tie up some Amako/Shimazu forces far away from me.

 

[Rustie]

aaaaand. Silence.
Outcome ?

 

[Cius]

Sorry, was not sure anyone was interested due to lack or responses so I was deciding if I should continue. Guess I will finish it up then.

I spent the next 20 turns achieving a few key goals.

The first was economic. I upgraded every farm I could, scrapped troop production buildings no longer needed in the back line and replaced them with tier 1 markets, and sake dens which where upgraded as well for the extra money. Once all the farms where up I had a food surplus of 35, which meant most of my provinces where growing by 35 odd every turn, and that growth is permanent. So after 10 turns each town has 350 extra town wealth, after 20 turns over 700. That is like a free major wealth building in all of my settlements!

I also stockpiled some money with the goal being to get to about 100K koko.

The second was research:
I decided it would be worth a stop to get the Confucian academy as I had two settlements with philosophic tradition. Those two Academies boosted my research a whopping 60%. After that I went directly for powder makers to make my own matchlock troops wherever I needed to. Once they where in the army along with the last few specialised units like Kisho Ninja I was pretty much maxed out in terms of unit roster. The hero and nun units mostly required resources I did not have so I skipped them.

The third objective was military related. I finally got my bow warrior monks recruited which I had been neglecting and filtered them through to my armies. I also got the gunpowder guys in as discussed above.

Lastly I was missing some agents. In this game you can have a max of 5 of each. While I had the full compliment of Metsuke in my key wealth provinces I was short a ninja and about 3 monks. I built the required buildings for them, trained them up, and brought them to the front lines.

My situation on the turn I triggered realm divide was that I was 2000 koku in profit without trade due to the growth in my towns, and that was even with a lot of troop recruitment. I had all my forces poised near the front lines other than a small stack in the rear in case a ship with an army got past my two blocking navies on the North and South coasts.

I triggered realm divide by taking 3 settlements in the same turn. I had allied with the Chosokabe and built up relations a lot hoping to have them stay on my side for 2 or 3 turns after realm divide. If that had been possible the Amaku and Choskabe armies over near the Shimazu as well as their fleets would have gone to town on each other eliminating all those experienced stacks! It was unfortunately not to be. After taking the first Amaku settlement the Chosokabe betrayed me though and sided with Amaku. Ah well, maybe its better this way anyways.

I would have preferred to wait another 10 turns as one or two re-enforcement units where still on their way to the front but the Amaku and Chosokabe had taken over half of the Shimazu by this point and where fully committed on the other side of the map. I knew if I waited any longer they would send troops back my way. I also only had 56K Koku built up instead of the 100K I had hoped but I just could not wait any longer. The military situation took over from the economic at this point. One thing I had forgotten about trade is while realm divide destroys trade you still get some money from it. Your resources that you can't trade away are sold on the open market it seems. You get a lot less money for them than if you trade them away but you get something at least! Hence I was making 5K profit a turn one turn after triggering realm divide.

What followed was a blitz of everything remaining between me and Kyoto. There was not 1 significant force left between me and them. I swept across the map in what has to have been the easiest realm divide in all of my Shogun 2 campaigns. Managing to befriend both the major players in my build up pause and having a relatively strong Christian Shimazu way on the other end of the map was good fortune like I have never seen before in this game. It takes many turns to bring armies back from that far and I used that time well. The first major Amaku stack I saw was in Kyoto next to the Shogunate stacks. The forces outnumbered me so I used Ninja to sabotage the Amaku stack preventing them from re-enforcing. I also used my monks effectively to demoralize the remaining enemy forces. I then stacked all 4 of my armies next to Kyoto and attacked. I had overwhelming force and Kyoto fell with ease.

In a random event that was perfectly suited to this campaign after taking the Hattori homeland I got an event where a roaming band of rebel fighters joined my forces. They where Katana Ronin unit, an extremely valuable unit for my restrictions! I promptly put that unit in my best army and my front line became that much stronger.

