Total War: General discussion.

The Nagaoka are totally hax. More money from buildings and cheap, amphetamine-abusing Line Infantry?

50 turns into my Nagaoka campaign, expansion is going quite well. I've carved a good amount of mid-northern Japan for myself, from my starting position up to Kaga province with the blacksmith, plus some regions further inland and Sado Island. Despite my best attempts to remain friendly with the Northern clans, the Aizu have betrayed the Shogun to join the Imperial forces (they have since then been locked in war with the Sendai) while the Jozai have been wiped out by the Saga, who sailed from far, far away to land on their shores. I expect that I will soon need an army on that side to protect myself from an Imperial invasion.

Otherwise, my main focus is to push into Central Japan against the Tsu as the main power in the region while I train gold-upgraded units at Kaga province. This is the first time in my Shogunate campaigns that the Shogunate clans are not dominating the map, as Imperial clans have wiped out every Shogun supporter in Southern to Northern Japan (plus they've captured provinces of Northern Japan) so for once, this might be a bit more difficult than usual.

I call that situation a "target-rich environment."

Protect what's left of your allies (if you aren't allied with the Sendai at this point, it sounds like the time) and shogun the traitors down.

If it could be that easy.

Realm Divide reached on turn 88, without great difficulty but with interesting twists in the Northern Japan situation.

First, another minor clan in the old Jozai lands turned against the Shogun, which kept me from attacking the Saga for some time as I brought back another army from my recruitment center. Then, I realized that the Saga had changed their allegiance from the Emperor to support the Shogun instead... But refused to make peace with me until I conquered half of their territory. The Saga proceeded to ally with the Matsumae and dragged them into our war, forcing me to defend myself against them, but I decided not to retaliate against the masters of Hokkaido because it would be preferable if they remained at full strength for Realm Divide. And to top it all off, the Sendai also changed their allegiance to support the Emperor and were promptly wiped out by the Matsumae themselves.

I focused my efforts on Central Japan, or rather on bypassing Central Japan, as it was held by friendly Shogun-supporting clans. I faced down the largest clan of Southern Honshu, the Tottori, in battle, capturing provinces from them. I also forced another minor clan, the Tatsuno, to submit by turning them into vassals. The Tsu still have a couple of provinces left in Central Japan, I did not finish them off because I made peace with them in order to gain an alliance with the largest Shogun-supporting clan of Central Japan, the Takatori, who were somehow allied with the Tsu at the time. I will have to wipe out the Tsu now, of course, but I think it was worth it to spare them for some time (especially since they paid me a fortune to do so)

From now on, my main foe will first by the Tottori of Honshu, then I will face down the might of the Choshu Imperial Vanguard in Kyushu, Shikoku and the southern tip of Honshu. I don't expect much difficulty at this point, will just need to be quick enough to make sure my allies don't capture too much territory that I run out of places to conquer.

Nagaoka campaign completed on turn 140, about as quick as my Obama campaign, though it could have been quicker if the AI had, as usual, not been so enthusiastic to capture territories, leaving me only the exact number needed to win (and even that is only because I forced the Shogunate-supporting clan of Goto island to become my vassal).

Mind you, it could have been much slower too. I cheated when a Satsuma stack appeared out of nowhere on my shores, far from any recruitment center, making peace with the AI by promising them all of my gold per turn so their troops would be sent back to their territories. As the AI would then be programmed to declare war on me on their next turn, the tribute deal would immediately be called off, making it so I wouldn't have to pay a single koku. I kinda feel bad about doing that exploit but I'm sick and I want to complete the campaign without a headache. XD

The hardest part in this campaign was breaking into Shikoku. The Choshu had a massive number of stacks on the island, and I couldn't just blast through them. I sent the daimyo on the offensive, using his ability to fight night battles to destroy one stack at a time, then pulling him back on the mainland to recover his army's strength. Through attrition, I destroyed the Shikoku defenders and was able to finally capture a foothold on the island. From then on, there wasn't much challenge left in the campaign outside of beating my allies to provinces I could take.

