Kunitori Zunou Battle ~ Nobunaga no Yabou Rules & Strategy Guide ====================== Alan Kwan 10 Sep 2009 ====================== version 1.22 ------------ This document is a detailed guide explaining the rules of the game (which are not very well documented either in the instruction booklet or the in-game tutorials) plus offering some hints on general strategy. Because this is supposed to be a strategy game, this document does not contain a stage-by-stage walkthrough of the scenario mode. While many players find this game difficult, the real difficulty lies in the unusual game rules, which render orthodox wargame tactics ineffective. Thus, I suggest that the player studies this guide, and practice with the war mode; with better playing skill and familiarity with the game, one will be able to see the path to victory. (One's strategy depends somewhat on the random generals he pulls, so I won't dictate the strategy here.) This doucment's copyright is owned by me. Unauthorized use, except for strictly non-commercial, personal use, is prohibited. Please e-mail corrections and additions to: mailto:[email protected] Version History --------------- 21 July 2008 v1.0 23 July v1.1 added section 8.1 24 July v1.2 corrected section 8.1 2 Aug v1.21 updated section 11.0 10 Sep 2009 v1.22 updated section 8.1 plus other small changes Table of Contents ----------------- * 1.0 Review * 2.0 Game Modes ** 2.1 War Mode * 3.0 Building Your Army ** 3.1 Army Composition Tips * 4.0 Game Flow ** 4.1 Victory Conditions ** 4.2 The Reckoning *** 4.2.1 Alliance * 5.0 Combat Sequence ** 5.1 Attacking a Castle ** 5.2 Attacking in Waves * 6.0 Terrain ** 6.1 Castles: the Central Terrain in the game *** 6.1.1 Tips against a Strongly Defended Castle * 7.0 The Reserve ** 7.1 Strategy Tips on Using the Reserve * 8.0 Skills ** 8.1 Algorithm for Skill Roll * 9.0 Class * 10.0 Levels and Experience * 11.0 Acquiring Generals * 12.0 Tips for Scenario Mode * 1.0 Review: Nobunaga under German Influence ---------------------------------------------- Although this game has "Nobunaga no Yabou" (Nobunaga's Ambition) in its title, the game play is very unlike previous games in that series. It is not a grand, complex, long strategy game at all. Rather, the style is rather close to a German designer board game, with moderately simple (and innovative) rules and a short playing time of around 30 minutes per stage. Another way of looking at it is as a turn-based version of /Sangokushi Taisen/. The influence from Sangokushi Taisen is very visible. At the start of a stage, you select the units (generals) you'll be using in the battle, and the selection is constrained by a point system. You then move your units around on a map, from point to point along roads, to capture territory. Defeated units must sit out for a couple of turns, and then will come back into play. Each unit is of one of three troop types (infantry, cavalry, and gunners), and has a force rating. Plus, most generals have a special skill, and some generals even have a powerful global-effect "trump card". The economic system is very simple, and there is no micro-management. Each turn all you do is move each unit (you may have up to 8) one space, and occasionally play a trump card. Movement is done by simply dragging the unit, so controls are very simple and intuitive. After hitting the "Go" icon, all movement and combat will be resolved automatically. Thus, game turns zip through very fast. In order to make an interesting game with this level of simplicity, the game has adpoted some unusual mechanisms, the most remarkable being the combat system. In many war simulation games, each friendly unit in battle attacks and does damage against some enemy unit. However, in this game, only /one/ friendly unit attacks and damages /every/ enemy unit in the battle. In other words, the attacking power of your side is not proportional to the number of friendly units, but instead is proportional to the number of enemy units! The number or force of friendly units will not increase the damage one does to the enemy, unless the attackers have a larger total force than the defenders, in which case the defenders are immediately routed and get no chance to strike back. This unusual combat system means that, while a larger force does have its advantages, it is possible for a smaller army to beat a larger one; this releases the game from the slow economic build-up typical in Koei-style war simulations, and replaces that with fast-paced tactical maneuver topped with some guesswork (you need to predict how your enemies are moving, since all commands are entered before any unit moves). The combat system is rather unrealistic for a simulation, but is rather /fun/ for a game. This is a game about strategic positioning and tactical out-maneuvering, not about economic build-up like the vast majority of simulation wargames (whether turn-based or real-time); for this reason the game is seldom a foregone conclusion, and dramatic comebacks are often possible. The combat system is not the only place where the game boldly tries to do something in the right way. Just like in Sakura Taisen, you can collect generals. But instead of relying on luck to get the rare ones and avoid duplicates, this game just gives you points with which to purchase them. You can choose which rareity level to buy, but rare ones cost a lot more. And, oh great, you'll never get a duplicate! When one gets to think about it, there is no good reason why an electronic card game ever has to give you duplicate cards; I can't understand