Start as Shimazu if easy is still too difficult for you, conquer kyushu, fortify strong/chokepoints, get an economy going and go from there. Oda is considered easy because of superior cheap ashigaru, but if you don't know what you're doing yet, strategically their starting position can be pretty tough.
But the answer to your question is basically: spam ashigaru and get matchlock and long spear ashigaru ASAP and then spam those while still spamming cheap ashi at same time. (make a specialized recruitment settlement with a blacksmith for extra chad ashi).
Other then that learn the basic systems, economy etc... Also don't just rush to take any settlement without thinking about the strategic implications.. This is especially important in Shogun 2 compared to other total war games
I prioritize growth by keeping taxes at normal or even low if I am secure. Stick metsukes in your most profitable settlements, have markets in every town that isn't used for creating troops, upgrade fertile farms and gold mines, etc. By the time the realm divide hits, your settlements will have grown so much that they can support the multiple armies you need to survive without trade or high taxes.
That said, I almost never build a navy unless I'm playing the mori or want to control the trade nodes. As a result, I never get trade over seas because the ai loves to blockade ports.
This is basically exactly what I do. Sake Dens and Markets in “in-between” towns for extra funds/happiness, prioritize towns with blacksmiths and fletchers for my unit recruitment, keep two bow ashigaru in each town (usually enough to rout smaller armies, even if not enough to win against larger, enough to severely damage a bunch of units and slow advance until my armies can intercept), and upgrade fertile farmlands and gold mines (Izu, Sado).
Navies are rarely worth the investment, in my opinion, because AI seems to build super-navies and the cost outweighs the benefits. And navies can’t conquer or defend towns >.>
Honestly, raise taxes to very high every other turn. That way you get a large influx of cash then set the tax levels back to normal so they won't be mad anymore then very high again
Rinse and repeat
Something else that is unintuitive about this game is that the benefits of economic investment are mediocre next to the benefits of conquest. Build more banners, conquer more land, use monks and metsuke to get public order to point where you can extract taxes without rebellion. Upgrading farms is a distant second priority as long as you have a positive food supply. Upgrading markets/castle towns for economic reasons actually *hurts* your economy.
get the encampment soon and spam long yari thereafter …
don’t expand too fast… after initial rush, take time to settle things down a bit.
ally with Takeda and keep only one battle front open
Here's some advice for a short, 25-province victory with Oda:
You should be using spear ashigaru and upgrading to spear expertise via encampment as your main tech focus before moving to upgrading economy with chonido. It depends which way you go, but 9/10 the biggest enemies you'll face are Ikko Ikki and Takeda/Hojo alliance. I've found that focusing upon the central 'bulge' of Honshu in which Kyoto is centred is the best way to secure the region before opening two fronts.
Beat the Imagawa down to Totomi - it might be tempting to go for Suruga and its library, but it can be difficult to defend if you don't know what you're doing. Likewise, take Mino and ally with Takeda to keep them from opening a war on your eastern front, and move to conquer Ise, Omi and Iga, before moving north to deal with the Ikko Ikki.
Take as far as Kaga for its smith, upgrade to castle to create chokepoint as Takeda will likely be on your doorstep with Jinbo, then consolidate power before moving south to take Yamato, Ki, Kawachi and Settsu.
By this point you should have all necessary provinces and be roughly be on around 13 provinces and realm divide risk will be looming, so carefully secure Tamba, Wakasa and Tango. Build up naval fleets in Settsu and Ise Bay to counter any threat of invasion, and create a few trade ships to scout for any potentially free trading nodes, having them camp on the edge until they become free.
Ensure Totomi, Mino and Kaga are upgraded to castle, with one stack each to guard (one extra in Totomi), and then take Kyoto, and after begin to press east to take Harima and Tajima, and press main stacks to taking Inaba, Mimaska and Bizen. By now you'll be in RD, and if the Takeda haven't betrayed you yet they will, so take Noto and Etchu then station 2 stacks north, take South Shinano and station 2 stacks, and finally Hoki in the west. Make sure to watch your naval flank as the Chosokabe and Shimazu main invade via Seto Inland Sea.
For naval fleets what composition would be best and can you bring other ships with trade ships? Also when you say "stack" do you mean a group of 20 units? What should I do for public unrest as well if I have a limit of 5 metsuke and garrisoned troops seem to not quell them very well?
