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' | | \.' | | | .' |' =============================================================================== SHINGEN THE RULER: Nintendo Entertainment System -guide written for the NES FAQ Completion Project - faqs.retronintendo.com Version 1.0 (3/1/2007) Version History: 1.0: Basic Guide Complete - (3/1/2007) .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:..:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. Legality: This Guide is Copyright, 2006, Matthew McIntyre This guide may not be used on a website or in any public forum where it is protected by copyright without the consent of the author. To contact me: entropiclobo(at)yahoo(dot)ca or chaos(dot)wolf(at)gmail(dot)com Websites with permission to use this Guide: www.GameFAQS.com www.neoseeker.com faqs.IGN.com www.1up.com www.honestgamer.com Game by Hot-B. ****************************************************************************** * Table of Contents * ****************************************************************************** *To jump to a section, hold the Control Key and press F, then type in the section number as it appears (ie type STR1) STR1: Intro STR2: Gameplay Overview STR3: Abbreviations and Commands STR4: Events STR5: Money STR6: Combat STR7: Game Strategy STR8: Credits Shingen the Ruler is rated "C" for "Conquest." It contains scenes of strategic battle and annoying fathers who eat your rice and take your money. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | STR1: Intro | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Shingen the Ruler is a strategic war game. A game of conquest and broken alliances. You must subvert all of the game's territories to be the victor. Victory is a long way off, however, as your rival warlords and families will attempt to conquer your territories and will put up their best resistance. Management of your territories and a strategic approach to conquest will be key to victory. You may have played similar games on the NES (or elsewhere). Shingen is definitely easier if you're used to this type of game. Shingen has a severe learning curve, but the thing is - it's most difficult at the beginning. If you decide on a plan and see it through, you'll be much more apt to conquer in the late game without much of a dent in your funds. Shingen the Ruler's cart has information regarding commands, something I got a kick out of. After all, if the game is in a front-loading NES how are you supposed to use the info? Heh, if you're interested in that information write it down beforehand. But after you clear the initial learning period of your gameplay, you won't need it. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | STR2: Gameplay Overview | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Shingen the Ruler is a strategic game where you campaign to unify Japan. The core game is a management style game where you consider the different qualities and quantities of a province. These are explained in-depth later in the guide. Essentially, you must find a way to make money, either through selling harvest, or digging gold-mines. This money is used to fuel your territories, each one having separate values for each of the qualities. Every action is a month, and you can only make one action per month. While Shingen can eventually die of old age (he has an heir to take over) this is not so immediate that the date is a crucial issue right away. But even so, you can only make one move every month in a limited number of territories you control. What move you make had better not be wasted because all of the other territories not under your control are beefing themselves up as well. Efficiency and consideration is the name of the game. Random events will occur throughout the game that either increase a quality or decrease it. These keep a constant need to have money to repair qualities that are important to you. Management of your funds becomes an integral part of the game, especially since you don't want the enemy to capture them for themselves. You enlist troops from the public as infantry, which drops Loyalty. You then buy them specific class gear from the merchant, which costs money. You'll soon see that many things are connected in this game. The actual battles can be played manually (recommended) or automatically (avoid this). They are a grid based strategy system. Each troop has a number of units and a rank, denoting teir relative strength, a movement score (how many blocks they can move), and archers and riflemen can attack at a distance. When capturing new territories, you assault the enemy on the plains and then at their castle. Enemies can do the same to you. The forests, water, abd more of the terrain all influence your war effort by blocking shots, or slowing or preventing movement. The game is won when you have captured every territory. This can take many game years to accomplish, so settle in for a long haul. All of the daimyo in this game, besides the Buddhist monk sect and General Li are historic encounters, I believe. You can read a brief description of each in the manual, but I won't be putting it all into this guide. It is fun to note that Nobunaga who was a crucial enemy in Shingen's late days is highly ranked and so is Uesugi, his main rival. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | STR3: Abbreviations and Commands | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This is just a breakdown of all of the commands, abbreviations, and more presented in Shingen. I know it's a lot to digest, but it becomes natural after playing a few game months. Quatitites: ----------- These are listed on the left side of the screen where you can choose region building commands. $$: This refers to how much money you have available to spend increasing your other quantities such as yield or loyalty, or buying from the merchant. Money makes the world go 'round, and that's true here too. CLT: The state of your Castle. A higher Culture is important for lower medicine selling points. You can increase culture under the Ca, Castle command. DST: Disaster Rating. Don't let this ever get too high, but it's not a critical priority. Reduce the number with Fc, Flood Control. EPI: Epidemic, this is a yes or no condition depending on whether or not there is an epidemic in the territory. Don't waste cash on prevention unless you are really concerned. Instead, rectify it when it occurs. G-M: Gold-Mines, which provide $5 per mine every month barring events. Even if Gold-Mines aren't your primary source of revenue, a couple in a territory doesn't hurt. LOY: Loyalty. To keep your people in order, keep Loyalty generally high. It drops when you increase infantry and when you tax the province. Using Aid under Fa, Farm, will increase Loyalty. PRD: Product, the amount of harvested crops you have available to sell to the Merchant. Increase product with increased Yield. PRI: Princesses available to make alliances, which increase over time as they are born. WEL: Wealth refers to how wealthy the region is, not necessarily in pure monetary holdings but how much the terriroty is actually worth. Higher Wealth makes sell and buy prices higher. You can increase Wealth using Aid under Fa, Farm. You get the added bonus of extra loyalty, too. YLD: This relates to how much product you can generate in that spepcific region. Keep this up if you want to grow crops to sell. Fa, using development will increase Yield. Commands: --------- Mi: Military: Relates to commands regarding your troops. ENLIST: Enlist new corps to your forces. This will drop your LOY rating. GOING: Invade an enemy territory. You need 5 Product for going. You cannot use going if there is a storm or other event that hinders