Needing help for gekokujo

[Samurai_Cat]

Hello, I have been playing Gekokujo for quite a few days and have been reading post of other people that played the mod
I have been having the same problem as some other people, my progress is so slow with my army force of 83.
I tried to attack the Great Lord of the Ryuzoji clan and have failed miserably, the only winning condition might be when all of the troops are dead.

For the veterans player, can you share your experience and guides to win in the game?

 

[arlvent21]

Spam Cavalry Units and bulldoze the hell out of your enemies till you're satisfied, assuming you don't have financial problems.

 

[Kharille]

Cavalry... I suggest hang around Kyoto, blast away the bandits, get fame then join a faction. If you find those too hard head north, the northern barbarians tend to be easy. Those Ainu barbarians.

 

[Honved]

My usual tactic is to use a mix of bow and spear, with only a couple of mounted units for pursuit. I ride past the opposing force, fire a few arrows on the move to draw their attention, and they end up dividing, stringing out in a long line, and attacking my own forces piecemeal. Take on bandit parties until your own troops are reasonably trained, as a bunch of recruits facing regular faction armies will end up getting cut to pieces while inflicting minimal casualties. You really don't need that many troops early on until you're already renowned enough to join a faction and hold a fief, while you give your Companions better gear and experience (less troops means you get a bigger share of the loot AND experience), but you'll eventually need a bigger army capable of storming castles. Once you have a couple of Companions trained up to a reasonable level, and give them a couple of points in Trainer, you can build a semi-decent army pretty quickly. Don't rush it.

 

[shikaka]

Some tips (I played the base version).
The mod has a few specifics which make standard Warband tactics obsolete.
1: there are no shields. This means bowmen and musketeers rule the battlefield
2: cavalry is not cost effective. You _can_ make a cavalry charge work if you want though (the Takeda AI faction sometimes does this). In general I usually go with 20% pikeman (non samurai, the cheap guys). The rest is an equal split between bows and muskets.
3: there are more companions than in vanilla, they are better quality, and it is easier to train them up (again, no shields on enemies, so companions can be death machines with better bows). They usually stay on foot.
4: I found the northest part of the map easier to start in. The bandits in the region have good-ish loot, and give good XP.
5: I would advise winning a few tournements, saving up some money, getting some companions, and avoiding recruitment for some time. Until about eveyone is level 10.
6: while the troops are mostly footmen, you (and maybe some select companions) should be horse archers. Simply do some shooting from the flank of the enemy, or get behind their back. You are not really in for the killing (but if you have a high level character, why not?), you are trying to interrupt the AI when they are reloading muskets, which gives your muskets some free shots on the long run.
7: never go into melee with a katana. Really, you will get murdered by polearms. If you want to go to melee, use the longer reach swords (tachi I think?), of even better, use polearms yourself.
8: as always, equip your companions with weapons which don't have a thrust attack, only swings. Martial characters get a bow, supports get a musket (teppo?). Best armor possible. I found that the european breastplates have very good weight/armor ratio.