Chaos’s Not So Complete Guide to Total War: Shogun 2 Multiplayer – Unit Upgrades

Overview

This is the first part of my complete guide to Shogun 2 Multiplayer. Some thing will be reiterated from other guides as correct information is the same from guide to guide.

Introduction

Welcome to my not so comprehensive guide to Shogun 2 Multiplayer. In this I will be covering just about everything there is to know for Total War: Shogun 2 Multiplayer, when it comes to upgradeing your units.

This guide will be divided into Several Parts and all listed in the table of contents.

For the first two parts I will be using the following sections:

• ‘Important to Know’ where I will outline several things that most players are not familiar with and that will be a great boost to anyone, who is not already familiar with them. I recommend skimming through it even if you are an experienced player, as you might learn a new trick.
• ‘Getting Started’ for the newer players who want a quick and efficient way to get going.
• ‘The Basics’ I run through the basic things that everyone needs to know to excel in Total War: Shogun 2 Multiplayer.
• ‘Advanced Playing’ section this is where I run through the exceptions to the rules that you will see in the basics, I will address just about everything i can think of or have an answer to.
  I expect to be upgrading this section fairly often as new thing develop.

Now to the guide

Important To Know

There are a few things that I feel are detrimental to any persons game play that is not readily available to everyone who may be new to the game or series.

One of these things is the Debug Camera, over a year ago now there was large kerfuffle around the debug camera. Basically CA removed it as an option and everyone raged about it because the fact is that for high level play it is quite necessary.

What is the Debug Camera?

It is a script change that allows the player to scroll as high or low as they may wish. With some quick thinking, it is pretty clear how much this can help. Being able to see the whole field with a quick glance can be extremely helpful. While coordinating all your attacks at once is like a gift from the gods.

A few things to keep in mind

• if you change your graphic options you will lose it as it will reset,
• when you validate your game cache it will also reset.
• A good habit to get into with it is to strafe your camera side to side (with your mouse) really quick as you get in game, as sometime the controls need to be righted, and the strafing a lines it all.

The Replay folder is a folder that contains all of your game replays.

This is important to know about because the exchange of replays is one of the most common methods of game sharing around and is something i will be using in this guide to augment some points with real life examples.

Now to access the replay folder you go about the same steps as the debug camera except when you enter the shogun 2 folder you don’t go to scripts you go to replays.

Once you have the folder opened. There are several methods of file sharing; mediafire, file dropper and other that I don’t other using. After that is is a simple matter of clicking and dragging the downloaded files into your replay folder.

Tip: you can leave the game running alt tab put the replays in the folder go back into the game and watch them. No need to exit sh2.

In this I will quickly go through several hotkeys that I use commonly and that I find extremely helpful when playing.

Important*- I am right handed, so all of these hot keys will be on the left side of my keyboard as my right hand is using my mouse.

So to start with:

• wasd keys – These will mover your camera forward back wards right an left. ; )
• Spacebar – Highlights all of you troops movement orders, i find myself have space bar pressed every time i give a movement order.

  Note – Yellow line is movement red is attack, watch out occasionally on a laggy game, your attack order will be a movement order. and your cav may get raped if it was a cav battle you were microing.

• Shift – the shift key is used when selecting units, I use it most often when i got to select units from my unit cards,. you hold shift a click on the first unit you want then click on the last unit you want, it will select the first the last and everything inbetween. It is very helpful, also works on the battle map.
• Ctrl – this will allow you to select every unit u click on while keeping the others selected as well.
• Caps Lock – Caps lock when on will increase you camera movement speed, you can also hold shift while moving the camera to get the same result.
• G – Hard groups units – so that they keep there current formations – there are some buggs with ti so u may need to press it several times.
• Control G – Soft Groups Units – so u can easily select certain units but they will not deploy with a preset formation.

Many players and Guides will tell you to play battle list until you get the hang of the game. They’re idiots ( no offense) and have no idea what they are talking about. Don’t listen to them.

What you need to do is this. Join an in game clan, this is easy to do just join a group then go to the little red button at the top and join your groups in game clan. For more information on what the clans do use the in game wiki, it is full of great info and videos.

What you need to know for this guide though is:

A) Shogun 2 veterans are token ♥♥♥♥♥♥, you will need them until the day you die.

B) For decent vet YOU NEED tokens and for that you have to play match made. No worries, many noobs play MM these days you will rarely run against a total pro.