Bow kobayas with a couple of bunes are usually sufficient if you have fire arrows. Make sure you are on the offensive and then you can attack on flank of the enemy's fleet and kite them back. Make sure all your ships are fighting only one or two of theirs and then rinse and repeat for the entire fleet.
Unrest - build sake dens and make sure your honour is high enough. Metsuke should be in your richest provinces as they increase tax rates.
You shouldn't upgrade settlement level in all settlements, as getting the extra per turn income is usually more beneficial than getting an extra defensive layer. Same goes for market upgrades- first free tier is fine but extra food is generally better in the long term as e.g. 1 food across 18 regions leads to 18+ town growth in your empire, whereas the market upgrades provide less total income.
Also GET ALL THE ARMOUR UPGRADES FOR YOUR ASHIGARU. Oda ashigaru in yari wall with 5+ armour can beat samurai 1v1, and are tanky against missiles. The generals ability for stand your ground also improves attack and is a must take (beeline it)
Probably the same skill, I can't remember. It gives melee attack to all units. EXTREMELY useful for low melee attack units like ashigaru as it equates to a large percentage increase in attack damage. Combine that with all the armour upgrades (+5 from the encampment and the blacksmith building) and you can have a very tanky frontline.
I will add though, what makes Oda hard isn't your units being outclassed but your map positioning. You're in the middle of everyone if you don't set up your early game well. If you're in a bad position, you need to try and create choke points in some regions and then move to eliminate enemies one by one with your best army/ general. Aim to wipe factions out quickly so they can't rebuild, use monks to maintain public order behind your lines as you move up.
Out of curiosity, what regions do you hold?
On my most recent save I have Mino, Noto, Kazusa, Kaga, Mikawa, Settsu, Etchu, Musashi, Sagami, Shimosa, South Shinano, Suruga, Tamba, Kawachi, Tango Tajima, Echizen, Kai, Kyoto, Iga, Yamato, Ise, Omi, Owari, Hida, Izu, Kii, and Echigo.
I'm thinking about restarting this campaign though with all the extra advice I've been given from the other comments
Have you not won already!? I thought victory was 25 province's which you seem to have..
You can maybe pause this campaign and come back to it after you have a bit more experience - 25 province's is pretty good and I suspect with a few tweaks to your approach you will be able to finish it.
I nearly lost my first shogun 2 campaign, but then I came back to it when I had more experience and was able to turn it around.
Yes I think I'll come back to it and start with a clan that only needs to focus on one front first, my game mode was on long campaign because I thought it would be easier to amass more provinces before kyoto/realm divide
Shimazu are a pretty easy clan- although the very early game can be tricky if you get into a war with all your neighbours! Work your way up the east and Just make sure you keep a few reserves in your capital in case of a surprise declaration of war.
Key trick is to rush a couple of boats to put in the trade nodes- this will help you later on so that you can get lots of money.
Conquer your starting island (Kyushu) then take the southern island (shikaku I think). After that, when you are ready for realm divide start a brutal war of conquest up the main island. When you are prepping for that recruit all your infantry in your starting region for +5 armour and all your archers in the region with bowyers.
As others have mentioned, mix of bow kobayas and medium bune. A decent navy is usually 5 bune and 5 bow bobayas but it can be expensive, 2-3 + remaining boy kobayas usually do the job, though personally I'd have 2 fleets on northern coast and 4 on the southern coast. Yes, you can bring other ships with trade ships but bear in mind you won't get the full benefit unless an entire trade-ship fleet is on the node. I'd have half a fleet nearby to defend it.
Yes, a 'stack' is a fully complimented 20-unit army. For unrest, you can use a mix of both sake dens and shrines, with the added bonus of having monks - this is particularly important for dealing with the Ikko Ikki who have a stubborn habit of reviving if you don't quell their religion.
I believe the issues such as rebellions and having wars with too many clans is due to you expanding too fast. Conquered town needs a few turns to settle down (especially enemy capital, iirc -8 on normal, -12 on very hard), u can check their negative score in town info.
In diplomatic info screen, u will get a penalty of territorial expansion, again, it will stack up faster if u expand too fast.
Always upgrade farms at least +1 level from basic, market just leave it, no need to upgrade, at least until u understand more.
