Comments and questions from a noob... =)

[unmerged(382404)]

Heyas all. Longtime Paradox player...first time poster. =)

Ive been playing Sengoku the last few days and enjoying learning the new systems and experimenting with different actions etc.

My background with Paradox strategy games is mainly alot of EU3. Ive played a few others but most my time is on EU3 after I spent like 3 days watching tutorial videos on Youtube lol. I bought and tried Pride of Nations but found it too complicated for its own good and the load times were insane.

Anyway...on Sengoku one thing I do like is there is more of a focus on a endgame objective. In EU3 I cant count how many games I started and played for like 5-6 hours then just sorta gave up and lost interest only to start a new game like 2 days later. With Sengoku there is more of a feel to a "Win" strategy to work towards.

The only problem I have with Sengoku is I wish there were more options to really do things other then just build up your honor then attack smallest guy next to you. Rinse and repeat. I mean there is the whole Plot mechanic but Im having a real hard time trying to use it to where it makes sense.

So anyway my questions....

1 - On using plots and marriages I guess. Can someone give me an example of how to use it. Like say Im Nanbu. Im conquering and moving south. I come up against say Uesugi...maybe I want to get perhaps Shiba to help me attack them or something. How just in basic terms do you use the Plotting mechanics and marriages to further this?

2 - When starting a new game with Nanbu (which Im sure several have as I have read on here last few days)... my son who is 4 years old is actually being held I believe by a province south of me. Hows that? What is best way to get him back as he is my primary heir. Ninja action? In 2 different games once they gave him back with no prompting from me....on another game they never did before I gave up on that particular game.

3 - Generally you want to raise your armies (levy's) when your at war but then when not at war release them all so your not paying upkeep yes? Just keep your Rentinue (sorry sp) for a defensive army all the time?

4 - I find myself for long stretches sometimes doing nothing. I have a castle upgrading and a town upgrading....Im not at war. Is there typical things you guys are doing during these periods? I mean I will drop 25g to emperor for Honor...maybe look over my clan and see if everyone is happy etc. But is there any other actions I should be checking and doing that maybe Im missing? Like little tips you guys have of things you are checking etc.


Anyway...thanks. I like the game quite a bit. I wish there was a hair bit more to the plotting mechanics and perhaps non war actions to keep things interesting. But Im sure perhaps some of this will be expanded by comments I see you veterans making. Ill keep the good fight going!!

 

[SlyEcho]

There's always things to do when you're not busy. You could check up on how your children are growing. Decide which son you want as your heir. Whom to marry your daughters to. What your vassals think of you. Check out what your neighbors are doing. Check out their children and vassals and so on.

 

[unmerged(94472)]

To answer #2, hostages that are exchanged to ensure peace are returned automatically after 5 years.

 

[Zan Thrax]

Can you actually choose your heir? I thought it was only the clan heir? I assumed that making a younger son the clan heir would leave me playing as the eldest son as a vassal of my younger brother.

 

[unmerged(169164)]

For point one and marriage, the rules of inheritance should be known. It would help.

It looks rather complicated. Nothing sure, but for example a younger brother can be the heir to an older brother or it looks like something like that.

Now once, I had four sons, I gave five provinces to the middle son, the third was his heir. The second son married and had a son himself who was to inherit. But his father died before he was 16 or something and the uncle inherits two provinces from him and the son only three.

Not sure it is clear but maybe, the younger brother inherits provinces I gave before the middle son had himself an heir.

Whatsoever, the heir to the middle son did not inherit all provinces his father had and the younger brother inherited some provinces as he was the heir to his brother, in spite of his brother having himself a heir.

Bug or inheritance rule?

Another rule reads like property might be moved to the wife's side under certain circumstances and that wifes are released from duties if their husband is killed and a title holder himself.



Getting inheritance rules would help.

 

[SlyEcho]

I am not exactly sure how inheritance works but I distinctly remember being able to make my second son my heir. It may have involved giving him better titles than the first one. Or maybe I was just lucky in that the first son died before he inherited.

 

[Nefaro]

I am not exactly sure how inheritance works but I distinctly remember being able to make my second son my heir. It may have involved giving him better titles than the first one. Or maybe I was just lucky in that the first son died before he inherited.

You can nominate whichever son you want, generally. I dunno if there's even any other requirements than being of the same bloodline. I've nominated my 3rd son, while the other two were still alive, and everything was just fine. Of course, your vassals may want one of your other sons to take clan leader once you're gone and that puts them in the 'pretender' group. So you'll want to keep your vassals happy, as usual, if you want them to support your nomination.

