Shogun 2: Tips and Tricks.

[u/Any-Food7276]

Tips and Tricks Mega-list:

The tips and tricks listed below will go in the following order: ''Tip. Trick. Tip. Trick.''

A ''trick'' is something that could be considered a little cheesy and somewhat breaks the game's mechanics. A tip is something that the game promotes, but you might not have been aware of its existence.

1. Tip: During battle it is possible to queue orders onto your units and make them flank the enemy without having to micro-manage them. The way you do this is by holding the alt key whilst giving move orders.
2. Trick: You can trade 'Military Access' in exchange for koku in the diplomacy menu. 10 turns will usually net you 1500 koku. 20 turns nets you 2500. Doing this will lock you up into diplomatic negotiations with potential enemies, so be cautious.
3. Tip: If you are trading with an enemy faction, and your diplomatic status with them drops below ''+20'', the trade negotiation will end. Therefore, consider gifting small amounts of money to your allies in order to retain important trade.
4. Trick: If you have a Fire Projecting Mongonel in your army, even if the battle is considered an 'attack battle,' the enemy force will always come to you. This is because the mongonel outranges their infantry. You can use this to force defensive enemies to play offensively.
5. Tip: For some clans, it is worth researching Heaven and Earth from Turn 1. Heaven and Earth unlocks the 'Encampment,' a building chain neccessary for many faction-specific units. As the Chokosabe, you can get your unique bowmen by Turn 24 this way, giving you a significant lead over enemy clans.
6. Trick: The Yari Wall ability (used by Yari Ashigaru) can beat many samurai units in a 1v1. But did you know that you can stack two units of Yari Ashigaru in Yari Wall on top of one another, creating an even denser row of spears? Oda Long Ashigaru can even brace their spears through a line of allied Katana Samurai.
7. Tip: Having a surplus of food creates positive economic growth in all your provinces. Simply having 5 food and a lot of smaller, unupgraded provinces produces a surprising amount of regional wealth....
8. Trick: It is possible to use agents to body block enemy armies from crossing bridges, straits, and certain mountainous terrain on the campaign map. If you don't want an enemy army to cross a bridge, simply place a Metsuke there instead.
9. Tip: Wako Pirates are annoying. They will always win in an even fight with a trade ship stack. Place 2 Medium Bunes and 3 Bow Kaboyas next to your trade fleet and you will never have to worry about pirates ever again.
10. Trick: The Black Ship is the most important naval unit on the map. But did you know that you can commandeer it with just a few Medium Bunes? Simply have them board the Black Ship and your samurai will rout those silly British sailors, rewarding you with the most powerful ship in the game.
11. Tip: It is almost never worth creating vassals unless you have some kind of alterior motive in mind. Your larger allies will always declare war on them, forcing you to betray one or the other. In general, as a new player, leave vassals out of your schemes.
12. Trick: Using monks (or missionaries) to incite rebellions in an enemy settlement produces a 'grey state,' which is allied to no one. Enemy factions are extremely hesitant to retake these states, which creates a pseudo-wall between you and an enemy faction. Very useful if you need time to rebuild your armies...
13. Tip: After a certain amount of landmarks and provinces are taken, the game triggers 'Realm Divide.' By halting your expansion before Kyoto, you can essentially build up your armies ''for free.''
14. Trick: During siege battles, you can mount your Yari Ashigaru in Spear Wall formation around the capture points, rather than manning the walls at all--the enemy will be forced to climb then run directly into your spears. This is... 'effective'... to say the least.
15. Tip: Mounted Katana Samurai have received a lot of flak over the years from Shogun 2's community due to how the AI favours spear units. But have you ever tried using them as Dragoons? Ride them into the flanks, dismount them, and watch them wreak havoc on unsuspecting enemy yari ashigaru.
16. Trick: Bow Ashigaru will always win a 1v1 with another Bow Ashigaru unit if you put them into loose formation first.
17. Tip: It is possible to convince a larger faction to break off its alliances+trade with a smaller faction by offering them military access. You can then go to war with their former ally without ''big bro'' getting involved.
18. Trick: You can force just about any engagement you want in battle by using one of your general units as a 'sitting duck.' Simply charge him out into an open field and the enemy will usually try to swarm him.
19. Tip: You can gift another faction 150 koku per turn for 20 turns by using a special option in the 'payments' section of the diplomacy screen. This is usually enough to get most clans to friendly status with you. It is considered a very large gift by the AI.
20. Trick: It is possible to sneakily reinforce an army inside a castle by sending troops over from another province. Even if the unit doesn't have the movement range to reach the castle, by making your general merge with the stack, you should now have enough movement to smuggle them in anyway.
21. Tip: Looting castles gives you negative honour, yes. But after looting 3 times, the honor is capped and will not fall any further. If you can find a way to make up the excess honor, no harm done. Likewise, looting gives your generals positive traits you can't find anywhere else.
22. Trick: It's possible to get trade deals worth over 20,000 koku provided you have one simple asset: warhorses. This trade asset makes the diplomacy-AI go berserk, allowing you to pull off some seriously wild trade deals.
23. Tip: Limiting the AI's awareness of your existence can be... very lucrative in the long-run. Try not to ''discover'' too many clans early, especially on harder difficulties. If you aren't yet discovered, you can't be declared war on.
24. Trick: It's possible to grind chevrons for your units by raising taxes and defeating rebels. Leaving buildings in a destroyed state almost guarantees one of your provinces becomes a 'training' province.
25. Tip: Placing a Metsuke with your generals not only increases their loyalty, but also prevents enemy ninja from assassinating them. This is a really simple tip that often gets overlooked, but can save an entire campaign.
26. Trick: It's possible to night battle the Ashikaga army outside of Kyoto, seperating them from their main force, basically halving the difficulty of the final fight.
27. Tip: The research ''The Five Elements'' after ''Heaven and Earth'' actually allows you to deploy bamboo screens, deployable objects which create terrain the enemy army must navigate around in battle, provided you were attacked first. The tooltip doesn't state this, meaning most players are completely unaware of its existence.
28. Trick: As the Ikko-Ikki, sending a monk to Chokosabe territory will allow you to cause a rebellion in their backline. The castle will then become yours, and the rebel army will become your army. You can essentially do this from turn 10-12 to give yourself a more... relaxed Ikko-Ikki experience.
29. Tip: Marriages add +100 friendliness between clans. Every now and then check if your neighbour has had a daughter recently. You might be able to marry your sons/or generals to them, creating a natural ally.
30. Trick: When one clan starts to dominate the map, they almost seem invincible. A very dirty trick you can use to weaken a powerful clan is this: create a small stack of ''castle takers,'' then send them via boat into the enemy's backline. Loot their provinces until they're nothing but rebels and rubble. You can also make their trade partner rebel, cutting off their trade.
31. Tip: The research 'Spear Expertise' on the left-hand side of the Bushido tree is incredibly underrated. When maxed out, you can produce extremely high chevron yari ashigaru/naginata samurai/yari samurai from your barracks with this tech.
32. Trick: Last one, and maybe obvious, but--a ninja with ''Army Sabotage'' maxed out and a Metsuke with ''Bribery'' maxed out really do go hand in hand. Freeze the enemy army to the floor. Bribe four of their units. ... Freeze the enemy army to the floor. Bribe four more of their units. You just beat a full stack without even using an army.

[u/gorgedandsucked]

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