This is slightly awkward to explain, but it is extremely valuable to have. In games with experienced players you will often find ranged units with range increase upgrades, or melee generals that look just like bow gens and instead of waiting for them to shoot at you or charge or w/e it may be. This will tell you there stats just by scrolling over the unit with your cursor.

It is easy to get as well, once in a battle press escape – select options then go to Battle Interface – then hit the drop box menu by the units information and select always.

Getting Started

So you have your debug camera if not, get it, and you find yourself looking at something like this once you make your avatar and everything.

In this screenshot I started with the Cavalry dojo as I find the cav starting position the easiest to get a good variety of units quickly, at least the units that I prefer to play with.

It is a very good idea to prioritize your conquest map path I personally have two goals in mind, get no datchis and Matchlock ashigaru unlocked these two units more often then not compise over 90% of my army cores.

Now probably one of the biggest problems for most newer players is trying to figure out what comprises as a good build. A good build in my opinion is something that has a counter to everything now this does not mean that have 4 spears 4 swords 4 cav 4 bows 4 matchlocks or anything stupid like that.

What I mean is that when I build an army I think of what if he cav spams me or what do I do if he is infantry heavy and so all my armies bear this in mind.

In low funds these worries aren’t nearly quite as prominent I just worry about one thing, what do I do if I am out cavalry’d, be it will ranged cav or not.

This is my main worry for several reasons, with the small amounts of units hammer anvil charges and the like are extremely effective and if they bring an mg, how do i counter it, as one mg has enough ammo to kill a small fund army no matter what.

So my armies have 2 main features. They are cav heavy and contain range units that are not Bows. Below are some examples of possible builds that could be used with nothing unlocked.

he simple fact is that builds depend on your play style a lot. So in the second part when i go through playstyles and the like i will be covering this much more in depth. Until then you will get accurate gerneralizations, of what your units can do.

The Basics – When Upgrading Units

There are a few rules of thumb that hold consistently across the board when upgrading units.

• Firstly – DO NOT UPGRADE THEM AS THEY GAIN CHEVRONS. Have patience as you give a unit chevrons it will gain less experience from killing the same unit once their stats/level have increased.

  That’s right, you gain more experience depending on the unit you kill not the number of them. Vet training ranged units by killing hero units is EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE, not that anyone ever does it.

  So keep your unit at vanilla stats until they achieve your desired chevron, then feel free to upgrade them.

• Secondly – ATTACK, DEFENSE, ATTACK. I cannot stress this enough, these are in all but very rare situations the ONLY upgrades you want on a unit. In general, in that priority order as well. Charge upgrades are NOT worth it, so don’t bother with them. Swords get 1 moral and 1 defence.

  Note – when ddoing spear units it goes ATTACK, DEFENCE, DEFENCE ( ALL IN PAIRS OF TWO)

  long form is like this att, att, def, def, att, att.

  PS – there is no reason to max upgrade all of your units, if you want to tho, this is how to approach it.

• Thirdly – there are max cost to efficiency ratios for individual units. Generally it follows the 2, 4, 6 rule. 2 – 6 for no datchis.

The Basics – Rock, Paper, Scissors

So before i get into builds a bit more, i want to explain a few things about he basic game mechanics. Like many RTSs Shogun 2 Total War follows a rock paper scissors system. Spears beat cav, cav beats swords, and swords are supposed to beat spears. And everything beats range. If you can reach them.

I say supposed to because this is perhaps the most controversial part of the current game balance. Spears, in many circumstances beat swords. So at higher levels, expect warrior monks.

The Basics – Builds

Covered in getting started.

Medium Fund armies will be much like your large fun armies just without all the upgrades. Unlike FoTs where all vanilla armies work very well, Shogun 2 does have a reliance on upgrades for many of the possible builds to work.

Now medium funds is where you will begin to pick your core: be it a sword, spear or ashigaru core. I am not going to go in depth with any army compsitions just keep in mind that the units you want for later are the units you need to vet in these games.

Large fund is where the competative scene plays so as you can imagine builds vary from player to player . At best all I can recommend is watching you tube vids and playing in the tournies while experimenting on your own.

[link]

Note – as I begin my ‘In Battle’ section and get into what units preform certain roles for me.

