San Goku Shi: Chuugen no Hasha (Famicom) Guide by E. Phelps, ver. 1.0 (aka LastBossKiller) - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === Disclaimer === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - This document may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission by the author. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Copyright 2015 E. Phelps ---Viewing This Document--- This document contains Japanese text. To view it correctly, set your browser or word processor to view "Shift-JIS" format. For example, if you are using Internet Explorer, using the dropdown menu, go to View -> Encoding -> More -> Japanese (Shift-JIS). You could, instead, open this document with Microsoft Word, and it will ask you about the encoding automatically, allowing you to select Shift-JIS. - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ====== Intro ====== = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - San Goku Shi is the Japanese title for the classic Chinese novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". This guide is for the NES/Famicom game San Goku Shi: Chuugen no Hasha, developed by TOSE and published by Namco in 1988. It should not be confused with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games developed by KOEI, which you have probably heard a lot more about since they were released in the US (and this only in Japan). This is a strategy game where you must conquer China, just like the KOEI games, and it also has a sequel: "San Goku Shi II: Haou no Tairiku" which is almost identical to the one discussed here, with some improved graphics and other minor changes. You can play on three difficulty levels. I wasn't feeling particularly ambitious for my playthrough, so I played on the middle difficulty setting ("level 2" as it's called). My strategies will work very well for this difficulty, but you'll have to let me know if level 3 is very different if you try to play it through on the more difficult setting (email me at lastbosskiller@gmail.com). This genre is not one of my favorites, so I don't plan on playing it through again any time soon, although it's not such a bad game. The novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms is massively famous in China and Japan. It is considered one of the four "great Chinese classics". I actually read the full length version a few years ago (English translation of course), so I know all about it. Although it may not be that well known in the US, there are certainly many adaptations of the story available aside from the novel, such as the fairly recent movie "Red Cliff", and several anime and manga productions. There are many games based on the three kingdoms as well. On the NES, there are two strategy games by KOEI (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), the game presented here and its sequel (San Goku Shi), and the two Destiny of an Emperor games by Capcom. The Dynasty Warriors game series is also based on the characters from this book. San Goku Shi is not especially complicated. But being only in Japanese may make it hard for you to play. Hopefully, this guide will give you the ability to play it through even if you have no Japanese knowledge. - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ====== Story ====== = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - The characters from Romance of the Three Kingdoms are all based on real historical figures. The novel is essentially an exaggerated account of the historical events that defined the three kingdoms era, around the year 200 AD. At that time, the Han empire was degenerating due to corrupt court officials (eunuchs actually, dang eunuchs!), and an all-out battle for power ensued that eventually led to the creation of three powerful kingdoms, Shu, Wu, and Wei, that would continue to wage war against each other for around 100 years. From the novel's perspective, the good guys are the kingdom of Shu, led by Liu Bei. Prior to becoming a ruler, he made a pledge with his comrades Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to dedicate their lives to restoring the Han Empire to its former glory. They struggle for much of the early part of the story until they enlist the help of the brilliant military strategist, Zhuge Liang. At that point, they begin to win many battles even though they are often outnumbered. The novel is filled with villains, but none are more sinister than Cao Cao, who eventually comes to rule the kingdom of Wei. He is a military genius in his own right, and especially brutal to those who oppose him, even by the very violent standards of this story. The ruler of the kingdom of Wu is Sun Quan, who would occasionally form an uneasy alliance with Liu Bei so that they could combine their numbers to stand up against the powerful Cao Cao. Is it possible to spoil the ending of this story, which you could get from a history book? Well, just in case you want to read the novel or something, I'll avoid telling you who