movement. MOVE: Move military units, product, or money to another territory. Very useful. Again, hampered by snow and such. Shingen can move himself to make a new capitol in this way too. Ca: Castle: This command relates to building castles. It increases the culture of a territory. Fa: Farm Policy: Relates to farming and civilians in the territory. DEVELOPMENT: This increases both Yield and Wealth. AID: This increases both Loaylty and Wealth. Fc: Flood Control: Relates to your disaster rating. Spending more in Flood Control drops the disaster rating. Gm: Gold-Mines: Relates to the production and maintenance of Gold-Mines. Dig: Attempts to find more Gold-Mines. Produce More: Expend product to increase the Gold-Mine payout for that month. Not recommended. Al: Alliance: Requires a princess and money to use. Attemp a temporary alliance with an enemy. Mr: Merchant: Buy or sell from the merchant product and military units. He is mostly influence by wealth with regards to his prices. Remember: you can only buy or sell one thing every month so choose wisely. Also note: You need Infantry to upgrade with the gear bought from the merchant. Dr.: Doctor: Relates to the Epidemic and cure/prevention of it. PREVENT: Spend money to prevent an epidemic for X months. It is not very common to have an epidemic in a high-culture territory so don't bother with this unless you really want to. It's a waste though. CURES: If there is an epidemic, spend money to cure it. He: Heir: Only available between the birth of Katsuyori and the death of Shingen. This is Katsuyori's education. You can train Strength, Intellect, and Morality and this is all explained in the Heir section of STR7: Game Strategy. The education you give him deteriorates over time, by the way, making him extremely expensive if you insist on keeping it high at all times. More on this later... Nj: Ninja: Summon a Ninja to act for you. SPYING: This does NOT costa month's action. You can look at the quantities and qualities of any other province. You can look at as many as you deem necessary. Extremely useful. CRISIS: Have a Ninja damage the enemy territory in some way. Costs product and is not very successful. Avoid using Crisis. Costs a months's action unlike Spying. Sv: Save: Save the game if Shingen hasn't moved into a new territory this month. Ps: Pass: Skip your turn. Military: --------- He: Heir: Again Heir, but this lists his education scores. If there is no Heir born yet, or Katsuyori already took over, this will read NO. RNK: Rank, this relates to how powerful your units are. EXP: Experience points. You advance rank as you gain exp. HDQ: The amount of Headquarters units you have. CAV: The amount of Calvary units you have. RM: The amount of Rifleman units you have. AR: The amount of Archer units you have. LNC: The amount of Lancer units you have. INF: The amount of Infantry units you have. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | STR4: Events | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= *______ occupied in ______: A rival territory captured another. *Cave-In: This damages the amount of Gold-Mines you have. Furthermore, you can not use Gold-Mine commands while the cave-in is in play. *Death of Father: Mr. Nobutora dies. Loyalty and wealth raise as a result? No complaints here. I believe he died as late as 1577 for me. *Death of Lady Koi: This occured in 1579 for me. The Death of Lady Koi will drop your loyalty. *Death of Shingen: This occured in 1584 for me, Shingen was 63 years old. Shingen dies of old age and Katsuyori takes over. This takes a long time to accomplish, and Katsuyori was 35 when he took over. If Katsuyori dies in the same way, it's over. *Drought: Crops are damaged by drought, dropping yield and rasing disaster. *Earthquake: A devastating Disaster, raises Disaster by a large amount, drops Culture and Loyalty. *Epidemic: The terriroty is hit with an epidemic, which switches that quality to YES. Epidemics can damage your wealth and military. Cure it as soon as possible, as the price seems to increase over time. *False Messenger: This messenger is actually a Ninja imposter, whom will do some damage, perhaps considerable, to a quantity such as wealth. Listed different from the other ninja because it will appear as a Messenger. *Father: Mr. Nobutora arrives in a territory, eating some Product. Not the most convenient if product is your cash cow ;). OR, "SHINGEN let me have extra money." Where he takes a bit of money from you. I got this late game, and it was only $10, but still an inconvenience your old man is! ;) *Flood: A Disaster event, it drops Yield and Wealth and raises Disaster. *Festival: The people of a territory celebrate. Loyalty and Culture stand to raise a little. *Heir: Katsuyori is is born. This occured for me January, 1549. This opens up the Heir options in your capitol and raises Loyalty. *Imperial Envoy: An official from the Emperor arrives. Money and Products should raise a little, and Loyalty will raise less. *Lady Koi: She eagerly wants Shingen to unify the nation. People like her attitude and so Loyalty will raise. She can also visit Katsyyori specifically while he is in the learning stage. This means one of his qualities will increase a little. Useful if you haven't maxed him out. *Lightning: Lightning strikes the castle, causing upwards of 15 points of Culture damage to a territory. The damage _is_ heavy, so take action to remedy it. Disaster also rises, but the impact isn't as dire as to Culture. *Messenger: A messenger arrives from another family. This often includes a gift such as Lancers. *Ninja: An enemy Ninja appears in one of your occupied territories and does some damage, such as to loyalty. *Princess: A princess is born, which means you can potentially make an alliance with an enemy territory using the princess and some money. Alliances will have to be broken, so this isn't a great option. But it could help in certain situations. More in game strategy, section STR7. This may increase Loyalty. *Rich Harvest: The sun shines and yield increases. *Riot: I managed to get one of these started with a Loyalty as low as 17. Loyalty will severely drop, and culture can also fall. If this is a military territory, the Loyalty drop is damning. Riots aren't limited to low Loyalty zones, my 100 Loyalty capitol had a number of them occur as I was running the clock up to see the inheritance event. The impact seemed much more severe in the Low Loyalty zone, however. *Signal Fire: Denotes an invasion is nigh. You may want to recruit or buy troops if you see a signal fire. *Snowfall: Disaster raises by 0, you cannot move out of your territory. This is an event occuring during the winter, hindering movement. Instead, work on fortification or production. Also, the Merchant cannot come to the territory. *Storm: Culture and Yield will take a hit and disaster rises. Prevents Movement out of the territory. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | STR5: Money | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The core fuel for the game is, of course, monetary funds. As you build your nation you must also find a reliable source of income. There are two main ways to make money in Shingen, and the game is free form enough that you can choose what method is best suited for you. Gold Mines: =========== Gold mines award you 5 units of cash for every goldmine you have every month. So, if you can max them out at 100 you'll be earning 500 money every month. The cost to research gold mines can be off-putting as the game starts, but they are an investment. Put some cash into them and they will be paying you back in spades. Gold mines are fueld by product, and if you use extra you can hire extra workers for a month. This presents a chance to earn extra cash that month but that product may have been more useful elsewhere. Gold mines are a slow way of going about making money, but reliable when you've got them built up. If you don't mind a rough start, and a convenient finish then gold mines might be right up your ally. However, the cost to get a maxed level of Gold Mines is nothing short of extraordinary, Beware. If you do decide to work on Gold Mines, then make digging your priority until you are getting a decent return on them. Gold mines require a lot of effort, and that might make them less appealing... Product: ======== Buy and sell product from and to the merchant. Product only really becomes an effective moneymaking scheme when you have more than one territory and the ability to command a couple per turn. The price a merchant will buy product for and what he will sell it for is determined largely by your Wealth ratings. He will sell at a higher price to take advantage of your wealthy and buy at a higher price for the higher quality product. However, a less wealthy territory will be able to sell for less and buy for less. Therefore, if you sell in wealthy territories and buy in the more despondent, you will be playin the market to the fullest of its ability. Keep a territory set for selling and one for by buying - likely your capitol. If you buy say 50 product at $3/product you'll spend $150. If you then sell for $4 per product you will make a net p[rofit of 50. If you bought at $1 and sold at 4, you;d have 150 net profit. Buy low and sell high. The return on product can get higher results than mines early on, though variations in Merchant prices, and the need to use up turns on buying and selling may be less appealing but remember - you can store product until you are ready to sell it. So get together some 1100 product, sell it at 3 a pop and even then you'll have a nice little nest egg. What to do? =========== It's your choice, of course. Gold mines require your attention only when you are prompted but if you play the market right you can make some mad profits, potentially exceeding the return on a maxed stock of mines. Really, try either method and see what works for you. You will _have_ to put money into your territory at the start, however, so a few mines helps out until you can play the market with less risks. The advantage of Product is moving it between territories and storing it until you can sell high. To be honest, as a test I had a 6 gold mine territory plunge $2000 into Gold Mine digging and I found 2... not the greatest investment! Taxes ===== Taxes influence the loyalty of territories. When it comes time to start taxing the people, don't think about how much money you can make. It's for naught if you impact your morale too much. Wealth also drops if you tax... Go a little higher if loyalty is high, keep it low if loyalty is lower. Usually no more than 20%, and even that can decrease the factors by more than 12. Even a 5% tax drops loyalty. If you have a province that you want to keep Wealthy and Loyal? Give them the benefit of no tax. The Spoils of War ================= The tangible rewards of battle include Money, Product, and Lancers. If you can win a battle OR hit the enemy strategically enough that they run away, you'll get all this + experience and Rank. You don't get a load of money from military ventures but at the start of the game the 100+ dollars you're getting will be considerable. And it always helps. Managing your Funds =================== Think about your game plan. So you have $500? Don't just drop it every which way. You have a plan. You're going to use that money to buy upgrades for your infantry or increase product yield, or whatever. Some money should eventually go into training your heir, as well. Ultimately, you should devote a few territories to rasing the main funds for your nation, and these should move money where it is needed. Every territory should have a handful of gold mines or the like to fall back on if you get into trouble, but generally you don't need too too many areas devoted to money. There are simply too many territories to control in this instance. To attempt to balance all of them is less than practical and wastes valuable time you could better use doing other things. Once you have a plan, stick to it. Your priority should be your troops when it comes to spending money. A maxed unit of calvary or riflemen is nothing to scoff at, and due to the ranking system you are still bound to have casualities regardless of unit strength. Your second priority is... making more money =)! You have to follow the plan you chose and that means digging new mines or buying low priced product. Of course, keep your main territories at a reasonable level in culture, loyalty and more. Loyalty and culture and wealth are all necessary for money and troops anyways. If your secondary, and by that I mean they aren't being used strategically, territories are hit particularly hard in some category or have been suffering for a while in certain categories, provide them some money and keep your levels reasonable. As I mentioned, once you have an idea about how you're going to build your nation, this all becomes very smooth to operate - a routine. Just with bumps via disasters and invasions. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | STR6: Combat | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The actual combat section of Shingen the Ruler takes place in a more iconic grid-based Strategy RPG format. +--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+ The battlefield can be divided into a grid, even though it is not apparent in game. To mentally judge distances, each unit is equal to one block. It is absolutely important that you consider distances. Topics covered in this order: Units Manual vs Automatic Battle Rank Spoils of War Movement Terrain Parsing Units Progression of Enemy Units Assaulting a Castle Gradual Takeover Ninja: Determining a Target Move: Defending Them All With Only A Few ------Units------ There are melee units and there are rangers. Melee units have a range of 1, able to only attack adjacent units. Rangers can attack at a distance, but are miserable up close. Use the units as a whole, rangers hit from afar and melee units strike the final blows. Low end melee units protect rangers by forming a living wall. Archers: ======== *Move: 5 *Range: 5 Their mor elimited range makes them less useful than Riflemen but they are still great backup to melee units. Archers have a lower movement score, 5, so they actually are a lesser Rifleman (which has the same move). But this allows them to at least keep pace with a group of Lancers or some such and soften a target up. They are also useful in staggering rangers (see unit strats below). Calvary: ======== *Move: 9 *Range: 1 One of the top tier units, Calvary are absolutely invaluable. The movement of 9 and great potency in battle. These troops should be used to deliver the coup on units after your rangers have had their way. If a Calvary is outranked and outnumbered by an enemy, keep them at a distance until you can knock some numbers out of the opposition. Riflemen and archers in this instance are very helpful. You don't want a group of 40 Calvary hit for 13 damage by some enemy 6 ranks above you. Headquarters: ============= *Move: 6 *Range: 1 Headqaurters are powerful, but also very expensive to buy. They are also a high risk unit, kind of like a flag tank in Conflict. Defeat them to win against an enemy, and protect them to help your own endeavours. Because regardless of how many Calvary you boast, you never want Headquarters to fall. That said, they can be used as a lure for the enemy. A risky move, but if you distract an