 

[corenoone]

You can nominate whichever son you want, generally. I dunno if there's even any other requirements than being of the same bloodline. I've nominated my 3rd son, while the other two were still alive, and everything was just fine. Of course, your vassals may want one of your other sons to take clan leader once you're gone and that puts them in the 'pretender' group. So you'll want to keep your vassals happy, as usual, if you want them to support your nomination.

You can't nominate a heir if you're not the clan leader though. This seems kinda dumb to me.

 

[Ritzzz]

So anyway my questions....

1 - On using plots and marriages I guess. Can someone give me an example of how to use it. Like say Im Nanbu. Im conquering and moving south. I come up against say Uesugi...maybe I want to get perhaps Shiba to help me attack them or something. How just in basic terms do you use the Plotting mechanics and marriages to further this?

2 - When starting a new game with Nanbu (which Im sure several have as I have read on here last few days)... my son who is 4 years old is actually being held I believe by a province south of me. Hows that? What is best way to get him back as he is my primary heir. Ninja action? In 2 different games once they gave him back with no prompting from me....on another game they never did before I gave up on that particular game.

3 - Generally you want to raise your armies (levy's) when your at war but then when not at war release them all so your not paying upkeep yes? Just keep your Rentinue (sorry sp) for a defensive army all the time?

4 - I find myself for long stretches sometimes doing nothing. I have a castle upgrading and a town upgrading....Im not at war. Is there typical things you guys are doing during these periods? I mean I will drop 25g to emperor for Honor...maybe look over my clan and see if everyone is happy etc. But is there any other actions I should be checking and doing that maybe Im missing? Like little tips you guys have of things you are checking etc.

1. Well a few basic things to note when it comes to plotting are:
a. how well people like the plotter and the target of the plot. If every likes the target of the plot, then it can be extremely hard to find plotters. And how well people like each other depends on the diplo stat. Marriages can help by boosting the relations between you and potential plotters.
b. honour of the target of the plot. If the target has high honour (>75), it will be extremely hard to find plotters. That's where a constant stream ninja attacks to lower the target's honour helps.
c. The size of the target. If the smaller the target is compared to you, the harder it is to find plotters. And if you are the biggest kid on the block, forget about plotting, as no one will want to help you get even bigger. Instead, the AI will want to plot against you.
d. How much honour the potential plotters have. If they have low-ish honour (<35-40), it is unlikely that they want to join any plot.
In fact, the 'invite to plot' interface introduced in patch 1.2 allows easy viewing of who may/will join your plot and their reason for not doing so. Many a times should you be not able to plot, you might just have to wait a bit for potential plotters' honour to grow or for your high diplo heir to take over.

2. As mentioned by HBernstein, your son is held as a hostage for a 5 year period. He will be returned once this 5 year period expires.

3. Early - Mid game, you will be fighting mainly with levies. During this stage, you can focus your retinue as:
a. a cavalry-heavy force as a army killer
b. a ashigaru-heavy to act as a seige-assistance force
c. a arquebusier-heavy force to act as both army-killer and seige-assistance
d. mixed force depending on your needs
The main thing to remember with retinues is that they can regenerate wherever they are and thus have huge staying power. Then for late game, a 10-20k retinue force will be your main army with levies as more of a supporting role, eg blocking a strategic choke point, beating your vassals to seiges etc.

4. Well the main thing I do is to identify which clan has the biggest potential to reach 50%. Normally this is the currently biggest clan available (eg Hojo, Miyoshi in 1551 start date). Once I have identified the clan, I will be on a constant lookout for ninjas to constantly ninja away his honour, so that the clan will have no opportunity to get any bigger. Other than that, I normally keep a lookout at neighbouring clans for my next invasion plan, which I mostly plan based on capturing kunis so that I can get my children to become daimyos.

 

[unmerged(382404)]

Thanks for the great response Ritzzz and everyone else. Been playing the game more and figuring out things as I go. I am still doing a Let's Play series (as the Osaki) right now. Thus far have not got into a plotting situation yet (except for a slightly humorous one that I found out against me in my latest Part 7 video Im posting up today). Mainly just trying to stabilize the immediate area around my borders right now. As the Osaki right now Im in the situation early on of having to deal with the Nanbu that is about to go into a royal rumble.

Again thanks for the responses.