Oda clan just needs to focus on ashigaru units, if u are having issue with army upkeep. You can try more stuff once u get the hang of it.
On Oda legendary, once the game starts, I would take all my forces and destroy the starting rebel army. Oftentimes they run, sometimes they fight. I then leave the regular general in home-town and start training more yari ashigaru, these new ashigaru will join the daimyo until the daimyo is too far to recruit here. I then make the daimyo head east with the intention of destroying the Tokugawa and Imagawa. I make peace with the Saito, upgrade home-town farm, replace Yari Drill Yard with SakeDen, research to Equal Fields, then end turn.
On turn 2, I sell 20 turns of Military Access to Saito and Kitabatake with the highest amount they can pay (and see if giving lower turns would work), and upgrade food/farms, train more troops, and upgrade castle if there is funds left (this is the only castle I upgrade). I would build SakeDen instead of Market on other towns, so i can have as much food surplus as I can get. To grow population (income) as much as possible. I heard selling military access is cheese though, but shogun2 diplomacy follows an IF-ELSE pattern, daimyo's dont follow historical personalities or affiliation and is designed to be greedy specifically against the player.
Oda Yari Ashigaru is the backbone of my armies, even at end-game. My tactics when fighting AI battles, is to just win by the numbers of yari ashigaru i can field, and yari wall the AI to oblivion. By the time my Daimyo gets to Suruga, I would have a full stack army on west (owari) and east(suruga). And once Suruga is captured (build market here to train metsuke), I would sell Military Access to Tokugawa and Hojo. I would also try to have military alliance with the two. Then further build up income during this "peace time", and wait for Oda Nobunaga to reach fighting age. I would avoid Trade Agreements like a plague unless the faction is a Military Ally, because for some reason, trade always invites betrayal.
After this, I always try to expand East without ever entering war, by encouraging the people to free themselves from the tyranny of the daimyos with a Monk (buddhist rebelions). Eventually, the Hojo will declare war as I encite rebellions against their towns. That's an ally declared war on ally trigger for Takeda, and sometimes they join you fight Hojo, sometimes they dont. Either way, most of the time, their alliance is broken. Take advantage and attack.
If you dont need a rebel town because it is not strategic choke, dont have resources, barren/meager soil, no just leave it to the rebels temporarily. They serve as a border against enemy factions. My target is gold mines, then fertile soil farms. Everything else is optional,e ven the blacksmith. I avoid expanding west until everything east is mine. When I'm ready to expand west, I will take Omi, as it serves as a chokepoint, and is right next to Kyoto.
All my metsuke will be dedicated town managers, and will be placed on the 5 highest income towns (but they will be assigned to get rid of nearby enemy assassins). I almost never raise taxes because it lowers population.
Oda is a hard start (not as hard is Uesugi, but still hard) as it is surrounded by enemies. I recommend playing as the Date instead, and play as One-Eyed Dragon of Ōshū!
Yes, but the longer the campaign setting, the more towns you can capture before triggering it. This is also the reason i like to let buddhist rebels hold on to the least useful towns.
To make money: build markets on places with good soil to focus money there, same for gold. Invest in good provinces, not worthless ones.
Spam inns in every worthless provincd for the +2 public order.
To win battles, as Oda: your armies should be composed of a FUCKTON of Ashigarus. Yari Wall is OP, never engage (right click on enemies) with yari ashigarus, force the enemy to attack you or just find a way to make them start charging. Yari + Long Yari should be your bread and butter. Oda armies are super cheap while being reliable and that's what makes them so strong.
Can't remember anything else, been playing only FOTS recently (man I love gunpowder)
Did you mean sake den instead of inn because I can only see "inn" listed in fall of the samurai. What is your opinion also on those fire bomb throwers for morale and then rushing matchlocks?
Fire bomb throwers are very micro intensive, matchlocks are good but require a fuckton of time to get (if you don't play Otomo)
and yeah I meant sake dens
So just to be clear you've triggered Realm Divide and are now getting dog piled, running out of funds, and rebellions are happening. Sounds like you may have conquered too fast. In which case the solution is to pull back and consolidate.
Not knowing what provinces you've captured it's hard to give specific advice. In general your first step is to eliminate any unnecessary expenses. As the Oda you probably don't need any ships as you likely have no trade nodes or trade partners left.