why other games have not been doing this before. Another issue with electronic card games is that, either the cards themselves do not level up and always stay the same, or they do and that ruins the game balance and hurts its variety (by encouraging the player to always stick to the same cards all the time, and making it hard to try new cards since they are initially weak). This game does have a level up system (or rather, three) for the generals, and it manages to be satisfying without ruining the game balance. First, by spending money (or more importantly, up to the limit enabled by the number of production facilities you control), you can increase the force of your generals until the end of the stage. This is more part of the economic system than the level-up system of the generals, though. Second, when your generals fight, they advance in "class" which will greatly boost their attack power; however, this doesn't increase their defense, so they're still vulnerable, and as this doesn't last beyond the current stage, it is fair and gives no advantage to level grinding. Third, your generals gain experience and level-up after a stage. The first one or two levels can be acquired quickly, and are probably the most important; while high levels do give some advantage, the advantage is subtle and is not decisive like those in Pokemon or such. Also, another unusual system to control the luck factor in the game is that, while skills work on percentages, you know whether they will work or not beforehand, when entering the commands for your units. The new player is also helped by the starter generals: each nation starts with a good array of generals which are rather decent (unlike some games which give you rubbish starters). All these together try to pit the players against each other in a battle of wits (as the game title says), a contest of skill and double-guessing with the luck factor being very much under control, instead of merely a demonstration to see which player has wasted the most time to get the most rare cards or to grind the highest levels. It appears that the makers of the game know its strength; they even portray the units as round-based chess pieces, instead of soldiers standing on two or four (for cavalry) legs, in order to convey the image that the selling point of the game is its board game style game play, and not as a typical Koei heavy simulation game. However, the marketing department seems to differ in opinion, so this game is given a name which is too long (and, despite being in fact literally descriptive, looks like a quiz game title unfortunately) and has "Nobonaga no Yabou" in it, even though the game clearly targets a different kind of players from the fans of the series. This is perhaps the reason why this excellent and highly playable game is receiving mixed reviews, gets underrated, and perhaps isn't selling well, as some fans of the Nobunaga series look down on it as a low-quality spin-off produced cheaply to cheat gamers of their money, while players who would have liked this game are scared away by the Nobunaga label. * 2.0 Game Modes ----------------- At the top menu, the four choices are play game, player info, generals data, and settings. In the "play game" sub-menu there are a single player mode, a wireless vs. mode (which supports both multi-cart and single-cart download play), and a WIFI vs. mode. A fourth mode allows you to buy new generals with fame points. The single player mode has two modes under it: scenario mode and war mode. Scenario mode allows you to play the story of four of the daimyo, but initially only one (Nobunaga) is available. The early Nobunaga scenarios serve as the tutorial. War mode allows you to play alone against the AI players with the standard war setup (i.e. the vs. play rules). It becomes available after clearing a certain scenario in Nobunaga's story. ** 2.1 War Mode ---------------- In war mode, you first select a map, and then select which rules set to use. The "light" rules set plays for only 15 turns, and victory is primarily decided by the number of castles one controls. The "normal" rules (30 turns) and the "full length" rules (50 turns) are both decided by income. You can also choose to use historical or random starting locations. With random starting locations, each player daimyo as well as each non-player nation will start in a random castle (and hence, which castles will be empty is also random). In vs. play, there is also a time limit for each turn. There are two sets of maps: local-area maps, and grand-scale maps. You unlock more maps by clearing certain stages in scenario mode. War mode (and vs. play) is in fact the main mode of the game. The fame point efficiency is in general much better than scenario mode. You want to clear the scenario mode to unlock maps and earn specific generals, but the scenario mode is not designed to be repeatedly playable. Of course you are free to replay a stage to revise the history lesson or to investigate different strategies for that stage, but playing scenario mode to farm fame points is generally more work (for the results) than war mode. * 3.0 Building Your Army ------------------------- At the start of a stage, you put together your army. The total cost of the generals you may include is limited by the stage. You may freely include units of your choice within the cost limit. You may have a maximum of 7 units besides your daimyo. The daimyo has high force, and a special trump card and skill (often unique ones). He is also represented on the map by a special chess