wins, although don't let your Chinese friends know you're so bad at Chinese history. - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = = Getting Started = = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - When you first load the game, you will see the following menu options: 1 プレイ　ニューゲーム - "1 player new game" 2 プレイ　ニューゲーム - "2 player new game" コンティニュー - "Continue". Load a saved game. On two player, you battle against each other and four computer controlled warlords. Next, you will be asked to choose a difficulty setting. "Level 1" is the easiest and "Level 3" the hardest: レベル 1 - "Level 1" レベル 2 - "Level 2" レベル 3 - "Level 3" Next, you will have to select a character. This is done by asking you a series of questions about your personality (such as if you value mercy or justice, etc.). These are all yes (はい) or no (いいえ) questions. Below is the list of possible character choices and the yes or no answers you should give in order to obtain that particular character. I list their English name and two ways of spelling their names in Japanese (using either kanji or katakana), which will both appear throughout the game: Liu Bei (劉備 - リュウビ) - YYYYY Liu Zhang (劉璋 - リュウショウ) - YYYYN Sun Quan (孫権 - ソンケン) - YYYNYN Ma Teng (馬騰 - バトウ) - YYYNYY Cao Cao (曹操 - ソウソウ) - NYYN Yuan Shao (袁紹 - エンショウ) - NYYY If you are playing on two player, you cannot both choose the same warlord. The second player will be forced to redo the character selection process if he/she obtains the same warlord as player one. Once the game begins, you will see a map of China and several colored castles. Below, I describe the location of each warlord's country, their castle colors, etc.: Liu Bei - Begins with 3 white castles at the center of the map. He does not serve hamburgers to the best of my knowledge. Liu Zhang - Begins with 5 grey castles in the lower-left portion of the map. Sun Quan - Begins with 8 black castles in the lower-right portion of the map. Ma Teng - Begins with 4 pinkish castles in the upper-left portion of the map. Cao Cao - Begins with 5 red castles in the middle-right portion of the map. Yuan Shao - Begins with 5 blue castles in the upper-right portion of the map. - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === How to Play === = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - ---Overview------------------------------------------------------------------ Press "B" over one of your castles to view some stats for that castle and to see which of your commanders are stationed there. Press "Down" to see more commanders if there are more than one. Press "A" over a castle to bring up command options. Pressing "A" or "B" over an enemy castle has no effect. In the lower-left corner of the screen, you'll see a number next to a piece of paper. This is how many orders you can give during your turn. See the "Giving Orders" section for more details. To win the game, you must conquer all of the castles on the map. This is generally done by capturing them one by one in battle, although you can also gain the entirety of the castles under a rulers's domain by killing the ruler himself. You lose the game if your ruler is killed. ---Commander Stats----------------------------------------------------------- To view the stats of your commanders, press "B" on top of one of your castles. Each commander can hold a maximum of 1000 soldiers, and the soldier types might be infantry, cavalry, or bowmen. The number of each soldier type is shown at the bottom of a commander's status screen. As far as I could tell, you cannot control which soldier types you have, it is automatically chosen by the computer. At the top of a commander's status screen is shown the following stats: 体 - Health 知 - Wisdom 武 - Weapons 徳 - Virtue 忠 - Loyalty Below is an explanation for each stat. Health: The commander dies (and all his soldiers) if his health reaches zero. The health of all the soldiers in a commander's unit will start with the same health as their commander at the beginning of each battle. So if a battle ends with all your soldiers at full health, but your commander is heavily damaged, the soldiers will all be heavily damaged at the start of the next battle. Similarly, if your soldiers are damaged in battle, but your commander is at full health, the soldiers will be at full health at the start of he next battle. To restore a commander's health, visit a doctor found at some castles (costs 50 gold to restore around 40 Health points). Wisdom: This determines which traps your commander will be able to set. Having a wide variety of traps at your disposal is important for success in battle, so you'll want to have one commander in each battle with a high wisdom stat (over 80 is best). See the "Traps" section for details. To increase a commander's wisdom, have them study by selecting the book icon located at some castles (costs around 20 gold). Weapons: This determines how strong your soldiers and the commander are during battle. To increase this stat, give