The Basics – Cores

So in Shogun 2 armies consist of cores, this idea was intriduced to me by a shoutcaster names fishy famous for his March Madness Tourney.
But essentially the ‘Core’ is the meat of your army. So in gerneal cores go like this:

• Spear
• Sword
• Cav

Now obviously these can break down even more; to monk, yari and yari ash. For the Spears. Or Katana and No Datchi for the Swords.

Obviously if you bring cav cores/spam your an ass.

The Basics – Infantry Units Roles

This is the most important part of this section and will probably take up the majority of my brain power quota.

I will be going more in-depth in the next section.

This unit was the back bone of so many of my armies it isn’t even funny. With something close to 2000 shogun 2 battles under my belt the no datchi ruled my battle field for well over a 1000 of them.

Strengths – high attack, have banzai

Weaknesses – low defense, vulnerable to missile and cav.

Upgrades – 2 or 6 chevrons. I used both, 1 level 6 and 3 level 2.

Now obviously the fact that i used them so much obviously says that I felt they were worth it. So assuming that they had the upgrades you wanted well, simple really, they will be your main attack force, if you are using centralized core – which I recommend.

This is a great unit boarding on broken, hell it was nerfed once but due to everything else being nerfed, they have risen back to prominence – not that everyone stopped using them after the nerf.

Strengths – Solid defense, attack and moral, i good against cav. Have Warcry – great for moral shocks.

Weakness – Arrows monks have no armour, a bow will decimate a monk so quickly it isnt even funny.

Upgrades – 4 6 or more up to the player. I preferred 4.(2 attack 2 defence)

I used Warrior monks a fair bit at 4 chevs, and had reasonable success with them, but they felt a little cheap, and are bloody expensive, so I had weaker cav, which I disliked immensely.

Warrior nuns have their fans, and their fans tend to suck.

I have never had a warrior nun vet so I couldn’t say how their vet tree should go. But i assum, the attack defence attack rule sshould apply.

Reason I dont use them is thta they simply dont have eenough epople, with 75 females, no armour and no amazing abilities, they are not worth it as far as I am concerend.

Great unit not really meant to be a core unit, but in the meta that i played in, these guys were great on the flanks.

Upgrades – 2, 4 6. upgrades 5 and 6 being more defense.

Alright so bullet proofs are like the best inf in the game, major armour, crazy defence, and good attack. Just unpredictable as ♥♥♥♥. I’ve lost a fair few tourney games because they preformed underwhelming. Get good charge and all that, and they route with twenty kills.

Love em or Hate em. Powerful unit, major pain in the ass to fight.

Upgrades for bulletproof tend to be – 6 and 9. 9 for the banzai

Nagi sams, were nerfed, tbh not really worth it as ur core, unless u don’t like bringing cav. these guys shine at 9 chevs with banzai.

Not really worth it, I have tried every variation possible with them, they route randomly, and very very rarely are cost efficient. Quite frustrating.

Upgrades -2,4,5,6,8,9

Thats right, people upgrade them everywhere simple fact is they arent reliable. Most reliable was 8 chevs. but a 6 chev no datchi for the same cost performed so much better.

So for the 8 chev it went as follows, 2 attack, 1 defense, 1 moral, 2 more attack, 1 defence or moral, 1 armour.

– if I left out any units take it as a sign that they are worthless. jk. i think.

The Basics – Your Cav

Most likely the back bone of any cav force pretty much ur all rounders.

Strengths – good against cav, does well on the charge against inf.

Weaknesses – Cant fly or beat Yari Ki (fots equivalent) 1 on 1

Upgrades – pretty much anything goes – follow the attack defence attack rule and these guys will do well in just about anything.

Use this unit.

Monk Cav

These guys were my favorite cav in the game. Even if I didn’t use them all the time. I fell in love with them the minute I could use them. In the lower fun games, these guys will give you a dependable cav unit that is versatile affordable and that look bloody awesome.

Strengths – can be used at just about every price point. Great moral – high defense, very hard to route.

Weakness – They lag behind yari cav as they increase in rank – lack of attack upgrades.

Upgrades – 1 5 and 9 – 1 being the most common and cost efficient. 5 for the war cry. and 9 for the warcry and the hold firm.

As they get more expensive they become harder to use well, as they aren’t tanks, but are major fun to play with.

I think i just peed a little. Monk Cav may have been my favorite, but these guys were my babies. How does that work? I don’t know but it is how it worked. These guys worked so well in my bull rush tactics, it wasn’t even funny. On kawabe river, I don’t think I lost when I had these guys and my mgs.