enemy by keeping the Headquarters away, you can get a few good shots in. You don't need a ton of Headquarters, and they are very, very expensive. Keep a few, maybe 10 as a buffer against mistakes and you'll do fine. But, don't spend $800 on 10 Headqaurters ;), if you don't have them around just keep a handful so you can actually go to war. Infantry: ========= *Move: 6 *Range: 1 Infantry are the weakest unit, yet also the backbone of the military. They are only most effective as a fighting force in huge numbers or near the start. But you will want to outfit them to Calvary, Riflemen, etc as soon as possible. These units are the basis for every other unit, you buy their gear from the Merchant. Buying advanced units consumes Infantry, so you can always enlist more under the the Mi, Military command. This consumes Loyalty, so as you can see, infantry are not in infinite supply. Lancer: ======= *Move: 6 *Range: 1 Lancers are a basic unit, just above Infantry men. They should generally be used to absorb hits like infantry, and clean up enemy units after an assault by your others. These are a common enemy unit. They usually appear in large numbers, which DOES make a difference when they outrank you. If they have 40 to your 10, make sure you whittle them down beforehand. Rifleman: ========= *Move: 5 *Range: 7 Top Tier along with the calvary, Riflemen are essential for ensured victory. Their range to attack of 7 spaces is amazing. They can only attack on a line and even then they are miserable up close but this huge range lets them fire at approaching units for both more damage than archers and before the units can damage them. Exploit terrain in this sense, and throw your infantry in front of Riflemen to keep them alive. The Calvary's 9 movement compliments the range of attack. Drill the foes with shots then rush in for the finish. ------MANUAL VS AUTOMATIC BATTLE------ You should probably use Manual battle under all circumstances besides a few, Automatic is faster but far too costly. While it's true that Automatic has smaller, gradual losses to units over time, it's against all units and that is a major problem. To compete in an automatic battlefield, you need a lot of Headquarters units. These are extremely costly to buy in any great number (if they are, say $80 per you'd spend $8000 on 100 of them!) and the gradual losses make it so that you are almost guaranteed to lose Headquarters units. You only need a Headquarters unit to go into battle, you may want up to 10 to act as a small buffer. The enemy usually has 100 or 200 or more TOTAL Headquarters as you work your way to the left side of the map. If you are going against a territory with Rank 42 to and 200 Headquarters, you will lose very quickly in an automatic battle. You can take MUCH more damage at once in a manual battle (say, 100 to a group of units under some circumstances!) but you can also prevent so much more. The enemies come in waves when they attack you, and it's possible to exploit their positioning. Think about it, the enemy always reaches you like this: Calvary, then Riflemen and Archers, and then Lancers. Lancers and Infantry are often used to protect the enemy headquarters and you don't have to deal with them! OR, if you outrank and outnumber the enemy sufficiently, send your Calvary in after the Headquarters and end this thing right away. That's a risky move, yes, but at the very least the damage is localised to one group of units. Remember! You can't buy more than one type of unit from the merchant per month for a territory and you can only enlist a small number of Infantry. Repairing 50 damage to Calvary is expensive, but much less expensive than repairing 50 damage to EVERY unit. The ONLY time you should use Automatic Battle is when you outnumber the enemy 4-to-1 and they are amuch higher rank than you. But that's going to be late game, because you don't want to screw yourself midgame by having ___no units___ to go to war. But how are you getting 255 Headquarters to do this? Don't. Just do Manual battle. ------RANK------ Outnumber the enemey? Well, they outrank you by 30 and will wipe the floor with you if you get cocky. Rank is the great equalizer here. It'll increase the potency of units, both in strength and in defense. You shoot a 200 numbered rank 23 Headquarters with your 100 rank 6 Riflemen. The enemy is barely scratched. The headquarters won't retaliate, but what if their 100 riflemen shoot you? The unfortunate thing about Rank is that you will start at 0, and new territories start with the invading territories rank + ranks gained in the battle. For instance, I attack a rank 23 territory with a rank 17 territory, the military gains 2 ranks and the new territory gains a rank 19 but the old territory doesn't advance so much. So if you want to capture that 40+ rank territory right next to 50+ rank Nobunaga and use it to attack him, you are still going to have to grind. Or at least that's what I've seen. The point is, territories you claim do not retain their old ranks. Rank is gained through victory. If you are attacking a territory, you may want to attack it multiple times before attacking the castle, to whittle down their forces and gain experience and rank. When you're set to take them over, at least you'll have the benefit of increased rank for when you deal with all the other territories around you. Dealing with rank on the battlefield is dangerous. But rank disparity can be overcome by multiple attacks rather than one territory/castle assault. The enemy does not normally send out all of their units unless they are defending the castle. You will want to make their castle defenses lesser, as you are at a disadvantage when attacking Castles. Taking a bite out of their expensive units can make them waste their cash too, but remember that you want to take them over and their product and money can be put to good use for you. ------SPOILS OF WAR------ Just a note about the spoils of war and why you may not want to wipe out every enemy unit on the field. If you can kill the Headquarters, you automatically win AND stand a chance of capturing other units left on the field. ------MOVEMENT------ Units have a certain move rating, this is how many blocks they can move over plain terrain. Furthermore, Archers and Riflemen have a range of attack. Archers can shoot 5 spaces, Riflemen can shoot 7 spaces. You can exploit this. Consider the units you are moving and that the enemy is moving. If the enemy has a Rifleman moving towards you, move just out of their range, and run in after they've moved in. They can move and shoot, so consider their MOVE and their range, position your units and kill them when they come closer. +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | RM = Rifleman +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ IN = Infantry | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | |RM| | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | |IN| | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ On your turn in an instance such as this, if you're controlling the Rifleman, move down and shoot the infantry from maximum distance. The Rifleman has limited move, if you are the infantry, move away and about 8 spaces away from the max move of the RM. This means they have to move in, and your infantry is spared the assault. +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | RM = Rifleman +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ IN = Infantry | | | | | | | | | | | CV = Calvary +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | |RM| | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |CV|IN| | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ Now, say you are approaching a ranged target like a Rifleman