the commander some weapons by buying weapons at the weapon shop at some castles, then give them to the commander by visiting the warehouse. Virtue: I don't know that this stat has any real meaning, and as far as I can tell it cannot be changed by any means. Loyalty: Determines how easily a commander can be swayed to join the enemy. Values of less than 70 are very susceptible to being convinced to betrayal. To increase a commander's loyalty, visit your warehouse and choose to give him gold. Each commander also has a type of terrain he is especially suited for. During battle, the commander can move over this terrain with less movement points spent and is able to do twice as many actions while fighting. The terrain type for a general is indicated at the center of his stat screen, and the possible terrain options are: 平 - Flat land 山 - Mountains 水 - Water ---Castle Stats-------------------------------------------------------------- When you press "A" on one of your castles, you will see the following stats: キン - "Gold" トチ - "Plots of land" サンギョウ - "Industry" ジンコウ - "Population" ブショウ - "Commanders" トウチド - "Governance" Each stat is explained in detail below. Gold: Needed for almost every action, including attacking enemy castles. Plots of land: On the tenth month of every year, you will receive tax money from the agricultural populace which is higher if you have a higher number of land plots. You can increase this value by choosing to develop your country by selecing the castle icon and paying some money (around 20 gold). Industry: On the fourth month of every year, you will receive tax money from the industrial populace which is higher if you have a higher industry number. You can increase this value by choosing to develop your country by selecing the castle icon and paying some money (around 20 gold). Population: A higher population will result in higher taxes. Increase your population by choosing to develop your country by selecing the castle icon and paying some money (around 20 gold). Commanders: Shows the number of commanders at this castle. Governance: Determines how likely the populace is to riot. When they riot, you lose most of your gold and items in the warehouse of the corresponding castle. The plots of land, industry, and population values all decrease as well. Keep this number high, around 50 or higher, to reduce the odds of this happening. To increase the governance stat, visit your warehouse and choose to give the citizens some gold. ---Giving Orders------------------------------------------------------------- Most command options require you to use an "Order" document to give the command. Your number of orders is limited each turn and shown in the lower- left corner of the screen. When this reaches zero, your turn is over. The number of orders you can give depends on how many castles are under your control. Here is the number of orders you have versus castle number: CASTLES ORDERS 3 3 4-5 4 6-7 5 8-9 6 10-11 7 12-14 8 15-17 9 18-20 10 21-23 11 24-26 12 ---Castle Menu--------------------------------------------------------------- When you select a castle, you will see four icons to choose from. They are: Castle, Warehouse, Barracks, and Town. Each option is explained below. ------ Castle ------ Brings up the following menu options: シロのようす - "Castle condition". Choose this, then select a castle. If you choose one of your castles, you will see the same information as if you pressed "B" on a castle on the main map. If you select an enemy castle, you will be able to see this information about them too (their generals' statistics and number of soldiers), but it will cost one "Order". ジョウホウあつめ - "Gather information". Spend one "Order" and one of your generals leaves in search of information. He will be gone for the remainder of this turn, so unable to participate in battles. You can't choose your ruler for this task. On the next turn, you will get a report telling you what the commander found. It could be a new commander to add to your ranks, an item (rings, bracelets, or gems), gold, and possibly nothing. Sometimes, when you find a new commander, you will have to pay to hire them by an indicated amount. The options are: めしかかえる ("employ") or あきらめる ("abandon"). ミチをみる - "View roads". See the paths connecting the castles. ブショウのイドウ - "Move commander". Select a castle you want to move a commander to. Then select all the commanders from the list that you want to have move. You have to have at least one commander on each castle, so you can't move them all. It costs one "Order". You can only move commanders between castles that are connected via the above mentioned paths. クニづくり - "Country construction". Brings up the submenu: トチの　カチを　あげる - "Increase value of land plots". Increase the number of your plots of land. Choose a commander to put in charge of this. He will quote you a price. Say yes (はい) to proceed. Costs around 20 gold. サンギョウの　ハッテン - "Industry development". Increase the number of your industry stat. Choose