piece. Other than these, however, the daimyo functions just like any other unit; there are no special penalties for getting your daimyo defeated, for example. In some stages in scenario mode, you play with a fixed army, so you do not build your army. ** 3.1 Army Composition Tips ----------------------------- If you are playing scenario mode and you know what you are going up against, you can optimize your army accordingly. For example, some enemies have only two types in their armies, exposing a serious weakness for you to exploit. When fighting against human opponents or against random AI players, there are several things to consider when building your army. First, you may want to include certain trump cards or certain skills. Trump cards are very powerful, but they can be used only once, so it is important to use them at the right timing. Some skills are very useful, and there are also the "stealth" skills (Lockpick and Flood Attack) which enable you to cheaply steal undefended castles. There is also the choice of using few big units or more smaller units. Big units tend to have better skills and trump cards, while with more units, you'll either have more skills or a larger total force (since each unit with no skill has one more force than its cost). In battle, a swarm of small units can each strike individually for more damage, but they themselves will take more damage when struck at. Strategically, having more units allows you to cover a wider front, and a surplus unit can be sent off to capture undefended territory. During the reckoning, having more units gives you the option to buy more force points cheaply, and also allows you to build up a larger total force eventually. On the other hand, small units are defeated easily, and a unit needs sustained survival in order to build up its class, which is perhaps the strongest power-up element in this game. Then there is the choice of unit types. In order to cover any weaknesses, it is best to have a good balance of the three types; a mixed group of units tend to be the strongest defenders since they always strike back for double damage when attacked. However, since only units of the same type may move and attack together, being evenly split makes it difficult for you to put together enough force to rout the defenders and to capture castles. Considering the various issues above, a build I would recommend is to focus on a rout force made up of a concentration of units of the same type, supported by smaller forces in other types. Since the main force aims to rout the enemy, it should consist of a few big units (usually including the daimyo, since most of them have a great attack skill) so as to minimize the loss of effectiveness when being struck at. The primary support type is the type which is weak against the main force, since that is the type which is in turn stronger against the type which the main force is weak against. (For example, if your main force is gunners, the primary support type is cavalry, since they are strong against infantry, the type which would give your gunners trouble.) The purpose of support units is to strike to weaken/defeat enemy units, so their strength is in their numbers, and it is preferable to use low force units for their higher initiative. Such two-type army composition gives you the best chance of capturing a castle while acting first (with a lower total force) before the castle defenders. Your army should then be rounded out with a mix of units as appropriate for the map and cost limit; a medium-force unit in the third type is probably a good idea for defense. Of course, the above is just my playing style, and you should feel free to try out other builds. * 4.0 Game Flow ---------------- The game is played in turns; each turn represents a month of simulated time. Each turn consists of a command phase and a move phase. At the beginning of each turn, you first receive income, and units occupying healing locations heal. In the command phase, you give commands to your units, but they do not act yet until the move phase. A unit may move one space each turn; just drag it to the destination. Units of the same type (infantry, cavalry, or gunners) on the same space can be moved together by dragging the unit on the map, or can be moved individually by dragging the unit from the unit list at the bottom. The latter is very important when you want each unit to make a seperate attack, in order to do more strike damage. (It makes no difference if they are not attacking.) A unit at a castle can be sent to the reserve, and ready units in reserve can be deployed onto any (friendly or allied) castle. After all players have finished entering commands, the move phase begins in which all commands are executed. First, all trump cards take effect. Then, the acting order is determined for all spaces. The spaces act in *ascending order of the total force* in the space, counting all allies and castle defense. (Note that the order is determined according to the force total at the moment right after trump cards take effect, but before any units act.) Ties are broken randomly. Among units on the same space, units (or groups of units moving together) act in ascending force order. Units are deployed at a castle when it is the castle's turn to act. In this game, it is usually advantageous to be the attacker. So when opposing units are adjacent, it is usually important to go first. It is sometimes possible, with the right army of a smaller total force than a castle's defenses, to conquer the castle before the castle can act (i.e. before any units in the castle can counter-attack, ane before any further reinforcements can be deployed). On the other hand, when opposing units are one space apart, it is usually advantages to go second, so that when both sides attempt to enter the same space, the side acting second will attack the units which enter first. (An obvious exception is when both sides compete to be the first to enter a castle.) Because you do not know how your opponents will move when you enter your commands, guesswork is often called for. For example, consider the case where you have a larger force but of the weaker type two spaces away from the enemy. If you predict that the enemy will advance, you can order your units to attack and rout them; but if you guess wrong and the enemy stays put, you will be struck at when the enemy moves first next turn. ** 4.1 Victory Conditions -------------------------- In war mode, the victory condition is either castles or income. The game ends when someone has met the sudden death victory conditions at the end of a turn, or when the full number of game turns have been played. At that point, the player who has the most castles or income (whichever being the victory condition in effect) wins. Note that sudden death victory conditions are checked only at the end of a turn. (For example, if you capture some territory which puts your income above the threshold, but then lose some territory in the same turn, you do not win the game yet.) If the victory condition is castles, ties are broken by income. Income means the total income of the territory you control, not your current gold holdings. You can improve your income by spending gold to strengthen your castles. But you cannot strengthen a castle if that would raise your income to meet the victory condition. In scenario mode, if income is one of the victory conditions and you have already met it, then you cannot strengthen any castles at all. In scenario mode, each stage has its own set of victory conditions, and all must be met (and *maintained*) in order to clear the scenario. Just like in war mode, victory conditions are checked only at the end of a turn. If the number of game turns expire, you lose. Each nation must have at least one castle. A nation which loses its last castle is defeated immediately. Note that this is checked anytime, not just at the end of a turn. If you are defeated this way in the one-player modes (scenario mode and war mode), you get a "game over" and receive no experience or fame for the stage. In vs. play, a human player who is defeated becomes a subordinate of its conqueror instead. ** 4.2 The Reckoning --------------------- Once every six turns, a reckoning takes place instead of the normal turn. (In other words, there are five normal turns between two reckonings.) At the beginning of a reckoning month, you collect income but there is no (castle/port) healing. (You will heal normally at the beginning of the next turn after the reckoning.) Then each player may carry out three kinds of operations: increase units' force, strengthen castles, and propose an alliance. You can increase your units' maximum force capacity by paying money. The first force point increase you buy for each unit costs 20 gold; the second point for a unit costs 40 gold, the third one 60, and so on. You are also limited to a number of improvments per reckoning for each unit type according to the number of towns (for infantry), gunsmiths (for gunners), and horse farms (for cavalry) respectively you currently control. The latter is usually the real limit, as you will usually have enough gold to pay for all your unit improvements, unless you insist on piling up all your improvements on the same unit instead of spreading out evenly. (Piling up, though, would indeed give you a stronger army in general.) Your improvement allowances are lost if not used; they cannot be saved for use in a future reckoning. Each unit is limited to a maximum number of force point improvements, depending on its level. You also spend money to strengthen your castles. The cost is 10 times the improved strength of the castle. (For example, strengthening a castle from 3 to 4 costs 40 gold.) Max castle defense is 9. Stronger castles are very useful, because most units can only capture a castle weaker than itself, so you don't even have to station any defending units if the opponent doesn't attack with enough force. However, you must be very careful about certain skills (and also trump cards) which make exceptions, most notably Lockpick and Flood Attack. If you lose a castle after strengthening it, your effort makes it that much harder for you yourself to recapture it! You can also propose an alliance to another player. If the target player is also proposing an alliance to you, then the alliance is automatically successful. If the target player is proposing an alliance to a third player, your proposed alliance fails automatically. Otherwise, the target player may freely choose whether to accept the alliance or not. The reckoning counts as a turn against the number of turns remaining in the game. But it does not count as a turn for sitting out in the reserve. On the turn just before a reckoning, you should pay special attention to capturing and defending production facilities, since they count towards your improvement allowance only if you control them during the reckoning. *** 4.2.1 Alliance ------------------- Allies will not attack each other, but can pass through allied units and territories. Also, units can enter the reserve from an allied castle, and