with a valuable unit such as Calvary. Their superior movement will be able to close the gap (even Rifleman range, 9 move vs 7 range) but say they can't reach there in 1 turn. Defend the calvary with a lesser unit like infantry and then move in for the kill. Give your meat shield a low number of troops to the unit, so your infantry stock isn't completely wiped out. They're your lowest potency soldier, but please remember - you need them to make other units. Now, look at this, staggered positioning... RM = Rifleman AR = Archer CV = Calvary HQ = Headquarters +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | |CV| | | | |CV| | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | |HQ| | | | | |RM| | | | |HQ| | |AR|AR|RM|RM| | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | |AR| | --> | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | |AR| |RM| | | | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ ( A ) ( B ) Now, in A we are at the bginning of our turn and want to attack a Headquarters group. Careful positioning of the units helps us get around the fact that rangers attack on a line and help us exploit their range. Let's look at diagram B... Riflemen are positioned farthest away. One takes up the farthest position and fires. The next Rifleman goes in front of him and fires as well at the Headquarters. Now, the Archers occupy the spaces after them, one positions and fires then the next does the same. Four ranged attacks in the row has softened the Headquarters up. Move the Calvary in for the kill. Keep in mind, Riflemen have a range of 7 and Archers a range of 5. IF you have two groups of each, Riflemen can be positioned at ranges of 7 and 6, and Archers at 4 and 5. This compliments their range so keep this in mind - these units have the most limited movement so you have to position them economically. ------Terrain------ Terrain is a factor in manual battles only, and while it can be a disadvantage you start far enough away from the enemy that you can overcome most obstacles with strategic placement. Note that you have to be BEHIND a terrain that bullets can't cross. If you are on the perimeter you will still be hit! *Castle Wall: Cannot be crossed. Units can shoot out from inside the castle walls, but those outside cannot shoot in. *Deep Water: Darker water that units can't cross. Look for shallows. *Ditch: I believe the large dark green/grey areas are what the manual refers to as a ditch. Either way, it severely cripples movement. I believe one ditch space may equal 3 normal spaces. If you're taking refuge behind a ditch, position yourself to strike the enemy when it emerges (and really, only barely emerges). If you have to cross it, do so asap. You are protected from rangers in here. *Forest: Shots cannot pass through and movement is slowed. 1 space = 2. *Moat: A water with visible division. Built deep so units can't cross. *Mountain: Also cripples movement and prevents hits from shots. *Shallows/River: Movement is impaired, but you can cross. 1 space = 2 spaces of movement. Stay behind areas that impair movement or block shots if the enemy is coming for you. Predict their movement and crush them as they emerge. This also lets you work on Calvary and the like as the rangers struggle in the woods! ------Parsing Units------ How do you divide your units into groups? How many do you take with you to war? Generally speaking, you should take most of your troops to battle. With planning and tactics, there is less risk of you getting obliterated and leaving your territory vulnerable. Besides, half your units in the province will fall just as fast as half your units on the field anyways. So, take all or most of your men because they do far more damage and can take a hit before dieing. How do you then divide your units? Infantry: Up to 3 Groups Lancers: Up to 2 Groups Calvary: Up to 2 Groups Headquarters: Up to 1 Group Archers: Up to 2 groups Riflemen: Up to 2 groups. Infantry I usually divide into three, but not equal groups. One group of low numbered infantry should serve as guards for your Rifle and Archer groups. They will absorb damage. They should not be a large number because you still need infantry to build other forces. The stronger group of infantry should guard the Headquarters. You don't need many Headquarters to start the battle, just take a handful to act as a buffer against any enemies that manage to reach 'em. Calvary is either one really strong group or two lesser groups of equal intensity. Calvary are the finishers so if you play your cards right they shouldn't come under too heavy of fire. Lancers I usually split into two groups of equal intensity that attack units gettingt too close to my rangers. I don't find them strong enough for frontline assaults. Riflemen and Archers I usually group into one group of superior numbers. Though two groups each can be useful, the enemies usually stagger their deployments of troops that you are dealing with Calvary, then rangers, then whatever in turn so having one group each doesn't actually hurt because you can exploit how the enemy sounds out his waves of troops. ------PROGRESSION OF ENEMY UNITS------ The enemy is very predictable when it invades. The average assault starts out like this: 1. Calvary charge forward. 2. Rangers plod behind. 3. Infantry surround enemy Headquarters 4. Lancers do the same or move forward. If Calvary die, Lancers usually move forward. If Calvary and Rangers die, enemy usually retreats. So, move your units back until you can judge the distance Calvary need to reach. Shoot them from behind infantry shields and the shots will likely take a good chunk out of an invading Calvary. There's usually only 20 or 30 per squad in an enemy assault. Finish off the Calvary with Lancers and Calvary, or move Calvary into place to assault the upcoming Rangers. Use Calvary units to stay just outside the range of Riflemen (if possible) and rush them when you get a chance. Use Riflemen to kill archers from outside their range of retaliation. If the riflemen don't, attack with Lancers and then Archers. Send the Calvary after the enemy Headquarters -or- intercept any incoming Lancers. Deal with lancers the same way you dealt with the initial Calvary. ------ASSAULTING A CASTLE------ Check your map thoroughly to find the quickest route to the castle. Coinsider the geography, if there's trees around a castle you won't be able to fire in. Watch how the enemy positions its rangers. They can shoot you but you can't shoot them. A common move is to position some Lancers at the door, and archers amd riflemen along the wall. Infantry usually guard the Headquarters and Calvary usually come out the back or side of the Castle and around to attack you. Intercept these Calvary because if they reach your Headquarters, it's going to hurt. Keep the Headquarters near some Infantry and NOT all by itself in the corner. The enemy probably won't rush out of the castle fast enough to kill it. Make small groups of infantry, and walk like this: +--+--+--+--+--+ | |In|In|In| | +--+--+--+--+--+ | |Cv|Ar|Cv| | +--+--+--+--+--+ | |Ln|Rm|Ln| | +--+--+--+--+--+ | | |Hq| | | +--+--+--+--+--+ Or some variation depending on how you have parsed your units. The Infantry will absorb hits. If they fall, quickly supplant the fallen if in fron of your rangers. The Calvary are at the sides to quickly detach and rush the door or rangers within the castle, OR to handle those incoming units. If you are rushed, have the headquarters fall back and Calvary protect it. When you have reached the door, fire past the infantry at anyone blocking the door. If you get an opening, rush your Calvary into the door and kill some rangers - UNLESS teh enemy severely outranks you and the melee units