I am now halfway through the Fot S clans, and my next campaign will be as the Tosa. For once, this will be a completely different campaign, as they are going to be my Republican playthrough. The Tosa are a primarily naval clan, with increased experience for built ships and increased naval bombardment range. They also get a reduction to newly-conquered city unrest, which will help somewhat in the late game, and increased diplomatic relationships, which is useless. My primary objectives will be to first capture Shikoku, then sail into Kyushu and take it for myself, along with the surrounding islands. From there, I will take some time to upgrade my navy to make my position unnassailable from the sea, while using the iron in Kyushu to train well-upgraded land armies. Then I'll make my way up from Southern Honshu, gradually making my way up Japan until Realm Divide hits, at which point I'll bunker up for some time until I've handled the no doubt severe public order hit I'll suffer while I wait for the populace's allegiance to turn my way.

I expect this will be my longest campaign.

Liu Chong settles the score with Yuan Shu. Too bad I didn't get to fight him at full stack.

70 turns into my Tosa campaign, I have done little outside of securing Shikoku and keeping some ships to guard the waters. Turns out conquering that island is pretty difficult as your first enemy starts with a samurai dojo and can train much better armies than you. I suppose you're expected to train some line infantry since you're starting with a barracks yourself, but it's still pretty difficult to beat yari kachi right off the bat. I was forced to auto-resolve since modern units apparently get a bonus to those compared to traditional ones.

Also not helping, the starting position for the Tosa is very poor and you're unlikely to start getting a good economy until you conquer the whole island, so it really slows down both your early conquests and your economy for a long time.

In any case, after securing the island, I proceeded to sit there for a long time, building up my economy and defending against enemy fleets that were trained from an enemy clan on Honshu. When I felt ready, I embarked an army and sent it to Kyushu. However, I realized that I couldn't just attack the Satsuma directly, as they were allied with Choshu. However, Satsuma starts the campaign with a vassal on one of the nearby islands, so I made that my first target, dragging that Satsuma into war without having to also declare it on Choshu. I defeated the vassal quickly (though I did not pay attention to when the enemy called in a fleet bombardment and lost my heir to it, forcing me to name Sakamoto Ryouma the new heir to my faction's dynasty), then moved on to Satsuma's capital, easily capturing it since it was undefended. I'll wait until the end of winter, then I'll start invading the rest of Kyushu. I hope to do so as quickly as possible to then be able to build myself up properly, with good armies and good navies protecting me.

Edited by Resileafs on Jun 12th 2022 at 12:43:14 PM

Is it me or Cao Cao's schemes are extremely enjoying in the early game? Getting hit with a -20 food is downright crippling.

The proverbial dice has been cast, it has officially begun. On turn 133, Realm Divide has begun and the Tosa Republic has been instated. As I took firm control of Kyushu and captured the island of Tsushima, I reached the threshold to cast off the yoke of oppression from the Shogun and Emperor and soon will face the onslaught of all their armies. I have blocked the sea paths as best I can, with more fleets being built by the turn, I have blocked off all sea crossings, the only way the enemy has to attack me is to overpower my fleets.

I can't wait out my territories to grow into my allegiance, though. I have to start fighting my enemies to prevent them from growing too strong. My first target will be to finish off the Choshu on Honshu, but it will hardly be my greatest foe. The Saga have somehow gained control of all of Central Japan, and will serve as the Imperial vanguard, while the Jozai control the majority of Northern Japan, and will be the Shogunal vanguard. I don't actually know yet if the Shogun and Emperor will ally together against me, but I assume they will so I doubt they'll weaken each other and give me as much time as I need to make my approach.

I don't quite have all my armies prepared, but it should not be difficult to reinforce the front rapidly once I've captured the nearest blacksmith on Honshu. I have a very strong economy that won't be too distraught by the loss of trade with the rest of Japan, so I don't fear running out of funds any time soon, especially since just after Realm Divide was triggered but before I chose my new allegiance, the Saga asked me for peace, and I was able to get 20k koku from them in exchange, knowing very well that they would declare war on me again the next turn because of the Divide.

Edited by Resileafs on Jun 15th 2022 at 12:25:50 PM

Tosa campaign completed, unsurprisingly my longest one at 222 turns. This was fun, it's really a completely different vibe than the normal type of campaign, even compared to the main campaign's Realm Divide.