a commander to put in charge of this. He will quote you a price. Say yes (はい) to proceed. Costs around 20 gold. マチの　カイハツ - "Town development". Increase the town's population. Choose a commander to put in charge of this. He will quote you a price. Say yes (はい) to proceed. Costs around 20 gold. キロクする - "Record". Save your game. Costs 1 "Order". Indeed, saving your game is not free in this game. --------- Warehouse --------- When you select the warehouse, you will see the following stats in the upper window, showing you what is stored at the warehouse. キン - "Gold" ブキ - "Weapons" ホウセキ - "Gems" ウデワ - "Bracelets" ユビワ - "Rings" The menu options are: はこぶ - "Move". Use the menu at the bottom of the screen to set how much of each item you in your warehouse you want to move to one of your castles (must be connected via a path). Press "A" when you're done, then choose a castle to move them to. This costs 1 "Order". おくりものをする - "Give gift". Give a gift of Gems, Bracelets, and/or Rings to send to an enemy castle. I don't know what the benefit might be, although I presume they might not attack you for a turn or two. Costs one "Order". あたえる - "Give". Give a gift to one of your commanders or to the citizens. The options are: ブショウ ("Commander") and ミンシュウ ("People"). After choosing one, you get the options: キン ("Gold") and ブキ ("Weapon"). Set the amount you want to give. Give gold to the "people" to increase the Governance (トウチド) stat. Give weapons to a commander to increase his Weapons (武) stat. Give gold to a commander to increase his loyalty (忠). Each option costs 1 "Order". -------- Barracks -------- When you enter the barracks, you'll see a couple new stats in the upper window: ゲンエキ - "Active duty". Soldiers assigned to a commander. ヒカエ - "Waiting". Soldiers not yet assigned to a commander. The menu options in the barracks are the following: シュツジン - "Depart for the front". Attack an enemy castle. Choose how many commanders will participate from the list (you have to leave at least one commander at your castle), then choose おわり ("end") when you've selected all the commanders you want. Next, choose who will be the head commander of this expedition. If this commander dies, you will immediately lose the battle. You will then be quoted a cost for the attack, which is 20 gold per 100 soldiers that you are sending. It is free to send commanders that do not have any soldiers. Choose はい ("yes") to pay the fee. It also requires the use of one "Order". チョウヘイ - "Recruitment". Get more soldiers. Pay 20 gold for each 100 soldiers you want to recruit. It also costs one "Order". Next, you will be able to distribute your soldiers amongst your commanders, and even redistribute the soldiers that you already had. Choose a commander, then press "Up" to increase the soldiers under his command, or "Down" to decrease it. The soldiers are toggled between the state あたえられるヘイ ("Soldiers to give") (meaning soldiers not yet assigned to a commander) and げんざいのヘイ ("Present soldiers") (meaning soldiers assigned to this commander). Choose おわり ("End") when you are finished assigning soldiers to commanders. テイサツ - "Scout". Choose any castle on the map and you will see the layout of the land surrounding it. The purpose is so that you see what type of terrain is surrounding the castle (mountains, water, etc.). Costs one "Order". ---- Town ---- If you select the town icon, you will see different options depending on what castle you select. Here are all of the possible icons you might see: Crossed-swords - Weapon shop. Buy Weapons (ぶき). Pay 5 gold per weapon. Costs one "Order". Book - Study hall. Increase the wisdom of a commander. Costs around 20 gold, and also costs one order. Head with the symbol 医 in it - Doctor. Restore the Health (体) of a commander. Costs 50 gold and one "Order". 質 - Pawn shop. Sell Rings (ユビワ), Bangles (ウデワ), and Gems (ホウセキ) for gold. You receive 30 gold for each Ring, 60 gold for each Bangle, and 90 gold for each Gem. ---Battles------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are assaulting an enemy castle, you will win the battle by defeating all of the enemy units. It doesn't matter if you occupy the enemy castle, this is not a condition for victory. Similarly, if the enemy is assaulting one of your castles, you will lose the battle only if all of your units are defeated. The attacking army will lose if the head commander is killed. The head commander is chosen by the attacking player prior to the battle. His unit is indicated by a symbol in the upper-left portion of the unit icon, and looks sort of like a "Y". Every battle can last for a maximum of 10 days. If no victory is decided after 10 days, the attacking team will return to their castle unsuccessful. The current day is indicated in the upper-left corner of the screen. At the beginning of a battle, you will have to set your units on the map. Each turn, you begin with a certain number Mobility (キドウリョク) points. Each action you take will cost some Mobility points, and your turn