in there will slaugter your Calvary. In that instance, try to fire at them to wear them down OR draw the rangers into the doorway. Remember! You can fire past your own units. The manual mentions a blindspot, well these are the sides of a castle. They are long enough that if you line up single file a good enough distance away from them, no archer or rifleman can shoot you from behind the wall. +--+--+--+--+--+ As a theoretical, this archer will not hit the Calvary | | |##| | | unless he comes down and around. This FORCES the enemy out +--+--+--+--+--+ of the castle, and it might work if you place an important | | |Ar| | | unit here. +--+--+--+--+--+ | | |##| | | Keep your units single file and spring them out on your +--+--+--+--+--+ assailant as they approach, crush them with rangers and the | | |##| | | swift speed of calvary. +--+--+--+--+--+ | | |##| | | Just don't leave yourself open for a deluge of firepower +--+--+--+--+--+ from enemy rangers! | | |##| | | +--+--+--+--+--+ | | |##| | | +--+--+--+--+--+ | | |Cv| | | +--+--+--+--+--+ Of course, to win this fight, you must kill the enemy Headquarters Unit. This is not so easy if there are a few hundred of them and they outrank you. In fact they will outright destroy your melee units if you try to engage them when they are so strong. But there's a catch: they won't attack, they'll run! The best way to deal with an enemy Headquarters in a Castle assault when they are vastly more powerful tahn you is to first clear out everything else (which means no new units, so there is a downside). The Headquarters will be incline to run. You've got to block him in the Castle... +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ In this case, En distinguishes an enemy headquarters. |##|##|##|##|In|##|##| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ ## are castle walls. |##| | | | | |##| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |Lc|Rf| |En| |Cv|##| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |##|Ar| | | | |##| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |##|##|##|##|##|##|##| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ Even hopelessly trapped in like this, the Headquarters still does not attack but rater keeps moving around. I've never been attacked, but if he _does_ it is going to hurt so leave him some room. Whittle him down with the rangers who HAVE to be in with him because of the nature of Castle walls. Just keep knocking numbers off him every turn and he will be gradually weakened. When he gets weak enough, send in the Calvary and Lancers. You can let the time run out if you like. If you only have a headquarters left on the enemy's side in a castle raid, that's all they have to work with next time. You'll be at a distinct advantage on the field and attacking the castle. Which brings me to my next point... ------GRADUAL TAKEOVER------ The trend observed with enemies is that they never send out their full military force unless defending the castle. They send out small bands on assaults, slightly larger defending the home field, and all out during the Castle. If you are attacking an enemy of a higher rank than you, it is a good idea to attack them on the field and then leave the castle for later. Continually attack them on the field gaining supply and rank before you take on their castle. The same applies to enemies attacking you. They do not send their entire military. Unlike you, they probably only hold a handful of territories and need to defend them not only from you but other daimyo. If an enemy is assaulting you again and again, make sure you exploit all the usual patterns and hammer their forces good. When they stop their advances, it might be time for you to check them out. And for that, you need a Ninja. ------NINJA: DETERMINING A TARGET------ The Ninja can cause a crisis in the enemy's ranks, but this is never too severe. Instead, their reason for being used is Spying. This lets you see, among other things, enemy rank and unit counts! When determining whether to attack a territory check the rank of that territory AND that of adjacent territories. It'd be a nasty surprise to take over a rank 9 territory and then get attacked by a rank 45 or something. Also, check their units. You'll better know how to parse your troops if there's many riflemen (maybe two powerful groups of Calvary to deal with them, for instance) or the like. You'll be able to think about how you are going to attack this province. Maybe if they have low money and product, hitting them for a few turns and then running away might help hurt their efforts? Note: You can also see signal fires on enemy territories meaning they will be attacked by another daimyo. You may want to prey on them in the next month if you're confident in your victory. ------MOVE: DEFENDING THEM ALL WITH ONLY A FEW------ Your military can defend the entirety of your nation, if you keep a couple of caches available to MOVE. MOVE is a command that lets you move Military units, product, and money. It is very important because it means resources can be allocated throughout the entirety of your domain. So, when a signal fire goes up at a province with little or no defense, you can move some troops down there to help out. HOWEVER! Snow and storms and the like prevent MOVE from happening so regardless of how careful you are, you still might lose some territories by the virtue that you just couldn't get the troops to go there. This is why you keep a couple of caches of troops and when you need to defend yourself you attempt all of them. It allows for a better probability of actually being able to send support. Besides, the maximum unit you can hold in an area is 255 of each (ie 255 INF, 255 RM, etc) so you'll want to exceed that number by holding more units in different provinces. This is not a watertight plan. Like I said, random chance can screw you over. But it certainly helps you not stretch your forces thin over a ton of regions. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | STR7: Game Strategy | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Military and Money Making is covered in their respective sections. Subjects covered in this order: Always Act Move: Allocating Resources Disaster Culture Yield Wealth Loyalty Epidemic: Prevent or Cure? Importance of Ninja? Progression Across Japan New Territories Alliance? Heir? ------ALWAYS ACT------ You can control 0, 3, 2, or 1 territory. You ALWAYs control your capitol and then however many other areas you pick or have available (just 1 at first). It's useless to pass. You can always develop your main territories or look for options in others - such as Enlistment. Don't let a month slip you by, the enemy won't. ------MOVE: Allocating Resources------ An essential command in this game is MOVE. It's a military command but you can also move product and money. You can do this _all at once_, so that is very convenient. Basically, if you're palying the game as I've described it so far you have some areas set up for money, others set up for military, etc. You can decide to move military units, product, money or any of the above. You've got to keep a heartland, behind your frontlines where the enemy can't easily reach you. You move your important resources here and then send them out to whatever territory needs them. You can also move military to whatever area is about to be attacked. Remember: Move is hampered by storms and snow and such, so keep a few territories open to move for this sort of reason. If you move resources from the capitol, you're asked if Shingen wants to move too. This is potentially effective in that you will ALWAYS get to act with the new territory. Setting up a capitol in an effective territory means you can work