Empire Total War.

[Deepcrush]

Indeed. Shogun 2 plays a bit differently. Don't hesitate to mobilise armies of ashigaru if you need be. Properly used, they are a force to reckon with. Having a few key samurai shocktrooper divisions might always be a good idea (Naginata Samurai are the single most non-hero unit of the game. Tough cookies, and they fight very well against both infantry and cavalry).

All of my archers are Ashigaru, arrows kill no matter who shoots them and they are a lot cheaper then Samurai. Put a wall of Katana and Naginata Samurai forward and you can have a decent defense. In the early game, armor is sad to say the least and the lack of shields means that archers just eat up enemy ranks. Had to get used to the idea that just about every hit that lands means a kill.

Also, Cavalry is definetly not what it used to be. Be careful when playing with your General. You ain't in Medieval Europe anymore

Yeah, found that out the hard way. I'll take a German Gothic charge over a Samurai Horse Yari any day of the week.

(Finally, if you should ever reach a moment when you feel relatively secured, take the time to take control of the various trade nodes around Japan, and stack 10 trade ships on them. Specially the western ones, they might each be worth an income of 3000+ koku/turn) (outside trade will also expose you to Nanban trade)

Oh I did that right off the bat, turn six I sent my first ship that way. By turn twelve I had 4 ships on three routes.

[SolkaTruesilver]

I am currently building a bunch of Nanban Trade Ships, which reportedly are fleet-killers by themselves. It's quite a reward for selling your soul to Christianity..

If you have a need to strongly defend a specific castle, I can't recommend the fire-bombers enough. They will simply obliterate massed enemies trying to scale your wall. That, and in bridge battles, hehe.

Siege Weapons are somewhat useless (a nice accidental hit once in a while) but they have 1 massive advantage: they force the AI to come and engage you, and not play defensively in open battles..

[Deepcrush]

First thing, I think we need an admin/mod to split this into a Shogun 2 Total War thread.

I am currently building a bunch of Nanban Trade Ships, which reportedly are fleet-killers by themselves. It's quite a reward for selling your soul to Christianity..

Indeed, I'm still having trouble dealing with the flimsy ships that Japan has to offer for this period. I'm used to using Frigates and Ships of the Line. Rowboats with archers... just primitive.

If you have a need to strongly defend a specific castle, I can't recommend the fire-bombers enough. They will simply obliterate massed enemies trying to scale your wall. That, and in bridge battles, hehe.

I will have to look into them soon.

Siege Weapons are somewhat useless (a nice accidental hit once in a while) but they have 1 massive advantage: they force the AI to come and engage you, and not play defensively in open battles..

Forcing the enemy to advance is good if you have a strong defensive force. Long arms to the forward with Bows to the rear. You can rain on your enemy while they run to you.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Deep, have you tried TW: Napoleon? I heard it's of better quality than the Empire version for that time period. I was wondering which one I should get.

[Deepcrush]

With the latest patches and expansions, NTW is just a mini version of ETW. If you're going to get one then you want ETW. Once I figured the combat system I found I loved playing as the US. Figuring out the trade system makes the UK great to play. Prussia is just a hard game since everyone will come after you so if you want to challenge yourself then thats where you want to be.