most importantly can be deployed from one. Units can heal normally on an allied castle or port. Your allies are indicated by a circular border of your own color around allied territory. Allies can defend a space together, and can conveniently jointly attack a space, but they move seperately and hence cannot combine their force into one big attack (for routing the enemy). Also, allied players do not share their gold nor their force improvement capacity. In war mode, an alliance lasts until the next reckoning. If not renewed, the alliance will end and all units now on hostile territory will be sent to the reserve (and be ready for deployment after sitting out one turn). This will also happen if an ally is defeated by losing all his castles. In scenario mode, story events may change alliances. * 5.0 Combat Sequence ---------------------- When units try to enter a space occupied by enmey units or castle, combat occurs. Combat is resolved by the following step-by-step procedure: 1. Rout: If the total attacking force is greater than the total defending force (a castle adds its defense value to the defenders' force), all defending units are immediately defeated, and the attackers conquer the contested space with no losses. If the attacking force is smaller or equal, proceed to step 2. 2. Strike: If the defenders are not routed, each side makes one strike, and then the attackers retreat. Although the game shows the attackers striking first, striking is effectively simultaneous: any defending units reduced to 0 force still gets a chance to strike before being defeated. 3. Strike damage: Each side strikes with /only/ their single most effective unit, against /every/ enemy unit in the battle. The number of units or their force has *no effect* on strike damage. Strike damage is modified only by class, troop types, and certain skills. After both sides strike, units reduced to 0 force are defeated. Class: The base damage a unit inflicts when striking is equal to its class. (A unit builds up its class by fighting repeatedly without being defeated.) Troop types: Cavalry is strong against infantry, infantry is strong against gunners, and gunners are strong against cavalry. The stronger type inflicts double damage. The weaker type inflicts zero damage. (Note: Having units of the stronger type does not protect you from *routing* at all.) Castle: If the defenders of a castle are all of the weaker type, the "inherent castle defense" strikes in their stead for 1 damage. Example: You attack a stack of three force 4 infantry units with a force 6 infantry. Since the defenders have the larger force (12 to 6), they are not routed and we proceed to striking. One of the defenders is class 2, and all other units are class 1. You strike and do 1 damage to each defending unit (hence 3 damage total). The class 2 defender strikes and does 2 damage to your unit. We can see that, having more units confers no advantage in striking; in fact, it is disadvantageous since every unit will be struck at. 4. Retreat: The attackers always retreat after strikes are exchanged, even if the defenders are wiped out by the strike. The attackers can conquer the space only if they rout the defenders by attacking with a larger force. Important exception: Certain daimyo's skills (such as Nobunaga's "Triple Shot") allows one's army to "attack twice". After the defenders are weakened by the first strike, it is possible for the daimyo's army to rout the defenders if they have the greater force at that point. If the defenders are routed, they do not strike back. To skip battle animations, you can click on the touch screen. You can also hold down L or R button during the move phase to skip battle animations. However, for novice players it is recommended that they watch the animations carefully, so as to learn how the combat system and the skills work. ** 5.1 Attacking a Castle -------------------------- You can always walk into a neutral (uncontrolled) castle. But against an enemy-controlled castle (even an empty castle not defended by any units), you can capture it only with a force greater than the castle defense. Striking does no damage to the castle itself. If you attack a castle with no defending units, you simply compare your force against the castle's defense. If your force is greater, you capture the castle. If not, the "inherent castle defense" strikes at you for 1 damage, and then you retreat. If you attack a castle defended by units, combat is resolve according to the procedure explained above. ** 5.2 Attacking in Waves -------------------------- When attacking for the purpose of striking (you don't have enough force to rout the defenders), it is not effective to attack with many units at once, since you'll get only one strike at the defenders, while all your units will be struck at once. Instead, you should move each unit seperately to attack. This way, each unit will get its own strike. This tactic is taught in chapter 7 of Nobunaga's scenario. * 6.0 Terrain -------------- The various terrain types have different effects: Road - no special effect; 1 income Sea Route - no special effect; 0 income Castle - can deploy units; its income also serves as its defense value; occupants heal 1 force per turn; can be strengthed by spending gold Town - enables +1 more infantry force increase during reckoning; increases infantry units' skills by 5%; often higher income (Note: the skill bonus for towns, horse farms and gunsmiths apply globally to all friendly units of the corresponding type on the map. So you still want to keep these