with 3 others in variation and always with your best! ------DISASTER------ I'll admit that I'm not 100% sure on what Disaster refers to, the manual is vague and it never really hurt me when I played. It's a number that you want to keep low with Flood control. The manual says it is "preparations for disaster." Maybe a low disaster score means random events that could be considered disasters (Earthquakes, Floods, etc) have a lesser impact on low disaster zones? Keep it below 50, regardless. ------CULTURE------ Culture is mostly related to Epidemic. A high culture increases a nations resilience to Epidemic and also decreases the costs of medicine. Culture is relatively expensive to increase, so don't worry about maxing it but keep it reasonable (60+). An epidemic can have immediate effects on Wealth and military. Since culture protects against this, it is important to have a high culture in your capitol and important territories. It seems that epidemic cures vary in price even when culture doesn't take a hit. You don't want one to prolong its damage anyways! Another reason to keep Culture high in important territories is that you'll have to waste a month on curing an epidemic if you're struck with one. ------YIELD------ You want a high Yield if you are gaining money through Product. It determines the product return on the October harvest. The higher the yield, the more product gained. Yield is increased with Farm development (as is Wealth). A high yield is also important for troops. Do NOT use product to fuel Gold-Mines. Do ___not___. It can be put to much better use than that. I am under the impression that Yield also influences Merchant prices... maybe. If you have a low wealth province you likely have low yield there too. ------WEALTH------ Wealth is the main factor effecting prices, but Culture and Yield are also involved with prices. You can increase wealth through Farm: Aid and Farm: Development. Keep areas where you sell Wealthy and where you buy not so much. In this way, you play the Merchant effectively. Along with low yield, rice can be bought at $1 or $2 per unit and sold back $4 or $5. Wealth is not a measure of how much money you have. Think of it more as a standard of living. This is why you can plunk a load of money into a less wealthy province and it won't effect prices. It should be noted that Wealth is difficult to increase because when Yield and Loyalty are 100, you cannot develop or aid, respectively. So you may want to tax the land or recruit troops just to have the opportunity to increase Wealth. Wealth has the added factor of being the lesser increased of Yield and Loyalty in either case. ------LOYALTY------ Loyalty is one of the easiest attributes to increase but also one of the most common to drop. Many events impact loyalty and loyalty is lost when troops are enlisted. Farm: Aid is easily the best way to increase Loyalty, and Wealth will also increase as a result. Enlist your troops and drop some cash in Loyalty to get it back. It should be noted that when Loyalty reaches 100, you cannot aid any more so you will need to increase Yield to improve Wealth! ------EPIDEMIC: PREVENT OR CURE?------- It might seem wise to just prevent an epidemic, but the resources you could use are better put to more immediate use. An epidemic will hurt Wealth and the number of military units you have available. Once an epidemic strikes, cure it and leave it be at that. You will likely have an epidemic in your game, probably a few, but it is relatively rare and I believe summer seasonal. The cost of curing the epidemic in my experience is around $300 but the price seems to increase or at least fluctuate over time. ------IMPORTANCE OF NINJA?------- As I have mentioned already, the Ninja is both extremely useful and extremely useless depending on his chosen action. Never use Crisis, it is damningly useless in this game to waste so much product (like 500) for "sorry for no progress" as your result. Besides, anything the Ninja can hit is easily repaired by your target anyways. I have already mentioned the importance of the ninja in determining military targets. However, he can also spy on your own territories. WHY would you want to do this? It's incredibly useful, that's why. You have likely only been noting the state of the main regions you choose to command. That's fine, but remember, Ninja spying does not cost a month's action. You can assess all of your provinces and say "hey, I didn't know I had 30 Calvary there or 300 product there!" Little things like military skirmishes that grant a few rewards or things you have just plain forgotten about can be seen this way. If you haven't been keeping track of your territories, well this is also the tactic for you - a refresher on both the standing of you and the enemy. ------PROGRESSION ACROSS JAPAN------ How you move and expand across the nation can be as important as how you build your war machine. If you approach strongly ranked borders too early, it spells trouble. Consider ranks and resources of the enemy. Always use the Ninja to plan your targets and proceed across the nation, unifying it under your rule. First you should take the east. Besides Uesugi, who will have a rank upwards of 30+, your opponents mostly have ranks up to 20 and not much over to begin with. Remember that you start at a rank of 0, so some grinding may be necessary to overcome strong foes. Once the East is conquered, create a heartland at the east border. Here you will have your capitol (unless you stay in Shinano) and a number of provinces devoted to building the war machine and making money (see the chapter on money) to MOVE to territories on hostile borders. By having your territories that are important to the military and economy more isolated, and the hostile borders more or less barren then the enemy has less incentive to conquer -or- will get less if he conquers. Of course, you need to keep troops on the front line, especially in Winter when you may not be able to move. However, generally 3 or 4 areas working on troops can send them out. I say 3 or 4, because there's always a chance an event, such as a storm or snowfall will prevent your MOVEment to a necessary province. Of course, on hostile borders you'll need to parse your troops so that more are near stronger enemies and less are near the lower ranks. You _CAN_ trade your forces between a couple of areas but please leave some troops around in the event you cannot move... When you are conquering the west, General Li in the northwest and Nobunaga in the Southwest will probably provide the gravest targets. You want to cut a swath through the centre of the west and maybe leave the areas adjacent to Li and Nobunaga under enemy control until you're ready to take them on. When you are ready, take on either one first but not at the same time. Both will be highly ranked targets and spreading your forces thin against either of them is not a wise thing to do. There are plenty of fodder targets in the west, but these guys are like Uesugi in the east, they take a little more care... Either way, once you control either the northwest or southwest, you can allocate resources into conquering the one without defending the other. At this time you will continue to work with your heartland, fortifying for those final strikes! ------NEW TERRITORIES------ The first thing you should do when you have a new territory is command it. The first command you should give this territory, barring any epidemic or the like that should be cured, is MOVE. You will not gain _all_ of the territory's resources when you conquer it. Also, there will be no Headquarters unit in a new territory so if it is attacked and you can't move into it, then you'll lose all of this stuff. MOVE all of its product and money into your heartland or capitol as soon as possible. Well, you might want to leave enough product for GOING, but if you send a military force to a new territory you'll probably be sending product with it anyways. The act of seizing these resources now give you time to use them to improve your rule overall and cement this territory into its new role. Since it's new and likely not defended, it is a juicy target. You want your junk out of there asap so you don't lose it in the event of an invasion. ------ALLIANCE?