After eliminating the Amaku stack I headed up into the narrower part of the main island. The Chosokabe had been eliminated from the main island by that point and only had their main island and some Shimazu lands. I noticed that the map kept showing Shimazu lands rebelling and being re-taken through all this! The Christianity made preventing rebellions harder for the Buddhist Chosokabe and Amaku. This kept their forces occupied even more! At one point after taking Kyoto my armies where out of position and a small stack of 6 Amaku units managed to take a settlement back from me along the Northern coast. It was the only major loss of my campaign and I took it back fairly quickly.

Finally I reached the point where I was taking my 40th province to win the game. After taking it a Chosokabe force landed by boat right next the port of that province. By this point they stood no chance. My ninja's sabotaged them reducing their numbers a little. Another ninja assassinated one of the two generals leading that stack, my monks de-motivated them, and then my two stacks utterly destroyed them. The next turn I had 40 provinces and had held Kyoto for the required 4 turns to become shogun and I got the victory movie.

I have to say this was the most fun I have ever had playing shogun 2. It has honestly changed the way I play the game! Going forwards I will not restrict myself as harshly but I will definitely use a bigger variety of troops! Gone are the days where at the end of a campaign 75% of my trained units where Ashigaru!

Stand out units for me where the bulletproof samurai. In the battles I fought myself they where a rock holding the middle of the line. It was a pity I could only train 5!

Another unit I mostly ignored prior to this campaign was bow cav. They tend to not be that useful when managed yourself but I found that the auto resolve loves archery units and bow cav most of all. Often when auto-resolving to get more experience I would find the bow units got the lions share of the kills and XP with the bow cav being the most experienced by the end of the campaign! They actually became formidable! I had one battle where a single unit of now cav got 335 kills.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and happy gaming! Feel free to leave feedback for me here. Perhaps if I do this again I can try include some uploaded screenshots or something.

 

[Cius]

On a side note right now I am watching a letsplay series by a youtuber from the Netherlands called MrSmartDonkey. He does a lot of challenge runs and the one I am watching now is a Tokugawa campaign where unit recruitment is forbidden! Yes, you read that correctly. You cannot train any units. At first I thought that would be impossible so I watched and then discovered how it is done. Metsuke can bribe units to your side. This is a seldom used mechanic for me in the game and hence I had forgotten it completely! So for now I am leaning towards that being my next challenge run. However for now I am taking a little break from Shogun 2, however in a week or two I will see if I can post another lets play around something like that.

Actually thinking about it perhaps we can open this up to a vote. There are a few challenge runs available so if there is a strong preference vote bellow on which option sounds best:
1. No unit recruitment challenge as described above
2. Bow only challenge (only allowed to recruit bow units. Generals allowed)
3. Yari Samurai challenge (only allowed to use Yari sam, one of the must useless units in the game. They loose to Yari Ashigaru in most fights)
4. Cav only challenge (A tough one that requires a lot of battles to be fought manually)
5. Gunpowder only challenge (only allowed to train gunpowder units. Initial forces allowed until you can train and replace)
6. Monk challenge (only monk units allowed, have to beeline them in research and can use other units until they can be replaced)

If people largely don't care and I am writing to myself that is fine too and I will just pick the one I feel like playing!

 

[animal531]

Nice. I should play some more Shogun 2 or Rome 2 sometime.

 

[Rustie]

I am really intrigued by the build no army challenge - How do one mitigate the bad RNG when sending a metsuke over to do his thing?

 

[Cius]

That is a big part of the challenge!

I watched a lets play of it being done and the player chose the Tokugawa race for the bonus to Metsuke actions although the benefit is miniscule, like 2%. What was more important was getting levelled up metsuke ASAP to assist. I think he got a law court province up soon to recruit lvl 3 metsuke right out of the gate and then skilled them for bribing.

My personal thoughts where Tokugawa are not the best for this challenge due to being so surrounded and poor at the start. Bribery is more about having the money to attempt it than the metsuke. If I do go for the challenge run it would probably be with Shimazu, Otomo, or Chosokabe, as those trade nodes would be critical to getting the cash to do the bribery and would then be a lot closer to grab.