will end when your Mobility points reaches zero. You can press "B", then "A" to pass your turn away to the enemy, and your Mobility points will roll-over to your next turn. However, you can only have a maximum of 40 Mobility points at one time. The amount of Mobility points you have at the beginning of each turn (aside from the ones that have rolled-over) is dependent on how many commanders you have on the battlefield. Therefore, it is beneficial to have a large number of commanders on the map even if they don't have any soldiers. The amount of Mobility points you get for each number of commanders in your army is: COMMANDERS MOBILITY 1 10 2 15 3 20 4 24 5 28 6 32 7 35 8 37 9+ 40 To use command options, press "A" over one of your units to see the following menu: いどう - "Move". Select this, then use the direction arrows to move the unit. Moving takes Mobility points, which varies depending on the terrain. It takes around 3 Mobility points to move over flat land, 6 to move over mountains or through trees, and 9 to move over water. If the unit moves over terrain that matches its terrain type, the cost will be reduced to move over that terrain. けいりゃく - "Plan". Use this command to set traps to assault the enemy. See the "Traps" section below for details. データをみる - "View data". See the stats for your commander. Also, allows you to change the formation of your soldiers, which determines how they are arranged when you get into a skirmish. This doesn't cost any Mobility points. こうげき - "Attack". Attack an enemy unit on an adjacent square. Choose which adjacent square you want to attack from the options: 上 ("above"), 下 ("below"), 左 ("left"), 右 ("right"). Costs 3 Mobility points to engage in battle. Details about battles are presented below. ていさつ - "Scout". Choose an enemy unit and you will see the stats for the commander and how many soldiers he has. Costs one Mobility point. Can be used on any enemy unit regardless of their distance from your units. たいきゃく - "Retreat". Forfeit the battle, giving the enemy the victory. When two units engage in battle, you will first have to decide on the tactics that each type of unit should follow. The unit types are: ほへい - "Infantry" きばたい - "Cavalry" ゆみたい - "Bowmen" ぶしょう - "Commander" The tactics that each unit can be assigned to are: ゼンシン - "Advance". Move toward the enemy. コウタイ - "Retreat". Move away from the enemy. If your commander reaches the edge of the screen while given this order, he will retreat from the battle (causing it to end) and receive some damage to his Health (体). タイキ - "Standby". The unit does not move. The commander unit has the extra tactic option コウフク ("Surrender"). If you select this, the commander will become a prisoner of war to the enemy. After you are happy with the tactics of your units, press "B" to allow the battle to flow. The unit movement and attacks are all computer controlled (with some pretty terrible AI). Hold "A" at any time and you can change the tactics settings for your units. Once the battle starts, you will see numbers at the bottom of the screen which represent the health of all of the units. At the top-middle of this window will be shown the Weapons strength of the commanders, which determines how strong the soldiers are on each side. To win the battle, you must kill the enemy commander. Often, the computer will surrender when the commander is helpless, making him become a prisoner of war, and hence a new controllable commander for your army (with a low loyalty value though). Infantry and bowmen normally can move one space per turn, and the cavalry and commander can move two per turn. If a soldier is standing on terrain which corresponds to his unit's terrain specialty, then he will get twice as many actions (moving or attacking). The army who occupies the castle will automatically be considered to be on their terrain specialty as a bonus for fighting from within the castle as long as they remain on the grey flooring tiles. If two commander units collide, they will engage in a one-on-one battle. These "Commander Battles" are like turn-based RPG battles with the following menu commands: けんせい - "Feint". A weak attack that has a high percent rate of hitting. こうげき - "Attack". A normal attack that does more damage than Feint, but has a lower hit rate. すてみのこうげき - "Life-risking attack". A heavy damaging attack that will cause the attacker to incur heavy damage if he misses. たいきゃく - "Retreat". Run from the battle. こうさん - "Surrender". The commander becomes a prisoner of war. When the fight over the territory has completely finished, a summary screen will show you the losses for each side. The information shown is: 損兵 - "Soldiers lost" 損将 - "Commanders lost" 捕虜 - "Prisoners of war" ---Traps--------------------------------------------------------------------- During battle, you can use the けいりゃく ("Plan") option to set some nasty traps to inflict upon the enemy. You can use them when your units are at any distance from the enemy. However, you cannot use traps on enemy units that are located on the castle square. Below I list the effect of each trap if they successfully hit (they all usually miss), how much Mobility points it costs to use, and how much Wisdom (知) your commander needs to have in order to use them. 