Strengths – They are tanks. What isn’t to love.

Weakness – crazy expensive and slow. Nothing massive.

A little pointer- these guys come with the second wind ability. It makes any unit max 3 others I believe fresh fatigue. The fatigue upgrades may be useless, but second wind is not.

I found kat cav to be extremely situational.

Strengths – great against inf.

Weakness – fail in cav battles, i have engaged kat cav with my light cav and won.

If you know your opponent like to bring a lot of words, defiantly worth using. But they aren’t very versatile.

Annoying little buggers, i see these guys going unused pretty soon, but they are great if you have the micro to make them worth it.

Don’t bother upgrading them. Not worth the vet slots.

The Basics – Range

Kay, so range in shogun 2 comes in two forms that work. Missile cav, and matchlocks. Matchlock cav as it were, kick ass.

So..

Level 2-5 and vanilla.

Level 5 ffor the range increase. level 2 for the reload, and vanilla bc they’re cheap and not a vet.

The reason I did the upgrades first is simple. All matchlocks are pretty much the same.
By personal preference I feel that 5 chevrons is the way to go. (when upgrading them)

for the most part not worth it, you need to be really really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good at camping to bring bows on a flat map, while on maps like okabe they can prove there worth by forcing your enemy to attack you.

When using them, go with the diakou or w/e they have more men and armour then the bow monk counter part, at the cost of rate of fire, which is unimportant as ur camping anyway.
level 5 200 range go with reload upgrades and get increased ammo.

Didn’t use them, didn’t like them. 2 5 9 are the most common upgrades, first 2 being accuracy.

Bow gens are a different story.

Honestly not really sure how to upgrade them. As I said didn’t use them. 😛

So this is Donderbuss and MG’s.

People like to say donderbuss is over powered. People are stupid. It is a well known fact. They forget that for all the damage a donderbuss does that it is easy to counter, and a ♥♥♥♥♥ to use.

As mentioned previously I was known for using Mounted gunners, and i did it for a reason. Upgrades go like this, 1 speed, 2 reload, 1 acc, 1 increased range. And if you want them every game get replen for the 6th chevron.

The Basics – Your General

There are a few optimized ways to upgrade your gen, but it usually comes out like this.

Note – I do not currently have SH2 installed and because of that i cannot post screens of what the finsihed tree would look like, or I would.

Leader (main) – melee(secondary) This is most common combo for leader gens

Bow – Melee So full bow gen with melee stats. Attack defence mostly.

Melee – Leader – This is an impervious to spears melee gen with a few points in the leader tree. Notably inspire.

Melee – Bow – This combo was my personal combo and one i loved, as i used it. i am not aware if anyone else did.

But basically how it goes is like this. You do enable bow, all the damage, armour piercing and increased ammo. Then you do, 1 speed, 3 attack, 2 defense, 1 or 2 moral can’t remember. Then just go down until you have impervious against spears.

The observant one will notice that all these combos have 1 tree maxed out, with a secondary tree that has a few other things. This is simply because, splitting trees isn’t nearly as effective as getting the ‘big’ bonuses for each of the trees. Example – 200 range – or impervious to spears.

Advanced – When to Break the Rules

This is going to be short. the simple fact is that upgrading is so universal accross the community exceptions are rare and usully shot down.

Alright so mostly this will be pretanining to upgrading units. Whe do you go for that charge upgrade, or perhaps that armour upgrade?

Well tbh I couldnt tell you when to do it, as for me the rules are their for reason. They work. But I can tell you this. Other people break the rules and this is what they do…

Yari cav level 8 – not really an exception, just increasing the defensive capabilities of the unit.

Warrior Monks – basiclly you just go level 7 with a moral upgrade. Really not a massive thing but it isnt within my 2,4,6 rule.

There are others without qeustion and as i think or hear of them i will add them, but at the moment, i cant think of anything.

Furhter note, i will go into specific armies in future sections.

Conclusion of Part 1

Conclusion So it is over – any questions, leave a comment in the box, suggestions same as before, feel free to add me, and I will gladly go more in depth on any problems you may have.

If you like it or if this helped you please rate it. it is my hope that this series will help any community that survives – after Rome 2 comes out – keep a high level of play.

I will be updating this as I see fit.