locations even after you have maxed out your force.) Horse Farm - enables +1 more cavalry force increase during reckoning; increases cavalry units' skills by 5% Gunsmith - enables +1 more gunner force increase during reckoning; increases gunner units' skills by 5% Gold Mine - very high income (If the victory condition is income, gold mines are very important.) Westerners - very high income Port - units heal 1 force per turn Temple - protects occupants from damage caused by typhoons and trump cards; usually higher income ** 6.1 Castles: the Central Terrain in the game ------------------------------------------------ The most important terrain type in this game is the castles. Your units can heal in them. They have a defense value which allows you to protect both your units and the castle itself. You can also enter reserve and, most importantly, deploy your units at a castle. A castle gives you control in the nearby area: any defeated units can be redeployed at the castle, and you can quickly ship reinforcements to the castle if you need. It is very difficult to hold spaces if the enemy controls the nearby castles; you will be driven away sooner or later. Castles are also crucial for the victory conditions (except for a very few scenarios), regardless of whether they are an explicit victory condition or not. If the victory condition is gold income, castles have high income, and they help you hold nearby spaces. Also, a nation is defeated when it loses all its castles. By conquering a nation's last castle, you immediately gain control of all its other spaces. Your real standing is largely defined by the castles you hold; in contrast, Gold mines are important only if you can keep them (i.e. you own the nearby castle), or if you are actually winning immediately (or preventing someone else from winning) with them. Thus, most of your efforts should be directed towards taking and holding castles. March towards a castle only if you have enough force to conquer it; if you don't, put your troops to use elsewhere. Learn to defend a castle using just enough troops: if they hold the castle long enough to reduce the enemy's force (of each type) to equal to or below the castles's defense value, the enemy cannot conquer the castle (unless they have certain special skills) and will have to withdraw. You don't need enough troops to actually defeat the attackers (unless you really have troops to spare). For example, the enemy is attacking your castle (force 4) with one infantry (force 6) and one cavalry (force 4). You deploy a force 4 gunner there to defend. All units are class 1, and no unit has any relevant skills. Now, even though the enemy has force 10 against yor force 8, and even though they have an infantry (and a bigger one) against your gunner, they cannot capture the castle as long as you don't attack. Because the two enemy units are of different types, they cannot combine into one attack to rout you. The cavalry cannot do any damage against your gunner, and cannot capture the castle by itself, so you can just ignore it completely. Say the infantry attacks you once and strikes for two damage. Next turn, you heal back 1 so you're at 3 force. The infantry strikes again, reducing you to 1 force. But at this point, the infantry has already been hit by the inherent castle defense twice, so it is at 4 force - not enough to capture the castle any more. You can even send your gunner to reserve next turn, so that it does not die needlessly. Consider a similar case, but the enemy is attacking with a force 6 cavalry and a force 4 infantry. In this case, you must counter-attack even though this will cause your gunner to be defeated. With just one strike, you reduce the cavalry to force 4, so it becomes unable to capture your castle. But if you don't attack, the enemy infantry can keep weakening you, until the enemy cavalry routs you on the second turn. *** 6.1.1 Tips against a Strongly Defended Castle -------------------------------------------------- Sometimes an enemy (especially the AI) will sit all his troops inside a castle, especially if that is his last one. There are several things you can do against this situation: - Storm the castle: With the right army, sometimes supported with the right skills or trump card, you can assault the castle and capture it. However, attacking a castle unsuccessfully, without actually capturing it, will cost you valuable time and units, and should be avoided. - Flanking: If you can attack the castle from two or more different spaces, you can use lots of units while still keeping the initiative (move first before the defenders every turn). Be careful that you put enough force in each space so that they don't get routed. - Leave it alone: In many situations, ignoring that castle and switching to other targets would allow you to win the game easier. - Train your troops: You may want to leave it alone for now and come back later with higher class units. High class units help greatly when attacking a castle. - Divide and conquer: Sometimes if you leave it alone, the defenders will move around, and you can then defeat them piecemeal, or capture the castle when the defenders are away. Against the AI, this may or may not work, but against a human player, since he will always lose the game if he just sits in his castle permanently, he is in a sense forced to come out. * 7.0 The Reserve ------------------ Units at a (friendly or allied) castle can voluntarily enter the reserve. The unit sits out for the next turn, and then on the turn after that can be deployed at *any* friendly or allied castle. A unit is always deployed with its full force. (A unit boosted by the "Miracle Light" trump card will not lose its overpowered state when it enters the reserve.) In other words, it takes three moves total for a unit to enter and exit the reserve. Thus, if you want to move to a castle three spaces away, you'll arrive on the same turn whether you move on the map or through the reserve. If the destination castle is four or more spaces away, using the reserve will get you there faster. If a unit is defeated (by being routed, by its force reduced to 0, or by certain skills), it is sent to the reserve, but will sit out for two turns and can be deployed three turns later. ** 7.1 Strategy Tips on Using the Reserve ------------------------------------------ The reserve is very important for healing and also for redeployment. When using reserve to move instead of moving on the map, you can choose the location of deployment at the last minute. This is useful more often than it sounds! In the majority of cases where you are moving to a castle three spaces away or waiting to heal three force points, using the reserve will turn out to be the wiser choice. In many Japanese-style war simulation games such as Advanced War, movement is slow so you want to deploy (produce) your units as soon as possible. However, the reserve deployment in this game totally breaks this custom, so the player needs to change his mode of thinking. In many situations, it is better to hold a unit in reserve even though it is ready for deployment: you may want to see how your opponents move, or you may want to deploy at a castle you'll soon capture, or you may want to protect the deployed unit from damage by dispatching surrounding enemy units first (especialy high-class enemy units of the superior type). Having a unit in reserve ready for deployment any moment is often a useful asset - just like having a piece in reserve in Shogi. The rule of thumb is that, if you can't state a good purpose the unit will serve for you by deploying it, it is probably better to hold the unit in reserve. A unit deployed at a castle will defend that castle, but a unit in reserve can be deployed any moment to defend /any/ castle which is threatened. * 8.0 Skills ------------- The majority of generals have a skill. Most skills are either attack skills or defense skills. Attack skills and defense skills take effect in battle, when attacking or defending respectively. There is also the "Monk" skill which works outside combat: the skill allows a unit to heal while in a Temple. Most skills work with a certain percentage. Unlike most games in which the "random dice roll" is made at the moment the skill takes effect, in this game the dice roll is made at the beginning of the turn. When you enter the commands for your units, you can see which of your own units have succeeded their skill rolls: such units have the corresponding skill icon displayed with them. For those units, their skills will certainly take effect on that turn, and for a defense skill, it will certainly take effect /every/ time the unit is attacked on that turn. When you have many units in a space, only one unit may have its skill activated. Skills which always work (Lockpick and Monk) are not displayed here. Note that you cannot see whether /enemy/ units have succeeded their skill rolls until the move phase begins. You can increase the success percentage by increasing the general's level (5% for every 2 levels above level 1) or class (10% for every class above 1), or by controlling more production facilities (5% for each corresponding facility). ** 8.1 Algorithm for Skill Roll -------------------------------- When multiple units with percentage skills occupy a space, at most only one of those units can have its skill activated for the turn. This is determined by the following algorithm: 1. Choose the unit with the highest skill success percentage in the space. (Ties are broken randomly.) 2. The chosen unit makes its skill roll. 3. If it succeeds, that skill becomes activated. Done. 4. If it fails, go back to step 1 and pick the unit with the next highest skill success percentage, until a unit succeeds or all units have failed. * 9.0 Class ------------ A unit's class determines its base strike damage: class 1 units do 1 damage, class 2 units do 2 damage, and class 3 units do 3 damage. Higher class also significantly increases the unit's skill percentage, by 10% for class 2 and 20% for class 3. A unit gradually advances in class as it fights. A unit's class is reset when it is defeated. Class may also be increased or decreased with certain trump cards. In war mode, all units begin as class 1. In scenario mode, some units may begin at a higher class. Certain events may also change some units' class. Class is very important, as a unit does double damage at class 2. Especially when attacking a castle, your units' class is often a decisive factor, since if you don't wear down the defenders fast enough, they'll keep healing and then defeated units will revive. Thus it is important to send high-class units to reserve instead of losing them needlessly. Daimyo with double-attack skills (e.g. Nobunaga), especially, become a lot stronger at a higher class. * 10.0 Levels and Experience ----------------------------- When you clear a stage in scenario mode (win only), or when you finish war mode (whether win or lose, but not game over), each unit you used in the stage gains 2 experience. When a unit accumulates experience, it gains levels, which raise the maximum