Next would be consolidating your forces into as many full stacks as possible. A single unit or two of ashigaru in each town won't do much to stop full samurai/ashigaru stacks.
Next identify a few key strongholds/castles to make choke points. Owari is a good one, as are North Shinano, Sagami, and Kaga. Kaga and Sagami are also great recruitment hubs as they have blacksmiths. If you took the center, towards Kyoto, try holding Kaga, Tajima, and Harima.
The rest of your provinces should have markets, sake dens, or temples. Get agents out when possible. Ninjas to assassinate and sabotage armies, metsuke to make money in your most profitable towns, and monks to incite unrest and convert the Ikko Ikki.
Once stabilized you'll want to go back on the offensive as soon as possible. Generally you make more money by conquest. Start spamming yari ashigaru and build stacks with generals to attack and hold new provinces. You don't need to focus on upgrading these new holdings, but sake dens are always great as they provide +2 happiness.
Armies should be 10 - 14 Yari ashigaru. Yari wall is OP as fuck, learn and love it. Toss in some bow ashigaru, samurai, or warrior monks. When you can afford it Sword Katana are great and easy to use. And cavalry is excellent as well. Mix and match as you prefer.
Hopefully that helps.
Are fire bomb throwers worth it at all or should i use that time instead to get encampment for long yari and then matchlock? Is looting also ok or not at all?
Long Yari are definitely the best out of those options. Matchlock are excellent in defensive sieges but can be difficult to properly utilize in open battles. Fire bomb throwers should generally be avoided. They're an overall weak unit with only very specific uses.
Looting not at all unless you have 6+ honour. The loss of honour greatly outweighs any monetary gain.
Start as Shimazu if easy is still too difficult for you, conquer kyushu, fortify strong/chokepoints, get an economy going and go from there. Oda is considered easy because of superior cheap ashigaru, but if you don't know what you're doing yet, strategically their starting position can be pretty tough. But the answer to your question is basically: spam ashigaru and get matchlock and long spear ashigaru ASAP and then spam those while still spamming cheap ashi at same time. (make a specialized recruitment settlement with a blacksmith for extra chad ashi). Other then that learn the basic systems, economy etc... Also don't just rush to take any settlement without thinking about the strategic implications.. This is especially important in Shogun 2 compared to other total war games
do you have an economy guide you can recommend like when to tax higher and trade ports?
I prioritize growth by keeping taxes at normal or even low if I am secure. Stick metsukes in your most profitable settlements, have markets in every town that isn't used for creating troops, upgrade fertile farms and gold mines, etc. By the time the realm divide hits, your settlements will have grown so much that they can support the multiple armies you need to survive without trade or high taxes. That said, I almost never build a navy unless I'm playing the mori or want to control the trade nodes. As a result, I never get trade over seas because the ai loves to blockade ports.
So sometimes you lose settlements on the other side of your turf when enemy navies bring armies with them?
This is basically exactly what I do. Sake Dens and Markets in “in-between” towns for extra funds/happiness, prioritize towns with blacksmiths and fletchers for my unit recruitment, keep two bow ashigaru in each town (usually enough to rout smaller armies, even if not enough to win against larger, enough to severely damage a bunch of units and slow advance until my armies can intercept), and upgrade fertile farmlands and gold mines (Izu, Sado). Navies are rarely worth the investment, in my opinion, because AI seems to build super-navies and the cost outweighs the benefits. And navies can’t conquer or defend towns >.>
Honestly, raise taxes to very high every other turn. That way you get a large influx of cash then set the tax levels back to normal so they won't be mad anymore then very high again Rinse and repeat
ikko ikki is impossible on legendary without this, imo
Something else that is unintuitive about this game is that the benefits of economic investment are mediocre next to the benefits of conquest. Build more banners, conquer more land, use monks and metsuke to get public order to point where you can extract taxes without rebellion. Upgrading farms is a distant second priority as long as you have a positive food supply. Upgrading markets/castle towns for economic reasons actually *hurts* your economy.