------ By the time Shingen grew old and died I had a little over 30 princesses available to marry off to prospective territories, there's plenty of opportunity for alliance in this game, but is it worth it? Say you get an alliance on a $500 offering and a princess. With Shingen, this will likely last 9 months or with Katsuyori probably longer. This is not a whole lot of time, and you're giving away your valuable earning to the enemy, who will have NO issue with attacking you if you break the alliance or the term is up. Honestly, is nine months worth it? When you are against two adjacent territories, perhaps, where one daimyo is high ranked and the other is very high ranked (this can be seen, for instance in the bottom left hand corner of the map) then an attempted alliance with the higher ranked will let you get rank from working on the lesser territory and be better equipped to deal with the higher. But beware what that higher ranked uses his money for ;). Alliances are generally a waste of money unless you're in a situation like this OR you're being overwhelmed by an assailant. Remember, the only thing you get out of it is not being attacked by a territory while the alliance is in effect. ------HEIR?------ Shingen will eventually have an heir, Katsuyori, born. At this point, your capitol will gain access to the He, or Heir command. This is a measure of Katsuyori's attributes, and have an effect on a number of commands after he inherits his father's army. Inheritance happens when Shingen is very old, it was 63 for me. He will die and Katsuyori will take over. Depending on his training you will receive various bonuses to commands... Bostich2 of the GameFAQs NES General board made a comment that Shingen may have died in his mid-to-late 50's for him. I would say, relatively speaking that when Mr. Nobotura and Lady Koi die you should start worrying about inheritance if it hasn't already happened. Due to this, I have no way of predicting when Shingen will die. If it's been 30 years since Katsuyori's birth (he was 35 taking over in my game), it would be safe to say it will happen soon. Of course, you may never see the heir take over, as by age 63 the game is probably all but won... a decade ago :P. These are the qualities you can train: Strength: This influences the effectiveness of Mi: Enlist and Ni: Ninja's crisis. Intellect: This influences the effectiveness of Fc: Flood Control and Ca: Castle. Morality: This influences the effectiveness of Al: Alliance, and Fa: Aid. To what degree are they influences, or what evidence do I hold. I conducted an experiment where I repeated the same commands for both Katsuyori and Shingen on the same territory which had been left in a state untouched and was not influenced by any random event on the month of testing. Using $100, Katsuyori's attributes all above 80, I tested Flood Control, Castle, and Aid... *Shingen: Fc: Disaster falls by 3, 6, or 9. Ca: Culture will rise by 3, 6, or 9. Fa: Aid: Loyalty rose by 10 or 15, and Wealth by 5, 7, or 9. *Katsuyori: Fc: Disaster falls by 5, 10, or 15. Ca: Culture rises by 5, 10, or 15. Fa: Aid: Loyalty rose by 20, and Wealth by 5, 7, or 9. Interestingly, Wealth didn't seem to be impacted by Aid, but Loyalty was always 20 in my experience. As you can see, even for $100, numbers here are random. You will get a better number with a well-educated Katsuyori than is possible with SHingen 2/3 of the time, however. Alright, that's fine. For military: Enlist I tested the drop in Loyalty when 10 corps were recruited. Interestingly, Shingen could only recruit 12 max and Katsuyori could recruit 27. The quantities in the territory were the same, but the time difference was great so I will make no assumptions on that. The meat is in the loyalty drop. *Shingen: Loyalty dropped by 1,2,3,4,6, or 9. *Katsuyori: Loyalty dropped by 0,1,2,3, or 4. Okay. How about alliances? I used $500 dollars on the same territory in an alliance attempt. *Shingen: 9 months. *Katsuyori: 18 months. I could not measure Ninja, even giving him 500 product gets miserable results anyways. So, this is all fine and dandy. What about the costs? Each attribute can reach a level of 100. Generally, $1000 will train 10 points in Intellect or morality, but I believe $2000 is needed for the same effect in Strength. Either way, unless you are pumping his traits before inheritance, do not put more than 3000 into a trai at one time. They may jump more than you expected and that would be a waste of money to put in more than necessary. Why plug the money in right before inheritance? Simple... Katsuyori's traits ____degrade____ over time. Yes, it's miserable. Why give him 100 strength when he's 2 if he won't have any when he's 10? It is difficult to predict when Shingen will die based on the comments I received from users but as I said, if he's 30 or more it might be time to pump your attribute of choice. But are they really worth it? I posted my evidence that there is a difference in the commands but this is potentially $40000 that could be spent on repairing those quantities anyways! AND they degrade over time! Military might be worth it, but Loyalty is so easy to gain through Aid that no drop is too severe. Ninja is never a wise choice. Intellect? The castle always takes heavy damage from weather and is not the cheapest thing to repair. But disaster is almost neglible and Flood Control gets used only very seldomly. Morality? Aid is so easy to use anyways, and dead cheap, and you won't be making too many alliances. If you ask me, get him reasonably stocked in the attributes before he takes over, there's no reason not to. Maybe say to hell with strength, unless someone can confirm that it allows the recruitment of MORE corps, then it might be worthwhile. Each attribute has a command you use fairly often and one you probably rarely use (Ninja, Flood control, Alliance). Shingen's base abilities are good enough to win the game, you don't need much more. Like I said, it could be smart to plug a few thousand into him, but consider if it would be smarter to plug a few thousand into outfitting your troops in the war effort? Don't waste money early on him and if he takes over before you can train him, it's nothing to cry about. Ha, this would be so much easier if his abilities did not __decrease__! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | STR8: Credits | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Thanks to my hosts, after all they're teh reason you're reading this. Thanks to Hot-B for making an involved and competent strategy game. Things don't always work out in Shingen, and each play is different. That's how it should be. Thanks to Pluvius on the NES FAQ Completion Project. I had almost given up on making Shingen die of old age but he confirmed that it could indeed happen. Thanks to Bostrich2, who informed me that Shingen might have died earlier for him. It's made me think about the possible randomocity of Shingen's death and made me investigate in-depth whether or not training Katsuyori was worth the money. Websites with permission to use this Guide: www.GameFAQS.com www.neoseeker.com faqs.IGN.com www.1up.com www.honestgamer.com Game by Hot-B.