火計 - Kills 100 to 400 enemy soldiers. Only can be used on enemies that are standing on a grass square. Costs 4 Mobility points. Minimum Wisdom needed: 0. 虚兵の計 - Enemy units on grass or mountain squares cannot move for 2 turns. Costs 4 Mobility points. Minimum Wisdom needed: 0. 陥穽の計 - Decreases the Health (体) of an enemy unit's commander. Costs 5 Mobility points. Minimum Wisdom needed: 0. 要撃の計 - Kills 100 to 400 soldiers of an enemy unit. Only can be used on enemies that are standing on a mountain square. Costs 6 Mobility points. Minimum Wisdom needed: 40. 乱水の計 - Kills 100 to 400 soldiers of an enemy unit. Only can be used on enemies that are standing on a water square. Costs 6 Mobility points. Minimum Wisdom needed: 60. 連環の計 - Enemy units on top of water squares cannot move for 2 turns. Costs 4 Mobility points. Minimum Wisdom needed: 60. 共殺の計 - Use on enemy units that are adjacent to other enemy units. If successful, 100 to 400 soldiers will be killed in the targeted unit and any adjacent enemy units. Costs 9 Mobility points. Minimum Wisdom needed: 80. 籠絡の計 - Convince an enemy commander to switch to your side. Costs 10 Mobility points. Minimum Wisdom needed: 80. - - - = = = ====================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ===== Strategies ===== = = = - - - - - - = = = ====================== = = = - - - To win this game, you basically just need to know how to make money, how to prepare for battles, and strategies for success during battle. In this section, I present all of the things I did to have success in this game. For the record, I played through as Liu Bei. ---Money--------------------------------------------------------------------- The way you are "supposed" to get money is by developing your towns. On the fourth and tenth month of every year, you will collect taxes, and they will be higher if your castle towns have a large industry and land plot value, and a high population. However, I found that it is much faster to get money by using the ジョウホウあつめ ("Gather information") option from your castle menu. Using the "gather information" option will very frequently net you a nice sum of money on each attempt. However, there is also a good chance that you will find a new commander. Commanders found in this way often start with a high loyalty rating and other good stats. ---Developing Your Towns----------------------------------------------------- As I mentioned above, you are supposed to develop your towns so that you can get tax money. But also, if your towns do not have a high トウチド ("Governance") rating, there is a good chance that your citizens will riot. This will cause your gold, plots of land, industry, and warehouse goods to be heavily depleted. If you can't afford to lose these things, then you'll need to make sure that your town has a "Governance" value of 50 or higher to reduce the risk of a riot. Values under 40 are very risky. Later on in the game, you won't want to bother upkeeping most of your castles since they'll be too far from the action to matter. Don't worry, there's no major consequences for letting these castles deteriorate to rioting every turn. ---Defense------------------------------------------------------------------- You want to make sure that all your castles that border the enemy have adequate protection. You want to have at least one commander with a high "Weapons" (武) rating (in the 90's is best) and at least one that has a high "Wisdom" (知) rating, over 80 (they can even be the same commander). The commander with the high weapons stat should have the maximum 1000 soldiers. Other commanders can have soldiers as well, although it's not necessary if you can't afford it. You also want to have a few more commanders that can have have bad stats and no soldiers. More commanders allows you to have more Mobility points, so try to have at least 3 or 4 commanders total if you can. This is also a deterent to the enemy, so you might never get attacked if you follow all the advice presented here. Getting attacked is not necessarily a bad thing. You'll have a good advantage since you can use the castle, and the enemy often attacks with inadequate forces, so you can beat them and capture their commanders, which further increases the number of commanders you have at this castle. It's only bad if you have a very under-protected castle. An easy mistake to make is to have one or more of your commanders use the "gather information" option in a castle that neighbors the enemy. If you do that, you might have an under-protected castle while those commanders are away, and the enemy will take advantage of this opening to attack. If you are attacked, keep your strongest commander that has 1000 soldiers on the castle. He won't