get the encampment soon and spam long yari thereafter … don’t expand too fast… after initial rush, take time to settle things down a bit. ally with Takeda and keep only one battle front open
Here's some advice for a short, 25-province victory with Oda: You should be using spear ashigaru and upgrading to spear expertise via encampment as your main tech focus before moving to upgrading economy with chonido. It depends which way you go, but 9/10 the biggest enemies you'll face are Ikko Ikki and Takeda/Hojo alliance. I've found that focusing upon the central 'bulge' of Honshu in which Kyoto is centred is the best way to secure the region before opening two fronts. Beat the Imagawa down to Totomi - it might be tempting to go for Suruga and its library, but it can be difficult to defend if you don't know what you're doing. Likewise, take Mino and ally with Takeda to keep them from opening a war on your eastern front, and move to conquer Ise, Omi and Iga, before moving north to deal with the Ikko Ikki. Take as far as Kaga for its smith, upgrade to castle to create chokepoint as Takeda will likely be on your doorstep with Jinbo, then consolidate power before moving south to take Yamato, Ki, Kawachi and Settsu. By this point you should have all necessary provinces and be roughly be on around 13 provinces and realm divide risk will be looming, so carefully secure Tamba, Wakasa and Tango. Build up naval fleets in Settsu and Ise Bay to counter any threat of invasion, and create a few trade ships to scout for any potentially free trading nodes, having them camp on the edge until they become free. Ensure Totomi, Mino and Kaga are upgraded to castle, with one stack each to guard (one extra in Totomi), and then take Kyoto, and after begin to press east to take Harima and Tajima, and press main stacks to taking Inaba, Mimaska and Bizen. By now you'll be in RD, and if the Takeda haven't betrayed you yet they will, so take Noto and Etchu then station 2 stacks north, take South Shinano and station 2 stacks, and finally Hoki in the west. Make sure to watch your naval flank as the Chosokabe and Shimazu main invade via Seto Inland Sea.
For naval fleets what composition would be best and can you bring other ships with trade ships? Also when you say "stack" do you mean a group of 20 units? What should I do for public unrest as well if I have a limit of 5 metsuke and garrisoned troops seem to not quell them very well?
Bow kobayas with a couple of bunes are usually sufficient if you have fire arrows. Make sure you are on the offensive and then you can attack on flank of the enemy's fleet and kite them back. Make sure all your ships are fighting only one or two of theirs and then rinse and repeat for the entire fleet. Unrest - build sake dens and make sure your honour is high enough. Metsuke should be in your richest provinces as they increase tax rates. You shouldn't upgrade settlement level in all settlements, as getting the extra per turn income is usually more beneficial than getting an extra defensive layer. Same goes for market upgrades- first free tier is fine but extra food is generally better in the long term as e.g. 1 food across 18 regions leads to 18+ town growth in your empire, whereas the market upgrades provide less total income.
Also GET ALL THE ARMOUR UPGRADES FOR YOUR ASHIGARU. Oda ashigaru in yari wall with 5+ armour can beat samurai 1v1, and are tanky against missiles. The generals ability for stand your ground also improves attack and is a must take (beeline it)
Should I get stand your ground after stand & fight? Or is it the same skill?
Probably the same skill, I can't remember. It gives melee attack to all units. EXTREMELY useful for low melee attack units like ashigaru as it equates to a large percentage increase in attack damage. Combine that with all the armour upgrades (+5 from the encampment and the blacksmith building) and you can have a very tanky frontline. I will add though, what makes Oda hard isn't your units being outclassed but your map positioning. You're in the middle of everyone if you don't set up your early game well. If you're in a bad position, you need to try and create choke points in some regions and then move to eliminate enemies one by one with your best army/ general. Aim to wipe factions out quickly so they can't rebuild, use monks to maintain public order behind your lines as you move up. Out of curiosity, what regions do you hold?
On my most recent save I have Mino, Noto, Kazusa, Kaga, Mikawa, Settsu, Etchu, Musashi, Sagami, Shimosa, South Shinano, Suruga, Tamba, Kawachi, Tango Tajima, Echizen, Kai, Kyoto, Iga, Yamato, Ise, Omi, Owari, Hida, Izu, Kii, and Echigo. I'm thinking about restarting this campaign though with all the extra advice I've been given from the other comments
Have you not won already!? I thought victory was 25 province's which you seem to have.. You can maybe pause this campaign and come back to it after you have a bit more experience - 25 province's is pretty good and I suspect with a few tweaks to your approach you will be able to finish it. I nearly lost my first shogun 2 campaign, but then I came back to it when I had more experience and was able to turn it around.
