Overview
A Beginner’s Guide to the Shogun Empire or “A Guide to the Shogun Empire That Doesn’t Suck”My name is Peppermink and I’m a newbie, having started this game on the 15th of June, 2014, but while I searched for guides about how to play this game properly, I couldn’t find any, so I’m going to share with you the details as I discover them
Introduction
The Shogun Empire is the distilate of the old Japan, a culling of the weak and unskilled to produce a warrior nation of the finest. What it lacks in raw strength, it makes up for in precision strikes and tactical prowess.
Starting Off
Lets get the basic facts down, The Shogun Empire is a mixture of oriental/Asian culture themed units, primarily Japanese, but there are a few examples here and there of the various cultures they assimilated.
Lets see what they have:
- They get strong infantry at standard price
- They get Tanks from the start, and They’re fast
- They have quite a few fire units and good area denial
- Non-Line of Sight weaponry
- Freakin’ Katanas
Now for the things they don’t
- The vehicle selection is limited
- Said vehicles are flimsy and don’t hit hard
- Basic AV weapons suck
- Decent AV vehicle is more expensive
- Below Average range on a lot of weapons
So How does this affect me or my playstyle?
Fast Tanks, Lots of Them
No, seriously. Your basic tank costs as much as most other faction’s light vehicle and moves just as fast. You get access to them from the second you join the SE.
That being said, you will want to try to end things as soon as possible, and maintain map control to know where to run and when, if you can’t. Your whole army is a mob of glass cannons.
Strong Start, Infantry Support
Build a tank early in the game, and use it as AT and to soak up fire. Use Manchurian Infantry to dispatch of other infantry, and keep making more. The tanks can’t fend off infantry until they get upgraded, and the infantry are useless against tanks, and your basic AV unit is unwieldly.
Basic Units
That’s all fine and dandy, but none of that knowledge or any of those basic strategies mean anything if you don’t familiarize yourself with the tools avaliable to you. You start the game off with these units. You are limited by how many of them you have in supply, and by the resources you need to deploy them.
Movement units are calculated using 1/2 of the side of an infantry as 1 “movement’ unit, or 5 range units.
Footsoldier
Deploy Cost 2 Manpower (unlimited supply)
80 HP (5 sub-units)
Light Infantry
30 view
8 movement
Rifles
40-60 AP/AA damage/40 range
Melee
40-80 Hunting damage/2 range (unit border must touch the target)
Footsoldiers are your basic ‘bread’ unit, average view range, average HP, moderate movement and a basic ranged attack. Japanese footsoldiers however are set apart from their peers by their Melee attack. Most faction’s basic unit has a rifle type attack which does basic AP damage, however, the melee attack does hunting damage. Light Infantry/Organic resist types have a 50% damage reduction from AP weapons, however, it only has a 10% reduction against Hunting. While this bonus lets you remain competitive in the midgame, where you can easily wipe out someone’s 2nd or even 3rd tier infantry, keep in mind that hunting damage types are almost entirely useless against any form of armor other than organic, Light Vehicle reducing hunting damage by 90% and Air being untargetable. The Melee Attack must be researched before it can be used, but its extremely cheap and applies to the Manchurian Infantry as well.
Manchurian Infantry
Deploy Cost 3 Manpower (Start with 8)
100 HP (5 sub-units)
Light Infantry
30 view
9 movement
SMG Burst
75-125 AP/AA damage/30 range
Sword Strike
60-100 Hunting damage/2 range (unit border must touch the target)
Manchurian Infantry are your bread and butter, a step up from the Footsoldier. While not as spammable, they get a bump in damage, mobility and HP, and get a ‘Horde Bonus’ for being within 20 distance (2 unit lengths) of another Manchurian Infantry squad. This bonus stacks, and it may be tempting to cluster them up in gigantic bunches, however their range is low compared to rifle or Machinegun toting units of similar cost from other factions, so they may not be able to fire if overdone.
The bonus from having 3 units in close proximity (+20% HP and damage) is more than enough to overcome 3 enemy infantry units, and can be obtained with a loose ‘triangle’ formation that leaves no one unit particularly vulnerable to explosives, firebombs, or other Area of Effect attacks. While under the effect of any level of ‘Horde Bonus’, Manchurian Infantry have the ability to ‘Fury Attack’ while using Sword Strike, approximately doubling your damage, which is already formidable.
Rocket Troops
Deploy Cost 3 Manpower (Start with 6)
100 HP (4 sub-units)
Light Infantry
30 view
9 movement
Rocket Barrage
100-150 AV damage/35-75 range (10-95 with variance) AoE Indirect
Flash Rockets
0 damage/35-75 range guaranteed suppression debuff against infantry
Rocket Troopers are an interesting unit, more comparible to a light mortar team than to direct AV such as grenadiers or bazooka/RPG teams from other factions. Instead of targeting a unit directly, Rocket Troopers fire on an area 20 units in diameter, with possible spread allowing you to hit up to 30 units away from the center of the circle. Each subunit in the squad fires one rocket that does about 30-40 damage each and the spread is fairly random, requiring you to use a large number of Rocket Troopers to be effective. Luckily, boasting a fairly large range and indirect fire (no LoS required), you can just have a bunch of these guys hidden behind houses, hills and such, and continually bombard the enemy’s armor until it finally dies.
Rocket Troopers have a secondary ability, Flash Rockets which must be researched before use. Flash Rockets inflict suppression on one squad of infantry with 100% accuracy and with this unit’s great range, can really mess up a Stormtrooper or similar expensive infantry unit’s turn.
Light Tank
Deploy Cost 3 Engineering (Start with 3)
200 HP (1 unit)
Heavy Vehicle
60 view
14 movement
Cannon Shot
60-80 AV damage/20-65 range
Canister Shot
60-90 Hunting damage/0-35 range 3 turn cooldown
Light Tanks are, ironically, your basic Heavy Armor unit in the Shogun Empire, and have a decent view range and the speed to use it. They however lack damage, and come with the additional limiting factor of a minimum range. Canister shot makes these units slightly less helpless against infantry, but it has a cooldown, and is inconsistent, often leaving the target with a single sub-unit remaining. Use them to scout, but don’t let them get too far separated from infantry, or other tanks. Historically Light tanks were used to support infantry, and while this game’s rendition of them are helpless offensively against infantry, they can stand up to serious punishment defensively, just watch out for RPGs, fire and Mortars.
Shredder Tank
Deploy Cost 4 Engineering (Start with 2)
175 HP (1 unit)
Vehicle
30 view
6 movement
Autocannon Burst
80-120 Rending damage/25-65 range
Battery Fire
120-160 AA damage/25-60 range
Shredder tanks are your cheap and dirty rending damage solution. Taking out both light and heavy infantry as well as dealing decent damage to beast and light armor. These are best deployed behind something to keep their squishy light armor safe, since they can’t fire at things closer than 2 unit lengths away. Deploy them early to deal with massed infantry, then keep them safe so they can save you from air in the late game. Infantry can deal with light air like helicopters, but only dedicated AA weapons can effectively deal with air. Luckily the secondary attack doesn’t have a cooldown, so don’t fret if you go against the United Republic. These synergize with Light tanks well, since they have “Light vehicle armor” wheras the “Light tank” has “heavy vehicle armor” and can take additional punishment
The Tech Tree
So, you have these units in your army, but you either want more, new types to try, or want to improve the ones you have?
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