Overview
It has been awhile, but I beat Shogun 2, Rise of the Samurai and Fall of the Samurai in a previous eon, and in doing so I absorbed a ton of extremely helpful information from others and my own personal testing. This information was so good that it sticks with me to this day, and I have wanted to create a guide for awhile, and I can finally procrastinate no more.So here are many essential tips & tricks for Shogun 2, may they bring you honor and victory!
Work in Progress
It has been awhile since I beat Fall of the Samurai, I’m going off memory for a lot of this, I’ll update as I think of things.
Resources
[link]Naval Battle Trick!
In a naval battle, if your ship takes damage, you can click a button to repair your ship. However, if your ship is repairing, it cannot fire.
Or can it?
It can, if you go into first person mode and fire the guns manually. So you can be repairing your ship while you keep firing in first person mode.
Furthermore, you can have your ship fire its guns at the enemy via command, and then immediately after it fires, go into first person mode and fire at the enemy again. Go out of 1st person mode and order your ship to fire via command once it finishes reloading, rinse and repeat.
You’re Welcome.
Foreign Veteran Trick!
“All the units in this game are too expensive, especially ships, how can I afford to recruit anything!?”
“What the heck does this military administration skill in the Foreign Veteran skill tree do?”
If you feel this way upon seeing recruitment prices, especially for ironclads, fear not, for I bring you good tidings of great joy.
Foreign Veterans can reduce recruitment costs by being stationed in towns (I recruit a levy unit and then place 3 Veterans in that “army” and garrison it in town so they get experience for training that levy unit), this falls under the name “Supervise Recruitment”. They do the same to a smaller degree by merely existing in a province, the falls under the name “Military Administration”.
Foreign Veterans have skills in their skill tree that improve their -recruit cost effect. What I do is I get 3 Veterans that I place in town and when they level up, I focus on the skills that reduce recruitment cost when they are in a town (“Supervise Recruitment”).
Then I recruit the remaining # of Veterans I can get (starting limit is 5 of each type of agent I believe, but there is a way to increase that number to 8 I think), and I place them in a levy unit in that same province outside of town (so they get experience for training that levy unit), and as they level up I put their points into “Military Administration” which is what boosts the -recruitment cost when they are not in town.
With 5 leveled and appropriately skilled Foreign Veterans in your main recruitment province, you can buy even the most expensive troops and ironclad ships for dirt cheap.
You’re welcome.
How to Win Easily
Let’s say you play as the Satsuma (basically the FotS version of the Shimazu, with all the benefits of their starting location). Satsuma’s starting province has a specialty that allows you to build I think it is called a Master Gunsmith. This gives +20 Accuracy to your ranged army units (infantry, cavalry, artillery, and even Bow Kachi). You can also build the encampment and then upgrade it to the building that gives +15 Accuracy. This gives +35 Accuracy to your units (and not %, full +35 to their accuracy stat).
Levy infantry are crap, but Line Infantry with their 30 accuracy and 30 reload are quite decent. Give Line Infantry +35 accuracy and now they have 65 accuracy, before any additional bonuses from veteran ranks. This will make them rival elite troops that you can only get in the late game. And of course if you do this on elite infantry, they become absurdly deadly. Same deal with your Parrot and Armstrong Guns, your artillery will become absolutely ridiculous at destroying the enemy.
Get full stack armies of 65 accuracy Line Infantry, and you can win without even needing artillery. Add buffed artillery to those armies, and you can faceroll your keyboard to victory.
You’re welcome.
Modernization and Traditional Units
A lot of people want to re-create “The Last Samurai” and leads armies of traditional units to victory against modern forces. But remember that in The Last Samurai, the traditional guys got slaughtered.
Likewise in Fall of the Samurai. You want to modernize completely, and you want to use gun units, do not bother with traditional units. Remember, the game is called “Fall of the Samurai”, do not try to make the game something it is not. However, if you really want to, there are mods for that. But the Vanilla game is what it is and it is foolish to think it is otherwise. Traditional units are a noob trap, don’t be a noob.
Choosing a Foreign Power
Just a quick note on something I learned through screwing up in one of my campaigns:
Pro-Imperial factions can choose between getting aid from America or Great Britain once they build a trading port.
Pro-Shogunate factions can choose between getting aid from America or France once they build a trading port.
I didn’t realize I only had 2 options instead of all 3 when I did a pro-Imperial campaign, and so I kept declining the offers from America and Great Britain because I was trying to get France in that run. They will only make 2 offers before never offering again (1 offers, if you decline then the other offers, if you decline then the first one offers again for the final time, if you decline then the 2nd offers again for the final time), and if you decline both factions twice, you are locked out of getting their help for the rest of your campaign, which is what I made the mistake of doing.
So heads up, know who you will want aid from, and accept their offer once you get the chance.
Importance of Naval Supremacy
Especially if you are playing on the island where the Satsuma faction starts, it is important that you never let the AI gain naval dominance and blockade all your ports so you cannot recruit ships to challenge their dominance.
Why?
Because if they can blockade your ports then they are in range to bombard your towns, and repairing structures damaged by their bombardments is INSANELY expensive. Simply put, it will probably bankrupt you before you can get an army to conquer a new province with a port to where you can recruit a fleet to bail you out. Or in other words, if the AI blockades you and starts bombarding you and you do not have a fleet already out that you can bring back to break the blockade, Game Over man.
It is literally a disaster campaign situation that I’m not sure even the Youtuber “LegendofTotalWar” could recover from.
Forewarned is Forearmed.