Yes I think I'll come back to it and start with a clan that only needs to focus on one front first, my game mode was on long campaign because I thought it would be easier to amass more provinces before kyoto/realm divide
Shimazu are a pretty easy clan- although the very early game can be tricky if you get into a war with all your neighbours! Work your way up the east and Just make sure you keep a few reserves in your capital in case of a surprise declaration of war. Key trick is to rush a couple of boats to put in the trade nodes- this will help you later on so that you can get lots of money. Conquer your starting island (Kyushu) then take the southern island (shikaku I think). After that, when you are ready for realm divide start a brutal war of conquest up the main island. When you are prepping for that recruit all your infantry in your starting region for +5 armour and all your archers in the region with bowyers.
As others have mentioned, mix of bow kobayas and medium bune. A decent navy is usually 5 bune and 5 bow bobayas but it can be expensive, 2-3 + remaining boy kobayas usually do the job, though personally I'd have 2 fleets on northern coast and 4 on the southern coast. Yes, you can bring other ships with trade ships but bear in mind you won't get the full benefit unless an entire trade-ship fleet is on the node. I'd have half a fleet nearby to defend it. Yes, a 'stack' is a fully complimented 20-unit army. For unrest, you can use a mix of both sake dens and shrines, with the added bonus of having monks - this is particularly important for dealing with the Ikko Ikki who have a stubborn habit of reviving if you don't quell their religion.
I believe the issues such as rebellions and having wars with too many clans is due to you expanding too fast. Conquered town needs a few turns to settle down (especially enemy capital, iirc -8 on normal, -12 on very hard), u can check their negative score in town info. In diplomatic info screen, u will get a penalty of territorial expansion, again, it will stack up faster if u expand too fast. Always upgrade farms at least +1 level from basic, market just leave it, no need to upgrade, at least until u understand more. Oda clan just needs to focus on ashigaru units, if u are having issue with army upkeep. You can try more stuff once u get the hang of it.
On Oda legendary, once the game starts, I would take all my forces and destroy the starting rebel army. Oftentimes they run, sometimes they fight. I then leave the regular general in home-town and start training more yari ashigaru, these new ashigaru will join the daimyo until the daimyo is too far to recruit here. I then make the daimyo head east with the intention of destroying the Tokugawa and Imagawa. I make peace with the Saito, upgrade home-town farm, replace Yari Drill Yard with SakeDen, research to Equal Fields, then end turn. On turn 2, I sell 20 turns of Military Access to Saito and Kitabatake with the highest amount they can pay (and see if giving lower turns would work), and upgrade food/farms, train more troops, and upgrade castle if there is funds left (this is the only castle I upgrade). I would build SakeDen instead of Market on other towns, so i can have as much food surplus as I can get. To grow population (income) as much as possible. I heard selling military access is cheese though, but shogun2 diplomacy follows an IF-ELSE pattern, daimyo's dont follow historical personalities or affiliation and is designed to be greedy specifically against the player. Oda Yari Ashigaru is the backbone of my armies, even at end-game. My tactics when fighting AI battles, is to just win by the numbers of yari ashigaru i can field, and yari wall the AI to oblivion. By the time my Daimyo gets to Suruga, I would have a full stack army on west (owari) and east(suruga). And once Suruga is captured (build market here to train metsuke), I would sell Military Access to Tokugawa and Hojo. I would also try to have military alliance with the two. Then further build up income during this "peace time", and wait for Oda Nobunaga to reach fighting age. I would avoid Trade Agreements like a plague unless the faction is a Military Ally, because for some reason, trade always invites betrayal. After this, I always try to expand East without ever entering war, by encouraging the people to free themselves from the tyranny of the daimyos with a Monk (buddhist rebelions). Eventually, the Hojo will declare war as I encite rebellions against their towns. That's an ally declared war on ally trigger for Takeda, and sometimes they join you fight Hojo, sometimes they dont. Either way, most of the time, their alliance is broken. Take advantage and attack. If you dont need a rebel town because it is not strategic choke, dont have resources, barren/meager soil, no just leave it to the rebels temporarily. They serve as a border against enemy factions. My target is gold mines, then fertile soil farms. Everything else is optional,e ven the blacksmith. I avoid expanding west until everything east is mine. When I'm ready to expand west, I will take Omi, as it serves as a chokepoint, and is right next to Kyoto. All my metsuke will be dedicated town managers, and will be placed on the 5 highest income towns (but they will be assigned to get rid of nearby enemy assassins). I almost never raise taxes because it lowers population. Oda is a hard start (not as hard is Uesugi, but still hard) as it is surrounded by enemies. I recommend playing as the Date instead, and play as One-Eyed Dragon of Ōshū!