capacity its force can be increased during the reckoning, and also increase its skill success percentage. level EXP required max # of force ups skill bonus 1 0 2 0% 2 4 3 0% 3 10 3 5% 4 30 4 5% 5 60 4 10% 6 100 5 10% It is very useful to raise a unit to level 2, so that it can get the third force up. For units which have a percentage skill, level 3 can also be attained relatively quickly for the +5% skill bonus. (For units without a skill or with a non-percentage skill, they gain nothing for the 3rd level.) Further levels take longer, and also more force capacity is less important, since they get to be used even later in the game, and they also cost more money to buy. Thus I recommend that you just play and enjoy the game, without getting too obsessed with levelling units above level 2 or 3. (Units which you use a lot will level up naturally.) Even the advantage of the skill bonus isn't that big; the effect of class up is much bigger. * 11.0 Acquiring Generals -------------------------- Each daimyo has his private house of starter generals. These starter generals cannot be used by other daimyo. Some of these are quite good, better than the average common general. When you clear a stage in scenario mode (win only), or when you finish war mode (whether win or lose, but not game over), you will receive fame points. With these, you can buy new generals. Common generals cost 2 fame, uncommon ones cost 15 fame, and rare generals cost a hefty 50 fame each. There is significant quality difference between rarity levels: rarer generals tend to carry better skills and trump cards, or they may have higher force. Nevertheless, common generals are useful for filling your army with good raw force units, since all generals which have neither skill nor trump card always have a force one higher than their cost. I recommend that you start your collection by buying several common generals, since some daimyo have a lack of low-cost generals in their starters. Once you have a few of them in each type, you can start saving up for uncommons and rares. Fame point income chart: (1P) War mode (regardless of map) Quick rules = 4-3-?-? Normal rules = 5-4-?-? Full length rules = 7-5-?-? Scenario mode final stage for each daimyo's story = 10 fame other stages = difficulty level It costs 2009 fame to buy all the generals. That is a lot, but you don't really need them all anyway; you can put together a very competitive army with just a few rares and several uncommons. I recommend that you just play and enjoy the game, buying generals as you collect fame points doing so; getting too obsessed with collecting generals, or even using cheats, would defeat the purpose of playing. On some maps, some nations have a clear starting advantage with the historical setup, and you can exploit that for farming fame points, if you don't get bored with that quickly; I myself prefer to play with random setup on various maps, because that's more fun to play. You can also earn some generals by progressing in scenario mode. These can be used by any daimyo, unlike starter generals. * 12.0 Tips for Scenario Mode ------------------------------ If you find your progress in scenario mode blocked somewhere, here are some tips: - Focus on the victory conditions: It is usually not worth the time and effort conquering a nation which is unrelated to the victory conditions. It is also often not worthwhile to defend your territory, if that is unrelated to the victory conditions. (You need just one castle to survive; no need to keep more.) - Conquering a nation: If the victory conditions require that you conquer a certain nation, you should focus on that, starting with your army composition. (Don't build an evenly spread 3-type army, which is great for defense but ineffective for attack.) In this case, you will have to defend your castles from the target nation. Note that since the nation cannot conquer its allies' castles, there is no need to defend your castles from its allies; also, sometimes you should avoid conquering its allies' castles, unless they are directly in your way to the target nation. But sometimes it is better to defeat its weak allies so that they cannot help with defense. - Don't cry over spilt milk: Always play your best move according to the current position, rather than stubbornly trying to recover something which went wrong. The AI players cannot feel your emotions and are not deterred by your tit-for-tat style play, so there is no need to play that style. For example, if you paid gold to strengthen a castle but then someone took it from you cheaply, try to resist the urge to take the castle back, unless that is objectively your best move from the current position. - Keep playing: Because the setup for scenario mode is fixed, you should study the enemy carefully to see how to beat them. If you get beaten once, you should be able to use your knowledge to prevail in the second or third attempt. If you feel too much frustration with repeated defeat, switch to playing war mode for a while: not only do you get fame points and experience, you also improve your general playing skill which makes the greatest difference. END OF DOCUMENT
© Web Media Network Limited, 1999 - 2024 This site is not affiliated in any way with Microsoft, Sony, Sega, Nintendo or any video game publishers.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service.
Super Cheats is an unofficial resource with submissions provided by members of the public. These are not usually tested by us (because there are so many), so please use them at your own risk.