be susceptible to enemy traps while on the castle. Also, if he is attacked, he will get the terrain bonus that allows his soldiers to take twice as many actions during battle. Have your commander with the high Wisdom stat use traps to deplete the enemy force as much as you can before they reach the castle. Use the Scout (ていさつ) command to see if any enemy commanders have a Loyalty (忠) stat of 60 or lower. If so, use the 籠絡の計 trap to try to make them switch sides. If you succeed, have that commander start attacking his old buddies. The enemy can try to make him switch back, so you don't want to leave him at full strength, and you might as well just abuse his squad by having them attack until they all die. If there are no low Loyalty enemies, then use traps that damage the enemy or prevent them from moving. Don't forget you can win by surviving for 10 days, so stalling the enemy is good. But it's better to kill them, of course, so use the traps to reduce their number so that they will be weakened by the time they reach your castle, where your strongest commander will hopefully finish them off. ---Attacking Enemy Territories----------------------------------------------- Despite the fact that it costs one "Order" to save your game, I still recommend doing it every time before you attack the enemy. But I would do it first thing on my turn so that I have plenty of "Orders" left over in case I accidentally save myself in a bad situation and need to take some actions to get out of it. The strategy to successfully attack enemy territories is similar to the strategies described above for defending your castles. Have one commander that has a high Weapons stat that has 1000 soldiers, and have a commander with a Wisdom stat over 80. You also want to have as many other commanders as possible so you have a lot of Mobility points. It costs 200 gold to attack a castle using 1000 soldiers. It costs even more to attack with more soldiers, so you will want to usually have all your other commanders have 0 soldiers. These 0 soldier commanders are just there to boost your Mobility points, so they will hang back and take no actions. Of course, occasionally you will need more soldiers to deal with particularly well guarded castles. I generally used the same two groups of commanders to plow through the whole game, and I didn't spend much time at all increasing the stats of new commanders. I did almost all my fighting with two strong commanders that I started the game with. When the battle begins, set your troops well back from the enemy (at least 6 spaces away). The enemy won't move toward you and they won't use any traps as long as you stay back. Have your high Wisdom commander use traps to widdle down the enemy while the rest of your troops do nothing. The best trap to use is 籠絡の計 to make enemy commanders join your side. Use the Scou command to see if there are any enemies with a low Loyalty value that will be susceptible. Otherwise, use traps to damage the enemy. The 共殺の計 trap is interesting because it will damage an enemy unit and other units adjacent to it, even if the adjacent unit is on the castle. So this is the one trap that can damage the castle unit. It's expensive though, so it's up to you if you use it very often or just stick to the single unit damaging traps. You have to defeat the enemy within the 10 day limit, so when you are at the 8th day or so, have your strong commander rush in to kill the surviving enemies. Try to have your units stand on their preferred terrain when attacking if you can to double their actions. You should have your commander unit set to "Standby" (タイキ) to prevent him from rushing forward and getting damaged, unless you really want to go all out. When attacking the enemy castle, the enemy will get twice as many actions while on the castle's grey floor. It's often a good idea to have all of your units remain on standby and wait for the enemy to approach the left side of the screen and enter the grass before attacking them so they don't get that advantage. Occasionally, your commander will engage in a one-on-one battle with the enemy commander. If your commander is strong, using the こうげき ("Attack") option is usually best. However, if the enemy is stronger, or your commander's Health is depleted, try using the すてみのこうげき ("Life-risking attack") option as a last ditch effort to try to win. OK, well I think I passed along all the information I have, so hopefully it's enough to get you though the game. - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === Conclusion === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - I hope you found this guide useful. If you have information that you'd like to contribute or other suggestions for how the guide can be made better or if you find any mistakes, please send it to lastbosskiller@gmail.com. I will give you the proper credit for your help. Thanks to the NES FAQ Completion Project regulars for providing a fun environment for exploring old, obscure games!