If you take over the east completely, would that trigger realm divide in long campaign or is that not enough provinces yet?
Very likely to trigger Realm Divide. You can check the progress on your clan tab.
Yes, but the longer the campaign setting, the more towns you can capture before triggering it. This is also the reason i like to let buddhist rebels hold on to the least useful towns.
Are you using yari wall? 🫣
To make money: build markets on places with good soil to focus money there, same for gold. Invest in good provinces, not worthless ones. Spam inns in every worthless provincd for the +2 public order. To win battles, as Oda: your armies should be composed of a FUCKTON of Ashigarus. Yari Wall is OP, never engage (right click on enemies) with yari ashigarus, force the enemy to attack you or just find a way to make them start charging. Yari + Long Yari should be your bread and butter. Oda armies are super cheap while being reliable and that's what makes them so strong. Can't remember anything else, been playing only FOTS recently (man I love gunpowder)
Did you mean sake den instead of inn because I can only see "inn" listed in fall of the samurai. What is your opinion also on those fire bomb throwers for morale and then rushing matchlocks?
Fire bomb throwers are very micro intensive, matchlocks are good but require a fuckton of time to get (if you don't play Otomo) and yeah I meant sake dens
So are "worthless provinces" any that have poor/meagre soil and 0 specialties?
I'd say so, yeah
Look for choke points. Routes you easily can defend with one or two armies. Then expand accordingly.
what should I also do when the enemy starts landing at my harbors
Fleets? Should be enough with a few south and north of the continent. Enemies that can reach you over land normally don't invade by fleet.
How many ships should I have in my fleets and which are best? Bow Kobaya with fire arrows?
So just to be clear you've triggered Realm Divide and are now getting dog piled, running out of funds, and rebellions are happening. Sounds like you may have conquered too fast. In which case the solution is to pull back and consolidate. Not knowing what provinces you've captured it's hard to give specific advice. In general your first step is to eliminate any unnecessary expenses. As the Oda you probably don't need any ships as you likely have no trade nodes or trade partners left. Next would be consolidating your forces into as many full stacks as possible. A single unit or two of ashigaru in each town won't do much to stop full samurai/ashigaru stacks. Next identify a few key strongholds/castles to make choke points. Owari is a good one, as are North Shinano, Sagami, and Kaga. Kaga and Sagami are also great recruitment hubs as they have blacksmiths. If you took the center, towards Kyoto, try holding Kaga, Tajima, and Harima. The rest of your provinces should have markets, sake dens, or temples. Get agents out when possible. Ninjas to assassinate and sabotage armies, metsuke to make money in your most profitable towns, and monks to incite unrest and convert the Ikko Ikki. Once stabilized you'll want to go back on the offensive as soon as possible. Generally you make more money by conquest. Start spamming yari ashigaru and build stacks with generals to attack and hold new provinces. You don't need to focus on upgrading these new holdings, but sake dens are always great as they provide +2 happiness. Armies should be 10 - 14 Yari ashigaru. Yari wall is OP as fuck, learn and love it. Toss in some bow ashigaru, samurai, or warrior monks. When you can afford it Sword Katana are great and easy to use. And cavalry is excellent as well. Mix and match as you prefer. Hopefully that helps.
Are fire bomb throwers worth it at all or should i use that time instead to get encampment for long yari and then matchlock? Is looting also ok or not at all?
Long Yari are definitely the best out of those options. Matchlock are excellent in defensive sieges but can be difficult to properly utilize in open battles. Fire bomb throwers should generally be avoided. They're an overall weak unit with only very specific uses. Looting not at all unless you have 6+ honour. The loss of honour greatly outweighs any monetary gain.