The most difficult part of the Divide was the first half, as I struggled to move into Central Japan. But as my economy boosted into the stratosphere and my armies became stronger and stronger, I started snowballing once Kyoto was under my control and I took down the Saga Imperial Vanguard. When I then faced the Shogunate forces in battle, things quickly took a turn for the better as their more traditional armies full of shogitai were completely outclassed in the auto-resolve. I barely had to fight any battles once that happened. I guess the game doesn't look kindly at traditional units.

Turns out though, the Tosa's best bonuses aren't the campaign ones, it's their unique units. Red Bears make an amazing mid-tier units just under Republican infantry, well capable of holding their own, and Tosa riflemen are quite frankly completely overpowered. They have the same range as sharpshooters, higher accuracy, and fire faster than any other unit in the game. Turns out, they have a unique rifle that has a natural reload time of 6 seconds, compared to basic infantry having 18 seconds of reload, and elite being 10. Highly experienced Tosa Riflemen with foreign veterans with the right traits can go as low as 3 or even 2 seconds to reload. Honestly I think you could reliably replace all line infantry with Tosa Riflemen and do just as good, if not better than having basic line.

Now then, time for the next campaign, which will be as the Choshu. The only worthwhile bonus they seem to have is the one that reduces the cost of military buildings and units. The rest is not super useful. Lower cost for Ishin Shishi actions will save some money but isn't going to be super impactful, increased income from looting is almost a detriment since looting wrecks your faction leader's honor, and +3 charge bonus barely matters when you have good charge upgrades. Still, I start in a fine position, at the southern tip of Honshu, with the (hopefully) core of Imperial clans on Kyushu. I'll simply make my main strategy to move north and capture the whole of Honshu until Realm Divide starts.

In FotS, I personally tend to just accept Honor 1 as a permanent state of affairs and loot the shit out of wherever I go. That game lets you make bank when looting.

Everyone please stand up for the national anthem (volume warning):

It's both funny and sad how the Rome Total War music mod remains the most downloaded mod for Total War Rome II, makes you think that they are probably going to bring back Jeff van Dyck and the other composers of Medieval II in case CA makes Medieval III.

You say that, but I think that Rome 2's battle soundtrack goes very well with the sound of horns that happen when you direct units to move. Rome 1's music could stand up better on its own, but Rome 2's really fits in well with the general sound design of the game.

Though from what I have heard from Jeff's works definitely does make me want him for the sole purpose of yet again composing a credits piece that his wife sings.

What game’s music does everybody like the most?

Medieval 2's campaign map music. Especially in the Britannia expansion.

I'm partial to Medieval II's Crusaders Campaign soundtrack. Though Attila's soundtrack is also good.

Kinda hoping that thing from the Rome Remaster where troops match the ethnicity of the province they recruited from is kept for future titles. It's helps sooth the OCD.

That one taiko drum track from Shogun 2.

What one? Ona Hei?

Taiko Shuffle.

Oh, I just remembered, my absolute favorite song in any Total War is 'Journey to Rome part 2' in Rome 1.

This is the most hype marching song in the entire series and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. I delay my attacks just to hear that song to the end.

Some mods for the older games have fairly good soundtracks of their own, even. Here's the main theme of Europa Barbarorum for RTW (aka the old-school version of Divide et Impera):

The newer Warscape Engine games (Empire onwards) require third-party audio software from WWise to tinker with, and the licence costs a pretty penny. CA was willing to pay to make it available as part of the modding toolkit for Rome II in the hope that modders would come up with new and exciting original soundtracks; alas, the only things to come out of it were a few copyright-infringing movie music mods that they couldn't possibly host on Steam Workshop. They haven't really bothered to make the audio tools available to modders for the subsequent games; it's possible to add your own music and sounds to the newer games, but it requires an inordinate amount of work because of the arcane way the audio files are indexed.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on Jun 22nd 2022 at 7:57:38 AM

"This Is It," Medieval II, the song of desperate defenses and battles in the rain.

Though the menu music is also pretty incredible. And we can't forget "The Holy Bible may preach peace, but when it is Christendom itself that is threatened..."